Tuesday Reviews-Day: 250 Best Meals in a Mug

What do you first think of when you hear the term “mug recipe”? Probably one of the hundreds of mug cake, mug brownie, or mug cookie recipes floating around the Internet and seen often on Pinterest.

Not that there’s anything wrong with them–I’ve been known to whip up a quickie mug cake when aÂ craving strikes–but there is so much more that can fill those mugs, and Camilla V. Saulsbury has compiled some tasty ones in 250 Best Meals in a Mug (Robert Rose Publishing).

While we mostly use our microwave to steam vegetables or do some last-minute defrosting, I certainly wouldn’t want to be without it when the need arises. Furthermore, being able to prepare meals (or parts of meals) without heating up the kitchen is always a nice option to have. The week we spent trying recipes out from 250 Best Meals in a Mug was a refreshing change of pace for our dinner and lunch duties.

Each of the recipes is for a single serving. This makes customizing meals for differing tastes supremely easy. It also came in handy when we needed lunches one day after going out the night before and has none of our usual planned leftovers to use. Each recipe also includes strategies for prepping ahead, so if you have even less time than the few minutes most of the recipes take to prepare (or want to grab-and-go for breakfast or lunch), you have that option.Â For most of the meals we either combined two mug recipes or served one mug meal with a non-mug side dish. Another thing this book is great for is portion size–making one serving at a time is a great way to keep from going back for seconds!

A word about the mugs in question: yours may be too small for the majority of the recipes–most of mine were! Recipes call for 12-16oz mugs most often, some for a minimum of 16 ounces (2 cups). This is as much to prevent boil-overs as for strict capacity reasons, but you don’t have to go out and buy a new stable of mugs just to cook from this book. Any microwave-safe container–be it the reusable plastic-ware used for leftovers or even bowls or Pyrex measuring cups–will work just fine (though some will require covering, so a level edge is certainly best.

the “Baked” Banana Oatmeal (p 32) was a nice change from my usual instant or overnight oats!

The Pumpkin Sage Soup (p35, see recipe below) paired perfectly with a grilled cheese sandwich.

Pumpkin Sage Soup

16-oz (500 mL) mug

3/4 cup ready-to-use chicken or vegetable broth
2/3 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1/4 tsp dried rubbed sage
3 Tbsp half-and-half (10%) cream or milk
salt and ground black pepper

1. In the mug, stir broth, pumpkin and sage until blended. Microwave on High for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 minutes (checking at 1 1/2) or until hot but not boiling.

2. Stir in cream. Microwave on High for 30 to 60 seconds (checking at 30) or until hot but not boiling. Season to taste with salt and pepper. [We added dried chives and some toasted pepitas as a garnish.]

Irish Brown Bread (p96)

I made two versions of theÂ Irish Brown Bread–one with wheat flour, one with my alternate flour–and we were surprised to find that the gluten-free version was better than the traditional. Of course it didn’t brown the way a baked bread would, but for a quick accompaniment to corned beef it did it’s duty quite well.

Italian Meatball Stew (p146) uses frozen meatballs, ready-made sauce, and canned mixed vegetables. You could easily make your staples ahead of time if needed.

Chile Rellenos Mug Casserole (p173) skips the frying but not the flavor.

The Mug Meatloaf (p190) resembles a large meatball more than anything, but was surprisingly filling.

We paired the Barbecue Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps (p208) with the Sesame Noodles (p50)--probably the best version of sesame noodles I've had to date!

We paired the Barbecue Chinese Chicken Lettuce Wraps (p208) with the Sesame Noodles (p237)–probably the best version of sesame noodles I’ve had to date!

Another great lunch option, the Loaded Quinoa Taco Mug (p248) went great with some blue corn tortilla chips.

There are snacks included in the book, as well, like this Jalapeno Popper Dip (p.260) that our friends gobbled up at a weekend get together–good thing I made a double batch!

