Time for this week’s Thursday Things:
1. Marshmallow Sauce – Gosh that looks heavenly
Bon Appetit featured this sauce in their July issue within a story about ice cream and cold treats for kids this summer. Ice cream, sprinkles, sauces, and raw egg whites. In the marshmallow sauce, for kids.
1 large egg white, corn syrup, powdered sugar, vanilla; beaten together
2. Katie brought it to my attention that although Fritos may have a bad rap, they only contain 3 ingredients:
corn
corn oil
salt
And they have a pretty decent profile. I mean, it’s hard to mess up something with only 3 ingredients.
I’ll take that as an excuse to cook with Fritos more often.
You know, because Fritos are the next health food.
Scott loved the Corn Chip-Crusted Southwestern Salmon Cakes with Creamy Lemon Chili Sauce
3. Norton Identity Safe – With increasingly complicated password rules on so many different websites, it’s impossible to keep them all straight.
I sometimes lock myself out of sites because I have too many “failed attempts” with my password or password and username combination that doesn’t match.
Then I have to call the company, prove it’s really really me with the blood of my first born, and then 90 minutes later I can login and pay my cable bill.
Download Norton Identity Safe free – I downloaded it but haven’t played around with it yet
4. A two-part series (that’s two years old but bears repeating) from LA Weekly here and here on Words to Avoid when writing about food.
Included on their words-to-avoid lists:
foodie
delicious
gourmet
decadent
natural
food porn <— yes, avoid
Overall, I loved the lists but sometimes something really is delicious and I am as guilty as the next person of using the D word. I guess I’ll call it yummy next time. Kidding.
5. Not sure how I feel about this Misono Child’s Mini Knife
“Get your kids in the kitchen with their very own high-quality but safe Misono Child’s Mini-Knife. With a 50/50 balance it is suitable for right or left-handed chefs. It is sharp enough to cut through most foods, but has a smaller, more rounded blade that is more suited to the small hands of a child.”
A knife is still, well, a knife. Whether it’s smaller, or less sharp than other knives, it’s still a knife. Obviously kids need supervision when using anything from scissors to knives, but so far around here, at age 5, we’re sticking to spoons and forks.
6. My new storage cabinet has changed my outlook on life and my ahhhh, zen and tranquility quotient is sky high every time I look at it.
I find myself just blissfully staring at it and all the happy organization on the shelves. I’m in love with a cabinet. I’ll stop now.
7. Jessica of The Novice Chef wrote an awesome post about blogging from putting the time in to blogging to camera lenses to conferences to working with companies, she covered it and then some.
8. I wrote a 5-part blogging series that covers much of what Jessica said, and I’ll shamelessly link it up:
Blogging 101
Blogging 102
Blogging 103
Blogging 104
Blogging 105
9. Celery. Don’t throw away the leave – 6 uses for celery leaves
My issue is what to do with the actual celery. I had to buy celery for 1 recipe and used precisely half of one stalk. 12 more to go. Sure it was only $2.49 but what do you make with it other than ants on a log or use it as the base of a hearty fall soup. Because it’s not really soup season.
And no, I cannot juice it or put it in smoothies. It overpowers everything it touches for me. Sort of like cantaloupe (which I hate). If cantaloupe is used in a fruit salad, the whole salad tastes like it and is “contaminated”. Same with celery; I do like it, to a point and am all for creative uses but I just don’t know what those are.
10. Thanks for the Healthy Surprise Snack Box Giveaway entries
What are your Thursday Things?
Feel free to link up anything noteworthy you’ve made, done, seen, bought, or is especially fabulous.
Any thoughts about what to make with celery, if you have memories of how old you were when you started using kitchen knives, or if you eat raw eggs or think they’re safe for kids?
I’m at a loss with celery other than ants on a log and a base for soup, sauteed with onions. But I hate onions.
I have no idea how old I was when I started using knives, I know by age 8 or so because that was the age I would come from school, make brownies using a packet of Jif brownie mix, and would cut my almost-raw brownies with a knife. Guess I’ve eaten plenty of almost-raw eggs with my childhood knife skills.
In other countries, people don’t seem to freak out as much about raw eggs as we do in America. Orange Julius, some homemade Caesar dressings, mayonnaise, homemade ice cream or custards, and Hollandaise sauces may be made with raw eggs and people eat them. And the French eat unpasteurized soft cheese and the Japanese eat raw fish and the species has survived.
I used to drink orange julius’ with raw eggs as a kid all the time. We made them in home-economics class in seventh grade in a blender with raw eggs. Can you imagine making food in a school these days with raw eggs? Kids aren’t even allowed to bring in cupcakes or birthday cake anymore for their birthdays. Between the gluten, sugar and frosting, frosting has been replaced with fruit cups. And nothing with eggs, raw or cooked.
