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Women.com presents

Food editor at Redbook magazine, Tamara Holt
Cooking ideas

July 27, 1999

Tamara Holt, cookbook author, teacher and food editor at Redbook magazine, will answer your questions and talk with you about your cooking ideas and needs.

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HomeArtsLive: Welcome to our chat with Tamara Holt, the Food Editor at Redbook magazine. Today this cookbook author and teacher will answer your questions and talk with you about your cooking ideas and needs. Welcome, Tamara!

TamaraHolt: Hi, thanks! And welcome to the chat. It's a hot day here in New York, over 90 degrees, and the last thing I feel like doing is cooking today or eating, and I'm sure you feel the same, but my solution is a fresh fruit salad with yogurt and mint, or an easy salad nicoise just using canned water-packed tuna, sliced cucumbers, and red peppers and tomatoes, with a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, and a sprinkle of fresh thyme leaves, salt and pepper. It's a great, basic no-cook meal, which is great for beating the heat in the summer. Our August issue has a slew of no-cook meals by Lauren Chattman, who wrote "Cool Kitchen," and her husband Jack Bishop, author of -- among many others-- "Italian Cooking for Dummies." So, that's what I'm eating. How about you? (smiling) Any questions?

Freshisbest: I love salads, but hate store bought dressings. Any neat homemade ideas?

TamaraHolt: The best way to put together a great salad dressing is by starting out with really great ingredients. For salads you want to use a high quality extra virgin olive oil -- which will be expensive if you are going for the top, top stuff -- and some great high quality vinegar -- my favorite is red wine vinegar. Again, quality is important. The way that I put together a salad usually is not by making a dressing first, but by simply tossing my greens with olive oil, then a little red wine vinegar, salt, and freshly ground pepper. If you want to whip up a dressing, start with the oil and vinegar combo, and then whisk in whatever you like. Maybe it's some pesto sauce, maybe it's a little olive paste, maybe it's some fresh herbs, maybe it's even a spice like cumin or curry powder. Experiment with flavors you like, and you'll ultimately like the salad. In our July issue, we've got a dressing for a basic herb vinaigrette on our "Instant Expert" page, which this month is all about herbs. So, if you are looking for directions to make a basic vinaigrette, check out our July issue.

Simple1: What types of cold summer soups are easy to make?

TamaraHolt: You know the whole smoothie craze that's going on now? Where you just throw some fruit and maybe yogurt in the blender? Well, you can do the same thing with certain vegetables - put it in a bowl and there you have it--instant cold soup. So you can make a gazpacho soup. We've got a great recipe on the August "Instant Expert" page, the topic of which is tomatoes. But another way to go is cucumber soup -- just blend up some cucumbers with a little bit of yogurt, a touch of garlic and some dill. Don't forget salt and pepper, and you are set. Last August we ran a story on great summer soups. You can probably pick it up in the library if you like. We had a fresh melon soup and a chilled yellow pepper and potato soup and a totally delicious avocado soup -- the avocado soup was my favorite. I'll give you a quick recipe -- in a blender, combine 1 avocado, peeled and pitted of course, 1 can fat-free chicken broth, 1 cup milk, 1 minced jalapeno, 2 Tbsps. chopped cilantro, 1 Tbsp. chopped scallion, 1Tbsp. lime juice, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Blend it all up together, chill it, and serve it topped with crumbled bacon, chopped tomato and scallion.

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