Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170151
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Toni Burks
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Choose smart, store right:
- Select good quality fruits and vegetables. You can't make up for nutrient losses that already have occurred because of poor handling.
- Store potatoes, onions and squash in a cool place. Refrigerate other vegetables.
- Unless locally grown, tomatoes and many fruits are picked before totally ripe. Place them in a brown paper bag, close, and let stand at room temperature until they yield to gentle pressure. Then store in the refrigerator.
- Until ready to use, leave vegetables whole, peas in pods, corn in husks.
> Preparation tips:
- You may need to trim some of the outside leaves from lettuce and other leafy vegetables, but avoid excessive trimming. The dark green leaves are highest in vitamins A and C.
- Thoroughly wash but do not soak fruits and vegetables. Do not wash with soap.
- Be careful not to bruise produce; bruising hastens the loss of vitamins A and C.
- Cut and cook fruits and vegetables just before serving to reduce exposure to air and heat, both nutrient robbers.
- Prepare only enough vegetables for one meal. Storing and reheating destroys more nutrients. If you do cook too much of a vegetable, use leftovers cold in a salad.
Cooking:
- Avoid overcooking vegetables; they taste best and are most nutritious when cooked crisp-tender. Cooking too long or in large amounts of water soaks away B vitamins and vitamin C.
- Microwave cooking of vegetables can save all the food's vitamin C and more than half of some of the B vitamins. - Associated Press
\ HELP!!! DEAR SOS: I'd appreciate it if you could supply a recipe for ranger cookies. -STELLA
DEAR STELLA: Now you're talking cookies!
Ranger cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs, well-beaten
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups oats
2 cups corn flakes
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened or sweetened coconut
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs and beat well. Combine flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Add to egg mixture along with vanilla. Stir in oats, corn flakes, coconut and walnuts.
Form into balls about 2 inches in diameter (or equivalent of 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons dough), and place on ungreased baking sheet; flatten to 4-in. diameter. Bake at 350 degrees 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned but still slightly soft. Makes about 22 cookies. (NOTE: For smaller cookies, use a rounded teaspoon of dough; do not flatten. Bake at 375 degrees 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 6 dozen.) - Los Angeles Times
\ MARKET SHOPPING There's still time to plant broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and lettuce in the garden to insure a good crop, and it might not be too soon to plant tomatoes if you keep an eye on weather forecasts and be ready to give the tender plants some protection should there be some cool nights.
Farm markets have these vegetable plants as well as peppers, onion sets and plants and thornless raspberry and blackberry canes.
There's also a huge supply of annual and perennial bedding plants to brighten the landscape. Look for petunias, pansies, marigolds, snapdragons, allysum, geraniums, impatiens, phlox, daisies, columbine, bleeding hearts, coral bells and hostas. There are herbs, too, including pineapple sage. This seems to be the herb of the year as far as popularity goes. The fresh pineapple fragrance of the leaves make it very tempting to snip and sniff, and if you're not careful, you'll end up with a bare plant.
Hanging baskets with both foliage and blooming plants are available along with handcrafted vine wreaths and wall hangings, some with accents of dried flowers and bows.
Greens, spinach, green onions and lettuce are the spring crops coming to market, and first-of-the-season Vidalia onions are available. Strawberries, asparagus, rhubarb, sassafras, potatoes, apple butter, dried apples, jams, jellies, pickles, honey, eggs, green beans, squash, tomatoes and cucumbers are among the other good foods available.
\ QUICK TIP Homemade garlic salt? Why not? It's easy to make, says the Fresh Garlic Association.
Slice three cloves of fresh garlic into an empty shaker with large holes. Add salt, mix and it's ready to use.
Salt is a preservative so the garlic will keep indefinitely. But to keep the salt pungent, discard the garlic slices as they dry out and add new ones. - Washington Post
\ WHAT'S NEW? Texas Pete Buffalo-style Chicken Wing Sauce is a spicy new addition to the T.W. Garner Food Co. line of sauces. Drizzle over deep-fried chicken drummettes and serve, a la Buffalo style, with a sharp blue cheese dip and crisp celery sticks. But for meatier morsels, substitute broiled boneless chicken strips instead of the wings. Use the sauce, too, as a baste or marinade for seafood, pork, beef or poultry cuts.
Campbell Soup Co. has introduced Souper Stars, a chicken soup with star-shaped pasta. The company has also added 40 percent more pasta twists to its Curly Noodle with Chicken Soup. The soups are available in 10 1/2-ounce cans.
Papa Dash Lite Lite Lite Salt has 85 percent less sodium than table salt, no potassium chloride and only 90 milligrams of sodium per\ -teaspoon serving, according to the Alberto-Culver Co.
There are two new bacon varieties of Great Starts frozen breakfast entrees: pancakes with bacon and Belgian waffle with bacon.
New Haagen-Dazs Crunch Bars, made with Belgian milk chocolate, are available in Vanilla Crisp, Caramel Almond and Peanut Butter flavors; in single and three-bar packs.
Campbell Soup Co. has added four products to its Swanson Dinner line: Yankee pot roast, chicken parmigiana, beef tips and noodles with beef gravy, and ribbed pasta (ziti) in meat sauce.
Munch 'ems, a snack cracker from the Keebler Co., are baked, not fried, and are cholesterol-free. They are available in original, Cheddar and sour cream and onion flavors.
Pizzarias Pizza Chips, also from Keebler, are snack chips made from pizza dough and topped with a zesty blend of pizza cheeses, tomatoes, herbs and spices. The flavors: Cheese, Zesty Pepperoni aand Pizza Supreme.
Tropicana Twister Light beverages are low calorie juice blends boasting 18 to 30 calories per serving. Flavors are pink grapefruit cocktail, orange strawberry banana, orange cranberry and orange raspberry. They come packaged in 46-ounce and 10-ounce glass bottles.
\ NICE AND EASY Here's a little dessert something that's absolutely dreamy.
Cheesecake dip
1/2 cup crushed strawberries
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup Grand Marnier liqueur
1 cup of cream cheese, softened
1 cup sour cream
Reserve 1 Tbsp. each of the strawberries and walnuts for garnish. In a small bowl, combine remaining strawberries, brown sugar and liqueur; set aside. Blend cream cheese and sour cream until smooth. Add strawberry mixture and blend well. Fold in walnuts. Mound reserved strawberries in the center and ring with reserved walnuts. Cover and chill. Accompany with good quality butter cookies for dipping. Makes 3 1/2 cups dip.
by CNB