Vegan Diets

Went to Dr. Esselstyn's (Cleveland Clinic) very interesting lecture at the Mayfield Regional Library last Saturday and was impressed with his wife's input (granddaughter of the founder of the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Crile)  -- found a portion of the lecture on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqKNfyUPzoU

Discussion emphasizes, but not limited to heart issues from arrhythmias to attacks, and Dr. Esselstyn and his wife talk about cancer prevention (he was a breast surgeon).

No dairy, no meat, no oil, no sugar are key, he says eat nothing which has a mother or a face, in the plant-based diet.

Have followed Dean Ornish for years per my husband's diet. Dr. Esselstyn's is a bit stricter, but the same theme.

I will check out Dr. Esselstyn's recipes and see if we might try the program, but in any case, we will be making more trips to the fresh fruit and vegetable markets and I will plant more flowering kale in my garden next spring!

I am looking forward to reading his book and his son's book!

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust- Review

I make the pizza crust using about 1/2 to 2/3rds whole wheat flour and the remaining 1/3-1/2 of the flour mixture being unbleached flour.

I usually make crusts for two huge pizzas and have sometimes have dough left over to make a small bread for sandwiches, depending on how big I make the pizzas.

The recipe I commit to memory is easy to member:

4 teaspoons yeast (I buy it in bulk from Costco and love their yeast)
4 cups lukewarm water (I microwave cold water from the tap until lukewarm, never use warm tap water)
4 teaspoons sugar

I mix the above together in a huge nonmetallic bowl. I do not use metal measuring spoons or let anything metal get near my yeast mixture, which is a living organism.

I wait a few minutes to see if the mixture changes in any way, such as seeing bubbles or anything different and then carefully add the flour.

                                                                     

I add 8 cups of flour (using my 2 cup measuring cup this is again, 4 loads of flour) slowly while mixing the batter until my batter becomes a dough. This morning my dough was too sticky, so I added almost another load (2 cups) of the flour mixture (half and half, whole wheat and unbleached) and continued to mix together with a wooden spoon.

Because I hate to cleanup, I knead the soft dough in the same large mixing bowl for a few minutes using either wetted hands or oily hands -- placing a bit of oil on my hands before kneading the dough, keeps it from sticking to my hands.

After kneading for a few minutes, I form the dough into a round ball, sprinkle a bit of flour on top of it, cover it with a clean kitchen towel and place it in a safe place. It is important to keep the dough away from cold drafts as that will slow down the growth of the yeast. The best place I have found to raise yeast dough is in my oven (turned off).

                                                                           

Some place the dough in the refrigerator and let it rise overnight. I have done this on occasion, but since I am usually making the pizza for dinner, I let it raise in a warm place.

                                                                               

When the dough in my bowl rises to double the size that it was when I first placed it in the cold oven, it is time to punch it down, and place it in the greased pizza pans to let it rise for a second time.

                                                                             

If one can toss the dough as seen on TV, one gets an incredible hand tossed crust. Hand tossing really improves the texture of the crust. I am not an expert at hand tossing the dough, but if I have time, I gently
toss it from one hand to the other and let it enlarge.

When I do not have time to hand toss, which is most of the time, I place about 1/3 of the dough in a pizza pan and press it to the edges of the pan, and leave it alone again until double in bulk.

When my pizza dough has doubled in bulk, I will edit this blog to add additional photographs!

Easy Colorful Vegetarian Pizza

I get much color in my homemade vegetarian pizza from buying green peppers that have some color on them. This saves me the trouble of buying yellow and orange peppers as I look for those colors on a green pepper. If I buy a red pepper and a green one with yellow and orange sides, it adds much color to a homemade vegetarian pizza. Onions add much flavor and I microwave all the vegetables gently to reduce the vegetable juice exuding from the vegetables onto my pizza.

One can easily spot the liquid left in a bowl after the vegetables are microwaved for a minute or two before adding them to the homemade pizza crust covered with sauce.

For pizza sauce, I have found that there are many options and everything works! Sometimes I mix a can of tomato paste with a bit of ketchup, sometimes I use spaghettis sauce or if I have a plentiful tomato harvest, I have placed fresh tomatoes on my pizza. I love putting basil sauce on my pizza too.

The peppers give the pizza much color and along with the onions, much flavor. I selected green  peppers with some color.

