Category Archives: Cooking

Green Gold: Celebrating National Avocado Day

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National Avocado Day

Move over diamonds—avocados are everyone’s favorite precious stone. July 31st is National Avocado Day, a tribute to that creamy, dreamy fruit that turns toast into a love language and guacamole into a cultural experience. Whether you’re slicing it for a salad or sculpting it into sushi, the avocado has earned its place as a culinary icon and aesthetic muse.

 

May include: A cartoon avocado character wearing a sombrero and playing a guitar. The avocado is green with a smiling face and large eyes. The sombrero is brown and orange with red zigzag patterns. The guitar is light brown with strings. The text https://www.digitalgraphicsshop.etsy.com is visible at the bottom.

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But this isn’t just a celebration of taste. It’s a day to reflect on how something so simple can be utterly transformative. The avocado’s velvety texture and rich color have even inspired minimalist art, botanical skincare, and home décor that nods to nature’s elegance.

5 Ways to Celebrate the Day (Beyond Toast):

🕯️ Create an avocado-themed tablescape with soft green linens and candles shaped like the fruit.

  • 📸 Design a flatlay featuring avocados paired with gold cutlery, eucalyptus leaves, and your favorite cat silhouette art.
  • 🪴 Plant an avocado pit and name it something fabulous—Guacarina, perhaps?
  • 🧴 Pamper yourself with avocado-infused skincare for that glow-up ritual.
  • ✍️ Write a poem, short story, or even a product tagline inspired by the lushness of an avocado.

National Avocado Day isn’t just for foodies—it’s for romantics, aesthetes, and dreamers. It’s the kind of fruit that reminds us to savor the moment, layer things with care, and find richness in the everyday.

So here’s to the avocado—nature’s buttery jewel. May your day be ripe with delight.

Easy Guacamole

A bowl of easy guacamole, topped with black pepper and served with blue corn tortilla chips

allrecipes

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe avocados, peeled and pitted
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 ripe tomato, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • salt and pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Gather all ingredients
  2. Mash avocado in a medium serving bowl
  3. Stir in onion, tomato, and garlic
  4. Season with lime juice and salt and pepper to taste
  5. Cover and chill for 30 minutes to allow flavors to blend

 

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Popovers

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Popovers

The first Popover I ever ate was at Anthony’s Pier  4 restaurant.

Anthony’s Pier 4

Once I had one of these piping hot pastries I was hooked. I’d go to lunch at Anthony’s any time I could get an invitation. Served piping hot from the oven theses tender puffed pastries are heaven. Sadly Anthony’s closed in 2013 so if I want to indulge I have no choice but to learn to make them myself!

What are These Tasty Treats

A popover is a light American pastry made from an egg batter similar to that of Yorkshire pudding, typically baked in muffin tins or dedicated popover pans, which have straight-walled sides rather than angled. Now I suppose you’ll ask me what a Yorkshire Pudding is. I can tell you it is not a pudding.

A Yorkshire Pudding is an English side dish that is made from a simple 4 ingredient batter and cooked in hot beef drippings (or oil) in the oven until puffed and crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. It’s basically the English equivalent of a dinner roll in North America. Extremely similar to a popover

Where there’s smoke …

The first thing I did was order 2 popover pans from Amazon.

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The 2nd thing was to research Popover recipes. They are all pretty similar and simple. Basically eggs, milk and flour. 

The thing that gave me issues was that you need to put a pat of butter in the pan and then put the pan in a 400 degree oven. Butter has a low smoking point and I set off the smoke alarms every time. The popovers tasted great but the noise level was unacceptable.  Maybe you can only make popovers in a commercial oven?  Sadly I decided to retire my Popover pans.

A New Recipe

Then one day I stumbled over a new Popover Recipe. It even came with a video. The main difference is that you add the butter to the popover pan after they are hot so the butter melts but doesn’t sit in a hot oven so no smoke.

