Almost up and running again...

The Sassy Apron has a new kitchen, and I am so excited to get started making and baking again. It's amazing how many boxes it takes to pack up all those tools and appliances... and how long it takes to unpack it all again! I'm hoping to post again by June. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

The Issue of Food Additives

One of the reasons that I started to bake all of my own bread at home was the fact that I was bothered by what I was reading on the bags' labels. I'm sure each of you have read a label at some point while shopping and thought... "what IS this stuff and why can't I even pronounce it?" Ever since my bread making venture first started, I've become more curious about reading all labels while shopping. I also started to do a little research on what the FDA has allowed manufacturers to do (and to add) to our food. Here is an article by Sustainable Table that I'm sure will surprise some of you!

The Issues: Additives

Americans spend about ninety percent of their food budget on processed foods, which, unlike whole foods, have been treated in some way after being harvested or butchered.¹Almost all of these processed foods contain additives, substances intended to change the food in some way before it is sold to consumers. Additives include flavorings that change a food's taste, preservatives that extend its shelf life, colorings that change the way it looks, and dietary additives, such as vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and other supplements. Packaging is considered an indirect food additive and, in fact, many kinds of packaging actually add substances to the food they enclose.

By eating fresh, unprocessed foods grown by local farmers, you avoid preservatives and additives because these foods are not transported thousands of miles. Photo by Jason Houston.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) currently has approved more than 3,000 food additives for use in the United States.² However, while approved for human consumption, food additives may still threaten our health. This is one of many reasons why it is better to purchase whole foods, or those that have been minimally processed and treated.

Regulation and Categories of Food Additives
The FDA regulates all food additives, breaking them into three categories. "Indirect Food Additives" include packaging materials such as paper, plastic, cardboard and glue that come into contact with food.³ "Direct Food Additives" include preservatives, nutritional supplements, flavors and texturizers that are added to food. "Color Additives" are used to alter color.

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CousCous and Vegetable Stir Fry

This is an easy and healthy meal that takes less then 30 minutes to prep and prepare. It came into being one summer when my garden was overflowing with wonderful vegetables and we needed a quick dinner option. And nothing cooks more quickly than couscous! It recently made another blogger's "Top 25 in under 20 minutes" meal list. This is a versatile dish and can easily be tweaked to fit your taste preferences!

Ingredients:

• 1 box of any Couscous (Optional - preparing the couscous with chicken or vegetable stock to add flavor)
• 3 cups of cut up vegetables – whatever you have laying around that you need to use up. I like to use onions, green and yellow zucchini/squash, and red peppers – great color, but great flavor too!
• 3/4 cup frozen, shelled edamame
• 1/4 cup Pine Nuts, toasted
• olive oil
• 3-4 TBSP grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Lightly toast Pine Nuts in toaster oven or in a dry skillet

Slice up your vegetables and set aside. Prepare Couscous by bringing water to a boil WITH your frozen edamame in the pot. Add CousCous (And flavor packet if there is one. If not, add 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp garlic powder if you have some) and stir. Pull off the heat and allow it to sit covered for the instructed amount of time.

Pre-heat a large skillet with about a TBSP of olive oil. Add your sliced vegetables, cover, and turn heat to low for about 3 minutes. This allows your vegetable to steam lightly. Uncover and finish stir-frying the vegetables on medium heat. Uncover and stir your Couscous and place into a large serving bowl (Optional: an extra drizzle of olive oil helps the couscous from sticking together in big clumps). Top with your stir-fried veggies, toasted pine nuts, and grated parmesan cheese.

**This is also a wonderful dish served cold, as a picnic dish or a side salad to a main dish. It can be made “vegan” by leaving out the parmesan cheese. You could also substitute the Couscous with wonderful, healthy Quinoa, or even a wheat pasta if you don’t keep Couscous in the pantry!

Thin Crust Whole-Wheat Pizza

Who doesn't love pizza? This is such a great recipe and is really easy to make. You'll be able to make and bake two pizzas in about an hour - or chill the second half of the dough and have pizza again later in the week!

