saulrosenbaum.com / cooking

This week I stopped at the farmers market and bought a bag of fresh ginger (7 hands) it’s probably more ginger than I’ve consumed in my entire life - It’ll keep for a few weeks in the veggie crisper - but I’m going to put the bulk of it to good use in the form of gingersnaps, they’re dead simple to make:

• 3/4 cup butter flavored Crisco
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup mosasses
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Melt shortening in a 3-4 quart saucepan over LOW heat
2. Remove from heat, let cool.
3. Add sugar, molasses and egg, beat well
4. Sift together flour, soda, cloves, ginger, cinnimon and salt.
5. Add to first mixture, mix well and chill.
6. Form into 1 inch balls, roll in granulated sugar and place on a greased cookie sheet 2 inches apart.
7. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes.
8. Let Cool, eat and enjoy!

I’ll probably iced some of them with a lemony sugar glaze, you’ll have to figure out your own icing - hmm, maybe chocolate would be good. Be creative, have fun, don’t eat them all in one sitting!

It’s no secret, I love to cook, almost as much as a I love to eat - I think the two almost always go hand in hand. Both ‘T’ and I are pizza fans, we’re thin crust traditionalists - extra cheese, some pepperoni, possibly sausage and we’re happy - luckily pizza is one of those foods that’s just fun and simple to make.

Saul’s Foolproof Pizza

• 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
• 1 tablespoon white sugar
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (separated)
• 3 pinches of salt
• 1 cup of warm water (°115Fish )
• 2 1/2 cups of the flour

1. Wake your yeast up, dissolve your sugar into the warm water, and sprinkle your yeast into the water (note: it’s best to use a bowl so you have some surface area to sprinkle on) lightly stirring till all the yeast is dissolved, let stand for 10-15 minutes at room temperature.
2. In a large bowl, mix together your yeast mixture with the flour, salt and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil, I generally mix by hand, but a stand mixer with dough hooks is probably the smart choice, mix until smooth. Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
3. Preheat your oven to 450°
4. Spread your dough on a pizza pan/cookie sheet/pizza stone, you want a somewhat even thickness overall, pinch around the edge to form your crust, spread liberally with sauce and topping of you’re liking and brush the crust with the remaining olive oil
5. Bake for 15-25 minutes or until the bottom is a perfect golden brown. Slice and enjoy.

Honestly the best part of making your own pizza is that you can put ANYTHING you want on it, duck confit and asparagus, meatballs and sausage, steak and red skin potatoes - it’s all you baby!

So what is on you’re ultimate pizza?

Tagged: pizza, recipe

It can never be said that ‘T’ doesn’t pay attention - she honestly NEVER misses a gift opportunity, and this year was no exception. Among my santa leavings where -

• Absolutely amazing no-stick cookie sheets
• The exact griddle I wanted (how’d she know?)
• Three different types of tongs (I didn’t even know there where three different types)
• Big comfy socks
• and this unbelievably soft blanket for the studio’s love sac

Overall an excellent result.

I had a nice casual day with Kim, shopping for spices and eating sushi & udon in posh Chestnut Hill. Among my purchases are Black India Pepper and Lemongrass - Today I’ll pick up some fresh scallions and some tofu - and I can enjoy some fresh (and spicy) lemongrass soup, I can hardly wait.

I’m also setting up for a small brunch we’re hosting tomorrow for ‘T’ and some of her friends — tentatively the menu includes

• toast ala francaise
• cheese and mushroom omelets
• petite filets
• various breakfasty meat links
• cheese-stars (which is a holiday treatment of my oh-so-famous broiled cheese croutons)
• maybe some type of smoked fish (mostly for me actually)

I’ve written about my love affair with Lightlife veggie products before, basically they make veggie alternatives to popular dishes – garlic chicken teryaki (which is excellent), chili, orange sesame chicken - and it turns out, Tex Mex, which I found on my recent Whole Foods excursion, so this morning I thought the Tex Mex would nicely round out (carbohydrate wise) my typical (3 days a week) omelet variation - I must say it was delicious - and even though I ate all three servings of the Tex-Mex the nutritional numbers where excellent.

• 3 egg whites (roughly 3.5g) - 50 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 1.5 carb
• 1 package Tex-Mex - 150 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 18g carb
• 28g Kraft fat-free Cheddar Cheese - 45 calories, 0 fat, 0 cholesterol, 1g carb

To save you from having you do the math. that’s 245 calories, and under 20 grams of carbs, That leaves a tiny bit of wiggle for some form of fiber, which in my case is a 1/4(ish) cup of Post Grapenuts which I graze on over the course of the morning.

In case you think I’m more obsessed about the numbers, than I am with the taste, you’re wrong - I’m absolutely obsessed with them equally - If I’m going to put the effort to prepare food, it’s going to be both delicious, AND good for me - I figure I wasted 35 years on food that wasn’t doing me any good, this seems the least I can do.

Eat well, enjoy!

Tagged: breakfast, eggs, recipe

I like Math, I like Broccoli and I like Cauliflower - I think the odds are high that I’d like Romanesco broccoli aka fractal broccoli, although I do realize that the mathematical appearance has little to do with it’s taste.

I’m a fan of iced coffee, but this is the first I’ve heard of cold brewed coffee, I’ll let you know how it is in a few days.

[via eat]

I haven’t tried it, but it’s a very clever idea. I’m game to try anything with crab in it.

Bread sushi

[via wokkingmom]

I’ve lambasted the American breakfast tradition before In general ‘We’ eat too much, and what we eat isn’t particularly good for us, that’s not to say that a slice of bacon or an egg yolk is bad for us, it’s about moderation, and portion control - two words that until very recently meant absolutely nothing to me.

I spent a little time reading labels and doing some trial and error cooking I came up with a delicious fulfilling breakfast that’s essentially guilt-free (I also should mention this is not my daily breakfast.. again, say it with me…moderation)

A Big White Omelet

• 85g of egg whites (carton egg whites work fine, if your cracking your own that’s the whites of about 3 large eggs )
• 28g of fat-free cheese shredded (Kraft makes both a cheddar and a mozzarella pre-shredded either of which are good, Cabot’s reduced fat cheese is far better, but you’ll have to shred it yourself)
• 30g of yellow or white onion chopped (I buy mine chopped)
• 10 cherry tomatoes halved

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Tagged: breakfast, calorie conscious, eating well, eggs, recipe

I’m not pro-diet, I think diets suck, and in general any weight you DO lose, you gain back two-fold, the reason is simple, the concept of a diet is to eat less and burn more until you reach a certain goal, that first part is good - the second part is the problem. A diet is a temporary state - 99.9% of the time when a dieter reaches their goal weight they stop dieting, they return to their original eating patterns, and Bam! they’ve gained all the weight back, plus a little more poundage just to add insult. In order to loose weight and keep it off, you need to modify your eating patterns permanently - hopefully learn a bit more about what you’re eating, and find solutions that work for you, it’s a difficult process, and a professional nutritionist can certainly help, but here are a few helpful diet hacks I can recommend:
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