“Avoid fruits and nuts. You are what you eat.”
~ Jim Davis, comic strip artist of “Garfield” (1945 – )

Looking out of the kitchen window, spring is everywhere. There is a rabbit nibbling on the lawn and the bird feeders have countless guests. Even though the yard was under a thick blanket of snow little more than a week ago, last year’s bulbs have pushed through and a few have even bloomed into tiny white flowers.

The earth in the vegetable bed is still a little too wet to work, but I uncovered the herb garden this week to discover that the parsley, sage, oregano, and thyme are already growing. Sounds like a song brewing, doesn’t it?

In the mean time, my trip to the produce market this week yielded a bunch of avocados at bargain prices. They have a higher fat content than any of the other fruits and veggies, but it is the good kind of fat and eaten in moderation, they are a heart-healthy food. I’ll try for the moderation, but sometimes I lose control when it comes to these green gems.

If you’ve never purchased an avocado, as with any fresh fruit or vegetable you’d like to try, ask for the help of one of the produce managers at your market. They are always delighted to be asked for their advice. The first time I went to buy a mango, the manager cut one open on the spot so I could taste it, then showed me how to choose the best ones and suggested recipes. Another time, I mentioned to a worker stocking the bins that I was disappointed to see the poor quality of the lettuce. Not to worry. Faster than you can say “salad bowl”, he was back with a fresh, beautiful head of curly leaf lettuce, still dripping mud. It pays to nurture that relationship.

Back to the avocado (which, by the way, is a fruit)…

The avocado ripens after picking, which is why they are sometimes still hard in the grocery store. If you bring them home and put them in a bag with apples or bananas, they will ripen faster. To test for ripeness, gently squeeze them, looking for a bit of give to the pressure. You will soon learn how soft they need to be for your purposes.

Avocado is great in sandwiches, sushi, and salads, and as that very popular dip, guacamole; and I don’t mean the pre-made stuff from the grocery store. You can taste the “clean” in fresh, homemade guacamole and it is astonishingly easy to make. Try putting it out instead of the common ranch dip at your next party and stand back to receive the praise.

Guacamole, Plain and Simple

Figure 1 medium avocado + the juice of ½ lime (1 tablespoon) for every 4 people.

Peel and pit the avocado, then mush it up with a fork (never, never in the food processor) until it resembles green mashed potatoes. Stir in the lime juice.

You can call it quits right there, but if you like to spice it up, mix in some hot pepper sauce or minced chipotle peppers and chopped cilantro, a little bit at a time until it is right where you like it. Use as a vegetable dip, with tortilla chips, or as a spread on sandwiches in place of mayo. If you have other uses, please share them with us through the comments!

For nutritional information about these or any of your own recipes, Mosaic Kitchen reader Dr. Beth suggests logging into Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong web site (see link in Blogroll in the right column of this page) to access a nutritional calculator. You can put in a recipe and it will produce a label just like the kind you find on the side of processed food packages. It is fun to run through a homemade recipe and then compare it side-by-side with a comparable product from the store.

Have a great weekend. See you Monday, when we will inhale.

“How can a society that exists on instant mashed potatoes, packaged cake mixes, frozen dinners, and instant cameras teach patience to its young?”
~ Paul Sweeney, Irish author and economist

In this age of the super-consumer, it is nice now and then to step back and do something that is uncomplicated, free, and quiet. Riding bikes, walking to the library, eating lunch in the park, reading in the hammock, and playing board games are all quite restorative. My favorite distraction, however, is to just sit on the porch and watch the neighborhood breathing in and out. Interesting, how these activities are exactly the same as what I liked to do most as a child and a teenager.

On a recent drive past the house I grew up in, I was astonished at how small the front porch was. Memories of playing on it with friends played in my head; Barbie dolls and the Game of Life, waiting for the mailman to bring letters from the cousin who lived on the other side of the city, painting each other’s nails, leaping off the 8-inch height of it while mimicking super-heroes, and later gossiping about the boys who would parade by on their bicycles pretending they weren’t watching us. Surely that porch was much bigger in 1968 than it is now, to have held so much fun!

Sometimes in those days my mother used to make a lunch for us out of leftover mashed potatoes and vegetables. She would smash them up together, shape them into patties, and fry them up until they were brown all over. The dish was heavenly with ketchup, but my favorite was to cover it in baked beans. And now, on the rare occasion when we have leftover potatoes, I do the same thing.

Recently, the power of the Internet allowed me to learn that this dish, called Bubble & Squeak, comes from “across the pond” in the United Kingdom. Traditionally, it contains potatoes and cabbage, but whatever roasted vegetables were leftovers from the previous night’s meal can go into it. As an adult, my favorite is to throw in a handful of chopped spinach or Chinese cabbage, but the color of some red pepper or carrot can really bring it to life. Leaving the skin on the potatoes boosts both the nutrition and the flavor, too.

