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Showing posts from June, 2009

Cooking Tips For Immigrants

By Mistonty Carmeaclen It happens all the time when a person moves from one country to a new one, he must adjust to the customs and to the way of life in the new nation. The first problem of adjustment which immigrant faces almost immediately is cooking style. The immigrant is accustomed to certain foods in their motherland and served at several times during the day. In a new country, immigrant may find himself having to eat foods he never heard of, prepared in ways he knows nothing about, and eaten at times when he is unaccustomed to eating. Here are some cooking tips for the immigrants. As we known, the basic methods of cooking are boiling, baking or roasting, frying, and broiling. Boiled foods are cooked in water or some other liquid such as oil at a boiling temperature. Baked or roasted foods are cooked by dry heat in an oven. Fried foods are cooked in hot fat or oil until brown and tender and broiled foods are cooked by direct fire or heat. People who work must eit

How to Use a Slow Cooker - Simplify Your Life

By Andrea Kalaydjian People believe that a slow cooker is to be used during winter. Yes, they think it is used to cook comfort food during cold winter days. Yes, that is true, but you can use the crock pot throughout the year, and your life will be so much simpler. Below I list some of the benefits of using one: 1. Slow cookers do not warm up your kitchen. So in summer when it is hot out there, you can actually give a rest to your oven and stove, and get your slow cooker out. It will keep your kitchen cooler. 2. The meal preparation time is shorter. You can actually prepare a meal within 40 minutes. Then you just leave your meal cooking and carry on with your day. When supper time comes, your meal will be ready without any unnecessary stress. 3. It is so simple to use it, that even your husband can do it for you. So if you need to sleep out of town for one night, just leave the recipe and the slow cooker out. When you return home the following day, and open the door, yo

Reviving, Reusing and Substituting For More Savings on Your Grocery Budget

Reviving Veggies: Did you know? We have all been taught that we can revive celery by placing it in a container of cold water and let it sit in the refrigerator but did you know, you can do that to other vegetables too? My lettuce had become wilted, but not brown on the edge of the leaves. I tore the wilted leaves from the core of the head [do not use a metal knife as it will darken the leaves] and emerged them in iced water for 10 to 15 minutes. You will want to drain the water and place the lettuce on a towel to dry before quickly placing them in a plastic bag and back in the veggie drawer of your refrigerator. You can also, stand them, with the torn ends in a glass of water in the door of the fridge for a day. The water needs to be about two to three inches deep in the glass. I was pleased to see that the wilted leaves came back to their original crispy fresh state. I have even resurrected other greens using the glass method. Radishes, spring onions and carrots can be

Cooking Classes Online - Food Safety, Important Equipment

By Linda Servis Cooking classes online can prevent e.coli and samonella (did you know you can get both with steak tartare?).  Didn't mean to scare you, there, but food safety is more and more important.  Who knew you could get sick with spinach and peanuts.  You don't have to be a nut about this, but you do have to know what you are doing starting at the grocery store. I always keep a food cooling bag in my car (you can get these at most grocery stores) and put the meats, fish and dairy in it on my way home.  If you know you are going to be on the road for a while, places that have real butchers always have those little frozen thing-ys that keep stuff cold.  Or you could buy a couple of cold drinks and put them in the food cooler bag.  If you are very advanced or have a big crowd to cook for, you could keep a small cooler in the car. The other biggie is not to handle raw fish, poultry or meat with the same utensil that you use to handle the cooked product, nor t

Fast Cooking - 2 Powerful Ways to Cook Meals Fast Through Good Preparation and Cooking Methods

Making food can be time-consuming and quite a hassle in our hectic life. But there are ways to speed things up, and they are anything but difficult. One of the most important rules if you want to keep cooking times short is to choose the right foods (those that will be done quick), and it helps a lot to plan ahead. But there are also a couple of things in the cooking process itself that can help you to have your meal ready faster: 1. Prepare food to reduce cooking time 2. Choose quick cooking methods Way #1: Prepare food to reduce cooking time How you prepare your foods will determine how long they will take to cook. A bit of extra effort in preparing your foods will save you time at the end of the day. It usually takes less time to cut vegetables or meat than to cook the whole big bulk. Boiling a whole large potato can take 30-45 minutes. Cutting it into thin slices on the other hand takes you just some moments and then it's done in 15 minutes only. Small pieces (e

