Category: Uncategorized

TikTok Pasta

March 1, 2021 / jwilmoredenton

By Christina Denton, age 39

Okay, I’m a 39-year-old mother-of-five and during quarantine I found TikTok. I’ve convinced myself it’s okay to be on TikTok at my age because people post recipes. But let’s be real, some of that dancing is on point.

So over the last couple months I’ve been watching people all over the world post about this feta pasta dish. One day I decided to try it. On a trip back from Connecticut, after an 18 hour drive, my daughter and I stopped at our local grocery store to get the ingredients. That’s how excited I was. We bought a block of feta, baby Roma tomatoes, and some Mafalda pasta. While we were checking out, a young lady was ringing up all of these items and immediately asked if we were making that famous TikTok pasta, lol! She was very excited and interesting to see if it was any good.

The next evening I prepared the TikTok pasta for dinner for my family. I cut up a red onion and some garlic. I dumped the package of tomatoes in a baking dish and placed the square of feta in the middle. I added the red onions , olive oil, salt and pepper, and also the oregano that we grew and dried ourselves this summer. Additionally, I added some cut up broccolini because I had it.

I can’t think of a veggie that wouldn’t be good in this

I put the baking dish in the oven at 425F for about 30 minutes. While I waited for that to bake I boiled some water with some salt and cooked the mafalda pasta. My husband and I are doing no carbs so we had ours over Shiritaki noodles. After about 30 minutes I pulled the baking dish out of the oven. Everything looked browned and cooked well. The cheese was still in the block shape so I was hesitant, thinking that it wasn’t actually melted or creamy. I took a big fork and I started popping all of the tomatoes and breaking up the cheese which was indeed creamy and gooey and it all made a beautiful sauce.

I plated the dishes for my family and added some fresh grated Parmesan cheese on top. The pasta came out delicious. I was so shocked at how easy the sauce was and how much my kids loved it. Since then I’ve made it another time for my sister-in-law and brother-in-law and their family for our special Valentine’s Day dinner. They loved it just as much as we did.

I’ve also seen a low-carb version of this sauce being served over some grilled chicken. You really can’t go wrong with this pasta dish. You can add anything that you love whether it be fresh vegetables or a protein of your choice. I believe this would be good over an old shoe as well.

A few weeks later, I returned to the same local grocery store just to do my everyday shopping. The lady at the checkout counter remembered me from a few weeks prior and asked me how the TikTok pasta came out. I told her how delicious it was and that we’ve made it several times since and she said that she was going to go buy the stuff that night and make it. All in all I would say it was a win and it’s going to be a staple within our family going forward. This also allows me to justify watching countless hours of TikTok every week.

Sobre Boricuas y Bodegas

March 1, 2021 / jwilmoredenton

By James Denton, age 39

I recently set out on a journey to reconnect three of my adopted children to their biological heritage. They are of Hispanic descent. Specifically, their biological father was from Puerto Rico, and their biological grandfather is from Uruguay.

It was a no-brainer to want them to learn (or relearn) Spanish. I feel that it is one of the most useful skills that you can have in America today. No matter what line of work you go into, speaking both of the two most commonly spoken languages will serve you well. My wife jumped on board as well, partly because we had a trip to Cancun planned, pre-Covid. She started using Duolingo and liked it a lot, so the kids did too. All of my family is amazed at how much Spanish I know, without ever having taken classes. I am mostly self-taught from friends and my years in the food service industry.

With the linguistic connection in place, we could get down to the important stuff: food. My children recently lost a biological relative, which gave this mission a sense of urgency. They had often mentioned memories of that person cooking them leftover rice with a fried egg on top. What a universally perfect dish! All over the world this is comfort food. So we started preparing this for them after their loved one’s passing. It’s very simple; we’ve done it with white rice, brown rice, yellow rice, arroz con gondolas, even Indian pilau.

Another time, I wanted to find an Uraguayan dish to flex on. I discovered Panchos. Panchos are Uraguayan hot dogs, topped with sweet corn, cheese, onion, spicy chilies, and a ketchup-mayonnaise mix called “salsa golf”. How cool. Homemade hot dog buns put it over the top. I should have a blog post coming up on them soon.