Bubble & Squeak is simple in an easygoing sort of way; you can make it with leftover potatoes, or boil some up fresh just for this purpose and dump in whatever cooked or canned veggies you have on hand – more than one kind is fine. By the way, Bubble & Squeak gets its name from the funny noises that it makes while cooking, so smile knowingly when you hear it.

Bubble & Squeak

Olive oil
1 potato, cubed and boiled or roasted, for each person, or leftover mashed
1 handful of cooked veggies for each person
Coarse ground black pepper and salt, to taste

Lightly wipe or spray a non-stick skillet with olive oil and turn the heat under it to medium. Add the potato and vegetables, mashing down with the back of a fork. Cover and allow to brown for about 10 minutes. Using a spatula, turn over the potato mixture (in several parts, not all at once) to bring the browned part to the top. Mash down, cover and cook for another 10 minutes. Repeat turning and cooking, until it is as browned as you like, usually in 30 minutes total. Serve piping hot with Field Roast sausages (available at Whole Foods) or baked beans.

It has been great reading all your comments and receiving feedback on your experiences with our recipes. Please stop by on Friday for some gossip about your neighborhood produce manager and the fresh attitude of the avocado!

“Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast.”
~ Oscar Wilde, Irish author (1854-1900)

We are pretty good about using the recycle bin. Reduce, reuse, recycle. In that order. See the one in the middle? I like to reuse glass jars. We often shop at a bulk food store, which helps to at least get around some of the over-packaging issues (part of where the “reduce” comes in). Putting all those dry goods into old glass jars makes the cupboard look colorful and tidy, too. For added value, the transparency of glass bottles has it over cardboard because the quantity inside can be seen at a glance; there is nothing like knowing the the container has only a ¼ cup in it rather than relying on memory!

The best part of reusing glass jars, however, is that doing so saves money when used to hold homemade sauces and seasoning blends. Mixing up a pint jar full of dry taco seasoning mix or a salad dressing takes only minutes and is a fraction of the price we pay for ready-made. Not only that, but the ingredients are totally in the cook’s control. Have you ever read a salad dressing label? A lot of those un-pronounceable ingredients are designed to give the product extended shelf life at the store, not for nutrition or flavor. Pause and think about that for a few minutes.

Clearly, marketers have convinced us that everything not packaged in a brightly painted box or handed to us with a cup of coffee in a cardboard cup is inconvenient. This mindset has nudged breakfast into becoming the most overlooked and tasteless meal of the day. No wonder so many people skip it. Repeat after me, “Breakfast does not have to be enveloped in cardboard to be convenient!” It doesn’t even take much planning.

Favorite 5-minute breakfast: Bowl of blueberries and sliced bananas, a toasted whole wheat English muffin with peanut butter melting into the crevices, and a cup of green tea with a peach infusion.

Second favorite 5-minute breakfast: Fruit smoothie made with a cold cup of almond milk, a few drops of vanilla or orange extract, ½ banana, and a handful or two of whatever fruit I have in the freezer. Puree for 90 seconds. Peaches are my favorite for this. Sometimes I throw in some peanut butter and a little cocoa powder. Great for gotta-go mornings.

Third favorite 5-minute breakfast: Old fashioned oatmeal, cooked in a bowl in the microwave, topped with fresh Mango Coulis (see photo below).

Back to the concept of reusing jars…

If you feel the need for more sweetness in your morning, consider trying natural agave nectar from the agave cactus plant. It is 100% fructose, so don’t use it with abandon, but this product has a sweeter taste than sugar so you can use significantly less to achieve similar results. Also, agave nectar is minimally processed, so its production has less impact on the earth. Mix ¼ teaspoon vanilla with ½ cup of the agave nectar to make a very rich, sweet syrup that is lovely drizzled on a hot biscuit or stirred into tea.

Another use for agave nectar is in making a wonderful, fresh fruit syrup without the excessive sweetness of those produced with more corn syrup than fruit. It is also a great way to make use of a piece of fruit that is just a bit softer than you like to eat, but still too good to throw onto the compost heap.

Mango Coulis (pronounced koo-LEE)

1 very ripe, large mango
¼ cup water
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
100% pure agave nectar

Peel mango and cut the fruit into chunks, discarding the stone and peel. Place mango pieces, water, and vanilla into a blender and whirl on high until contents become a smooth puree. Add agave nectar one teaspoon at a time, blending between additions, until the mixture is sweet enough to suit your taste – usually 1 tablespoon or less, depending on the natural sweetness of the fruit. Store coulis in a tightly closed jar in the refrigerator.

For breakfast, drizzle it over plain, cooked oatmeal or pancakes; the color of sunshine will warm your whole morning.

Have a lovely start to the week and do drop by to visit again on Wednesday before you start cooking the potatoes.

 “There are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea”  ~Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady (1843 – 1916)

A few days ago, I was browsing the library and found a book on fortune telling by reading tea leaves. Looking at it brought back some long forgotten memories. My mother used to do this for me when I was a child, usually to entertain me when I was sick. She said that her grandmother had taught her.

