Time flies as we head into May. April was a busy month for me. If you have been following my newsletter, I am sure you have heard me talking up KidsPeace Wing Cook-off.  The cook-off was a hit! We couldn’t ask for a better first year. We had 12 teams competing, from professionals to amateur backyard experts. All the teams did a fantastic job showcasing their talents in cooking wings, and the winners got to take home great prizes such as a sailing trip, interactive dinner party for eight, George Foreman grills, and many other gift certificates and gift baskets. In addition to the cook-off, we had several vendors showcasing their wares from home interiors to temporary tattoos. Justin Morehead came out to entertain the crowd with his great renditions and we had great door prizes giveaways. So for those of you who had missed out on this year’s cook-off, make sure you keep your eyes and ears open for next year’s event. We had a great turn out but hope next year would be even bigger with more competitors, in addition to better and greater door and winning prizes. The board members of KidsPeace including myself had worked hard, and I am proud to be involved in this venture. Most important of all, we managed to raise some money to help out the kids to buy basic essential for them. Check out my photo gallery for pictures of the event.

April had brought us bouts of much needed spring showers and some lovely cool weather in between. However the weather is heating up and I noticed great looking produce in the grocery stores. Talking about groceries, Fayetteville has come a long way in meeting the needs of its residents with a bigger variety of local and not so familiar ingredients. However, I think there is room for further growth and improvement in carrying a wider variety of produce and ingredients that are much easily available in other cities. Fayetteville is no longer a small town. Yes we do have a small town feel but we are a city of mixed cultures and transient residents who are quite use to a bigger variety of ingredients. We are making progress where organic products are concern, but there are a whole lot more out there that I wish I can purchase instead of ordering online or going to Raleigh or Cary to purchase. The ingredients that I am referring to are not that unusual. For example, fresh water chestnuts, pea shoots, a variety of wild rice and not mixed wild rice, and many other. Some of these items are available but are a hard to come by. As artichokes are expensive, I wish we carry the frozen variety, which is better than the canned stuff. Well I can keep naming items that I wish we carry, but that will not solve my problems. I am still hopeful, however, that maybe in the near future these ingredients and more become common commodities in our grocery stores.

Cinco de Mayo (5^th of May) commemorates the victory of the Mexican militia over the French army at The Battle Of Puebla in 1862. It is primarily a regional holiday celebrated in the Mexican state capital city of Puebla and throughout the state of Puebla, with some limited recognition in other parts of Mexico, and especially in U.S. cities with a significant Mexican population. A common misconception in the United States is that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico’s Independence day, which was actually gained on September 16,1821. The holiday commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

However, this Mexican victory at Puebla only delayed the French invasion of Mexico City; a year later, the French occupied Mexico. The French occupying forces placed Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico on the throne of Mexico. The French were eventually defeated and expelled in 1867. Maximilian was executed by President Benito Juarez, five years after the Battle of Puebla.

The holiday of Cinco de Mayo is primarily a regional holiday in Mexico, celebrated in the state of Puebla. There is some limited recognition of the holiday in other parts of the country. For the most part the celebrations combine food, music and dancing. In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has turned into a more commerciliazed event. Commercial interests in the United States have capitalized on the celebration, advertising Mexican products and services, with an emphasis on beverages, foods, and music. The only celebration (of any kind) that can be found here in Fayetteville is the annual 10K run and some of the Mexican restaurants around town will bring in a mariachi band to commemorate the day. If there are more activities with regards to Cinco de Mayo, please feel free to post it to my blog to let other people know about it.

Okay what can you do to celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Why eat and be merry of course. Party stores around town carry all sorts of decorations to get you into the mood. While there, grab a piñata or two for the kids and adults. Stock the bar with a variety of Mexican beer such as Modelo, Corona, Tecate and many other brands. Try out a few mixed drinks such as the one below. In addition, here are a couple of Mexican recipes that may be of interest to you.

Strawberry-Lime Blenderitas

2 cups lime juice

1 cup tequila

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup triple sec or cointreau

1 cup fresh or frozen strawberries

Ice

Salt (optional garnish for glass)

Fill blender 2/3 with ice. Add ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve in a glass with a salted rim.

Stuffed Tamale Peppers

4 large red bell peppers

1 teaspoon oil

½ cup chopped onion

1 clove minced garlic

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 teaspoon cumin

1-28 ounce canned tomatoes

½ cup cornmeal

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup canned black beans

1 cup canned corn

1 cup grated Cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

1. Slice tops off peppers, remove seeds and tough inner ribs, and blanch in boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.
2. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Add chopped onion and garlic and cook until softened, about 3 to 5 minutes. Add chili powder and cumin and cook for another minute.
3. Drain and chop tomatoes, discarding juice. Add tomatoes to saucepan along with cornmeal and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is thick, about 10 minutes.
4. Drain and rinse beans. Add beans, corn, and 1/2 of cheese to the mixture.
5. Spoon cornmeal mixture into peppers and top with remaining cheese.
6. Place peppers in a baking pan and bake for 25 minutes or until cheese melts.

Serves 4

Beef Fajitas

1/2 c. olive oil
1/3 c. lime juice
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cumin
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs. skirt steak
1/4 c. vinegar
1/2 c. chopped onion
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/2 tbsp. paprika
1 can beer
1 lg. onion, sliced
Flour tortillas

1. Mix all spices together. Add beer to complete the marinade. Add meat. Marinade meat for a minimum of 2 hours but no longer than 6 as the acid in the marinade with cook the meat.
2. Preheat barbecue grill.
3. Remove skirt steak from marinade and grill meat for 10 to 15 minutes for medium rare (depending on thickness of cut of meat). Remove and let meat rest for about 15 minutes.
4. Slice meat across the grain and serve in floured tortillas.

