Truthfully speaking there really is no such thing as trouble free cooking though there are things you can do that will take a good deal of trouble out of your cooking. Most of the tips here will be beneficial to novice or beginners in the culinary arts however, there are some great refresher tips for those who are more experienced when it comes to cooking as well. For more resources visit at www.chef-123.com. Hopefully you will learn some things through the next few paragraphs or at least remember some things you had forgotten. First of all, cleaning as you go will take a lot of the trouble out of what comes after the cooking. When asked the least favorite thing about cooking a wide margin of women proclaim without a second of hesitation that the clean up by far is the worst thing about cooking. To make things easier, clean as you go. Keep a sink of hot sudsy water ready to go the entire time you are cooking and wipe up any spills that occur immediately to avoid sticky messes that are much more difficult to clean afterwards. You should also note that if you transfer your food to serving dishes and immediately wash your pots and pans they will be much easier to clean than if the food is allowed to sit in them while your family dines. My best friend is constantly burning her dinners. The reason? She believes in high or low when it comes to cooking and there is nothing in between. Very few meals should be cooked on high truth be told. You are much better off to begin the food preparation at a medium or medium high temperature and to adjust accordingly. Make sure your oven is preheated. The temperature of the oven does indeed make a difference in the cooking process. While there are those that believe preheating is a simple waste of electricity it is what is required in order to achieve the optimal results when cooking. Most modern electric ovens will signal when the proper temperature has been achieved. Select recipes that fall within your comfort zone in order to avoid making mistakes or becoming too stressed about the cooking process. Once you’ve decided on your recipe read it through a couple of times in order to be certain that you not only understand all the steps involved but also have all the necessary ingredients before beginning. Wash your hands thoroughly and wash your hands often. You can also login to www.delicious-sandwich-recipes.com. Remember the sink of sudsy water I mentioned above? You’ll want to use it quite frequently in order to wash any surface, cutting board, plate, or utensil that has come into contact with raw meat in order to avoid cross contamination. The same holds true for your hands. While to some degree these tips may seem a bit simplistic, when it comes to trouble free cooking there really is no such thing. The more you do to make the cooking process seem as effortless as possible the more trouble free your cooking will really be.
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Tips of Cooking Meat in the Microwave
January 2nd, 2010Summer is here and if you are anything like me, you don’t want to turn on your oven or stove unless absolutely necessary. I do most of my cooking in the microwave during the summer months. It helps keep my home cooler and cuts down on my cooling bill.I have found that many people don’t like to cook meat in the microwave. I was once one of those people. Chicken would come out like rubber and I always worried that ground beef didn’t cook thoroughly. I have since found that the trick is to use the right cooking utensils.There has also been some hype about how it’s not safe to use plastic to cook meat or anything else in the microwave. This is only half true. Certain types of plastic have chemicals that are activated with the extreme heat of the microwave and these chemicals can get into your food. For more details visit to www.cheese-cake-recipes.com Hence, the key to cooking in your microwave is, once again, to use the correct cooking utensils. Basically, use containers that are specifically designed for cooking in the microwave.My preference in microwave cooking is Tupperware. Their cookware is specifically designed for the microwave so you don’t have to worry about the chemicals. Their Oval Cooker is designed to retain the moisture of your meat so that your meat doesn’t come out dry and rubbery. It also has a colander so you can brown your meat and let the grease drip to the bottom. That makes it easy to dispose of the grease drippings or use them for gravy. Tupperware also backs it cooker with a lifetime warranty so if it breaks I can just replace it with a new one, which seems like a good investment to me.So the instructions I am providing below apply to the Tupperware Oval Cooker. If you feel confident using a different type of microwave cooker, of course, try that, but please make sure you follow the guidelines I stated above.Cooking Ground BeefPlace the ground beef with your favorite seasoning in the colander of the cooker. Cover and cook for 6 minutes per pound. Let sit a few minutes then remove from the microwave. By using the colander all the grease will drain to the bottom of the cooker.Cooking a Whole ChickenIf using the Oval Cooker you will need to use the extender piece for your average size chicken. Then place the chicken in the cooker. Pour about half a cup of water on the bottom of the cooker. For more details www.atkins-diets-recipes.com Sprinkle your chicken with your favorites seasonings. Place the cover on the cooker and cook for 6 minutes per pound. I think you will be surprised at how moist your chicken comes out.Cooking Cut Up ChickenAfter cutting up your chicken use the same instructions for cooking a whole chicken. Determine by how high the chicken stacks if you will need to use the extender or not.Cooking Chicken PiecesYou can use the colander to cook chicken pieces. Cut the chicken into bit size pieces. I usually use chicken breast cutlets for this. Place the cutup chicken pieces in the colander. Season with your favorite seasonings. Place the cover on the cooker and microwave for 6 minutes per pound.Cooking PorkI have not yet tried cooking pork in the microwave. Pork is tricky and my family doesn’t eat pork so that is one reason I have never tried cooking it in the microwave. However, there are plenty of beef and chicken recipes out there, so I hope the above suggestions will help you keep your kitchen cooler during the hot summer months.
