Category: A BostonZest Shop

MeMail App Is Our Friday Link

The MeMail App is something I use all the time to turn random thoughts, promises, and ideas into a list that will appear in my email program the next time I sit down at my computer.

As I sent myself an email to do a post on something else I had just recommended to a friend, I quietly laughed at myself because I was using MeMail to get the job done, just as I often do many times a week. But I had never done a post recommending that readers invest $1.99 in this clean-cut, simple, productivity tool.

In the Apple App Store the description says, "Featured in TED Blog: '25+ apps to make your everyday life easier' (2014-09) Capture a thought, to-do, or scrap of information, FAST! MeMail does one thing exceptionally well: send quick emails to a pre-set address. Email yourself reminders or notes? Just launch, type, and send — that's it …"

It really is that simple. You set it up with your email address when you get it and keep it handy on the front screen of your phone. When you want to remember something, you open it, type (or in my case dictate) what you want to remember, and hit send.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Screenshots courtesy of Apple App Store

February 26, 2016
Learn How to Cook on a Continuum with The Kitchen Ecosystem by Eugenia Bone

Cooking meals on a daily basis can be daunting or it can be relaxing depending on your approach. I recently discovered the book The Kitchen Ecosystem. Author Eugenia Bone helped me see why it might be easier for longtime cooks to prepare daily meals while the same task could be stressful for the occasional cook.

Having Stuff on Hand

One crisper drawer in my refrigerator is devoted to my cooking basics: celery, carrots, parsley, cabbage, lemons, and apples. With the stocks in my freezer and the onions and garlic in my pantry, I have the beginning of many soups, stews, braises, and salads.

The Kitchen Ecosystem is arranged by 40 common ingredients. For each one, the author provides recipes for dishes that star that ingredient and follows with ideas on what you can make to add to your pantry with not only the leftovers, but also the scraps. (e.g., Who knew that apple peel stock could be handy to have when you need a bit more pectin in a jelly or jam?)

Preserving foods by fermenting, canning, and freezing are part of the author's repertoire. But even if you're not ready to make your own sauerkraut or can chicken, you can make stocks to freeze and prepare a dish that will let you turn the leftovers into a sequence of meals.

Tired of Leftovers?

If you or your family quickly tire of the same food after a day or two, think about preparing a basic version of something and then creating variations on a theme. I do this all the time with chicken soup. I’ll make a big pot of simple chicken soup and then serve it at future meals with different starches like rice, pasta, noodles, dumplings, barley, grains, cubes, etc. In the photo above, I used polenta cubes.

Whenever I have leftover, falling apart, tender meat from a pot roast or braised lamb shanks, I’ll shred the meat and turn it and the braising liquid into a chili by adding beans, chilies, and seasoning then simmering until the flavors blend.

Repurpose

When I make chicken soup, I use enough chicken to have extra poached chicken. This can become the curried chicken salad you see above. That's a cool, crisp, spicy change of pace.

Every few weeks, I make a big batch of homemade dog food for my Westie Poppy. The recipe I use calls for a wide assortment of vegetables and there’s always half a cauliflower, half a cabbage, and a few other things left when I’m done. These become a soup for the human members of the family. One version is the cabbage and kielbasa soup shown below.

If you shy away from buying a whole head of broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower because you’ll only eat part of it and waste the rest, consider soup on day two. It can be vegetarian or you can add meat or sausage to the mix. You might even consider making the soup on one burner while you’re cooking the meal that will have cauliflower as a side dish on the others. Most soups taste better on day two when the flavors have had an opportunity to harmonize.

The Boston Public Library has a copy of The Kitchen Ecosystem that you might want to borrow to start thinking about cooking on a continuum. The book is also available in an ebook format.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino. Cover art courtesy of the publisher, Clarkson Potter.

Related articles

A Busy Season Resource: Our Poached Chicken Links

Rich and Luscious Lamb Shank Chili

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February 17, 2016
Learn How to Cook on a Continuum with The Kitchen Ecosystem by Eugenia Bone

Cooking meals on a daily basis can be daunting or it can be relaxing depending on your approach. I recently discovered the book The Kitchen Ecosystem. Author Eugenia Bone helped me see why it might be easier for longtime cooks to prepare daily meals while the same task could be stressful for the occasional cook.

Having Stuff on Hand

One crisper drawer in my refrigerator is devoted to my cooking basics: celery, carrots, parsley, cabbage, lemons, and apples. With the stocks in my freezer and the onions and garlic in my pantry, I have the beginning of many soups, stews, braises, and salads.

