The Jewels of the Holidays.

The months of October, November, December and January bring to us holidays of remembrance, gatherings, gratefulness and love.  However, it is the many meals and desserts that bring us to that iconic New Year’s Eve promise of eating healthier, aka going on a diet.

Even though the temperature outdoors has gotten colder, there are certain fruits that put holiday spirit into our bodies.  They are available year-round, due to import and export, but why are they more holiday related than seasonal?

Oranges, and other citrus fruits, are naturally in peak season during the winter months in North America, with harvests occurring from late fall into early spring in warm regions like California and Florida. The chilly nights and sunny days during this period concentrate the fruits' natural sugars, resulting in a sweeter, juicier flavor.  Whenever we would travel to Florida, it was always late January/early February, and coming home with a case of blood oranges was a treat; the sweetest orange by far.   Cranberries are harvested in North America from mid-September through early November, making them abundant and fresh just in time for the major winter holidays.

Healthwise, both fruits are rich in vitamin C which helps produce white blood cells, necessary for fighting infections.  They also contain antioxidants that protect cells from damage, and have anti-inflammatory properties.  Oranges contain about a half cup of water, so it helps to keep you hydrated on dry, cold wintery days.

However, we think more towards holiday traditions when it comes to oranges and cranberries. 

Cranberries have been a part of American winter holidays for centuries, providing a tart side of balance to holiday foods like roasted turkey and sweet desserts. Historically, Indigenous peoples also ate cranberries fresh, dried, or as part of pemmican during winter for sustenance.  Pemmican? Pemmican is made of dried and pounded meat, rendered fat (like tallow or suet), and dried berries. The meat is from bison, beef cattle, elk or venison, dried until it is hard and then ground into a powder. The fat is mixed with the ground powder, dried berries, and other seasonings, for added flavoring.

For Yule/Winter Solstice and Christmas, cranberries, dried orange slices and popcorn are used to make garlands and wreaths for decorations.  Oranges are used to create pomanders by studding them with cloves. The orange itself is a symbol of the sun, celebrating its eventual return during the darkest time of the year.  Placing an orange in a Christmas stocking is a tradition relating to Saint Nicholas. Secretly, he left bags of gold for poor families, and over time, oranges came to symbolize the golden gift, representing charity and prosperity. For those in colder climates, an orange is seen as a rare and luxurious treat, making it a precious gift.

Chinese New Year occurs either in January or February.  Oranges are given as gifts as they are symbols of good luck, prosperity, and wealth. Their golden color resembles gold, and their names in Chinese sound similar to words for "luck," "wealth," and "success".

 

So, why entitle this article as “jewels of the holidays”?  For the very reasons I have given, they are rich in color, taste, usage and meaning…and my gift to you all, for this holiday season, Orange Cranberry Bread.  Oh, it’s the recipe of course, you’ll have to do all the baking yourselves.

 

Orange Cranberry Bread

Ingredients:

4 and ½ cups flour (+ ½ cup for high altitude)

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbsp. grated orange zest (fresh or rehydrated)

2 cups fresh or thawed frozen cranberries

1/2 cup butter, softened

2 cups sugar, or sugar substitute

2 large eggs

1 and ½ cups fresh squeezed, or thawed concentrate, orange juice

 

For the Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

4 Tbsp. milk

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparation:

 

 

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray three 8-inch aluminum loaf pans with baking spray. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into a large bowl. Stir in orange zest and cranberries. Set aside.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beat butter, sugar, and eggs together in a large bowl until smooth; stir in orange juice until well incorporated.  Stir in flour until mixture is moist, dense and sticky; spoon into prepared pans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bake in oven until toothpick comes out clean and tops are browned, about 45-50 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes; take bread out of pan and wrap in plastic, or keep in pan, wrap in aluminum foil and store in freezer up to 3 months.

Makes 3 loaves.

 

 

Cooled, Ready to Glaze

 

 

Glazed, Ready to Enjoy

 

 

Note: Do not use orange juice from a bottle or cardboard carton.  This product contains water, and while your cake, bread or muffins may look lovely on the outside; inside will be a sunken mess of unbaked goo.

Mary Cokenour

 

The Mandela Effect and How Food is Remembered.