I then challenged myself to really lean into the Puerto Rican cuisine I grew up in such close proximity to. First, in Bridgeport, CT, I was raised amidst the fragrances of sofrito and adobo. My neighbors, friends, and classmates were first- or second-generation Boricuen. My mother grew up there as well, in the infamous housing projects, and would cook rice and beans for us, with the tell-tale green olives so common in Puerto Rican arroz. Then, in Central Florida, I was again immersed into a mecca of Boricua culture. Many of my friends, classmates, and coworkers spoke English as a second language. They invited me into their lives and their families and to me they just felt more like home than some of the comparatively new, rural cultural practices I was being exposed to. Shout out to my boy Cuebas, rest in peace, brother.

The quintessential Puerto Rican comfort food is arroz con pollo, or chicken and rice. Arroz con Pollo begins with Sofrito. Typically you can buy Sofrito in most grocery stores in the ethnic food aisle, but it is always better to make your own. It’s pretty simple too! I diced three bell peppers and one poblano (because I had it), two yellow onions, and about 10 cloves of garlic. I sweated the peppers and onions in some olive oil until the onions became translucent and then added the garlic and continued to cook until fragrant. To this I added three cilantro ice cubes that I made this past summer when I had an abundance of cilantro growing in my garden. (This is one of those tips that I always heard about, but never tried, and it was a real winner. Any herbs that are not suitable for dehydration can be blended up into a paste, frozen in ice cube trays, and then moved to a freezer bag for use throughout the year.)

Once the Sofrito is stewed down and the flavors are all melded together, you can either blend it into a paste, or leave it chunky as I did. In another pan, I heated some olive oil with achiote, just until fragrant, and then strained the oil. I used this beautiful red oil to fry my chicken thighs, skin side down until very crispy. I then flipped the chicken thighs and cooked the other side until they receive some nice color. I actually did this in the bottom of my instant pot on sauté. After I removed the chicken, I added 2 cups of rinsed brown rice to the instant pot, the remaining achiote oil, and stir-fried it for about a minute, until the rice was nutty and fragrant. To this I added my reserved Sofrito, a can of tomatoes from our garden last year, about 20 green olives, and topped it all with those beautiful chicken thighs. Twenty minutes on manual and that’s all she wrote!

Another famous dish is chicharrons, or fried pork belly. I had some pork belly in the freezer from a local pig, so I decided to give that a whirl as well. I marinated to pork belly in garlic and oregano for a few hours. I par-boiled the pork belly slices in just a little water, so that they would render some of their own fat out, which I then fried them in. They came out perfect!

Valentine’s Day

March 1, 2021 / jwilmoredenton

By: Amyna Denton age 13

You guys know that chocolate-covered fruit that you can have delivered to someone for a special occasion? Well, we can not get those in our area in rural Western NC, so we decided to make our own! It was actually my aunt Kat’s bright idea. She called and asked if my sister and I could make chocolate-covered fruit and pretzels for my Gramma Lee for Valentine’s Day. We said that we would love to do that. She sent us white and milk chocolate, sprinkles, and a chocolate “melter.” My sister and I got the pineapples, strawberries, bananas, pretzels, dipping sticks, and parchment paper.

The first thing we did was start melting the chocolate. We melted the chocolate in the tiny chocolate melter, but that was kind of time consuming, so we also used the microwave (ten seconds on and ten seconds off). A little tip on melting chocolate, you need to add some kind of oil. We chose coconut oil, which is yummy. My aunt Kelly helped cut all the pineapples and strawberries into heart shapes for Valentine’s Day. The fruit must be pretty dry, so we placed it all on kitchen towels. We stuck some of the fruit on forks and some on skewers. The pretzel rods don’t need any prep.

Then it was time to cover the fruit in the chocolate! We took one of the skewers that had fruit on it and gently placed it in the chocolate. We took the fruit out and placed it on the parchment paper so it wouldn’t make a mess everywhere. If you want to drizzle chocolate or put sprinkles on the fruit, make sure the chocolate on is still melted. For the pretzels, we found it easier to scoop some chocolate out and coat the pretzels, rather than dip them.

Once all the fruit and pretzels were on the parchment paper all nice and decorated, we placed them in the fridge so that the chocolate didn’t melt (and so they didn’t get eaten them right away). It was very fun and easy to make these homemade fruit arrangements. They also taste really good. I am glad that our aunts Kelly and Kat taught and showed us how to make them!

Sichuan Ramen

July 28, 2020 / jwilmoredenton

I have always love spicy food, but when I first tried recipes from the Sichuan province of China, featuring the Sichuan peppercorn, they took my spicy fetish to a whole ‘nother level. Mouth-numbing, tingly, floral explosions combined with super-hottt spicy chilies. What’s not to love?

