Olive Oils

There are olive oils and then there are olive oils. The labels can be confusing enough. Olive oil, light olive oil, seasoned olive oil, extra virgin olive oil. Which to buy? Which to use? 

Firs of all, why use olive oil? All olive oil is high in monounsaturated fatty acids. When olive oil is substituted for saturated fats, like butter or coconut oil, those monounsaturated fats help lower your "bad" LDL cholesterol. Other health benefits are attributed to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. 

So why extra virgin? The answer lies in how different olive oils are made. Regular olive oil is manufactured using high heat, or sometimes chemical solvents. According to Howard LeWine, MD, of Harvard, these highly processed olive oils lose some of the antioxidants called phenols. He further says that "extra virgin olive oil is pressed mechanically from ripe olives and processed without high heat or chemical solvents. This protects chemicals in the oil called phenols ... experiments suggest that higher concentrations of phenols may provide extra antioxidant effects."

I always, always have extra virgin olive oil on hand. I have two current favorites. California Olive Ranch makes several extra virgin type oils all of which are delicious, and they are readily available at most grocery stores. My other favorite is the family blend EVOO from Napa Valley Olive Oil. Then have an online store, but if you have the opportunity, I recommend a visit to their store in St Helena in the heart of Napa Valley. 

You may notice I say "current" favorites? I try new olive oils all the time. Always EVOO (extra virgin olive oil). Others that I've liked in the past include Kirkland EVOO from Costco, and Trader Joe's EVOO. 

Sometimes I splurge and buy an extra nice bottle of olive oil to drizzle on top of foods. These are small bottles that I've been introduced to through an olive oil tasting. I find them when I travel, at the farmers market, when I go to small specialty markets, or even sometimes at wineries. They taste a lot like the olives they were made from and are best used in small quantities, not only because of their olive forward taste, but because of their expense! I never use them to cook with because heat burns off their delicate flavor. 

One final note on olive oils. While I do love them, you'll notice that many of the recipes in Stealth Cooking use just small amounts of oil, then add another less oily ingredient, perhaps a tasty stock, to make the cooking techniques healthier overall. While the oil from olives has many health benefits, there can be too much of a good thing! It's still important to use any oil in moderation, so you don't see depp frying, or a roux made with oil in my recipes. 

Happy olive oil shopping!

Garam Masala

 Like I said in my previous post, not everyone has garam masala sitting among their spices. I didn't. However, I had most of the spices needed, so I mixed up my own, then kept the leftover for my next garam masala dish. 

Ingredients:

1 Tbs ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cardamon

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground fennel seed

1/4 tsp ground mace

Directions: 

Mix all of the spices together. Cover tightly and store until needed. I didn't have all of the spices ground, so I ground some of my own spices for this mix. For example, I had fennel seeds, but not ground fennel. So, I just ground up some fennel seeds and added it to the mix. 

Stealthy Cooking Tip: Freshly ground spices will keep for several months. Smell your spices - if they don't smell of any spice, they may be old and need to be replaced. 

Gardening, Anywhere, Anytime

With limited visits to the grocery store, I decided to put more energy into my garden this year. It helped that my husband raised the side of one of our raised beds, and added a wonderful soil mixture. However, even with a raised bed, I found I needed more space, so some of my garden plants are in large pots. Never grown a garden before? It's easy - kind of. That said, here's some pointers!

Raised beds, in ground, or pots - it doesn't matter which you use, just be sure you've got a good soil mixture. You can purchase premixed garden soil, but that can be somewhat pricy. A better price can be had if you can put together your own mixture. My favorite mix is about 60% topsoil and 40% compost. If you have good dirt where you live, use that as your topsoil. All you need to add is the compost. Compost is usually a mixture of leaves, grass clippings, straw, and manure. You can make your own or you can purchase it at places like Home Depot. You can enhance it with an extra bag of manure, my favorite is steer manure followed by chicken manure.

What to plant? Plant items that grow well in your area - these are usually the items that you see in abundance at your local garden center. Also, grow things you like to eat! Why grow watermelon if you prefer cantaloupe? Finally, grow things you like to eat frequently.