The Kitchen Ecosystem is arranged by 40 common ingredients. For each one, the author provides recipes for dishes that star that ingredient and follows with ideas on what you can make to add to your pantry with not only the leftovers, but also the scraps. (e.g., Who knew that apple peel stock could be handy to have when you need a bit more pectin in a jelly or jam?)

Preserving foods by fermenting, canning, and freezing are part of the author's repertoire. But even if you're not ready to make your own sauerkraut or can chicken, you can make stocks to freeze and prepare a dish that will let you turn the leftovers into a sequence of meals.

Tired of Leftovers?

If you or your family quickly tire of the same food after a day or two, think about preparing a basic version of something and then creating variations on a theme. I do this all the time with chicken soup. I’ll make a big pot of simple chicken soup and then serve it at future meals with different starches like rice, pasta, noodles, dumplings, barley, grains, cubes, etc. In the photo above, I used polenta cubes.

Whenever I have leftover, falling apart, tender meat from a pot roast or braised lamb shanks, I’ll shred the meat and turn it and the braising liquid into a chili by adding beans, chilies, and seasoning then simmering until the flavors blend.

Repurpose

When I make chicken soup, I use enough chicken to have extra poached chicken. This can become the curried chicken salad you see above. That's a cool, crisp, spicy change of pace.

Every few weeks, I make a big batch of homemade dog food for my Westie Poppy. The recipe I use calls for a wide assortment of vegetables and there’s always half a cauliflower, half a cabbage, and a few other things left when I’m done. These become a soup for the human members of the family. One version is the cabbage and kielbasa soup shown below.

If you shy away from buying a whole head of broccoli, cabbage, or cauliflower because you’ll only eat part of it and waste the rest, consider soup on day two. It can be vegetarian or you can add meat or sausage to the mix. You might even consider making the soup on one burner while you’re cooking the meal that will have cauliflower as a side dish on the others. Most soups taste better on day two when the flavors have had an opportunity to harmonize.

The Boston Public Library has a copy of The Kitchen Ecosystem that you might want to borrow to start thinking about cooking on a continuum. The book is also available in an ebook format.

What's on your Food Lover's shopping list?

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photos: ©2016 Penny & Ed Cherubino. Cover art courtesy of the publisher, Clarkson Potter.

Related articles

A Busy Season Resource: Our Poached Chicken Links

Rich and Luscious Lamb Shank Chili

Healthy Alternatives for July 4th Cookouts, Pot Lucks, or Picnics

February 17, 2016
We Love Our Spam, Scam & Robo Call Blocker

Faced with the upcoming election season, we decide to invest in a call blocker for our landline. We've only had it for a short time but are already enjoying the benefits. No more nightly call from a number that comes up as Quincy and is reported to be spam when we do a reverse number look-up over on WhitePages.com.

The evening after we installed the call blocker that call came in. We hit the "Block Now" button and haven't seen that particular spammer on our incoming call list again.

No more calls for the business that keeps printing our phone number instead of their own on everything from company directories to business cards. We had a list of the numbers that kept calling us looking for them and entered those manually into the call blocker. While we do feel sorry for the people trying to reach the business when their call is disconnected, we've pleaded with staff members from the company for years to stop giving our number as theirs.

We also used the shortcuts provided in the device's users manual to block all withheld, private, unknown, international, out-of-the-area, international calls with 00 prefixes, and unavailable callers. Most of our friends and family reach us via text or our cell phones so we don't expect that to shut out many legitimate calls.

The equipment comes with 200 "known spam" numbers blocked. Obviously, we are benefiting from that because we've entered only 14 numbers (as of this post) and are already amazed at how few spam and robocalls we're receiving.

We did our research and found hundreds of positive reviews and a strong customer service support system for CPR Call Blocker V202. We ordered ours from Amazon and had free delivery with our Amazon Prime membership.

Both of us keep remarking on how nice it is to be free of those spam, marketing, and political calls. As the candidates begin to call, we'll just block their numbers as they arrive.

We still have our special answering machine message that we told you about in our post "Sick of Political and Polling Phone Calls?" And, we've added our land line numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry. While we still believe that we should all have a right to an "opt in" rather than an "opt out" choice for all calls, this is certainly a step forward for this household.

