"OOH IT'S SO GOOD!!Ž" Recipes and Ideas

October 4, 1999

Mr. Food is here to share some of his "OOH IT'S SO GOOD!!Ž" recipes and to answer all of your cooking questions and needs.

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HomeArts: How's everyone doing? It's Mr. Food here and I am so excited about today's chat. If any of you have any questions for me, or want to share an idea or two, go ahead. I'm ready to share lots of "OOH IT'S SO GOOD!Ž"

Dandydan: My kids love jello with fruit in it, but I want to try things other than fruit cocktail and bananas. Someone told me that you have to be careful with certain fruits. What fruits would and would not make good additions and how would I prepare it differently?

Mr Food: Dandydan, you can put almost anything in Jello that you want. You can even make it a vegetable salad. The only thing that you have to be careful about is putting something too acidic in it, or it will keep it from coagulating. You don't want to put in orange juice or kiwis. There is something on the Jello packages that will tell you what you can or what you can't put in it, I think. If not, use the consumer number on the package, call them and ask them.

Hambone: How do I make homemade stock?

Mr Food: Hambone, well, if you are bent on making homemade stock, all it is is boiling your extra bones, meats, leftover chicken skins, vegetables, onion skins, or whatever. It could be your root stock. Then all you do after it's done (some people do it all day long), is strain it through cheese cloth or a fine mesh strainer. However, it's a lot cleaner, neater, handier, and a lot less pot work to buy store bought base. Even the finest gourmet restaurants are now using stocks bought from suppliers rather than making it from scratch. Either way, stock is great. If there is pride in making it yourself, then that's the way to go.

Bev54: Do you have some ideas for salads with fall vegetables?

Mr Food: Bev54, absolutely. Now is the time to make your marinated broccoli or marinated cauliflower. Beets (a very inexpensive, nutritious vegetable) - the beet can be pickled, chopped and put into salads. Zucchinis can also be used like you would use summer vegetables in your salads. Whatever you see on the counter will work - celery, beans, etc. If you don't want to make the whole salad from fall vegetables, just add them to the summer vegetables that you like. Go to it.

Samsmom: My kids do not care for raw vegetables, can you suggest an alternate snack that is healthy?

Mr Food: Samsmom, do they like fruits? We have to get, or we should get, our five fruits and veggies a day. So if they like fruits better, no problem; let them have it. We have found that if we serve vegetables in methods other than just boiled and steamed, they tend to like them better. Children like seasonings just as much as adults do. Why not stir fry your vegetables and add salt, pepper, and teriyaki sauce (very popular with kids). But any sauce will do -maybe a little barbecue sauce, maybe a little cajun sauce. With different flavors, they seem to eat their veggies, and with different flavors every night, there is no "ho-hum, are we having this again". One of my favorites is to parboil our vegetables with a little onion powder and sprinkle with cheese. Put it in the oven until the cheese melts - the kids go for it in a big way. I guess it's the macaroni and cheese mentality. Isn't it wonderful all the things that you can do with cheese. Here it is as a sauce. Don't forget, get your five fruits and veggies a day.

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