1) Roast the unpeeled garlic cloves in a skillet on medium heat. Turn cloves over after a few minutes to toast the other side. Remove cloves when all sides are cooked and remove peels.
2) Place cilantro, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a food processor and mix for 30 seconds.
3) Add remaining ingredients to the processor and mix for 1 minute.
4) Store and in a plastic container and refrigerate for 1 hour until ready to use.
I introduced this recipe in 2010 when we served Fried Green Tomatoes. It complements fried seafood and vegetables, but it can also be used as a sandwich spread.
Rather than using mustard or mayonnaise on your sandwiches or burgers, try using Cilantro Aioli. Fresh lemons are much better to use in this recipe than bottled lemon juice.
1) Mix yeast and warm water in a large metal bowl with a whisk.
2) Add olive oil and 1 tsp salt.
3) Add flour one cup at a time. Use a whisk for the first two cups, then use a rubber spatula to add remaining flour.
4) Fold in parmesan and cracked black pepper.
5) Form the dough into a ball. Remove dough from the bowl, spray the bowl with baking spray, and return the dough to the bowl.
6) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 hour.
7) Press dough down and fold into a ball. Return the dough to the bowl with the seam side down.
8) Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 30 minutes.
9) Place dough on a lightly-floured counter and fold into a long cylinder. With a sharp knife, score the top of the dough. Sprinkle the remaining ½ tsp salt over the dough. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Allow the dough to rise, uncovered on a greased pan, for 20 minutes.
10) Bake for 20-22 minutes. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing.
This bread is perfect for sandwiches and Italian pasta. Most bread recipes require a separate bowl to mix the dough and one for rising.
As long as all of the flour ends up in the dough when you mix it, you don’t have to put the dough in another bowl for rising. Save yourself the trouble of cleaning two bowls and just use one.
I made this bread for my cousin Amy and her husband when they visited last year. They enjoyed it, and I hope you will too.
Stirall of the above ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook on medium heat, frequently stirring, until the mixture begins to boil. Reduce to low, continuing to stir, and simmer for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool. Mix the following in a large measuring cup or bowl:
2 eggs
1 tbsp Half and Half
1 ½ tsp Vanilla Extract
Mix the following in a large metal bowl:
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
½ tsp Salt
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Baking Powder
Preheat the oven to 350 ° F. Mix all ingredientsin the large metal bowl. Place the mixture in a greased 9-inch bread pan. Mix the following in a bowl to prepare the streusel:
1 tbsp Melted Butter(salted butter)
¼ cup Ground Pecans
2 tbsp Powdered Sugar
1 tbsp Brown Sugar
¼ tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp All-Purpose Flour
Spread streusel evenly over pumpkin mixture and bake 50-52 minutes. Check to make sure the bread is done by inserting a toothpick. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Carefully remove from the pan and place on a cooling rack for 10 minutes before slicing.
I tested this recipe on people, including myself, who dislike pumpkin pie. They loved it.
Be sure to use a pumpkin puree rather than a fresh carving pumpkin. Pumpkin puree is made from sugar pumpkins, which have a much sweeter flesh and are not as stringy as Halloween pumpkins.
Unlike other Pumpkin Bread recipes I’ve made, this one requires cooking the puree. It may seem like a pain and an extra step, but it removes excess moisture from the puree and brings out the sweet pumpkin flavor.
If you’re worried about losing some of the streusel topping when you pop it out of the pan, I have a solution.
First, use a rubber spatula to loosen all four sides of the bread from the pan. Next, place a piece of wax paper over the top of the bread. Last, invert the pan and pop it onto a cutting board.
It is a sweet bread, but it isn’t too sweet to place a scoop of vanilla ice cream beside it. I hope you enjoy it! I did.
Continuing
his tradition of featuring strong female characters, Luc Besson makes another
attempt with Anna. Sasha Luss plays the assassin Anna, and her
performance is the highlight of the film.
