Bruce Tretter | Gotta Eat, Can't Cook

Posts Tagged ‘Bruce Tretter’

November 8th, 2021

Blog, Breakfast, Dessert, Special Recipes

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Fresh Whipped Cream Picture Book Recipe

What doesn’t go great with fresh whipped cream? I often have the vat-sized measuring cup you see below in the fridge good to go whenever I need it: in coffee, on pancakes, French toast or with fresh fruit – and it’s incredibly easy to make!

The secret to whipping cream as quickly as possible is using cold ingredients: fresh heavy whipped cream straight from the refrigerator and, if you have time, even using a freezer-chilled mixing bowl or measuring cup, as shown below.

Here are the only 3 ingredients and pieces of kitchen equipment you need.

Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete step-by-step picture book recipe.

November 3rd, 2021

Blog, Breakfast, Cycling Food, Fruit Pancakes, Pancakes

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Fresh Apple Pancake: Full-On Fall Flavor All in Pictures

Apples are the iconic fall fruit, and there’s not much more comforting and inspiring on a chilly morning than to wake up to the warm smell of cooked apples and cinnamon!

The hardest part about making this fresh, full-on flavorful apple pancake – that’s nothing like a syrup soaking, sugar spike & crash inducing flapjack – is turning the pancake from fruit side up to fruit side down and then back to fruit side up to serve on a plate.

No problem.

The step-by-step directions you can get here show how to make those turns as easily and safely as possible using either a pan top (as shown below) or large plate (shown in the recipe).

Here’s what you need for ingredients and…

…equipment.

Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete, easy to follow step-by-step picture book recipe.

October 29th, 2021

Blog

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Margarita Cocktail – all in Pictures

Was speaking with Tom, one of the good people running our local Hickory, NC, ABC store and a big Margarita fan, about the need to use quality ingredients to make a Margarita cocktail the full-on flavorful way it was meant to be made. Though no one agrees on that exact origin of this wildly popular cocktail, the “original” Margarita recipe calls for only the following 3 ingredients/ratios (minus the salt on the glass rim that I never use): 1 part lime juice, 1 part orange liqueur and 2 parts tequila.

Considering that tequila makes up half the drink and is, therefore, the Margarita flavor driver, I strongly agree with the dead-on accurate advice I’ve gotten from my good friend and well-trusted Julio’s Liquors owner, Ryan Maloney, and his staff, as well as what I’ve read in print and on-line that the best tequila to use to make a Margarita is 100% pure agave blanco (white) tequila, like the one shown in the photo above. As an alternative, and to make a less dry (sweeter) drink, you can use reposado tequila, which gets its name from “resting” (that’s what “reposado” means)in oak barrels for 2-24 months.

Once you’ve decided to use good tequila, I certainly recommend not ruining it with low grade orange liqueur, like run-of-the-mill triple sec. Instead, use a higher grade orange liqueur, which, yes, is more expensive but is well worth the price if you want a crisp, clean, explosively flavored Margarita. My go-to orange liqueur, which was recommended by my same Julio friends, is Pierre Ferrand Orange Curaçao, which has a flavor very much like Grand Marnier but is not as syrupy sweet.

Finally, there’s no substitute for fresh lime juice even if you don’t have a citrus juicer and have to squeeze the lime by hand.

Here’s what I use to make a fresh Margarita:

Click this link or any picture on this page for a complete fresh Margarita picture book recipe – and enjoy! (Tom, I appreciate the fun talk the other day!)

September 13th, 2021

Blog, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food, Running Food

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Fresh Banana-Mango Ice Cream Picture Book Recipe

Last post showed how to make very quick & easy – and fully flavorful – simple banana ice cream made with only bananas, vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. This recipe takes that banana ice cream from simple to exciting by adding fresh mango, coconut flakes, raisins – and even rum-soaked raisins (they go GREAT with this!). Of course, like any recipe you see here, the added ingredients I just mentioned, though they work terrifically well together, are just suggestions. You can substitute mango with pineapple, blueberries, or strawberries. You can use any kind of dried fruit and add chocolate chips or chocolate powder – and much more. So, use your imagination to make your full-on banana ice cream the way you want to suit your taste and dietary needs.

Here are the ingredients I use (yep, rum raisins in the jar).

Click any picture on this page for a complete, easy-to-follow step-by-step picture book recipe.

August 23rd, 2021

Anti-Inflammatory Foods, Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Blog, Cycling Food, Dessert, Fitness Food

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Fully Flavorful Banana Ice Cream Picture Book Directions

This easy-to-make, fully flavorful banana ice cream is made with only the 3 ingredients shown below: bananas, vanilla extract, and ground cinnamon – no cream or sugar at all. Best of all, with those 3 simple ingredients as a base, you can use your imagination to take flavor as far as you want to go. I’ll show you some examples over the next couple posts.

The only kicker: you’ll need a sturdy food processor, as shown below, to make this recipe. If you don’t have one, either click this link for mash and freeze banana ice cream, which doesn’t require a food processor, or borrow a food processor from a friend or relative and make enough banana ice cream to share with them.

Click this link or any picture on this page for easy-to-follow 3 ingredient banana ice cream picture book directions.