And of course we tried a dessert! Todd was especially interested in the Bananas Faster Foster (p.292)–maybe not quite as good as the inspiration, but for a quick version is went well over ice cream.

About the only things I wasn’t 100% thrilled with was the use of convenience products. In the realm of quick and easy it certainly makes sense, and most of them aren’t heavily processed, but if you prefer the Â benefits of fresh, whole foods over pre-packaged, some prep work would be called for to make these meals fit that mode. Things like prepping your own veggies instead of using canned blends, preparing your own stock, making your own meatballs in bulk and then freezing them, cooking a bunch of chicken breasts or thighs and then portioning for later use, that sort of thing. Certainly not enough to make me think twice about using or recommending this book!

Not only would certain recipes fromÂ 250 Best Meals in a Mug make excellent meals for when we travel, being able to make inventive meals with minimal clean-up will come in quite handy for ourÂ upcoming move and the kitchen renovation we’re planning afterwards!

I received a copy of the cookbook for purpose of review. No other compensation has been received and all opinions expressed are my own.

Tuesday Reviews-Day: Sous Chef by Michael Gibney

Tuesday Revews-Day

When Hell’s Kitchen first aired in 2005 I remember my mom complaining about Gordon Ramsay’s combative tone and frequent swearing. All I could respond with was, yeah, that sounds about right. I was about 5 years out of Culinary School and no longer working in hospitality at all, but what I saw on the episodes I’d seen reminded me a lot of Gil, the executive chef when I started at the Plantation, who had a favorite phrase of resigned disappointment (F— me sideways with a brick) and a hatred of being called Sir (which, in the South, takes a lot of effort to break that habit).

A professional kitchen is not just a bigger, busier version of dinnertime at home, it’s a well-oiled machine that relies on a handful of people juggling a lot of roles in too little space with too little time. It’s carefully orchestrated chaos. And Michael Gibney does an excellent job of describing 24 hours of that chaos, and the life and reasons behind it, in Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line.

Using second-person narrative (a la a Choose Your Own Adventure book), Gibney begins your day in his shoes, arriving at the NYC restaurant. Reading about the stillness of the kitchen in the morning reminded me of days I’d get to work around 10 am–the kitchen would be finished with breakfast service, the Chef would normally be in his office, if already there at all, and I’d have the space to myself to start my prep list for the day. Other days–big events or holidays–I’d walk in and there’d already be steam and bustle and you just had to jump right into it.

As Gibney gears up for service–in this case not an occupation but the time when the restaurant is actively serving guests–the tension of all those years ago came back to me. Honestly, I hated service. I was a pastry specialists for many reasons, but one of them is that I don’t like the constant frenetic pace of being on the line. The author does an amazing job of putting you there in the middle of the action, getting you into his head as he goes from working the pass (checking and grouping items for the Executive Chef to plate and send to the front of the house) to working the fist station because his cook goes down sick in the middle of a 300-cover night.

But it’s not a best or worst case scenario of a night in a restaurant kitchen–any of the instances recounted in Gibney’s 24 hours (which includes prep and service as well as getting off work in the wee hours, going to a bar with coworkers, and then getting up the next morning to work Brunch, hungover) could and do happen in countless restaurants on any given day. I’d witnessed scenarios like these and many more (and much worse) in my brief kitchen career (the fact that Gibney includes the pastry chef and baker as almost a footnote, with said professionals coming in only twice a week, is a good hint atÂ why I made the choice of a desk job to be able to pay my bills all those years ago).

If you’ve ever wondered what a day in the life of a chef is like, this is one of the better records I’ve come across. There’s no grandstanding, there’s also no sugar-coating. The cadence of the kitchen pulls you through each page of this relatively quick read. There’s even a little philosophizing that goes on–the benefit of a Friday night/Saturday morning reflection, not to mention the perogative of the reporting writer–that really sums up what working in food is all about (or needs to be, in my opinion, in order to survive it).

