Food (for thought) Friday - Handy Cooking/Baking Helpers Part 2

There was more that I wanted to add to my last helps post, but it would have been a bit too long, so I decided I'd just break it up into 2 posts, and actually I've probably enough for another one or two. There's a lot of these I've committed to memory because I've used them enough times that it's just common knowledge to me. I'm sure it is to most of you as well, lol. When you cook and bake a lot of this information becomes second nature!

But there are some things that I have to look up every time, as for some reason, they just don't stick in my head, lol. So, of course I have them all written down in my book in one handy place. I know I could look some up in my red and white Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and find stuff on the internet on my phone by Googling it - but sometimes it's just easier to pull my book out and look there. Because all my usual need-to-knows are there. And lately, with portion control, I seem to used them at least once a week!

So, once again, I share them with you...

Dash or Pinch  = less than 1/8 teaspoon

Teaspoon to Tablespoon

1 1/2 teaspoon = 1/2 tablespoon

3 teaspoon = 1 tablespoon

Cups to Tablespoons and Teaspoons

1/8 cup = 2 tablespoons; 6 teaspoons

1/4 cup = 4 tablespoons; 12 teaspoons

1/3 cup = 5 1/3 tablespoons; approximately 16 teaspoons

1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons; 24 teaspoons

2/3 cup = 10 2/3 tablespoons; approximately 32 teaspoons

3/4 cup = 12 tablespoons; 36 teaspoons

7/8 cup = 14 tablespoons; 42 teaspoons (3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons)

1 cup    = 16 tablespoons; 48 teaspoons

Fluid Ounces

1/2 ounce =  1 tablespoon; 3 teaspoon

1 ounce = 2 tablespoons; 1/8 cup

2 ounces = 4 tablespoons; 1/4 cup

4 ounces = 8 tablespoons; 1/2 cup

6 ounces = 12 tablespoons; 3/4 cup

8 ounces = 16 tablespoons; 1 cup; 1/2 pint

16 ounces = 2 cups; 1 pint

32 ounces = 4 cups; 2 pints; 1 quart

64 ounces = 8 cups; 4 pints; 2 quarts

128 ounces = 16 cups; 4 quarts; 1 gallon

Pounds

16 ounces = 1 pound

Food (for thought) Friday - Handy Cooking/Baking Helpers

Today as I was making my macaroni salad to go along with dinner tonight,(which can be found here on the blog: Grandma's Macaroni Salad) I thought of my mom and how often we had homemade salads of that nature when I was a kid. She always seemed to have potato salad or something ready to go. I'll admit it, I'm guilty of buying my salads from the deli for convenience-sake more often than not these days. I don't know why, potato salad or a macaroni salad aren't that difficult to prepare! I think for me, what it boils down to is planning ahead. I usually think of these things too late in the day for the salad to be ready by dinner. While they are easy to prepare, they can be slightly time consuming (cutting and cooking potatoes for example or prepping ingredients for mac salad) and not something you want to be doing while you're cooking the rest of your dinner, they are to be made ahead of time.

That then led my brain-thoughts onto time saving things. Which, as I was reading my recipe out of my book, I was reminded of the other things I write in my book to save me time. I have through the years added to my own "Special Helps" section - things I've looked up at one time or another that was relevant to what I was making at the time. I decided to save myself the headache for next time, and add the note in the back of my book. That way, next time around, I have my information in one handy spot - thereby saving me time by NOT having to hunt it down, again!

So, I thought I'd just share a few of my little notes that have helped me along the way with one food project or another!

This bit of "cups per 5 or 10 lbs of flour, sugar and butter" and other information, I remember came from gearing up for Christmas baking. I take all the recipes I am planning to make in their respective quantities, and I add up all the butter, flour, sugar and eggs etc.. That way I can figure out just how much I need in total and how much I should buy. Figuring it out in bulk saves me a lot of time, lol! And as stated, the amounts are all approximate, but it does help give me numbers to work with when I'm making my shopping list for the ingredients.

Hope you find these as helpful as I did through the years! 

Cups per pound of all-purpose flour

approximately 3 1/3 to 4 cups = 1 pound of flour

approximately 34 - 40 cups  in a 10 lb bag

approximately 18-20 cups in a 5 lb bag

Cups per pound of sugar, as per type

Cups per pound of granulated sugar: approximately 2 - 2 1/4 cups

Cups per pound of powdered sugar: approximately 3 3/4 to 4 cups

Cups per pound of brown sugar: approximately 2 1/4 - 2 1/2

Butter

2 cups per pound of butter

Chocolate Chips

1 cup = approximately 6 oz.

Applesauce for Vegetable Oil Swap

Use the same amount of applesauce as you would oil in your recipe. This does work better in some things than others - as it's not recommended for cookies, but works pretty well for cakes and brownies! I use this one bit of information a lot. 