Italian Cuisine
January 1st, 2010Italian cuisine is as varied as the regions of Italy. Although Italy was officially unified in 1861, the food reflects the cultural variety of the country’s regions with culinary influences from Greece, Roman, Gallic, Germany, Turkish, Hebrew, Slavic, Arab, Chinese and other civilizations. In this sense, there really is no one Italian cuisine because each area boasts of its own specialties. Not only is the food of Italy highly regionalized, but a high priority is also placed on the use of fresh available produce.
Although traditional Italian dishes vary by region, they also do not follow strictly to a North/South pattern either. The north tends to use more butter, creams, polenta, mascarpone, grana padano and Parmigiano cheeses, risotto, lasagna and fresh egg pasta, while the south is more tomato and olive oil based cooking, along with mozzarella, caciocavallo and peconrino cheeses, and dried pasta. Coastal and central regions often use tortellini, ravioli and prosciutto in their cooking. Even pizza varies across the country. In Rome the crusts are thin and cracker-like, while Neapolitan and Sicilian pizzas have a thicker crust.
For most Italians, pasta is the first course in a meal with the exception of the far north where risotto or polenta is the norm. Vegetables, grains and legumes play a regular part of many Italian diets with meat often not being a regular part of everyday meals, Olive oil is usually seen in its dark green state (from its first pressing) in the south, where in the north a more refined, golden oil is seen.
Basically, Italian cuisine consists of a combination of vegetables, grains, fruits, fish, cheeses and a some meats, with fowl and game usually seasoned or cooked with olive oil (with the exception of the far north). La cucina povera, the food of the poorer Italian people of the southern coastal area, has shaped a diet popular for centuries but now there is a resurgence of this “poor people’s food”, the Mediterranean diet, which is now being touted as the model around which we should restructure our eating habits.
Breakfast is considered a minor meal in Italy, often consisting of nothing more than a bread roll and milky coffee (café latte). Traditional lunches tend to be larger, have several courses and are eaten slowly. Italian children don’t go to school in the afternoon, and because of the heat, many small businesses close from midday until about 4pm which makes lunch the social meal of the day.
The traditional menu structure in Italy consists of basically eight courses, but the long traditional Italian menu is typically kept for special occasions such as weddings, with everyday fare including only the first and second courses, with the side dish being served with the second course. As an exception to this order, a unique course, Piatto unico, can replace the first or second course with, for example, pizza.
The traditional menu consists of:
1. ANTIPASTO – which are hot or cold appetizers, literally it means “before the pasta”; consists of a varied combination of colorful foods. The most popular ingredients are melon or tomatoes served with prosciutto cut into very thin slices. Lettuce, such as the slightly bitter endives or rocket, or other green leaves, such as the aniseed-tasting fennel, are typically used as a garnish, placed around the edges of the serving dish. Salami, mortadella, coppa and zampone, manufactured meat products, are common in antipasti. The artistry of the food is as important to Italians as the taste. For example the reddish colour of salami provides a good contrast to the green lettuce. Fish and other seafood may also be used in the antipasti course and, of course, olives and artichokes are also common servings, as are mushrooms (fungi) seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon juice.
