Cookbook Review: 101 Cozy Casseroles

Jen has already drawn for the free cookbook, but I wanted to go ahead and share, especially as everyone starts to have an abundance of fresh produce from their gardens and local farmers markets.  Well, better late than never!  I made this delicious recipe from Gooseberry Patch’s new cookbook, 101 Cozy Casseroles, and enjoyed it for just about every meal I ate the last couple of days before going out of town. I had every intention of writing and posting while I was traveling, but while the pictures were on my camera, I neglected to bring along Rachel Kowasic’s wonderful recipe!

Rachel’s original recipe calls for canned green beans. The day I was looking for a second recipe to make from this fun little cookbook, my neighbors, Harry & Cathy, dropped by with some crisp green beans straight from their garden … decision made!  I washed them, cut them up into bite size pieces, and parboiled for a couple of minutes, draining before adding to the casserole.

 

Ingredients:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 Tblsp. Butter

3 potatoes, diced (I used little red potatoes)

Salt and pepper to taste

2 – 14.5 oz. cans, green beans, drained

1 ½ cup cooked ham, cubed

1 cup water

2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Directions:

In a skillet over medium-high heat, sauté onion and garlic in butter; add potatoes, salt and pepper. Cook until potatoes are crisp.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a greased 13”x 9” baking pan, combine potato mixture, green beans, ham and rosemary. Drizzle water over all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 350° for one hour, or until potatoes are tender.  Serves 6-8.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

Tags: Debbie, Gooseberry Patch, In the Kitchen, Summer

Cookbook Review: 101 Cozy Casseroles and a give-away

It is my turn!  As Jen said last week, we’re always excited when we receive the latest Gooseberry Patch Early Reviewer book…I love getting a sneak peek at these books and trying the new recipes, and it is even more exciting to be able to give away a copy of the book.  Read through the whole post for directions on how to enter the giveaway.

Memorial Day weekend, a time to remember, and also the unofficial start of summer. And, what says summer better than state fair. I grew up in Sacramento, a child of the suburbs, but every summer we would make our annual trip to the California Exposition and State Fair. I know that we rode rides, walked through building after building of county exhibits, and saw livestock, but my favorite memories are of the fair food – funnel cakes, frozen bananas, and corn dogs. So, when I was flipping through the new book, 101 Cozy Casseroles, I knew that I just had to try Tiffani Schulte’s recipe for Blue-Ribbon Corn Dog Bake.  It was easy to make and was a tasty combination of corn bread and hot dogs — and I think it tasted even better when I reheated a piece (in the oven, not the microwave) for lunch the next day!

 

Blue-Ribbon Corn Dog Bake

 

Ingredients:

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ Tbsp. baking powder

[Here I digress—I don’t know about you all, but I have 4 sets of measuring spoons and not a single one has a “3/4 Tbsp.” measure! But, Google http://www.google.com is my friend, and I found a great conversion chart. http://www.calcul.com/cooking-conversion I learned (I’m sure that somewhere in the deep recesses of my muddled mind I knew this, but it wasn’t rising to the top) that 1 tablespoon equals 3 teaspoons, multiply by .75, and for those of you who also do not have a ¾ Tablespoon measure, you need 2 ¼ teaspoons!.]

 

Ingredients continued:

½ tsp. salt

½ cup yellow cornmeal

½ Tbsp. butter, melted

¾ cup milk

16-oz. pkg. hot dogs, sliced into bite size pieces (warning – choking hazard – don’t leave them in round discs, cut into half-circles!)

 

 

 

 

 
Directions:

In a small bowl, mix together sugar and egg. In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add flour mixture to sugar mixture. Add cornmeal, butter, and milk, stirring just to combine. Fold in hot dog pieces.

Pour into a well-greased 8” x 8” baking pan.

 

Bake, uncovered, at 375° for about 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Serves 6.

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you want to win a copy of 101 Cozy Casseroles?

How to Enter

We will be giving away ONE copy of the cookbook to one lucky winner. If you would like a chance to win, leave us a comment in this post and tell us about your favorite summer foods. Leave your comment before June 7 at 9:59 p.m. CST.

