I was shocked to discover that one of my friends thought she couldn’t make muffins without a muffin tray. While these special baking pans make creating muffins a whole lot easier, they’re not integral to your enjoyment of a small, round breakfast cakes.
Discovering Sous VideAs a child, I used to dislike octopus. It tasted fine, of course, but the way it felt in my mouth was always too chewy. It was like eating an eraser. A cooked eraser, mind you, and one that was breaded and fried and dipped in some sort of sauce, but an eraser nonetheless. Not my favorite.
As much as you can purchase pre-made or frozen ravioli straight from the grocery store, making one from scratch is considered more fulfilling and therapeutic. Personally, I prefer making my own ravioli in the comfort of my kitchen.
Scroll down for the recipe and instruction on how to make pesto
One of my favorite times of the year is when basil plants are exploding with fresh leaves that need to be used before they turn. This is pesto season!! I like to get the whole family together for making pesto from scratch. Not only are they extra hands in processing the ingredients, it’s a great time to hang out with a captive audience who may have ideas to make a different kind of pesto. I made my first sun dried tomato pesto as a result of one of our “basil bashing” sessions.
Spaghetti alla Bolognese, so delicious, so not Italian, but why hold ourselves to tradition when combining talents can make better food?
Bolognese sauce reminds me of the original meat loaf; the original meat loaf was beef, pork, and veal, ground separately and prepared in layers, when was the time you had traditional meat loaf?
love chicken fried rice! All chicken fried rice. I have been fortunate to have learned how to make several different kinds, sweet Thai, spicy Thai, Malaysian, Filipino, Chinese-American, and a few others. The one thing they all have in common is rice, but that can be where the similarities end. Even the rice can be very different, some cultures use jasmine, some basmati.
King, Coho, Pink, and Sockeye, among others, are very popular for their health benefits and flavor. Some salmon can be eaten rare, some has to be hot smoked over a long period of time, some is only good for deep frying, but the vast majority is only good for scanning.
Here in the States we eat turkey on Thanksgiving, the third Thursday in November. Roast turkey has fond memories for many of us. A poorly roasted turkey has bad memories for many of us, too.
Dry, over cooked turkey can ruin a great family occasion. Our fear of under cooked poultry, combined with a lack of knowledge, has caused many turkey dinners to be dreadful. Roasting a turkey is actually very easy. It’s just a matter of some basic preparation. Bacon helps too.
A Dull Knife is a Dangerous Knife!
A lot of the home cooks I know have something very dangerous in their kitchen drawer, a dull knife. For some it is out of fear of cutting themselves with a sharp blade. They mistakenly think that it’s easier to get a nasty cut from a sharp blade.