zinger essentials: Fill Me With Color

zinger essentials: Fill Me With Color: Spring is the season of home purchasing. When you approach a new house for the first time what attracts you? Is it the size of the house...

Fill Me With Color

Spring is the season of home purchasing. When you approach a new house for the first time what attracts you? Is it the size of the house, how the proportions such as front door, gardens and windows work together or is it the colors used to decorate the house. I believe all of these things work together. Plus there is the feel of the home. Does it have good Karma? Take another look at a house that attracts you.  A key component that attracts me is color. A minimum of three colors seems to be optimum on the outside of a home.

When I cook, I think about color too!

Different colors provide us with different nutrients. We all want to eat our colors for optimum health.

But color plays a bigger role. It gets people to the table and excites them about the food they are going to eat. Just as in decorating I try to mix a minimum of three colors in my meals. The meals are just more attractive this way. I may have a minimum three colors in a one pot meal, like this Beef Stir Fry from my book Cook--You Can Cook Fast, Healthy Meals For Your Family or I will put at least three different colored foods on a plate.

Color increases the nutrient value of your meals and ignites a bit of passion in your sous chefs. Passion in a sous chef is a good thing. As my alter ego Bunny Cleaver likes to say," Teach them how to cook, so you don't have to"

Deborah Anzinger
Professional Home Economist

Strawberries in Kelowna

Last week I was in Kelowna attending the 3rd annual Okanagan Food & Wine Writers Workshop. I broadened my knowledge and increased my passion on a multitude of topics including photography, look for more pictures in upcoming posts, to knife shopping and the beloved strawberry.

Strawberries blossomed in my mind as all the chefs seemed to be biting at the bit to use their local supply. The supply was limited as their season is 2-3 weeks behind due to cool temperatures and a lot of rain. My friends in Edmonton are familiar with the cool temps and rain too. Our local berries are still a couple of weeks out. Not so for my family in Ontario whose berries have had extra dry and hot temps.

Strawberries are passionate with their deep aroma, juicy texture and bright red colour. They are also unique being the only fruit with their seeds on the outside. I am passionate about sharing kitchen duties. I do not think I am unique in that I want help in the kitchen! Unite your own personal sous chefs, your spouse, children, and friends. Show them how to Cook so you are not going it alone. Entice them into the kitchen with juicy, red, delicious berries.

This Thursday morning look for me on the CTV Morning Show, in Edmonton. I will be on about 8:15a.m. and we will be working with strawberries. Let the ideas for Strawberry Ice Pops, Minted Strawberry Salad and Savory Strawberry Sauce tickle your enthusiasm for our upcoming strawberry season.The Season is short so take full advantage and use strawberries in everything!

Thursday I will post my CTV recipes on zingeressentials.blogspot.com

Plan, Delegate & Have Fun on Mother's Day

Mother’s Day

Moms are the best planners. Moms, sharpen up your delegating skills too! Moms need to be planners and delegators.

For my first Mother’s Day as a new mom I organized brunch at our house for my husband’s side of our family. My husband was raised by a hard working Mom. She worked, raised three children, and kept a home in the city and a cottage on a lake. She had to be a delegator or she would not have gotten everything done. She would start the family meal in the morning before work and my husband along with caring for a younger sister was expected to help with the dinner preparations before she arrived home from work. Thanks to my mother in law my husband grew up a helper.

 That first Mother’s day of mine my partner was helping were he could; the kitchen, yard work, our very rambunctious 8 month old. Everyone arrived and we enjoyed a loud and boisterous meal. Then Mother’s Day cards and gifts were passed around. I watched the other two mothers in the crowd open theirs and say thank-you and all sat and looked at me. I looked at my husband who looked mortified. He had forgotten to get a card or any small token of appreciation for me as a mother. I had not thought of planning for this moment and had not delegated. Maybe some of you think I should not have had to delegate but setting things up to receive the outcome you desire is the smartest plan of action in my book. Sure I felt a little hurt but got on with it. He worked 12 hour days, was up at night with a colicky baby and this was the first Mother’s Day we celebrated as our own family.

Right or wrong usually women are the planners and delegators in the home. Sometimes we just plan and neglect to delegate all we can. Loved ones rise to responsibility or challenges if we set it out the right way. The way I look at it, if we encourage our partners and children to do things for us we are giving them a gift. The look of joy, pride and confidence on their faces when they can organize a breakfast for us, even if it is cold cereal and juice, is momentous. We all like receiving comforts and truth be told most people love doling out comforts, sometimes they just need a little gentle prodding, planning and delegating to get them going.

