Best Cooking Recipe - Rice and Chicken Livers

Some reputed chefs believe that the type of cookware used in food preparation greatly affects the taste of the food. That is why, when it comes to cooking exquisitely delicious dishes, both moms and chefs alike have given two thumbs up for Rachael Ray cookware. Now, before you begin doing yourself the following recipes, have your Rachael Ray cookware products prepared on your table.

Rice and Chicken Livers Ingredients:

One fourth cup butter or margarine
One medium onion, chopped
One lb chicken livers, cut in halves
One half cup chopped fresh mushrooms
One half cup chopped sweet red pepper
One and one half table spoon salt
One fourth table spoon pepper
One cup long-grain regular rice
One fourth table spoon dried leaf basil
Four medium tomatoes, peeled and chopped
Two cups hot chicken stock
One third cup grated Parmesan cheese

Procedure:

At the outset, you have to heat the oven to three hundred fifty degrees Fahrenheit (or 175 degrees Celsius). Next to that, you add up the butter in a two and a half (3-L) casserole. Following that, you have to heat the butter in a heavy skillet. Next to that, you need to add up the onion and cook this gently for about three minutes. Afterward, you have to add the chicken livers and cook this gently for about one minute. Remember to keep on stirring it. Following that, you have to add the mushrooms and the red pepper; and then you need to cook this for another one minute. You need to stir this continually. Afterward, you have to stir in the salt, and then peeper the rice. Next, you cook it gently until the rice begins to turn into a golden color. Stir it constantly. This will take for about three minutes.

Furthermore, you have to remove it from the heat. Next to that, you must add the basil and the tomatoes. Subsequently, you need to spoon this into the prepared casserole. And then you pour the chicken stock over it. Then you cover and bake it for another forty five minutes or even until the rice becomes very tender and most of its liquid is completely absorbed. (Keep in mind: If you are still able to find that there is still quite a lot of liquid on the rice, you need to continue baking this, and then uncover this, until most of its liquid disappears.) And finally, you have to remove this from the oven and turn this on the broiler. And then you sprinkle the rice mixture with the cheese and then slip it low under the broiler to make it lightly brown. Serve this immediately.

Cooking With a Crockpot - How to Convert Recipes to the Crockpot

How many times have you been planning meals and came up disappointed when you discovered you didn't have time to make the meal you wanted? Most people will not even think of putting a recipe in the crockpot unless it is written expressly for the crockpot. Did you know that many standard recipes could be converted to crockpot recipes?

The low setting of most crockpots is around 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The high setting is about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. An hour of cooking on the high setting is about the same as 2 to 2.5 hours of cooling on the low setting. You will find that most recipes for crockpots recommend cooking the food for around 8 to 10 hours on low.

Advice for Converting Recipes to Use in a Crockpot

When you convert a recipe to the crockpot, there are a few tips you will want to keep in mind. You will want to reduce the amount of liquid the recipe calls for. In the crockpot, liquid does not evaporate. You normally wind up with quite a bit of liquid at the end of cooking time. Reduce the amount of liquid you add to the dish by half, unless you are also using rice or pasta.

The spices you use may need to be adjusted. Ground spices may lose some flavor over many hours of cooking, so do not add them until the last hour of cooking. Whole spices will have their flavors intensified by long cooking times, so you may want to reduce them by half.

If you plan to make chicken soup or other liquid-based meals, only add enough liquid to cover the other ingredients. You can add more liquid towards the end of cooking time if needed. If you are making a cream soup, do not add the dairy products until close to the end to prevent curdling and separating.

You can make dried beans in the crockpot. Cook them overnight on low instead of spending the time soaking them. Add your beans and then cover them with water. Add a teaspoon of baking soda. In the morning, drain the beans before combining them with your other ingredients. Bean soup, chili, and other tasty meals can then proceed in the crockpot as usual.

