Healthy Eating is a SNAP! We are proud to partner with the San Mateo County Fair to show how easy it can be to eat healthy. Check out the video and then head on over to the fair website to see what’s happening at the fair: http://www.sanmateocountyfair.com/
Never been to a fair? Here’s what you can expect: Pig races (need we say more?), petting zoo, homegrown exhibits and demos, live music– there is something for everyone!
Be sure to stop by and say hi to Chef Terri (she’s the social media maven for the fair) and Chef Mia who will be demoing and sharing some delicious recipes in the Culinary Arts building:
June 7th, Sat. 4:30 – 5:30 pm English Pea and Homemade Ricotta Tartines
June 9th, Mon. 1:00 – 2:00 pm Chilled English Pea and Leek Soup with Creme Fraiche and Chervil
June 11th, Wed. 7:00 – 8:00 pm Spring Panzanella Salad with Asparagus, English Peas, and Fava Beans
Woohoo, you made it to the main event! Now we all just have to survive tonight and tomorrow.
How to Survive Thanksgiving–Our tips for surviving tonight and tomorrow… (in no particular order):
1. Don’t freak out — at this point whatever gets done, gets done.
2. Don’t stay up too late tonight.
3. Don’t forget to eat a good breakfast tomorrow morning.
4. Sip a glass of wine as you go. Make the mood festive and relaxed.
5. Don’t announce your mistakes... whatever you are obsessing about that you think everyone will notice— if you don’t say anything they probably won’t notice.
You’re gonna do great. The food is going to be great. Even if the worst happens (insert whatever that means to you), it’s all about having a good time with family and friends tomorrow so whatever happens won’t matter.
Don’t forget if you run into trouble tomorrow you can search the technique videos on our site or go straight to our youtube channel for help. Be sure to watch the Carving Club video for a glimpse of both Mia and Terri’s family Thanksgivings over the years.
If ya wanna be a real-card-carrying-member of Carving Club you gotta spread the word…like it, share it, reblog it, pin it!
For step by step instructions how to carve the turkey watch How to Carve the Bird.
Thanks so much to all of you for supporting our little blog and videos. You are the reason we continue to do what we do — we give thanks for all of you EVERY day! Wishing you all a wonderful day with your families.
The Cook’s Guide to Preparing a Thanksgiving Feast
Woohoo– only 6 more days to Thanksgiving! Here is the Cook’s Guide to the Final Countdown to Turkey Day (or How to Keep Your Sanity and Have Fun Doing It!) Our goal as we prep this week is to try to get as much done before Thursday as possible. Here’s how we (really) do it…
To make the shopping more manageable, we divide our shopping into two trips. Friday or Saturday: Shop for ingredients you need to get started on recipes through Monday. Tuesday: Shop for remaining perishable items like fruit, salad greens, flowers, AND anything you forgot to pick up on your first trip. Dividing the list makes the first shopping trip easier and the second trip gives you the opportunity to pick up forgotten ingredients and perishable produce items that won’t last till the end of the week (and still look and taste their best.) Remember…avoid going to the store on Wednesday as if the Zombie Apocalypse has happened.
If, after reading this you still need some extra advice and have some more specific questions, consider signing up for the Dear Martini Holiday Hotline! We’ll be on-call all week long right up through T-Day to answer your questions, fix kitchen emergencies and offer advice and encouragement! Sign up for it here: The Dear Martini Holiday Hotline.
Browse through our Dear Martini Thanksgiving Playlist on YouTube. It’s chockfull of every how-to technique you’ll need to know for preparing your feast including how to carve the turkey!
Saturday (before Thanksgiving)
If your bird is frozen pick it up today –Check thawing times and start process and based on how much your turkey weighs. Refer to our previous post if you need a review on how to properly defrost a frozen turkey.
Sunday (Thanksgiving week)
Make pie shells if making pumpkin or pecan pie and freeze ( if you are feeling overwhelmed– delegate the pies now!).
