Olive Oil for Dipping Breads

I can remember years ago when my Mom would buy the new wonder spread called margarine.  Previous to that it was sold uncoloured and came with a capsule to mix in to get the creamy yellow but really a bright, fake butter look.  I have never, ever liked margarine.  Margarine is made from a low quality, chemically extracted, refined vegetable oil that loses it's natural Vitamin E through heat processing.  It also contains colourants and additives.  I don't like the taste, the texture or the fact it is not a whole food so we use butter or olive oil in our home for cooking, baking or as a spread.

We don't eat a lot of sandwiches but most sandwiches we do eat do not have butter used as a spread.  I often serve homemade French, French sourdough or sourdough bread with olive oil for dipping.  It is healthier than margarine with a lot more flavour.  The oil can be left plain, seasoned with herbs or you can stir in pesto or sun dried tomatoes.

The choice of olive oil is important.  The darker the oil the stronger the flavour.  I prefer a cold pressed, extra virgin olive oil with it's light, fruity flavour for this purpose.  Pictured is the sourdough bread with olive oil dipping bowl I made for dinner.  The olive oil was seasoned lightly with dried oregano and thyme the served with sourdough bread.

Some are tempted to make up extra of the seasoned olive oil.  Don't do this especially if using fresh herbs or fresh garlic as there is a risk of botulism.  The toxin that causes botulism is colourless, odourless, and tasteless.  The amount of size of a pin head can make you quite sick or result in death.  Make only the amount of seasoned olive oil that you will use for that meal.  Discard any left-over seasoned olive oil.  In this case the frugal choice is discarding the left-over oil rather than risking a potential food borne illness.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Caramelizing Onions

Sprinkle a little sugar over cut onions just as they start sweating when caramelizing for enhanced colour and flavour.

Loaded Tater Tots at Hooter's

Pub grub food can seldom be considered healthy food but on occasion it can be part of an other wise healthy diet.  Pub food is usually high in sodium and fat.  It's meant to keep you in the pub/bar longer which translates into drinking more.  Pubs and sports bars usually have televisions for the same reason.  The reason for this is the real money is made on the alcoholic beverages so the longer they keep you there the more money they make.

During our last visit to Hooter's one of the guys ordered loaded tater tots as an appetizer.  This appetizer is very much pub grub food but not one that I have seen before.  The closest I've seen that resemble the loaded tater tots is the Irish fries at Murphy Inn Restaurant in Lexington, Michigan.  The only difference between the two appetizers is using tater tots in place of French fries.  This would be a very easy dish to duplicate at home and it could be made a bit healthier than the restaurant version.

I'm not a huge fan of frozen potato products (eg. French fries, hash browns) especially the pre-formed ones like hash brown patties and tater tots.  However,  kids tend to like the hash brown patties and tater tots because they look like those served at fast food restaurants.

To make a healthier version of loaded tater tots:  Check the labels when buying as some brands have less sodium and fat than others.  Choose the brand with the lowest sodium and fat content.  Bake rather than fry the tater tots on a Silpat or parchment paper lined baking sheet with no additional oil.   Drain the baked tater tots on paper toweling to remove any excess fat.  Do not sprinkle on any extra salt.  Make a béchamel sauce (white sauce) using skim or 2% milk.  Stir in low fat cheddar cheese to create the cheese sauce.  Substitute low fat or no fat sour cream to further reduce the fat content.  Use portion control as well.  The appetizer as pictured was meant for one person.  It was more than enough for two!

New Flat Bottom Taco Shells

I have a rather well stocked kitchen at our vacation home but nowhere as well stocked as my home kitchen.  In this case rather than stocking with equipment to make specialty items, it is a bit more frugal to buy certain specialty items.  One of these specialty items is taco shells simply because it would not be frugal for me to buy a nice deep fryer, taco shell form and oil to serve tacos about three times a year if that at our vacation home.  While I do bring a few jars of my homemade salsa and taco sauce when we drive down, I can't bring enough to last much more than a couple of trips and the way we fly I can't bring any.

Instead I rely on Old El Paso taco dinner kits.  I really like Old El Paso in general if I have to buy anything taco related.  I've had good luck with this General Mills brand.  I think it was one of the first taco brands on the market ages ago shortly after Taco Bell opened in Canada.

Old El Paso is now offering taco shells and taco kits made with whole grain corn.  The Stand and 'N Stuff dinner kit is a fairly new product.  The neat thing is you don't need a taco holder to keep the taco shells upright while loading them.  The taco shells are flat on the bottom so they stand up on the plate without further support!

I made my standard beef tacos supreme loaded with beef, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream and shredded cheese along with taco sauce and salsa.  Normally I add sliced black olives but didn't have any and didn't feel like slipping to the store for some.  I have to admit I don't deviate much from beef tacos when making tacos but Life Made Delicious has more recipes if you don't want to use beef.  Next time I am going to try their easy chicken ranch taco recipe.  It does sound quite yummy and definitely something that would be easy to make at our vacation home.  I like that the recipe uses a rotisserie chicken that will keep a bit of heat out of our vacation home kitchen while saving me a bit of time!  I will likely use left-over roasted chicken though at home while using rotisserie chicken at the vacation home.  I will report back when I make them.  I'm sure they will be delicious!