Esther Reisinger – In Good Taste

Cucumber, Tomato and Avocado Salad

Esther Reisinger — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 05:00:31 +0000

Sometimes you do the best when you’re trying the least. Maybe you hurl the basketball desperately towards the basket from half-court at the buzzer and make it. Maybe you find one night that your hair looks awesome just as you’re about to go to bed and bemoan the fact that no one gets to see how good you look. Maybe you snap a picture of your little niece at the beach and notice later that in the background of the photo you have captured a shot of a centaur sunning himself. Maybe you make a last-ditch effort to add a healthy component to your meal by using up the random assortment of vegetables that happen to be in your fridge. You grab a half-used cucumber, tomato, and avocado and slice them up. You wonder why you happen to have all these half-used vegetables, I mean, why can’t you ever use a vegetable all at once? You find the answer to this question when you throw some dressing ingredients onto the vegetables and toss it all up, then take a bite and discover that you’ve just made magic. Oh, and that last one about the vegetables happened to me. I know. […]

The post Cucumber, Tomato and Avocado Salad appeared first on In Good Taste.

Easy Homemade Blueberry Jam

Esther Reisinger — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 22:43:37 +0000

By Esther Reisinger Do you feel like lately, there has been a return to our homemade roots? Do you even know what I mean by homemade roots? I make up phrases. Let me explain: I feel that I’m seeing so much more from our modern kitchens made the old-fashioned way: from scratch. We’re trying our hands at homemade bread, pie and pie crust, salsa, and spaghetti sauce, just like our fore..mothers? We’re realizing that things are better for you if you know exactly what went into them. As a result, my opinion on canning and jarring in your own kitchen has changed. Where I once looked at making homemade jam with a certain amount of disdain and suspicion, I now see a vast horizon of possibilities. For example: I really wish I could grow tomatoes so I could can them. I know that the tomatoes you buy during the off-season (which I do and will probably continue to do) aren’t really stand-up tomatoes, if we’re being honest (and personifying fruits and vegetables). And I’m sure the same applies to other fruits and vegetables that we purchase at the grocery store. This is the closest I’ve come to jarring something in […]

The post Easy Homemade Blueberry Jam appeared first on In Good Taste.

Pantry Cooking: Three Quick Dinners Recipes for Weeknights

Esther Reisinger — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:00:29 +0000

I haven’t been grocery shopping in about two weeks or something. Which means, it’s time for pantry cooking. Life gets busy, or you’re out of town, or you’re sitting on the couch weighing the options between dallying on Facebook or putting on some decent clothing to go to the store. Facebook always wins. A girl’s gotta eat though. And so does a girl’s husband. And both of them are trying to save money. (The key word there is trying). So lately, the routine has been to go stand blankly in front of the fridge or the pantry and try to come up with a super creative dinner using only tortilla chips, spaghetti sauce and brown ‘n’ serve sausages. Gross. Realistically though, we all have certain things that take up permanent residence in the pantry or fridge. And even more realistically, life doesn’t always allow for last-minute grocery runs, if it allows for grocery runs at all. Therein, it seems like a good idea to have some pantry-friendly options for those nights (or weeks) when fresh or gourmet is out of the question and you’re desperately looking for that big red “Easy” button. Of course, I am not advocating a grocery store […]

The post Pantry Cooking: Three Quick Dinners Recipes for Weeknights appeared first on In Good Taste.

Six Ways to Use Fresh Strawberries

Esther Reisinger — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:00:23 +0000

Whenever I catch the start of an Iron Chef episode (which usually happens around midnight, when I should be going to bed), there are certain secret ingredients that I hope to see, like fresh strawberries, that will make me stay up for another hour to watch the results. Then there are the ingredients that will almost definitely make me turn off the TV and go to bed, not out of anger or frustration (well maybe just a little), but because I don’t find it beneficial for me to stay up to watch someone prepare mackerel five ways. I mean, how many ways are there to make fish, really? Goodnight mackerel. Goodnight moon. The ingredients that I hope to see when the magical metal lid is lifted in that cloud of dry ice are more along the lines of, well…fruit. Citrus. Berries. You get the idea. Foods that so kindly lend themselves to savory and sweet as well. An Iron Chef episode with no sweet dishes is a sad time for me. One secret ingredient that would float my culinary boat would be the strawberry. I have yet to catch a Battle Strawberry on Iron Chef, but rest assured that it […]

The post Six Ways to Use Fresh Strawberries appeared first on In Good Taste.

No Knead Refrigerator Bread

Esther Reisinger — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 02:11:48 +0000

It has been said that man cannot live by bread alone. Obviously, that was said before I was born. It was also said before the advent of no-knead refrigerator bread. Let me explain: I eat the crust part of a piece of pizza. And I love it. I get kind of sad when I see rejected crusts on a plate. The bread basket at a restaurant always puts me at risk of being too full for my main course. Especially if thereʼs some sort of ﬂavored butter. You know how some people remove the top bun of their burger or sandwich and just eat the sandwich open-faced to reduce carbs, or something like that (a foreign concept to me)? The other night, I deconstructed my half-eaten pulled pork sandwich and ate the bun alone, leaving the rest of the sandwich exposed (mind you, it was a brioche bun, so I think I get a free pass one this one). Usually, when Iʼm so obsessed with something, I try to ﬁgure out a way to make it at home (Usually, it doesnʼt happen. But at least I think about it). However, making bread at home can seem like a daunting task. […]

The post No Knead Refrigerator Bread appeared first on In Good Taste.