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Posts with tag raisins

Spotted Dick Renamed Spotted Richard

can of spotted dick
Spotted Dick. Photo: Slashfood.
A Welsh municipality has renamed a British pudding because workers tired of the snickers caused from its double-entendre name.

Spotted Dick is now Spotted Richard on the menu in the government cafeteria in the North Wales town of Flintshire, the Daily Mail reports.

"It just seemed political correctness gone mad," Klaus Armstrong-Braun, a local politician told the Daily Mail. "There was a sign in the dining room for things like rice pudding and then this Spotted Richard -- I had to ask what it was. Whoever has changed it needs to be told they are being silly."

Continue reading Spotted Dick Renamed Spotted Richard

The Ball of Shame

cheeseballBut it's just a humble cheeseball, you say, why call it "the ball of shame?" Well, because shame is what you feel when, in mid-manufacture, you say you'll just take one swipe with a cracker to see how it tastes and wind up scarfing down a half-dozen. Shame is what you feel when you find yourself standing in front of the refrigerator at night, licking off the Saran wrap. However, pride is what you'll feel when you bring it to a party and watch people fall on it like starved hyenas.

Continue reading The Ball of Shame

What would you do if you found rocks in your raisin bread?

Half of a loaf of raisin bread.
Imagine for a moment that you went to a local bakery and got a loaf of your favorite raisin bread. When you get it home you find small rocks are in the mix. Would you accept five bucks as compensation from the bakery?

That's what one customer in Somerville, Massachusetts did. As reported by The Consumerist, Michael Snyder originally asked for five more loaves of the raisin bread, but the bakery offered $5 and he took that. Apparently the raisins were from Chile and used an older production method that makes it easier for debris to get into the raisin supply. The bakery sent back the rest of the raisins.

There has been no talk about any injuries from the rocks, so I assume everyone is fine. I also suppose that things happen and you just need to be able to take things in stride, but five dollars? What would you do in a similar situation?

Eat some Applesauce Cake today

applesauce cake

Sometimes I wonder how certain food holidays are created. They seem so specific. Is there an Applesauce Cake Council that demands a day of their own?

Oh, by the way, today is National Applesauce Cake Day! I've never had it, but it sounds quite good. I keep picturing something that is moist and chewy and wet and dry all at the same time. AOL Food actually has two recipes for it, one from The Joy of Cooking and the other from Woman's Day.

Baking ideas for National Raisin Day

raisin pieRaisins get no respect. The lowliest member of the dried fruit totem pole, raisins have none of the exotic allure of dried mangoes or pineapple, none of the so-good-I-could-sneak-it-into-the-movie-theater-instead-of-candy appeal of dried cherries. Raisins, with their grade school lunchbox associations, get left at the bottom of the bag of trail mix, picked out of the sticky buns. Only prunes have a worse rep, but ever since they changed their name to 'dried plums,' they've hardly given us the time of day.

While I can't be bothered with the beef jerky-tough little raisins from the cardboard canister, I do adore the juicy fire raisin from Trader Joe's, the plump specimens baked into oatmeal raisin cookies. In fact, raisins are underutilized in baking; as soaking in a wet batter and being cooked in an oven tends to soften them, even the cheapest raisins will suit the purpose. In honor of National Raisin Day today, try one of the recipes from Sun-Maid's website - the old-fashioned raisin pie looks irresistibly sticky-sweet. I'm still looking to replicate a raisin cake I ate frequently in Argentina - it was a rather flat yellow sheet cake studded with sugar-swollen brown and golden raisins. If anyone has a similar recipe, please give me a shout.

A granola recipe from my mom's hippie youth

an old serving spoon, filled with homemade granola
Back in the early 1970's, my mom had a friend named Melinda who had a small business making homemade granola. One day, on her way home from shopping for several weeks worth of ingredients in her VW Beetle, she was rear ended. She was not hurt, but the force of the impact sent oats, nuts, raisins, oil and honey flying all over the interior of the car. Even after the body work was completed, the car was never the same. She stopped making granola sometime soon after that. Customers all over the Bay Area mourned her choice, as it was very, very good granola. Thankfully, before she closed up shop, she shared the recipe with a few fortunate people. I thank my lucky stars that my mom happened to be among that number.