Here's what I grow in Sacramento: In February, before spring, I plant snow peas, onions, and potato sets. When spring is in full swing, during March, I plant lettuces, beets, and kale. When it starts to get warm in June, I plant tomatoes, peppers, arugula, and beans. This year, I planted the tomatoes in large pots. I'll let you know how they fare!When I harvest the snow peas and the first potatoes, I pull the plants out of the ground and replant the snow pea area with more potatoes, and the potato areas with cantaloupe and okra. When it starts to cool down in the fall, I replant lettuce for a cool fall crop. I also have an area near my house where I plant my favorite herbs. Many herbs are perennial, so I only have to plant a few new herbs each year. My favorite herbs are parsley, mint, thyme, oregano, Thai basil, lemongrass, and rosemary. I also grow rhubarb with my herbs, and strawberries next to the backyard. Finally, I've got a couple of pots with edible lavender near my back porch. Lavender is nice in teas, plus it has the added benefit of warding away mosquitos.

Potatoes are the easiest (and the cheapest) to grow. Just cut an organic potato so that each section has several eyes, let the sections dry for a couple of days, then pop them in the ground about 3 inches deep. Several weeks later, the tops will flower then turn brown - your potato crop is ready! You'll get about 5 potatoes from each plant. Snow peas are my second favorite - they don't last long once it warms up, but they are prolific in the early spring. I always plant them from seed. Finally, I always grow lettuces. I plant some early in the spring, then more in the fall - lettuce likes cool weather. For warm weather greens, I grow kale and arugula. 

You'll notice that many of my recent recipe feature items from my garden. It's so nice to eat fresh, really fresh, vegetables! Even if you don't grow your own, you may notice the seasonality of vegetables at the store. Buy the ones that are in season, grown locally, and you'll be rewarded with enhanced taste. As a note - the photos include cantaloupe, shishito peppers, and my constant garden helper, Annie Cat, sitting in front of a raised bed. 

A Better Cheese Plate

The holidays means entertaining ... having friends and family come together to share special moments, moments we enhance with food, and snacks. I see cheese trays everywhere in the stores and advertisements - Trays laden with a variety of cheeses, set conveniently next to a tray of crackers. Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love cheese and crackers. I'm the first to admit that I love them a bit too much. If cheese and crackers are out as a pre-dinner snack, I'll eat so many that I don't really need any dinner. But I remember reading something that made me laugh ... eating cheese is better than eating straight butter. And, the cheeses made with low salt and low fat? Please, don't make me! So, here's a better, and healthier, idea. Mix fruits, vegetables, a few nuts for crunch, and a sweet treat right on the cheese plate. Forget the crackers. Try small bits of really tasty cheese with the fruits to see which combinations you like best. You'll have fun, and so will your guests.

Ingredients:

2 slices of sharp or other cheese with personality per person
2-4 slices of several fruits per person
4 almonds or hazelnuts per person
1 handful of dried fruit per every 2 people
1 large spoonful of something sweet (jam, marmalade, chutney, honey) per every 2 people

Directions:

Arrange everything attractively on a plate, and serve.

The tray I've pictured here serves two. It includes, from front to back:

Dried cranberries, Manchego cheese, persimmon slices (our last one of the season), 1 slice of prosciutto cut into pieces, 1/2 apple cut into slices, almonds, and mango chutney.

Stealthy Cooking Tip: Can't live without the crackers? Look for ones made with whole grains, then include only about 2 to 4 crackers, depending on size, per person.

Fall at the Farmer's Market

Orange is everywhere this time of year. My haul from the weekend farmer's market included a large orange pumpkin (purely for seasonal decoration), a small orange kuri squash just the perfect size for a curry dinner, and some delectable orange and yellow melons for breakfast treats. The best part is that the cost for everything was $8.00. I think that's pretty good! The most expensive purchase was the pumpkin at $5.00, while the kuri squash was $1.00 and enough fruit for several breakfasts was $2.00. Who says you can't find bargains at the farmer's market?