Watch for updates on this post as we get more use out of this call blocker.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2016 Penny Cherubino

February 10, 2016
We Love Our Spam, Scam & Robo Call Blocker

Faced with the upcoming election season, we decide to invest in a call blocker for our landline. We've only had it for a short time but are already enjoying the benefits. No more nightly call from a number that comes up as Quincy and is reported to be spam when we do a reverse number look-up over on WhitePages.com.

The evening after we installed the call blocker that call came in. We hit the "Block Now" button and haven't seen that particular spammer on our incoming call list again.

No more calls for the business that keeps printing our phone number instead of their own on everything from company directories to business cards. We had a list of the numbers that kept calling us looking for them and entered those manually into the call blocker. While we do feel sorry for the people trying to reach the business when their call is disconnected, we've pleaded with staff members from the company for years to stop giving our number as theirs.

We also used the shortcuts provided in the device's users manual to block all withheld, private, unknown, international, out-of-the-area, international calls with 00 prefixes, and unavailable callers. Most of our friends and family reach us via text or our cell phones so we don't expect that to shut out many legitimate calls.

The equipment comes with 200 "known spam" numbers blocked. Obviously, we are benefiting from that because we've entered only 14 numbers (as of this post) and are already amazed at how few spam and robocalls we're receiving.

We did our research and found hundreds of positive reviews and a strong customer service support system for CPR Call Blocker V202. We ordered ours from Amazon and had free delivery with our Amazon Prime membership.

Both of us keep remarking on how nice it is to be free of those spam, marketing, and political calls. As the candidates begin to call, we'll just block their numbers as they arrive.

We still have our special answering machine message that we told you about in our post "Sick of Political and Polling Phone Calls?" And, we've added our land line numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry. While we still believe that we should all have a right to an "opt in" rather than an "opt out" choice for all calls, this is certainly a step forward for this household.

Watch for updates on this post as we get more use out of this call blocker.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino
Photography: © 2016 Penny Cherubino

February 10, 2016
Stop and Smell the Beans – the Gorgeous Coffee Beans

What’s so great about coffee? Besides the fact that many of us can’t start or survive the day without it, there has to be more to this all but magical drink than just the caffeine.

There’s the unmistakable aroma of fresh brewed coffee in the morning. The close your eyes, “mmm …” after that first sip. And, the shameless excuse it provides to take a much needed break anytime of day.

While all of that works for me, there’s also “the look” of coffee, especially as it’s being prepared. Tearing open a package of freshly roasted beans and watching those glistening nuggets of goodness cascade into the grinder bin is not to be dismissed lightly. I should explain.

In our home, we’ve been ordering coffee beans from the same company, Beanstock Coffee, for years. These guys roast their coffee, “… locally, in small batches and always to order.” Because we love robust, dark roast coffee, our favorite is the Black Fish Creek Blend that they describe best as, “… “Very dark and smooth without being burnt and finishing with subtle berry notes.”

After grinding, and before brewing, there’s another beauty shot moment of a fresh mound of tiny ground granules that’s quickly upstaged by its intoxicating fragrance.

Gorgeous coffee beans – that shouldn’t be overlooked – on their way to becoming an outstanding cup of joe.

Warm up the espresso machine!

And, before we get emails asking, we use a Breville Cafe Roma Espresso Maker and a Capresso Burr Coffee Grinder.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

<br /> <br />

Details:

Words: Ed Cherubino

Photography: © 2015 Ed Cherubino

Related articles

Mastering Hamersley's Roast Chicken Recipe

Rich and Luscious Lamb Shank Chili

SELECT Oyster Bar: Our First Taste

December 9, 2015
Stop and Smell the Beans – the Gorgeous Coffee Beans

What’s so great about coffee? Besides the fact that many of us can’t start or survive the day without it, there has to be more to this all but magical drink than just the caffeine.

There’s the unmistakable aroma of fresh brewed coffee in the morning. The close your eyes, “mmm …” after that first sip. And, the shameless excuse it provides to take a much needed break anytime of day.

While all of that works for me, there’s also “the look” of coffee, especially as it’s being prepared. Tearing open a package of freshly roasted beans and watching those glistening nuggets of goodness cascade into the grinder bin is not to be dismissed lightly. I should explain.

In our home, we’ve been ordering coffee beans from the same company, Beanstock Coffee, for years. These guys roast their coffee, “… locally, in small batches and always to order.” Because we love robust, dark roast coffee, our favorite is the Black Fish Creek Blend that they describe best as, “… “Very dark and smooth without being burnt and finishing with subtle berry notes.”