Not All Foods Love Crockpots

Be aware that some foods do not fare well when cooking for 8 to 10 hours. Rice, pasta, seafood, some vegetables, and dairy products are all too delicate for such long cooking times. When making a dish that contains these ingredients, do not add them until the last couple of hours before serving when your pot is set on low. If you are cooking on high, hold off until the last hour before adding these delicate ingredients. If you really must have milk added to a recipe early on, try evaporated milk.

Browning your meat can be done before adding it to the crockpot to add that lovely coloring. Browning may also reduce the fat content a little bit on some kinds of meat. Browning is optional, however. Roasts can turn out very flavorful in the crockpot with or without it

Cooking Tips and Substitutions for Corn Flour, Corn Meal, Cornstarch and About That Johnny Cake

Several different types of cooking ingredients come from corn. Corn bread, stews and even fried catfish recipes call for some form of corn. If you are missing an ingredient knowing its equivalent or substitution can save grandma's recipe from oblivion. If you know the use of an ingredient, it is easier to come up with a substitution. Today Mom explains corn starch, corn flour, cornmeal and that Johnny Cake.

Corn Starch: Made from the endosperm of the corn kernel. Cornstarch is used to thicken sauces, soups and stews. Substitutions for cornstarch are as follows: 1 tablespoon cornstarch = 2/3 tablespoon arrowroot OR 2 tablespoons all purpose flour OR 1 tablespoon potato starch OR 2 tablespoons quick-cooking (instant) tapioca.

Corn Flour: Made by grinding whole corn kernels into a fine powder. It is used in combination with other flours to make breads, or for breading items for frying. Corn flour contains less gluten than wheat flour. When baking, substituting corn flour instead of wheat flour will result in a heavier bread. If you just need corn flour for breading, you can use regular flour instead.

Corn Flour can also be used to thicken sauces. If you don't have corn flour, substitute with corn meal ground to a powder in a food processor. You can also thicken sauces by substituting regular wheat flours in the same measurements.

Sauce Cooking Tip: Before adding any powdered thickener to a sauce it is a good idea to dissolve it first. Use a little liquid from your sauce, or some broth, juice or water (about 1/2 cup or less). When your thickener is dissolved in liquid, carefully stir it into your sauce with a fork or whisk. This helps cook up a smooth sauce with no lumps.

Cornmeal: Made from ground corn, usually without the corn skin or germ and has a coarse texture. Cornmeal doesn't contain gluten so it is generally used to make quick breads or breads with a cake-like texture. If you don't have one cup of cornmeal substitute one cup of grits or polenta.

Cornmeal is sometimes called for in bread recipes for dusting a greased pan. Dusting a pan helps keep the bread from sticking to the pan. It also gives the bread crust an extra little crunch and a hint of flavor. If you don't have cornmeal you can substitute corn flour, regular wheat flour or any other flour to keep bread from sticking. If you still want that crunchy texture try pulverizing some corn flakes instead. Or try using another thinly ground grain like steel cut oats or cracked wheat.

Johnny Cake: Johnny Cake or Journey Cake is a simple quick bread made with corn and water plus sugar. Hoecake technically, is a corn cake cooked over the fire on the back of a hoe (or shovel). The method still works - but don't forget to grease your shovel first, or the hoecake will stick! Over the years we have added salt and leavening agents to our corn cake recipes for variations on the same corny theme. Here's a great old-fashioned recipe for Corn Cake using molasses as a sweetener.

Molasses Corn Cake

1 cup corn meal

3⁄4 cup flour

3 1⁄2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1⁄4 cup molasses

3⁄4 cup milk

1 egg

1 tablespoon melted butter (or margarine)

Mix dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add milk with molasses, egg well beaten, and butter. Bake in shallow buttered pan (roughly 9x9 or 8x8) in 425 degree oven for twenty minutes.

Easy Measuring Tip: The easiest way to measure the molasses for this recipe is to use the same measuring cup as the milk. First, pour the milk up to the 3/4 cup line. Then add the molasses until it measures 1 cup. If you still have room in the cup, add the egg and mix everything together before adding it to the dry ingredients. For more of Mom's cooking tips and apron humor visit her on the web at http://www.MomsRetro.com. Good luck and happy cooking!