…every guest is a VIP. They all deserve to be looked after, cared for. We are here to cook for people.Â Alimentation:Â the provision of nourishment–this is what we do. And we continue doing it long into the night, not because we favor adversity, but because we know that in doing so we get the chance to create with our hands something that sustains people and brings them joy. …

The self isn’t even part of the equation. Cooking is altruism. It’s not about you. It never will be. It’s only about what you do for others. And that’s what hits me where I live. There is honor in it.

ReadingÂ Sous ChefÂ was a trip down memory lane, but not one that made me miss kitchen work in the least. It’s a hard life to choose “Ten years in this industry is like two dozen in another,” he writes, and looking at many of the chefs I knew I can see the ravages of that accelerated time. Yet there’s also the part that never leaves us: “No matter how much time you spend away from the kitchen…cooking will always keep calling you back.” I still love to cook for others, to see the enjoyment on their faces, but I’m very clear that I consider myself aÂ former chef, no longer a practicing hospitality professional, but chef still at heart.

Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the LineÂ was published by Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine on March 25. I was provided a digital copy for purpose of review.

Tuesday Reviews-Day: the Southern Bite Cookbook

Tuesday Revews-Day

I admit, I hadn’t heard of SouthernBite.com until I got the press release about blogger Stacey Little’s new book, the Southern Bite Cookbook. You see, I’m from the south–southeast Louisiana, point of fact–and I’ve never really had to hunt farther than my own bookcase (if even that far) for a little taste of home. But for fans of southern cooking who either didn’t grow up with it or maybe missed learning at the mother’s or grandmother’s elbows, sites like SouthernBite.com can be a fun and useful resource and offer a sense of community among the comments. Todd, who grew up in Nebraska but did have the good fortune to spend 10 years of his adult life in the same area of Louisiana from which I hail, is a good example of the latter and was quite excited to page through Little’s book for supper inspiration.

A good cookbook can be read like a novel, giving you insights into the life of the author or the regional culture the recipes draw from. Little does an excellent job of infusing the Southern Bite Cookbook with just those little touches. He talks about growing up in Alabama, the memories certain recipes always stir for him, and his food philosophy now that he’s the one cooking for friends and family. He’s forthright about the rigors of having a family and trying to get dinner on the table each evening and doesn’t apologize for his liberal use of convenience products. That said, the southern cooking I grew up with didn’t use nearly so much canned cream of something soup or ranch dressing mix, or at least not so often as this cross section of southern cuisine might lead one to believe.

In fact, that’s my only real complaint about the book–the preponderance of canned soups and dry soup mixes. Â But, just like anything else, you can easily find ways around those items and still be able to make many of the recipes in Little’s book. Here’s what we sampled:

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (p.96) and Slow Cooker Pulled Pork (p.70)

Chicken Bacon Ranch Mac and Cheese (p.37) and Spicy Black-Eyed Peas (p.116)

Grits & Grillades (p.46, featuring My Secret CheeseÂ Grits, p.47) and Fried Green Tomatoes (p.17)

Shrimp Creole (p.31)

Sweet and Sour Green Beans (p.88)

Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya (p.72)

Okra Fritters (p.80, shown with leftover Remoulade from the FGT)

The Okra Fritters are a great example of a quintessential southern food–fried okra–turned on its ear a bit and elevated to posh nibble over just another deep-fried side-dish. The components are simple and cooking doesn’t take long, either, with pan-frying being much easier to manage than setting up and dealing with a deep fryer (not to mention all those little bits of breaded okra flipping around). It was also super simple to translate into gluten-free cooking: instead of self-rising cornmeal and all-purpose (wheat) flour, I used regular corn meal and gluten-free Bisquick in their place. These sorts ofÂ simple substitutions are usually all that’s necessary to make southern classics into safe for the necessarily picky eaters. (And since lactose-free buttermilk is hard to come by, use the trick of adding a bit of white vinegar or lemon juice to your lactose-free milk and letting set for 5 minutes or so to get a near-perfect substitution!)

