Whats in the Fridge Today Omelet Recipe

A friend of mine shared with me the omelet she made last weekend.  It looked great!
A friend of hers asked for my recipe.  Well, I am one of those people who only vaguely uses recipes so I decided that this was the best way to share.  I guess that for me an omelet recipe is Whats in the Fridge Today.

Today, my options were fresh spinach, green onions, celery, asparagus, tomato and sharp cheddar cheese.

I saute them lightly with garlic flavored olive oil.  Not until they are mushy but just still kind of crispy.  (not the cheese, that goes in later)

Whie the veggies cook, this shows 3 eggs broken and whisked in the measuring cup, add to that salt, pepper, garlic powder, tarragon leaves, basil and red pepper.

pour into lightly buttered skillet and kinda roll around to coat the sides.  When it is starting to cook through add the cheese to melt, and then add the veggies and complete the cooking phase.  Some times I put a lid on it to keep the heat in to cook a little faster.  

Fold over to finish making sure there is no runny egg

Put it on the plate.  I added some avocado slices and breakfast was ready!!!!

Next week, it could be very different depending on what is in the fridge.  I also use radishes, leek, avocado, yellow squash, red or yellow sweet peppers, and mushrooms when I have them.  Share how you make yours!!!!!

Breskfast Adendum TOAST

As I read through the CLASS PROBLEMS at the end of the chapter on Breakfast Beverages
I connected an experiment in the note book to one of the problems in the text book.  ( I am still trying to get into the mind of the teacher of this course so see the rhyme or reason for the order of experiments in the notebook)  After the problems involving experimenting with various kinds of tea to see the results and methods of making coffee and figuring out how may cups of each can be made from one pound of the substance, I found item 9:  "Prepare plain, buttered and cinnamon toast to serve with coffee and tea.  Serve these beverages to some of the teachers  The class should not drink them  Why? "

This connects to Experiment 15

Aim:  To learn kinds of toast appropriate for breakfast. 

Method:  Bread that is to be toasted should be a day to two old.  Bread to be toasted should be cut in slices 1/2 inch or 1/4 inch thick according to kind of toast.  Attractive toast is an even brown on both sides.  Crisp toast is made by slow toasting  Soft toast by fast toasting.  Whole wheat bread, nut bread and raisin bread are delicious toasted.  It is appropriate to butter the toast before it comes to the table. 

Variations of Toast  Sweet toast is toasted slowly and has been covered with butter and sprinkled with sugar.
Croutons and toast sticks  Thick bread is cut in to long strips or squares.  Buttered, toasted slowly and sprinkled with paprika if used for soup.
Cinnamon Toast  Use  1/2 inch slice of bread, butter and toast in a slow oven  When nearly done sprinkle with a mixture of cinnamon and  sugar and put in a hot oven for 1 or 2 minutes.
Milk Toast:   Toast buttered or unbuttered, thick slices of bread until they are very crisp.  When done pour hot milk over it using 1 c. to each two slices of toast.  Sprinkle with sat and serve immediately. If sweet toast is desired add 1 T sugar to the hot milk before it is poured over the dish. 
French Toast Beat 1 egg with4 T milk, dip into this mixture slices of bread.  Cook in 2 T fat in a hot frying pan.  (season to taste) Brown on both sides, serve immediately dusted lightly with powdered sugar or served with syrup marmalade or jelly.  Raisin bread or not bread make delicious toast. 

Conclusion:  for cinnamon toast one slice yields about 150 calories It is an excellent confection for little children

My personal conclusion:  Now I know why I only eat powdered sugar on French toast. 

Chapter 4 Breakfast Beveratges Part B

Coffee and tea are similar in use and composition and the effects on the body  Neither of the subjects can actually be considered food however, we drink them because we like their flavor and because of the effects on the body. They both contain stimulants.

Tea is more delicate in flavor than coffee but coffee has a delightful (to some) odor because it contains a volatile oil called caffeol. 

