Keep the Beat Orange-Almond Smoothie

Some people enjoy breakfast in the morning and others don't. If you are part of the "no breakie" crowd you should at least have something besides coffee to fill you're empty tank in the morning.

That's why smoothies are perfect. They are easy to make and you can take them on the run...just like coffee (but more nutritious). Here's one of my favorites when I need some tasty fuel in a hurry.

Keep the Beat Orange-Almond Smoothie

1/2 cup (4 oz) freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 cup (4 oz) low-fat milk
1 medium banana, peeled
1 tbsp liquid honey
1/4 tsp almond extract
Pinch ground nutmeg (optional)

Blend all ingredients in a blender for 30 seconds or until smooth. Pour into a tall glass and sprinkle nutmeg on top.

Makes 1 serving

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Barbecue Tips from the Guru!

I recently came across a magazine article about barbecuing, and since I have barbecue on the brain these days, I had to read it. It was a feature on Ted Reader, the barbecue guru in Canada. In the article Ted shares some great tips on grilling and after reading them I thought barbecuing is a lot like working your stereo…anyone can do it. But getting the best results from it requires a little know-how. I don’t know how much Ted knows about stereo equipment but he sure knows how to grill so here are three of his tips you can put to use the next time you fire up the barbee!

Ted’s biggest tip; Never leave the grill. This is a great tip for me because I rarely stand in front of the grill the entire time. However I know I should because there is nothing worse than burning food you have worked so hard to prepare.

When using high heat, the lid is open. When using low heat, the lid is closed. Makes sense! High heat is for quick cooking and searing fattier meats (such as beef). You have to be working the tongs when cooking over high heat or your food may up being part of the burn-baby-burn barbecue inferno! Low heat is for leaner meats (such as chicken breast) where slowly cooking the meat in a closed-lid oven type environment is more beneficial to keeping it moist.

Stop using the highest heat. In my rookie days on the barbecue I used to do this all the time. I think this is mostly a guy thing. We treat the barbecue like our stereo and always crank it to its maximum level. The problem is you waste fuel and dry out your food especially chicken and pork which have very little fat. So if you’re a one setting guy or gal then it’s time to admit you have a problem and turn down the heat. You’ll thank yourself when your next meal off the grill is a juicy one!

Have any barbecue tips you would like to share?

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

I Wonder?

This past weekend was a busy one for me. On Friday I was honored to be part of a great line-up of chefs, which included Anthony Sedlack and Anna Olson of the Food Network, doing cooking demonstrations at the Good Food Festival in Mississauga Ontario. On Saturday I was responsible for looking after the kids as my wife was away on business. Then on Sunday I took part in a 10 km run in my hometown of Oakville, Ontario.

Reflecting back on my weekend I wondered these three things:

How many people at the Food Festival would be interested in a cooking demonstration that only involved warming up a frozen meal in the microwave?

Would my kids really be healthy if I only fed them grocery store prepared meals?

and

For the 10 km run, did the people who ate a nutritious homemade meal do better than those who ate take-out the night before?

I wonder?

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Barbecue Season Has Arrived!

The sun is beginning to shine and the weather is getting sweet. TIME FOR GRILLING ON THE BARBECUE!

Here's a super simple, incredibly tasty marinade for steak. Grill-On!

1/4 cup reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 tsp canola oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano leaves
1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

This works for 1 lb (454 g) of steak.

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Homemade Meals Can Reduce Your Environmental Footprint

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

If you are a frequent reader of this blog you know that I’m always harping on eating less prepared foods so you can cook your way to good health.

It also seems that eating less prepared foods is also pretty good for the environment. The Toronto Star ran an article this past weekend about how we can make a difference in terms of our environmental footprint. Here are a couple of their green tips on food:

Eat less prepared foods because they are usually frozen and require a lot of energy during transport and storage. Prepared foods also come with a lot of unwanted packaging. Preparing your own meals is a much greener alternative.

Buy locally. Obviously this reduces the need to transport goods across the country. Plus the local stuff usually tastes better!

Buy in bulk. This reduces packaging plus it can save you a few dollars. Hurray!

Do you have any food related earth day tips to share?