Make Cranberry Sauce and Vinaigrette. Refrigerate until ready to serve on Thanksgiving (woohoo– you don’t have to think about these again).
Do any of your recipes call for toasted nuts? Toast the nuts, cool and freeze today.
Planning on serving a soup? Make it today and freeze.
Monday
Make stock for gravy and refrigerate (or freeze if you are tight on fridge space!).
Pro tip: Chop all the garlic, onion, carrot, celery, shallots, leeks, etc. that you will need for every recipe and place in separate resealable plastic bags. Store in your crisper drawer in the fridge. This step really saves time– as you prepare your recipes for the rest of the week you will scoop out what you need and not have to stop to chop these ingredients.
If you are using the Dear Martini Dry Brine recipe. Start the process tonight.
Double check the roasting guide for how many hours your bird will take to roast. Write yourself a reminder note and post it on fridge so you are already looking ahead to your timing for Thursday.
Tuesday
Don’t forget to turn the bird over in the brining bag if you are using the Dear Martini Dry Brine recipe. If you are picking up your bird today you can do an abbreviated dry brine: follow the instructions for brining without turning the bird.
Shop for produce and forgotten items.
Make cornbread (we love Jiffy) or cut bread for stuffing.
Clean the house and bathrooms.
Wednesday
Pro Tip: Don’t even think about going to the store today! Imagine that all the roads and stores are crammed with zombies (… because, they are). We usually take the day off work and we order take-out for dinner.
Make stuffing and refrigerate. If you are short on oven space, you can make, bake, cool, and refrigerate stuffing today. On Thursday, you take the stuffing out of the refrigerator about 40 minutes before the bird is done (to allow it to come to room temperature) and then reheat it in the oven once the turkey is out. If you have enough oven space that you can bake the stuffing from start to finish on Thursday– don’t worry about baking it today.
Wash and trim salad greens , Brussels sprouts, greens, herbs, and any other vegetables. Wrap in paper towels and place in plastic bags. Refrigerate until needed.
Make any side dishes that can be made in advance. Even if you can’t make the entire dish ahead look for steps you can do today — blanch green beans, seed pomegranates, sauté aromatic vegetables like onions, carrots, garlic, etc.
Set the table.
Place serving dishes and serving utensils out on your sideboard.
Set up coffee and set out coffee cups, dessert plates, and utensils.
Set up wine and beverage station.
Thursday – Thanksgiving!
Pro Tip: Wake up early and have a good breakfast!
Get the turkey in the oven. and follow the roasting instructions for our Roast Turkey.
While the turkey roasts: Prepare side dishes.
While the turkey rests: Make the gravy, assemble the salad, bake or rewarm stuffing and casseroles.
Pro Tip: Show off the turkey on a platter, take your pictures, but carve it in the kitchen.
As soon as turkey has been carved– serve everything immediately.
After dinner… Dishes can wait, everything else can wait, but leftovers need to be refrigerated IMMEDIATELY following dinner.
Friday
You survived! Relax and eat yummy leftovers.
Whew! This list can be a little daunting, but remember you are preparing a feast. Ask for help — don’t be shy about asking your family members for help!
We have exciting news at Dear Martini HQ: We are expanding our team! Our newest member is Mariel Cruz and she joins us as our Social Media Assistant. Welcome Mariel! Look forward to meeting our other new team members in the coming months.
Introducing Mariel!
Hey everybody! I’m super excited to be working with Dear Martini! Working with Chef Terri and Chef Mia has been such a blast. I’ve already learned so much about cooking from Dear Martini. Strawberries are my favorite fruit, and Dear Martini has some great tips on picking out the best strawberries for desserts, or even just as a healthy snack. Did you know that the best tasting strawberries are dark red, plump and small (the smallest ones are the juiciest!) with dark green stems? Check out Dear Martini’s blog for more tips on strawberries. https://dearmartini.wordpress.com/2013/04/26/strawberries-rule-tips-for-choosing-and-preparing-the-better-berry/
My first strawberry fan!