Throw Out All the Rules For Cooking Barbecue Beef Brisket

Almost everyone who has ever cooked a beef brisket will tell you one thing first, and that is to always cook the brisket with the fat side up. The thinking is the fat, as it melts during cooking, drips its flavor onto and soaks into the meat, keeping it moist and making it tender. The truth is the fat does not really soak into the meat at all, but runs down the meat and into the fire. This process causes the heat to fluctuate greatly while cooking, creating a very uneven and unpredictable barbecue cooking experience. Cooking with the fat side down allows the fat on the bottom to just drip onto the heat source, creating delicious smoke flavor that rises back up and through to the meat. The connective tissue within the meat is what keeps it tender and moist. The tissue melts when the internal temperature of the meat reaches 160 degrees Fahrenheit. That moisture from the connective tissue releases into the meat, making it tender. Using this fat-down method, you really do n

How to Treat Fish the Right Way

Seafood, like eggs, needs to be prepared low and slow. High heat does nothing to seafood except insure that it will come out tough and dry. An exception can be made for grilled and deep fried seafood, in which case the rule is hot and quick. One of the most popular ways to treat seafood is by frying. Since seafood is so heat sensitive, if you are going to fry it you should either have an electric deep fryer or a thermometer. Don't try to guess when the food is done because you will be wrong most of the time. The temperature of the fat should be at least 375 degrees but, if you are going to fry a large batch make it 425 degrees since once you add the fish the temperature will drop. Once you get the temperature right the only other thing that can affect your fish is the batter. A good batter will brown the fish but not accept a lot of oil. The formula is easy; dry the fish and season lightly on both sides with salt and pepper. One at a time, dip the fish first in flou

Cooking With Fresh Herbs - Add Savory Flair to Your Favorite Recipes With These Simple Tricks

Fresh herbs add such savory flair to recipes, but if you don't know the basic rules for cooking with them, it can seem overwhelming. Here's what you need to know to start using herbs to liven up your favorite recipes. Using Fresh Herbs First, fresh herbs can be used in your baking, cooking and salads. They pack a lot more flavor than dried herbs. You can even grow the herbs yourself so that they are organic. You'll also save a lot of money because store-bought fresh herbs can get rather expensive. When you use fresh herbs in a recipe, you need to make sure to use more than you would for dried herbs. Generally speaking, one teaspoon of dried herbs equals one tablespoon of fresh herbs. With this conversion measurement, you can use fresh herbs in any of the recipes that you currently make. You'll notice the difference in flavor right away. If you're creating your own recipes you should know that some herbs are traditionally paired with certain dishes. F

Fisher & Paykel Washing Machine Reviews - A Friend of the Environment Washing Machines

Fisher & Paykel was founded by Sir Woolf Fisher and Maurice Paykel on 1934 in New Zealand . The company produces high quality home appliances such as washing machines and Fisher & Paykel products are available in more than 80 countries such as United States , Australia , Thailand , Italy , Mexico , etc. Fisher & Paykel Washing Machine Reviews : Fisher & Paykel EcoSmart , a friend of the environment washing machine uses the Smart Drive motor (brushless motor system) which has no set parts that makes the machine stables for years, so you will save your operating costs average of $200 per year and 10,000 gallons of water per year. Fisher & Paykel Intuitive Eco, an intelligent washing machine, uses the Smart Drive System and an auto water level sensor to prevent unnecessary water usage, also 13 specialty "lifecycles" that will protect your clothing. Fisher & Paykel AquaSmart, a reliability washing machine, uses Smart Dri

Linens For Your Table Round

By Cindy C Bittick One thing you need to keep at home is round table linens. Avoid using rectangular or square linens for circular tables. If you do not have round tables at home it would still be worth keeping a set of these round table linens in the event that you might need one. There are times that you will need this and it will be really handy to have one in your linen closet. These linens are not necessarily for just round tables. You can even use this to accent your rectangular tables by placing the circular linen on top of your regular table cloth. This will add some aesthetic value to your table and be a good break to the monotony of just having the plain dining table cloth. Table cloths care there not just for the aesthetics of your table nut also for its protection from scratches. Using the right table cloth can help make your party a success. You do not want to be using the wrong kind of table cloth for the wrong type of table. Often these cloths would be abl