Both drinks contain the stimulant caffeine.  This drug stimulates the kidneys, the heart, and the nervous system.  It doesn't have the same effect on everyone as people are more or less susceptible to caffeine.  Many people have trouble sleeping if they ingest caffeine very close to bed time. 

In this book (contrary to what is on the market being sold to children today ) it was advised that young people do not need stimulants nerves, heart and kidneys can develop more normally with out them.  For this reason they were not advised to be given to growing boys and girls to take up space in the daily diet in place of simple, nourishing foods with out such a high flavor.  It was shown that appetites that were already fickle and children already tend to under eat, the appetite of a child could be dulled by drinking a beverage that had no better recommendation than "it tastes good". 

I must share in its entirety the next paragraph:
"The nerves of adults are already developed, and since adults are rather inclined to overeat, because they are not active enough, the same arguments do not hold true in discussing tea and coffee in their diets.  It may be said in favor of tea and coffee that many persons take water in this form who do not otherwise drink enough water.  The stimulating property is treasured by grownups and is especially helpful to old people, but it is not always good even for adults." 

Tannin is a substance also found in tea and coffee and is undesirable both because it slows digestion and because too much makes the flavor bitter.  If either is properly made you have little tannin in the beverage.  Caffeine is much more readily soluble in water just below the boiling point where tannin is soluble on boiling even for a few minutes.  Black tea is darker in color when brewed but contains less tannin than green tea. 

The quality of tea varies from country to country or even district where it is grwond, and with the tenderness of the leaf, the degree of fermentation with the length of time it has ben kept. ay people who like tea are very particular and it would be a good thing to find out information about preference when you plan to serve tea at a gathering.  There is very little tea grown in the United States but South Carolina is the oldest producer on the mainland. 


Tea:  Tea is dried leaves from the tea bush, in general there are three kinds of tea, green, black and oolong.  They are from the same plant but the difference is the method of drying and curing.  Green tea is unfermented and is steam dried.  Black tea is fermented and kiln dried, while Oolong tea is partly fermented. 

Tea Pots:  Do not use a tin teapot as the tannic acid will attack the metal.  Most teapots you will find of quality will be earthenware, china, porcelain, or enamel or sometimes glass.

Serving Tea:  Tea is not generally used for breakfast in this country but is universal in England.  One famous brand is "English Breakfast".  Tea in England is served with cream and sugar for breakfast, but other times lemon may be preferred, especially if it is iced.  English use cream; Russians use lemon. 

Experiment 14 Tea

Coffee:  The experiment involving brewing coffee is included in the previous part A of this section 

Source and production:  Brazil is still the largest producer of the world's supply of coffee as it was when this book was published.  Now over 70 countries produce coffee. 
The coffee tree produces a red berry, the seed of which is two flattened halves of the coffee bean.  These beans are dried and exported as green coffee.

Buying:  Coffee is then roasted in particular ways to develop the flavor due to cafeol, the volatile oil that gives it the particular aroma and taste.  Ground coffee should be purchased in tin containers or paraffin bags and should be purchased in small quantities because flavors deteriorate rapidly.  (This is still true today,  do not freeze your ground coffee as it will deteriorate the flavor faster when thawing)  Some people such as in New Orleans prefer to roast their own coffee as the flavor is even better fresh.  The French Quarter is still noted for its coffee which is a very black beverage  The intense blackness is largely due to chicory which also changes the flavor 

Coffeepots:  Coffeepots also should not be of tin for the same reason as tea pots, the tannic acid.  Earthenware pots are also not suitable for coffee.  Enamelware or aluminum coffeepots were most used.  Today, many many choices abound.  The experiments in the previous post will show that a percolator or a drip maker were the best of the "old ways" to make coffee. 