I learned how to make this quick and easy dessert from watching Dear Martini’s videos on strawberries.
Before I watched Dear Martini’s strawberry videos, I had to the hardest time slicing strawberries, but now it’s super easy. Now, I can’t wait to try making strawberry shortcake!
For more tips and videos on how to make the best strawberry shortcake, be sure to check out Dear Martini’s YouTube page.
I’m super excited to be part of the Dear Martini team, and I can’t wait to learn more awesome cooking tips!
Salty Fig is a great new website and friendship we are pleased to introduce you to. Salty Fig’s mission is: “Less Time Looking More Time Cooking”; with a mission statement aligned so perfectly with ours (Recipe Rookies into Recipe Rockstars) we couldn’t help but partner up. Salty Fig is a great place to collect, organize and share recipes, food photos and create recipe eBooks while connecting with food friends. And now in the 2.0 version of their website you can collect our videos along with your recipes. Checkout their new site!
Here’s an excerpt of the fun interview we did with Suzanne Florek Salty Fig’s founder
Suzanne: What is your favorite food memory?
Terri: My favorite food memory is the one food memory that inspired my life-long passion for baking. I was 6, attending an afternoon party with my mom at her friend, Lana’s house. Lana made creampuffs that looked like swans, and she was kind enough to let me dust them with powdered sugar. I had never seen anything so beautiful before in my life. It was the first time I ever experienced the idea that food could be artful and delicious.
Mia: A favorite food memory is a freezing cold January morning while I was living in Italy. We were making sausages and my friend Itala roasted freshly cut pork chops in her fireplace grill with just a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Eating pork chops and drinking wine at 8 a.m.! My mouth waters every time I think back to that day.
Suzanne: If a great chef were to cook you a birthday dinner, what would the menu be?
Terri: Honestly, my idea for a birthday dinner involves a menu from Judy Rodgers’s Zuni Café. I’d start with a burrata and persimmon salad, then move to a dozen oysters, then have a gnocchi course, then the roast chicken (of course!) and finish with a pavlova with blood orange sorbet.
Mia: My last big birthday we celebrated at Chez Panisse and serendipitously the dessert was a Pear and Huckleberry tart. I grew up in California so huckleberries are near and dear to me. Best “birthday cake” I’ve ever had!
Suzanne: What is your most bizarre food experience?
Terri: Eating a live shrimp. About 10 years ago, I was at my local farmers market with my friends. We met a vendor selling freshly caught wild shrimp. The guy grabbed a shrimp from the tank, ripped off the head and legs and handed it to me, still alive. He encouraged me to try it raw (and alive). It tasted briny and shrimpy and I spent the next four days in a panic that I was going to manifest symptoms of a food borne illness.
Mia: Half a lamb’s head arrived on my plate. It was one of those situations where I couldn’t refuse it, so I ate it. I somehow managed to ignore the eye starring at me, but the jawbone and the teeth (you heard that right – teeth!!) were hard to get around.
Suzanne: What is your favorite food moment in a …. Book/movie/TV Show/song about food?
Terri: Oh my god – too many to mention.
Book(s): I grew up reading the Little House book series. I read them over and over again, and the chapters describing their food have stayed with me to this day. I actually have an idea to write a paper on how I thought Laura Ingalls Wilder was one of the first food writers of our time. A few of the moments that stand out for me: how Laura described tasting lemonade for the very first time, making maple candy by cooling them in freshly scooped snow, simmering baked beans and making an “apple pie” from an unripe, green pumpkin.
Movie: This isn’t really a fair question, because Mia and I have both taught “Movie Night” classes where we screen a foodie movie, then make a dinner inspired by the food in the movie. I’ll let Mia describe the movies she’s screened (because she did the BEST ONES! J). My favorite Movie Night was “Ratatouille.” I served fresh popcorn drizzled with clarified butter and herbs de provence, thyme and Gruyere gougeres, roast chicken and ratatouille presented in the exact spiral pattern in the movie. We’ve also done “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” “Moonstruck,” “Marie Antoinette,” “Julie and Julia,” and OMG too many more to mention.
