Apple Corer used for Pineapple?

I want to give credit where credit is due. One of my Team Leaders (cooking teams) Ernest, from Ghana, showed me how he likes to use an apple corer (is corer a word? guess so, spell check didn't catch it).

The handled apple corer which only 'drills' out the core (but doesn't slice) has many application so it has been deemed a multi-tasker and thus gets respect among my kitchen tools. But one of those 'fancy' handled corers that helps pre-slice the actual fruit? Seemed like a waste of time and space considering my knife skills. And even some of you may feel you can slice pineapple rings faster than using a fancy apple corer...but it still doesn't take away from the fact it was a pretty ingenious idea!

From slices to tidbits...turn this one into Cooks Illustrated tips and techniques!

Culinary Challenge pt 2 (extended w/pics)

If you are trying to catch up with exactly whats going on you can click here Culinary Challenge pt 1 , Culinary Challenge pt 2 is a poll so you can vote for the contestants after they prepared their 'Big Meal' for the crew...

Tatyana (without sidekick this time) came in and made sure the cooking team knew what she wanted so when I showed up the team didn't really need me that much (and she took the advice of the judges and toasted and cooked her Almonds into the rice) Tatyana was also able to get her pasta and cabbage dish done in addition the the regular meal she planned.

Mark and Peggy got their yogurt done ahead of time for the sauce (which made Peggy happy because Mark [ahem] had a little accident with the yogurt in pt1) and they managed to make the Pita bread for the humus...so I mostly helped get some salads ready while the cooking team helped them execute the rest of the meal.

Our cooking team (which was the same one for both contestants) helped get their meat prepped ahead of time which saved a lot of extra time and work when creating the dinners on Saturday and Sunday.

Here are some pictures from Saturday & Sunday & please remember to cast your vote!

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Culinary Challenge Part 2!

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[Check out the comments and see what others are saying]

Men's Club

A-Ward is full of men. Sometimes that can be a little overwhelming but not this time. these guys are considerate and funny and they all are friends. They all have been here a long time and have grown very close to each other and the nurses. We have had to create boundaries with one of them to eliminate the marriage proposals and Liberian catcalls, but now they are set and followed by all.

They all have their own story, some of whom want to share it and some don't. One day they started talking about the war. They got very upset and started yelling at one man saying he was a Sergeant in the rebel army, it was very intense.

In the wee hours of the morning, you will hear praying. "The Reverand" prays for everyone on the ward and all of the nurses. What a blessing!!!!

The Mama's

This week I have the pleasure of working night shift. And I will try my hardest not to turn into dragon lady. It is not natural to stay up all night and sleep during the day... therefore I get a bit cranky. Sorry-o Tyrone.

On my night shifts I have 10 patients, alot of them under the age of 3. I have 2 kids that had their palate repaired and are just miserable. Their poor mama's. These babies are totally inconsolable and refuse to be put down. My friends Jennifer (in Tyler) would have to sleep in  a rocking chair when her baby was sick. These mamas have their babies strapped to their backs in a lapa (a piece of fabric tied around the waste to hold the baby to the mam's back). When the baby finally falls asleep the mama will lay down on her stomach with the baby still strapped to her back. When the baby wakes up, which they are bound to do (very frequently and very loudly) the mama gets up and bounces them back to sleep.

These babies also hate to eat. Their mama's force feed them the Pediasure  and cereal while they scream. I am always afraid the food will go down the wrong pipe and they will aspirate, but it is impossible to get them to eat otherwise, and these mama's are VERY insistent that the force feeding should happen through out the night. Of course this causes the rest of the babies to join in on the screaming and it becomes the cool thing to do.

At 5 am the mama's wake up their peacefully sleeping child to bathe them, not sure why 5am is the chosen hour, but it is very popular. All of the babies and children are bathed and lots of screaming fills the ward.

The parenting is very different here. Sometimes we are shocked by what the parents do and often we have to tell them "You can not beat your child here."  But most of the mama's we have on the ward now are from Sierra Leone and are very attentive and loving to their children. I am not saying the Liberian Mama's don't love their kids they just show it differently.