Coffee substitute.  A beverage similar to coffee in appearance and taste was prepared from parched cereals.  Postum was the most used example. Sanka was another of the first instant type coffee substitutes This substituted did not contain caffeine.  It was neither a food nor a stimulant.  The food value of the cereal was destroyed in the parching.  There are a number of coffee substitutes available today but to a true coffee drinker the taste may be offputting. 

The third beverage for breakfast and that more acceptable for children is cocoa. 
Experiment 16

In the home practice list for this chapter, was 5) Help your mother with the dishwashing.  Humm even back then it had to be a class assignment.  as well as 1) keep track of the water you drink in a day. If you do not drink your daily half dozen glasses, try to establish the habit. 

Chapter 4 Breakfast Beverages Part A

Water does not yield any calories but has value as a food  We should drink at least a half dozen glasses of water a day. preferably 8.  Even in 1927 the comment was that most of us need to drink more water. 

How the body uses water"  1. Water is a part of all body tissue.  2 water, the blood and lymph fluid, is the food carrier for cells of the body. 3. water is an important vehicle for the elimination of waste products from the body.  4. Water is a regulator of body temperature.  5. In the alimentary canal, water is an aid to digestion to absorption and in preventing constipation.
We should drink water at anytime during the day, and especially a short time before meals in particularly breakfast.  We should also work to make sure our water supply is safe and clean. 

Water in cookery, we depend on water for boiling, stewing, streaming, freezing and preparing foods while cooking, for many beverages and for cleaning both the kitchen and your kitchen utensils. Water with too much lime in it is hard water,  Less lime is soft water.  Either one is useful for cooing or washing but the mineral in water does affect the taste.  The amount of soap you have to use is different the harder or softer the water as well. 
I will continue this section in Part B with more on Tea and coffee and cocoa.

Chapter 3: Milk

As I continue through this text book I am amazed to find out what my Grandmother knew about foods that few people know today.  I know that little or none of this is taught below a collegiate level and maybe then only in graduate nutrition and science programs. 

Importance of milk.  The general wisdom of the day was that milk in the diet could save a housewife work and worry in planning well=balanced meals.  So important was it at that time that scientists said a quart of milk should be used daily until a person was grown but after that a pint.  It was not necessary to drink an entire quart but it could be added to the diet in other ways. 

The importance of milk was due to its ability to support growth, repair body tissue, to protect the body against "deficiency diseases" to supply fuel and to keep us young and vigorous.  There is mention here of the various animals world wide that were/are used for milk production. 

Composition of milk.  Because most of us do not have a cow in our back yard anymore, and we buy it at the store we can know that our milk comes from mixed herds.  What people in this generation generally knew was that milk varied in composition according to the cow, the season and what the cow was eating at that time. 

The average composition then, I am going to look when I go to the store and see if I can verify this today:  Water 87% Protein 3.3% fat 4% carbohydrates 5% minerals .7% containing larger amounts of vitamin A, moderate amounts of vitamin B ( am thinking they didn't know about the what, 7-8 B vitamins now known?)  and small but useful amounts of vitamin C

The next section is Milk Regulations.  Milk regulations varied somewhat but usually included these three things. 
1 The composition is usually standardized by the regulation of total solids--3.25% milk fat and 8.5% of other solids.  Thus 88.25% of your milk could be water.  This was to prohibit the skimming of "whole milk" or the watering it down. 
2 The bacteriological count should be low in clean milk.  Some city health departments then required that milk be graded into A, B and C grades according to the bacterial count.  Certified milk was even superior to grade A and not readily available. 
3. The most affective form of controlling the quality of the milk supply in days of having a choice in your supply seemed to be scoring all dairies and publishing those scores.  People bought milk from dairies that scored highly.  People wanted clean milk, can you imagine? 
Some of the things they looked for in scoring were healthy cows, workers that were healthy and clean and the utensils being sterilized in steam or boiling water. 

