14 Easy Cooking Tips for Meat and Poultry Slow Cooker Recipes
April 22, 2008
14 Easy Cooking Tips for Meat and Poultry Slow Cooker Recipes
by: Anjali Dawson
The first Christmas we spent with my in-laws in their new country home, my mother-in-law wisely gave me a slow cooker. Her thoughtful gift helped Dan and I enjoy the most convenient of all cooking methods, even with our long work days and commute.
I’ll always treasure the memories of delicious aromas wafting through the front door as we stepped into the house after a long day at work and a nerve-jangling commute in heavy traffic.
Most of the slow cooker recipes I used were based on meats and poultry. Here are 14 easy tips to make your slow cooker recipes tasty and safe:
Tip # 1 - According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, bacteria in food are killed at a temperature of 165°F. Meats cooked in the slow cooker reach an internal temperature of 170° in beef and as high as 190°F in poultry. It is important to follow the recommended cooking times and to keep the cover on your slow cooker during the cooking process.
An Idiots Guide To Wine Tasting
April 21, 2008
Have you ever seen those stiff upper-lipped types doing a spot of the old wine tasting malarkey? You know the form ? sip, swill, spit. Yuck! Well this information has been written to help you understand the form should you ever find yourself in a situation where you need to know what to do. And don’t go thinking “I’ll never have to do any wine-tasting” because you just don’t know that for sure and the last thing you want is to be caught unaware.
So, on with the tasting…
Study The Wine
Pick up your glass as elegantly as possible. There are two ways this can be done.
a) For chilled wines ? hold the glass by the stem and don’t even touch the bowl.
b) For wine served at room temperature ? pick up the glass by the bowl and hold it cupped in your palm, the stem between your middle two fingers.
Now that you have the glass comfortably in your hand, hold it at a slight angle against something white. If your hostess is worth her salt, she’ll have covered the table in white linen specifically for this purpose (although it does look nice, too).
Cinco de Mayo Recipe
April 20, 2008
My ex reminded me last week that the holiday that “my people” celebrate was coming up.
My people. He was, of course, being facetious, but I smacked him anyway. Well, he’s a thousand miles away, so I virtually smacked him. Same effect.
My people. Like I even speak Spanish. My father wouldn’t teach us when we were growing up because he didn’t want us to be stigmatized. Only the last name gave us away as it was.
Still, I do like to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. The Fifth of Mayonnaise. I love mayonnaise.
For this Cinco de Condiment, my love wanted to make turkey taquitos for his office party. So I am, even now, roasting turkey parts for said taquitos. Have you ever had turkey taquitos? Around here we have them after major holidays. Christmas, Thanksgiving . . . because that’s usually when there’s leftover turkey. Turkey is a primary ingredient in turkey taquitos, as you may, or may not, have gathered from the name. I dunno. Some of you are probably quicker than others about these things.
There is no mayonnaise in turkey taquitos. A recipe featuring mayonnaise will be arriving shortly, but this isn’t it.
Coffee Brewing Methods: Is your coffee brewer just a drip?
April 19, 2008
Coffee Brewing Methods: Is your coffee brewer just a drip?
by: Vince Manzello
For most of us, brewing up our morning cup of coffee is more than just a necessity, it is a matter of convenience. Each night, millions of us coffee lovers pile heaping tablespoons of our favorite gourmet coffees into those paper filters, fill the tank of our coffee makers with water and set the timer so that our coffee is ready and waiting first thing in the morning.
But why would anyone spend good money on the finest gourmet coffee beans or fresh ground gourmet coffees and use just any home coffee maker.
So if you are like me and you enjoy the finest gourmet and specialty coffees available, then you must also believe that they deserve the best and most reliable coffee brewing equipment available.
Here is a quick list of the most popular coffee brewing methods & equipment starting from the best:
French Press
Baking Perfect Breads, Cookies, and Desserts
April 19, 2008
We’re all looking for that perfect pie, or cookies, or loaf of bread. It doesn’t always happen. In our experience, there are four reasons that account for most of the less than perfect products.
Under baking or over baking. This has to be nemesis number one. Breads are often under-baked and cookies are often over-baked. Under baked bread is soggy. Crusty breads will never be crusty if the temperature doesn’t get high enough to drive the moisture from the dough. Over baked cookies are dry and hard. Try baking cookies until they just start to brown and see if you don’t like them better.
Most soft breads should reach an internal temperature of 190 degrees and most crusty breads should reach a temperature of 200 to 210 degrees. A thermometer is the bread baker’s best friend.
To reach internal temperatures such as these, crusts will often be a darker brown than what you often picture in the perfect bread. If you would like a golden crust on your bread instead of a rich brown crust, try draping the loaf with aluminum foil for the last six or eight minutes of baking. The aluminum foil deflects the heat and will protect the crust from becoming too dark.