An Easy Meatloaf Recipe For A Busy Cook

There are as many meatloaf recipes are there are cooks. This one is my favorite, an easy meatloaf recipe that can be varied to suit your tastes. Start with the basic recipe and add seasonings from the list below to suit your family. You can vary the meats used and the seasonings.

To keep my meatloaf recipe easy, I use ground beef. Many cooks use a combination of ground beef, ground pork or ground veal. Some use sausage in their mixture. If you desire a mixture of meats, use 1/2 to 3/4 pound of pork, veal or sausage to 1 pound of beef. Using the seasoned Italian style bread crumbs seasons the meatloaf, making this recipe easy and quick to prepare. I don't actually even measure anything. I just dump the ingredients together using a reasonable amount of each. If the mixture is too moist, add more bread crumbs. If too dry, add more ketchup. It really is an easy meatloaf recipe that is foolproof.

Basic Easy Meat Loaf Recipe

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck

3/4 cup Italian style bread crumbs

2 eggs

1 large onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon each garlic powder and onion powder, optional

1/4 cup catsup + more for top if desired

2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce, optional but good

1. Preheat oven to to 375 degrees F.

2. In a large loaf pan or ovenproof baking dish, mix all ingredients.

3. Shape into loaf shape.

4. Bake at 375 for 1 hour or until done.

5. I like to cover the top with more catsup during the last 20 minutes of baking.

You can try additional seasonings such as diced bell pepper, chopped celery leaves, minced parsley and thyme. If using sausage, try adding finely diced apple, and eliminate the garlic, onion powder and Worcestershire sauce. Small diced vegetables such as potato, carrots, or peas can be added if you like. Some cooks add chopped olives or chopped pickles or hard boiled eggs. You can substitute canned soup for the catsup, pouring more over the top as it bakes. The variations are endless.

If you are blessed with leftovers of this easy meatloaf recipe, this makes a delicious sandwich filling the next day, but don't count on it. My family eats this up.

Savory Oven Baked Triangle Tip - A Family Tri-Tip Recipe

Oh boy, we're going to have Tri-Tip for dinner tonight. Most of you know that a triangle tip comes from the sirloin section of very delicious beef cattle. We're going to use a way of cooking called the "Dry Heat" method. All beef loin and sirloin should be cooked using this method of cooking, or it won't come out right at all. It goes just like this.

* 3 1/2 to 4 lb. Tri-Tip Roast
* 1 Tsp. Black Pepper (Any grind you please)
* 2 Tsp. Salt (2 1/2 of Sea Salt if you like)
* 2 Tbs. Bacon Fat (Good Stuff)

Unwrap the Tri-Tip and rinse off the blood with cool fresh water. Pat it dry and liberally rub the roast down with a little bacon fat. Then, wash your greasy hands please. Now, put the salt and pepper into a small bowl and mix it together with your clean dry finger. Place the roast in an appropriate sized roasting pan. An oblong pan that is not oversized will work just fine for this recipe. We ain't gonna add no veggies. We then sprinkle the salt and pepper mixture onto both sides of our roast, the edges included. Place the roast fat side up in the pan.

Pre-heat your oven to 325º F and place the roast in the oven. Do not cover the pan, this is an open heat cooking process. Place it in the oven after it reaches 325º F, not before please. Now place a basting bulb on the stovetop for easy access.

Notice we ain't put no water or booze in this pan. Keep it that way cause we do want dry heat and no cover. In about half an hour, check the roast to see just how much juice has flowed free so we can baste it. If it's enough, use the basting bulb to suck it up and liberally baste it. This should be done every 15-20 minutes, for a total of 1 1/2 hours (Medium) to 2 hours (Well). That would be from the point we placed this beauty in the oven.

