Channeling Julia

I learned to make simple syrup at the fountain in my father's drugstore.

The recipe is very simple and the result falls somewhere between a light and heavy sugar syrup.

Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Pour a 5 lb bag of sugar in a 1 gallon jar. Pour the boiling water over the sugar to fill the jar. Screw on the lid, then shake until sugar has completely dissolved. (it's really hot - use gloves).

Best used with a pump action dispensing jar to keep dust & bacteria from entering. If you have ants, keep the nozzle covered.

Use instead of granular sugar in cold drinks to minimize stirring and sugar residue. Good on strawberries instead of sprinkling sugar. A replacement for corn syrup in cooking. Add flavoring & food color to make Italian soda syrups.

Egg laying creatures have been around for millions of years. Today's chicken is descended from the dinosaurs.

Clockwise from top: red, green, white, brown chicken egg

A cooked egg contains almost twice as much edible protein as a raw egg. The color of the eggshell has no effect on the quality of the contents. Color varies by breed and diet. Yolk color is diet dependent. Sizes of eggs are important in recipes, as a medium egg is 3 tablespoons, whereas a extra large egg is 4 tablespoons, so a recipe calling for 4 medium eggs would only need 3 extra large eggs. Most recipes are based on large eggs (3-1/4 tablespoons).

In the US, eggs are also graded by condition of eggshell, viscosity and quality of white and yolk. Grade A is most commonly sold in the grocery store. The shell thickness must be sufficient to protect the egg on the way to the kitchen. This emerged as an issue several years ago when feed mixtures were changed in an attempt to make thinner shells that were thought to be more consumer friendly, so always open the carton and check for broken eggs before purchasing.

An egg marked as fertile indicates that a rooster was present in the flock.

Handling precautions: it's a good idea to wash off the shell before cracking, and is especially important when the eggs are gathered by hand in a traditional hen house, as fecal matter may be present. This is the primary means of salmonella transmission. Raw egg consumption is not as high a risk when the shells have been properly sanitized.

Eggs should be promptly refrigerated and used within two weeks. Work surfaces and utensils used with raw eggs should be kept away from the final product to minimize cross contamination, especially if a considerable period of time has elapsed (time to breed bacteria).

Caution: egg allergy is one of the most common of food allergies

Salt is so necessary to human and animal life that it has been used as money in certain parts of the world. Most of us encounter table salt in the salt shaker and use it to flavor our food. The shakers are probably filled with iodized salt, which adds trace amounts of iodine as a public health measure.

Sea Salt - notice the lacy appearance

As cooks in a modern society, we walk a fine line with salt. Overconsumption of salt can lead to high blood pressure. Underconsumption can cause muscle cramps, dizziness and possibly electrolyte issues. The public has developed a taste for salt via snack foods that probably leads to overconsumption. Salty & greasy sells snacks such as potato chips & corn chips. Resist the urge to salt to taste - better to slightly under use salt in cooking and let the diner supply more on the table as they desire. I've found that many recipes include salt with little justification, or over specify the amounts.

Salt is commonly produced by evaporation of sea water. Many coastal areas have brine ponds which are filled with sea water and use the sun to evaporate the water over a period of time. Here in the San Francisco bay, the wind blows over the ponds and occasionally creates sea foam. From the air, brine ponds of differing salinity have differing colors due to the brine shrimp and other organisms that thrive at certain concentrations of salt in the water. Most sea salt is recrystallized (refined) to remove high levels of magnesium & calcium compounds

Salt is also mined. High concentrations of salt found in the mountains of central Austria have been mined for millinea near the river Salzach and Salzburg. Black salt is mined in India and contains sulfer.

Individuality - the various methods of production result in differing textures, colors, trace ingredients and tastes. Differing forms of salt are produced as a result of locally occurring trace elements. Pink salt contains iron oxide. It is possible to taste the differences in the origin of handmade sea salt.

Kosher salt is a coarse grained salt used for koshering meat (extracts the blood). Some cooks like to use it as it has few impurities and has not been iodized. It is not suitable for baking as it does not dissolve readily and grains may remain. The weight of kosher salt is the same as regular salt, but the volume will differ.

Salt has been used for meat preservation for centuries. Meat cured this way is usually soaked in water to reduce the salty taste before further preparation.

Rock salt is a very coarse grained salt used in water treatment to produce "soft" water for washing, in winter to clear ice from sidewalks and in the manufacture of homemade ice cream.

Many of us who grew up in the 1950's considered lettuce to be one variety - Iceberg. This variety had captured the market because it could be shipped long distances by rail (packed in ice - thus the name) and lasted a long time in the refrigerator. It is still the most used lettuce in the United States and is found in lots of fast food. Today Iceberg is specified in recipes primarily for its crisp crunchy texture.

Baby Romaine

Romaine is historically the most popular lettuce due to its heat tolerance. It's a good choice when grocery shopping only once every few weeks as it stores well and has more flavor than Iceberg.

Other varieties were around, but time to market and a short shelf life limited their use to those who wanted something more and grew their own. Butter, red and green leaf lettuces have become popular as time to market has shortened. A rule of thumb with these lettuces is to use quickly - before the cellulose breaks down (green slime).

Chinese lettuce has a bitter taste, doesn't form a "head" and is primarily used in cooking.

The bitter and pigmented lettuces have more nutritional value and contain antioxidants. Many supermarkets sell "spring mix" and "braising mix" which contain several varieties of lettuce and related greens such as endive, radicchio, chervil, arugula, kale, chard and many others. Spring mix has tender young leaves and is made for salads, whereas braising mix has a much stronger taste that works well in cooking. Responding to consumer demand, pre-packaged lettuces are also pre-washed, which extends shelf life and makes it very easy to prepare a meal at home.

My favorite way to cook asparagus is a little unconventional, but tasty.

Snap off the stems, wash, place on a cookie sheet and drench with olive oil. Pop in a hot (450