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

The "Touchy-Feely" Way to Grill the Perfect Steak

One of the biggest challenges when grilling steak is determining the degree of doneness. The most common approach is to cut the meat but that lets all the juicy goodness out and can dry it out.

Luckily I saw a neat little trick on the
Food Network the other day. Michael Smith (my favorite TV chef) described how to determine if a steak is rare, medium or well done just by touching it with your grilling tongs.

By now you have noticed the two pictures of my unflattering hands. Don’t look away…these pictures are going to help you grill the perfect steak.

In the first picture you’ll notice my index finger is pressing the area where the bottom of my thumb and forefinger meet on my other hand and it is very soft. That is how a rare steak would feel if you pressed it with tongs. In the second picture I fully extend my forefinger and thumb and the area becomes very firm just like a steak that is well done. For the feel of a medium steak your thumb and forefinger would be extended in the middle of these two extremes.

It may take a couple tries to master this trick but once you do you’ll be grilling steak like a pro!

Do you have any grilling tricks of your own? Please share!

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Kids Make Cooking Fun!

My daughter, who is in Kindergarten, had a small homework assignment this past weekend. It was to create an easy to make recipe. We weren’t sure what to make at first but after some thought we decided to put together a “happy face banana and peanut butter sandwich”

Of course my three-year old son who is interested in anything food related wanted to get in on the action so the three of us worked on our happy face creations together.

I find kids absolutely love to cook, especially when they get to create something that is sloppy, sticky or gooey. We began making our happy face sandwiches by splitting an English muffin in half. We then smothered their round surface with peanut butter. Finally we took banana slices and made happy faces! The kids loved making and eating them!

After we ate our yummy creations I was reminded that the easiest way to approach any task is to think like a kid. They live in the moment, don’t worry about things being perfect and most importantly they always make the process fun…three attributes that would make for the ultimate cooking experience!

When’s the last time you felt like a kid in the kitchen?

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Smart Marinating Tip

If you find you don't have time to grill during the week, plan ahead. On weekends, freeze several batches of beef, pork or chicken in plastic zip-lock bags in their marinades.

Before you go to work in the morning, pull out the bag from the freezer and place in the refrigerator to thaw. When you get home the meat will be ready for the grill!

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

10 Things To Do With a Bench Knife

The bench knife...my favorite tool. It's versatility makes it one of the best little helpers in the kitchen. Here are 10 things you can do with it.

1. Shuttle vegetables from cutting board to pan.
2. Cut brownies or bar cookies neatly.
3. Press balls of ground meat into perfect patties (using the side of the blade).
4. Cut soft or semisoft cheese.
5. Clear your cutting board of crumbs or scraps.
6. Level a cup of flour.
7. Smash garlic (using the side of the blade).
8. Score dough before baking.
9. Peel ginger (using the edge).
10. Scrape burned food off baking sheets and pans.

If you listen to rock'n'roll while prepping a meal you can also use it as an imaginary guitar...I tend to do that quite a bit.

If you have any other uses for your bench knife, please share.

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Billy Joel Needed a Dreamy Recipe to Keep His Uptown Girl

Today in music history Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley announced their plans to divorce. The year was 1984. I wasn’t the biggest Billy Joel fan but at fourteen years of age Christie Brinkley was definitely on my adolescent radar!

The music video for Uptown Girl comes to mind when I think of this couple. In the video Billy (playing the mechanic) and his grease monkey posse are somehow able to wow Christie (the uptown girl) with their stellar 80s’ dance moves. But as Billy and Christie drive away on a motorbike at the end of the video you wonder how this complete mismatch of a couple fell apart.

My guess is that he could get things fired up with his music but couldn’t keep it together with his cooking! Poor Billy. He should have served her my Dreamy Pear and Cheese Bites. These tasty appetizers would have captivated her and put her under their tasty magic spell!

Dreamy Pear and Cheese Bites
Sliced pears and cheese paired perfectly on a slice of toasted French baguette

Instruments
1 French baguette, sliced diagonally into 16(½-inch thick) slices
2 tsp olive oil
½ cup light strawberry cream cheese (about 4 oz / 113 g)
2 Bosc pears, cored and cut (lengthwise)into 32 (¼-inch thick) slices
4 (¼-inch thick)slices Havarti cheese, cut into 16 equal-sized pieces(about 4 oz / 113 g)
16 sweetened dried cranberries

Lyrics
Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the tops of bread slices with olive oil. Arrange in a single layer on 9 x 13-inch baking sheet. Broil in the oven until the tops of slices are lightly toasted.