While the number one reason I hear people saying they don't shop at the farmer's market is they incorrectly assume high cost, it's not the actual food bargains that pull me back to the market. It's the quality of the produce, and the seasonality I find expressed in my meals. I like orange any time of the year, but especially in the fall. It matches the leaves turning color. And so, I also enjoy adding the color orange to the foods on my fall plate. My meals this time of year include more squashes and root vegetables (think carrots, beets, and parsnips) than in the summer. Persimmons and apples grace the markets in large quantities now, too, so making persimmon tarts and applesauce are on my to do list. I'll be sure to toss in a few cranberries, meaning I'll have some orange sauce on the shelf as well as some orange color sprinkled throughout the meals of fall.

I could go on about the color orange, but seasonality is about much more than any one color. Sure, color plays into it, as the harvest crops change throughout the year, with many of the warm, darker fruits and vegetables ripening in fall while we see cooler, lighter vegetable colors in spring. The bounty of summer welcomes a full cornucopia of colors. Winter is when we find those special hardy crops that ripen in the cold, like Brussels sprouts, as well as those that keep well, like sweet potatoes.

Seasonality at meals is about eating the foods that are currently ripe and available. While what ripens in each season may change from one locale to another, the principle remains the same. When we eat foods that are in season, ones found at our local farmer's markets, we're eating foods that are picked fresh, usually locally, ones that don't need to be shipped thousands of miles. That means we're eating foods at their peak of production. They taste better, have more nutrients, and are more cost effective.

Seasonal eating also provides a natural rhythm to mealtimes. We relish cold soups and salads on warm days. Roasted vegetables and soups warm us when the weather turns chilly. I can almost tell the season by what's served at my table. For example, it's impossible to find tasty tomatoes during winter, so I've never made gazpacho then. The stews and soups of winter would likewise seem too hearty and warm during the summer, so I never make them then. Lucky for us all, some foods are available locally, year round, everywhere, so can be served year round as well. Lettuce does so well in greenhouse production that's it's available year round almost everywhere, so green salads seem to be a hit throughout all the seasons. Saying that, I must add that seasonal beet greens are an excellent salad stand in.

See you at the farmer's market!

Vienna's Naschmarkt

 

As you've probably already figured out, I have a thing for farmer's markets. I love my local Sacramento farmer's market, and visit it almost weekly. However, I've visited some grand markets during my travels. I love the markets in Davis and San Francisco, right here in California. The Saturday market in Bellingham is the one that got me started. But, the Naschmarkt in Vienna is one of the oldest, and largest, anywhere. It's been around since the 16th century, and still operates today with an amazing array of fresh fruits and vegetables, along with artisan cheeses and breads, spices and everything you need to put a meal together. There are also stalls with freshly made meals in case you don't feel like cooking yourself.

I visited the Naschmarkt last year, and took these photos of the tempting produce and foods. I purchased my fair share, taking items back to the apartment I was staying in and preparing a couple of healthy meal in the midst of vacation. I also purchased some of the pre-made dishes, you can't get more authentic local food than what you purchase in a farmer's market!

I was lucky enough to visit the market with my daughter, who shopped there often when she lived in Vienna. It was a trip down memory lane for her, a trip she kindly shared with me. I believe we often live and share through our foods more than we realize.

Farmer's markets everywhere have the same sense of what's fresh locally, produce that bursts with flavor and color. How lucky we are when we're able to share these markets with our children, family, and friends. We can revel in how we each have different new foods that attract us, as well as how we often share food likes and dislikes.

If you have a farmer's market close by, visit it soon. Take your family and make an outing of it. If you're traveling and happen to be in a city on the day of a farmer's market, take the time to tour. Some markets are happy to offer samples, so you can taste the local flavor. Sometimes you can find an apple or pear that makes the perfect snack.

Two or Three Part Harmony

Harmony on the plate usually equals harmony on the palate. Why is this important? Think about these combinations: Pickles and apple pie? Sweet potatoes and saurcraut? Roast beef and carrots? Spicy lamb kebobs and cool tzadziki. Some of those combinations work, and some don't. How do you serve a meal that works together?