Anna is a
drug-addicted prostitute who, after the death of her pimp/boyfriend, becomes a
superhuman KGB killer. She works as a supermodel in the daytime and kills her
targets at night.
The story takes place in Moscow in 1985. KGB agents race around the city and arrest several suspects. A CIA agent identifies one of the suspects when someone sends a severed head to his office.
Don’t you miss the Cold War? It was a simpler time with well-defined enemies and blood-soaked packages.
The film
quickly shifts its focus to 1990. Anna decides to leave her job selling Russian
dolls to become a fashion model. The scenes of Anna posing for her fashion
shoots are incredibly long and dull.
I’m not sure
why the director chose to spend so much time with the fashion scenes. Maybe he
wanted to prove that Sash Luss, who is a successful model in real life, can
play a supermodel. Can a tall, beautiful, blonde supermodel play a tall,
beautiful, blonde supermodel in a film?
After boring
us with fashion, Anna shifts back to 1987 and displays Anna’s rough life
as an abused prostitute. Then, once again, the film shifts forward to 1990.
Time after Time
For a movie
that has nothing to do with time travel, there are countless flashbacks and
flash-forwards. There are so many that you become oblivious to the film’s
location or time.
I like films
that follow a non-linear path, but Anna’s time shifts seem unnecessary
and frustrating. The poorly developed plot is hindered even more by this
gimmick. The plot can use all the help it can get.
Strangely,
the film never focuses on the year that Anna trains with the KGB.
I would like
to know how a reformed addict, with only one year of training, becomes the most
lethal assassin in the world.
She’s a cold-blooded
killer who rarely shoots her pistol without hitting someone in the head. She
cuts through bodyguards and soldiers like they’re butter, and she uses broken
plates, bar railing, and dinnerware to dispatch victims when she’s unable to
shoot them.
The one time
she shows emotion during her killing sprees is when she frantically stabs a
large man with a fork. The action scenes with Anna are exciting and the only reason
to watch the film.
Sasha Luss
looks natural when performing fight scenes, and her acting is not too bad. Her
character is hard to dislike, but her frequent complaints about her life as a
model/killer become annoying.
Anna is
tearful when she talks about gaining her freedom from the KGB, but she doesn’t shed
a tear after killing fifty men in two days. She’s a complicated woman.
Luc Besson Blues
I hesitate,
for a moment, when I decide to watch a Luc Besson film. He has disappointed me
so many times that I always fear the worst. Anna is not the worst, but it’s
close.
Besson has a
talent for using beautiful, statuesque women in his action films. I commend him
for promoting female empowerment, but I wish he could back it up with better
writing and directing.
His plot twists
and weak dialogue often prevent his Valkyries from achieving greatness. Scarlett
Johansson in Lucy, Milla Jovovich in The Messenger, and Sasha
Luss in Anna are all examples of strong women who perished under Besson.
I like parts
of his films, but most of them involve action sequences.
His most critically acclaimed film, The Professional, is the one I dislike the most. I like Jean Reno, Natalie Portman, and Gary Oldman, but they’re not impressive in Besson’s overrated romp.
The story
centers around a sensitive hitman who takes in his neighbor’s teenage daughter
while he avoids a cartoonish, dirty cop played by Oldman. Although it’s loved
by many, I won’t waste any more time complaining about it.
Mirren needs a Beach House
One of
Besson’s worst crimes in Anna is how he uses Helen Mirren. She plays Olga.
She’s a strict, KGB officer who handles Anna’s cases.
Her Russian accent is slightly believable, but her brown wig is unintentionally funny. She looks like one of The Turtles and doesn’t seem happy about it.
The head of the
KGB makes a crack about her appearance when he says, “We only keep the ugly
ones.” Helen Mirren? Ugly?
I’ve never
thought of those words fitting together, but I’m biased toward Helen Miren. Ever
since I watched Caligula in college, I’ve loved her. In Anna, there’s
not much to love.
Olga is more
of a caricature of a despotic, Soviet boss than a real character, and her dialogue
sounds like the fourteen-year-old version of Luc Besson wrote it.