You have choices with your ingredients here... if you want organic, use organic! If you want Pizza Margherita, use fresh mozzarella sliced thin with fresh basil. Meat lover? Go on ahead! This also makes a great dough for calzones, though you may need to add some minutes to your baking time.

Thin Crust Whole-Wheat Pizza

Ingredients (dough):

• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 1/4 tsp yeast
• 2 TBSP Olive oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp honey or raw sugar
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 1/2 cups bread flour
• Some corn meal for the bottom of the pizza (optional, but authentic!)

Ingredients (pizza toppings):

• Olive oil
• Sauce, about 1/4 cup - use can use tomato, or if your are making a white pizza, use dollops of ricotta and minced garlic. I like using organic strained tomato sauce that comes in a jar. It allows me to add my own spices to the crust prior to putting the sauce on.
• Cheese - about 1 1/2 cups, shredded. Or sliced, if you are having pizza margherita.
• Any other toppings you like on your pizza!

Materials:

• Stand Mixer w/ dough hook
• Parchment paper
• Rolling pin
• Pizza Stone. You can also used unglazed terra cotta tiles to cover the baking rack and give you a larger baking surface. OR in a pinch, use a large flat cookie sheet.

Directions:

• Place pizza stone on a low or middle rack of your oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Let the oven preheat for at least 45 minutes prior to putting your pizza in the oven. This allows the stone to get nice and hot - which will give you a crisper crust to hold all those lovely toppings.
• Place all above ingredients into the bowl of your stand mixer. With dough hook attachment, mix on low until dough comes together. Then switch to "2" and mix for another 8-10 minutes. This allows the gluten to build up in the pizza dough. Don't worry if the dough "hugs" the hook the entire time - it is still getting a work out!
• When finished mixing, coat the dough lightly in olive oil and allow it to rest in the bowl (covered) for 10-30 minutes. I've used the dough after resting only 10 minutes, and it still works really well!
• Cut the dough in half. If you won't be making both pizzas immediately, then refrigerate the second piece in a sealed container or plastic bag.
• Lightly flour a clean surface. Press the dough into a large flat circle with your hands. Let rest for 5 minutes while you get all of your toppings and spices out.
• Take a large square of parchment paper and sprinkle with corn meal. Place your dough on the paper and begin to roll - working from the middle of the dough, outwards, and turning the paper/dough while you work. If it sticks at all, lightly flour your rolling pin as you work. I like to leave the dough slightly thicker at the edges so that the crust puffs up nicely. (If you want a thicker, dough-ier crust, then simply stretch the dough with your hands, let it rest, and stretch/press some more. The pie won't be as big, but it will be that much more filling per slice!)
• Use a little olive oil to brush over the crust - especially coating the outside edge.
• Add spices to your crust if desired. I like to use dried basil and oregano, and sometimes some garlic salt.
• Add sauce to the crust and spread around with the back of a spoon. Don't use too much, or the crust may not crisp up as much as you desire it to. About 1/4 cup should be plenty.
• Sprinkle on toppings and cheese.
• Slide the parchment and pizza onto a pizza peal or the back of a cookie sheet to help transfer to the oven. (YES - bake the pizza right on the parchment paper - it won't burn if you are baking for this short amount of time, and it makes the dough easier to transfer in and out of the oven.)
• Bake for 10 minutes. Let cool for 3-4 minutes before slicing!

On the move...

The Sassy Apron is moving! No worries... the blog address won't change a bit, but my family and I are in the process of moving from one house to another. So my apologies... my intention was to post at least once a day, which I'm finding it is very difficult to do when your life is being packed up into boxes all around you! But one thing is for sure... we are still baking bread, still cooking healthy food - even though we may be dining on paper plates! We hope to be up and running in a new kitchen after Memorial Day weekend. So please - keep checking in on me. I do hope to still get a few posts up before the move takes place. Thanks for your patience!

Another reason to feel Sassy about that apron!

Aprons: Go ahead and tie one on

The garment no longer symbolizes women's relegation to the kitchen but their delight in being there.