                                     
I cut one of the green peppers and a red pepper into small pieces to make the pizza below:

                                                                                                                 
My husband asked me to make pizza today and I will mix the yeast, lukewarm water, sugar, and whole wheat flour, and let it rise while I finish my blog and run errands!

Vegetarian Pizza without Cheese

Everything Eggplant

           Wow, we seem to have the most beautiful eggplants in our markets this fall!

To select an eggplant, I look for one that is lighter, rather than heavier, for its size. I like a shiny, dark purple coat with as few blemishes as possible. To check for freshness, I look for a greenish stem near the top of the eggplant.

In the late summer and early fall, I put eggplant on the grill. Just spraying slices of the eggplant on both sides with a little bit of Pam Cooking Spray, keeps the eggplant from sticking to my grill. We eat the eggplant right from the grill, but the skin. I never peel my eggplant as love the deep purple color of the skin!

When I want to have a softer, edible purple skin, I prefer to gently broil the eggplant. I place slices cut to about 1/8" on a baking sheet and broil for a few minutes on each side. I only put a bit of cooking spray on the bottom of the sheet or broiler pan, to keep the slices from sticking. One must be careful as once the eggplant slices begin to turn a bit of brown, they can broil to the overdone stage almost instantly. Some say to only broil the eggplant on one side, but I prefer to broil the slices on both sides.

I make lots of homemade pizza as my husband loves it. However, since he is "sensitive" to cheese, I make cheese-less pizza's for him, or refrain from putting cheese on his side of the pizza.

A medium sized eggplant, cut into 1/8", round slices, filled up my homemade pizza very nicely. The slices were broiled as described above, then placed over the sauce on the pizza. The skin of the eggplant in this case was very soft and easy to chew after baking!

                                                                     
It is easy to see the eggplant slices in the areas of the pizza where there is no cheese. We love any kind of fresh sweet pepper and onions on our pizza too, as they complement the eggplant well. I always microwave the diced or sliced peppers and onions, just to the soft state, before placing on the pizza, as we don't like raw onion on our pizza and prefer the peppers soft too.

                                                                     
We like lots of toppings on our pizza, over our mostly whole wheat crust, the recipe for which is earlier in this blog. I doubled the recipe to make a 9" X 11" inch square pizza and the very large round pizza above.

I generally pre-bake the crust for 8-10 minutes on a high temperature, such as 4025-450 F. A secret to keep the crust from getting soggy, is to put cheese as the very first topping on pre-baked, homemade pizza dough, but because my husband is "sensitive" to cheese, I can no longer use that secret trick.

I have discovered that microwaving the vegetable toppings, such as onions and peppers, helps to get rid of some of the veggie juice that would otherwise make my pizza soggy!

I never bake in the summer, but it is October 9 2012, and am glad to turn on my oven in these cooler days of fall in Cleveland, Ohio!

Walk Forward

My book, Walk Forward, was published on Amazon Kindle Select yesterday. and for the moment it is #6 of  47 in its category!

The book includes foods loved by my family, such as potato pancakes, German spaetzle, homemade applesauce, and streusel kuchen.

I made the best streusel kuchen for my Mom earlier last year and remember how she enjoyed it.

I am so thankful that I took the time to make the yeast dough, while she gently and precisely made and distributed the streusel over the yeast dough base. She created wonderful butter streusel, while sitting at my kitchen table.

I was honored to have her call my house, her "home," for her last three years on this earth.

In my book, Walk Forward, I describe my mother's visits with her cousin Wilma, whose father was a baker. For a barn raising, he would bake huge streusel kuchens and cut them in long strips, about three inches wide. He would  place the strips in a layer, and place the next layer of strips over the one below it, going in the opposite direction.

When I close my eyes, I can still smell the streusel kuchen baking in my oven and imagine my Mom sitting in my kitchen. Recipes are connected to family and memories, as are sights and smells in the kitchen. We eat with our nose and our eyes, but also with our memories.

I will include recipes for foods mentioned in the book, Walk Forward,  in future posts,  but if you are interested in reading about my family and its roots, please check out a free chapter of my book, Walk Forward, on Amazon.com at:

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Forward-ebook/dp/B009H6Y7AC

and "Yes," that is a picture of my Mom, taken in 1938, on the cover of my book.