Now, don't that smell real good? Looks good to me too. (Ha Ha Ha) Wish I was there to help ya'll eat it. Serious now, lets pour the juice from the pan into a small measuring cup. Cover the roast lightly and put it in the warm turned off oven. Let some heat out before you do it so it don't cook no more. We just wanna keep it warm.

In short time the oil and juice will separate, leaving the oil on top in the measuring cup. Decision, decision, what comes next? Well, are we gonna make a nice brown gravy, or go with a beef au ju approach? Being as I called this a "Savory Tri-Tip", we'll go with the au ju. Boy, that sure does sound good now don't it?

What we'll do now is take the roast out the oven. Place that on your cutting board. Get a nice platter with a raised juice retaining edge, and a real sharp carving knife. Slice the roast about 1/4" thick and arrange each slice on our platter, slightly overlapping. Remember to slice against the grain so we got nice slices

If your done slicing, we can suck up the fat from the top of our measuring cup using the basting bulb method. Having done this, pour the juices back over the slices on the platter, cover lightly and place it back in the warm oven. Keep it warm at 125º F until you've got the rest of your meal ready.

Now, ain't that good? Ole Emerile Legasse ain't got nothing on us now does he? Eat and enjoy your meal, now hear? Ooowee: Hope you emptied the baster properly!

Enjoy!

Easy Fish Recipes - Cooking Fish in the Microwave

Prior to beginning our discussion, it should be noted that microwaves come in many different power ranges. It is difficult to cover them all. We will try to provide a variety of cooking times for different power levels, but at the least will identify the power level used. You may need to adjust per the power setting on your microwave.

Defrosting Fish in the Microwave

For most microwaves, the defrost setting is fairly consistent. Therefore the times listed here will be close for whatever microwave you have. Place the fish in a microwave safe container. In general, fish need 4-6 minutes per pound on the defrost cycle to get thawed. Half way through the defrost cycle, turn over and rearrange fish. Fish should be cold, perhaps even a bit icy at the end. If necessary, allow the fish to thaw for up to 20 minutes at room temperature. Do not leave at room temperature longer.

Cooking Fish in a Microwave

Just like when you cook fish in hot oil, in an oven, or on the grill, fish should be cooked at a high temperature for a relatively short period. The fish will continue to cook internally for some length of time after the microwave is finished. The cooking times listed are for a 700 watt microwave. It is assumed the fish has been previously thawed.

• Whole Fish = 6-8 minutes per pound


• Individual Fillets = 4-5 minutes per pound


• Steaks = 4-5 minutes per pound

The fish will be done when the meat is flaky. You can cook the fish longer if necessary, but do not overcook.

Salmon Steak Recipe

• Four 1.5 lbs salmon steaks cut approximately 1.5 inches thick


• Butter (1/3 to 1/4 cup)...No Fat Substitute Works


• Chopped Parsley


• Chopped Onion


• Diced Mushrooms


• Lemon Juice (2 Tablespoons)


• Salt and Pepper

In a saucepan melt butter and add parsley, onions, lemon juice, and mushrooms. Put half in the bottom of a bake dish. Lay in the salmon steaks. Season with salt and pepper. Add the remaining mixture. Cover the salmon steaks and place in the microwave. Cook for between 6 and 10 minutes. Let stand for 3-5 minutes covered. Check to see if the fish is flaky after it has stood for 5 minutes. If not, add time in one minute increments on the microwave.

This recipe can be used with trout fillets, halibut, and many other fish. Do not be afraid to experiment.

Cooking Lentils - Top Tips and Recipe Ideas

Cooking lentils is really very straightforward. Lentils cook quickly and, in contrast to most dried beans, you don't need to soak them. There are so many benefits of lentils, it is definitely worth making them a more regular part of your diet. Lentils are a highly nutritious food; a great source of protein, fibre, iron and B vitamins. They are tasty and satisfying but low calorie and low fat, making them a great addition to your diet too if you are trying to lose weight.