2. PRIMO (first course) – which usually consists of a hot dish such as pasta, risotto, gnocchi, polenta or soup, with many vegetarian options. There are many types of pasta, each type usually named after its shape with common types including spirali (spirals), farfalle (butterflies; sometimes described as ‘bow-tie-shaped’). Penne (hollow tubes) and conchiglie (shells). Different shapes are supposed to be better with the different types of sauces. Spirals are two strips of pasta twirled around each other and are used with the heavier sauces, such as those containing minced meat and vegetables. Rigatoni is cylinders or tubes, with a wide diameter and grooves (or lines) on the outside. The grooves are supposed to hold the sauce onto the pasta, meaning that this pasta is good with runnier sauces. Then there is the group of pasta made up of long thin strands, which includes the most common type of pasta, spaghetti. Typically you eat this type of pasta by coiling its long thin strands around a fork. Other long thin pastas are tagliatelle, fettuccine and linguini, which are all varieties of flattened spaghetti. Extremely thin strands of pasta are called vermicelli (meaning ‘little worms’). Yet another group of pasta is made of flat sheets (lasagna) or tubes (cannelloni), which are either layered or stuffed with meat and cheese fillings. Some pastas have ‘pockets’ to hold the sauce inside them instead of outside like ravioli or tortellini, which are soft sheets of pasta rolled around meat or cheese. Italians cook pasta of all kinds, whether fresh or dried, in boiling water until al dente (’to the teeth’, meaning still a tiny bit hard in the centre. It is then served immediately in a bowl with sauce or cheese.
3. SECONDO (second course) – this is usually the main dish of fish or meat. Veal, pork and chicken are traditionally the most common and are often pan-fried or casseroled. Beef is used as steaks (bistecca), while lamb (agnello) is roasted on special occasions, such as Easter and Christmas. Fish and other seafood are often used as main courses.
4. CONTORNO (side dish) – this may be a salad or cooked vegetable. Salad is traditionally served with the main course. Common vegetables are beans (greens and pulses), potatoes (often sautéed), and carrots as well as salads.
5. FORMAGIIO AND FRUTTA (cheese and fruit) – this is the first dessert course and the fruit and cheese are usually served together. Grapes, peaches, apricots and citrus fruits are a major product of Italy’s agricultural industry and are common.
6. DOLCE (dessert) – the cakes and cookies course Italians produce many sweet desserts and ’sweet treats’, including Amaretti, almond-flavoured meringues, which Australians call macaroons, Panforte, a sweet semi-hard ’strong bread’ based on nuts and containing dried fruit (a classic Christmas treat from Siena), and. Pannettone, a very rich bread-cake (another Christmas treat).
7. CAFFÉ (coffee) – which is usually espresso coffee
8. DIGESTIVE (liqueurs) – which may be grappa, amaro, or Limon cello. The wine industry has been important to Italy for centuries and the most common drink associated with Italy is wine. Until recently, and even now in the countryside, most Italians would make their own red or white house wine after the grape harvest. This would be drunk at every lunch and dinner. Even children are given wine to drink, but it is usually watered down with mineral water. Before dinner many Italians drink an amaro (bitter) to stimulate the digestive system, while after dinner they may drink sweet wines, such as marsala (from Sicily). Children are also sometimes given Marsala, beaten with a raw egg and sugar into zabaglione, to strengthen them.
PIZZA
Modern pizza has evolved from pizzas made by peasants in Naples, Italy, but more than a few Mediterranean peoples can claim to have ‘invented’ the pizza. In ancient times many civilizations created dishes of flat bread with various herbs and toppings. As a staple for the poor, it was a matter of necessity that food could be eaten without utensils, and that the ‘plate’ it was served on could be eaten as well. They made a bread crust from flour, water and yeast, topped it with olive oil, herbs, cheeses, sometimes even leftovers, and baked the whole thing in a stone oven.
Given that most pizza connoisseurs today consider the tomato sauce to be the key ingredient, it may be surprising that pizza pre-dates the introduction of tomatoes to Europe. Tomatoes reached Italy by way of Spain in the early 1500s but were thought to be poisonous. It was several decades later that tomatoes topped a flatbread in the form of a pizza.
