Better Home Cooking Basics: #70 Neutralize Too Acidic Soups & Sauces with Baking Soda.

There’s a few things I learned about cooking with wine. The first is you have to have some in order to cook with it. If you have no wine you can’t cook with it. The second is vinegar is not the same as wine. It’s much MUCH more acidic. When you cook wine (or vinegar) it concentrates the flavor so you better like the flavor to begin with.

Why am I rambling about all this? To get to my tip of course so you can learn through my crazy mistake & miraculous quick fix. On Sunday I decided I was going to make this sauce. Four cups of red wine makes up most of the liquid of the sauce. I didn’t have any red wine on hand but I did have some red wine vinegar & some beef stock. (Remember: vinegar & wine are not the same.)

Simple Vinaigrette

It’s unofficially summer - it’s just getting hotter & I love it! Every time the temps rise I want to eat cooling simple meals - mainly salads.  I rarely buy salad dressing at the super market with the exception of blue cheese dressing to compliment Chris’s love for anything buffalo sauced & that little packet of raspberry vinaigrette that comes in that delicious spinach salad mix from Trader Joe’s.  Other than those two exceptions I usually throw lemon juice or vinegar & some olive oil on my salads & call it a day.  Sometimes I like to make my own (like here & here).  This simple vinaigrette is great because it’s made from stuff you most likely shop for on a weekly basis & even if you don’t you can find them at the most basic grocery stores - no specialty stores necessary.  It’s a great dressing that turns plain mixed greens into a salad with no other toppings. We ate mixed greens tossed with this dressing with some pizza for dinner. The salad was so good I made two giant serving bowls of it & not a leaf was left!

If you’ve never made your own dressing, give it a try. It really is easy & usually tastes better than anything on the shelf. Oh & with this recipe you’ll be able to identify all the ingredients.

Crispy Salt-&-Vinegar Potatoes

I love potatoes & my subscription to Bon Appetit magazine. This post is a marriage of the two. I’ve made this recipe twice already - once for dinner & once for breakfast! I really don’t think there’s ever a wrong time of the day to eat potatoes - do you?

Salmon & Melting Cherry Tomatoes

So I like fish & I'm trying to get Chris to like it as much as I do. This recipe from the Barefoot Contessa's Foolproof Cookbook for salmon & melting cherry tomatoes is a keeper. The fish comes out moist & the tomato topping is addictively tangy & sweet.  Even if you don't like fish I would recommend making this tangy tomato topping with some chicken or even add to some plain pasta or quinoa.

Click through for this truly foolproof salmon recipe.

Tomato Toasts

I served these tomato toasts up with broccoli cheddar soup for dinner.  They'd make a delicious & quick lunch or an easy appetizer.

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of hearty bread
• 1 large heirloom tomato
• olive oil for drizzling
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons fresh taragon
• salt & pepper

Make it!

1. Drizzle bread with olive oil.
2. Toast the bread under a broiler until golden brown, be careful not to burn them(!).
3. Slice the tomato into 1/4 inch slices.
4. Lay the tomato slices out on a cutting board & pour vinegar over all of the tomatoes.
5. Sprinkle each slice with salt & pepper.
6. Place the tomato slices on top of the toast.
7. Top with fresh tarragon.