Cooking Different Types Of Lentils

There are a huge number of varieties of lentil so when it comes to cooking lentils, there are a few variables too. For example, split varieties will cook much quicker than whole varieties. Batches that have been stored for a long time will be tougher and will take longer to cook. For this reason, it is best not to take any cooking times as 100% exact. When cooking lentils, it is essential to taste and check as you go.

Red Lentils

Split red lentils are one of the most popular varieties and they are the quickest to cook. They should be covered with about twice their volume of cold water. Bring them to the boil and simmer very gently for 10 to 20 minutes. They love to stick to the bottom of the pan, so keep an eye on them. They will absorb water and become a thick yellow puree when cooked. Because of their texture, these lentils are very popular in soups but they can also be turned into wonderful savoury dishes like burgers, savory loaf or pie. If you are planning on making a loaf or burgers, cut down on the water a little when cooking. Herbs, spices, or cheeses can be used to transform this simple lentil into to a tasty feast.

Green Or Brown Lentils

One of the other most popular types of lentils is the whole green or brown lentil. These take about 30 - 40 minutes to cook. These lentils will hold their shape when cooked so just cover them in plenty of water and boil them vigorously until they are tender. They are a great addition to a hearty stew or soup and make a fantastic ingredient in a vegetarian shepherds pie or moussaka. They also make an excellent salad.

Once you get the hang of it, try experimenting with other varieties. These tasty little legumes are very versatile and you will be amazed at the number of completely different and delicious dishes you can create with them.

Pinoy Food Recipe to Prepare at Your Table

Contemplate Filipino recipes in your next cooking adventure. In most on-line Pinoy Sites features free Pinoy recipe that have grown to be an all time Philippine favorites cooking getaway. Traditional Pinoy meal recipes which are simple to prepare and to cook. Filipino food consist mostly of greens, seafood, dairy, meat and rice. In each Philippine fiestas, household gathering, or get together, Filipino recipes that are prepared within the eating table are wealthy in flavour and color.

Filipino cooking is significantly influenced by Chinese, European, American, Arab and Asian cuisines. A fusion of varied recipe adopted from previous merchants, Asian immigrants and former colonizers.

Before the Spaniards occupied the Philippines, the nation's delicacies consisted of root crops, sport, greens and seafood. Filipino food recipe then was virtually at all times both boiled, roasted or broiled. Foreign commerce brought in all types of spices and vegetation to the Philippines. And just like the Pinoy in the present day, its cuisine is a gastronomic feast from different international locations and cultures - from east to west.

Pinoys have embraced as their very own cuisines from other countries just like the noodles from the Chinese, rice and meat dishes from the Spaniards, fast-meals from the Americans and even spaghetti from the Italians. All these now become portion of the Philippine delicacies - with the Filipino touch.

There are nonetheless lots of Filipino recipe from each area of the Philippines with every area having its own unique area of expertise. The Ilocanos from the north are recognized for their Pinakbet - a simple however healthy vegetable dish. Whereas the Bicolanos are well-known for his or her Bicol Express a hot and peppery dish simmered in coconut milk. Overall, nothing beats the celebrity of the delicious pork and chicken adobo, a dish the Philippines is known for all through the world.

Prime Rib Cooking Times

As you look over a couple of prime rib recipes you'll notice a wide range of prime rib cooking times. Some recipes call for a cooking time of one hour and some recipes say that the roast should be cooked for six hours. Very confusing! Well, there's a reason for this discrepancy -- prime rib cooking times depend a lot on the cooking temperature and the size of the roast.

There are two basic methods for cooking prime rib roasts -- high temperature and low temperature. Each method has its advantages and there are people who swear by a one cooking process or the other. Prime rib cooking times are mostly determined by whether you are cooking the meat at high temperatures or low temperatures.

Some people love the slow cooking methods that is used in smoker barbecues. It can't be denied that smoking brings out wonderful flavors in the prime rib and produces some of the juiciest roasts imaginable. The low temperature of smoker barbecues means that prime rib cooking times can be extended to five or six hours.

