Preparing Romaine Lettuce

I love the hearts of romaine packages available at the warehouses and at some grocery stores.  They add so much flavor to any green salad.  They are a great value.  Admittedly,  six heads of lettuce is a lot to deal with.

However the good intentions, how vivid the dreams of serving the family salads for lunch and dinner, those six heads can remain in the crisper,turning the lettuce into a nightmare.
 
The ruined abundance of bad lettuce drives people to purchase expensive specialty salads at the grocery store.  Incidentally, many of those prepared salads that come ready to serve four people, cost as much as the 6-head beauty pictured above!

An even worse scenario,  salad could be crossed off the menu!

Don't procrastinate.  Resolve to prepare the  lettuce as soon as you are home from shopping.

Remove the core with a knife, making two V-shaped cuts.

Holding the leaves together, wash the outer leaves thoroughly, then rinse the area where the core was removed.

Using a clean, empty dishwasher, spear each head upright in the upper rack to drain the lettuce.  There is plenty of room for all six heads.  Let it drain at least an hour, I have successfully left it for two.  You can continue putting groceries away while your lettuce is draining.

This method eliminates the need to use a salad spinner.  If you prefer a salad spinner, go right ahead.  (pardon the pun)

Lay two or three heads of the drained romaine parallel on your cutting board.  Slice lengthwise down the center of each one.

Holding the heads steady with your left arm, slice the lettuce across the other way.  You can put the lettuce, clean, dry and prepped, into gallon sized ziploc bags along with a paper towel.  These will stay quite well for about a week.  And it is easy to include salad often in your meals if you have the lettuce ready to eat.  In case you want to store the lettuce longer, here are directions for sealing them in canning jars:

You will need 4 half gallon size canning jars.  Place a half a paper towel in each jar.  They are easier to put in place if you push the squares into the jars using a long-handled spoon or small ladle.  

To fill the jars, use a canning funnel.

I like to put one whole head of romaine in one of the jars, just to have leaves on hand for hamburgers, sandwiches, or to finely slice for tacos, etc.  The other three jars will hold all five of the other heads.  Now for the sealing: 

Removing the oxygen keeps the lettuce fresh for a longer period of time.

Did you know a food saver sealer usually comes with an attachment that seals canning jars.?  Place the lid on top of the jar.  Do not use the ring while you are pumping air out of the jar.  Mine did not come with a sealer, but had an attachment built in.  We ordered the missing parts on Amazon.com,  The sealer comes in wide-mouth or regular size for canning jars.

It is worth finding space in your fridge for the luxury of lettuce ready-to-go.

Newsflash from the folks at FoodSaver:   
How to open a mason jar so that the lid can be reused
When opening a mason jar, wedge a spoon between the jar lid and the highest part of the threaded rim.  Twist gently to release the vacuum.  When opened this way, the mason jar lid can be reused many times.

Lemon Juice and Zest

The invention of the microplane, has improved anyone's ability to flavor food.  Previously, only the most skilled of cooks could remove the zest from citrus and chop it finely enough to be used in the way we now take for granted.

In my opinion, the zest grated with a microplane is just as useful as the juice of a citrus fruit.  In fact, if I am out of lemon juice, I throw in a few pinches of frozen zest, and the substitution works well, sometimes even better than using juice.

Microplanes come in various sizes for various purposes.  With the right choice, ginger, garlic, hard cheeses, coconut, and onion can be finely grated with this amazing tool.

This is the protective cover of my Microplane.  Sturdily build, I have used it for about eight years.

For grating zest, you will need the finest, or smallest microplane grater.

I find it easier to run the zester upside down on top of the fruit.  Usually I am holding the fruit in my hand, but the photo was awkward to take, so just imagine I am holding the lemon and grating.  Just remember to hold the fruit in your hand, and use the zester upside down.

When you purchase a large bag of lemons or limes from a warehouse, resolve to prepare the whole bag within a day or two.  Zesting the warehouse-sized bag of lemons will yield two cups.  Place them in half pint jars, and freeze.  Frozen zest is fluffy, easy to remove from the jar a pinch or more at a time.  Now,  tackle the task of juicing the lemons  If you've run out of time after preparing the zest, refrigerate the skinned lemons overnight and juice them the next day.

Use any type of juicer, hand or electric.  This little Sunbeam juicer cost me just under $10, twenty years ago.  Definitely worth the money.  I think there is less waste if a juicer is used rather than squeezing by hand like the TV cooks like to do.  It looks showy to do it that way, but it is wasteful.

Stack the empty rinds for a quick trip to throw them out.

A warehouse-sized bag of lemons will yield approximately 3 and a half cups of juice. 

I used the blender jar, just to measure.  I often use my blender jar for quick measurements because it is nearby.  I'll talk about the amazing Blendtec in future posts.

Freeze the juice in ice cube trays, then transfer to ziploc bags for storage. 

Be sure and measure your ice cube tray so that you know how much juice is in each cube.  To test capacity, fill one compartment with water a tablespoon at a time until it is full.  My ice cube trays hold 2 tablespoons.  Remembering that 4 tablespoons is a quarter of a cup, it is quick to calculate how many lemon juice cubes you will need in a recipe.

By zesting and juicing an entire bag of lemons, you save both time and money.  With the zest and juice safely stored in the freezer, you have not let any lemons go bad.  As you are cooking you will love having those frozen cubes of flavorful juice, ready for use.

Celery as a Fast Food

As soon as you get home from the grocery store, prepare your celery.  Hesitation may turn into procrastination, and you want fresh celery.

Find a vessel that will hold an entire bunch of celery.  I found a glass vase that fits perfectly on my refrigerator door.  It is not necessary to have a lid for this container.  Plastic will work, but I like the look of glass.

Using a sharp knife, slice the end of the bunch.  This is quicker to do than to explain.

You now have a pretty veggie rose, but discard it, unless, it is needed as stamping tool to make poster paint rose patterns.

Also toss the leaves, unless you are making a pot of soup, in that case, rinse and chop and add wonderful flavor to your soup pot.  Sometimes I only cut the bottom and let the foliage hang out the the refrigerator.  It kind of looks pretty, but you have to deal with leaves every time you use a rib.

Rinse the prepared celery ribs well, but keep them kind of in the order they grew, so that they will fit into your vase.

Plunge your handful of clean, prepared celery ribs into your water-filled vase.

Store your instant fresh veggie vase on the refrigerator door.   It is quick to grab and go.  Snack accompaniments include:  any variation of cheese, peanut butter, hummus, or dip.  You probably will prefer just the plain celery.  It is crunchy and cold and delicious by itself.  This is also perfect to add to dinner entrees.  Stir fry, chicken pot pie, soups,salads and sandwiches, all benefit by having prepared celery ready to chop or slice and use.  My celery lasts in the fridge for about two weeks, but we usually eat it all in less than a week.