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Archive for February, 2010

Marge Braker, of Preserve, demonstrates how to make fresh strawberry jam.

If you’d like the recipe to go with this video, it’s on our website, here:
http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2007/07/19/small-batch-fresh-strawberry-jam/

Duration : 0:10:21

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There are many specialty shops that offer creative cooking classes and on occasion your local upscale grocery store may even offer them. Learning to use a variety of fresh ingredients instead of canned, packaged or frozen can not only make your meals taste better but they will also be healthier. A cooking school also teaches how to properly slice, dice, and chop (without loosing a finger!) A cooking class will add to your vocabulary many new words such as “demi glace,” “gratineed,” and “braising” etc. If you have the right tools and techniques you can serve up some top notch dishes. Won’t your family and friends be surprised?

World renowned chefs have opened creative cooking schools to help everyday cooks develop fine cooking skills. They also have cookbooks and their special recipes listed online with step by step instructions on the preparation involved. Actually attending a class will give you hands on experience.

Many of us do not have all day to prepare dinner for our families because of work and other obligations. A cooking class provides you with new shortcuts and other techniques to use to help improve the quality and taste of the food and the time it take to prepare it. Instead of marinating all day on low heat, you could use a crock pot and set it on low when you leave for work in the morning. There is very little to do to finish preparing the meal when you arrive home.

Cooking classes also offer you a way to learn how to shop for and prepare many different ethnic foods. Recipes from far away places are a great way to bring your family together while enjoying preparing and trying them right in your own home. Save the money that would have been spent at an ethnic restaurant and cook together as a family with the tools and techniques taught at a culinary class.

By attending a local creative cooking school you will meet men and women in your area who share your love of cooking and desire to develop fine cooking skills.
working close together in a large shared kitchen will add to your social skills if you are considering opening a restaurant. There is another added bonus to cooking classes and schools that you may want to consider. If creative cooking is your passion, these classes could open you up to a new career or business idea. I have met people that came for a specific purpose which had nothing to do with a business, ended up taking what they learned in class and put it to work for them. While at first they did it part-time, they eventually found they had their own very successful business.

What would your friends and family pay to have a cake decorated? How much for a professionally prepared meal for an important dinner party in their home? The possibilities are endless when we look at the benefits cooking schools and classes have to offer.

Manojkk
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/best-ways-to-improve-your-cooking-skills-699751.html

Development of allergies appears to be a combination of the environment and genetic make-up. Many studies have demonstrated that the greater the incidence of allergy in both your immediate and extended family, the greater the likelihood that your children will also have allergies.

However, the environment in which live will also plays a role. For example, the allergens in Alaska will be different than those in Florida. Therefore, if you lived in Florida for many years and then moved to Alaska, chances are you would not respond to many of the allergens in Alaska that someone else, who has lived in Alaska their entire life, might respond to and vice versa.

Food allergy is not an instant reaction. The food causing the hypersensitivity can remain in the stomach or the intestine for up to 3-5 days before causing a reaction. An allergic reaction to food is difficult to distinguish from food intolerance unless the reaction results in hives, itching, or severe difficulty breathing. Only about 10% of food allergy reactions can be diagnosed by laboratory tests.

This means that 90% of reactions are difficult to distinguish from food intolerance. Recall that an allergic reaction is immune mediated – some allergic reactions are immediate – these are the ones we currently have diagnostic tests for – others are delayed and occur via a different immune response pathway than the immediate reactions. Because they have a different set of mediators, delayed reactions are more difficult to diagnose.

A baby growing in its mother’s womb is capable of mounting an immune-mediated allergic response by 11 weeks of gestation. This can occur when allergens from the environment enter the mom’s circulation and cross the placenta. The baby’s immune system sees these allergens as “foreign” and develops antibodies to recognize and mount a defense against the allergen.

Later, after the baby is born, when it encounters the same allergen, it’s immune system “remembers” the molecule and an allergic reaction occurs.
It is estimated that about 8% of children are affected by food allergies. Children can have a wide variety of allergies to food – many of which they will out grow by the time they are two years old. The most frequent food allergy encountered in children is cow’s milk allergy.

This allergy however, may substantially diminish with a few milk-free months and either be totally gone or very minimal in 1-3 years. Other common food allergies among infants and children are eggs and wheat.