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs (room temperature)
  • 1 Cup Milk ( room temperature)
  • 3 Tbsps. Oil ( Canola oil recommended)
  • 1 Cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
  2. While preparing batter  spray popover pan with non-stick cooking spray and place in oven to heat.
  3. Whisk eggs, milk and oil together. Sift flour and add to egg mixture. Add Salt and beat mixture until smooth and free of any lumps.
  4. Remove Popover pan from oven and place a small bit of butter in each popover cup. 
  5. Pour batter 3/4 of the way full in to each Popover Cup. 
  6. Place filled pan into the 400 degree oven and bake for 30 minutes
  7. Reduce heat to 325 degrees and bake for additional 5-15 minutes (Keep an eye on your popovers)
  8. Popovers are done when they are a nice, golden brown.
  9. Serve hot with butter or jam or whatever you desire

Success!

I’m happy to report my Popovers were a complete success. I think I’ll be making them often now. 

Popovers- photo by Deb Neumann

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rainbows and Leprechauns

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Happy Belated St Paddy’s Day- All Rainbows and Leprechauns

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I hope your day was filled with Rainbows, pots of gold and Leprechauns. Did you do anything to celebrate? A pint of Guinness or just a green beer?. I made beef stew. Its not quite Irish stew but close. What is the difference between classic beef stew and Irish stew?  According to the internet its all in the meat.  Traditional Irish Stew uses  lamb (mutton) while beef uses, well, beef. 

a very cute and adorable few day old lamb

Lamb stock photo

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Beef Cattle Stock Photos,

I love making stew since we have slow cookers now and I confess, I often cheat by using the McCormick Slow Cooker Beef  Stew seasoning packets.  I’ve found it keeps the prep simple and the flavor consistent. But whether I make it from scratch with beef broth and seasonings or use the packets one step I never skip is browning the stew meat.

I dump all those little meat cubes in a plastic bag with flour, salt and pepper and give them a good shake to coat. Then I toss them into a hot cast iron pan and brown the sides.  Once they are all browned up into the crock pot they go.  (By the way, I started using a liner and it makes clean up a breeze. )

My mom used to add a can of Veg All but I just chop up celery, carrots and onions and lots of potatoes. Any kind will do but I like the Yukon gold the best for my stew.

Beef Stew- Photo credit Deb Neumann

Basic Beef Stew Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 lbs beef stew meat , cut in 1 inch pieces
  • 1/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/2 teas. salt
  • 1/2 teas ground black pepper
  • 1 1/2 Cups beef broth
  • 4 medium carrots, sliced
  • 3 medium potatoes, diced
  • 1 medium onion , chopped
  • 1 stalk of celery, chopped
  • 1 bay leaf

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Place the meat in a plastic bag or large bowl and coat with flour, salt and pepper
  2.  Brown the floured meat and place in your crock pot/ slow cooker
  3.  Add Broth, Vegetables and bay leaf to the slow cooker.  Stir to combine.
  4.  Set Slow Cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8-12 hours or high for 4-6 hours. 

NOTES

  1. You can add other seasonings to taste like garlic, paprika, a dash of Worcestershire sauce for example. Like I mentioned above, My mom always added a can of Veg-All. 
  2.  I’ve used the low setting and the high settings and I have the best luck for tender, fall apart meat with the low setting. Long and slow wins in my house every time but when time is an issue I’d rather use high and a shorter cook time than go without.
  3.   AS mentioned above, the McCormick Slow Cooker Beef Stew Seasoning packets produce a consistently flavored stew and are easy to use and you don’t need the beef broth when you use them. Just water

 

Hope You all Had a great day!

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Chicken Schnitzel

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Schnitzel

Once upon a time I made Weiner Schnitzel quite often. It was one of my favorite “Go to” recipes. Somehow I drifted away from it. Maybe veal became hard to find in the butcher case. I’m not sure. I just stopped making it.  Schnitzel is just a German word for cut or cutlet usually from a small slice of meat (mutton, veal, pork) on a rib or other bone. lamb cutlets.  I never really gave any thought to other cutlets like chicken or turkey but I recently came across a recipe for chicken schnitzel and fell in love.