Italian cuisine is very popular in all its forms and is imitated all over the world. Look for a few Italian recipes on June’s Recipes page, and visit our Marketplace to find Italian cookbooks and herbs and spices to make your families Italian dishes more authentic.
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Tips To Cook On Microwave Ovens Safely For Fearless Eating
December 27th, 2009Experts say that a number of cases of irritable bowel syndrome, food poison and other illnesses bred by food products are caused by our faulty cooking habits on microwaves ovens, once supposed to be one of the safest kitchen appliances.However, a microwave oven is still the safest and user-friendly kitchen appliance. So how these ailments arise? Definitely, it is not our microwave oven itself, but it is our faulty method of cooking which has to be blamed. So next time when you switch on your oven to cook something delicious, kindly, for your tummy’s sake, do the following. Otherwise you will run for your life holding your potbelly in both hands towards a doctor’s clinic.Remember, our goal is to ensure that no part of the food should remain ‘uncooked.’ It is these uncooked portions of a dish which carry living germs and bacteria which cause trouble inside the stomach once you eat up the food, most importantly no-veg dishes.The first and foremost comes the proper cleaning of the oven. A dirty microwave oven, even partially, may hamper the cooking process. How a germ-ridden thing can cook something healthy?Cooking meat on low heat is the real formula. First chop it into small pieces and cook them giving no more than 30-40 percent of heat. This way the pieces are easily and safely cooked and the heat reaches the innermost part. Thus all the harmful organisms are killed in the oven.If cooking some bigger pieces of the meat is important, then cooking in a cooking bag is helpful. It generates enough heat and steam and distributes them evenly to all the parts of the pieces so no germs or bacteria is left. Avoid higher degree of heat. Use 45-55 percent of the maximum.A microwave oven is supposed to be a good preserver of the taste and flavor of the food too. So use salt and other herbs etc only half the actual amount you use while cooking in a conventional oven.Many times we use microwave ovens and electric grills both to make a dish. Thus we cook it for moments only in an oven. Do your grill work quickly as soon as you pull out the half-cooked meat, otherwise the germs go more destructive. Never let the half-cooked pieces cool down.For better and faster cooking you can consider using liquid in the food. You save almost 30 percent of energy and time too. Fatty meat too cooks fast. A pound of meat takes no more than six minutes to cook. Thus you keep adding six more minutes for each pound of meat you add.If you don’t prefer to cook in a cooking bag, then keep the pieces of the meat in a mid-size bowl and use a lid to cover it. However, avoid an airtight covering. Allow the steam to billow out. Stir the food once or twice giving intervals before you finally switch off. Stirring distributes the heat evenly.To cover the bowl, plastic wrap can be another suitable option instead of a lid. However, refrain from using metallic foils. They may spoil the food. Also while cooking pieces of various sizes, keep the bigger pieces beneath the smaller ones. Cooking becomes easy.
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Cooking Accessories for Creating a Quick Meal
December 25th, 2009With today’s busy lifestyle, it is hard to find the time to cook healthy foods and serve them to your family. Long gone are the days when mom was home with all day to prepare dinner. If your days are a rush of work and commuting, you may think that there is not any time to cook tasty, appealing meals for yourself and your family. There are products that can make this possible. Look at some of the cooking accessories that were designed to help you create quick, healthy, and flavorful meals.You do not have to resort to canned and frozen convenience meals to serve up a healthy, tasty plateful of spaghetti carbonara. All you need is the Pasta ‘n’ cooking set. The revolutionary design of the Pasta ‘n’ More lets you cook spaghetti, linguine, and other pasta in the microwave in about half the time that it takes to cook it on the stovetop. The Pasta ‘n’ More set also includes a steamer so that you can quickly steam fresh vegetables to go with dinner, or prepare fish that is tender and flaky. The clever design even incorporates a measuring tool in the handles of the microwaveable pasta pot so that you can measure out exactly the number of servings that you need. The five-piece set includes the pasta pot, straining lid, expander ring and storage lid. You even get a recipe book to help you plan healthy meals for your whole family.If you are looking for a quick way to cook a meal for your family, you should consider the GT Xpress 101. The GT Xpress 101 is a two-sided grill that cooks your food from both sides at the same time. It is ideal