Interestingly, peanut allergies may be life-threatening, and once they develop, they are usually permanent. People who are allergic to peanuts often are allergic to tree nuts as well. About 100 deaths per year are caused by peanut allergy, usually by accidental exposure to peanuts or peanut products in other foods. Unlike milk, eggs or wheat where diets free of these items for periods of time can reduce or eliminate the allergic reaction, the peanut allergy is life-long for most individuals. However, recent research suggests that up to 20% of children may outgrow their peanut allergy.

Not all reactions to food are true allergies. For instance, food toxicity is when a food contains a substance that would be toxic to anyone who ate it. A food idiosyncrasy is when the food item only causes symptoms in some people who are either unable to break down the food because their body doesn’t make the right enzyme or they have an abnormal sensitivity to some part of the food. A true food allergy is an immune-mediated reaction that occurs every time you eat a particular food. It is estimated that only 2% of adults in the US are affected by a food allergy.

Adults may develop allergic sensitivities to almost any food including, but not limited to, milk, eggs, fish, wheat, rye, oat, corn, soybeans, and potatoes. Interestingly, a peanut allergy generally will not initially manifest in adults unless they never had peanuts as children.

Ways to prevent Infant Food Allergies
There are few recommendations of ways to avoid sensitizing your unborn child.

1. Avoid foods that could possibly cause sensitivities during the third trimester and while breastfeeding.

2. Breast-feeding has the benefit of removing some of the potential allergens and at the same time provides the baby with added immune defenses.

3. Use of medications when there is a food allergy.

Treatment

In general, avoidance (don’t eat it) is the only treatment available and is also the safest route. Often food allergies are diagnosed by eliminating one item after another from your diet and watching for resolution of symptoms.

Gen Wright
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-brewing-articles/food-allergies-guide-714783.html

Sundays have always been special in many aspects. One of them are the Sunday Dinners at the church. Potluck on Sundays refers to one lucky person offering food for all at the local church. Ever since I have been attending these dinners I remember, most people offered fried chicken. Why only this option? Well, it is easily available at the neighboring food store. So easy, just walk in to the store pick out a few packs of fried chicken and walk in to the church.

As far as I can evaluate it happens due to lack of time, planning and ideas. But imagine, what if you cook scratch out a bit of time, prepare something simple yet special & elegant and offer it in the potluck! So many people would be impressed! Some would be jealous! And almost all would be surprised! So much appreciation and satisfaction that you offered something with so much love and little effort! Won’t you like to do the same?

Picking a fried chicken from a deli or a local restaurant might not be wrong, but, its surely repetitive, boring and certainly nothing special!

There are so many simple & easy recipes available through varied resources that you can go ahead with; for instance spicy taco casserole or the dessert items!

Here are a few ideas 7 resources for your next Sunday dinner:

1. Surf the internet.

Internet is surely a global resource to quench all your thirst related to whatever aspect it may be. Key in the right keywords and you can find several easy to cook dishes at one go. Kraft foods website offers some delicious desserts that are quite easy to cook.

2. Desserts are often a good choice for Sunday dinners.

Sweet delicacies can be made within no time just a night before. These can be frozen overnight and so can be easily carried over to serve. Such desserts that tickle the taste buds of almost all of us are easy tricks to make your coworkers envious of your culinary talent at the ‘pitch ins’ at work.

3. Check out the casserole recipes.

Casserole recipes are often quick, simple and delicious.

4. Try the crock pots & slow cookers.

There are several dishes that you can cook in the crock pots & slow cookers. Just fill it in with the ingredients, turn it on and sleep over. By the time you complete your health sleep, the food would be done giving out a yum aroma and you could make up to the church in a record time.

5. Read through the magazines.

Many magazines offer interesting cookery sections. Magazines offer very healthy eating options such as large salad, casserole, or a healthy dessert.

6. Opt some healthy foods.

It is not necessary to select fat filled or calorie filled dishes for the Sunday dinner.

7. Enjoy the cooking.

It is often said that the cook’s mood defines the taste of the food. So, cook the dishes that you enjoy. Do not opt for any long recipes that feel you are forced to work on. Instead of being helpful, it would become more tedious and the food would get the bad taste of the cook. Hence, do not make it a stressful activity for yourself.

8. Do not repeat the same dishes.

Try a new recipe every time rather than sticking to the same thing time and again. It can make even a good dish repetitive and boring, just like the fried chicken.

9. Prepare a bank of recipes.

I suggest you to collect some recipes over time so that the next time you have to make the Sunday dinner, you do not have to vigorously search for them.