I borrowed the book and went home with the idea that reading tea leaves is a really good skill to have. Not because I particularly believe in the ability to foretell the future, but because it is something engaging that can take place at the end of a meal with friends, when conversation is winding down. Depending on the sense of humor of those involved, it has the potential to be riotous fun. Thinking of the end of a meal, however, inevitably led to pondering the possibility of cookies to go with the tea.

The big problem with having cookies on hand is that we tend to eat them even when it isn’t a special occasion or an appropriate time. They’re too easy to grab and go, so we tend to pick one up just about every time we pass the cookie jar. (This is particularly bad for the person who works at home. I don’t need to elaborate why, do I?) Freezing them doesn’t work, either, because a frozen cookie just slows down the chewing a little; it is not in any way to be considered a deterrent.

One way to manage a cookie supply is to mix up a batch and freeze the dough in little balls so that, for instance, six can be removed to thaw and then bake while the tea water boils. I advise trying this with a small portion of the dough first, however, because not all recipes work well for this purpose. An alternative is to have a simple, quick recipe on hand that is easy to throw together at the last minute and is small enough that you won’t have three dozen of the evil things leftover.

These little gems are versatile and will satisfy the sweet tooth without necessarily adding any sugar beyond what is already in the dried fruit. My favorite combination is made of walnuts, apricots, cranberries, and orange extract. Use whatever you have on hand, though; raisins, dried apples, dried cherries, dates, etc, are all easy to find and very tasty.

 SUGAR PLUMS – Makes about 1 dozen

2 handfuls of nuts
1 handful of dried fruit
1 handful of another dried fruit
2 drops orange, almond, or coconut extract
¼ cup confectioner’s sugar (optional)

Throw everything into the food processor and whirl on high until everything is in fine bits. Make balls from heaping teaspoonfuls of the mixture, pressing so it sticks together. You can stop at this point, but if you want to make them sweeter you can roll them in confectioner’s sugar to get the classic frosty look – just do so at the last minute because the oil in the nuts will eventually melt the sugar a little.

By the way, I tried dipping a few in melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and let them harden in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Those were Larry’s favorites. If you try this recipe, use the comments to let us all know what combination of ingredients you used to make them your own.

On Monday we’ll chat about breakfast – — – if we don’t miss it by forgetting to turn the clocks ahead for Daylight Saving Time.

“When we no longer have good cooking in the world, we will have no literature, nor high and sharp intelligence, nor friendly gatherings, nor social harmony.”
                      ~ Marie-Antoine Carême  (1784-1833)

Kitchen mosaics are made of people, food, music, and discussions. The person in charge of the kitchen is a mosaic artist and is the most powerful source of influence in the universe. I say, with the chaos in this world being what it is, it is time for Mosaic Artists to wear the power, embrace the power, and BE the power!

A long-ago neighbor affectionately known as Auntie Ruth once told my mother that there is no such thing as a food we don’t like, only a food we haven’t had prepared in a way we enjoy.  My mother really embraced that concept and used it to broaden her own tastes as well as mine.  Those who cook are very wise, are they not?

When people ask me what my best kitchen tip is, I tell them to make their meals colorful.  Who can resist a pot of deep red chili with a big yellow corn muffin on the side?  Or, a salad with red tomatoes, green avocado, and bright mandarin orange sections? 

Just like cooking, I like my life to be filled with colorful characters and music that streaks the walls with rainbow hues.  When I hear people on the radio or television talking about rules that are born from self-centered views, I can only imagine how flat and gray our world would be if we all believed exactly the same thing. 

In order to increase the color spectrum of those I love and even some whom I merely endure, I have launched the Mosaic Kitchen Project.  You are welcome to participate either alone or by sharing through comments on this blog.

The first objective of a Mosaic Kitchen is to encourage the cooking of foods from all over the globe.  Sometimes the quiet ways Mosaic Artists have of planting seeds and just waiting to see what they sprout into is best. 

Here is a quick and easy high-protein treat to get you off on the right foot.  The chickpea is believed to have originated in the Middle East many thousands of years ago, but is now available in the canned food section of grocery stores around the world.

TOASTED CHICKPEAS

Olive oil
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, rinsed and drained well
1 teaspoon coarse salt (great place to use your fancy sea salt)
Cayenne pepper OR ground chipotle pepper (optional)

Spray or lightly wipe a non-stick skillet with olive oil and place over medium heat.  Pour in the well drained chickpeas and sprinkle with the salt.  Stir or flip them around in the pan periodically for about 15 minutes, until the outside has dried, giving it a bit of resistance, but the inside is still creamy.  Remove from heat and sprinkle lightly with the pepper if you wish.  Cool to room temperature and nibble out of hand, or use as a garnish like croutons on salad or soup.

Come back and join us again soon. Tomorrow, we’ll have some tea and cookies and maybe a little fortune telling.