Before every food company converted their frozen meals to be microwaveable; the containers were aluminum and the plastic or cardboard covers needed to be removed first before heating. One of my very favorites was Stouffer's "Escalloped Chicken and Noodles"; chunks of white meat chicken, veggies and egg noodles in a luscious, creamy sauce. Alas, Stouffer's went the microwave route also; the containers became thin plastic with plastic wrap covers that stayed on, and the food stuck to. Not only that, the portions became smaller, but the prices almost doubled, and by now they have tripled.  What the heck is that all about!?!

I decided I'd had enough of this nonsense, and set upon making a copycat version of my own.  I purchased one more entree, heated it up and then analyzed it...the taste, textures, smell, what ingredients I could readily see or taste.  I'm sure if I was a scientist in a lab, I could have come up with an almost perfect copycat recipe; but I'm not and I'm still happy with the end result.

Using canned creamed soups saved me the trouble of using heavy cream which could break in a sauce if not cooked properly.  Adding chicken broth provided extra moisture for the egg noodles, so they did not harden up during the baking process.   I used fresh onion, red bell pepper and mushrooms, so their flavors are prominent in the dish now instead of just hinted at.

 

After making the recipe, and being very satisfied with the result, it was then that I took a look at the ingredient list on the box.  I wanted to see how close I was in my taste, texture and smell assessments.  Hmm, strange, but red bell peppers were not listed, but in the microwave entrée, I could see the tiny slivers of red.  There were also tiny bits of green, so I presumed that was celery diced to microscopic bits.  But no, what I took for peppers were “2% or less of carrots”, peas were listed, but where they were was a mystery to me.

Throughout the years of buying the boxed product, the predominant ingredients were “noodles, chicken, slivers of red, bits of green, loads of chopped mushrooms, toasted topping, and a very lickable creamy sauce.  But the box ingredient list states I am totally wrong, “Tender white meat chicken, freshly made fettuccini noodles, mushrooms, peas, celery, and carrots in a creamy sauce.”.  Listen, I know what I was eating, I saw what I was eating, tasted and smelled it, and the photo on the box did not show peas and carrots; not like it does nowadays.

Asking a question at the Stouffer’s site got me this result, “No, Stouffer’s did not use red bell peppers in the Escalloped Chicken and Noodles.    If you recall eating Stouffer's Escalloped Chicken and Noodles with red bell peppers, it's possible you are remembering a limited edition or regional version of the recipe.”.

Now I do not believe in coincidence, but right after this, Roy came in and started to ask me questions in the line of, “Do you remember this food having this name?”, or “Do you remember this food having this ingredient?”  Depending on the item, I could give a definite “yes”, “no”, or “never tried it, so don’t know”, and that’s when he began to explain “The Mandela Effect”.

The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where a large group of people collectively misremembers an event or detail. The term was coined by Fiona Broome after she discovered many people shared her false memory that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, when he actually passed away in 2013, and had been a freed man since 1990.

This principal is explained in two ways:

Collective false memory: It's a situation where many people share the same incorrect memory about something, such as an event, a phrase, or an image.

Psychological phenomenon: Psychologists explain the Mandela Effect as a demonstration of how imperfect and suggestible human memory can be. Memories can change over time and be influenced by external information.

When it comes to food, here are two perfect examples:

1 - Jif peanut butter was never called Jiffy; it has always been Jif since it was founded in 1958.

The name Jiffy may have been confused with the brand due to a tagline referring to making a sandwich "in a jiffy”; or by mixing the name with Skippy, another popular peanut butter brand. 

2 - Oscar Mayer: This brand is sometimes recalled as "Oscar Meyer".  This commercial jingle debuted in 1974.

"My Bologna has a first name,

It's O-S-C-A-R.

My bologna has a second name,

It's M-A-Y-E-R.

Oh, I love to eat it every day,

And if you ask me why I'll say,

Cause' Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!!!!"

Previously, "The Wiener Song" debuted in 1962, but the lyrics only said the name, and did not spell it out as it was sung.

"Oh, I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener,

That is what I'd truly like to be-ee-ee.

Cause if I were an Oscar Mayer Wiener,

Everyone would be in love with me."

With this information, now I had to wonder if my memory of a favorite frozen dish was actually false, or just mixed up with another item I used to eat often.