One easy way is to serve ethnic foods with side dishes from the same ethnic cooking style. For example, English style roast beef works well with English style roast vegetables, like carrots. Hot Indian curry goes well  with cooling yogurts in the same Indian cooking tradition.

Another way to make sure foods are compatable on the plate is to use a little bit of one cooking ingredient in the companion dish. For example, if you're making a pasta dish with basil, you might want to serve a salad that's also got some basil in it. Think spaghetti with caprese salad. You can also use this trick to simply unify your serving. If a sprinkle of one of the spices from your main dish sounds good with the accompanying dish, then chances are the two dishes will taste good together. So, when I make a soup that has parsley, I sprinkle a little bit of the fresh parsley on the salad. That way, the two seem "made for each other."

There's a good reason to serve dishes together that taste good together. The eater will want to have tastes of each food on the plate, then continue tasting and eating, tasting and eating, hopefully eating and enjoying all the variety you've placed there!

Vacation and Restaurant Savvy

I'm just back from vacation, a family reunion, and two weddings all rolled into a two week long extravaganza. I stepped on the scale this morning, peeking at the result of two weeks without my own stealthy and healthy eating, and exhaled one big sigh of relief. Not bad - I feel great, with no weight change, even though I've eaten at more restaurants than I can count. What's the strategy? Don't think I missed out on a single piece of wedding cake, made the martyr by skipping meals, or had teeny, tiny pieces of just this and that. Here's some guidelines for vacations, eating out, and continuing healthy eating habits even when it's not convenient.

Staying in a condo, or renting an apartment for a few days or a week, is becoming more and more popular. If this is one of your vacation plans, take advantage of the kitchen and prepare some of your own meals. When you shop, think like a local. For example, I like fruit and yogurt for breakfast. When I travel, I look for locally produced yogurts and locally grown fruits. Think melons or papaya in Mexico, have apples for trips to the States and Canada, or enjoy kiwi in Australia.

Going out to eat? Look for menu items that echo the healthy strategies you practice at home, but with a local flair or restaurant speciality. If you like to eat salad at lunch, look for an unusual salad or the house speciality salad and order that. Next, check out portion size by looking at the plates that are coming out of the kitchen. It's okay to order an appertizer size for your entree, to split an entree, or take half your entree home. Also, if you order dessert, check dessert size. Some desserts are large enough for a table of 4. If that's the case, consider choosing one that everyone likes, then requesting silverware for all.

Get up early ... and exercise! If you don't regularly exercise in the morning, try to do so when on vacation. This suggestion serves multiple purposes. First, you'll get the exercise you need for optimum digestion, and you'll increase your energy levels. Second, getting up early will lead you to bed early, and hopefully help you get the sleep you need to really enjoy your days. Third, you won't be staying up late taking in extra calories with evening drinks and snacks.

Speaking of exercise, walk and move! If it's possible, find active activities for your vacation days. Walking means more than a hike in the woods. Consider a walk through long city blocks for window shopping, or walking from the hotel to the restaurant across town (if you're in a town where you feel comfortable walking). Try new things. Snowshoe? Climb a mountain? River raft? The list is endless. The results are the same, you'll work up a great appetite to enjoy those restaurant meals.

Eating Well in Dominican Republic

I recently had the good fortune to visit the Dominican Republic for a full week. I stayed at a beautiful resort, and figured I'd return home fat and happy. Wrong!!! The restaurant at the resort was up several flights of stairs, plus there was a two flight climb to my room, so I spent lots of time climbing. Plus, the food choices always had many vegetables to choose from. Finally, the meat dishes were simple, with little in the way of sauces, but lots of flavor - again from a variety of vegetables. I had no idea that I'd be eating so healthy for my vacation week. And, it was tasty!

Here's a little of what I learned. First off, choices. The variety of choices was always bountiful - but all the choices were healthy. For example, lunch choices might include two soups, one a vegetable soup and the other a fish or chicken and vegetable soup. Other choices would be several kinds of salads. Final choices would include broiled fish kebabs or meat and vegetable kabobs. Desserts? None on the menu. There was a small stash of cookies on the bar, but cookies in the Republica Dominicana don't have nearly as much sugar as those in the US, and they are smaller by far.