May 06, 2010|By Rene Lynch, Los Angeles Times

• 
  Kirk McKoy, Los Angeles Times

Is there another kitchen object that carries as much baggage as the apron?

A whisk and a wooden spoon are, after all, tools to get the job done. But an apron?

For years, aprons were commonplace and worn with pride. But somewhere along the line the apron became shorthand imagery for all that was holding women back, an emblem of humble domesticity and repression. When an apron was required for practical reasons, it certainly wasn't flaunted. (If your mom was like mine, she'd yank that apron off before answering the front door.) And still today, when a man is too close to his mother, we say he's tied to her apron strings.

But a growing community of self-proclaimed apronistasis seizing the apron back from such dusty, anachronistic thinking. No longer a symbol of kitchen drudgery, the apron has returned with a vengeance, ushered by a renewed appreciation of all things domestic.

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Easy Kettle Corn

OK - so this is not the greatest photo. But let me assure you that what is in this blue bowl is something you will crave after tasting it. I LOVE kettle corn. And this is a really nice (and healthier) option than the carnival crafted stuff. Not to mention, you will avoid all the chemicals associated with the microwave variety.

Kettle Corn

It is easy to double this recipe!

Ingredients:

• 2 TBSP Coconut Oil
• 1/4 Cup popcorn
• 1 TBSP sugar (I like the brown "raw" sugar)
• salt

Directions:

Over medium heat, in a pot with a well-fitting lid, heat the coconut oil until melted. Add three kernels of popcorn. Once they pop, add the rest of the popcorn and the TBSP of sugar. Cover immediately and continuously shake (over the heat) as the rest of the popcorn pops. Transfer popcorn to a large bowl, add salt, and stir to mix before the popcorn cools (and sticks together). It's that easy!

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

My family and I have been frequenting our indoor farmer's market on the weekends. It has such a wonderful selection of locally grown/made items, including; (often organic) vegetables, leafy greens, meats, cheeses, eggs, and sometimes even ice-cream! We've been lucky to find a local source for free-range, grass-fed, antibiotic-free hen-laid eggs. You open the cartons to find eggs in such a beautiful and varying array of colors and sizes! I often buy two dozen at a time just to keep up with all the home baking and cooking we've been doing. If I get to the end of a week and have a lot of eggs left over, I'll sometimes make a quiche. It makes the perfect quick-fix for a dinner or lunch, and you can basically put anything you like (or have leftover) into the quiche!

This is a doctored version of a recipe found on the Food Network channel.

Spinach and Bacon Quiche

adapted from Paula Deen

8 servings

Ingredients:

• 5 large eggs, beaten
• 1 1/4 cups of Half and Half
• 1/4 tsp salt, dash of pepper
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 2 Cups chopped fresh baby spinach, packed
• 1 pound turkey bacon, cooked and crumbled/chopped
• 1 1/2 cups shredded cheese (I like to use a mix of swiss and cheddar)
• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, fitted to a 9-inch pie plate (*read more on this at the bottom of recipe)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Cook bacon and let cool. Then crumble or chop into small pieces.

Spray your pie plate with cooking spray, then fit pie crust into your pie plate.

Combine the eggs, Half and Half, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in a big bowl - wisk well.

Layer the bacon, then spinach, then cheese inside the pie crust. Pour egg mixture over the top. Bake for 35-45 minutes (mine took 40) until top is starting to just brown. The center of your quiche may still wobble a bit, but it should set up as it sits to cool slightly.

*I'm still learning to read labels. I still had pre-made pie crusts in the fridge from another quiche I made a week ago. I finally picked up the box and read the ingredient list. Ugh... I am glad I did. You can now add "pie crusts" to my list of things I won't buy in the store any more. Unless I can find them without "Partially Hydrogenated Lard"?! *gag* It also had food coloring in it - why?? And then a few other things I couldn't decipher or pronounce. Pie crusts are not that hard to make... especially if you have a nice large food processor. It's amazing what people are willing to sacrifice in the name of convenience and time saving. Or maybe they just haven't taken the time to read the labels... like me? It only took me... until now! (*Me... banging my head on the wall*) Lesson learned.