February 2008

Someone e-mailed me a link to a really informative article about meat safety. It’s an issue I, personally, think about every time I’m in the meat department. Actually, it I allowed myself to think about it very much, I’d probably become a vegetarian! Fortunately, as this article points out - we can enjoy eating healthy, delicious mead dishes and do so safely.

See Selecting the Safest Meat on The Green Guide. While on the site, you’ll want to look around at the other articles - especially if, like me, and enjoy our world as it is…beautifully green.

Hot Chocolate Art Print
Buy at AllPosters.com

Just typing the words Hot Chocolate made me crave a mug. But if the “hankering” will be still for a few minutes, I’ll try to get through the post before I run to the kitchen.

First of all, this is my absolute favorite way to make hot chocolate. I’ve been serving my family this hot chocolate for years and they lick their mug clean while singing my praises with every lick. I always preach that buying name brands is almost always the only way to go, right? Well, one of the few places where I step outside of my own sermons is baking cocoa. I buy the Kroger brand of cocoa and one of the main reasons is the recipe on the back for hot cocoa. Here it is:

HOT COCOA
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup Kroger Baking Cocoa (I go a good 3-4 tablespoons past that!)
4 cups milk

Blend the sugar and cocoa in a large saucepan - gradually add 1/3 cup of the milk, stirring constantly until smooth.

Stir in the remaining milk and cook over medium heat until hot. Stir frequently and DO NOT BOIL.

The recipe above makes about 4 servings for reasonable people or 2 for people like my oldest daughter and I, chocolate addicts of the highest order. After you’ve poured the liquid Heaven into the cups, top with a heaping tablespoon of whipped topping and then…and then…and then drizzle a little bit of Hershey’s chocolate syrup on top. Not the kind in the plastic bottles. Go old school and buy the gorgeous little can.

This is the most amazing hot cocoa or hot chocolate you’ll ever have in your life.

Another amazing Hot Chocolate recipe comes courtesy of the adorable cookbook, “More than Moonshine.” (How’s that for a title? And, yes, of course it’s about cooking in Kentucky.)

HOT CHOCOLATE
1/4 cup cocoa
1/2 cup sugar
1 TBS flour
1 cup hot water
1 cup whole milk
1/4 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
marshmallows (optional)

Mix the first three ingredients together in a saucepan. Add the water and boil until “somewhat thickened.” Add the milk, vanilla, and salt, and stir well.

Heat but DO NOT BOIL. Put a large marshmallow (or however many smaller ones you desire) in the bottom of each cou and pour the hot chocolate to the brim!

This recipe makes 2 cups.

Enjoy!

I apologize for getting behind on the food network scroller - it was DAYS behind, which is only appropriate since I was DAYS behind! Look at what Alton’s cooking up tonight - doughnuts, doughnut glaze and (this is where I squeal like a pig in a girdle) chocolate doughnut glaze! I may have gotten behind, but I picked a good time to catch up.

I’ve been working like crazy on my cat blog, though, so it was for a good cause….we all know cats come first in everything. If you like cats, you can check it out at Cat-Pause.com.

I’m working on a mega hot chocolate post that’ll be up in a few hours…so grab your cocoa, your marshmallows, your Cool Whip, your chocolate syrup, your favorite mug, and watch for it! On second thought, don’t get the chocolate syrup just yet.

I don’t trust you alone with it.

You’ve officially bought your last plactic container of icing, right?! Right??? Maybe?

I’ll settle for maybe.

The recipes below could wipe out the entire “prepared frosting” industry. They’re just about as easy to pull off as opening a lid. But the taste, that’s where the real incentive lies. You simply can’t buy icing as good as the kind you can make.

I think it’s a law or something.

Decorator Icing
2 boxes (0r small bags) powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 cup water
1-1/3 cups shortening
1 tsp vanilla

Cream the shortening with sifted sugar. Add the water and vainlla and blend well. Add food color, if desired.