Food (for Thought) Friday

by Kris B.

Friday’s will look a bit different here during the month of July.  I am traveling over the next three weeks so accomplishing food and photos will be impossible.  Rather than leaving my faithful partner to do all of the cooking by herself this month, we decided to take a break from recipes and give you Food (for thought) Fridays.  You will hear from me today and on July 22; on the alternate Fridays, you will hear from Tracey.  In August, we’ll resume our regularly scheduled programming - food photos and recipes.

I had my thoughts collected and ready to go for today, and then last night happened…

Last evening Weber and I went with my youngest daughter for the second round of wedding dress shopping.  We stopped for a late dinner before picking up my oldest daughter from work at 9pm.  As we pulled into our driveway, I got an emergency alert message from the Dallas County Community College district, for whom I teach,  saying that one of our campuses was on lockdown due to of police activity in the area.  This was not the campus on which I teach, but it was a little unnerving.  Yesterday was the final day of the first summer term.  I wondered,  had a student “lost it” over a final exam?  And then social media went crazy.  Things in downtown Dallas were much more serious than a distraught student.  We sat down in our recliners and turned on the TV, and remained glued to it until nearly 3am.

The mayhem began at the conclusion of a peaceful protest around the recent police shootings of young African American males by white police officers in other parts of the country.  The Dallas protest was calm and upbeat.  Though there were a hundred Dallas police officers in the vicinity of the protest march, they were not dressed in riot gear, but rather in their summer uniforms like they would be for any other July evening in Dallas.  Rather than an “us against them” atmosphere, the march through downtown was one where law enforcement and citizens who want to see justice for all came together.

The march concluded and the gunfire began.

For several hours, statistics changed constantly.  Multiple shooters, two shooters, one officer down, five officers down, one officer deceased, two innocent bystanders shot, two suspects under arrest, a photo of a person of interest was released, a chase occurred and two more people were detained, the person of interest was questioned and released, ten officers down and three deceased, there are bombs all over downtown Dallas, a shooter is cornered and police are negotiating…

After six log hours, when all was said and done, five law enforcement officers had been killed and seven more were injured.  Two bystanders were shot but sustained non-life threatening injuries.  And the whole incident was the work of one lone gunman, one assassin who had carefully planned, calculated and executed an attack that specifically targeted white police officers.

In light of recent police actions in our country, this man’s anger is certainly justified, but his actions are not.

I don’t want to get into a debate about gun rights, but I do want to state some facts.  First of all, I am in favor of the strictest gun laws possible.  That said, I know that many, many people disagree with me.  That’s OK.  I am willing to agree to disagree.  However, for those who think that if the general public is armed, there are more people to take down “the bad guys,” let’s look at last night’s incident on the streets of downtown Dallas.

Milling about the march route, there were one hundred or more armed law enforcement officers and one lone sniper.  Thirteen people were shot, five fatally.  Of those thirteen shot, eleven were armed officers trained to use their weapons under these circumstances.  Were there also armed citizens on the streets of Dallas last night?  You bet.  Did any of them fire their weapons?  Not that has been reported.  What did some of them do?  As soon as the first shots rang out, they found the nearest police officer and handed over their guns.  Why?  So that they wouldn’t be mistaken for the actual shooter.   A wise move, especially since the video of such an exchange that has surfaced is of a young African American man handing over a weapon that he was carrying openly and legally to an officer.  I applaud him for that though I know his actions were motivated by fear, the very fear which sparked the evening’s rally in the first place.  Oh, I should add that it was a picture of this young man that was the first released as “a person of interest.”  Fortunately, someone had the cell phone video showing him handing over his gun as the gunshots were echoing through the downtown streets.

Since today’s post is entitled food for thought, I invite you to think about this:  if one hundred armed and highly trained law enforcement officers lost so many of their own to the trigger of a single sniper, what makes any of us think that a terrified school teacher with a handgun in her desk drawer could thwart an incident like Sandy Hook? Or, a college freshman who may think himself invincible could prevent any of the increasing numbers of shootings on college campuses?  Lets be realistic…the odds are not in the average citizen’s favor.  Admittedly, like the lottery, there is that 1 in 227,000,000 chance where things may work out differently.

All of this hits way too close to home for me   The place downtown where all of these events took place is fifteen miles from my house and not far from the downtown arts district, an area where I have found myself many times in the evening.  The stand-off with police concluded in the parking garage of one of our sister campuses.  Students like I see every day and faculty members who are my colleagues were huddled in bathrooms for hours not knowing what was going on around them.  It is all very surreal and absolutely real at the same time.

In the light of a new day, the people have come together.  Our community is rallying around the Dallas police and there has been an outpouring of love and support for the families of the fallen officers.  Barriers of race, religion, gender, age, socioeconomic standing have all been broken down as the city of Dallas unites and begins the process of healing.