Don’t worry about being creative in your comment, the winner will be chosen by a random number generator. Please make sure that you fill out the required fields by putting your first name in the name field and your email address in the email address field. We do not share email addresses and you will not receive emails from Threaded Together unless you win.

Winners

We will choose ONE winner randomly and announce the results here on Threaded Together sometime after June 2.

Rules

No purchase necessary to enter or win. Sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 states and the District of Columbia and who are 18 years of age at time of entry. For this giveaway, entrants can enter 1 time. We will disqualify any entries that we believe are generated by scripts and other automated technology and Threaded Together assumes no responsibility for late or misdirected entries due to SPAM, technological issues or for prizes lost in transit.No substitutions including for cash are permitted, except Threaded Together reserves the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater monetary value for any prize. Void where prohibited by law. Winners shall be responsible and liable for all federal, state, and local taxes on the value of their prize. Relatives of Threaded Together are no eligible to win.

Because this is a family site and we get a lot of spam comments, all comments on this site are moderated. If you comment doesn’t show up right away, don’t worry!

Tags: casserole, cookbooks, Debbie, Gooseberry Patch, In the Kitchen, Summer

Colorful Couscous Salad — One More Gooseberry Patch Cookbook Recipe Early Review (plus a Giveaway!)

Today was a rainy, nap-taking kind of day here in NW Florida … only I don’t take naps, so I got myself into the kitchen and made recipe #3 from Gooseberry Patch’s new Meals in Minutes – 10^th Anniversary Edition.

 

 

If you follow all of us here at Threaded Together then you already know that we are all trying to eat healthier.  Without knowing what I would do with it, I picked up some couscous a few weeks ago when I was on the shopping aisle looking for some alternatives to plain white rice (I LOVE plain white rice, but I’m trying to LOVE brown rice, too!).  So, when I saw this recipe in the new cookbook, I knew I had to try it … I loved it!  I think it is my new favorite salad recipe! Yum!!! The couscous was unbelievably easy to make (bring water to a boil, toss in the couscous, cover and remove from heat…wait 5 minutes and then fluff!).  The dressing is an exotic blend of flavors … sweet, tart, spicy.  This salad was so good that I called Jen and told her I was on my way down to her house to bring her lunch – a small container of this salad!

I did make a couple of minor ingredient substitutions … I did mention that it was rainy, right?  Not only did I not want to spend the money, but I also didn’t want to get wet!

 

Colorful Couscous Salad

Donna Cash

Dexter, MI

 (Page 41)

 

Ingredients:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Salad:

10-oz. box couscous

1 green pepper, diced

1 bunch green onions, diced

4 carrots, shredded

15 ¼ oz. can corn, drained

15 ½ oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed

 

Dressing:

¾ cup olive oil

¼ cup lemon juice

1/8 cup white wine vinegar

2 Tbsp. sugar

1 T. garlic, minced

3 drops hot pepper sauce

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. pepper

½ tsp. lemon pepper

½ tsp. seasoned salt

¼ tsp. turmeric

1/8 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. ground ginger

 

Directions:

Prepare couscous according to package directions; drain and set aside.  In a large serving bowl, whisk olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, sugar and seasonings; stir in vegetables and beans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Add couscous, mixing well.  Cover and refrigerate until serving.  Makes 6 to 8 servings.

 

Things I did a bit different:

*I didn’t have any white wine vinegar so I substituted red wine vinegar.

*I used 2 large cloves of fresh garlic, minced

*I used Tabasco for the hot pepper sauce

*I didn’t have any turmeric.  After doing a bit of online research (Google is my friend!), I decided since it seemed to be mainly for color, to just leave it out.  No harm, no foul!

*Don’t look too hard in the pictures for the diced green pepper … I’m not a huge fan, so left it out. I increased the amount of carrots and green onions to make up for the “bulk”.

*I don’t have a 1/8 tsp. measuring spoon, but I have these to meaure a smidgen, a pinch, and a dash … aren’t they cute??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think I used a smidgen each of cinnamon and ground ginger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is not too late … Do you want a copy of Meals in Minutes — 10th Anniversary Edition before it hits the bookstores?  Be sure to enter by clicking here!

