Barbeque Techniques: Two Methods to Consider
May 23, 2007
Barbeque Techniques: Two Methods to Consider
by: Richard Cussons
When it comes to barbequing, there are two main schools of thought for the techniques that you can use.
The first of these techniques - and the most popular method for those who grill in their back yards - is the style where the food is cooked directly over the source of heat. This way, the food is rapidly cooked on a hot grill suspended directly over the charcoals, the wood, or the gas burners. Rarely is the lid ever closed. Any foods, including the most tender cuts, hamburgers, steaks, kabobs of all kinds, chicken, and even vegetables are quickly seared and cooked to perfection using this technique. If sauces are desired, they can be added before hand, during the cooking process, or even after the food comes off the grill. These choices will all create different and enjoyable tastes and flavors.
Little-known Tips for Easy Holiday Baking
May 22, 2007
Are you wondering if you have the time to bake homemade Christmas cookies this year? Every year at about this time we all start to get a little panicked that the holidays are coming up fast and we’re not really ready yet. Here are a few little-known tips and tricks, for almost every type of cookie, to help you get the most out of the time you spend baking.
Cutout Cookies
Don’t struggle with dough sticking to your rolling pin. Instead, roll out your dough between two sheets of waxed paper. This will eliminate the sticking problem.
Do your cutout cookies always seem to turn out dry, tough, and tasteless? The trick with the waxed paper will help with this. Assuming that you started with a good recipe, the problem is that you are overworking your dough and working too much flour into it. Using the waxed paper will help you to manipulate the dough less, and the dough won’t pick up any extra flour.
Refrigerator (Icebox) Cookies and Pinwheels Ever notice how your roll of icebox or pinwheel cookies gets flat on one side from sitting on the refrigerator shelf? Keep them nice and round by standing them upright in a tall drinking glass while they’re chilling.
Gas Grill Warranties - The Less Said, The Better
May 21, 2007
Gas Grill Warranties - The Less Said, The Better
by: Will Kessel
The proof of the pudding, so to speak, is the warranty coverage. Generally, the better the burner, the better the warranty.
If this statement is true, then the grill company is willing to stand behind their burners to the point where they will replace their burners for whatever reason for as long as you own the grill, right?
You would assume so, wouldn’t you?
So why would a company then limit the conditions where this would be true? There are several valid reasons, among them hostile environment, misuse and abuse.
A hostile environment is a situation where the burner is subjected to forces not within the design intentions, like grilling on the planet Venus, or under water, or inside a burning garage, or something like that. It’s an out for the company, especially when you push the envelope. Actually, it is most commonly defined as a grill installed next to a swimming pool; the chlorine in the water has a tendency to do nasty things to grills.
Rowan Jelly (Mountain Ash - Pyrus aucuparia)
May 20, 2007
Sharp and sour but sweet and succulent all at the same time, this traditional accompanyment to cold meat is bursting with flavour, and folklore !
‘Rowan tree and red thread - have the witches all in dread’
On May eve Rowan crosses used to be worn in UK and were sometimes fastened to cattle (or their barns) for protection against witches and other ‘evil doers’. Legend has it that the crosses had to be made without a metal knife to work properly. Rowan branches were also bought indoors on a Good Friday as this tree had a reputation for strong protection against psychic forces.
This ‘mish-mash’ of folklore and Christianity indicates older uses of the tree having been ‘assimilated’ into a religion that converted people by adapting their beliefs and practices to its own ends. ‘Rowan’ is the most interesting of tree names with connections to both ancient Norse and Hindu/Sanskrit culture. Spelled several ways it is connected to the old Norse word ‘Runa’ - meaning a charm - and being able to ward off the effects of the ‘evil eye’. In even earlier times ‘Runa’ was the Sanskrit word for ‘magician’. ‘Run-stafas’ were staves cut from the Rowan tree and inscribed with runes for magical (and most likely protective) reasons. The smooth bark is ideal for this purpose.
The Top 10 Quick Tips that will save common household recipes!!!
May 20, 2007
The Top 10 Quick Tips that will save common household recipes!!!
by: Jonathan Chin
1. Making great biscuits: biscuits are great from scratch because most recipes use only 5-6 ingredients. My personal recipe uses only baking soda, baking powder, flour, buttermilk, salt, and butter. The most important thing to remember to ensure that your biscuits come out fluffy is to make sure that you use cold butter and that you leave the butter in small chunks throughout the mixing process. A common error is to mix the butter smoothly into the mixture. If you leave the butter in chunks, as your biscuits cook, the butter will form layers in the dough and the result will be more rise and fluff. This also works for making any puff pastry from scratch. Another great idea is to take the dough and put a thin layer over the top of a bowl of soup, then to bake the whole bowl in your oven. This will give your soups a beautifully fluffy top. Of course, make sure that your bowl is oven safe before baking it.
Translation of Italian Recipes: Localization?