Whatever you don’t use actually freezes very nicely. Make a note, if the Icing recipe calls for “shortening,” it’s going to be just this side of Heaven. If you’re icing sugar cookies (which kicks them up to a whole new level of YUM), using an icing recipe that calls for shortening is the only way to go.

Caramel Icing
1 cup buttermilk (whoot whoot!)
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1 Tbs. vanilla

Combine all of the above and cook to a soft ball stage (238 degrees). Beat until creamy and dreamy after it’s cooled.

If the icing is too thick to spread on your cake, you can thin the icing with a little cream. That or toss the cake out the door and glob the thick caramel icing on top of vanilla ice cream, toss on some chopped pecans and have yourself a merry little moment.

Chocolate Icing
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter
1 small can evaporated milk
7 Tbs cocoa

Combine all of the ingredients in a pan. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Cool, then spread over a two layer cake (or cupckaes, or a large rectangular cake or bundt…)

Another Delicious Icing that Calls for Shortening
1/2 cup shortening
1 lb confectioner’s sugar, sifted
1/4 cup water
dash of salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Place the shortening into a large mixing bowl and blend briefly. Sift in the powdered sugar. Mix. While mixing, gradually add the water and flavoring. Introduce them slowly - not all at once. I’m sure Alton Brown could explain the specifics more scientifically (and I wish he would, I’m curious) - but suffice to say, adding it all at once makes a saggy, baggy, nasty little icing that you wouldn’t want to serve to anyone.

No, not even her.

Rachael Ray 10 PC Gusto-Grip Birch Wood Block Set

If you’re serious about your kitchen and mean business when you’re cooking, you’ll want to add more Rachael Ray products to your collection. Mark my word, if this lady’s name is on it, it’ll be perfectly amazing and amazingly perfect.

Not only are her products of the highest quality, they’re designed by someone who actually cooks (a great deal) and, therefore, understands what products will best serve a cook. She knows what we need to be more efficient, neater, and even speedier. After all, she’s all about the speed, right?!

Furi Gusto-Grip Clean Cut System

I also love the bright, beautiful orange that her products come in. They’re like her personality - cheerful, colorful, and impossible to ignore.

Click through any of the link products in this post to learn more.

The following is a description from the web site about the 10 Piece Rachael Ray Hard Anodized Set, above.

This cookware set is an exceptional value including all of the pans needed to equip your kitchen with the most used cooking pieces. As the set contains only basic pieces you’ll really use each and every pan! It includes saucepans for whisking a homemade sauce or cooking your morning oatmeal, a big stockpot for soups stews or boiling pasta, and skillets - probably the most used pan in any kitchen that will help you turn out perfect pancakes or a tasty tuna melt.

1 pound ground beef
3/4 cups green peppers, chopped
1 (8 oz) can tomato sauce
2 - 1/2 tsp. chili powder
1 cup chopped onion
1 large can tomatoes
1 large can kidney beans, drained
1 tsp salt

Brown the ground beef, drain.

Add the remaining ingredients to the beef. Simmer for at least 1 hour.

Optional: During the last 10 minutes, you can add a little fresh cilantro to the dish. Some people like to serve Chili Con Carne with a tablespoon of sour cream on top along with chopped green onion. I love to serve Pico de Gallo alongside my Chili Con Carne. But then again, left to my own devices, I’d serve Pico de Gallo alongside everything.

This is a dish you just can’t go wrong with.

2/3 cup chopped onion
3 TBS vegetable oil
1 (10 oz) can tomatoes with chilies
4 tsp. paprika
4 TBS chilli powder
1 small clove garlic, minced
3 TBS flour
1/4 cup cold water
4 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 pound sharp process cheese
salt and pepper, to taste

In a medium saucepan, over low heat, saute the onion in oil until the onion is transparent. Add the tomatoes, paprika, chilli powder, and garlic.

Stir in a paste made from the flour and water.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. Add the cheeses and salt/pepper - stir until cheeses are a vision of melted heaven!