for making sandwich pockets in minutes, or for grilling meats and fish. Two deep pockets hold your ingredients in individual wells, and the unique design cooks and seals sandwiches at the same time. Another grill substitute is the Sunbeam 4-in-1 Electric Grill, which combines a grill, griddle, waffle iron, and sandwich maker into one handy cooking accessory. You can use the Sunbeam electric grill to sear and grill meats or fish. This grill is also perfect for making waffles, or creating your own nifty filled sandwiches. You can save both time and money when you leave the Hot Pockets on the shelf and pick up meats, vegetables, and cheese to create your own healthy alternatives with the Sunbeam 4-in1 or the GT Xpress 101 Grill.Many nutritionists will tell you that steaming is the healthiest way to cook your vegetables, but who has the time or energy to mess with a steamer inset for your saucepan? The 3-Tier Steamer is the ideal solution. The 3-Tier Steamer is designed to let you steam a full meal for yourself or your family. The stackable steamer makes it easy and quick to make healthy meals with vegetables, rice, fish and more with just a few minutes of preparation. Even better, the juices from your food may drip into the collection pan so you can use it to make savory gravy to perk up your dishes.Why heat up your kitchen and waste energy by using a full-size oven when there are so many great choices for countertop ovens out there? Today’s countertop ovens have come a very long way from the conventional toaster oven you remember from your mother’s kitchen. A countertop 3-in-1 oven can cook with three different power sources such as radiant heat, convection, and infrared, alone or in combination. You may be amazed at how quick and easy it is to cook in a countertop oven. Your food is also more flavorful when it is not subjected to the drying heat of a conventional gas or electric oven. The secret is that the foods cook from the inside out as well as searing the outside to keep the juices inside the food. With creative cooking techniques, you can cook anything you would cook in a conventional oven, but it can be finished and ready to eat much faster.In addition to major cooking accessories that cut into your meal prep time, you should also benefit from having a few smaller products on hand. Here are some accessories for your kitchen that can cut down on your food preparation time.- A boiled egg slicer can be used to cut perfect even slices in any soft food such as cheese, tomatoes, boiled eggs, and onions. It is so much easier and quicker than trying to cut with a dull knife.- A food chopper lets you chop vegetables, meats, and herbs for your meals in seconds. Why use a bulky food processor when all you want to do is dice an onion or a carrot? All you need is a handy little spring-loaded tool to cut your chopping chores down to size.
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Top Cooking Accessories to Make a Quick Meal
December 24th, 2009If you are too tired to cook a full meal by the time you get home from work, being able to cook a quick meal is a great skill to have. If you end up ordering in far more often than your budget can stand simply because it takes too long to cook a fresh meal from scratch, there is good news; it does not have to be that way. There are so many time-saving gadgets, tools and accessories that can help you make fresh, delicious meals in minutes. Whether you combine them with the new breed of fresh-packed convenience foods or use them help you make up your own “convenience foods”, cooking and kitchen accessories can make your entire life far easier.
Food Preparation
One of the most time-consuming and labor-intensive parts of cooking great meals is the preparation time, the time spent cutting, slicing, dicing and otherwise getting ingredients ready to cook them. Great tools can put a serious dent in the amount of time it takes to prepare your food for the oven or the grill.
Cutting fruits and vegetables is much easier when you are using tools that were designed specifically for the job. The handiest food prep tools to have in your arsenal include:
- Stainless steel wire cutters to hold things like tomatoes and onions still so you can make uniform slices for burgers, sandwiches and bagels
- 5-in-1 Egg Slicer, which makes it easy to slice, dice, chop and wedge hard-boiled eggs – and other things like strawberries, onions and mushrooms
- Apple Corers, melon slicers and pineapple corers make short work of cutting up fruits in uniform slices or wedges and getting rid of the core. A must if you like serving fruit salad or fresh melon to your family for breakfast or dessert
Cooking Faster – Or Slower
If you thought your only option to cook things fast was the microwave, you haven’t seen some of the handiest cooking gadgets available. There are ovens, slow cookers (yes, for quick meals!), electric skillets and more. Here are just a few of the ways that you can take advantage of cooking accessories to get healthy meals on the table for your family fast.