So, point number one. Limit the choices for meals and for snacks.

Second, include large amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables. Fruits were available as cut fresh fruit mixtures, single pieces of fruit, or single kinds of fruit cut up and served in a bowl. All of the fruits were just fruit - no sugar, no toppings, no cream - just fruit. Fresh fruit, very fresh, and very delicious. Vegetables were available as mixed vegetables or single kinds of vegetables. Most of them were very lightly cooked. They were cooked long enough to set the color, but not so long that they were soft. If a sauce was used at all, it was usually just the vegetable broth used for cooking, lightly seasoned. Fresh vegetables, lightly cooked, with little or no sauces, and again, very delicious.

So, point number two. Use very fresh fruits and vegetables to capitalize on their fresh tastes.

Finally, the meat and fish dishes included generous amounts of flavorful veggies. For example, fish kabobs included pieces of vegetables between each piece of fish. Slices of meats were generally thin, perhaps 3 or 4 ounces, with large sides of vegetables, baked or broiled with minimal amounts of oil.

Point number three. Include sides of vegetables cooked with small amounts of healthful oils.

One more important point. All of those stairs! I pride myself on being in good shape. But, the first couple of days! Oy!!! My calves ached after the third time I'd have to climb those stairs. By the end of the week, I was skipping up them. So - final point. Exercise. It's important!

These are ways to eat that I'd like to follow every day. Do I? No, but I try. And, in my favor I do follow these ways more often than not - perhaps 80% of the time. The local residents I saw in DR who worked, ate, and constantly climbed the stairs at the resort shared several characteristics. They all had clear, healthy looking skin and they all were height/weight proportionate. All those healthy foods and exercise work for them. I hope I'll bring some of the lessons home and put them to regular use!

Food as Art vs It Tastes Really Good ... But

Last night I experimented with a chicken dish, chicken breasts cooked with shallots, garlic, peaches, and pinot noir. Yes, the autumn wine crush has me thinking of wine, and wanting to cook with it, too. However, this was one of those dishes that just didn't work. My husband summed it up nicely when he said, "Maybe it's best not to show readers purple chicken, but it tastes really good." So, it's back to the drawing board on that recipe, but it's also a good time to make a quick aside on how presentation really does count, even at home.

It's not that I'm new to presentation flops. No, this isn't the first time something like this has happened. Last St Patrick's Day, I had two young grandsons staying at my house. I thought green eggs would be a great way to start off the day! So, I scrambled up some eggs and added lots of green food coloring. They were really green! I was pretty sure they'd enjoy them. After all, they enjoyed the book "Green Eggs and Ham" when they were just a few years younger. Well, the green eggs didn't go over nearly as well as I imagined. The youngest took one look and asked if there was bacon and toast, and never took one bite of those green eggs. The older of the two boys said they looked "most unappetizing" but taste great ... just close your eyes when you eat.

He said a mouthful there. We eat with more than our mouths. We do more than eat to simply fill our belly and our dietary needs. There's the tastebuds, looking for sweet, sour, salty, bitter, and the 5th taste, umami or savory tastes. There's the nose, smelling and identifying different ingredients. There's the mouthfeel - the texture of food - crunchy, smooth, liquid, hard, chewy, soft. Finally, there's the eyes - seeing food and sending images of delightful tastes (or disgusting ones) to our minds.

Robert Indiana knows the importance of the visual. His "EAT" sculpture, shown here atop the Farnsworth Museum in Maine, blinks on and off and is fascinating with it's visual presentation. Some restaurants go to great lengths, or heights these days, with their presentation techniques. It's not something I often think about with home cooking, and rarely talk about here, but making foods look delicious, then plating them to enhance that delicious look, does have a place, even at home. Green eggs and purple chicken both would need considerable dressing up to make them palatable to most eaters. Picky eaters probably won't touch them.

So, I'll go back to the drawing table, make that a culinary cutting board, and will work up a recipe with chicken, shallots, garlic, peaches, and pinot noir soon. But, you can bet the chicken won't be cooked in the pinot noir, so it won't turn out purple!