Coffee Pods and Espresso Machines
April 18, 2008
Coffee Pods and Espresso Machines
by: Jim Cheresly
There’s nothing like the perfect espresso. Finely ground, dark roasted coffee, pressed and percolated into a strong, rich coffee drink that delights the senses and perks up your day. In Italy, ordering a coffee means that you’re ordering an espresso. The Italians stop in their local bar once, twice, even three times a day for the perfect cup of espresso. But here in America, it’s not as easy to find espresso done right. The grind of the coffee, the right temperature, the pressing of the coffee and the foaming of the milk are skills that few people know how to wield properly on this side of the ocean. But now with espresso machines and coffee pods, the guesswork is taken out of making espresso at domestic bars or even in your own kitchen at home.
Onions, Fabulous, Superb Perfection
April 17, 2008
Onions, Fabulous, Superb Perfection
by: Steve Melton
Onions are absolutely one of the most delicious and flexible commodities
you use in the kitchen. From savory steaming soups to satisfying
homemade salsa, onions play an important part in our daily cooking.
Flavorful appetizers from onion dips to salad dressing, main course
casseroles, even the onion focaccia bread accompaniment for dinner.
Buying onions is a simple task. Look for dry, papery skins with no soft
spots. You should also notice the absence of any strong odor. A good dry
onion will have very little to no smell to it at all. If it has a strong
onion odor the onion has already began to turn bad.
Varieties of onion include, Vidalia, Texas 1015, Red, Green, the Walla
Walla from Washington and Maui from Hawaii. Sweet onions such as Vidalia
and Walla Walla are mellow enough to eat raw, but they are excellent
“baked” on the grill and served with grilled steaks or burgers. Try them
in the oven too.
Caramelizing onions during cooking will give a rich sweetness to
recipes, enhancing kitchen aromas and have everyone asking, “What’s for
Spanish Recipes - Tempting Tapas Dishes
April 16, 2008
Spain is famous for its tapas and, whichever Spanish bar you frequent, in whichever area of the country, you are sure to find them.
So, what exactly are “tapas” and where did the name come from?
Tapas are, essentially, snacks and the word literally means “cover”. The name originates from the card which used to be placed on top of your drink to protect it from the flies (this can be a hot country!).
At some point in time, it became popular to place a little snack on top of this card. At first, this would just have been something simple like a few nuts and olives, or a fresh slice of crusty Spanish bread plus topping.
In those, not-so-far-gone days, the tapas were free! That is not usually the case these days, although you will occasionally be presented with a small dish of crisps or olives to go with your drink.
Nowadays, there is a wide variety of (paid) tapas, with some bars really going-to-town on them and offering highly original, magnificently presented snacks.
Mexican Pork Stew Topped With Corn Bread
April 15, 2008
Mexican Pork Stew Topped With Corn Bread
by: Luke Indran
This magnificently elaborate pork stew recipe fuses the diversity of irresistably piquant Mexican flavours with a tempting assortment of fresh natural ingredients!
Mexican Pork Stew With Corn Bread Topping
1 each Red Bell Pepper — Small
1 each Yellow Bell Pepper — Small
1 pound Pork; Boneless Loin — *
1/2 pound Chorizo Sausage — Bulk
1 cup Onion; Chopped — 1 Large
2 each Cloves Garlic — Finely Chopped
1 cup Beef Broth
1 tablespoon Basil Leaves — Dried
1 tablespoon Cilantro Leaves — Dried
2 teaspoons Red Chiles — Ground
1 cup Corn — Whole Kernel
1 cup Tomato; Chopped — 1 Medium
1 each Squash; Small — **
2 1/4 ounces Sliced Ripe Olives — Drained
—–CORN BREAD TOPPING—–
1 1/2 cups Cornmeal — Yellow
1/2 cup Unbleached Flour
1 cup Dairy Sour Cream
2/3 cup Milk
1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 each Egg — Large
—–GARNISH—–
What is Gluten and Why does it Matter?
April 14, 2008
Gluten is a substance made up of the proteins found in wheat flour that gives bread its structure, strength, and texture. Without these marvelous little proteins, bread would not be bread. It also explains why it is so hard to make bread from rice, potato, or oat flour and why wheat flour has to be added to rye flour to make bread-only wheat has enough protein. The gluten makes the bread.
Gluten is developed in the dough when the proteins absorb water and are pulled and stretched in the kneading process. As the proteins are worked, they become long, flexible strands. As the yeast produces gases in the dough, mostly carbon dioxide, these strands trap the gas bubbles and the dough expands. When we put the bread in the oven, the gluten strands coagulate or solidify much as the protein in eggs solidifies as the egg cooks.
How is it that we can use flour to make both a tender cake and firm chewy French bread? The gluten makes the difference. In a cake, we want little gluten development. In a chewy bread, we want a high percentage of well-developed gluten. We can control this texture in our baked goods by changing four conditions:
