Homemade Tortilla Chips

The first time I made homemade tortilla chips was out of necessity and laziness. I was too lazy to drive to the store and buy chips and needed them for the fresh bowl of guacamole I had just made. I know it was very poor planning to make guac and not have tortilla chips. I have no defense there.

I use to fry them, which works fine, but takes both a lot of time and a lot of oil. Now I bake them.

I love making my own tortilla chips for several reasons. First, I’ve never seen commercially available tortilla chips made with just olive oil (I’m sure they exist, I’ve just never found them). I’m not a fan of soy or canola oil, so I avoid them. Second, I always try to keep corn tortilla in my fridge, so the ingredients are on hand. Third, they are so doggone good!

Ingredients

8 corn tortillas
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt

Method

  • Heat oven to 375ºF
  • With a pastry brush or your hands, coat both sides of the tortillas with olive oil.
  • Stack the tortillas for easy cutting.
  • Cut the stack into eighths.
  • Separate the pieces and arrange in a single layer on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt.
  • Bake the chips for about 8-12 minutes or until they are crisp and just beginning to brown slightly. Keep an eye on them and don’t let them burn!
  • Remove from oven and let cool 5 minutes. They should get crispier as they cool. If they still aren’t crisp enough, place them back in the oven. Again, keep an eye on them, since nobody wants burnt chips!

    • Serves four (or two if you eat as much as we do).

Salsa, the new sunscreen?

If you catch me smiling, it’s probably because I’m a little giddy thinking about tomatoes. Sure there are other things to be happy about in August, like corn, peaches and a cool dip in the creek, but fresh tomatoes are what I get excited about.

There are many reasons to love tomatoes: BLTs, panzanella, Caprese salad and gazpacho to name a few. Recently I’ve been hearing that eating tomatoes, especially cooked ones, can provide skin protection from the sun.

I have been interested in sunscreen ever since my high school science fair project. I tested the effectiveness of the sunscreen, based on the photosynthesis of isopropyl alcohol benzophenone (I didn’t make this up). I added alcohol and benzophenone to test tubes, sealed them, brushed them with sunscreen and set them under a sun lamp.

After a few hours, crystals formed. I then weighed the crystals. The more crystals, the more sunlight that got through and therefore the less effective the sunscreen was. I’m sure my 11th grade experiment may not have been completely accurate, but with the help from the art department who did an excellent job painting my beachscape backdrop, my project won first prize.

Sunday, I accidentally conducted another sunscreen test. My husband and I went to his company picnic. It was hot and sunny and due to an oversight, we didn’t have on a drop of sunscreen. However, we did drink a glass of tomato juice that morning. I can’t say exactly how long we were out in the sun, since I did try to stay in the shade, but I burn easily and the more than an hour of sunlight we certainly got would have normally turned my skin rather pink if not right out red.

No red, no pink, no tan, no nothing.

I came home and did a little research. Seems like everyone from USA Today to AccuWeather sourced a Universities of Newcastle and Manchester study that showed eating tomato paste could help protect against sunburn.

Whenever I keep reading the same study cited over and over, I like to go to the source. PubMed (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) is the place to do this.

The study, titled “Tomato paste rich in lycopene protects against cutaneous photo damage in humans in vivo: a randomized controlled trial” was tiny, comprised of only 20 particpants. Over a 12-week period, one group ate 5 teaspoons of tomato paste a day and the control group did not. The people who ate the tomato paste were a third better protected against sunburn than the control group. According to the study, the conclusion was “Tomato paste containing lycopene provides protection against acute and potentially longer-term aspects of photo damage.”

Another study showed that using lycopene topically provides UV protection. I personally, would rather eat a tomato.

Raw and cooked tomatoes both contain the phytonutrient lycopene, but cooking seems to increase the amount of lycopene that can be absorbed by the body. Vitamin C decreases with cooking, so I like to include both cooked and raw tomatoes in my diet.

I wouldn’t take this study to mean that you can replace the sunscreen in your beach bag with a bottle of tomato juice, but it looks like eating tomatoes can boosts your skins own sun-protection.

My sun strategy: stay in the shade, wear a big hat, and eat plenty of tomatoes!

Fresh Homemade Salsa

No need to grab a jar of salsa this summer with all the fresh produce available. Throw in a ripe peach if you are feeling adventurous.

Ingredients

4 large tomatoes, chopped (I add a few yellow cherry tomatoes for color)
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeño or serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded and finely chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped (I like to use a sweet onion, but any will do)
2-3 tablespoons lime juice (about one lime)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Method

In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Let sit for about an hour for the flavors to meld.

Sesame Ginger Zucchini Salad

This is an easy no-cook summer salad.

Ingredients
2 cups zucchini, grated or cut into small match-stick sized pieces
1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
1/2-1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted
salt and pepper to taste

Method
-Lightly salt the grated or cut zucchini and let drain for about 20 minutes
-Mix all ingredients (yes, it is that simple).
Enjoy!

Kale Salad…yes it IS delicious!

Last year, I bought kale seedlings for our garden. The kale that I was familiar with had large, medium green leaves with ruffled edges. The kale I was growing had very narrow, dark green leaves. I thought maybe I had mixed up my seedlings.

My friend Ellen tipped me off to the fact that I was growing the trendy Lacinato kale, also known as Tuscan kale, dinosaur kale or cavolo nero (black kale, since the leaves are such a dark green they are almost black). It’s slightly sweeter than curly leafed kale and has a more delicate flavor. It’s now my favorite type of kale.