 

 

Tags: Debbie, Giveaways, Gooseberry Patch, In the Kitchen, Salad

Black Bean & Rice Salad

This recipe can be filed under “Quick & Easy” for your weekly menu rotations … Now that the holidays are over, everyone is trying to get back into the groove of jam-packed schedules.  I tore this recipe from Three Many Cooks out of the newspaper last spring and have made it in assorted variations several times since — this version is my favorite. It makes a great meatless main dish, but I make it on a regular basis so I’ll have something substantial to take to work for lunch … other than an occasional lunch out with work buddies, I would much rather save my “going-out” funds for spending time relaxing over good food with friends and family (which is not only good for the budget, but also much better for the “healthy” eating I’m trying to do these days)!!  Even with the “splurge” of feta cheese (actually the “splurge” is probably the cherry tomatoes — good grief — just cut up a tomato!), I don’t think it costs more than $5-6 to make a large bowlful to enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup uncooked white rice – cooked per standard directions and cooled (I tried it early in my experimenting with this recipe using brown rice and didn’t like it as well, but I’m going to try it again since I’m still working on that “eating healthier” theme)
• 1 cup fresh corn kernels (or thawed frozen corn)
• 1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved (or 2-3 Roma tomatoes, diced)
• ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
• 4-6 green onions, chopped
• about ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro (more or less, depending on how much you love cilantro!)
• Salt & fresh ground pepper to taste
• Lime wedges for garnish and to add an extra little kick

Dressing:

• ¼ cup olive oil
• 4 tsps. Lime juice (you can substitute lemon
  juice, but I think lime was better for this recipe)

Directions:

Combine the cooled rice, beans, corn, tomatoes, cheese, onions, and cilantro. Make sure you cool the rice before mixing with other ingredients or the feta cheese will melt. The pictures which follow are actually from a double batch I made a while back. This is also one of those recipes that can easily be “stretched” if you are feeding a crowd. You can double the rice and dressing and you still have a good salad; the other flavors will just not be as intense.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wisk the olive oil and lime juice and pour over rice mixture. Chill in the refrigerator at least one hour before serving. Serve with lime (or lemon) wedges. Salt and pepper to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Tags: Debbie, In the Kitchen

Homemade Tomato Sauce (or Where I Learn to Peel a Tomato)

My husband is adhering to a strict Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and I have been trying to be the supportive wife.  It hasn’t been that difficult once I realized I have lost 13 pounds since we started the diet!!!

There is a lot of information out there about the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (just google the term!) so I am not going to go into lots of detail (and the information is extensive!) but basically it means we have gotten rid of all processed and boxed food (which we had been slowly getting rid of anyway), white sugars and flours (the kids and I use wheat flour and I do use white sugar in some baked goods that my husband doesn’t eat but my husband has to use almond flour), and buy organic when we can.  We make a lot of what we eat from scratch now and the diet is similar to the Paleo diet.

Enter the homemade tomato sauce.  Do you realize how many recipes call for tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes or paste?  I didn’t until my husband told me that canned tomatoes et. al were off the list.  Tomatoes and homemade sauces made following the SCD directions are both fine.  I sort of followed a recipe and made my own homemade tomato sauce.

Ingredients:

10 tomatoes

1/2 cup of basil (1/2 a cup?!?!  seriously?)

3 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp dried thyme leaves

1 medium onion

The first thing you have to do is peel and de-seed your tomatoes.  Supposedly, the easiest way to do this is to drop the tomatoes into boiling water for one minute.

Amazingly, this is what happens:

Move the tomatoes into a bowl until they are cool enough to peel.  The skin of the tomato falls right off.  To de-seed them, the directions that I read said to cut them in half and squeeze the seeds out.

Um…okay…

Squeeze, squish, splat…

So, when I cut the tomato it didn’t exactly cut in half perfectly so there was tomato flesh instead of seed.  I ended up just ripping the tomatoes apart and taking the seeds out.  My kitchen was a disaster.  My hands were covered in tomato juice so I couldn’t take a picture of it for you.

Cook the onions, 2 tablespoons of oil, and three pressed garlic cloves in a large pot until soft.  Crush up the tomatoes and add them to the pot.  Instead of crushing them, I put them in my food processor.  I also added about 3-4 cups of tomato juice (which is SCD legal).