Organic Foods Cheaper

Yesterday, while driving, I heard a radio program about the high prices of organic foods. I respectfully disagree. Yes, they can be expensive. But, they don't have to be. Yes, there's heritage food products out there that you can only buy organically, and you can expect to pay dearly for them. Let's say, for instance, that you want to try some of the lesser known organic tomatoes like Mortgage Lifter or Cherokee Purple. You'll pay top dollar if that's the only type you're willing to purchase. But, there are several ways to eat organic fruits and vegetables and not pay sky high prices.

An easy way to save money and eat healthy is to grow produce yourself. Then, raise your produce using organic principles of rotating planting zones and not using pesticides. A package of seeds usually costs less than one or two helpings of the finished product. I bought a package of carrot seeds for $2.95, and even after eating them throughout the summer, I have dozens left growing in my garden. However, not everyone has the room to grow a garden. If you want to grow, but don't have a garden plot, many vegetables can be grown in pots, and even look quite nice on your patio or deck. When the deer kept eating my basil in Washington, I transplanted what was left of them into pots and arranged them on a second story deck.

OK, OK, not everyone wants to grow their own vegetables. Buying fresh, healthy produce doesn't have to be expensive. There are lots of growers out there who are willing to sell their vegetables for a fair price. Try farm stands, or seek out reputable growers at your farmer's market. They might not meet the federal "organic" guidelines, but talk with the grower and see what they do. No pesticides? Only natural fertilizer products? Perhaps they can't afford the high price for organic certification, or they haven't been farming organically long enough to be certified. However, their produce could still meet your needs, without costing a lot. Let's go back to the earlier example of paying top dollar for organically grown heritage Mortgage Lifter tomatoes. Hmmm, need tomatoes, but don't want to pay the price? How about buying Roma tomatoes grown pesticide free and fed with organic fertilizer. The price? Here, I can get them for a quarter of what I'd pay for regularly grown Roma tomatoes in the grocery store. Need to get it even cheaper? Only by serendipity ... I stumbled upon this tip just last weekend. Go to your farmer's market just before closing - farmer's want to get rid of everything before they go home, and the prices go from low to CHEAP!!! I got peppers for 10cents - when they're $1.50 each at the store. Tomatoes for 50cents - when they're close to two dollars at the store. The only problem with going late, selection isn't the best. You've got to take what you can get.

The final way to pay less for organic is to figure out which foods to buy organic, and which ones to buy non-organic. The thought is to buy organic is a food is a heavy feeder, one that absorbs lots of whatever nutrients are added. Also, to buy organic when conventionally grown products are typically grown with high amounts of pesticides, buy organic if you eat lots of one type of food. For example, I eat lots of salad - so I buy almost all of my salad fixings organic.

Here's a list of the foods that I buy organic, along with a list of those items I buy conventionally grown. This list originated from an article by noted MD Andrew Weil, who also studied botany and finds interest in the link between food and health. The list was further updated with information from a book called Buying Organic, which actually outlines which conventionally grown foods can be safely purchased.

Foods to buy Organic:

Apples

Peaches

Grapes (and Raisins)

Oranges

Strawberries

Lettuce

Carrots

Green Beans

Potatoes

Foods to buy Conventional:

Avocados

Beets

Onions

Peas

Bananas

Skim Milk

Yogurt

Turkey

Coffee/Tea

For me, I grow my own oranges, strawberries, lettuce, carrots, green beans, and potatoes. I do like other berries, too, and always buy them organic. I also go organic with both chicken and eggs. I buy the above items organic because I eat them so frequently. Some products, like milk and yogurt, are so highly regulated already, that organic productions doesn't make much difference. Now, about buying locally - that's an animal of a different color, and is also a topic for another discussion.