On the other hand, there are those who swear by cooking the prime rib in a hot oven. This method reduces prime rib cooking times to the minimum while searing the exterior of the meat so that it contains the juices. When placed in a 500° oven, a 12 pound roast will cook in less than an hour.

This fast cooking method, however, depends on the roast staying in the warm oven for at least one more hour after the heat is turned off. During this time, the meat is still cooking, so you could say that this method requires prime rib cooking times of three hours.

No matter which way you cook the meat, you have to check the interior temperature to make sure that it is cooked all the way through. A good-quality meat thermometer will tell you the temperature of the roast and you might have to extend the prime rib cooking times by an hour or two.

An Easy Quick Dinner Recipe- Southern Style Ham Slice With Honey Mustard Glaze

This is an easy quick recipe for traditional southern style ham. The honey mustard glaze compliments the ham perfectly and the preparation couldn't be easier. Just mix up the glaze and pour over the ham, and bake at 325 degrees until tender. What could be easier?

These ham slices are available in your meat case pre-cooked and pre-sliced. Choose one that is the appropriate size for your family. You can cut them into serving size steaks and pan fry them on the stove top quickly or add a glaze and bake in the oven. You will find that they make a very easy dinner that will please everyone.

Quick and Easy Southern Style Ham Slice

1 fully cooked ham slice (1 to 1 1/2 inches thick)

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

Juice of one lemon (about 2 1/2 tablespoons)

1/3 cup honey

1. Score the ham slice around the edge to prevent curling by cutting through the fat just barely into the meat at several places around the slice. Place ham in a baking dish.



2. Combine the mustard, lemon juice, and honey. Pour the honey mustard over the ham.



3. Bake at 325 degrees until the ham is tender, 30 minutes to 1 hour depending on the thickness of your ham slice.

These ham slices are fully cooked, but must be heated through. A little additional cooking will help to tenderize the ham steak.

Serve with braised carrots and a green salad or green beans, and a dinner roll.

This honey mustard sauce is good on chicken also. Season chicken breasts with garlic salt and pepper. Glaze with the honey mustard sauce and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, or until done.

Help! I Don't Have Any... Cooking Options To Help When You Can't Get to the Store

For many cooks, there are times when we do not have the proper ingredients on hand to make our desired dish. If you find yourself in this situation, don't despair, many common ingredients can be used to replace recipes standards, saving the cook a drive to the store. Here are some hints.

Milk

A lot of recipes require milk. If you realize yourself out of milk or short on the amount necessary to finish a specific recipe, make sure you keep a supply of evaporated milk on hand. Evaporated milk or reconstituted milk can be kept for a long time and once mixed with water and many times a bit of butter, can easily taste just as good as regular milk.

Baking Powder

If you do not have baking powder readily available, use baking soda and a dash of buttermilk. For a tablespoon of double acting baking powder, substitute 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda and a 1/2 cup of buttermilk.

Self Rising Flour

Self rising flour is easy to make from scratch, just combine one cup of all purpose flour with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

Butter Milk

Out of butter milk? You can simply create your own. You can substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 1 cup whole milk and a tablespoon of vinegar. You can also substitute 1 cup of butter milk with 2/3 cup of plain yogurt and 1/3 cup whole milk.

Garlic

Ran out of garlic? Substitute garlic powder instead. About 1 clove of garlic equals 1/8 of a teaspoon of garlic powder.

Honey

You can easily replace honey with sugar and water. 1 cup of honey equals about 1 and 1/4 cup of sugar and a 1/4 cup of water.

Substituting Sugar

If you are short on sugar on hand or would like to replace it due to health issues, here are some hints to substitute sugar:

Sugar can be exchanged with with maple syrup, corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, stevia, and molasses. Although, some recipes will call for sugar or a granular sweetener and not syrup due to baking and texture requirements.

If you striving to decrease the amount of sugar you eat due to health issues, consider the many sweeteners, sometimes called sugar replacements at the supermarket. They include, Sweet and Low, Splenda, Equal, and plant based Stevia.