Serve hot with the best tortilla chips you can find, or better yet fry your own. I love to cut tortillas into wedges and fry them in batches. Right after removing them from the oil, I hit them with some salt. I also sprinkle ground red pepper to the last couple of batches.

Enjoy!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I’m afraid that we’re getting to the point where we just kind of skim over food recommendations. I mean, we’ve seen the information so much we could probably write our own health journal. But, left unsued, the information won’t do us a bit of good. We have to actively implement healthy eating and living into our daily routines. Salads and vegetables instead of burgers and fries, green tea instead of coke, fresh fruit instead of ice cream.

The beauty of it is once you start eating better, you start feeling better. Instantly. But the minute you creep back into the fast food joints and start tossing down the fat, the carbs, and the salt - your engine starts getting all bogged down and sluggish again.

A question, why do we ever go back? Do you think it’s Habit? Do our bodies start to literally crave what they’re accustomed to? I mean, it’s not for taste, obviously. A vegetable plate at Cracker Barrel or a delicious sub (like the seafood one!) from Subway wins out over a burger and fries any day.

At any rate, according to Everyday Health, the following groups of food can help to control and even reduce high blood pressure. They can also help to keep you out of the doctor’s office in the first place.

Foods high in potassium: Bananas, citrus fruit, dried apricots, fish (especially salmon, flounder, and tuna), green leafy vegetables, legumes, melons, potato skins, poultry, raisins, tomatoes, whole-grain cereals, yogurt

Foods high in calcium: Blackstrap molasses, broccoli, canned sardines and salmon (with bones), dairy products (milk, cheese, and yogurt), kale, tofu

Foods high in fiber: Apples, barley, brown rice, corn, legumes, nuts, potatoes with skin, prunes, whole-grain cereal and bread, yams

Foods high in magnesium: Fish, green leafy vegetables, legumes, meat, nuts, poultry, whole grains

Rachael Ray 11×9-in. Nonstick Hard Anodized Skillet with Cast Iron Sammy Press

Haphazard is defined by Dicitonary.com as “characterized by lack of order or planning, by irregularity, or by randomness; determined by or dependent on chance; aimless.”

Yep, that sums it up pretty well. It’s one of the biggest mistakes I see (and taste!) from cooks: a practice that can only be described as “haphazardly throwing it all together.”

If you want your meals to taste ridiculously delicious…and who doesn’t?…. you have to treat each ingredient as an individual. As I say again and again, in my best broken record voice, you should always buy the best brands that you’re able to. You’ll often hear people say, “shortening is shortening,” or “peanut butter is peanut butter” - right before they pluck the cheapest possible product off of the shelf. Whether they like it or not, they’re way off base. There are exceptions, I admit, but for the most part, if it’s cheap - it’ll taste cheap. And if you use cheap ingredients in your dish, the dish will suffer. If these shoppers are aiming for “good enough” when they cook, then I guess they’ll get by. But you and I are aiming for spectacular, so lead us to the name brands! A rule of thumb I once told my daughters while we were shopping was, “If you’ve never seen it in a commercial, don’t put it in our cart.”

Something else to remember when shopping - in just about every instance, your food will be richer and more delicious if you use real butter rather than margarine.

So, you’ve bought the best ingredients (and butter) and now you’re about to cook your meal. There are a few secrets that separate very good cooks from okay cooks. Since no one wants to be just okay in or out of the kitchen, let’s look at the secrets:

1. Always read a recipe through all the way before you attempt to make it. There’s nothing more frustrating than getting halfway through and realizing you have to run out for chicken broth.

2. Before you begin your meal, get everything together in one place. This way, when it’s time to add this or that, you won’t have to go searching for it. Also, have the necessary pans, spoons, dishes, etc. on standby.

3. Be sure your pans and pots are in good shape. You’ll want to do this long before you start cooking, of course. Make sure your non-stick pans aren’t chipping, as that’s a dangerous situation. Also make sure all of the handles are screwed on tightly. If your cookie sheet has lost its shine, use aluminum foil or parchment paper.