Add the basil.  The recipe I (kind of) used said to use 1/2 cup.  Measuring out half a cup worried me but I dumped it all in the pot.

Simmer on the stove until the liquid has evaporated.

The recipe makes about 2.5 cups without the juice.  With the tomato juice added, I got about 4.5 cups of sauce.  I bagged the sauce up in 1/2 cup bags to freeze for use in the future.

And the verdict?

The tomato sauce was a hit.  My husband is planning homemade pizza (with almond flour crust) for dinner tonight and I think he is happy that I don’t have to keep asking if he is sure that he can’t have canned stewed tomatoes!  I thought that I added a ridiculous amount of basil but it wasn’t overpowering.  I didn’t add any salt or any other seasonings so it might need a little bit of salt if it is used as a pizza sauce rather than a mix-in.

Now if I find a recipe that calls for tomato sauce, canned tomatoes or tomato past, I have a substitute ready to go!

Tags: In the Kitchen, Paleo, SCD Legal

Aunt Christine’s Cheese Ball

Yep, just checked the calendar and it is December 23.  How did that happen?  Are you ready?  Do you need a quick appetizer? You just might have all of the ingredients on hand for this one, and it is quick and easy!  If you have a food processor, it will be even quicker and easier!!  This cheese ball is always a crowd favorite — as in, they-practically-lick-the-plate-clean favorite!  We call it “Aunt Christine’s Cheese Ball” because I got the recipe from my sister about 20 years ago.

Ingredients:

1 – 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

½ tsp. season salt

1 ½ tsp. Worcestershire sauce

3 green onions

1 package luncheon meat, thinly sliced (the cheap stuff!)

Directions:

Finely chop the green onions.  Chop the luncheon meat (I like to use Buddig beef), reserve half.  Combine the remaining beef, onions and all other ingredients.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Refrigerate for a while so that it isn’t “sticky”; form into a ball and roll the ball in the remaining chopped beef.  Serve with crackers.

 

 

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a health, safe, and Happy New Year with friends and family.

 

 

Tags: Appetizer, Christmas, Debbie, Entertaining, In the Kitchen

Joan’s Homemade Hummus

I LOVE hummus … I do NOT love paying for it in the grocery store, especially for the good stuff; in addition, when you make it yourself you can control the ingredients/taste – I added some extra garlic to mine.  Jen alerted me to her friend Briony’s blog several months ago, Freeze Your Way Fit, and this yummy recipe for homemade hummus.  Full disclosure here – I make a HUGE mess in the kitchen when I make this recipe so I make a lot of it at one time. I can fit 3 “batches” into my 9 cup Kitchen Aid food processor; this time I made a total of 6 “batches”. Tahini is the most expensive ingredient, and it is also the messiest!  Even our local Walmart here in L.A. (lower Alabama, also known as NW Florida) carries tahini, $4.75 for the amount needed to make all of these batches — it probably cost me about $12.00 to make all of the hummus shown below.

 

Ingredients (for one batch – multiply by 3 to fill a 9 cup food processor):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I grew up calling these garbanzo beans!)

1 small garlic glove, minced

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground cumin

Pinch of cayenne (red) pepper

3 Tbsp. juice from lemons (I uses concentrate this time and it worked just as well)

¼ cup water

6 Tbsp. tahini, stirred well

2 Tsp. extra virgin olive oil

 

 

Directions:

 

Step One:  Put chickpeas, garlic, salt, cumin, and cayenne in a food processor; process until fully ground. Scrape down sides with a spatula. Make sure all parts of the food processor are put together before you put the ingredients in!

 

 

 

 

Step Two:  With the food processor running, slowly add the lemon juice and water and continue to process for one minute.  Scrape down the sides with a spatula again.

 

Step Three:  In a small bowl, whisk together the tahini (easier said than done – it is the consistency of tile grout!) and 2 Tbsp. oil.

 

 

 

 

With the food processor still running, add the oil-tahini mixture in a steady stream through the feed tube.  Continue to process until smooth and creamy, scraping down sides as needed.

