Radioblog

Tasty Tofu Wrap

2009-01-09T10:00:00-05:00

Posted by Sandy Gluck

With Monty and Shavon, producer and engineer of the "Everyday Food" radio show, participating in the Body+Soul Challenge, this week's sandwich was, well, a challenge -- no meat or bread!

Inspired by the spring rolls served at Tet (one of my favorite restaurants in Manhattan), I thought, hey, why not use rice-paper wrappers (aka spring roll wrappers) instead of bread. Rice paper is very cool. It looks like a translucent sheet of plastic until it's briefly soaked in tepid water -- then it turns into something pliable and perfect for wrapping.

I marinated a block of tofu in a soy mixture overnight, thinly sliced it and broiled it on both sides until it was crispy outside, soft within.

Rice vinegar and a little sugar heated until the sugar was dissolved and made the base for quickly pickled shredded carrots, a little turnip, and red bell pepper strips.

I soaked and patted dry the papers and topped them with a cilantro leaf, pickled vegetables, and strips of tofu. I folded them up like any wrap and served them with a peanut butter dipping sauce (Monty loves peanut butter). Who said a sandwich had to be something between 2 slices of bread anyway?

Apple and Pumpkin Picking Party!

2009-01-08T13:00:00-05:00

Posted by Naomi Gabay

One of my favorite parts of living in the northeast is apple picking! Sure it's a fall activity but we eat apples all year round, right?

In the fall, farms all over the tristate area open their doors to customers who can enjoy the crisp air while picking apples, pumpkins, and other fresh treats. It's a popular family activity for locals as well a city dwellers looking for a day in the country.

SEE NAOMI'S PHOTOS

Many farms also offer hay rides, hot apple cider, apple-cider donuts, and shops with freshly made goods.

Since I always pick more apples than I can handle, I decided to join forces with friends to pool our resources and create an apple- and pumpkin-themed dinner.

Here are the sweet and spicy pumpkin seeds. They're simple to make and the seeds make any home smell amazing!

We also made a cheddar fondue, using apple cider for the liquid and a dash of liquid smoke. We dipped apples and fresh crusty bread into the fondue.

For dinner, it was grilled chicken with braised apples and onions. The chicken was served on a bed of quinoa. We cooked the quinoa in apple cider with a touch of thyme. Then we mixed in some toasted pine nuts, and roasted apple and pumpkin.

On the side was fresh coleslaw, with apple-cider vinegar and shredded apples.

No meal would be complete without dessert! We sliced apples and tossed them with some sugar and cinnamon, and then wrapped them up in puff pastry. Yum!

What are your favorite apple and pumpkin recipes?

Body+Soul Challenge Week 1: I Am a Detox Diva!

2009-01-08T10:00:00-05:00

Posted by Jennifer Sendrow

As the producer of "Whole Living," I'm always thinking about ways to live healthier. As someone who loves food and hates the gym, I don't always turn those thoughts into action. Taking on the Body+Soul Challenge will force me to spend the next five weeks really walking the walk. If I survive, I'll be blogging about my experiences here every Thursday.

It's not my style to do things halfway, so I've completely embraced this week's detox by cutting out all caffeine, alcohol, white flour, sugar, meat, and dairy in my diet for the whole week. Basically, I'm a rabbit. It's been oatmeal with cinnamon and fruit for breakfast, hummus and vegetables for lunch, raw almonds for a midday snack, a mix of whole grains and vegetables for dinner, and fruit for an evening snack. I'm drinking lots of water and herbal tea.

I'm not going to lie: It's not easy! Since I work at Martha Stewart, I'm surrounded by tempting snacks all day, and giving up my usual glass of wine at dinner has been tough. That said, I think I'm already reaping the benefits.

You come to appreciate a nice piece of fruit much more when it's your only sweet treat of the day. I've discovered some recipes in the Veganomicon cookbook that are as tasty as they are healthy, and had fun experimenting with heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo.