10. Treat your potluck audiences as guinea pigs.

Though every individual puts in all their effort & love in the dishes they cook, sometimes the results are not that perfect. This could also save you and your family from getting stuck with leftovers for a week. And a rather happier option, if you like the food, you can put it into rotation of recipes at home.

Now, those with little or no culinary talents go out to surprise your family, friends, and fellow church members with the correct ’simple to make’ recipes. Instead of getting on to fried chicken next time, cook up something awesome and get famous with your folks!

Abhishek Agarwal
http://www.articlesbase.com/cooking-tips-articles/sunday-dinner-cooking-10-easy-tips-to-cook-exciting-food-708790.html

I was just watching one of the Food Network stars talk about how she saved over 30% by making her own pasta sauce and it occurred to me that we all could be saving a lot of money if we made our own homemade salsa too. That being the case I decided to create my own personal economic and culinary stimulus program rather than waiting for the Obama administration to do something about today’s rising unemployment and food prices.

So with that thought in mind, and the fact that the average 16 ounce jar of salsa today cost around $3.49, here is my homemade salsa recipe that anyone can make for about $0.12 per ounce — about 50% less than what it would cost to purchase in a supermarket.

5 or 6 Roma tomatoes

3 or 4 fresh jalapenos or banana peppers, stems removed

1/2 large Vidalia onion, quartered

2 cloves fresh garlic

2 Tbs white vinegar (or cider)

2 tsp salt (more if you like it saltier)

1, 8 oz. can tomato sauce

A sprig or two of cilantro if you like

A splash of fresh lime juice or lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients in a blender and pulse so it’s still chunky but not too chunky.

Pour the mix into a medium saucepan and heat over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Note: It’ll be pretty frothy. Let it cool and enjoy.

This homemade salsa recipe is hot and spicy and sure to stimulate your taste buds as well as saving you a couple of bucks per pint. If you like it, be sure to check out my other easy salsa recipes you can make at home. Just visit http://www.homemade-salsa-recipes.com or our sister site http://www.salsa-recipes.co.uk

John Weisenberger
http://www.articlesbase.com/recipes-articles/stimulus-salsa-recipe-saves-you-money-and-energizes-your-taste-buds-941735.html

If you have never done it before then you must be thinking what the joy of cooking could be. The joy of cooking is the time you spend in the kitchen to prepare a meal for those people that you care for and love. Cooking for your friends and family is for many people a way of telling them that they have a special feeling for them, and maybe that is the reason your parents got angry when you didn’t finish your dinner. It was not about,
For more detail go to: www.camping-outdoors-recipes.com. Not eating your food; it was all about you rejecting that one thing which they use to express their feelings for you. The joy of cooking is a feeling you have when you know that almost everyone loves food and you are the one preparing it for them.

Maybe strange to some, but the joy of cooking is not in the preparation of the food, but it’s at the moment that the people you prepared the meal for sit down and start to enjoy the different flavors you have put together. It is a long standing tradition that friends and family sit down together and have a good meal, relax and forget for a short time all the worries of the world. Those moments are the ones you should savor and when you all feel the joy of cooking by enjoying the meal you eat that will always be a trigger to think about those good times you had together.
When you want to learn to cook a meal it is not to hard to find a good teacher who can teach you how to cook various recipes. However, the joy of cooking is something that is passed from one generation to the next because it involves learning specific family recipes. Sometimes watching your parents or grandparents cook is enough to see what the joy of cooking entails. And before you know it you, the one who once didn’t know that there was such a thing a “the joy of cooking”, are the one spreading the joy and leaning others the true joy.

Learning to cook is not the same as learning the joy of cooking as we showed you. First you have to notice that there is even such a thing as joy in cooking and when you see the difference between for more help visit to: www.cajuns-recipes.com. “Enjoy” and “joy” then you are ready to start learning. Watch and learn from others like friends and family members. If you ask them they will love to show you what it is they do with certain recipes just to generate a special effect with the people eating the resulting meal.

If you enjoy cooking for others it won’t be hard to find the joy in cooking. The joy others create towards you when you see them eating you meals and enjoying them. The time you have, with those people you love, at the dinner table and knowing that it was your dinner that brought them all together.

meenakshi gupta
http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/the-joy-of-cooking-700512.html

Milk Yogurt and Cheese Food Group Guide
I don’t know about you, but I grew up drinking a lot of milk, and it was always whole milk. That’s fine for kids, because they can burn off the extra calories and need the vitamins, minerals, protein, and even fat that milk and dairy products offer. But, as adults, we may not have the same needs.