So back to Escalloped Chicken and Noodles, and the development of the recipe during the Depression Era.  It became such an easy, and cheap in cost, recipe to make; with its popularity escalating once Stouffer’s began to sell prepackaged meals in the frozen food section of local markets and supermarkets.

Here is my version of this dish, sans the peas and carrots, but if you want to try the recipe, and add them (1 and ½ cups frozen peas and carrots mix, thawed), be my guest.

 

Escalloped Chicken and Noodles

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp. butter

1 cup sliced mushrooms

½ cup diced onion

Chicken Breasts are boiled in salted water.

½ cup diced red bell pepper

4 Tbsp. flour

4 cups cooked and shredded white meat chicken

½ tsp. ground black pepper

1 (14.5 oz.) can chicken broth

1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of chicken soup

1 (10.5 oz.) can cream of celery soup

1 (8 oz.) package medium width egg noodles, cooked

1/2 cup plain, fine bread crumbs

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F. and spray a 3-quart casserole dish with nonstick spray.

 

 

 

In 10-inch skillet, medium-high heat, melt butter and sauté mushrooms, onion and red bell pepper until softened, but not browned; add flour and mix well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In large mixing bowl, combine sautéed vegetables, chicken, pepper, broth, creamed soups and noodles.

 

 

Spread mixture into casserole dish; sprinkle bread crumbs on top. Bake 30-35 minutes; until sauce is bubbling and bread crumbs are golden brown.

 

Sprinkle bread crumbs over all.

Makes 8 servings.

Remembering something from the past, and you are positive, but facts say otherwise, maybe you are experiencing The Mandela Effect.

Mary Cokenour 

 

Sushi, That’s How We Roll.

Ja-Roen's Sushi Area.

 "You know, the kind with seaweed wrapping

I can never seem to get enough,

So get your hands off my sushi man

  Roll it up!

Got chopsticks to hold it up

Dip it in wasabi if you're bold enough

Cuz I love, I love sushi"

The Sushi Song

Song by Romeo Eats and Walk off the Earth ‧ 2021

 

When we hear the term “sushi”, automatically we think of Japan, raw fish, sticky rice, soy sauce, pickled ginger and wasabi.  Well, in the Cokenour household, we do, and when we have a craving for it, it’s to Ja-Roen Thai & Sushi, here in Monticello, that we run to.  But there is more to sushi than the simple items I just mentioned.

While Japan comes to mind immediately, the origin of sushi, or the art of preserving fish in fermented rice, began in the Mekong River region.  “Narezushi” spread to other countries that the river flowed through; China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam before reaching Japan by the 8^th century.  The more evolved presentations, that we see in today’s restaurants, developed during the Edo Period (16^th to 19^th centuries).  As England and America began to explore Japan, the cuisine of this mysterious new country was also investigated thoroughly.

Quick, when you hear the word sushi, what do you immediately imagine?  There are many types of sushi, and not all come in a rolled form.

Traditional Sushi Types:

Nigiri: A small oblong of hand-pressed rice topped with a slice of raw fish or other seafood.

Maki (or Makizushi): Sushi rice and fillings rolled in seaweed (nori) and sliced into rounds.

Sashimi: While often served with sushi, it is not technically sushi as it is just thinly sliced raw fish or meat with no rice.

Temaki: A cone-shaped roll with seaweed filled with rice and other ingredients.

Chirashi: A bowl of seasoned rice topped with a variety of scattered ingredients, often including fish and vegetables.

Uramaki: A type of maki roll where the rice is on the outside of the seaweed.

Inarizushi: Sushi rice in a seasoned, deep-fried tofu pouch.

Oshizushi: A type of pressed sushi made by pressing the ingredients into a mold, creating a rectangular block of sushi.

Gunkan: A type of nigiri with a band of seaweed wrapped around the rice to form a cup, which is then filled with soft, loose, or finely chopped ingredients like sea urchin or fish roe.

Temari: A small, ball-shaped sushi that is often made for special occasions.

Is sushi healthy?  Yes and no, and it all depends on, not just any illness you may have, like diabetes or gastrointestinal issues, but also the quality of the ingredients used.

Ah, the rice, it’s a main component when creating sushi, but can any type of rice be used? 

The best rice for sushi is short-grain Japanese (or "japonica") white rice due to its high starch content which makes it sticky enough to be molded into the correct shape.  If short grain is unavailable, medium grain can be used in a pinch, but using long grain rice ensures a total failure.