Cooking Frozen Green Peas

Whether they be the pea that comes in the small paperboard block from the grocery store or the one from a food purveyor, have you ever noticed that after several minutes to a half hour of steaming, boiling, or (HMMmm) sauteing (?) they might be edible but they still have the wrinkles and you still get the occasionally tough gnarly pea?

Yep, I thought so...

Seriously, if you want to cook a great frozen pea add plenty of salt to the water and boil it for 1 1/2 to 2 Hours. They don't really start taking on good flavor from the salt or plumping up from the water properly cooking them until after the first hour.

Not true you say? Well I guess you may just have a better frozen pea than me...but I need to make what I have work. Just ask the English what it takes to cook peas for a good 'mushy pea' side dish. Then you will better understand the time it takes to make a good or semi-good product into a delicious dish.

And its not like boiling peas takes up a lot of your other time in the kitchen when you really don't need to watch them much, unless you like to watch them swirl around and around in the water. I like to do that occasionally, kind of like a de-stressing or relaxing exercise of the mind. Not unlike daydreaming. (but you can call it work!)

The DON

As a bit of a 'leftover' from things gone past we still have over a hundred or so bottles of sherry that we cook with. And not that salted down cooking sherry, noooo, the good stuff. The stuff from Jerez Spain where Sherry comes from!

History of Sherry (by Wikipedia, edited even further by me)

Sherry is a fortified wine, made in and around the town of Jerez, Spain, and hence in Spanish it is called "Vino de Jerez". According to Spanish law, [1] Sherry must come from the triangular area of the province of Cádiz between Jerez, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and El Puerto de Santa María.

Sherry differs from other wines because of how it is treated after fermentation. After fermentation is complete, it is fortified with brandy. Because the fortification takes place after fermentation, all natural sherries are dry; any sweetness is applied later. In contrast, port wine is fortified halfway through fermentation, stopping fermentation so not all the sugars are allowed to turn into alcohol and so leaving a sweet wine.

So I guess it would appear that we have 'the good stuff' as good as THAT can be at room temperature!



AND as stated in Beer Batter and Fish & Chips it makes a pretty darned good substitute for the beer in beer batter!

Beer Batter and Fish & Chips

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We like to think we know how to do Fish & Chips right...and I think we do! (we do it for 400+ in one meal) We have gotten many compliments from the UK crowd (and surrounding area experts) that it was great, and the mushy peas weren't to shabby either. We did, however, run out early this last time...apologies everyone.

You would probably be surprised to know that we use a fairly easy Beer Batter recipe which I will gladly disclose to you ~ Beer Batter ~ Credit to Allrecipes.com. This recipe basically has 5 ingredients that most people have in their home at the basic level.

Possible exceptions you can make to the recipe that we have tried with great success, and some are kind of 'Duh!' moments...

Add hot sauce, cayenne, and/or other spices

We actually successfully replaced the beer with Don 1 Sherry when we were hard pressed and running out of time to acquire beer...worked wonderfully! The hard sherry taste cooked out and left us with beautifully battered and tasty fried fish (no one knew the difference)

Add a splash or two of white vinegar to the batter, can't really explain it to you but it adds kind of a clean, clear, crisp taste to the finished product (best way I can describe it)

Use quality ingredients for batter & beer or beer substitute (and of course if at all possible, *TASTE to make sure!)

Don't forget to do some onion rings for yourself!

Some people have even been beer battering fries/chips for a while now, thats right, beer battered potato fries/chips!!!

Thin the batter down (or not) to do a mock tempura fried vegetables or meats

Beer batter actually does taste nasty before using it to batter and fry something (most of the time) - just in case you were wondering...after it fries properly its wonderful

It was made for frying, please DO NOT TRY to be healthy and bake some items that you beer battered, that is disrespectful!

And most importantly, have fun! (watch the slideshow in case you have trouble doing that)

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* No actual beer was consumed during the preparation of the beer batter. (some people would say unfortunately)

Remember Maggi?

Maggi Brand was started in Switzerland in 1863 and later bought by Nestle of the good ole U.S.A. Most people outside of the United States know more about the international bouillons and sauces of Maggi.

At another time and place I was using a general Maggi sauce (maybe it's the soy or stir fry seasoning one? Which didn’t actually have any soy sauce in it according to the company). We were going thru 5-gallon jugs of it! That was the way it came commercially to us.