Today I made Sichuan Ramen and it is a good example of how I live, working on many ongoing projects, which can come together in many different ways, into amazing final dishes. Ramen is made up of four basic components: the dashi (broth), the tare (sauce), the noodles, and the toppings. These can be combined in endless combinations to suit any taste and provide lots of variety. I might be canning homemade bone broths one week, fermenting vegetables and curing meats another, and finally watching them come together on a random Monday night, in one perfect bowl of Ramen.

Dashi – Broth

I have recently found a local source for Springer Mountain Farms chickens. They are American Humane Certified and raised up in these same Blue Ridge Mountains as I am raising up my family. I have raised and butchered my own Cornish Cross chickens in the past, but it is a lot of work, and I’d rather leave it to the experts. In my opinion, they put out the best chicken products aside from me doing it myself. For this Ramen dashi, I used just the carcass from one of these chickens, discarded from a hot chicken recipe I am working on (spoiler alert). I browned it slightly in my Instant Pot, along with a white onion sliced in half and a couple of slices of ginger, on the saute setting. I then filled the IP with water and cooked under pressure for 30 minutes to develop a nice broth. Finally, I removed the bones and veggies, poured the stock through a fine-mesh strainer, and seasoned with a little salt. You can cool it down in the refrigerator and remove any fat, if you like.

Tare – Sauce

The Tare, or seasoning sauce of the Ramen is where the Szechuan comes in. I combine oyster sauce with grated ginger, grated garlic, cayenne pepper, habanero powder, and toasted, ground Sichuan peppercorns. Instead of the traditional sake, mirin, or shaoxing wine, I used some of my homemade hard apple cider! this is what I mean by having many ongoing projects that come together in different ways. Last fall I made a bunch of homemade hard apple cider from some leftover apple juice that I gained as a byproduct of making applesauce. I don’t drink alcohol and no one in my house really does either, so it’s been sitting around for a while and I had a light bulb moment to use it in my cooking. My wife used it in her chicken piccata in stead of white wine a few nights ago and it was perfect. This may have influenced my light bulb moment.

Noodles!

The noodles I chose for this Ramen were buckwheat soba noodles. I was toying with the idea of using spaghetti squash as a noodle substitute, which I have done before with great success as a low-carb option. Any noodle will work in a pinch, but I’ve been trying to find the perfect noodle for some time that both satisfies the rest my family’s carb needs, and satisfies my need for healthy carb options. Soba noodles are a quick and easy healthy cheat. Another of my favorites are shirataki noodles, a zero carb “noodle” made from some yam or something.

Toppings

Another example of my projects that come together in serendipitous, fulfilling ways is my Char Shui pork belly. We butchered a pig a few months ago and ended up with a lot of pork belly which I had sliced into thick-cut bacon. What I didn’t know was that bacon has to be cured, and it was my first time attempting this at home. I covered the bacon in pink Himalayan sea salt for a few days and then cooked some up. It. Was. Not. Great. I guess there is no substitute for the other pink salt, sodium nitrite. So I mused to myself, maybe I should smoke it? I smoked some of the bacon as low and slow as I could. It kind of melted a little bit and when I cook some of it up again, it was not great. I had a stroke of genius while looking at some packets of store-bought Char Sui I had in my pantry. I took a bunch of the pork belly I had left and marinated it in the Char Sui seasoning (basically a mixture of sugar and red). What I ended up with after a quick broil was awesome. Char Sui, grilled to perfection, slightly blackened around the edges, is totally delicious. Our little Bash calls this candy chicken, and it is one of the few foods that he will eat without being threatened. This was the protein I chose for my Ramen.

A few more choice toppings I like are sweet corn, cilantro or basil, red onion or green onion, soy sauce, and hoisin. Also, a few days before I planned to make the Ramen, I prepared some soy-marinated eggs. I soft-boiled a dozen eggs (to perfection) and then marinated them in one part soy sauce, one part hard cider, and one part water. They marinated for two days.

To assemble the Ramen, I placed some tare in the bottom of the bowl, ladled in some chicken dashi, and placed a ball of soba noodles on top. I topped the Ramen with sweet whole kernel corn, the Char Sui pork, a sliced Ramen egg, cilantro, and in my case, a thinly slice spicy chili, the first from my garden this year. I hope yall like this post, and please reach out with any questions!

Sunday Breakfast

July 26, 2020 / jwilmoredenton

By James Denton

There is something really beautiful about Sunday morning breakfasts. Whether you sleep in late, or wake up early to enjoy the quiet. Everything moves at a slower pace. We like to wake up early, and cook a big breakfast, knowing that we will all be together as a family this morning.