Bacteria as we know multiply rapidly in warm milk.  To keep the growth down milk should be cooled to 50 degrees or below.  in an experiment sited milk kept at 50 degrees for 24 hours increased in bacteria five times but milk kept at 70 degrees (room temp) in the same time increased 750%

Pasteurization of milk.  This process consists of heating the milk to 145 degrees for 30 minutes.  This does not boil the milk but does destroy the disease causing bacteria.  I knew that we pasteurized milk but honestly never knew what bacteria for, I guess I assumed just spoiling.  The disease bacteria that the authors of this book say we are killing is typhoid, diphtheria and tuberculosis.  This process does not prevent spoiling. 

Food value of milk.  Protein n milk (3.3%) the term protein is a class of substances that vary somewhat in their properties.  Some of them are albumin (in eggs) Legumin ( in beans) myosin (in meat) gliadin and glutenin ( in wheat) lactalbumin and casein ( in milk)  Proteins are not all equal in what they do for body building and repairing of tissue.  Some which when used as the only protein element in the diet will support both growth and repair are called complete proteins.  Others need help along the way to be a complete protein. 
Milk proteins are complete proteins which is why nature provided that substance as the sole food for the very young during the period of most rapid growth.

Fat in milk ( 4 %) The most significant fact of the food value of the fat in milk is that it is high in vitamin A which is a fat soluble vitamin.  Vitamin A will also be found in cream, butter and cheese. The fat in milk is for most people very easily digested due to its finely divided form and its low melting point 

Carbohydrate (5%) Lactose or milk sugar is the carbohydrate in milk.  When the lactose ferments it changes to lactic acid.  It was thought at this time that lactic acid was beneficial in checking the growth of certain putrefactive bacteria that cause intestinal disorders.  We do know that we need good bacteria in our bowels today to keep us healthy, can you say lactobacillus acidophilus? 

Minerals (.7%) Milk is rich in most of the minerals needed by the body  Calcium I the obvious one to us but it also contains phosphorus and iron.  Iron is not abundant in mild but it is a very superior quality.  This book also mentions that while babies are born with a large supply of iron, before the end fo the first year it is necessary to supplement that from not only milk but such foods as egg yolk and green leaf vegetables. 

Vitamins:  Vitamin A in milk helps prevent diseases of the eyes, lungs and throat.  B associated with growth and good nutrition.  Low amounts of vitamin C however.  For this reason orange juice or tomato juice was introduced early into infants diets.  It is an especially good source of calcium.  It is a good source of protein, fuel, phosphorus, and vitamin B.  Milk needs supplementing for iron and vitamin C it is not a sole food source for adults because it does not contain enough of some of these things plus it has no cellulose, for the intestines. 

Fuel for energy value.  In this book the amount of calories listed for a quart of whole milk is 675.  Today what I am finding is in the upper 500s  I believe the change has been in the way we feed our milk cows and the way we allow for exercise in our animals as well as probably differences in types of cows we generally use.  At that time, approximately the same amount of calories was in a pound of steak  Again, now steak has more calories because we like cornfed marbleing in our steaks which is ummmmm FAT.  Grass fed beef is a whole other conversation.

Milk products:  Skim milk and buttermilk have all the food value of  milk except because fat is taken out, there is also less Vitamin A.  Whey has some food value, but the protein and fat have been removed leaving the water, carbohydrates, minerals and water soluble vitamins B and C.

Condensed milk is in two forms, sweetened and unsweetened.  The sweeteed is condensed one third and the unsweetened is condensed 1/2.  I find that interesting because the sweetened kind is so much thicker than the unsweetened.  I mean come on, you can eat IT with a spoon.. you would have to drink the evaporated milk.  Condensing the milk does not change any of the food value except the vitamin C because either form has to be heated which destroys vitamin C.
Dried milk is made from either skim milk or whole milk and in the past has been considered a very important food.  It contains all th food value of milk again with probably the exception of vitamin C is useful in cooking and is useful in either places where there isn't a safe supply of fresh milk continually or in homes where milk is used sparingly. 
Cream contains from 20 to 40 percent fat.  It also has the rest of the parts of milk but in lesser amounts over all. 