If you like reading the chapter, download the entire book, come back for the recipes, and continue to Walk Forward!

Secret Russian Tea Biscuits

Russian Tea Biscuits freeze well and are a wonderful treat to bake in cool weather to enjoy anytime. A single recipe makes containers full of wonderful treats to share with family and friends. I like to keep some on hand in the freezer for special company or for those occasions when it is too hot too bake as this summer of 2012. Luckily, I baked a load of the raspberry treats in the early spring. Since I don't bake them as often as I would like, my biggest problem is to remember how much filling to put on each biscuit before I roll it up.

The secret to great tea biscuits is to buy the best filling products,  such as the best raspberry jam you can find, as it will be worth the wonderful aroma these biscuits have even after months in the freezer!

My husband prefers pecans to walnuts, thus, I use pecans but walnuts work fine too. I use Smucker's raspberry preserves as preserves are easier to spread than jam and don't try to use jelly, the pastry dough is too delicate!

Turn off your phone and prepare to spend some time making the most wonderful Russian Tea Biscuits. You will not regret it. The dough comes out perfect every time and does not stick to your rolling pin or break as you role up the cinnamon, raspberry preserves, raisins and chopped nuts.  I have used orange juice or lemon juice in the dough and both work great!

For those dairy allergic or following Kosher dietary rules for a Parve desert, use a margarine that does not include dairy products. I have used Fleishman's and Mother's margarine for an excellent product. Per its healthful benefits, I prefer using canola oil which tastes great in baked goods.

Here is the recipe and the next time I take some out of the freezer, I will post a picture, enjoy!

Sift together:

4 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
3/4 cup sugar,  note:  (you will also need a few tablespoons of extra sugar for the biscuit tops)

Make a well and add the liquid ingredients:
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup margarine melted
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 whole eggs plus, note: you will need an extra egg white as a dip for the rolled biscuit dough. 

Mix the above and knead for ten minutes until the dough forms a soft ball. Divide into quarters if making the normal size biscuits. Roll each quarter of the dough out to 1/4 inch thickness and add filing of red raspberry preserves, raisins, nuts and cinnamon. Try not to over stuff the roll with filling but you can use as much or as little as you like. Please note that if you use too much raspberry, the roll might leak yummy juice in the oven. Roll up the stuffed roll like a jelly roll.

Spread the top of the roll with egg white and dip the roll in granulated sugar before you cut the roll into slices as it is much easier this way (I can verify that it is time consuming and tedious to cut the roll into serving pieces and dip each piece into the egg white and granulated sugar). Cut the roll into one inch slices and bake at 350 degrees for 18-20 minutes on a greased cookie sheet.Share with your best friends and your favorite cup of tea.

Traditional Anise Drops Minus Their Tops!

My husband says they are delicious. I miss my Mom more than ever as she knew when  to make these cookies and when not to attempt to make them. My Mom's cookies never failed to  form the white caps. I have modified the recipe and made them on everything from  parchment, aluminum foil and silicone liners but no caps! The bottoms come out very shiny on silicone, a bit of the cookie seems to stick to aluminum foil, foil being suggested by the "Joy of Cooking" cookbook. My mother used parchment for all of her baking and my husband kept my Mom's house stocked with parchment paper!

My cooking instuctor suggested running a dehumidifier in the winter!   If your anise drops had caps on them this year, let me know where you live  and most important, your secret!

Summer Salads

We love summer pasta salads as they are easy to make and take along. For picnics, concerts in the park and an easy meal, pasta salads can be made ahead and are great for "assemble your own salad".

For those following a gluten-free diet, substituting a gluten-free pasta product is great too!

Holden Arboretum has a Tuesday supper time concert series. I made this pasta salad to pack in our cooler, added some cherries for dessert and my husbands favorite picnic drink, orange lemonade, made with a ratio of 1:1 of orange juice and real lemonade.

Everyone including my 94 year young Mom enjoyed the orange, lemonade.


My sister brought some yummy Greek butter cookies to nibble on during the concert!

For a most generous serving of pasta salad for the four of us, I cooked about 1/2 pound pasta, gluten free pasta may be used, 3 small chicken tenders and a generous helping of peas. I chopped up our favorite fresh vegetables including a whole red pepper, sweet orange and yellow peppers, 1/2 of a medium sized cucumber (I remove the seeds), about two tablespoons of sweet onion and a garden fresh tomato.