Plan, Delegate, Have Fun

Deborah AnzingerP.H.Ec.

Sear Roasted Fish by Deb

A fabulous, fresh spring meal is sear roasted fish. Check out my version and let me know what you think. Everything I do has to be fast, delicious, healthy and family friendly.
Deborah Anzinger Professional Home Economist

Sear Roasted Fish

Oven Temperature:     425 F

Cooking Time:            6-8 minutes

Equipment:                  Heavy 12-inch oven proof skillet or fry pan

Servings:                     4

Ingredients

Spice Rub

1 Tbsp coriander

2 Tbsp sweet paprika

2 tsp lemon zest

1 tsp salt

4 6-8 ounce fish fillets, salmon or favorite

3 Tbsp olive or canola or vegetable oil

Order of Events

1.      Heat oven to 425 F.

2.       In a small bowl mix together spice rub ingredients.

3.      Using a paper towel pat the fish fillets dry. Use the entire spice rub to coat both sides of the fillets. Leave resting on a plate.

4.      Heat a heavy 12-inch ovenproof skillet or fry pan over medium high heat. Add 3 Tbsp of oil. When the oil is shimmering hot, this will take seconds since the pan is hot, arrange the fillets evenly in the pan, skin side up if fillets have skin.

5.      Sear for 2 minutes, without moving. Gently lift the fillets, if sticking leave a few seconds longer, flip the fillets and put the pan in the oven. Roast until the fillets are barley cooked in the centre, 4-6 minutes.

6.      Serve immediately.

Kitchen Gossip

For a fabulous, fast spring dinner serve with tossed salad or fresh steamed vegetable.

CTV Spot Fresh Bean Salad and Pear Lemon Cake, recipes from Cook

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/HTMLTemplate?tf=ctv/generic/video/player.html&cf=ctv/generic/video/player.cfg&video_link_high=MLCFRN0411_cook&video_link_low=http://esi.ctv.ca/datafeed/urlgen2.aspx?vid=655831&clip_start=00:00:00.00&clip_end=00:06:29.00&clip_caption=Cooking%20w/Deb%20Anzinger&archive=CTVNews&slug=Edm_Cooking_video_120411&sortdate=20120411&clip_id=655831&title=webcast

Spring Snow pefect with Pulled Pork

 I love Pulled Pork on a cool autumn evening, a cold winter night, after an afternoon of active summer fun and on a snowy spring day. Today Edmonton had a snowy spring day and my family is having Sweet Potato & Apple Pulled Pork

 

Slow Cooked Sweet Potato & Apple Pulled Pork

Slow cooker: 5-6 hours High / 7-8 hours Low

Oven Temperature: 275 F

Cooking Time: 4-5 hours

Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

4 -5 pound pork shoulder roast

2 cups sweet potato, chopped, 1-2 sweet potatoes

1 cup apple, peeled, cored, chopped, 2-3 apples

1 onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic

1 tsp each salt, caraway seed, dried sage

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp chilli powder

¼ cup each apple cider vinegar and brown sugar

398ml can crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce

Salt and fresh ground black pepper

Order of Events

1. Remove visible fat from pork roast using a sharp knife. Cut the roast into 2-3 pieces, remove any internal fat. Heat large heavy bottom pan over medium high, add 1 Tbsp vegetable oil, reduce heat to medium, sear pork roast 3-4 minutes on all sides. If the roast pieces are sticking when you go to turn them over then give them a little more time to brown. They are telling you they are not done yet.  Remove pork to plate. Turn slow cooker to desired setting. Or if cooking in the oven preheat the oven.

2. Reduce heat on heavy bottom pan to low. Add sweet potatoes and onions and sauté for 4-5 minutes, scraping brown bits off the bottom of the pan. With a knife crush the garlic in the salt, caraway, sage, cumin and chilli powder; chop together. Add to the sweet potatoes and onions and cook 1-2 minutes longer. Add ingredients to slow cooker. Or leave in the pot if using in the oven.

3. Add vinegar, brown sugar and tomatoes. Stir to combine.

4. Place the seared pork on top of the sweet potato mixture. Turn to coat with mixture. Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground black pepper. Add the lid and leave to cook for the desired time.

5. When pork is tender and easy to pull apart use two forks to shred pork into sauce. Serve with fresh buns and a salad.