After grinding, and before brewing, there’s another beauty shot moment of a fresh mound of tiny ground granules that’s quickly upstaged by its intoxicating fragrance.

Gorgeous coffee beans – that shouldn’t be overlooked – on their way to becoming an outstanding cup of joe.

Warm up the espresso machine!

And, before we get emails asking, we use a Breville Cafe Roma Espresso Maker and a Capresso Burr Coffee Grinder.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

<br /> <br />

Details:

Words: Ed Cherubino

Photography: © 2015 Ed Cherubino

Related articles

Mastering Hamersley's Roast Chicken Recipe

Rich and Luscious Lamb Shank Chili

SELECT Oyster Bar: Our First Taste

December 9, 2015
We Found an ezpz Happy Bowl Solution for Poppy, Our Enthusiastic Eater!

Poppy loves her food and loves to lick-and-lick-and-lick the bowl clean. Now she can do that to her heart's content without chasing that bowl across the floor. That's because of the sticking power of her her new ezpz Happy Bowl.

This product was not designed for dogs but it certainly works to keep a bowl stuck to the floor while our dog dines in her energetic mode. It would also work for a dog or cat who spills their water or pushes food around. (Our Maggie Mae loved to push food away.)

We have some small stainless steel restaurant supply prep bowls that pop into the ezpz perfectly. (We bought the prep bowls in an Asian market and they are 4 11/16 inches wide.) Since we weigh Poppy's food, they work well for us on our kitchen scale.

It does take longer to feed our little Poppy now, since she will spend a good five minutes in non-stop, high-speed licking once the dish is empty. (The photo above gives you some idea of her licking skill. That is a pink tongue cleaning the outside of her pink bowl.) We love watching her enjoy her food right down to the very last "maybe there is some left over here" lick.

Get to know all of our Sunday Dogs at Boston Dogs.

Thanks to everyone who Hops over to Amazon from here to do their shopping. We appreciate your support.

<br />

Details:

Words: Penny & Ed Cherubino

Photos: ©2015 Ed Cherubino

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December 6, 2015
When the Table Wobbles …

Patio dining often comes with table wobbles. The restaurant may have taken the trouble to adjust each table so that it was on the level and stable when the day began. But, as diners make slight adjustments to assist someone to enter or exit or simply bump the table a bit this way or that, wobbles develop on uneven paving.

Ed's solution is a quarter, or rather a stack of quarters, plus one more to set on the tabletop as a reminder to take back the others as we leave.

Normally, adjusting one leg will do the trick. This one needed a dollar's worth of lift.

We've also cut corks in half on the diagonal to use as wedges to keep doors open at rental homes or to prevent tables from wobbling. I still recall the amazed look on a waiter's face the time we asked for a cork and a steak knife to solve their tippy table issue.

And, if you're in the hospitality business, you must be the reason Wobble Wedges Leveling Shims are sold in jars of 50 or 100. We've thought about carrying one with us but since we usually have quarters, we'll stick with those.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: © 2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Related articles

Boston Public Library's 2015 Concerts in the Courtyard Series

Sunday Dog Lucy Is Settling into the City

July 7, 2015
When the Table Wobbles …

Patio dining often comes with table wobbles. The restaurant may have taken the trouble to adjust each table so that it was on the level and stable when the day began. But, as diners make slight adjustments to assist someone to enter or exit or simply bump the table a bit this way or that, wobbles develop on uneven paving.

Ed's solution is a quarter, or rather a stack of quarters, plus one more to set on the tabletop as a reminder to take back the others as we leave.

Normally, adjusting one leg will do the trick. This one needed a dollar's worth of lift.

We've also cut corks in half on the diagonal to use as wedges to keep doors open at rental homes or to prevent tables from wobbling. I still recall the amazed look on a waiter's face the time we asked for a cork and a steak knife to solve their tippy table issue.

And, if you're in the hospitality business, you must be the reason Wobble Wedges Leveling Shims are sold in jars of 50 or 100. We've thought about carrying one with us but since we usually have quarters, we'll stick with those.

Do you have an Amazon Gift Certificate to use? Or do you need to buy one for a gift? Remember to click over to Amazon from here to support this site!

Details:

Words: Penny Cherubino
Photography: © 2015 Penny & Ed Cherubino

Related articles

Boston Public Library's 2015 Concerts in the Courtyard Series

Sunday Dog Lucy Is Settling into the City

July 7, 2015