Berries and Jam

Truth be told, I'm terrible at following recipes - even my own. I'm always trying something new, just to improve. Maybe it's trying a new method for lowering fat content, or adding fresh veggies to make something more healthful, or maybe it's just changing up cooking methods. It's always something. And, most of the time, the results are pretty good. You'd have to ask friends and family for the true answer there - if you've eaten at my place, you've tried my experiments. But, I like to think that what I'm actually doing is simply editing recipes, whose ever they may be. I'm just adding my own touch, as I omit tastes I'm not fond of, and add tastes I like. I usually encourage others to do the same.

Berries are ripe now, and they're everywhere. Big, luscious, sweet berries mark every other stall at our local farmer's markets. Shades of blue, black, red, yellow - they all look scrumptious and ready to eat right now. However, I know their bounty won't last. Soon any berries to be found will be found in the grocery store. Those berries will have been grown in hot houses with forced climates, and cost a flippin' fortune, if I can find them. They'll be either too small or too big for their type, and will lose their true taste of summertime. They'll also be the store-found imports that have travelled half way around the globe, from somewhere south of us, just starting their true summer.

I feel some kind of primordial need to capture the essence of summer, and I've been busy freezing some berries, for smoothies until next spring. Also, I've been whipping up jams, jellies, and salsas. Now, jams made with pectin don't allow much room for experimentation. And, what makes canning veggies work is the level of acidity. So, little or no changes there. While this is somewhat frustrating for an itinerant food editor, the pride of finished canned jars makes up for the frustration. They'll soon be gracing a table or given as a gift, all with a remembrance of their season.

What's so nice about canning or making my own jam and jelly is that I can control the contents. There's nothing in there I can't pronounce. Also, while making your own may seem like a daunting task, it's incredibly easy. I hate to give this secret away ... but you'll find easy directions on a packet of pectin.

Stealthy Cooking Tip: Making your own jam and jelly is an easy way to make sure you've got 100% healthy ingredients. You can easily start with organic produce from your farmer's market, or backyard, if you're lucky enough to grow some of summer's sweet berries. Either way, you'll be saving money, plus eating more healthy food. Just make sure to follow directions on the canning label. If you're ready for more, pick up a copy of a canning guide - you'll get lots of ideas for ways to enjoy your produce all year long!

The Great Veggie Dip Taste Off

I tried a great experiment with my grandkids ... and it worked, even better than I expected. Here's the plan. I had three dips, three veggie dippers, along with a paper chart and pencil for everyone, so that we could write down which dip we liked best with each dipper. I made up three dips, each made with some good veggies. The first was hummus, made with garbanzo beans and sesame tahini. The second was guacamole, made with fresh avocados. The third was fresh garden salsa, made with tomatoes and peppers, straight out of the garden. Next, I prepared the dippers. Each plate had three carrot sticks, three celery sticks, and three jicama sticks. Finally, I prepared the charts. Everyone had their own chart, and we were keeping a secret about what we liked best until all the tasting had been done.

Well, it was a great success! The whole point was to get the kids to eat veggies for a snack, which worked like a dream. We all had great fun trying the different dips with the different veggies. Then, we compared our results. I was sure they wouldn't like some of the combinations, but what a surprise. I thought the jicama and hummus tasted gross, but one of my grandkids said it tasted like sweet peanut butter, and by the way, could he have more, please? If I made one mistake, it was underestimating how well the experiment would work. I had a plate of chips all ready, as a sort of reward for trying all these veggies. But, instead, the kids asked for more carrots and jicama, so they could be sure their results were right. Wow! Never underestimate the possibilities of a taste off!

Stealthy Cooking Tip: Come up with your own idea for a taste off. Kids love games, and also love to have their opinions heard. Other ideas might be what kind of fruit tastes best, or which way a vegetable tastes best: raw, steamed, or baked. Whatever you do, just make sure all the options are healthy!

The Great Milk Mustache

Milk - my husband and older kids loved it, lots of it, and it was whole milk! Whole milk is a wholesome product for younger kids, adding necessary calories for active bodies and lots of calcium and vitamin D for growth. However, older kids and adults may find that it also packs too much fat and too much cholesterol. Fat-free milk still has the calcium and vitamin D of whole milk, but it cuts fat and calories. The challenge is getting older milk drinkers to enjoy the taste of the lightened product.