Overall we enjoyed the Southern Bite Cookbook and, at the very least, those Okra Fritters will likely be gracing our table again!

***I was provided a copy of the Southern Bite Cookbook for the purpose of review. No other compensation has been received and all opinions expressed are my own.***

Tuesday Reviews-Day: Year of No Sugar

Tuesday Revews-Day

Have you ever picked up a book that you just wanted to love so very much but found yourself wanting to throw it across the room 50 pages in? That was me with today’s review book,Â Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub.

Inspired by a lecture by Dr. Robert Lustig, Schaub proposed an experiment to her family: go 1 year with no added sugars (fructose in particular), just to see how hard it would be. She, her husband, and their two daughters went without things like table sugar, honey, molasses, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juices, and artificial sweeteners for one year (with notable exceptions) while Eve kept a blog about the experience.

Now, I’m certainly no champion of HFCS or artificial sweeteners, and we tend to cook a lot from scratch in our home on a daily basis not only out of my own preference but my desire to keep problematic ingredients at bay (as a preventative measure for my IBS). For that reason alone I expected to be able to feel a kinship with the author and cheer on their triumphs. Instead, I was irritated by her constant labeling of sugar as poison (thanks, in part, to Australian lawyer-turned-food-activist David Gillespie’s Sweet Poison), her healthier-than-thou hubris paired contrasted with the near-constant self-deprecation.

Case in point? About midway through the book, after a variety of head tilt-inducing gems (like being surprised at how difficult it was to go out to eat without angering the waitstaff), came this passage:

Remember when I was [at the] Mayo Clinic with my dad? One day we were eating lunch in the cafeteria when a rather heavyset couple sat down at the other end of our table. They had clearly gotten the “I’m trying to be good, or mostly good” meal; they each had purchased a large chef’s salad with a breadstick, and she had added to her tray a banana and a skim milk, while he had a large diet soda and a piece of pie for dessert. I couldn’t help but wonder to myself if they wouldn’t have been better off enjoying a meal with much more fat but much less sugar/fake sugar. I mean, sugar (or the chemically fake stuff) was int he salad dressing, the breakstick, the diet soda, and in the pie. It was freakin’Â everywhere on their tray, and it was as if I–through some mutant power which might qualify me to be a comic book superhero–was theÂ only one who could see it. I idly wondered if perhaps one of them suffered from one of the many variants of metabolic syndrome, and if so, if anyone would ever offer the suggestion that they might be healthier forgoing the salad with dressing in favor of the pot roast and mashed potatoes.

For someone who expressed concern over whether or not the no-sugar year would give her daughters a skewed opinion of food or create disordered eating patterns, she certainly seems to have no qualms about making armchair diagnoses and passing judgement on strangers. Would she have made the same assumptions if the couple had not been “rather heavyset”? Not only is it a) not hurting her what other people choose to eat and b) none of her business how other people choose to live their lives, she had no idea about why they made the choices they made but passed judgment on their plates as if she was some omniscient food and health guru. While only a small part of the story, it’s the small asides like this that give you insight into a person’s character, and tell you whether they are someone whose opinion you can value.

Before you think I found everything in the book distasteful, let me assure you there were some bright spots. The older daughter, Greta, kept her own journal throughout the Year of No Sugar, and excerpts from it are included in the book. Her simple, straight-forward take on the situation was a breath of fresh air and I’m more curious to know what else she thought of the experiment than anything else.

I’m also all for an increased awareness in what we eat and what’s in our food. After all, that’s one of the reasons I encourage people to cook for themselves, regardless of how “healthy” or not a recipe is on the surface, because I believe the more we cook and pay attention to the food we eat, the better choices we will start to make over time. That ability to choose and the knowledge it stems from (true information, not inflammatory exposition or hyperbole) is what gives us the tools to live better lives by our own making, not having them dictated for us.