Milk and dairy products are great sources of calcium and other minerals, many B vitamins, and milk is often fortified with Vitamins A and D, so don’t ignore this group. Calcium is a key element in helping to prevent osteoporosis, while vitamin D is necessary for calcium to be absorbed properly. Postmenopausal women are especially prone to osteoporosis and loss of calcium. Dairy products are also good sources of complete proteins.
The problem with this food group is that it is often accompanied by a large entourage of fat! And most adults don’t need that kind of entourage hanging around! Choose to consume lower fat choices such as skim milk or low fat milk, low-fat cheeses, and non-fat yogurts.

My recommendation is to include this food group in any well balanced diet, but try to wean you from the high fat choices. Choose skim milk or low fat milk, low-fat cheeses, and non-fat yogurt.

The Food Pyramid Guide

You may be saying to yourself, “The Food Group Pyramid Guide – how boring!” Hang on to your shorts, folks, I’ll let you in on a little, but very important, secret. The Food Pyramid is the best guide to achieving healthful, long-term eating habits. There’s no magic diet for losing weight or achieving better health. It isn’t about eating a truckload of grapefruits, carcasses of beef, or even forty acres of vegetables.

For most of you, a well balanced diet which encompasses a variety of nutritious foods eaten in moderation is the best and healthiest way to lose weight. The Food Pyramid Guide can be just that for you – a guide. It makes life easy for you, because it doesn’t exclude any types of foods and its daily serving recommendations mean “on average.” It is flexible and not an absolute formula. Eating a variety of healthy foods ensures you will get balanced nutrition and that you’ll be satiated and satisfied by those foods.

I don’t know about you, but I’d get really sick of any diet that would only let me eat one type of food – or very little of anything! Any diet has to be flexible and wide ranging enough to be interesting and healthy – so you can happily follow it for the long term. So really it isn’t a diet but a lifestyle change. And creating the habit of a healthier lifestyle is what this article is all about. The Food Guide Pyramid can help.

Gen Wright
http://www.articlesbase.com/home-brewing-articles/milk-yogurt-and-cheese-food-group-guide-714782.html

If you love to cook, you are likely always looking for the next new recipe to try out on your family and friends. The thing about cooking is that it can be quite boring if you always cook the same things. So, when you are in need of new recipes, you must log on to Dreamsfun and make your cooking experience better.

The Dreamsfun is a great resource for people of every level and for every type of cuisine-from simple salads to a complete seven course gourmet meal.

Indian food recipes are the by product of rich Indian heritage may be 5000 years old. Indian food recipes may be broadly classified into Indian vegetarian recipes, mughlai recipes, and Indian non- vegetarian recipes which are further categories as:

Beverages : Hot and Cold Hot Cold

Cocktails : Beer Base, Wine Base, Gin Base, Vodka Base, Tequila Base, Whisky Base, Rum Base, Brandy Base, Punches

Mocktails

Appetizers : Vegetarian, Egg, Seafood, Chicken, Mutton

Soups : Vegetarian, Seafood, Chicken

Salads : Sweet Potato and Carrot Salad, Mixed fruit Salad, Yoghurt Salad

Rice : Kashmiri Pulao, Lemon Rice, Chilli Pineapple Rice, Jeera Rice, Hari Bhari Biryani, Khitcherie

VegetarianSeafood

Indian Breads : Makki di Roti, Methi Parantha, Parantha, Tandoori Naan.

Main Meals

More and more people are choosing to eat a vegetarian diet such as low calories diet or low fat diet because they know that veggies are healthful food. Using low calorie and vegetarian recipes is one of the most important things you can do to protect your heath and the health of your family since obesity is now an epidemic in many countries. And contrary to popular belief, these recipes are full of the taste and enjoyment of many other foods you eat. Incorporating vegetarian recipes into any diet will bring variety and give healthy eating options. Plus, vegetarian cuisine is chockfull of dishes that are robust and flavorful, and a match for any standard meat dish.

You will find that you can even type in a specific meal and get the results of new recipes containing that meal.

Be sure to use Dreamsfun to find recipe collections based upon Hot Beverage, Cocktails and Mocktails, salad, soups, appetizers, American food, continental food Indian and International Recipesand just about any other sorts of recipes you can think of.

You can easily see that there are many different free recipes available. There are literally thousands of recipes and cooking range that are waiting for you to explore them.