This much-coveted recipe is after the jump. It is delicious eaten with yogurt, given away as gifts and eaten as a before-bed snack, right out of the jar or bag in which you are storing it.

photo by Marisa McClellan

Continue reading A granola recipe from my mom's hippie youth

Food Porn: Banana Bread with Booze and Raisins

Although this photo of Fancy Toast's banana bread is a good one, it's not the look of the loaf that makes it appealing. The unassuming exterior hides a secret and that secret is booze. Erinelle turned an otherwise ordinary loaf of banana bread into a deliciously grown-up treat by adding a hearty dose of rum-soaked raisins to her banana bread batter. The recipe she used comes from Nigella Lawsons's popular cookbook How to Be a Domestic Goddess: Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking, which is full of decadently satisfying recipes that are designed to be very do-able for the home chef. Since all that really distinguishes this bread from other banana breads is the use of the boozy raisins, it would be easy to make the addition to your own personal favorite banana bread recipe if you didn't want to use Nigella's. You could even toss them into muffins or cookies for a little bit of a change there, as well.

Food Porn: Oatmeal Breakfast Bars

They might look like cookies at first glance, but these oatmeal breakfast bars from Sugar and Spices are really a healthy way to start off the morning. The bars are packed with oats, raisins, walnuts, a modest amount of sugar and minimal fat. Soft and chewy, they sound like the would be very satisfying without being too heavy - much like the Matisse and Jack's energy bars that I baked up a couple of weeks back. On top of their relatively healthy profile, homemade bars are a good alternative to store bought snack bars because they offer you the chance to adapt them to your taste. Want dried cranberries or blueberries instead of raisins? Or hazelnuts instead of walnuts? Not a problem. The bars do not take very long to make and spending an hour on them over the weekend will definitely save some time if you tend to be in a rush on weekday mornings.

Rice and Nut Stuffing

PistachiosIf your family is like my family, you get into holiday ruts. This can often be a great thing, because if you're cooking something year after year after year, and everyone eats it, then it must be right. But sometimes it's good to experiment, maybe make another version of a dish, so we can have a choice and try something new.

That's very true of stuffing. A lot of families stick with one kind (bread stuffing, oatmeal, cornbread, etc) and stick with that, but this year I'm going to bring something new to my sister's house, and I'm thinking about this dish. It's Rice and Nut Stuffing. What intrigues me about it is the use of pistachios and raisins.

Continue reading Rice and Nut Stuffing

What to avoid giving out for Halloween

If, for some reason, you aren't familiar with the practice of giving candy out to costumed children on Halloween, you might want to take a look at the guide put together by Stuff Magazine explaining the best and worst things to give out. Eager trick or treaters look forward to participating in the ritual every year and we wouldn't want to disappoint them. The worst "treats" include:
  • Apples -- They're tasty, but they're not candy. They're "disappointing as hell for a little kid expecting a Snickers."
  • Marshmallows -- Yes, they're candy, but they don't usually come individually wrapped -- a must for Halloween treats.
  • A bag of pennies -- "It's like giving away a gift certificate for a piece of gum." Save up all those pennies and buy a bag of the real thing.
  • Smarties -- The U.S. Smarties are chalky and kids don't even seem to enjoy them, despite the fact that they sometimes eat them on the grounds that they still constitute candy. Try to get U.K. Smarties (similar to M&M's) or avoid the candy mixes that include these.
  • Anything homemade -- "This one is alright if you only give them to kids with neglectful parents." Any responsible parent is going to dump something unwrapped as fast as possible. Save your energy.
  • Raisins -- "People generally give them out under the pretense that they want to make kids healthier. In reality, they give them out because they hate fun." The boxed raisins never taste all that fresh anyway.

The best options would include "anything made by a real candy company," preferably king-sized versions.

After all, any resulting cavities aren't going to end up on your dental bill.

