I am so pleased to introduce Florence Fois, fellow member of the Women’s Fiction chapter of the RWA, and faithful visitor to this site. Today Florence shares her culinary wisdom.
Cooking Tips from fOIS In The City …
I was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, spent three years as a young married woman near the Jersey Shore, went back to Brooklyn, then Manhattan and at last, settled in South Florida. I use the moniker of fOIS In The City because at heart, that is who I am and will always remain.
It’s fun to read Rosemary’s blog posts about New Jersey, the Shore areas, with the mix of sun, surf and great food, and I am pleased to visit her kitchen.
It is a pleasure to be included in her Author in the Kitchen series, although I have yet to publish. Alas, I am aspiring and hopefully submitting. However, Rosemary asked me when I would share a recipe and join in the fun in her blog kitchen … so here I am !
What I learned from my mother, aunts and 57 varieties of Italian women from Southern Italy was how to cook and bake. However, in the last few years I have found a great way to combine all I learned about cooking with a new “twist.”
The recipes come from two generations of great Italian women in my family. The “twist” is all mine.
I have a file both real and mental of hundreds of recipes. Instead of sharing one of those, I would like to share some tips on my twist.
~~I still make my pasta sauce (or gravy) from scratch. Follow a family recipe; find one in a cookbook or print off the internet. Use a good brand of crushed, peeled or pureed Italian tomatoes. Sauté in olive oil, garlic and parsley if you have them. You can use variations like sweet peppers, onions or Portobello mushrooms. If you don’t have fresh parsley, basil or garlic in the house when the urge to cook strikes, then add one jar of tomato basil or other types of commercial pasta sauce by a major company like Bertolli for a cheat and for extra flavor. Saves time chopping, saves money. When the sauce is cooked, add fresh, grated Italian romano or parmesan cheese for zest.
~~Get the pasta sauces on a BOGO and store different types, along with cans of Italian tomatoes in your food pantry. These sauces are great for cooking dozens of different dishes and have a long shelf life. Fresh (from the deli) Italian cheese can last for up to six months in your refrigerator. Don’t waste your money on the bottled one in the dried spice section. These are high in additives, preservatives and calories, and low in flavor.
~~A good tip for vegetable or bean soups. When the vegetables are completely cooked, take two cups of veggies and two cups of broth and blend until smooth. Add this back into the pot and cook for an additional 15 minutes. Makes all soups thick and creamy!
~~Also, when you make minestrone soup or traditional vegetable soup (not good with bean soups), add two tbsp. of prepared, bottled or deli fresh Pesto and grated Italian cheese at the end. The flavor is divine.
~~Can’t eat too much fat? Drain non-fat small curd cottage cheese for thirty-six hours. Line a strainer with a coffee filter and leave at least four inches from the bottom of a pot. Once drained, put the cottage cheese in a food processor with one-quarter of a cup of grated Italian cheese and blend until creamy.
~~Add this cheese mixture to “al dente” cooked pasta. This works for baked ziti or penne, but it’s also great with left over spaghetti. Add at least one cup of your personal favorite pasta sauce, mix and top with sauce and grated cheese. I dare anyone to tell the difference.
~~Cook broccoli “al-dente” and add cheese mixture (no sauce), top with grated cheese and bake for ten minutes. Great for a side dish with baked chicken. For added flavor, sauté one cup of chopped Portobello mushrooms and add to the cheese mixture for both pasta and veggie dishes.
~~When you sauté the trinity (sweet peppers, celery and onion) for dishes, use chicken broth instead of oil to start. If you have high blood pressure or need less salt in your diet, use room temperature water instead of broth. Or if you prefer, begin with only one tsp. of good olive oil and add broth or water, heat and sauté. This cuts calories in half and does not take away from the flavor of what you add later.
~~Since I am compulsive and have an incurable sweet tooth, I create tons of low fat, sugar-free recipes. Then there is often the need for the rush of an all sugar, calories-be-gone treat.
But alas, I have taken up way too much of your time. Maybe I’ll return with some great tips for a low-calorie, high protein regime. Or maybe Rosemary will invite me back so you can try my delightful dark double chocolate fudge, cherry brownie cake with butter cream filling. . .
Buon appetito!!
fOIS In The City
Florence,
Love having you here. (And you had better be back with that cake recipe!)
The pleasure is all mine, Rosemary. About that cake? I would love to return and share … but for now we should behave and eat “healthy.”
Florence,
Those are some amazing tips! Thanks so much for sharing them. I especially liked the broccoli one. We eat a LOT of broccoli in our house (at least three times a week steamed as a veggie for dinner) so I’m always looking for ways to make it differently.
Christi Corbett
Thanks for the follow, Christi. It is a fact that those who are passionate about eating, are also good cooks. I think of it like music, the blends of ingredients like the instruments in an orchestra. Each time you face the band, you can make a new song.