4. When using a recipe for the first time, follow it closely. I’m all about creativity and individuality, but for that first test drive, it’s best to follow the rules.

5. When creating a dish, whether it’s chili, soup, spaghetti, whatever - treat each component as an individual dish. In other words, make sure each could stand on its own if it had to. For example, when making spaghetti, season the meat, mushrooms, and onion mixture before you ever add it to the sauce. Don’t just throw them all togehter then throw the seasonings on top. Also, don’t overlook the pasta. Season it as well and make sure that it could fend for itself it had to! Treat each ingredient as an individual that you’re sending off to a party. You want each to be at their best when you send them on their way - it’ll make the party so much better.

6. I’m as guilty as anyone of being busy - often too busy for my own sanity. But when you’re cooking, that should be the only thing you’re doing. It’s tempting, I know, to multi-task - fold the laundry, iron, blog, clean, etc. while you’re making supper. But, really that just invites disaster. The only multi-tasking I ever do in the kitchen when cooking is either the dishes or yoga. I’ve been known to bend myself into some creative shapes while waiting on buttermilk biscuits to finish. I never, ever, ever leave bread, cookies, pies, or cupcakes alone in the kitchen. You just don’t know what kind of trouble they’ll get into.

7. Watch the food network! This is my favorite secret because it’s the funnest. I love Ace of Cakes, Paula Deen, Tyler Florence, Jamie Oliver, Alton Brown, Rachael Ray, Emeril, and Nigella Lawson. Not only do they make glorious recipes that I can try out myself, they also give some amazing advice you just can’t get anywhere else. The shows on food tv celebrate cooking and make it even more fun and exciting.

8. Experiment with new foods and different cultures. Set aside a certain night of the week to try foods from different parts of the world. Choose a different type of food each week, write it on the calendar, and plan for a very special meal. Buy appropriate napkins, and maybe even a little something special for the centerpiece. Think of the possibilities: Greek, Chinese, Asian, Mexican, Spanish, French, New Orleans, Southern cooking, California cuisine, etc. Make mealtime fun! The more fun you have planning the meal, the more fun your family will have eating it.

9. Don’t get in a rut! It’s easy to do, but try not to fix the same meals over and over. Not only is it not any fun, it’s not as healthy as eating a variety of different foods. Open your mind and cupboard to lots and lots of possibilities.

10. Have at least one “signature dish” that everyone requests from you.

This brings us to the very last tip. This one’s so big it has to be separated from the rest. Don’t ever make instant mashed potatoes - not even as a joke. Not even as pay-back. Buy actual potatoes - they’re in the produce aisle and they come in bags, not boxes. Making great mashed potatoes is something every cook should be able to do. You could make a good case for it being the first thing a young cook should work at perfecting. But, buttermilk biscuits and pancakes are right up there.

This sounds really amazing!

Sargento Cheese has announced The Sargento Artisan Excursion. This is honestly the chance of a lifetime!

From Sargento:
The Sargento Artisan Excursion is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for purchasers of Sargento’s premium Artisan Blends specialty cheeses to share in the artisan cheese making experience firsthand with a trip to some of the most well-known cheese making facilities in the world. Grand Prize winners will receive an artisanally themed vacation for two highlighted by a trip to Po Valley in Northern Italy, where Grana Padano, the world’s best-selling Parmesan cheese, is made. The trip will also include visits to Zanetti Cheese, Cavit Winery, and the chance to meet all of the talented craftspeople and learn about the passion they have for their time-honored traditions.

One hundred First Prize winners and 10,000 Second Prize winners will also be awarded. The Sargento Artisan Excursion is running now until June 30, 2008. Fold-out inserts placed in packages of Artisan Blends provide additional promotion rules, details of prizes.

So, run out and buy plenty of Sargento Cheese, pray up, and hope for the best!