Arrange toasted bread slices, in a single layer, on a serving platter. Spread an equal amount of cream cheese onto each slice.

For each bread slice, place a pear slice on top of the cream cheese. Top with a piece of Havarti cheese followed by another pear slice (arrange the pear and cheese slices at different angles to each other). Finish by placing a cranberry on top. Starting from the top, insert a frilled toothpick through the middle to hold it together. Repeat with remaining toasted bread slices, cream cheese, pears, Havarti cheese and cranberries. Serve.

Volume: Makes 16 cheese bites

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Making Easter Dinner in Rhythm

When it comes to cooking Easter dinner, family and friends bond together like a tightly knit band moving to the same rhythm. You have:

Brother Bob on the appetizers.
Sister Sue stirring soup.
Aunt Judy prepping side dishes.
Neighbor Nathan drumming-up some desserts.
And of course there’s you taking center stage making the main dish.

When the dinner is over everyone gets their respective kudos for the dish they made. Talk about a win-win situation! It’s amazing how a simple thing like creating a dinner can help us work together and make us feel so good in the process!

Happy Easter Everyone!

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Q&A - Substituting Fresh Herbs for Dried

Q. When substituting fresh herbs for dried, should I use more or less of the fresh herb.

A. Fresh herbs flavors are not as concentrated as they are in the dried form so their flavor is less potent.

The general rule is to use twice as much fresh herbs when substituting for dried herbs in a recipe.

I prefer to start with 1½ times as much fresh as dried and then add more until it suits my taste. It's kind of how I listen to music in the kitchen...it progressively gets louder over the duration of my cooking experience!

Feel free to contact me if you have a question of general interest about cooking? If I can't answer it I'll find someone who can.

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Meals That Are Dressed to Thrill!

If your meals look as dull as a drumstick then it’s time you started dressing them up with some colorful garnishes.

Top off pasta with flat-leaf parsley or basil leaves, soup with chives, stir-fries with green onions and desserts with berries or sprigs of mint.

When you take a few extra minutes to spruce up the looks of your culinary creations, you generate excitement around your meals. You'll feel great about what you eat and it's a sure way to get motivated to cook up a storm again!

Do you have any favorite garnishes to make your meals look delicious and devine?

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Time for Spring Cleaning? Don't Neglect Your Kitchen!

It’s that time of year to do some spring-cleaning…yuck! As unpleasant as it sounds, we all know it’s a good idea to clean out unwanted items around the house.

However during this cleaning frenzy there is one area we often neglect…the kitchen. Leaving the kitchen cabinets and refrigerator cluttered with unwanted items is a recipe for a cooking experience that's slower than an Air Supply ballad…and who wants that?

Go shelf by shelf in the refrigerator and cabinets and remove items that have taken on a mysterious hue and have worn out their welcome. You can do the same with your drawers removing non-kitchen items.

Make use of this opportunity to reorganize. Keep all your spices in one drawer and all your oils and vinegars in the same cabinet. You’ll thank yourself when you’re able to find everything in your kitchen with ease!

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Apple Curry Chicken - KIX 106 FM

If you would like to get a copy of the Apple-Curry Chicken recipe heard on KIX 106 FM, send me an e-mail and it's yours to try.

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com

Cut Mango Like a Pro!

When dicing a mango the last thing you want to do is peel away all the skin first. It’ll be as slippery as an 80s’rock stars shiny pleather pants.

Instead, slice off the sides of the fruit (start each cut about a half-inch away from the stem to avoid the pit). Cut a grid through the flesh of each half down to the peel. You can adjust the size of the pieces by the size of the grid you cut into the mango. Push up on the peel side so the cubes stick out. Finish by slicing the cubes at their base.

Easy with no mess...that's how to cook!

Are there any specific fruits or vegetables you would you like to learn how to cut quickly?

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Brent Garell
The Kitchen Roadie
brent@cookapalooza.com