Try the broccoli, it’s great
Hey Rosemary,
I followed Florence over here from her blogsite. What a great little blog. I love cooking – mostly peasant bachelor style – but my wife, who worked ten years as a trained chef before giving it to become a professional bellydancer – (no, I am not making this up) – swears I’m pretty good at it. I’d love to come share a couple recipes some day.
Steve, Rosie’s kitchen is a fun place and to make it taste even better her up-coming cozy mystery series takes place in an Italian restaurant on the Jersey Shore. Thanks for following me here today. I didn’t give full credit. I also learned a great deal about cooking from my dad. He taught both my brothers … if you know how to cook you can take care of yourself until you meet the right woman for the right reason.
Gees, now have the image of a woman belly dancing in an apron
Steve, thanks so much for the kind words. (With a wife who’s a trained chef AND a belly dancer, I imagine you are the envy of men everywhere. . .)
Please Florence – More of the low cal, sugar free – the ideas you’ve presented are already printed out. I’m always looking for something new. TX for the tips. I also followed you here from your blog.
Thanks for following me, Sheri. I might do a return visit and lure unsuspecting readers with my low-sugar ideas … only to wham them with my 2,000 calorie fudge cake
I get a vicarious thrill by feeding other people food I can’t eat … I am such a devil !!
Great tips and tricks, Florence. I have yet to find a store bought tomato sauce that my family loves, so I cheat and start with a can of plain tomato sauce, then add spices to that. You’ve given me ideas how to jazz up the sauce even more. And I love how you thicken your soups without the use of cream. Next time I make soup, I’m going to try the blending.
Please don’t tell me when you’re posting your fudge cake recipe or I’ll have to make it because just the title alone is too much to resist!
Sheila, why do I have a feeling that you are a great cook … yes … I think you are !!
Thanks for following me here and glad I could give you some ideas to make cooking easier. No, I will not tell you when or if I post the fudge cake. I’m afraid you might make it … remember … no chocolate
Sounds like we have the same pantry and I’m not even Italian, though I did have an apartment once right between Chinatown and Little Italy. I don’t know about my cooking but I ate great.
Wow Shelley, that is a great area to live … I must admit that South Brooklyn is like Rosemary’s territory on the Jersey Shore … we are silly with Italians
Thanks for the visit.
Florence,
I love all of your suggestions, amounting to a mini-cookbook. The low-fat tips are wonderful. But you’re teasing us with mention of your cherry brownie cake. I want that!
Me, too, Lorrie!
Thanks Lorie … like most females I will live and die on a “diet” … my decision is to make it as tasty as I can. I loved adding tghe “tease” about the brownie cake … it gives readers “food for thought.” Oh, I didn’t just say that? Thanks for the visit. Who knows I may return
YUM! Great tips, Florence.
My first husband was full-on Italian and I cooked gravy from scratch every Sunday. My Sunday morning breakfast was always meatballs smooshed on a slice of toast.
The first hiccup in our marriage happened over dinner one Sunday night. He looked at my plate with pasta and whatever other meats I’d selected to cook in the gravy that week and said, “Don’t you think you should skip the pasta? I don’t want you getting fat.”
It was downhill from there, but I did learn from some great Italian cooks. And, Thanksgiving at his all Italian parents’ home Niagara Falls? Shut the front door! We just had a full serving of pasta, and now you bring out the turkey? Those were the noisiest meals. The men shouted and laughed and ate canned, sauced peppers until they had sweat on their upper lips. All was, of course, washed down with red wine served in juice glasses.
Fun, fun memories. Not the marriage…the Italian experience. I’m definitely trying the broccoli.
Gloria … Rosemary and I can attest to the loud Italian food experience. Yes, we served the full compliment of Italian food and then the turkey. In Washington Heights I was also introduced to the Puerto Rican/Dominican thing and they serve a full meal of pork and rice’n beans and then the turkey. My Southern Black and Jamaican friends serve the turkey with rice’n peas; mac ‘n cheese, potato salad and a side of jerk pork. God I love ethnic.
Yes, the broccoli is my fav. Thanks for following me. You are really an Italian at heart … in your very generous big heart
Chiming in here on the loud meals–oh, yes. But meatball smooshed on toast is a new one to me!
Rosemary, came over to thank you. Enjoy your blog-break. Love that graphic.
It was a pleasure visiting your kitchen. I thank you and those who left comments. Have a great week
You’re very welcome, Florence! Come back any time. (‘Specially if you come bearing cake recipes. . .)
Looking at in depth kinds of hard drives spot you may decide to consider,
even though this hard space s incredibly tried.
One of the businesses that have overly full regarding brand new strain trends
could be described as western world image.