July 17th, 2021

Blog, How To & Tips

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How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife Without a Knife Sharpener

First, sorry for the delay between the last post and this one. Had to focus on other parts of life – but always made sure to make the most of putting together something good to eat for all meals. That is non-negotiable!

This is the last knife sharpening tip, but it’s a good one to deal with the most important tool in the kitchen, a sharp knife.

Now, let’s say you’re away from home, and the knife you’re given to use is dull and there’s no real knife sharpener to be found? No problem. Here’s an excellent tip I learned from a great group of Gelug Tibetan monks while making lunch together with them years ago. To sharpen a dull knife, just run the blade you want to sharpen over the hard-edged back of another knife as shown below.

It’s actually very easy and effective to sharpen a knife “on-the-fly” like this, though using a real sharpener does a better job keep the blade both sharp and true without pits and gouges that can develop on the knife edge if you use only this method.

Here’s how to use the same technique to sharpen a short-bladed knife, like a paring knife.

All right! Next posts: food!

April 18th, 2021

Blog, How To & Tips

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How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with an Electric Knife Sharpener Picture Book Directions

Last two posts showed how to sharpen a kitchen knife with a handheld knife sharpener and a sharpening steel. This post provides a direct link to picture book directions that show how to sharpen a kitchen knife with an electric knife sharpener.

ne thing to note: electric knife sharpeners come in many varieties. Any will sharpen your knife, though those with multiple stage slots, like the one shown below, are more efficient (and, as expected, more expensive) at taking a knife from a coarse to a finely sharpened edge. Before using an electric knife sharpener, make sure you are familiar with the sharpener manufacturer’s owner’s manual (yep, this coming from a guy who routinely avoids directions unless absolutely necessary) and then use the picture directions you can get by clicking this link or any picture on this page.

April 4th, 2021

Blog, How To & Tips

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How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Sharpening Steel Picture Book Directions

As mentioned in the last post that showed how to sharpen a kitchen knife using a handheld 1 or 2-stage knife sharpener, a dull kitchen knife is the most dangerous piece of equipment in the kitchen. This post shows how to sharpen a kitchen knife safely with a sharpening steel.

First, the key to using a sharpening steel safely is to slide the knife blade of any size across the steel and away from your body when running the knife both on top of the sharpening steel…

…and bottom of the sharpening steel.

Second, not all sharpening steels are the same. Some of the steels are cut with fine lengthwise grooves while others are diamond dust coated as shown below.

There is a difference in performance. A diamond dust coated sharpening steel can actually help you shape a freshly sharpened knife edge. A grooved sharpening steel will only true/straighten a knife edge that has become curved and bent and, therefore, stops cutting efficiently. A grooved steel will help keep a sharp edge, whereas a diamond coated steel, if used properly, will create a new edge.

Click this link or any picture above for easy-to-follow step-by-step picture book directions that show how to put it all together to sharpen a kitchen knife safely with a sharpening steel.

March 28th, 2021

Blog

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How to Sharpen a Kitchen Knife with a Handheld Sharpener

Last post showed how to make pasta to perfection. Very shortly, I’ll put together posts that show how to make quick, easy and fully flavorful pasta dishes.

First, though, because those recipes will show how to cut a variety ingredients including, of course, fresh garlic (a must with pasta!), I thought I’d put out some quick posts showing how to sharpen a knife using a either handheld knife sharpener (this post), sharpening steel (next post) and electric sharpener (2 posts from now).

Why make such a big deal about keeping kitchen knives sharp? Because, as far as I’m concerned, a dull knife is the most dangerous piece of kitchen equipment. The reason: unpredictability.

As shown above, a dull knife crushes and tears food because the knife edge can’t set an edge without more-than-needed added downward hand pressure that then makes the knife more likely to slide sideways out of control off what you’re cutting and into your anchoring hand regardless how properly you curl your food gripping fingers. (You bet, this has happened to me.)

Click this link or any picture on this page for picture book directions showing how to sharpen a knife with a 1 stage or…

…2 stage handheld knife sharpener.

March 13th, 2021

Anti-inflammatory Recipes, Beans, Grains, Nutrition, One Bowl Meals

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Savory Steel Cut Oats with Beans, Avocado & Bell Pepper Picture Book Recipe

Last post showed how to put together a fully-flavorful, energy sustaining sweet one bowl meal with cooked steel cut oats, nut butter, fresh fruit and kefir. As I mentioned in earlier posts, steel cut oats are richly versatile and can be used to make savory dishes just as well as sweet tasting dishes.

And I know that sounds counterintuitive, “my breakfast oats mixed with savory ingredients – really?”, but it works great!

Here’s an example: Savory Steel Cut Oats with Beans, Avocado & Bell Pepper that combines the full flavor, chew, and potent fiber, complex carbohydrate and protein benefits of steel cut oats and beans with the zesty flavor of vitamin-rich fresh avocado, bell pepper, and cilantro shown below.

Click this link or any picture on this page for the easy-to-follow picture book recipe, which, as I’ve mentioned before, is for you to use either as is or as a visual guide to improvise with ingredients and flavors to make this savory steel cut oats meal all your own.