I rarely see Lacinato at the grocery store, but often see it at farmers’ markets, so keep an eye out for it.

No question about it, kale is a nutritional superstar. One cup of cooked kale has almost 200 percent of your recommended daily allowance of vitamin A 88 percent of your vitamin C and is off the charts with vitamin K (1,327.62 percent to be exact). Vitamin K is needed for blood clotting and building bones.

Kale also contains many phytonutrients, a fancy word for a class of nutrients, other than vitamins, that is obtained from eating plants. Carotenoids, flavonoids, sulfides and a bunch of other things of which I’ve never heard (saponins for one) are phytonutrients. They are much touted for their health benefits and kale contains a boatload of them. Its organosulfur compounds are of particular note, as they are purported to lessen the occurrence of a variety of cancers.

The spring and the fall are the best times to get kale. Its leaves are a little sweeter in cooler weather. Kale is ninth on the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen,” which is a list of the most pesticide contaminated fruits and vegetables. So talk to your farmer about his/her pesticide practices or pick up an organic bunch.

Jan’s Kale Salad
This is adapted from my friend Jan’s recipe. And she got it from a friend. No telling where the friend got it, but I’m guessing each person adjusted it a bit.

Ingredients
1 small bunch of kale (lacinato preferred)
1 cup bread crumbs (to make your own, crumble a piece of very dry toast)
1/4 cup sliced almonds (Jan uses pine nuts)
1/4 chopped dried figs
1/2 cup or more crumbled feta cheese

Dressing:
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons shallot, minced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Method

  • Wash kale and discard stems. (Toss them in your compost!)
  • Cut the kale into thin ribbons (chiffonade). Stack the leaves, roll them into a long tube, then slice into thin strips. If this sounds too fussy for you, just chop it.
  • For the dressing, whisk together the olive oil, shallots, lemon juice, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl.
  • In a large bowl, toss kale with dressing to coat. Add the feta, figs, bread crumbs and almonds and toss. Salt and pepper to taste.

How not to make a (blueberry) burger

I had a bad cooking day. It happens sometimes.

It all started with blueberries and expectations. We had some lovely house guests recently who showed up with a big bag of blueberries and a beautiful blue and white pie plate from Burlington, Vermont. Needless to say, I was very excited. I wanted to cook something special with them. I had high hopes indeed.

Of course I would bake a pie — got to test out the new equipment, you know. But I also wanted something savory.

My first thought was to revamp my sour cherry ketchup into blueberry ketchup. I followed my recipe except I substituted blueberries for the cherries and currents for the golden raisins.

It was okay, the sour cherry ketchup is miles better. I put it in the fridge with the idea that it would be good on chicken. It wasn’t a total disaster but no homerun either.

Having tossed cherries into a hamburger before, I thought blueberries might be an interesting addition. A quick Internet search revealed that I wasn’t the first one to think of this.

As I do when I’m working on a recipe, I search for existing recipes, compare, and then go off on my own. For blueberry burgers, maybe I should have stuck a little closer to the playbook.

I started with a cup of blueberries. A cup of berries with a pound of ground beef sounded good to me. I dumped the blueberries and a few garlic cloves into the food processor and gave it a whirl. There was a lot of liquid but without thinking too much about it, I added the mixture right to the ground beef.

Only I didn’t have a pound of ground beef, turns out I only had half a pound. I just made a big sloppy, grass-fed mess.

Recognizing that I might run into problems when cooking the burgers, I made a tiny test patty and fried it up. It immediately fell apart. I’m glad I didn’t test it on the grill.

I wondered if other people had problems with the burger, so I went back to the online recipes. I often find the comment section very helpful when troubleshooting recipes.

My problem became apparent when I glanced at the recipes. Eating Well’s recipe only called for a third cup of blueberries, plus they used breadcrumbs to bind everything together. Serious Eats called for a half of a cup of blueberries to a pound and a half of ground beef. Oops.

And here I was stuck with my mess of a burger that had more than six times the amount of blueberries their recipes called for. What to do?

One thought was to make tacos. Add a little chili powder, some onion, cook it up, wrap it up in a soft corn tortilla and be done with it. That sounded pretty good and is something I might try still.

But I wanted a hamburger on a bun and I wasn’t ready to admit defeat. Following Eating Well’s lead, I decided to add some binding agents.

I added an egg and breadcrumbs. I also decided to bake it. The thought was I wouldn’t have to chance it falling apart by flipping and hoped that some of the juice would evaporate. Seemed to work.

An ordinary burger might have dried out, but my super-soaked one did just fine, unless of course you wanted yours medium rare. These were cooked enough to make any food safety inspector proud. Cooked any less and I’m certain in wouldn’t have made it to the bun in one piece.

Taste wise, once topped with an onion slice, three condiments and put on a bun, I was hard pressed to taste the blueberries.

Our two burgers sported a half of a cup of blueberries each. That’s a healthy dose of the berries’ powerful antioxidants. I think that is what this burger is all about—taking a summer staple and upping the nutritional value. If you want something fruity, stick with a pie.

While my mess of a burger ended up tasty, I’m clearly not the one to relay any blueberry burger recipes. For that I would go to either www.serious eats.com/ or www.eatingwell.com. Or just wing it — only wing it with much less blueberries than I did!

My fingers are crossed that the pie comes off without a hitch!