Use of Milk for Breakfast:  One glass of your daily amount of milk should be taken at breakfast however you don't have to just drink it.  This amount can be used over fruit, or cereal, over toast, in breads, as a sauce for eggs or always the good ole cocoa or chocolate milk. 

Milk cookery:  The most obvious effect of cooking milk is the formation of a skim on the top, this is largely fat and protein (lact-albuin)  Try not to let this form. 
Cooking does change the taste of milk.  The sugar and fat in milk can easily burn which will give milk a scorched taste so when cooking milk for sauces or puddings and such use a double boiler instead of direct heat.  Boiling it makes milk more digestible by making softer the curd that is produced in our digestive system If milk is boiled though it should be done quickly boiled one minute and cooled quickly.  This will prevent the skim from happening and thus the burning.

Rules for care of milk in the home:  Keep it clean, covered and cool! As soon as it was delivered (yes home delivery) it should go in a cold fridge, in the part of your fridge that would keep it below 50 degrees.  Do you know if your fridge has different temps in different places?  Experiment here we come. Interestingly it says buy milk in bottles.  One was also to wash the mount of the milk bottle before pouring the milk each time and never mix old and new milk. 

Here is another quote from the book I found amazing.  "The refrigerator should be kept scrupulously clean DAILY and should have a through cleaning WEEKLY.  Milk and butter absorb odors easily so you should not put them in a place in your refrigerator near foods with a strong odor. 

The last section is titled Cocoa and Chocolate
Food value The main food value of cocoa and chocolate as a breakfast beverage is due to the milk but they also have food value themselves  In this respect they do differ from tea and coffee.  Both contain theobromine a stimulant similar to the stimulant in tea and coffee.

Percent composition of cocoa and chocolate.  Fat is the chief food constituent.  Plain chocolate contains about 50% fat.  Cocoa contains about 22 percent fat.  One square of bitter chocolate yields of one hundred and seventy calories and one tablespoon of grated chocolate yields thirty calories.
One tablespoon of cocoa pulverized has @ 30 calories.  Both cocoa and chocolate are rich  but chocolate is richer even though both are made from cocoa beans some of the fat is removed in the production of cocoa.  This makes  cocoa the better choice for breakfast and for children and people with weak digestion.

My home practice this week is going to deviate from the book.  Because several members of my family and I have lactose intolerance issues and have lived with less milk in our diets, I am going to explore the differences in nutrition from using milk to coconut milk to almond milk, our personal favorites.  I am substituting both in several recipes already but generally those are things baked as both are sweeter than regular whole milk.  If anyone has any knowledge on the subject of the vitamin and mineral content of each, I would love for you to share it.

Steaming Bread.

This afternoon as something to go with the soups for the week I chose the recipe for Boston brown Bread.  I THINK I have had that before at a restaurant that used to be here but I'm not sure so here we go to find out.  It has looked interesting to me for a while so I took a nap, then jumped in. 

Oh, did I mention that I just read it in the Quick Breads section of my grandmothers Home Economics Text book and did not REALLY read the recipe until I got ready to go to the store to find graham flour?  Humm, I didn't? Well, that made the next part interesting.  The cooking process is to steam it.  But as I gathered people KNEW how to do that back then there were really not instructions other than the size containers to put it in. 

Hurray for living in the century I live in however and internet here I came!!!!  I found a wonderful blog site History of Steamed Breads  Click there to find out that ovens used to be a rarity and therefore for people to get their daily requirements of breads, they steamed them on top of the stove.  or in an out door oven.  I am very intrigued now.  What a great way for me in the winter to add moisture into my house while getting something yummy from the effort as well.  I also want to try some more of the recipes in this blog. 

The Boston Brown Bread recipe that I am using is not the same as the one there but I don't suppose it will make a difference. 