She delivers memorable lines such as “Anna, no one f#*%! with KGB”. Her broken English won’t win her the Oscar this year, but everyone needs a paycheck.
Oscar
winners can’t always perform at a high level, and I don’t have a problem with
that. I only wish that Natasha from The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle didn’t
come to mind when I saw Mirren in Anna.
There are many theories as to why actors decide to star in bad films, but Sir Michael Caine gave the likeliest answer. When a journalist asked him why he starred in Jaws 4, he said, “I needed a beach house.”
1) Place Spinach in a colander and run
cold water over it to thaw.
2) Mix Sour Cream, Red Onions,
Mayonnaise, and Vegetable Soup Mix in a metal bow.
3) Press Spinach in a colander to remove
water. Spinach should be only slightly moist.
4) Mix Spinach with the rest of the ingredients
with a rubber spatula. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.
5) Serve with Toasted Pita Bread, French
Bread, or Crackers.
Spinach Dip,
the only dip served chilled, is one of Basil’s oldest recipes. It’s best when
you serve it with toasted pita.
If you don’t have pita in your kitchen, you can use any type of toasted bread. French bread, Italian bread, French baguette, and Ciabatta are types of bread I recommend.
Do you own
an air fryer or an Instant Pot? Right now, they’re two of the hottest kitchen
appliances. Before Christmas, if you found out that the instant pot was
Amazon’s most popular product, you might have been tempted to order one.
The instant
pot is a compact, pressure cooker that can cook meat, steam rice, make yogurt,
cure all disease, and improve your general well-being.
Marketing is
a powerful tool in our world, and it’s particularly effective in the food and
beverage industry. Appliances, produce, and products that have been around for
decades or centuries are suddenly reintroduced to the public as essential items.
The
convection oven, first available to the public in 1945, uses a fan to circulate
hot air around your food to cook it faster. The oven’s use is not limited to
culinary endeavors but is used in a variety of industries.
The aircraft
industry uses car-sized ovens to manufacture parts for planes and helicopters.
Convection heating isn’t a new technique. Until recently, amateur cooks had to
shell out several hundred dollars for a new convection oven.
Now, you can
buy one for under seventy dollars. The expensive convection ovens are still
available, but their compact, economical cousins are all the rage.
These baby
convection ovens are called air fryers. When I saw a commercial for an air
fryer, I thought it was a gimmick that wouldn’t last.
The name
seemed so ridiculous that I couldn’t believe that anyone would buy one. Fried
air?
What does that mean? Is there a miniature nuclear reactor in the little fryer? Is it safe to leave it alone in your kitchen when it starts frying the air?
Like all products marketed to the general public, I was completely wrong about the air fryer. It’s a useful tool that can save you time. Since I was a kid, I’ve seen a lot of products that I thought were garbage become big hits.
The only one
I was right about was New Coke. New Coke was sweeter, less carbonated, and more
disgusting than any other soda on the market.
Coca-Cola
managed to save themselves from a catastrophe by introducing Classic Coke.
Eventually, all New Coke was replaced by Classic Coke, and the public forgot about
the company’s blunder.
All of us,
including myself, are influenced by marketing more than we like to admit. When
I was 10, I owned a California Raisin T-shirt (it enticed bullies to beat me up).
The raisin
was not a new product in the ’80s, but a marketing campaign from California
made raisins seem cool and essential to all Americans. Marvin Gaye’s version of
I Heard it Through the Grapevine played in commercials featuring dancing
raisins.
Toy stores
stocked their shelves with a variety of loveable raisin characters. I don’t
think it was a bad idea to promote healthy food that is beneficial to your
diet, but I think it’s strange that a clay raisin dancing to Motown influenced
our eating habits.
The song, I Heard it Through the Grapevine, is about a sad guy who finds out that his woman is unfaithful to him. Why was this song used to sell delicious raisins?
Since the
word grapevine is in the song, why wouldn’t you use it to promote dried grapes
from California? A great song about infidelity is as good as any to use to
promote healthy living.
