Have you ever wished for something and your wish came true? I’m not talking about the falling-in-love, having-a-baby kind of wishes because those came true for me long ago. I’m talking about (drum roll, please) food—over the years I’ve wished for specific a type of food, and low and behold, there it was on my supermarket shelf. Because I like crunch with my sandwich, I wished for low fat potato chips. Because of my milk allergy, I wished for nondairy ice cream. Current varieties are made with rice, soy, and coconut. Because I crave sweets, I wished for a low calorie natural sugar substitute. I found stevia, a natural sweetener made from the leaf of a plant. I especially like the C&H “light”sugar and stevia blend.

My favorite new thing is a wish that came true about hot dogs. Salty, fatty, nitrite-filled hot dogs—How could eat them in good conscience? I wished for a low-fat, natural, hot dog without nitrites (a chemical that preserves food and adds color). And believe it or not, my wish came true! Oscar Mayer Selects new “chicken breast franks with rib meat” have “no artificial preservatives, no nitrates except for those naturally occurring in celery juice, no artificial flavors, colors, fillers or by-products.” Even though they are only 80 calories each, only 5 grams of fat, and only 400 milligrams of sodium, guess what? They taste good.  

Turns out there are “Oscar Mayer Selects” without preservatives for bacon and cold cuts, too. See: http://www.kraftbrands.com/oscarmayer/selects/index.html

For a change from the traditional hot dog on a bun, try the following is recipe for Lentil Stew with Hot Dogs. Let me know what food you've wished for...

1½ cups dried lentils
4 Oscar Mayer Selects Chicken Breast hot dogs
2 large onions
2 ribs celery
3 medium potatoes
1 quart water
1 quart chicken broth
OR 1 quart water and 4 teaspoons chicken soup base
3 tablespoons flour
Salt and pepper to taste

Pick through lentils, discarding dirt and rocks. Rinse and cover in cold water; soak for two hours.
 
Using a chef’s knife, cut onions in half lengthwise on a cutting board. Peel off outer skin; cut out the root end. Place onion flat side down. Score; then cut to dice. Rinse and trim leaves and ends of celery; cut in half crosswise. Cut lengthwise into sticks, then crosswise to dice. Pare and rinse potatoes. Using a cutting board, cut into ½-inch slices. Cut slices into ½-inch sticks; then cut crosswise to dice. Cut hot dogs in half, lengthwise, then crosswise into ½-inch pieces. Drain lentils. 

Combine onion, celery, potatoes, 1-quart water, chicken broth (or water and soup base), and lentils in a large (4 - 6) pot. Bring to a boil. Turn down heat to low. Cover and simmer 30 - 60 minutes or until lentils and vegetables are soft. Meanwhile, brown flour in a small skillet over low heat, stirring constantly so flour does not burn. Whisk into soup, stirring in quickly so lumps won’t form. Add hot dogs. Continue to simmer, uncovered, for five minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Good served with pumpernickel bread. Yield: 4-6 servings

Last weekend, my husband, Steve, and I traveled all the way across Missouri to sell my new cookbook, “Mealtime Magic: Delicious Dinners in Half the Time” at the Baby-Kid Expo in St. Charles. Because we left at 4 pm Friday, after Steve finished teaching 7th-grade science at the middle school, we only drove part way, to Columbia. My sister, Nancy, lives there and had offered to put us up for the night. 

When we arrived at 8:30 pm, Nancy was mixing up a batch of her famous Gluten-Free Cranberry Macadamia Nut Muffins. (OK, they are not famous, but they should be.) Nancy is writing a gluten-free baking book and says that she likes the taste and texture of gluten-free baked goods better than those with gluten. She is one of the millions of people who have a sensitivity to gluten, which is found in wheat and other grains. As you can see below, successful gluten-free recipes require a mixture of fun-to-pronounce ingredients in varying amounts.

Saturday morning, Nancy woke up at 5:30 am to brew fresh coffee and eat with us (Gluten-Free Cranberry Macadamia Nut Muffins, of course!). It was a short visit. We had to drive a few more hours to make it in time to set up our table for the Baby-Kid Expo. Before we left, Nancy packed a few muffins for the road. I share her recipe, below.
(If viewing from a mobile device, please select the web version to view the recipe.)

1 ⅓ c. sorghum flour
⅔ cup arrowroot starch
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
Rounded ½ tsp. cinnamon
⅓ cup brown sugar
⅓ cup canola/vegetable oil 
1 cup orange juice
½ tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped macadamia nuts 
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin. 

In a large bowl, whisk together sorghum flour, arrowroot starch, xanthan gum, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add brown sugar. Then mix in oil, orange juice, and vanilla, mixing with a fork, just to moisten. Fold in nuts and dried cranberries.

Spoon batter into muffin tins; batter will not rise enough to worry about the tin being full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. (Convection oven: bake at 325 degrees for 16 minutes.)

When I redecorated my kitchen using a sunflower theme in the mid 1990s, I bought a ceramic soap dispenser. Living an hour from the Kansas border, and loving the bright, sun-shiny feeling of the large golden blooms was a perfect theme for a person like me who is deeply affected by her environment. The soap dispenser, like the curtains I made, the wallpaper border I hand-stamped, and the dishtowels I bought, donned sunflowers in bloom. It’s hard not to smile when sunflower faces are staring at you. 

Fast-forward nearly 20 years. Same kitchen. Yes, I’m still here and believe it or not I still love my sunflower-themed kitchen. However, of all the items I had bought, the ceramic soap dispenser was a big disappointment. How can a soap dispenser be a disappointment you ask? When it doesn’t work. No stream of creamy white liquid soap dripped lazily into the palm of my hand no matter how hard I pumped. So I tried a pump from a different soap dispenser. I even added a drinking straw to allow the pump to draw soap up from the bottom. However, because the opening of the ceramic dispenser is round, the pump fit crookedly. No matter. I wasn’t going to let that stop me from using it. Last week, the 20-year-old pump stopped working altogether. I decided to throw it away. But I didn’t. It’s still on the sink sans pump. Now I just pour out a little soap onto my hand. Maybe I’ll start a trend. Problem solved, at least temporarily. I don’t know what to do. Should I pitch it or find another pump to use? Such are the big questions that keep me awake at night.

Following are 10 guidelines for throwing away or giving away kitchen items—now if I would only follow them. Happy Spring cleaning!

Throw Away Items That Are:

1. Broken: Sometimes things are not worth fixing.
2. Chipped or cracked: Dishes that are chipped can harbor germs, and so can cracked wooden spoons. Chipped glasses or mugs can cut lips. 
3. Torn or threadbare: Dishtowels last for years, but there is a time to throw them away or at least put them in the rag bag.
4. Peeling: To prevent ingesting nonfood, discard peeling nonstick pans.
5. Stained: Research shows plastic containers stained with food caused from heating them in the microwave can cause health issues. 

Give Away Items That Are:
6. Of no use to you: Example, the pasta maker I kept in my basement for 10 years, but never took the time to make homemade pasta.
7. Outdated: Example, the microwave bacon pan (no explanation needed).
8. Unneeded: Example, the plastic sippy cups that my adult children used 25 - 30 years ago. 
9. Unhealthy: Example, the deep-fat fryer that I vowed not to use even though making sugar doughnuts from canned biscuits was a favorite weekend breakfast. 
10. Too Big to Store: No examples for this one because I have a basement full of shelves for all the kitchen items that don’t fit upstairs in my kitchen cabinets.

How do you decide when it’s time to get rid of an item in your kitchen?