I can’t remember when I started using knives … probably around age 7. I would put Cheese Whiz on the celery – mmmmmmmmmm!! Now, Cheese Whiz definitely has more than 3 ingredients, unfortunately. But it is still soooooo good! I am not even the slightest bit afraid of raw eggs (especially if they are organic). I ate cookie dough all the time growing up, and my dad used to drink about 20 raw eggs a day in his body building years … it’s all good :-) Nothing to worry about in my opinion.
good info girl and cheese whiz..now THAT’S something I only got to eat at my grandma’s house :)
All of these look amazing! Great mix of recipes! Happy 4th and weekend!
From a french point of view :
We don’t care at all about eating raw egg or other raw food. I don’t know anybody who is afraid of eating raw cookies dough neither. It’s so good.
Before I went vegetarian, I loved eating tartar (raw meat + raw egg), raw fish, and eat mayo sometimes.
My mother used to say that a little dirt and being in contact with animals couldn’t hurt. That will help us building our immunity system. So we played with mud, outside in the garden, swan in lake and rivers (now I think about nutria who pee there :/ ) and eat a lot of food that you may not consider safe for child : raw milk, meat, raw eggs, unpasteurized cheeses.
Celery is the least used vegetable in my kitchen because I think like you : it overpower other tastes. And I have to carefully remove those “strings” that make it hard to chew.
Thank you for the marshmallow recipe link, sounds good :)
Thanks for your perspective and yes, some dirt and germs helps to strengthen our immune systems. Interesting that raw milk, meat, raw eggs, unpasteurized cheeses are common, even for kids. And yes, anyone who hasn’t eaten cookie dough has not lived (or is not a cook – you just HAVE TO taste your dough before baking it!)
Fritos being a health-food? Best news all week!
And I am SO badly guilty of using all of those “bad” food words… including food porn! My albums of food on Facebook are called that. And here I thought I was being clever and tongue-in-cheek. I guess not! And I need to make my way to IKEA to pick up one of those cabinets. I need one–all my dishes are stacked on my counters and I’d like my space back please! The white just looks so spacious and airy… love it!
I feel the exact same way about celery! Add it to tuna salad? Ick now the whole thing tastes like celery! Same thing goes with potato salad. That marshmallow sauce looks amazing and pretty simple too! I noticed the safe thing about Fritos a year ago when I went GF. I was like hm. These aren’t so bad. Who knew?
Celery is one of those foods that, IMO, is just blah. I definitely use it in soups or in certain salads. But that is all. I don’t like to just eat it plain or with nut butter or anything else for that matter.
Here are some of my Thursday’s things. I want to make these for the fam:
https://livlifetoo.blogspot.com/2012/06/grilled-mahi-mahi-fish-tacos-with-mango.html
I have been making these every morning for the past week for my 2 boys:
Since my oldest son is allergic to corn, and every tortilla has baking powder in it (which has corn starch), I thought about making these for him:
https://thebeeroness.com/2012/06/21/beer-tortillas/
One more! These look sooooo good!!
https://www.eatboutique.com/2012/06/28/joy-the-baker-cookbook-and-avocado-fries/
Sorry for so many links in one reply! :-P
link bonanza! :)
I’ve seen all but the last one and they all look delish!
I made a great Celery Remoulade Salad once! You might try that:)
My first memories of celery was my Mom serving celery with cream cheese in them when I was a kid! I want to make celery soup. My friend who is an awesome cook says it’s so easy and so good, and barley any ingredients to make it. I need to get her recipe.
I didn’t know that about Frito’s. That does make it better to snack on them!!
everything’s better with cream cheese…even celery!
I didnt realize the frito ingredient list was so small. There are actually many “bad foods” that I dont find all that bad for you. Like pizza…bread, tomato sauce, cheese. whats so wrong with that? But then there are some apparent “health foods” that are loaded with sugar and perservatives. Like certain brands of greek yogurts.
There’s a way to make even something like oatmeal sort of “bad” for you if you load it with sugar, tons of nut butter, and all kinds of toppings. All of a sudden you have a 800 calorie breakfast!
I don’t buy celery that often either– I do like it with raw nacho cheese dip though! My usual Thursday thing was a good guitar lesson tonight and getting the remaining heads of lettuce out of my salad garden before they bolt in our heat wave (105 today). I don’t make homemade mayo or Caesar dressing with raw eggs, but I still taste all cookie and cake batter before baking!
I don’t know a cook alive who doesn’t take her cake or cookie batter before baking…it’s just a must-do to make sure the flavors are on point!
I have been eating raw eggs in cookie dough since I can remember and I have yet to die. I think it is because my mom wasn’t overly paranoid about germs and such things and let us be kids. We built immunity! And I do love your cabinet ;)
Someone else basically said the same thing you did way up in the comments; that germs help us build immunity!