Today, we had the added benefit of having some of our own fresh garden produce to add to the mix. Today’s breakfast consisted of my homemade sourdough bread, topped with fresh garden tomatoes, black pepper, and avocados dressed with really good olive oil. Alongside the ubiquitous breakfast sausage, Christina crafted a breakfast scramble of eggs, bell peppers from our garden, mushrooms, onions, and some bacon bits I cured from a local pig.

We really enjoy taking the time, as often as we can, to spend that quality time together, around the table, without electronics, with the most whole foods as possible. Love you.

Ducks Have Talons

July 25, 2020 / jwilmoredenton

Ducks have talons. I know what you’re thinking: that’s a load of hooey. And here’s the thing: there was a time when I was right there with you. A time when I, too, lived in the beautiful and comfortingly false universe in which ducks are talon-less. Life was good then. It was that fantasy world in which I picked up a duck, and held it tenderly to my heart. And it was in that perfect moment that the frightened creature sliced through the veil of my delusions and also through the skin of my chest with it’s duck talons.

Ducks are sneaky and clever. Their appearance is no accident. Their soft downy feathers, rounded bill and waddling walk are all ruses to lure you into a false sense of security. They quack and squawk and eat out of your hands and you think, how utterly adorable!? How sweet and cute and harmless… and then they have you right where they want you. You move in for a snuggle and they move in for the kill! The moment you scoop one up, the talons are out, and you’re duck meat.

Were I single, I’d be flaunting my many duck battle wounds to potential mates in hopes of wooing them with my obvious physical prowess the way humans have done since the days of the first Lethal Weapon movie. However, most potential mates live in the make-believe world where ducks are not viscous, blood-thirsty birds of prey. And those people are not for me. I have seen too much.

As it is, I am mated, and she might have been more judgmental were it not for her own guinea hen injuries. And our knowledge of the dangers of bird holding has done little to hinder us. While the perils are great, the rewards are greater. There is nothing more satisfying, especially in this time of uncertainty and fear, than holding a living raptor to your breast and forcing it to love you.

Update: While Laurin’s guinea hen injuries are healed now, I have been permanently maimed by duck love.

Making Sugar Scrub is Easy and Fun, by Amyna Denton, age 12

April 27, 2020 / jwilmoredenton

My aunt Kat came to visit from Connecticut. She hitched a ride with my mom when she was driving home to North Carolina. Aunt Kat hadn’t been down to our house for a while. With her, she brought her two little girls, Leeloo and Eppie. She really likes making homemade stuff. Aunt Kat makes all her own stuff at home like toothpaste, deodorant, and sugar scrub. So when she was here, she decided to teach us how to make sugar scrub. Sugar scrub is an exfoliating scrub used to take dead skin off of your hands and body. It is all natural and super easy to make. I like it because of how it makes your skin feel silky and smooth.

It was so fun and easy to make sugar scrub that I wanted to share it with other people like you! Here are the ingredients and steps for how to make sugar scrub. The ingredients are sugar, olive oil or avocado oil, essential oil, and food coloring, which is optional. You will need a big bowl and a wooden spoon to mix it up with. 1 ½ cup sugar, ½ cup olive oil, as much essential oil you want, and 2 drops of food coloring. I just add 2 drops of essential oil and food coloring.

First, get a bowl and add the sugar and the olive oil and mix it all up. Second you can add essential oil and food coloring (optional). Third, make sure you mixed it all up well. After mixing, make sure you have a consistency like play dough. If the scrub seems too wet, add a bit more sugar. If the scrub seems too dry, add a bit more oil. The last step is to put it in a jar or container.

Sugar scrub can be used all over your body. Anywhere you have dry skin, apply the scrub and rub it lightly over the area. Then, wash the area with soap and water. The sugar removes the dry skin quickly and painlessly, and the oil leaves your skin feeling fresh and soft. The essential oil leaves you smelling great.
The best places to use it are your hands and feet. I have dry skin on my hands and feet. They are usually dry and cracked. Using sugar scrub on these areas makes them nice and smooth because of the sugar. It is a simple and fun way to treat yourself well. It feels like going to get a pedicure. Especially in the winter. Here in the mountains, where we live, winter leaves our skin drier than normal. Sugar scrub not only removes the dry, damaged skin, but the oil it leaves your skin protected from the cold.

