Cottage Cheese: A Bum Rap as Just a Diet Food

my favorite brand and type

Cottage cheese has a bad reputation, and I hope to change that. For some reason, it is seen primarily as a tasteless food eaten by long-suffering dieters. It is a good food for dieters, since it is high in nutrition and low in calories, but it is also a great staple for everyone else. Its blandness makes it extremely versatile: cottage cheese can be enjoyed for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert.

Cottage cheese is a protein powerhouse, offering twice the protein of yogurt. A single serving of cottage cheese provides half of an adult's daily protein requirement. People on budgets should remember this.

Cottage cheese is the original curds and whey enjoyed by Little Miss Muffet of nursery rhyme fame. It is essentially just milk components and salt, and today the salt is negotiable. Cottage cheese can be bought in many different forms: small curd, large curd, low sodium, low fat, nonfat, and flavored with sweet (pineapple, jam) or savory(chives, garden vegetables) items. I buy mine plain, adding flavors depending on how I use it. I'm not a fan of the low-fat varieties, but you may feel differently.

In hot weather, I often add a glob of cottage cheese to a tossed green salad. It turns it into a complete meal without making it appreciably heavy. I also eat this cheese on toast, bagels, or English muffins in the morning. (Richard Nixon ate cottage cheese for breakfast every morning, but he put ketchup on his.) In winter, I usually add a dollop of cottage cheese to a baked potato. If I'm in need of comfort food, I enjoy it in noodle kugel, a dish unknown to most of my friends but luckily not to my children. (Noodle kugel is a slightly sweet noodle pudding familiar to most Jewish kids of Ashkenazi descent.)

Cottage cheese is also an ingredient in one of my favorite summer desserts, a light and refreshing cheese cake--more accurately a cheese pie, I guess. It's easy to make and is lighter and more custardy than typical cheesecakes.

Graham Cracker Crust--make or buy.
Preheat oven to 350.
Blend the following ingredients or beat well at high speed

• 1 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 oz. cottage cheese
• 6 oz. cream cheese
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

When thoroughly blended, pour into the crust and bake for 20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes while you raise the oven temperature to 475.

Now mix 1 1/2 cups sour cream, 2 TBSP sugar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla together. Spread on pie and then bake in the hot oven for 5 minutes.

Chill thoroughly before eating.

The Eggplant Surprise

these little eggplants are only 3-4 inches long

Silly me! I thought an eggplant was just an eggplant, a member of the nightshade family. Yes, I had seen a few types at my local farm stand, but they looked essentially similar, except for the white ones, which just look freaky. But that was before my farming neighbor stopped by with a little basket of Fairy Tale eggplants. These cute veggies look like more like small purple zucchinis than they do eggplants.

Before cooking these miniatures, I did a bit of research and was well rewarded. I learned that eggplants come in numerous varieties, and that the Fairy Tale eggplants I had received required very little cooking. They are less bitter and more tender than standard eggplants, and their skin melts in your mouth. However, they do not have a long shelf life and should be eaten soon after picking.

I read a few recipes and then decided to try one that looked quick and simple. It was wonderful. (While I was cooking the pepper, I threw in a few mushrooms and added them to the final mix.) I cooked the split eggplants in hot olive oil briefly, added them to the other ingredients, and then feasted on the results. I was so encouraged that I may even try a white eggplant next.

Beautiful Beets

golden beets, straight from the farmer's market

One of my daughters shuns beets, saying they taste like dirt. This always surprises me, since this daughter loves to cook and eats a wide variety of foods. But never beets. The other daughter enjoys this vegetable as I do. To me, beets taste sweet. I like all varieties, but for salads I especially like golden beets, because they don't discolor the greens.

Last week, I bought a bunch of golden beets at a local farmer's market, prompted only by their sheer beauty. I steamed them and have been eating them almost every day in various salads. I love beets in salad combined with goat cheese and also with citrus fruits. I often make a luncheon salad like this one, substituting oranges for the grapefruit, since I cannot eat the latter. 

My other favorite beet dish is borscht. There are dozens of recipes for borscht online, so I won't bother linking to any one. Suffice it to say, that I like borscht made with cabbage and carrots and flavored with lots of dill. In wintertime, my borscht is thick and hot and includes slivers of beef, while in summertime I serve it ice cold with a hot boiled potato and a dollop of sour cream. 

Bubble Bursting: Sun Tea

making sun tea

I have made sun tea for years and always felt good about it. Using the sun's natural energy, I could make a refreshing summertime drink that tasted delicious and was practically free. Furthermore, it was crystal clear and looked lovely. All I needed, I thought, was a sunny day.

Then, somewhere, I got an inkling that I didn't actually need the sun to make sun tea. I ignored that inkling, because what fun was that? Then I visited my daughter, who remarked in passing that you don't actually need sun to make sun tea. I could not ignore this, because I never ignore my daughter.