So while I do applaud the Schaubs’ fortitude and commitment in their Year of No Sugar, I disagree with the fundamentals on which the experiment is based. Namely, that any one ingredient is the cause of all the world’s nutritional ills. Simply put, we don’t live or eat in a vacuum, and to label a single component as the devil is a witch-hunt out of context. And while I agree with the exceptions they made throughout the year (one special “normal” sugar dessert a month, each person having their own free pass item throughout the year), it contradicts the fervor with which she labels those ingredients a poison or toxin–if it’s truly that bad, why allow any exceptions? Because it’s not realistic compared to practicing moderation, but moderation doesn’t make for a compelling story.

One of the reasons we read memoirs is to learn from other’s experiences (and, I daresay, from other’s mistakes). The best kind of book is one that sparks an interest to know more, so I suppose on those grounds I can give Year of No Sugar high marks. After all, while I wasn’t so curious as to listen to the Lustig lecture that started it all, I did so a little more digging about him and found that he spent 2013 studying public health policy, the end goal being to get fructose regulated a la alcohol and tobacco. This fits in so very well with Schaub’s own account of what happened after their experiment ended. No only had her tastebuds changed (something she was surprised at–I guess she’s never known an ex-smoker who found the taste of cigarettes abhorrent after a while), but she seemed to have lost the ability to make decisions on what was “safe” or not. Bottom line: moderation took too much work compared to following someone else’s mandate.

What was that about making better choices?

A choice the author did make was to research alternative (but not artificial) sources of sweetness for baking. Citing many food trials that all began to taste like banana or dates, she eventually found out about dextrose (another type of sugar but one devoid of fructose’s perceived ills) and was able to bring many of their family favorites back to the table with this simple substitute (though you may have to order it online, dextrose isn’t carried in a lot of mainstream grocery stores). Here’s one of the family’s weekend staples that includes a bit of dextrose along with the sweetening power of bananas and coconut for a weekend breakfast treat.

Heresy Pancakse (with blueberries) | Image via EveSchaub.com

Heresy Pancakes
by Eve Schaub, from Year of No Sugar

Pancakes are a BIG favortie in our house. We eat them pretty much every weekend, and if there are leftovers, I refrigerate them (or freeze them with a piece of wax or parchment paper between each one) so we can heat them in the toaster oven on a school morning during the week. Using banana and coconut is just one way of upping the sweetness, but you could try any number of different added-fruit combinations.

2 cups all-purpose flour (or 1 cup all-purpose flour & 1 cup whole-wheat flour)
2 tablespoons dextrose
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 tablespoons powdered buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
2 cups water
2 very ripe mashed bananas
4 tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut
canola oil

Whisk together flour, dextrose, baking powder, baking soda, powdered buttermilk, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, melted and cooled butter, and water. Add to these wet ingredients the mashed banana and shredded coconut. Whisk the egg and butter mixture into the dry ingredients until mixture is just incorporated. Don’t overmix; a few lumps should remain.

Heat a skillet over medium heat and use small amount (1 tablespoon) of butter or canola oil to cook the cakes and add more as you go as needed. Use a 1/4 cup measure to scoop batter onto hot skillet. Cook until bubbles begin to appear and then flip pancakes, cooking until they are nice and golden brown.

Year of No Sugar is published by Sourcebooks, available April 8, 2014

I was provided a review copy of the Year of No Sugar by Eve Schaub for the purpose of review. No compensation was received for this post and all opinions are (obviously) my own.

Tuesday Reviews-Day: Vegan Desserts in Jars

Tuesday Revews-Day

Expanding my skill-set in the kitchen is always my goal. Just like I learn something with every knitting or sewing pattern I follow, each recipe offers up a golden-brown opportunity to learn how different ingredients interact, how they taste in combination, and how–in some cases–they work in the place of another. When I started Low-FODMAP cooking and baking I got a crash course in all the hoops we have to jump though to bake without wheat, and these days I feel pretty confident about what I serve my friends and family, knowing there’s a better than good change they won’t know it’s lacking wheat (or whatever else) by taste or texture. But I also knew my substitution skills were lacking in one key arena: vegan baking.