Take a whole new approach to cooking with a NuWave counter top oven. The NuWave cooks foods up to 50% faster than a traditional oven – and it can cook from frozen for those nights that you forgot to defrost something for dinner. It’s big enough to hold a 10 lb turkey – or a 16 lb turkey if you choose the deluxe model.
Another countertop oven choice is the 9-in-1 Oven. It may look like a toaster oven, but it’s so far beyond that. You can toast, roast, broil and bake inside, and the top is a non-stick griddle/grill! It even comes with a rotisserie so you can roast a chicken or a roast on a spit. The convection setting cooks foods fast!
How does a Slow Cooker speed up your meal times? Take five minutes in the morning to drop a chicken and some spices into your slow cooker, set it on low and get to work. When you get home in the evening, your meal will be cooked to perfection and ready to serve. All you have to do is set the table and dish it up! Choose a Slow Cooker with easy cleanup features like a dishwasher safe removable insert and save even more time.
One last indispensable cooking appliance is a countertop griddle like the Electric 4-in-1 Grill/Griddle. Grilling is so much healthier than frying, but firing up the grill can seem like a whole lot of work for a quick meal. An electric grill can make it so easy to grill steaks, chops and even vegetables. Pick a multi-purpose grill and you can make Panini, stuffed sandwiches, pancakes, eggs and more.
Quicker Cleanup
Most people would agree that getting food to the table in only half the time with the same taste would be a great improvement. Cleaning up after the cooking sometimes takes longer than the meal. Invest in a few handy gadgets to make cleanup time much easier and quicker.
One of the best ways to reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning up spills in your oven is to keep those spills from getting there in the first place. A silicone oven liner will catch the spills and keep them from baking on. Just pull it out, wash it and put it back in. The oven liners can be cut to fit any size oven, and are even available to fit your toaster oven.
Keep your stovetop clean, too. It’s easy to do with a Ceramic Spoon Rest or a lid and spoon rest that holds your cooking utensils and keeps them from dripping on your stove. Add burner bibs made of spun fiberglass that will keep all those boilovers and spills from baking onto your stove surface, and the cleanup is as easy as popping them into the dishwasher.
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Cooking Classes – A Massive Effort To Make The Masses Cookâ¦
November 30th, 2009No matter whether you are an expert or not, when it comes for cooking there should be a cooking class located in your locality so that we can improve our cooking skills more and more. Amazingly many people are utilizing the opportunity that they get as far as cooking classes are concerned. So it’s always good to join any classes taken on the topic of cooking.
Many institutions have come forward to conduct the cooking classes during night or weekends and the rates are normal. These classes are deals with the basics that teaches the women the basics of cooking that can help to prepare a healthy food for their food for there families. If you are interested in joining these classes then you must refer the local library for the possible chances for these classes in your area. Even though if they do not
Give all the information they will guide us in the right direction. So never miss any class relating to cooking.
When we wish to classes to with our children then we need to seek the help of the library for some initial ideas. Many government cooking classes that conduct some courses for parents with their parents with their children. This is a great chance for the parents to mingle with their children and learn the course to gather and prepare a nice dish together. Things will be surprising when they are learnt from their children and from the classes that you attend.
People who are in need of some experience in cooking they should attend some cooking classes in order to gain experience and reach the goal that they dared to dream. The chances of learning Thai cooking are more in cities than small towns though they do not exist. If you really like to cook you need to look for cooking classes in vacation so that you will have some basic idea of what cooking is all about. If you some other idea other than cooking then try to attend one class related to cooking. This might change your mind and the experience that you gain will always remain in your mind
We can also try to take a class for couples if we want to try something different. These classes conducted in both cities and small towns. The main motive behind this idea is that some one can take up the work of cooking. The theme is that there are many ways to keep the art of cooking interesting forever. So cooking is an art that entertain us and other people as well.
Cooking might be selected for no reason the fact that hides behind this that cooking not only entertain us but also increases the cooking atmosphere in the kitchen. At present you have lot of time to take the cooking classes if you have not conducted cooking class till now. Though you are well versed in cooking there are things that needs to be learned in cooking.
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