Greek yogurt is the latest craze in the dairy aisle, and rightfully so: it’s thicker, creamier, and tastier (in my opinion, at least) than standard yogurt. In large part, that’s because it’s double-strained instead of single-strained, which means more of the whey drips out, leaving a more concentrated, full-bodied yogurt behind. Another difference is that [...]
Continue reading about Turning Yogurt into Cream Cheese…and Dipping In!
What people traditionally eat depends on what their weather is like — citrus doesn’t like cold weather, but berries don’t like it hot. (Good luck finding strawberries in a tropical rain forest! Temperate rain forests are another story…) Root vegetables and cabbages also like their days and nights to be on the crisp and cool [...]
Even though The Great Pumpkin Day has come and gone, pumpkins are still everywhere we look, and they’ll still be seasonally “in” when winter has us in an icy grip. (Not looking forward to the slick streets, but I am looking forward to soft white carpets of snow making the neighborhood look like it’s been [...]
There’s a hot culinary secret just waiting to be discovered in the dairy aisle, one that can create luscious dips, spreads, and sauces, especially when it comes to desserts: full-fat Greek yogurt. Yep. If you want amazing flavor and texture, skip the low-fat variety. (You can always make your own low-fat yogurt by pouring in [...]
As a kid, I always liked marbled pound cakes and swirled cheesecakes. And two-toned frozen yogurts. Somehow, seeing two flavors intertwined on one plate (or in one cone) makes both of them doubly delicious. And you know what the best part is? It’s ridiculously easy to make marbled and swirled desserts — doing so usually [...]
Continue reading about Chocolate & Vanilla with a Berry Twist
First it was omega-3s, then it was antioxidants; now, the food rage is probiotics. (Mind you, these have all been mainstay elements of whole, unprocessed foods for millennia, long before food scientists and genetic engineers and corporate interests got involved in our food chain. Thankfully, we’re now “discovering” that traditional cuisines contain plenty of foods [...]
It’s summertime, and the blueberries are calling. (So are the strawberries and the blackberries and the rest of the berry bunch.) Time to celebrate with some fruit soup! It’s ridiculously easy to make — which is probably one of the chief reasons fruit soup is on every cruise ship’s menu — and can be made [...]
Lately, I’ve been wondering what would happen if I re-strained strained Greek yogurt (the double-straining it goes through initially is what makes it thicker and creamier than the standard American variety). Logically, I figured, it would get even thicker and turn into some sort of a queso fresco or farmer’s cheese. I snipped off a [...]
You may have tasted currant jam or jelly, but have you tried fresh currants? They come in a variety of tastes and colors: black, red, white (really more of a golden hue), and pink. The black ones are the most common and has a very distinctive flavor–they remind me of a woodsy, almost-creamy blend of [...]
They look like perfectly-round brown apples, their light and crisp flavor is reminiscent of starfruit, and they have the texture of a Bosc pear: they’re Asian pears. You’ll probably find them encased in a white Styrofoam netting (meant to cushion them during transit) in the apple-and-pear section of your produce market. Like apples, they hold [...]