Master Sushi Chef Dos, and his wife, Fon.

 

Recently, I was honored to be able to take a sushi making lesson with Ja-Roen’s master chef, Dos.  He has been creating his masterpieces for 24 years, and can be seen working alongside his wife, Fon.  Palm, Ja-Roen’s most excellent manager, assisted with my lesson; hey, put a sharp knife in my hand and who knows where it will fly off to!  My hubby, Roy, chose the roll that I would be creating…The Spider Roll.  This is a soft-shelled crab (shipped in from Thailand), done up tempura style, slices of avocado and English style cucumber (less moisture, so holds its shape when cut).  Toppings over the roll are unagi sauce (aka eel sauce) and mayo; along with flying fish roe (bright orange-red color).

Hair tied back, gloves on (a dab of mayo rubbed on them keeps the rice from sticking to the gloves), makisu (the sushi mat) down, and a square of nori (seaweed sheet) on top.  Most important step begins with measuring the rice, 130 grams (approx. 2/3 cup), and using a food scale will get the perfect measurement.  It is placed on the center of the nori and stretched out to the left and right edges; half the rice is then spread upwards, till about a half inch from the edge, and a couple of bits of rice are mashed to the edge to create a type of “glue”.  The other half of the rice is spread downwards, again, about a half inch from the edge.  The rice should be spread that none of the nori is visible underneath without mashing the rice.  The crab, which was cut in half lengthwise, is placed in the center, and the legs should stick outside the end of the nori.  Two slices each, of avocado and cucumber, end to end, on top of the crab.

 

Soft Shell Crab

Spreading the rice.

Add Avocado and Cucumber Slices.

Now the scariest parts of all, for me at least, was the rolling and knife cuts.  Dos had already demonstrated each step, and I paid attention like a deer caught in headlights.  When it comes to the rolling, the trickiest part is making sure to do it evenly, and not put too much pressure.  Once rolled, then comes the knife cuts, and while I have very good knife skills, I am no master!  Estimate, as close as possible, the center of the roll, place knife down, begin to cut downward (not too much pressure!), then a sort of see-saw motion quickly.  Now there are two halves; with one half, cut off one section, about a half inch; then cut the remainder of the roll in half, and cut those two halves in half.  Repeat with second half of the original roll, and now there are ten sections, hopefully all evenly cut.  Being a nervous nelly, and being scared I would squash the roll, I sometimes did not cut the nori all the way through. 

Apply Even Pressure.

 

Begin Rolling.

 

Ready to be Cut.

Lining up the pieces next to each other, the mat is used to “repress” them into the proper shape before plating.  That was fun, making the pieces stand or lean prettily, decorating with the sauces and roe, but the best part of all was…the eating!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut Roll in Half.

Cut 1st Piece off 1st Half.

Cut Pieces Evenly as Possible.

Plating. 

Now for the condiments and sauces.

Begin Plating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pickled Ginger and Wasabi in one corner.

 

Unagi Sauce and Mayo.

Sprinkle on Flying Fish Roe.

 

My Spider Roll (front view)

 

My Spider Roll (back view)

 

All in all, what I thought would be a scarily difficult food creation ended up being much easier, and definitely less terrifying, than I thought it would be.  Chef Dos and Palm were very patient, and most excellent instructors.  It made me feel so much more confident to hear Chef Dos say, that, for a first time, I didn’t do too badly.  Oh, the spider roll…this was the most delicious one ever, especially since I had made it.

In the mood for sushi, after reading this; Ja-Roen Thai & Sushi (380 S Main St, Monticello, UT 84535; (435) 587-4000) are open Mon-Wed: 11am-3pm, 4pm-9:30pm, and Thurs-Sat: 11am-9:30pm.  Last seating is at 9pm.

Cucumber Roll pairs nicely with Spider Roll.

 

 

 

 

Cucumber Roll

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, Ja-Roen has extended their drink menus (see photos below) and locals get a 5% discount!

Coffees, Tea, Juice, Water.

Boba(Bubble) Tea, Soft Drinks, Non-Alcoholic Beer.

 

 

When it comes to excellent service, atmosphere and Thai/Japanese cuisines; you MUST check out Ja-Roen Thai & Sushi.

Mary Cokenour