So, when I was given the opportunity the try out Kris Holechek Peters’ Vegan Desserts in Jars, I figured it was just the kick in the pants I needed to clear the vegan baking hurdle.

Thanks to the plethora of alternative ingredients out there, it’s possible to find vegan dairy substitutes (margarines, milks, even cream cheese) in many large grocery stores. Sweeteners (other than honey, of course) are usually considered safe but I was recently made aware that part of the refining process uses cow bone char, so check the brands or packages before cooking for Â your vegan guests. Eggs, though, they can be a bit trickier to substitute for, depending on which properties are key to the dessert. Thankfully Peters includes a great chart in the book listing the different egg replacers (from applesauce, to tofu, to flax seed) and the best time to use each.

The first recipe we tried was the Lemon Pudding Cakes (p.34) that started with a lemony cake in the bottom of the jar, topped withe a zest and sugar layer and then a lemon juice and water layer. While baking a curious alchemy occurred that placed the liquid components below the cake, the idea being that it would bake into a pudding beneath. In our case it was less pudding and more of a lemon sauce that formed, but it still made for a tasty sauce when combined with the cake.

Still craving tart citrus, I had to try the Lemon Meringue Pie (p. 47) which also uses the Flaky Pastry Crust (p.43) as well as theÂ Meringue Topping (p.116)–the latter striking my curiosity most of all! As far as the pie goes, it was a case of too much crust for the filling–if I were to make it again I’d halve the crust and double the filling. The topping, though, talk about a challenge! First you have to cook the flax seed and let it sit, then strain it (it took 2 sieves and quite a bit of elbow grease to get the majority of the albumen-like goo separated from the seeds), and then finally whip it to within an inch of its life–doÂ not try this without a stand mixer. The recipe directs you to serve immediately, but I found the pies that sat overnight in the fridge to taste even better, so don’t fear the leftovers.

Moving away from the zester, the next recipe we gave a go was the Chocolate Vanilla Puddin’ Cups (p.14). Let me state for the record that it’s nigh on impossible to screw up chocolate pudding, vegan or not. Chocolate’s natural properties make it excellent at getting puddings and mousses to gel, so I wasn’t worried about that half of this recipe. The vanilla, on the other hand, is a lot more dependent on each ingredient–one alone cannot carry it. The vegan vanilla pudding does not hold a candle to its egg-enriched counterparts, but it was tasty enough and paired well with the chocolate in it’s layered cups. If you were to make this recipe, I’d suggest you use a non-dairy milk that is fairly mild, as stronger ones can overshadow the delicate vanilla flavor.

Finally, we went back to the Cakelettes chapter for the Cream-Filled Carrot Cakes (p. 24)–rich, dense carrot cake accented withÂ Cream Cheese Filling (p.111). Aside from making this wheat-free, the other substitution I made was to use mashed banana instead of applesauce (since apples are a High-FODMAP food). The banana did get a little pushy, flavor-wise, but the cake was still quite moist and the filling made it the best of the recipes we tried, so far.

Vegan baking may seem like a case of simple substitutions, but it takes that familiarity with ingredients to know what will please the palate. If you’ve wanted to eliminate some of the animal products from your diet or are simply entertaining the vegans in your life and want to be more inclusive in your cooking, Vegan Desserts in Jars Â presents simple, straight-forward recipes to do just that. And the fact that they’re all made in canning jars–not only cute, but great for sending home with guests or delivering to coworkers’ desks–is just icing on the vegan cake!

Vegan Desserts in Jars is published by Ulysses Press. I was provided a copy for the purpose of review; all opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Scraps of Life

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Tuesday Revews-Day

Tuesday Reviews-Day: 250 Best Meals in a Mug

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Tuesday Reviews-Day: Sous Chef by Michael Gibney

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Tuesday Reviews-Day: the Southern Bite Cookbook

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Tuesday Reviews-Day: Vegan Desserts in Jars

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