The next thing I had to aquire was graham flour.  I KNOW that I have seen it in stores somewhere so off I trotted to Lowes Signature Store here locally.  Nope, all the rage at the moment are things like almond flour, quinoa flour and spelt flour it seems.  So PROBABLY I saw it at the local "health food store" Natures Pantry but they are closed on Sundays, so I took a chance and ran to Albertsons.. they had even MORE of the new and different types of flour.  But no graham... so again living in the century that I have tried to catch up with..... I grab my smart phone and type in Alternatives for Graham flour.  I find there on another blog that this woman has NEVER used graham flour because it is too hard to find, in her area she generally would have to mail for it, which takes time and extra money so she has ALWAYS, from day one, she says, just bought graham crackers and ground them up in the blender.  Guess what, Graham Crackers are on sale at Albertsons today for 2 packages for $5.00. 

Finally back home and set up with ground up Graham Crackers I mix up the recipe. 

Boston Brown Bread

                                 1 c flour                             2 c. sour milk, or 1 1/4 c sweet milk

1 c cornmeal                      1/2 c molasses

1 c graham flour                1/4 c. sugar

                                                  1 t. soda
                                                  1/4 t. baking powder
The directions are very different than what you generally find in recipes today.  See if you spot what I mean.

Mix milk and molasses and add to sifted dry ingredients.  Beat well about 1 minute.  Fill greased molds about 2 thirds full.  Cover tightly, putting 2 layers of oiled paper under the tops  Steam for 3 hours; remove covers and dry bread in oven 15 minutes.  

This mixture will fill about 4 one-pound baking powder-powder tins 
Small recipe, one forth of given amounts. Put only about 2 inches of batter in greased tin, steam 45 minutes , and bake in hot oven (with lid off) for 20 minutes. 

Not having any metal coffee cans or soup cans or metal baking powder tins, thanks to the above blog I just used a bread pan I have and wrapped it in foil with 2 layers of waxed paper between the batter and the foil.  I used the canning rings as my trivet on the bottom to keep the pan off the bottom of the pot and currently have it in steaming. 

AND ITS OUT!!!  With all the cooking I have been doing, who needs scentsy today.  We went to carry out the trash and when we came back inside, we realized the house smells HEAVENLY!!!!!

We cant cut it until it cools... so Breakfast will be poached eggs, a buttered slice of Boston Brown Bread and watermelon, with a warm beverage.  Join us if you like.

Chapter 2 FRUIT FOR BREAKFAST

FRUITS FOR BREAKFAST

How fruits help to keep us well



Fruits as appetizers: Fruit in general has an appealing look and smell even before you get to the flavor of fruits thus your mouth "waters".  The mouth's "Watering" indicates that the digestive juices are triggered, thus making the stomach ready for food as it is swallowed and digestion begins at once.  Fresh fruits are better in this way than cooked or dried fruits but during the off season those are better than none.

Fruits as a laxative.  Fruit has a most wholesome effect on the bowels due to both the fiber it contains and its acids.  The woody fiber contained in fruits and vegetables is called cellulose.  Cellulose is not digested or assimilated but it is beneficial to provide the needed bulk or roughage to eliminate waste from the intestines.   (This would eliminate the need to take bulk supplements and wouldn't that be nice?) 

Energy value of fruits: Fruits vary greatly in caloric value.  Some fruits container a higher fuel value than others.  Dried fruits are a viable alternative to fresh if you don't think you would eat fresh fast enough. They are also as good a source of energy as butter, milk and cheap cuts of meat. 