Before placing the pasta with the cut up onion, tomato, cucumber and peppers in a quart container, I added Italian and Asian Toasted Light Sesame salad dressing, a bit more than one would normally put on a salad as the peas and other fresh vegetables are added later to each plate, according to each person's preferences. Any of your favorite salad dressing would work!

I kept the chicken cooled in a baggie, separate from the cooked pasta, peppers, cucumber and onion included in the quart container, thus making the meal appropriate for a vegan. For those that love vegetables, I included a baggy of sliced radishes and more sliced cucumbers in our little cooler. Olives, celery, carrots are also welcome additions to pasta salad. I include hard boiled eggs too for those like Mom that love an egg at a picnic.

To serve, I assemble each person's favorite veggies with the basic pasta and chopped vegetable dressed entree, adding the chicken, peas and radishes (if desired) on top of the salad. Serves 4-5.

The great thing about this meal is that the quart container fits easily in our middle-sized Playmate cooler and the other items in baggies fit nicely around the container. The entire meal, paper plates and utensils fit in the cooler, only the orange lemonade was not in the cooler.

A trick to making the orange lemonade is adding ice cubes instead of all the water required to make orange juice and lemonade from frozen concentrate. Adding a bit less water than needed and adding extra ice keeps the drink from thinning too much from the melted ice cubes. The ice cubes also keep the drink cold for the evening.

We had a great time with our family at the concert in the garden!

Barbecue Grill

I finally received my new barbecue grill, made in the USA! I would love personal recommendations on grilling vegetables. My sister has been raving about her daughter's (my beloved niece's) grilled brussel sprouts.

Per clean up I was told to spray the stainless steel grates while hot with cold water and place aluminum foil over the grates. The grates did not come out very clean with either heavy duty or regular strength foil, however, they were a bit cleaner when I covered the grill with the heavy duty aluminum foil. Wonder if I sprayed enough water on the grates, put enough foil over them?

To preserve the stainless steel base, I was told to cover it with a coating of mineral oil twice a year and to use vegetable oil on the top, the black part of the grill.

Any and all suggestions for grilling or tricks to cleaning the new grill are most welcome!

Eggless, Dairy-free Mocha Cake

For my mother's 94th birthday, we ordered a wonderful cake and for those, like my husband, who can not eat eggs or dairy products I made this easy cake in a large heart shaped cake pan:

3 cups flour
1 scant cup sugar (we do not like our cake too sweet)
9 tablespoons of Hershey's cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
4 1/2 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 tablespoon vanilla
9 tablespoons canola oil or (4 canola oil + 4 applesauce)
1 1/2 cups coffee

Mix all dry ingredients together, add coffee and stir well.
At the last moment, add the vinegar, stir quickly and place in the oven.

Oven temp 350F, bake until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Make sure the vinegar is added quickly followed by quick stirrying and immediately place the batter in the oven. The vinegar and baking soda combine to create a batter that will rise in the oven!

Do not overstir after adding the vinegar.

Holiday Traditions

Mom will be 94 in 2011. Happy New Year 2011 from our house to yours!

Our holiday traditions include baking pretzels for New Year's Eve including the age my Mom will be on her birthday in the new year.

I use a different pretzel recipe each year but one thing remains the same, I must make my Mom's new age and the pretzels must be made with yeast dough.

My Mom enjoys the pretzels and deciding what part of her upcoming birthday to eat first.

The tradition was started by my maternal grandmother, Hedwig, for her husband, my grandfather, whose birthday was January 1.

Mom enjoys the pretzels and celebrating her upcoming age on New Year's eve, as do we!

A happy & healthy New Year 2011 to all those that read this blog and share home and traditions as caring for their parents.

Cooking for Mom, 93 years young

My Mom loves T.V. dinners that I put in the blender and turn into tasty soups!

I look for T.V. dinners with the highest iron and protein content, add some broth to the blender, add the cooked TV dinner and blend on the ice crusher setting to a smooth consistency.

We call this "soup" at our house. My husband loves "Healthy Choice" soups. I take a bit of the broth as he cooks "his soup" and add it to the blender before adding the prepared, microwaved TV dinner for Mom. My husband adds pirogies to his soup and I have blended them into Mom's soup on occasion.