May 19, 2007
Translation of Italian Recipes: Localization?
by: Nigel Massey
Translation - Translation is mostly about the conversion of a document from one language to another. The document is kept as it was originally intended and written, therefore having the same meaning.
Localization - Then translation may involve localization. This is when the translation is completed ‘and’ adjusted for the target audience. The meaning remains.
Now let’s talk about Italian food. Generally when I want to try an Italian recipe, I look for a version from where the recipe is from. Why? Because recipes get localized too!
Italians keep to strict recipes. They also know that certain regions of the country are best for certain foods. For instance Naples for Pizza and Genoa for Focaccia.
So why do any recipes get localised?
4 Reasons for Recipe Localization
1) To meet the tastes of the new market - The original blend of flavours is not quite to the tastes of the country where it has been adopted.
2) Unable to find the ingredients - Maybe the ingredients just do not exist in the new country. Or maybe they are prohibitively expensive.
Rosemary flower candies (Rosemarinus officinalis)
May 18, 2007
Leave your tic-tacs at home. This medicinal plant provides delicious mouth fresheners to integrate into a balanced healing diet.
When a herb or plant has the designation ‘officinalis’ it means it has been recognised to have medicinal qualities. ‘Rosemarinus’, so called because of marine connections (colour of sea - grows by sea e.g. Mediterranean) is possibly the best example of a herb that we commonly grow that has extensive folklore and many attributed medicinal values.
Beloved by the Romans, who bought it to the UK from Turkey, they believed this valuable herb could preserve dead bodies from corruption and it was often strewn or grown in graveyards and around tombs. It was well known to the Tudors as a stimulant to the system. In ‘The Garden of Health’ (1579) William Langham writes: “Carry the flowers about thee to make thee merry and glad and well beloved of all men…hang the flowers on thy bed and place Rosemary in the bath to make thee lusty, lively, joyful, strong and young. To comfort the heart steep Rosemary flowers in rose water and drink it”.
Tom And Jerry Cake Recipe
May 17, 2007
Tom And Jerry Cake Recipe
by: Robert Simic
The famous cat and mouse both have good, solid shapes, without fiddly bits, that are easy to cut from a cake. To achieve a furry effect, use a fork or flat knife to peak the royal icing - but work fast, it dries out surprisingly quickly. It’s simple, just follow our
Tom And Jerry Cake Recipe and you will be soon receiving lots of love from your kids 
Ingredients for Tom
1 12in x 10in (30cm x 25cm) cake
apricot glaze
1lb 8oz (680g) royal icing (later on this page)
1lb (450g) fondant: 7oz (200g) white; 4oz (115g) black;
4oz (115g) pink; pinch of red a few strands of spaghetti food-colouring pastes: black, pink, red, and (optional) violet
Method
Level off cake if necessary and turn upside down. Using a traced template, cut round Tom’s outline and place the cake on a board. Brush the cake with apricot glaze.
Cut out separate templates of his face and ear. It is a good idea to cut out two of each - one set to be positioned on top of the cake and kept in place with pins (Pic. 1) and the other to be kept for cutting out fondant.
A Private Owners Guide to Bottling Fine Whisky
May 16, 2007
The majority of private owners of whisky casks are looking for an assessment of their options. The purpose of this article is to help answer questions that private owners may have about bottling their whisky casks.
Its always recommended that private owners bottle at cask strength as this minimises the number of bottles that you get making it cheaper for bottling and requiring less storage space. The materials needed for a single malt presentation include: tall round clear bottle, varnished wood topp stopper cork, gold coloured pure tin capsule and plain white outer cases. For private owners the use of a simple black and white label would be sufficient. On it would be your name, distillery from which the cask originated and the cask details including date of fill, cask number, strength etc. If you plan to print your own be aware that labels printed on ink jet computer printers are likely to have the ink run if the whisky is spilled on the label. A colour laser printer is however a very good option for short run label production.
Christmas Cookie Decorating 101
May 15, 2007
Many bakers ask for tips and instructions on decorating cookies. Well that’s a tall order because there are as many ways to decorate cookies as there are cookies! Here are a few guidelines for novices and experienced bakers alike to help you generate your own ideas for cooking decorating.
DECORATING COOKIES BEFORE BAKING
Cookies can be decorated before baking with materials that withstand the heat of baking. Some things that you can place on your cookies before baking are:
-colored sugars or natural sugars such as pearl sugar -jimmies, non-pareils, silver and gold dragées, and other sprinkles -raisins and dried fruits such as cranberries -nuts
These items can be placed on top of almost any cookie to dress it up a bit and give it a more festive appearance.
Paint a masterpiece You can also paint your cookies before baking them. Make an edible food paint out of an egg yolk mixed with a few drops of food coloring and paint the cookies with a clean paintbrush. The paint will dry while baking and give the cookie a colorful, glazed appearance. This is a fun activity for kids!