My Best Ground Beef Recipe

One of the most popular and easy recipes for ground beef mince is one of my own creations which without doubt one of the simplest methods of cooking ground mince beef. Quick to make and extremely tasty with onions and seasoning it could be considered a large beefburger cooked in the oven. Served with home made chips and peas this is a recipe which all your family with love.

Towards the end of the cooking time you may notice that the top of your ground mince has blackened somewhat, do not worry this is an effect of the eggs and seasoning combined with the natural fats rising to the top of the mince. Better still, the top becomes crispy and makes the dish unique, so slightly crisp on the top is a good thing!

Ingredients

450g/1lb ground mince beef

2 x Oxo Cube/Knorrs seasoning cubes

2 x Fresh eggs

1 x Large Onion Sliced & Diced (small)

Tomatoes or mushrooms to Garnish

Method

1. Prepare a large onion - cut into small pieces by slicing the onion thinly and then dicing into as small chunks as possible (you do not want to have large thick chunks given they will have trouble binding with the ground mince beef.

2. Place the diced onions into a large bowl with 450g (1lb) of mince beef - this is sufficient to feed around 3-4 hungry people.

3. Break two fresh eggs into the bowl with the onion and beef mince.

4. Crumble 2 Oxo Cubes or Knorrs seasoning cubes into the bowl.

5. Mix all ingredients together thoroughly.

6. Spoon out the mince beef mixture into an appropriately sized glass or ceramic dish - you are looking for the layer of mince to be around 2-3″ deep so place into a bowl which gives you this depth.

7. Finish the mince with either sliced tomatoes or mushrooms completely covering the top of the mince with either (or both if you prefer, although sliced tomatoes tend to caramelise which makes for a lovely topping!)

8. Place the dish into a preheated oven at 200 degrees or 180 degrees if using a fan assisted oven and cook for 45 minutes.

Whilst the mince is cooking why not part boil some potatoes sliced as chips for 5 minutes in boiling water. Drain, and leave to cool for 5 minutes then place on a baking tray with some frylite (oil spray) generously sprayed over the soon to be crispy chips and bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Turn after 15 minutes and give another generous spray of frylite and cook for a further 15 minutes until golden.

This is a really simple yet easy recipe for ground mince which will quickly become a family favorite. The additional of homemade chips makes this a tasty meal which is free from any artificial ingredients and is made by you in it's entirety.

Using Potato Chips In Cooking

Many of think of potato chips as those crunchy chips we put on a plate alongside a sandwich. However potato chips can add a wonderful flavor to many recipes.

One of my favorite recipes using potato chips is something I call "Crunchy Chicken". I coat chicken pieces with either melted butter, mayonnaise, sour cream, or plain yogurt. You then roll the chicken pieces in crushed potato chips. My kids have always loved this recipe. If you use flavored potato chips, such as barbeque or sour cream and onion, this will add to the flavor of the chicken. I have always used chicken pieces with skin on. The skin ends up very crunchy and salty from the potato chips.

Have you ever put potato chips ON your sandwich? My kids have always loved putting potato chips right on the sandwich itself. You can do this with tuna fish sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, or even egg salad sandwiches. Many of enjoy lettuce on our sandwich's as lettuce is crunchy. Well, so are potato chips.

Have you ever tried potato chip cookies?

Potato Chip Cookies

5 cups crushed potato chips

2 cups flour

1 cup each, brown sugar and white sugar

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

3 teaspoons baking powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped pecans (I prefer omitting these)

Mix crushed potato chips with the two sugars. Beat the two eggs and add to sugar and chips. Stir in milk and vanilla. Mix the flour and baking powder together and then slowly add to other mixture. Mix well. Grease baking sheet and drop by rounded teaspoonful. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes, or until golden.

Do you have a favorite brownie recipe? Next time you make the brownies, try adding 3/4 cup crushed potato chips to the mix. If the brownie recipe calls for salt, do not add salt, when adding the potato chips.

Potato chips are not just for munching with your sandwich.

Bon Appetite!!