I came home and did a bit of Internet research and confirmed that the sun was not a requirement. In fact, the article that I read suggested that tea made in the refrigerator actually tasted better.  So the sun doesn't impart any sort of cosmic goodness into the drink? Apparently not.

I was slightly disappointed to learn this but even more upset to discover that sun tea can actually be bad for you. (When you research information on the Internet, you discover all sorts of related topics, and this one, sadly kept cropping up.) According to Snopes, sun tea can harbor icky bacteria unless you jump through all sorts of hoops first. That sort of takes the romance out of making sun tea.

So for now on, I'll make mine in the refrigerator. I just need to come up with a good name for it--a romantic name that speaks to my love of summer.

Vinegar Rinse: Keeping Berries Fresh

Raspberries in their vinegar rinse...

I have a local friend who has a large patch of raspberries. She calls me as soon as they start to ripen. I usually arrive within a day or so and pick my fill. My preference is to eat the berries fresh, sometimes with a dab of whipped cream. However, raspberries (and strawberries) have an unfortunate habit of molding within a day or two, so I usually wind up freezing about half the fruit. This is fine for jam, but it changes the texture of the berries, so I often don't enjoy eating them plain after the first day.

Last year, I read that mold can be retarded if the berries are washed in a dilute solution of vinegar and water. However, I didn't have the courage to try it at the time. It sounded awful; I feared the vinegar would ruin the delicate taste of the berries. This year, though, since the season is just starting, I decided to try it. If one batch were ruined, well--there will be others.

Success!

I used a few tablespoons of cider vinegar in a large bowl of water. I started timidly, dumping in just a few berries. Then I drained and tasted them. They tasted just fine. So then I dumped in the whole batch. I swished them around for a minute and then drained them all, first in a sieve and then on paper towels. Into the fridge they went.  The next day they came out slime free and still tasting fresh and sweet.

I feel as if I've gotten away with something.

Succulent Strawberries

Last week's newspaper reported that this was a grand year for strawberries. They were delicious and abundant. Oh goody! Fresh strawberries are one of the treats of spring.

My first batch of berries is usually eaten in the simplest possible way: I wash them, place several in a bowl, and then set out a plate containing a small pile of granulated sugar. Holding the berry by its stem, I dip it in the sugar and then eat it. Simple, satisfying, and tasty. My next way of eating is cut up the berries and macerate them with a bit of sugar, some triple sec, and some other berries, such as raspberries and blueberries. Sometimes I mash this up and serve it as a sauce over lemon sherbet.

As the season continues, I tend to branch out a bit. I like to add strawberries to salad, especially salads made with hearty greens such as spinach. I also like to add crushed strawberries to lemonade, partly because I like the look of it. If company is coming, I may make a showy but simple dessert, such as glazed strawberry pie. I generally start with a good purchased pie crust and then go from there. This pie has the advantage of combining fresh berries with cooked, plus a bit of cream cheese.

And let's not forget strawberry jam! Some people avoid making jam, fearing that it is difficult. However, with modern pectin, jam is relatively fool-proof. It's also fun to make. However, it does require some time, and it makes a mess of the kitchen. (I have never owned a magnetic lid-grabber, by the way. I use my washed hands.) I usually cut the sugar a bit and often add a 1/2 cup of blueberries to make the color more interesting. If you want to cut the sugar out entirely, or use a lot less than the recipe calls for, look for the special no-sugar-needed variety.

I package my jam in 8-oz. jelly jars and add pretty labels. If I really want to make a splash, I'll cut out a round of fabric using pinking shears and use this to cover the metal lid. A ribbon will hold it in place. Thus wrapped, jam makes great house gifts if you're visiting friends over the summer.

Sangria

For most of the year, I'm cold, so the thought of an icy beverage appeals to me only during hot weather. However, almost as soon as the weather turns warm, I start thinking about sangria. After lemonade and ice tea, it is my most frequently prepared drink.

When I saw sangria, I always mean red sangria. I've tasted white variety, but it never appeals to me. Yes, it tastes OK, but it just doesn't LOOK right. I like sangria to be vibrant red, so I never make the pale type. I also like it in a stemmed glass with a big bowl.

The recipe I use is very simple:

Peel one orange with a vegetable peeler, and mash the peel into 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar. I mash it using the back of a spoon. This releases the oils and permeates the sugar with them. Slice up the rest of the orange and reserve the slices.

Then mix 1/2 cup triple sec, 2 cups orange juice, and one bottle hearty red wine (zinfandel, burgundy, cabernet) and add the peel and sugar. Stir well and add the orange slices. Chill thoroughly. Then serve over lots of ice.

You can add other fruits if you have them, and some people even like a bit of club soda. I've never tried the soda—why mess with perfection?