 

Can be served immediately with crackers.  Refrigerate any not used immediately. Also freezes beautifully!  Freeze small portions. Reheat in the microwave for 30 seconds on full power, stir, and heat another 5-10 seconds.  If it seems a little dry, just add a little bit of olive oil.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enjoy!

Tags: Debbie, In the Kitchen

Refrigerator Bread & Butter Pickles

It is summer, and the living is easy — 99° here at 6 pm on June 4 — after an absolutely beautiful spring, I think we’re going to have a Long. Hot. Summer. We made the first of our annual visits to A & N Blueberry Farm early Friday morning to pick blueberries (I got 10.5 pounds and Jen got around 7… pretty sure we’re going to have to squeeze in another trip!). They also had some other fresh produce for sale and I picked up some of Sarah’s delicious blueberry jam (because I don’t can), cucumbers and a nice big zucchini … I already have some yellow squash in the fridge, so just might have to make some zucchini bread later this week.

I don’t can, did you catch that above? I love the idea of canning and once helped my friend, Jenny K. (Jen’s namesake!), can about 400 pounds of tomatoes (we washed them in the bathtub). My sister-in-law, Rhonda D., is the canning queen — I love visiting when the pantry is full of homemade grape jelly, corn, tomatoes and other yummy treats from their garden. So, since I don’t can, I freeze and refrigerate!  I bought these cucumbers specifically to make some EASY refrigerator pickles.

Ingredients:

7 cups cucumbers (number of cucumbers needed depends on how big they are — I used 4 today)

2 Tbsp. salt

2 cups sugar

1 cup cider vinegar

1 tsp. celery seeds

 

 

Directions:

 

Thinly slice cucumbers — or thickly slice, up to you! I prefer a thinner slice. Place in a colander and sprinkle cucumber slices with salt. Let stand at least 2 hours.

 

Meanwhile, combine the sugar, vinegar and celery seeds. Let stand until the sugar completely dissolves, stirring occasionally.

 

Rinse the cucumber slices and drain well. Put the cucumber slices in a large canning jar—my original recipe from about 30 years ago says “or a mayonnaise jar” … can you even buy mayo in a jar these days??  Really cram the cucumber slices in tightly. I finally had an opportunity to use this cute jar that Jen made for our annual holiday cookie exchange!

 

Pour the vinegar mixture over the top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And, refrigerate.  Done!

 

 

 Now, try to wait 24-48 hours before snacking on these tasty morsels. Won’t kill you if you don’t wait, but they are better the longer they sit in the cider-sugar solution. I’m not sure if these ever have an “expiration” date … I’ve kept them in the fridge for weeks and they’ve been just fine.

Enjoy!

 

 

Gooseberry Patch Recipe Roundup

Tags: Debbie, garden, In the Kitchen, pickles, Summer

Basil-Tomato Tart

 As the rest of the girls have recently commented, it has been a busy spring. We’ve been spoiled here along Florida’s NW Panhandle with unseasonably cool temperatures and low humidity – I think this is the latest I’ve turned on the air conditioning in years!! So, any free time I’ve had not dedicated to work and school deadlines has been spent outside trying to mitigate several years of benign neglect to my landscaping, especially in the backyard. It is looking good enough that I wouldn’t be embarrassed if unexpected company stopped by, so now that the house is shut up and the air is back on, I’m chained to my desk in front of the computer!

I got the original recipe for this dish out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine, probably about 15 years ago; and with a couple of minor modifications, it has been a friends and family summer favorite ever since. It is best with fresh ingredients, so if you don’t have a garden in your backyard or in pots on the deck/patio, head down to your local farmers market to pick up ingredients. We love the Palafox Farmers Market here in Pensacola! In fact, one of my basil plants came from a vendor there last year. It barely survived the winter in a kitchen garden window, but a few days ago I got enough leaves off of it to make this tasty dish. So let the official summer cooking season begin …

 Ingredients:

1 pie crust (you can use homemade, frozen, or refrigerated—which is always my first choice)

1 cup fresh basil leaves, coarsely chopped

3-4 tomatoes (I like Romas)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1 ½ cup mozzarella cheese, grated

4 cloves fresh garlic, chopped

¼ cup Parmesan cheese (if you don’t use freshly grated, please at least buy the grated in the refrigerator section – do not use the powdered stuff off the supermarket shelves!)