According to the chart in the book you also get a LOT of fruit in 100 calories. 

http://www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org/100-calorie-comparison  This is a link to a modern day chart of 100 calorie foods  It is not very much different from the chart in the book at al other than the book includes many more fruits.   Ask if you want to know more 

Mineral content of fruits:  All fruits contain at least some what they call mineral ash.  more than you ever wanted to know about the roll of ash in food.  Milk, fruits and vegetables are our main sources of minerals in our diet.  Just because you are eating enough calories does not mean you are getting you vitamins and minerals.  According to the book, you cannot trust that you are getting the needed minerals if you are eating in a "haphazard fashion".  The primary minerals needed are iron, calcium and phosphorus.  Rasins, prunes, strawberries, blackberries, plumbs and pineapple contain more iron than some other fruits, while oranges contain more calcium than any other fruit.  You can also get plenty of calcium from things like grapefruit, blackberries, raspberries, plums and pineapple.  Phosphorus is also what we in our current culture would call bioavailable from many of our fruits. 

There is also a footnote to this section that mentions Apricots as a source of copper.  Copper in traces has been found necessary for the prevention and cure of anemia and apricots have been found to be second to liver in this important respect.  So if you suffer from anemia, or your children are tested to be low in iron, I suggest trying to feed them apricots.  Do NOT however feed apricots to your sheep as they cannot tolerate copper, but I digress.

Vitamins in fruits:  At the time this book was written :"At the present time five vitamins are know to exist  These have been designated as vitamins A, B, C, D, E.  At the writing of this book much less was known about the need, use and origin of various vitamins than we know now but we are also still learning.  Little was known about D and E at that time and we are really just learning more about D.  But we DO know that vitamins are important as protective, regulating and growth-promoting substances.  Fruits in general are a great source for vitamin C and Bs. 
Vitamine C prevents scurvy.  It is a water soluble vitamin so our body does not store it, so we must ingest it daily.  It is an especially important vitamin for children.  Heating and drying at least partially destroys it so fresh fruits and vegetables are the most reliable source.  Half an orange daily is enough to supply your vitamin C needs.  There is a table tha tshowes what they knew at the time of the vitamin A, B andC content in various fruits.  I plan to investigate current knowledge and see what we know now. 

There is also information on the industry of both drying fruit and canning various fruits. 

Fruit was in some ways at the time of the writing of this book considered a luxury because of cost but the authors attempt to convince the reader that the good gained is worth any extra expense that might be found.  I believe this still holds true today.  The last sentence of this paragraph still holds true today, and even more so  " Money spent in purchasing a regular supply of fresh fruit is economical health insurance". 

The next suggestion is to buy fruit in season for not only cost but also quality.  In our current culture there is some research to be done to remember when various fruits are SUPPOSED to be in season.  Forced food does not usually contain the same vitamin and mineral content as naturally grown fruits and vegetables.  Keep fruits that spoil easily in warm weather in the refrigerator and if you are planning to keep it a while before use purchase slightly under ripe. 

Preparation and serving of food for breakfast:  This section of the book is very interesting.  Most of the fruits listed are served fresh but a few like baked apples, stewed apples baked pears or stewed pears are listed.  Most of the suggested items would be very easy to prepare for a breakfast, added to healthy cereals that will come in a later post, or even prepared ahead of time. 

As you will find in the class notes below, the reason for cooking some fruits is to soften the cellulose which may be needed especially for children, invalids or convalescents.  For very young children pureeing the fruit is very necessary.  If you have over ripe fruit, cooking it will stop the fermentation process as well as increase your choices in how to use the fruits. 

Cooking dried fruit involves (at that time as it was generally dried on trays outside) inspecting for insects, washing well "through several waters"  and soaking in water over night (with the exception of dried apples).  Most fruit from there would be cooked covered until tender.  Raisins, figs, dates and currents are however steamed in a double boiler.

The final section of this chapter tells us that when cooking fruit the addition of sugar retards the softening of the fiber  The use of sugar with care will prevent the fruit from cooking to pieces.  This can be done by either simply adding the sugar as you begin cooking or first making a sugar syrup.  If you are baking or preserving fruits, especially watery ones, the sugar helps keep the shape of the fruit.  If you are adding sugar merely for sweetening, add it last so as not to delay the cooking process. 



 

 

My home practice for this chapter is going to be to plan and prepare fruit for my family's breakfast for a week.