If you miss that Maggi sauce taste and just can’t seem to acquire it in your hometown no matter where in the world you may be…I developed a recipe for it when we ran out and we needed a replacement. It goes as follows:

Maggi Sauce Replacement -
50% Soy Sauce
25% Worcestershire Sauce
25% Water

That's it. Of course,

the taste may vary for you if the brands of these items go from good to bad but if you can’t obtain the actual Maggi sauce these items are usually readily available worldwide.

Jennifer

This is Jennifer. She is 13 and came in for an operation on her upper thigh. She has this amazing smile that makes my heart melt every time.

This week I have had her on the days that her bandage needed to be changed. We gathered all our supplies and went to the ICU. We would go there so we could have more privacy, not for her bandage change, but for her concert that was about to start. As I would start to peel off the layers that are stuck to her thigh, she would choose the first song and belt it out. The first time she sang a myriad of Liberian gospel songs but yesterday she decided that it was Christmas Carol Day. So we sang Jingle Bells, We wish you a Merry Christmas, and many others all while I was changing her quite painful dressing.

Jennifer went home right before lunch and when she left she asked me "When I come back to get my plaster (bandage) changed, you come to sing with me?". I said I would try, and she gave me a huge smile and was on her way.

Soup Extract

It really depends on the taste of the soup extract but I have found the following good uses for this ‘almost never used or seen’ product which still comes in a variety of bottles and brands:

1. add equal amounts of water to soup extract and it can be used for soy sauce (or at least this brand taste really similar to soy sauce when we water it down)


2. excellent taste & color enhancer for Cajun style Dirty Rice


3. use for vegetarian French Onion Soup (use in place of flavoring from beef broth) it will be up to you to determine how much to use, this helps with the flavor and color but adds a lot of salt, so experiment for the right balance for you


4. great in gravies and sauces

What exactly is soup extract? My bottle says ‘water, vegetable extracts, salt’ in that order AND from the Internet, we find that most vegetable or soup extracts are used in a medical context for benefits physically.

Extracts from fruits and vegetables that contain fiber, vitamins, minerals, and other natural substances with antioxidant, lipid-lowering, and antiproliferative properties. Used in chemoprevention therapy, these extracts may prevent the development or recurrence of cancer ~ National Cancer Institute

…Just one of the many I have found, but there doesn’t really seem to be much info on soup extract in cooking terms.

Talking at the speed of light

Yesterday after a very busy day shift, me and 3 other women from the ship walked down the road to the outside of the gate and a taxi was waiting for us. We had called Alfred to come and pick us up in his taxi and take us to an orphanage. Before we even got into the car we had talked about our strategy for not getting ripped off. Last week Alfred said one price for the cab ride then suddenly changed his mind once the ride was over. So once we were almost to the taxi the sky opened up and rainy season began.

We got into the car and said we would pay $6 to take us to the orphanage. He counters with "It is raining, you need to pay me more, I want $7." Of course the 4 of us roar at his ridiculousness. And Jenn brings out her secret weapon... "the ditz card". She says in her very best ditzy voice, "Well, it's not my fault it is raining." Alfred agrees at her captain obvious moment and then says once again $7. Then I say that we are working in his country on his people for free and that is not right to rip us off. Then Sarah says "Didn't I see you on the dock at the eye tent getting your eyes checked?" Then it was over, we all started yelling and he then gave us a fair rate and we then focused on the fact we were suffocating in a hot taxi with all the windows rolled up.

Once we got to the orphanage we walked down a mud path and opened the gate to the court yard and I had a major "This is Africa" moment. There were about 8 little boys butt naked playing soccer in the rain and puddles. We shut the gate and let the boys collect their clothes.

The reason we went to the orphanage is because we are doing a Bible study with 9 of the teenage girls. Once choir practice was over the girls came in and we started our way around the circle. Each person was to read Saint John chapter 2 and say what they liked and we were all supposed to bring one question. These girls are amazing. They really read their assigned chapter and deeply thought about what it means and came with great question. As I was sitting there, I could feel my eyes starting to sting. There is no other place I would have rather been. I have always loved high school girls and to be apart of this study is just incredible.