½ cup mayonnaise (do not use Miracle Whip!)

1/8 tsp. pepper

 

Directions:

Bake the pie crust according to directions. Remove from oven. Sprinkle bottom with ½ cup of the grated mozzarella. Cool completely.

 Cut tomatoes into thin slices; drain on paper towels.

Arrange slices in layers on top of melted mozzarella (usually go 2-3 layers, depending on how thin I’ve sliced the tomatoes). In a small bowl, combine basil and garlic with remaining mozzarella, mayonnaise, Parmesan, and pepper. Mix well.

Spread evenly over the top of the tomato slices. Note:  I like to let a little glimpse of the tomatoes peek out so I don’t completely cover!

 Bake at 375° for 35-40 minutes, until top is golden brown. Let set for 10-15 minutes before cutting into wedges.

 

Serve with a green salad and you’ve got a refreshing summer meal for brunch, lunch or dinner! Enjoy!

Tags: Debbie, fresh produce, In the Kitchen, Summer

Sesame Asparagus

I ♥ asparagus, and as far as I’m concerned, it is officially spring (even if my northern friends still have snow on the ground) when the price of asparagus goes below $3.00/pound. When we first moved to MCAS El Toro back in the late 1980s (before development started the creep which eventually contributed to local governments supporting the closing of the USMC bases in Orange County), we were surrounded by orange groves, strawberry fields and acres of asparagus. Have you seen asparagus fields?? The asparagus we’re accustomed to buying in the store or at a local farmer’s market grows one “stalk” at a time, straight up out of the ground.  I’m sure one reason it is so expensive is that the only way we ever saw it being harvested was by hand. The girls’ Grandma D. used to tease them by calling it “asper-grass”.

Found this information on Wikipedia:

Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennial[1] plant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Alliaceae and asparagus in the Asparagaceae. Asparagus officinalis is native to most of Europe, northern Africa and western Asia,[2][3][4] and is widely cultivated as a vegetable crop.

This next paragraph falls under the “everyone wants to know, but they aren’t going to ask” category! ☺ I am, are you (one of the 22%)?? More interesting, but probably useless information from Wikipedia—The effect of eating asparagus on the eater’s urine has long been observed:

• “[Asparagus] cause a filthy and disagreeable smell in the urine, as every Body knows.” (Treatise of All Sorts of Foods, Louis Lemery, 1702)^[5]
• “asparagus… affects the urine with a foetid smell (especially if cut when they are white) and therefore have been suspected by some physicians as not friendly to the kidneys; when they are older, and begin to ramify, they lose this quality; but then they are not so agreeable” (“An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments,” John Arbuthnot, 1735)^[6]
• Asparagus “…transforms my chamber-pot into a flask of perfume.” Marcel Proust (1871–1922) ^[7]

There is debate about whether all (or only some) people produce the smell, and whether all (or only some) people identify the smell. It was originally thought this was because some of the population digested asparagus differently from others, so some people excreted odorous urine after eating asparagus, and others did not. However, in the 1980s three studies from France,^[8] China and Israel published results showing that producing odorous urine from asparagus was a universal human characteristic. The Israeli study found that from their 307 subjects all of those who could smell ‘asparagus urine’ could detect it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus, even if the person who produced it could not detect it himself.^[9] Thus, it is now believed most people produce the odorous compounds after eating asparagus, but only about 22% of the population have the autosomal genes required to smell them.^[10][11][12]

Storage Issues, or, You May Think You Need Ft. Knox, But It Really Isn’t Necessary:

Have you ever brought some of that expensive asparagus home from the grocery store, not cooked it right away and then been dismayed to have to discard an limp bunch of limp graying greens which got buried in the produce drawer in your fridge? I came across this tip a long time ago and have successfully stored asparagus for days and days — it will stay fresh and crisp! So, next time you don’t plan on cooking asparagus the day you bring it home from the store (my favorite method is to steam it, top with a bit of salt and pepper and then make a meal out of it!), try this storage method:

• keeping it bundled, cut ½ – 1 inch off the bottom – just enough to “open” it up
• place in a container (something tall enough that it won’t tip over when you add water and the asparagus)
• add a couple of inches of water
• put it on the top shelf of your refrigerator – where you won’t forget about it!