The taste of whole milk is decidedly different from 2% or 1% and is not even close to the taste of skim milk, also known as fat-free milk. So, how to get milk drinkers to enjoy the lower fat version? This is where stealth comes in. Try adding just a little bit of lower fat milk to their whole milk. You may find that at first you can only add a tablespoon of lower fat milk to a glass. That's okay. This process may take some time! But, increasing the proportion of lower fat milk just a tablespoon at a time will soon have them sipping and enjoying the lower fat, less cholesterol version of a dairy product they enjoy.

Here's an example. Week one: add one tablespoon of 2% milk to each glass of whole milk. Week two: add two tablespoons of 2% milk to each glass. Week three: add three tablespoons to each glass.

If your family is present in the kitchen when you're pouring the milk, or if they regularly help themselves to milk straight from the refrigerator, you might consider adding some 2% milk to the container. If you buy a gallon of whole milk, pour out one cup and replace it with one cup of 2%. The following week, replace two cups, etc.

Soon, you'll have your family drinking 2% milk, and then you can follow the same technique to move them to 1% or skim milk. Soon, they'll be enjoying the vitamin benefits of milk without the extra calories and cholesterol!

Stealthy Cooking Tip:
Making changes slowly helps palates adjust!

Butter Plus

If you're a fan of butter, but want less cholesterol and more healthy fats, try this! This butter is better for you because it's half butter and half olive oil. It's got the good taste of butter, the spreadability of whipped butter, and the health benefits of olive oil. It's butter plus! Here's how:

Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1 cup olive oil

Bring the butter to room temperature. Blend with 1 cup olive oil. Pour into container and refrigerate.

While this butter has some of the benefits of using olive oil, it still has similar fat content as regular butter. Also, butter and oil are nearly equal in calorie count per serving. So, remember that this butter recipe may be more healthful than regular butter, but it won't save any calories! Even though I don't use butter very often, I use this spread when I'd normally use butter. I also find this mixture convenient for cooking. If I'd use a butter and olive oil mixture when sauteeing, I just need to reach for this in the fridge. So, it's a time saver, too!

Stealthy Cooking Tip
Make extra-virgin olive oil your oil of choice. Olive oil is high in monounsaturated fat, which may be helpful in lowering blood cholesterol levels. Butter, on the other hand, is high in saturated fat, which plays a role in raising blood cholesterol levels. For good health, it's important to eat less saturated fats and more monounsaturated fats

Snack Time

When the kids come home from school, the first thing they want is a snack. It's the same thing with adults. When I come into the house, the first place I head for is the kitchen. So, what's the snack going to be? The pantry could be my first go-to place. Chips are easy to grab, as are cookies, but they're not very healthy. So, what kind of strategy will make snack time a healthy food time? The easy thing to do is to have only healthy snacks in the pantry. However, if you're like me, that's a lot easier said than done. Both kids and husbands have a way of adding snacks to the grocery cart.

One thing I've found that works every time is to have some pre-prepared snacks ready for whoever gets to the kitchen and wants a snack. A basket of fruit on the counter makes grabbing an apple or a pear easy. I've recently taken that one step further by cutting up the fruit into slices, arranging them on a snack plate and setting it in the refrigerator. Yep, I set it right up front, where it's the first thing anyone will see. I include mostly fruit, then might add a few healthy nuts, and a dipping sauce or some crackers. This strategy works for both kids and adults.

Last summer, I set a bowl of apples on the counter at a summer cabin. When the kids (and adults) got back from a hike, the apples were the first thing everyone saw ... and it was moments until that bowl full of apples was an empty bowl! More recently, we were visiting some health-conscious friends. They set out a large, beautiful platter brimming with fresh strawberries, blueberries, and pineapple. Off to the side, was a small, plain plate of crackers. You guessed it - we all dove into the fruit, enjoying the vibrant colors of springtime bounty. Most all of the crackers remained on the plate throughout the afternoon. Snack time is meant to be enjoyed! So, enjoy your healthy fruit snacks!

Stealthy Cooking Tip
Keep the healthy stuff where you can see it!