This chili will enter my permanent recipe rotation, as it easily passed muster with my husband (even though his interest in the Challenge was limited to wondering if it was going to make me cranky). I'm actually looking forward to dreaming up healthy snacks to serve during the Eagles-Giants playoff game this Sunday instead of the usual game-day junk food.

So far, so good!

"Who's the Most Like Martha?" Contest

2009-01-08T07:30:00-05:00

Posted by Alexis Tirado

I am so excited that we had celebrity blogger and self-proclaimed "Queen of All Media," Perez Hilton on "Morning Living"! Perez sat down with Kim and Betsy to discuss his new book, "Red Carpet Suicide: A Survival Guide on Keeping Up with the Hiltons."

In the past, Perez has professed that he wants to be a Latino version of Martha Stewart, so today Kim and Betsy asked him, "How Martha are you?" We decided to create a contest with all three personalities, and you get to vote on who is the most like Martha!

May the most Martha contestant win!

Perez claims he's the most like Martha because he's an avid dog lover. He has a dog named Teddy Hilton, a miniature Goldendoodle. He also loves home decor and created "the pink palace," a fabulous room in his apartment (Martha's guesthouse in her Bedford home is pink!) Perez has been living a healthy lifestyle, too, and recently lost a lot of weight.

Betsy literally creates 21 meals from scratch every week for her family and friends! She's also an entrepreneur like Martha: she runs a flower arranging and gardening business. Zoning laws prevent Betsy from raising chickens (like Martha), but she loves using eggs for baking (check out her stellar flower cupcakes and bug brownies). She's also a pet lover and has a brown dog, striped cat, two hermit crabs, and a teddy bear hamster. Lastly, Betsy is fierce with a knitting needle: She's working on her second scarf of the season and is helping radio host Mario Bosquez with his crochet project. Take that, Perez!

Kim is really into fitness and leading a healthy life (Martha is a big advocate for healthy living). She loves yoga (Martha's niece is a yoga instructor), spinning classes, and running, She's also an avid horse and dog lover, just like Martha! You can catch Kim baking or cooking in her kitchen, too.

Dormant Season Pruning; Fruit Trees

2009-01-07T12:51:37-05:00

Posted by Tony Bielaczyc

Despite gale force winds, ice storms, snow storms, sheets of rain or sleet, heat waves and all heck breaking loose on the weather front in almost any corner of the country, for some, it's time to start getting at dormant season pruning. And even if you can't see the base of your favorite apple or plum tree for the snow, or water or what-have-you, now is a good time to round up the tools for an inspection and refamiliarize ourselves with some basic dos and don'ts.

For Andrew, myself and the rest of us gardeners in Zones 7 and lower, it is too soon to actually get to work on fruit trees. Holding off until after the coldest point in the season is the standard rule of thumb, so for us, that will be some time in March. In the meantime, we're double checking to make pruners, saws, loppers are all clean, sharp and ready. Bypass pruners are a must for the best cutting as is a tri-cut saw. This type of saw cuts on three surfaces of the blade making its way through a branch on both the pull and push motion for branches above an inch in diameter. Loppers are great for even bigger branches and for reducing the cut branches to more manageable size.

If you're about to tackle that witch's broom of a tree out back, take it slow and remember;

-start with the 3 Ds: dead, diseased, and damaged wood. It all has to come out.

-remove crossing branches, or branches that are rubbing against one another. In general, the weaker one of the two comes out.

-don't take out more than 1/3 of the total canopy at one time. Too much can send a tree into stress and leave it vulnerable to pests and disease.

For a thorough guide on the step-by-step approach to pruning almost everything, look to the American Horticultural Society's Pruning and Training Manual. In here you'll see very helpful, explicit directions for taking on just about anything woody.

On Thursday's show, we're going over the basics for roses, so tune in at 1:00 p.m. EST.