This is an unstable and scary world that we live in right now.  Not just here in Dallas.  Everywhere.  Last night’s mass shooting happened on the streets of Dallas, but it could just as easily been on the streets of your city.  These widespread feelings of fear and uncertainty can not and must not be blamed on any one segment of our population.  It is a national crisis, one in which we have all, every single person who calls the United States home, had a part in creating, either by our actions or our inactions.  The bright spot here is that we all also have the capacity to either hinder or remedy the current climate in this country by the choices we make in terms of our own inaction and action.

For now, please send your thoughts and prayers to Dallas, a city that stands tall amidst hurt and hope, sorrow and strength, pain and possibility, and darkness and light.  Thank you.

Grab and Go Snacks

from Kris B.

Sometimes during the Texas summer it is just too hot to eat a "real" meal.  We find ourselves snacking our way through the day.  A go-to snack is crackers and cheese, sometimes with a slice of fruit or veggie added to make it feel more "meal-like."  But sometimes,  it's just a handful of crackers on the go and that's it.

I like almost any kind of store-bought cracker - plain, seedy, sweet, spicy - I'll eat them all; but, store bought crackers are not always made with the most wholesome of ingredients.  And, they often times have a ridiculous amount of sodium, something the we are careful about in our own cooking.

Several years ago, I went on a kick to try and find a recipe for crackers that would replicate the good qualities of store-bought Wheat Thins, a personal favorite,  but cut out some of the "not-so-good" ingredients.  I am happy to say that I found a great recipe...I think it was a King Arthur Flour recipe.  And in making them, I learned how easy and fun it is to make my own snack crackers.

One of the things that is nice about making your own crackers is that you have control over the size and shape.  You are only limited by what cookie cutters you have!  With the batch of Basil Parmesan crackers that I made this week, I used half of the dough to make the bite-sized circles that are pictured here and the other half to make squares about the size of traditional saltines.  These circles, which are about the size of a quarter, are the grab and go snacks.  The squares will get some cheese and apple added to them for lunch over the weekend.

INGREDIENTS
1 Cup flour
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
3/4 Cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 TBS butter, at room temperature
3 TBS heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

In a bowl, mix the flour, basil, salt, and pepper.  Stir in the cheese.  With a pastry blender, cut in the butter.  Work the mixture until you have an even "sandy" consistency.  Add the cream.  At this point, I usually mix it with my hands.  It takes some time before the ingredients come together into a ball.  Be patient and resist the urge to add more liquid!  It will eventually form a ball of dough.

Once the ball of dough has formed, turn it out onto a lightly floured board.  Roll to a thickness of about 1/4'.  Use a cookie cutter to make the desired size and shape of crackers.  Place the cut crackers on the prepared cookie sheets.  Bake for 10 minutes or until the edges turn a golden brown.

The number of crackers will depend on the size of cutter that you use.  

These crackers are also good with a nice hot bowl of soup during the winter months!

A note about the photograph... I was bored with the standard food photo set-up that and nothing I was doing was making me happy.  When Weber asked if he could try one of the crackers, I thought, food is meant to be eaten so why do I always photograph it with no people?  I told him he could have some crackers if he would be in my photo for this week.  Today's shot was kind of an experiment.  I was a bit unsure about it so I sent the image to Tracey, my partner in crime and fabulous food photographer, and asked for constructive criticism.  She gave me a thumbs up, so I went with it. Lol!  As with any kind of photography, sometimes you have to step outside your comfort zone and try something different.  Sometimes it will work.  And sometimes it won't.  That's OK.  It's all about learning and growing along the way.


from Tracey G.

My offering this week is food, just a little bit different kind of food - food for the critters!

This has been a crazy year for the hummingbirds. Usually it's put the food out, they come. Not this year - they were waiting for me! I didn't have the feeders out yet, and I was sitting in my chair one evening - I look out the window next to me and there's one hovering at the window looking in... I laughed because that was a first. A little while later, I look over - and there he/she is again (I couldn't see the colors of the feathers at the time) - hovering. I sent Kris a text AND a short video telling her I feel like I am being stalked! Never have I had it happen once, let alone twice - so you can bet I went and made some food for my little feathered friend!

I've never bought it, I've always made it at home and the food color probably isn't the best thing for the little guys, in fact the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center says specifically not to add red dye. It's super simple to make it at home, and I'm sure it's probably a lot cheaper too! All you  need is some sugar and water! It's a simple recipe of 1 part sugar and 4 parts water.

Hummingbird Food Recipe

makes 4 cups

4 cups water

1 cup sugar

Mix the sugar and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil to kill any bacteria or mold present. Cool. Once cool, fill the feeder(s). Any leftover sugar water may be stored in the refrigerator.

I now make sure I have a supply on hand at all times - I don't want them ganging up on me!