When something would come up that is a bit controversial they would all start talking at the speed of light with a lot of drama, it was very entertaining. These girls are like sisters, most of them have lived together in the same house since they were little babies.

Please be praying for our group. Please pray that Jenn, Becky, Sarah, and I all get the time off from work each week so we can be consistent. Also pray for all of us that we would be sensitive to God's leading.

Culinary Challenge pt1

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The contestants were set and ready to go at 1:00pm for the judges tasting...

The judges were Lalitha (South Africa), Christian (Germany), Nicholas (Kenya), Anne (England), Tyrone (United States) and representing the voice of the kids, Grace (United States).

As Peter hosted (quite like the chairmen on the American Iron Chef series) Introducing each team and having them describe their dish and a little bit about how they came to their choices in recipe, preparation, and use of ingredients.

This is the order they came out to present their meals: First we had Team Tatyana (with sidekick Christine), Second we had the good Doctors Mark & Peggy, and Third Josh & Peter (affectionately known as 'The Boys').

I think most of us could agree whether we individually liked a dish, food item, or overall presentation or not these contestants did a great job at cooking some good meals that are probably 'do-able' at the 'whole crew' level (400+).

Here is how the 6 judge panel scored and my own personal thoughts:

Mark and Peggy (came out on top after Peter 'The BossMan' made the tie breaking decision) With a Lamb, Rice, Humus, and Pita meal that was very creative and tasty. Mind you I couldn't eat lamb near as much as I could eat the Curry Chicken or Seafood Pasta the other contestants cooked up BUT the rice was nicely seasoned, the lamb was edible (and that in itself is hard to do) but the sauce probably could have been 'kicked up a notch'...I am still leery of whether the pita bread will get done for 400+ people, but the humus was 'spot-on' I would say.

Tatyana (& sidekick Christine) came in second AFTER the tie was broken...but that was because The BossMan knew there was no way he could pull 'The Boys' back up to the #1 spot since they came in Third (because The BossMan really wanted to put the The Boys back on top after reminding him of food 'like back home').Their meal ~ Curry Chicken, Rice, Pasta & Cabbage salad, and Green Bean Vegetables. I loved the curry chicken and it was cooked right, not overdone but not chewy like when it barely gets done. Alas I didn't really think the pineapple helped (but that's a personal preference) and the Almonds needed a little toasting. But the white rice was fine because I would have just pushed it into the curry sauce anyway...maybe a spice and/or herb or two could have picked up the taste on the pasta and cabbage salad, but I personally thought it may work. The thing about this meal is I think you could eat it more consecutive times than either of the other two...and so did the voice for the kids, Grace.

Josh & Peter 'The Boys' came in Third with a Seafood Pasta Salad & Roasted Asparagus with garlic sauteed in butter. A valiant effort, really! I know what the shrimp (they were really to small to be called prawns, those are the bigger ones) tastes like and to make this pasta salad taste even halfway decent you were doing good, and they were. Their meal is totally do-able and the shortest of the three to prepare but I had to also take in to consideration the black garlic in my overcooked asparagus. Less cooking time on the vegetables and more sauce on the pasta...Oh, that would be a winner. But they provided an entertainment and comedy value to the whole dining experience for the 'tasting' & judging that I would like them to reproduce for us in the dining room during a full meal. But I guess that would be asking too much wouldn't it? --->[but yes, I will probably still be stealing this idea and putting it on the menu, it would work especially well on a fire drill day when half to a whole hour of time is taken away from our dinner preparation...time is of the essence cooking for so many]

The BossMan and I will be anxious to see how the winners fair at translating their meals to feed everyone at dinner time!

If you missed pt1 of the Culinary Challenge...well, you missed a great time! After collecting perspectives from the 'audience' we think this could be a hit event and would be willing to do it again, but then of course this one isn't finished yet!

Saturday May 10th ~ Doctors Mark & Peggy will debut their meal for the whole crew.

Sunday May 11th ~ Tatyana (& sidekick?) will debut their meal for the whole crew.

At that time make sure and come back and visit the blog to vote BECAUSE THIS TIME ITS YOUR TURN TO PICK WHO WINS!

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