TV Show: I’m a sci-fi fan. One of the shows I watched religiously as a kid was Battlestar Galactica. There is scene where the kids from the Galactica spaceship have waffles for the first time on Earth.
Song: “On top of spaghetti”
Mia: She took all the good ones! Lol. Here are a couple more that come to mind. “Bella Martha” Mostly Martha the original version. During the opening credits we see Martina Gedeck putting on her apron and going about setting up her kitchen before dinner service. There is something so authentic about this moment (meditational) that I identify with and love…something cooks all around the world are doing right now.
I just saw a fabulous film “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” a touching story about Jiro Ono who is considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef and his sons. Inspiring story of what it is like to live life as a cook and the photography is amazing and lyrical… you can almost see the sushi sigh.
For something a little less esoteric – I love when Toto steals the hot dog from Professor Marvel in the Wizard of Oz and Aunt Em’s crullers look fantastic!
Dear Martini is absolutely thrilled to be a part of the first-ever SAVEUR Video Festival. As a celebration of food and film online, it will be a curated presentation of the most creative and beautifully-told culinary stories in the world of video. SAVEUR is a publication that celebrates authentic food, culture, and travel; they crisscross the globe to find honest and surprising stories about people and the meals that bring them together.
This week, after much nail-biting and sleepless nights, Saveur.com announced finalists for their first-ever Saveur Video Festival. A call for submissions took place earlier in January, asking for videos related to the following categories:
Ultra-short form (Less than 60 seconds)
How-to and Recipe
Documentary
Animation and/Experimental
Culinary Travel
Dear Martini is excited and proud to announce that we have been picked as a finalist! Our Blanching Peas video is eligible to win a People’s Choice Award in the Ultra-Short Form category!
Please help us win the People’s Choice by casting your vote for our video and asking everyone you know to go vote for us as well! Simply use this link below, which will take you to the voting page.
Thanks so much for your support! We are so excited that our little video production endeavor is finally getting some national recognition! Please spread the word!
Today we have a great post from Terri from Dear Martini. Like Terri, I love a good hot soup on a cold winter’s day. Check out Dear Martini and Terri’s post below…
In the post-Holiday winter months, my food choices always lean towards soups that are hearty, nutritious, comforting and budget-friendly. It might be due to the over-indulgence of food and wallet over the Christmas holidays; but regardless, it’s a great time to make soups to warm both the house and soul.
I stock my kitchen pantry with a variety of items that I can put together for a soup at a moment’s notice: canned beans, canned tomatoes, frozen stocks, dried pastas and grains. During times when I have more vegetables languishing in the produce drawer than I have time to cook them, I dice them up and keep them in freezer bags. That way, I’ve got pre-chopped veggies…
We here at Dear Martini strive to inspire and teach folks how to cook. When this blog post from Mike Somerset came through the chute, the feeling is indescribable. Mike lives in England and took our Pan Seared Steak recipe with him while hiking a trail in the Lake District.
It looks delicious, Mike! Thanks for sharing!
For me one of the highlights of a day out and about on the Lake District fells is when I stop for a light lunch. I like to find a quiet, out-of-the-way spot off the trail where I can relax, contemplate and connect with the landscape. But mostly to eat. In this case it was, pretty much, a straight lift from my good friends at Dear Martini. I’m doing this on the trail, on a small gas burner. So I’ve had to adapt. For you to do this properly, don’t do what I do, instead, you should check out this posting Steak… With Benefits.
I have no pretence about my cooking knowledge and skills which are, shall we say, lacking. You see, for me food and cooking is a happy distraction from my main line of work. This is the reason why I love it when someone puts…
Healthy Eating is a SNAP! We are proud to partner with the San Mateo County Fair to show how easy it can be to eat healthy. Check out the video and then head on over to the fair website to see what’s happening at the fair: http://www.sanmateocountyfair.com/
Dear Martini 