Chicken Schnitzel

Chicken Schnitzel as the name states uses chicken instead of veal. I had some chicken tenders in the freezer so I used those. Once the tenders were thawed I used a meat mallet to pound them to flattened filets. Then followed the recipe below. I used the Panko bread crumbs with some hesitation. I used panko before and didn’t like them but I must say in this recipe they were perfect. So lets leave Italian red sauce behind and take a quick trip to Germany for Chicken Schnitzel.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  •  2 Cups water
  •  2 tablespoons Kosher Salt
  •  2 teaspoons sugar
  • 1 1/3 Cops Panko breadcrumbs
  •  1/4 teaspoon black pepper
  •  1/2 teaspoon table salt
  •  3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
  •  3/4 teaspoon paprika
  •  2 tablespoons sesame seeds
  •  1/2 cup all purpose flour
  •  2 large eggs
  •  vegetable oil for cooking
  •  Lemon Wedges for serving

Photo credit from Once upon a chef

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Slice the chicken breasts in half horizontally to form flat fillets. Place a fillet in a resealable freezer bag and use a meat mallet or rolling pin to pound to a even thickness between 1/8- 1/4  in thick. Remove the pounded cutlet and set aside. Repeat with the remaining pieces of chicken.

2.  Make Brine: In a medium bowl, combine water, kosher salt, and sugar. Stir until salt and sugar are dissolved. Add the pounded chicken to the brine and let sit 30-45 minutes (no longer or chicken may be too salty) Remove chicken from brine and pat dry with paper towels.

3. In a large shallow bowl mix panko, pepper, table salt, garlic powder, paprika, and sesame seeds. Place flour in another shallow bowl. Beat eggs in a 3rd bowl. Set up a breading station in this order: flour, eggs, panko.

4, Dredge the chicken in flour, coating evenly on both sides; dip in the eggs, letting any excess drip off; then dredge in panko mixture, turning and patting to adhere. Place breaded chicken on a plate and repeat until all the chicken is breaded. 

5. Line a 13×18 inch baking sheet with paper towels. In a large non stick skillet heat about 1/8 inch of oil over medium heat until oil is hot and shimmering. Place 2 pieces of chicken in the pan and cook until the first side is golden brown, 2-3 minutes. Carefully flip the chicken and cook another 2-3 minutes. Cook the remaining chicken in the same manner. You shouldn’t need more oil. Transfer to serving plates and garnish with lemon wedges.

photo credit Deb Neumann

Enjoy tender, juicy fried chicken. The lemon adds just a touch of flavor. 

 

Thick and Easy Pasta Sauce

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Pasta Meat Sauce

I was recently on a group text that was talking about cooking. My phone was not cooperating so I wasn’t getting all of the texts. The last one said “Deb may have another recipe”.  The problem is that I don’t know what dish they were talking about.  Anyway I wandered into the kitchen and took stock of my pantry. I had some hamburger that I’d thawed out and needed to use up. What to make? Meatloaf? No not in the mood. Meat balls? No I don’t have everything I need. I know. I’ll make a meat pasta sauce. I have one I like because it doesn’t separate. It stays nice and thick. I don’t make it often but it’s pretty easy.  So here it is.

Thick and Easy Pasta Sauce

photo credit Deb Neumann

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1 6 oz. can tomato paste
  • 6 oz. water
  • 1  24 oz.  jar tomato puree
  • 5-6 cloves garlic (minced)
  • 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
  • Pinch of dried oregano
  • Pinch of onion powder
  • Pinch of garlic powder
  • handful of fresh basil ( chopped)
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. In a large Stockpot, sauté garlic until soft in 2 tbsp. of oil ( Recipe calls for olive oil but I use veg. oil just fine)
  2.  Add meat to the garlic and brown until meat is cooked through crumbling the meat as it cooks. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
  3.  Pour in tomato paste, tomato puree and seasonings, including fresh basil. Stir to mix well. Fill 6 oz. can from tomato paste with water and add to stockpot. 
  4.  (This step is important- don’t skip!) Let mixture simmer, uncovered, for 2 or more hours. (longer is better, but minimum 2 hours!) Stir occasionally. 
  5.  Ready to serve over your favorite pasta.

photo credit Deb Neumann

Notes

The long simmer mellows out the sauce flavors. Shorter than 2 hours and the sauce has a raw tomato taste

I almost never have fresh basil on hand so I don’t usually add that. 

If I don’t have a head of garlic I just increase the amount of garlic powder I use