An easy meal for Mom is blending the TV dinner into a bit of broth.

If I gave Mom the TV dinner she would never eat the entire dinner, perhaps spit out the meat or anything not soft enough. At age 93 I think perhaps one might get tired of chewing on occassion. Via the blended TV dinner into a bit of broth to make the blender work, Mom gets a nutritious soup as every calorie is important.

Swedish meatballs and noodles, salisbury steak and mashed potatoes, all have worked fine to date blended into soup. Mom finishes the entire TV dinner as a big bowl of soup.

If you are preparing meals for an aged loved one that lives with you or anyone needing soft foods and you can not always prepare from scratch, remember the blender!

When I cook a green vegetable, I put it and some of the liquid into the blender and add butter, whole milk, protein powder or non-fat dry milk to make a palatable green vegetable soup for Mom. Green beans, asparagus, broccoli, all work great.

I add cheese to the broccoli for a cheddar cheese brocolli soup.

Mom is a blessing.

Foods for Those Who Can Not Chew

What to eat when you can not chew

Us older baby boomers did not have flouride in our water and tend to have much dental work unlike my sister, a younger boomer, who has never had a cavity!

My 93 year young Mom needs to have her food pureed because her lower denture nolonger has bone to secure it. Her new upper denture is snug as a rug.

I purchased a good quality food/meat grinder and ended up throwing it out.

I had no idea that my simple Cuisinart blender that crushes ice, can be used to prepare wonderful steak soups, pureed barbecue chicken, lovely brocolli dishes whose delicate green color remind us of spring and such delicate flavored soups as green bean. I combine the vegetables with the liquid they were cooked in and either whole milk for my Mom or Almond Milk for my husband who is allergic to all dairy products as he was as a child. I add butter to most foods for my Mom but no fat for my husband.

I have added food grade thickeners, potato, noodles or whatever we are having with our dinner to the blender for Mom's meal. When Mom asked for spaghetti soup, I pondered and thought it an interesting idea. I put about 1/2 cup of cooked spaghetti sauce in the blender, added a few noodles and snuck in a small piece of white meat of chicken (a bit smaller than a deck of cards) and thinned with chicken broth to the consistency per our hospital dietitian's instruction. My Mom enjoyed the soup very much.

Barbecued chicken is also easy to puree into a smooth food. Place about 1/4 - 1/2 cup barbecue sauce (cooked) into the blender with a small piece of cooked chicken.
I added 1/2 of a small cooked potato as a filler to smooth the puree as Mom wants everything to be as smooth as possible, otherwise food bits will get under her lower denture and hurt as she eats. I made my own barbecue sauce on this occasion but think almost any barbecue sauce would work as long as it is not too hot in flavor.

Thankgoodness for "Thick-it" to thicken drinks enabling swallowing for those with dysphasia and protein powder for added protein on days when we have not met our 50-60grams of protein per day as instructed. In our case, Mom is to have 50-60 grams of protein per day.

At 93 years, we are pleased she enjoys food and for the original suggestion of what
to add to Mom's foods, a huge thanks to Stacey == Stacey my Mom loves food again because of Y O U!

Thanks to Stacey's incredible team too!

Mom will certainly enjoy her grandson Andrew's 18th birthday this December 23,
thanks to wonderful, caring dietitians.

If you need additional details don't hesitate to email me at rosa@raskinfo.com

Problems with Waring Food Grinder

I am having nothing but problems with my new Waring MG100 Food Grinder. My first grind was fine. Two weeks have passed and the grinding blades are rusting and the machine does not work.

I purchased this grinder as it was recommended by the salesperson who said it was an incredible grinder that her mother used.

I would love to talk to anyone that has this grinder. I put in small chunks of chicken today but no luck and a big mess.

A waste of good food, my time, energy, money, and most of all, the potential for my Mom to get the nutrition one of 93 yrs so desparately needs.

I am very disappointed, felt I was mislead by the sales person who I will call in the A.M. as well as Waring. Waring made the first blender that I ever owned. I was devoted and loyal to the company until my experience with this product. I do not wish to bother with the postage to send it back but maybe they might figure out the problem and prevent this from happening to another person caring for an elderly parent!

Maybe mine just happened to be a "lemon"?