Hoover could have increased their sales if they’d used Another One Bites the Dust to sell vacuum cleaners. Who would care if a song about a psychopath with a machine gun helped sell a record number of Hoovers?
Steve
walks warily down the street
With
the brim pulled way down low
Ain’t
no sound but the sound of his feet
Machine
guns ready to go
Are
you ready- (for a Hoover?)
Are
you ready for this- (house to be clean?)
Are
you hanging on the edge of your seat
Out of
the doorway, the bullets rip
To the sound of the beat—
Freddy
Mercury’s corpse shudders at the thought!
Advertisers take risks that may seem crazy when you analyze their motives as much as I do. I’m surprised by and respect the strange ways they push their products.
Many advertising campaigns that I thought were strange or
creepy became incredibly successful. If I worked for a marketing firm, I would make
all the wrong decisions.
Pillsbury-1985: Poppin Freshcommercial: That obnoxious Dough
Boy will not help you sell biscuits. You want people to poke him in the belly
to make him giggle? Who wants to buy biscuits after seeing Poppin Fresh
molested by a human finger?
Wrigley-1983: The Juicy Fruit Ski commercial: What do acrobatic,
skiers have to do with Juicy Fruit chewing gum? Will a rock song with mild,
sexual overtones entice people to pop that gum in their mouths?
NFL-1996: Are you ready for some Football? Commercial: Hank
Williams Jr. will not help you increase ratings. I feel like he’s screaming at
me to watch football. Let’s get James Brown instead. He’ll put some funk into
football.
I don’t believe that most advertisers are immoral or unethical,
but they are smarter than we realize.
Pomegranates, avocados, and pistachios are more popular than ever.
Twenty-five years ago, no one craved the juice from a pomegranate.
Their popularity is driven by clever marketing campaigns. Avocados are so popular that emergency rooms have seen an increase in avocado-related injuries.
I used to think that avocado was simple to cut open with a knife, but some people stab themselves while attempting culinary surgery.
I think that instant pots and air fryers are fine products,
but I don’t have the physical space in my kitchen to include every appliance that
is trending. I’m a sucker for advertising like everyone in America.
However, I try to consider if a new appliance will improve my
life. Most of the time, the answer is no. For the time being, my life and kitchen
are happy without fried air and digital pressure cookers.
These potato and cheddar fritters closely resemble those made with all-purpose flour. You can use mashed potatoes and leftover corn in place of the boiled potatoes and canned corn.
I experimented with different recipes for potato fritters, but this one produces a superior golden-brown crust. It doesn’t have a sandy texture like many other gluten-free fritters.
They taste best when you serve them immediately. I tried reheating them after they were refrigerated for 2 days, but they weren’t the same.
The fritters have a firmer texture when they’re reheated. Rice flour mixes tend to toughen the fritters when they’re refrigerated. If you want to save some for later, it’s best to freeze them before they’re cooked.
I topped mine with a tablespoon of sour cream on each fritter, but Cajun Remoulade and Stone Ground Mustard are also good toppers.
Ingredients
½ cup Brown Rice Flour
1 tbsp Xanthan Gum
¼ cup Tapioca Starch
1 tbsp Coconut Flour
1 ½ tsp Kosher Salt
1 tsp White Pepper
1 ½ tsp Fresh Thyme
1 tsp Mustard Powder
2 tsp Brown Sugar
2 cups White Cheddar
2 tbsp Half and Half
3 eggs
2 lbs. boiled white potatoes
3 tbsp Olive Oil
Instructions
Mix all dry ingredients except potatoes and cheddar in a metal bowl with a whisk.
In a separate bowl, mash the potatoes and mix in Half and Half, 1 Tbsp Olive Oil, and 3 beaten eggs.
Stir in dry ingredients and fold in cheddar last.
Form into balls, then flatten in disks that resemble hockey pucks.
Heat 2 tbsp Olive Oil in a non-stick pan and cook 4-5 minutes a side.
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