 

By now, everyone knows about our love for everything Gooseberry Patch. I adapted this recipe from their cookbook, Celebrate Spring (page 100). I love the subtitle of this cookbook:  “A freshly-gathered bouquet of tender recipes, brand new how-to’s and tempting tips for the joyous days of springtime.” Even after our relatively short, mild winters here in NW Florida we look forward to the dogwoods blooming and bursts of color from the azaleas!

 Ingredients

1 lb. fresh asparagus, woody stalks broken off and cut into approx. 2” lengths

2 Tbsp. peanut oil (I used canola)

2 Tbsp. shallots, minced (I didn’t have shallots on hand, so just sliced some green onions)

1 Tbsp. sesame seeds

2 tsp. soy sauce

Freshly ground pepper to taste

Dash of lemon juice

 

Directions

Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil and asparagus. Cook asparagus for about 4 minutes, stir and cook 3 more minutes. The asparagus will be slightly browned.

Add the shallots (or green onions) and sesame seeds and cook, tossing the asparagus in the mixture for about 3 minutes. Add soy sauce and pepper, toss again, then transfer to serving plate and sprinkle with lemon juice.

 

Can be served either warm as a vegetable side dish, or chilled as a salad.

 

 And Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast
rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley, “The Sensitive Plant”

 

1.  Lison M, Blondheim SH, Melmed RN. (1980). “A polymorphism of the ability to smell urinary metabolites of asparagus”. Br Med J 281 (6256): 1676. doi:10.1136/bmj.281.6256.1676. PMC 1715705. PMID 7448566. Grubben, G.J.H.; Denton, O.A., eds (2004). Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 2. Vegetables. PROTA Foundation, Wageningen; Backhuys, Leiden; CTA, Wageningen. 
2. “Asparagus officinalis”. Flora Europaea. Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. http://rbg-web2.rbge.org.uk/cgi-bin/nph-readbtree.pl/feout?FAMILY_XREF=&GENUS_XREF=Asparagus&SPECIES_XREF=officinalis&TAXON_NAME_XREF=&RANK=. Retrieved 2010-05-19. 
3. “Asparagus officinalis”. Euro+Med Plantbase Project. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. http://ww2.bgbm.org/_EuroPlusMed/PTaxonDetail.asp?NameId=38660&PTRefFk=500000. Retrieved 2010-05-19. 
4. USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. “Asparagus officinalis”. Germplasm Resources Information Network. Beltsville, Maryland: National Germplasm Resources Laboratory. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?300050. Retrieved 2010-05-19.
5.  McGee, Harold (2004). “6″. McGee on Food and Cooking. Hodder and Stoughton. pp. 315. ISBN 0340831499.
6. Arbuthnot J (1735). An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments 3rd ed.. J. Tonson. pp. 64261–262. 
7. From the French “[...] changer mon pot de chambre en un vase de parfum,” Du côté de chez Swann, Gallimard, 1988.
8. C. RICHER1, N. DECKER2, J. BELIN3, J. L. IMBS2, J. L. MONTASTRUC3 & J. F. GIUDICELLI (May 1989). “Odorous urine in man after asparagus”. Br J. Clin. Pharmac. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1379934&blobtype=pdf. 
9. S. C. MITCHELL (May 1989). “Asparagus and malodorous urine”. Br J. Clin. Pharmac. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1379935&blobtype=pdf. 
10.  “The scientific chef: asparagus pee”. The Guardian. September 23, 2005. http://www.guardian.co.uk/food/story/0,,1576765,00.html. Retrieved 2007-04-21. 
11. Hannah Holmes. “Why Asparagus Makes Your Pee Stink”. Discover.com. http://www.discovery.com/area/skinnyon/skinnyon970115/skinny1.html. 
12. Lison M, Blondheim SH, Melmed RN. (1980). “A polymorphism of the ability to smell urinary metabolites of asparagus”. Br Med J 281 (6256): 1676. doi:10.1136/bmj.281.6256.1676. PMC 1715705. PMID 7448566. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pubmed&pubmedid=7448566

Tags: asparagus, Debbie, In the Kitchen, spring, Storage, vegetables