[Thanks, Patrick]

Rice pudding with leftover rice

I always have rice leftover after getting Chinese takeout, no matter how little food I ordered or how many people are there to share it. It's almost as though the people on the phone have a sixth sense about how much rice will be consumed. Of course, I'm not really complaining because I really like rice and it's better to have a little extra than not enough. And rice pudding can always be made with the leftovers.

Continue reading Rice pudding with leftover rice

How to make raisins at home

Raisins are dried grapes, an obvious and simple truth. Despite the fact that getting the grapes to turn into raisins requires only one step, it's safe to say that not many people try this process at home. I decided to give it a shot, taking advantage of the blazing heat that I've been experiencing lately. I covered a wire cooling rack with a paper towel, set freshly washed grapes on top, and covered them with another paper towel. I set the tray outside in the sun and let nature go to work. You may have to weight down your towels, or cover the whole tray with a domed picnic screen to prevent flies from landing on the grapes.

These grapes, pictured, are about two days into the drying process, but they dry up more each day, getting sweeter as time passes. It took about one week to go from grapes to raisins, but this time will vary depending on sunlight and heat. They taste great, especially compared to the majority of pre-packaged raisins, and are a great summer project that only takes a little effort to do.

Sweet, savory and healthy Waldorf Coleslaw

I saw this recipe in an old issue of Cooking Light (from 2003) that I had lying around and it immediately caught my eye. Why I didn't make it the first time I saw it, I'll never know, but I'm glad I did it now.

Waldorf salad isn't something that you see too often, but the combination of apples, raisins, celery and walnuts is not only addictive, but crunchy and satisfying. Coleslaw, too, is crunchy and refreshing, which is why it is such a popular side to accompany rich and meaty meals. Of course, both salads are slathered in mayo, so they're not exactly healthy foods despite having low-cal ingredients. This is one of the reasons why I liked the Cooking Light recipe, since it eliminates a lot of the fat but still tastes great. Combining the elements of the two salads into Waldorf Coleslaw worked beautifully.

Continue reading Sweet, savory and healthy Waldorf Coleslaw

Sun-Maid maid gets makeover

The Sun-Maid raisin girl is going digital. She is one of the most recognizable brand faces there is, having been almost unchanged since 1916, with only small updates made every year. The real-life Sun Maid maid was Lorainne Collette, who was discovered in Fresno, California, drying her long hair under a red bonnet. The wholesome, natural image of the Sun-Maid raisin girl went well with the company's message that their raisins are all natural, made with just "grapes and sunshine." But the maid is getting her biggest makeover ever this year: she's going digital.

The modern girl still has the same long hair and red bonnet, but now she does yoga on the Sun-Maid website in addition to promoting her grapes. She is younger and curvier than before. There is talk of giving her a name.

Like some people, including ad executives interviewed by the SF Chronicle, I think that the digital girl is a little creepy, though growers are apparently meeting her with enthusiasm. If she looked a little less computer-generated and a little more natural, she might fit with the “as nature intended” image of the brand a bit better, but if Sun-Made’s goal is to modernize, they’re probably on the right track

[Images SF Gate]

Continue reading Sun-Maid maid gets makeover

Gorp...what do you call it?

It appears that I've made it through the 24 years of my life without having encountered the word gorp. You can imagine my surprise when, on a recent car trip, my girlfriend referred to the bag of peanuts, raisins and chocolate chips that I packed, asking "Where's the gorp?" Gorp came up in conversation again the other day, so I decided to do a little research. The origins of the word are cloudy at best. According to a Wikipedia entry, gorp may be a "backronym," an acronym created to match the letters of a word that already exists, standing for Good Old Raisins and Peanuts or Granola Oats Raisins and Peanuts. I'm skeptical of the latter because granola generally contains oats anyway, so that would be redundant. Apparently gorp is also known as scroggin in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Iraq. Supposedly, this may also be an acronym.

[Photo: Wikipedia]

Continue reading Gorp...what do you call it?

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Tip of the Day

Drying fruit is easy, mostly hands-off and yields a sweet and healthy snack.

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