This was my first time making sugar scrub, and the first time I learned a skill from my Aunt Kat. It was fun to watch my cousins Leeloo and Eppie squishing the sugar and oil together with their hands and choosing their colors. I was amazed at how it came out. I had no idea how it would look. I made mine with peppermint oil because it is a strong and relaxing smell. I added green food coloring so it would match the peppermint smell.
This was a great project and it was the best because my Aunt Kat was teaching us. Aunt Kat showed us how to make these and now I can make it all by myself. Next time she comes she’ll probably teach me to make toothpaste or deodorant. I really enjoy making things like this. I hope you enjoy making and using your own sugar scrub. If you have any questions or comments, please write below.

Asian Dumplings aka Potstickers aka Gyoza, by Lilli, age 13

April 26, 2020 / jwilmoredenton

Our family cooks amazing dishes. One of the many things we love is Asian dumplings. Who doesn’t love dumplings? They’re amazing, delectable, and mouth-watering, especially homemade dumplings! We live in rural Western North Carolina in the middle of nowhere so we have to keep ourselves busy and content and one way we do that is by cooking ethnic foods that we can’t get otherwise. We moved here from Connecticut, where there was plenty to do.

We make the good homemade stuff right here in our kitchen. Take a moment and think of the things you get in a sit-down restaurant, drive-thru, or somewhere besides your kitchen. Ask yourself: is the food that I make better than the easy alternative from a drive-thru? Your answer should be a big fat yes! Of course, if there is work needed to make good food then you know it’s better. We as a family like to avoid drive-thrus and other less-healthy restaurants. We try to work hard as a family to eat healthily and in order to eat healthily, you have to make the food. So, if we want Chinese food, we make it!

It’s hard sometimes, but we don’t just change our minds and say “let’s go to KFC” because the work is hard, or it takes a long time. No! That is all wrong and I don’t like to think like that. I like to think positively and ask myself “what am I trying to do here? What am I getting out of this?” We do the hard work and make homemade food as a family because it creates so many significant memories and there’s something at the end of our hard work to enjoy after.
I am an adopted child. Making food with my adoptive family is especially fun for me because in the past, living with my birth family, I never had the opportunity to do things like making homemade food. We hardly ever bought our own ingredients to make recipes at home together. We barely had a full meal in front of us to eat! If we did eat something it was food from the bodega down the block (if you’re wondering what a bodega is, it’s a small grocery store that sells different authentic Latin food, usually found in urban areas). Don’t get me wrong the food was good for someone who hardly ever ate a full meal but it’s sad to me now because I realize what I was missing.

I really enjoy making home-cooked food with my family. Making food with my family like dumplings makes me content and helps me stay busy. Everyone in my family has a role in making dumplings, whether it be prepping ingredients, washing dishes, or making other sides to go with dumplings. Have you ever heard the quote “many hands make light work”? It is actually true! We have many people in our family to help and with many people involved, less work is needed from each person.

My aunt Michelle makes the dumpling filling for us and cooks the dumplings afterwards. My uncle Will helps with cooking the dumplings and makes other flavorful dishes to go with them. My dad, my sister Amyna, my aunt Michelle and I help fold the dumplings together. My mom and grandma help with cleaning up after everyone by washing the dishes and counters.

Some of the dishes we eat with dumplings are fried rice and hot and sour soup. Sometimes we also have Char Shui pork or Lo Mein. Making our meals is time-consuming but just remember it is also worth it.
I help with folding the dumplings as I said earlier. They’re really fun to fold. The way I learned to fold dumplings was to put at least three pleats on each side. We lay the wrappers all out on a big tray. I’m going to explain the way I fold them by step.

Nurse’s hat shape is similar to tortellini

First, make sure you have all the ingredients and equipment laid out: a small bowl of water, a big bowl of your dumpling filling, a stack of dough wrappers, and a tray to put your finished dumplings on. Most importantly, wash your hands! Now you want to lay one of your dough wrappers out on a flat surface and scoop a small amount of filling on to your dough wrapper. Then dip your finger into your water dish and rub around the edges of your dough wrapper. This is to make them stick together instead of falling apart. Next you pick your dough wrapper up and add pleats on each side. Finally, put your finished dumpling on the tray to rest before cooking.

We make dumplings all the time so when I make them I try to strive for more pleats every time. I seem to do more and more pleats as I grow. The more time you spend making food with your family at home, the more important moments you make together.
Learning these basic cooking skills to make dumplings is important. Being with family and getting to do things together and be there for each other is also important. Now that I’m finished with giving you the basic steps and my experience with making homemade Asian dumplings, I recommend trying it one day. Gather your friends and family to help you with this meal. It is time for you to make an involved home-cooked meal for yourself, family, and friends!