Serves 4.

Interactive Dinner Party, what is it all about? It’s a great way to entertain friends while enjoying watching and participating in cooking with the chef. As the kitchen is always the gathering place at parties, why not throw the party in the kitchen itself? The menu can be a theme that revolves around countries, certain ingredients, or just about anything that is of interest dealing with food. Whenever I help my clients throw one of these parties, everyone has a good time, coming away from the party excited, full of new ideas, recipes, and better cooking skills and techniques. It is a great way to break the ice, especially if you have a bunch of people who do not know one another well. People who are initially shy, will start to open up laughing and letting their hair down by the end of the evening (okay, sometimes alcohol does play a part….). Furthermore, it is a great way to unload some of the stress of preparing food for the party onto the chef, leaving you free to enjoy the party. I enjoy doing these parties as I get to know people, impart my passion for food at the same time showing off my cooking prowess. I especially love the informal atmosphere. All in all it ends well with the host being the talk of the town, having thrown this cool party for his or her friends. So the next time you are thinking of having a party, why not throw an interactive party. Who knows, by then I may come up with a different party idea, such as an Iron Chef party. How cool is that!

Kitchen Gadget—Sauté pan. If there is one pan I cannot live without, it is my sauté pan. It has a flat bottom with straight sides and a long handle. Most sauté pans do come with a lid also. Its flat bottom provides even distribution of heat to allow the ingredients to brown quickly on condition that you do not crowd the pan. The low sides help circulate air which helps prevent the food from getting soggy and keep the overall weight of the pan down so you can move it around a bit. So what kind of sauté pan should you get? The best heat conductor is of course copper; however, copper is expensive and hard to maintain (at least for as I am not a fan of polishing). I do like the anodized aluminum pans. They transmit heat effectively and are much cheaper. Best of all, they clean up easily. You want to be sure the pan is made of heavy gauge material and that the bottom of the pan is thick. A thin bottom is a recipe for disaster because they often transmit heat unevenly and develop hot spots. All pans have hot spots. The cheaper pans just have bigger hot spots and more of them. That's why you want to invest in a few really good pans if you are going to be doing much cooking. Stay away from nonstick surfaces for your sauté pan because they limit what you can do with them. In addition, they can't go in the oven although that is now changing. They make it almost impossible to make a good pan sauce because it is difficult to create those brown bits called fond when sautéing a piece of meat or chicken. Sauté pans come in all sizes from one quart to seven quarts. I like my three quart as it not too small but big enough to handle cooking four to six servings. Depending on how much you want to spend, there are many different materials and brands to choose from. I personally own a Caphalon sauté pan, which has seen better days but is still my favorite pan to cook with. In addition to Caphalon, All Clad is another top of the line cookware that is worth investing in; however, be warn as it will cost you a pretty penny.

Ingredient of the Month—Gingerroot. Ginger is is a perennial plant in the family Zingiberaceae - its rhizome is commonly used as a cooking spice throughout the world.

The ginger plant comes from tropical and subtropical regions that's grown for its gnarled and bumpy root. Most ginger comes from Jamaica, followed by India, Africa and China. Gingerroot's name comes from the Sanskrit word for "horn root," undoubtedly referring to its knobby appearance. It has a tan skin and a flesh that ranges in color from pale greenish yellow to ivory. The flavor is peppery and slightly sweet, while the aroma is pungent and spicy. Fresh ginger is available in two forms — young and mature. Young ginger, sometimes called spring ginger, has a pale, thin skin that requires no peeling. It's very tender and has a milder flavor than its mature form. Young ginger can be found in most Asian markets during the springtime. Mature ginger has a tough skin that must be carefully peeled away to preserve the delicate, most desirable flesh just under the surface. Look for mature ginger with smooth skin (wrinkled skin indicates that the root is dry and past its prime). It should have a fresh, spicy fragrance. Fresh unpeeled gingerroot, tightly wrapped, can be refrigerated for up to 3 weeks and frozen for up to 6 months. Ground and fresh ginger taste quite different and ground ginger is a poor substitute for fresh ginger. Fresh ginger can be successfully substituted for ground ginger and should be done at a ratio of 6 parts fresh for 1 part ground.

Kitchen Tips. When heating taco shells in the oven, I place the shells upside-down between the slats of the oven rack. This way, I do not need to dirty up a sheet pan and my shells will not fall over and break.

To get fine breadcrumbs out of fresh stale bread, grate the bread with a grater.

To soften hard stale brown sugar in a container, place a slice of apple in the container. The brown sugar will become soft and pliable again.

            While spring is still in the air, take advantage of the beautiful weather by starting a little herb garden. They are easy to grow and do not require much attention. Just remember to water and feed them with a slow release fertilizer. I find nothing more satisfying than watching fruits of my labor flourish and being able to enjoy them throughout the year. Hopefully this will inspire you to venture a little further by growing your own vegetables. By doing so, you can be assured the food that you provide for you and your family came from the best source--your very own garden.

Until the next newsletter, eat well, stay healthy, and enjoy life to the fullest.  

"Food to a large extent is what holds a society together and eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences."
Peter Farb and George Armelagos