Webmaster
http://www.articlesbase.com/movies-articles/hot-beverage-recipes-cocktails-and-mocktails-recipes-indian-and-international-recipes-676670.html

This Traditional Chex Party Mix is a long-time favorite in my family.  It started in 1986 when my daughter was a college freshman.  She was going to college at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.  Her grandparents lived in Bedford, Indiana and often sent her “care packages”.  This Traditional Chex Party Mix was always in those packages along with many other treats.  It became a habit on her dorm wing for everyone to gather in her room to “check out Grandma’s package”.  Sometimes some of her dorm mates would be waiting for her to get to her room as they had already seen the box from Indiana.  Once she related this information to Grandma, the care packages started arriving more frequently and with a double portion of party mix.  This remained a tradition for her all through her college days.  Now that her grandma has gone on to Heaven, she makes the party mix with her daughters.  This year when we were at her house for Christmas, there was a dish of this Traditional Chex Party Mix that she and her 10-year-old daughter had made.  Give it a try.  It is sure to become a tradition in your family, too.

TRADITIONAL CHEX PARTY MIX

This is a Ralston Purina Company recipe from 1986. It is cut from an old Chex cereal box.

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
1 1/4 tsps McCormick/Shiling Season-All Seasoned Salt*
4 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
2 2/3 cups Corn Chex cereal
2 2/3 cups Rice Chex cereal
2 2/3 cups Wheat Chex cereal
1 cup salted mixed nuts

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Melt butter in a 15×10x2-inch roasting pan in the oven. Remove from oven. Stir the seasoned salt and Worcestersire sauce into the melted butter. Gradually add cereal and nuts, mixing until all pieces are coated. Bake 1 hour at 250 degrees. Stir mixture every 15 minutes during baking for even coating and baking.

Makes 9 cups.

*Any seasoned salt will do.

Microwave Directions: In a 4-qt bowl or 13×9x2-inch microwave safe dish, melt butter on high for 1 minute. Stir in seasoned salt and Worcestershire sauce. Gradually add cereal and nuts, mixing until all pieces are coated. Microwave on High for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring every two minutes. NOTE: A 650 microwave oven was used for these directions. For other wattage ovens, time may need to be adjusted.

Enjoy!  (I hope your family will enjoy this recipe as much as mine does!)

Grandma Linda
http://www.articlesbase.com/recipes-articles/old-fashion-recipe-for-traditional-chex-party-mix-701139.html

Almost everyone has a New Year’s resolution whenever a new year approaches. This is usually something that they have probably tried before and have been unsuccessful. One of the most popular New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight. The reason this is important is because there has been a lot of public awareness regarding the dangers of being overweight.

The medical term for being overweight is obesity which refers to a condition where the body accumulates enough fat for it to be a health risk. These risks are not exaggerated; over 400,000 people die each year due to obesity-related problems not to mention the billions of dollars spent each year in lost business production when employees have to miss work because of obesity-related doctors’ visits.

People gain weight in different ways and there is an overwhelming consensus that the main reasons why people become overweight is because of indulging in high calorie diets, lack of exercise or genetic issues that are compounded by the previous two points. In today’s society, people are under tremendous pressure and they have no time to eat right or to exercise.

This means the other alternative to eating is to go to fast food restaurants whose food is usually high in cholesterol. It is no longer unusual to see entire families eating breakfast, lunch and dinner at fast food restaurants because they simply have no time to go grocery shopping or cook a wholesome meal. The same people also do not allocate enough time for exercise and this is also because of the same reason-pressure from a society that demands everything from its people.

One of the ways people do not stick with their weight loss resolutions is because of time. As we have mentioned earlier, today’s society demands a lot from its people. People are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet, go to school and in many cases also have families to take care of.

These people come home too tired to exercise or even think of preparing a healthy balanced meal. For many, restaurants that serve take-away are their only option to eat. Fast food is known to not only be addictive, but also has a very high level of cholesterol.

Another reason why people also fail to keep their weight loss resolutions is because they do not have a disciplined lifestyle. Discipline is required in order to attain whatever resolution one has. When it comes to exercise for instance, one cannot approach it half-heartedly.

There has to be a routine and there has to be diligence. Sometimes this involves getting an accountability partner. A good partner would be someone who wants you to succeed and keeps you on your toes so that you do not relapse into the old habits which were counter-productive. You can also join a weight loss club. There are many of these in each city and you can simply go online and you will find one.

Joe Golson
http://www.articlesbase.com/weight-loss-articles/why-people-cant-stick-to-weight-loss-resolutions-and-how-to-combat-that-719286.html