Cooking on a George Foreman Grill

So okay, we want to start eating healthy from now on but we just don't have the time to whip up healthy dishes all the time. Sure, we can always pop something in the microwave but only a good number of select dishes are okay for microwave cooking. It limits our choices.

Not so with a George Foreman Grill. With this type of indoor gridle, we have literally hundreds of healthy dishes that we can cook in a quick and easy manner. This is the best selling point of a George Foreman Grill: quick and easy cooking for healthy dishes.

MAKING EXTRAORDINARY DISHES OUT OF THE ORDINARY

One other thing that users of the George Foreman Grill find most helpful is the way they can cook-up different dishes each and every time. They can cook up a storm, so to speak, with only a George Foreman Grill and have a last-minute lunch or dinner party no matter how many guests are expected to arrive.

This is also helpful when we find visitors popping-in quite unexpectedly. Since the cooking time of most dishes is greatly reduced on a George Foreman Grill, we can conveniently cook extraordinary dishes out of ordinary ingredients in so short a time that entertaining has never been so hassle-free before.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO COOK ON A GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL?

Depending on what we are cooking, we can come up with the healthiest meat dishes as well as other recipes like chocolate chip cookies, breads and grilled vegetable if we know how to cook each one with just the right amount of time.

Overcooking will naturally result in disaster no matter what we are cooking on the grill so timing is everything. There are recipe books available specifically for the George Foreman Grills so we'll know just how long we need to leave our foods on the grills before they sear or taste awful.

Usually, it only takes a few minutes - about five to six for frozen meats and two to five for vegetables - to be able to come up with great-tasting dishes.

This means that we can have the table ready in less than ten minutes! WHERE TO FIND THE GEORGE FOREMAN GRILL

What was only available via home TV shopping and information only through infomercials; is now readily on-hand on the internet. With the increasing popularity of the George Foreman Grills, it is no wonder that online shops, including the manufacturer's own website, have made this grill readily accessible via the internet.

A lot more information is likewise available online where we can learn more about the grill including recipes that are perfect for the grill. This means that if we are not so sold out on the idea of the grill yet, we can find out everything we need to know about it with just a click of the mouse.

But the great reviews from satisfied users will surely be more than enough to convince anyone to try out the George Foreman Grill and take advantage of its numerous health benefits.

Easy Lasagna Recipe For the Cooking Challenged

I'll be the first person to tell you that I can't cook worth anything. I was lucky enough to marry a man whose diet already consisted of frozen pizza and fast food ahead of time. My lack of abilities didn't disappoint him. In an attempt to get my food in the culinary door though, I discovered a recipe for lasagna that literally anyone could do. It isn't fancy by any means, but it is tasty and easy to do. If you're looking for a beginner recipe or lasagna, this is a basic as it gets.

What You Need:

-1 Box of lasagna noodles

-1 brick of mozzarella cheese

-1 jar of tomato pasta sauce

-1 pound of ground beef or turkey

-1 glass cake pan (size based on need)

-1 frying pan (size based on need)

-1 large sauce pan

-1 cheese grater

-1 colander

-Aluminum foil

-A few spoons

-A few plates/bowls

-A few spatulas

Step 1 - Boil the Noodles

The noodles take the longest time to cook, so get those going fist. To determine how many noodles you need to cook, see how many it will take to line the bottom of your cake pan. Then multiple that amount by the amount of layers you want to have. I usually cook between nine and twelve noodles.

Fill your large sauce pan a little over half way with water. Set your noodles in one at a time so they don't stick together. Set the burner on high and let them start to boil. Leave them there and move onto the next step.

*Make sure to continue stirring the noodles throughout these next steps, even if I don't mention it.

Step 2 - Defrost the Meat

If your meat isn't already defrosted, take this time to stick it in the microwave and start defrosting. Otherwise, move to step 3.

Step 3 - Grate the Cheese

It takes some time to grate an entire brick of mozzarella, so do that next. It's easiest if you break it in half and then grate the two halves separately. Once everything has been grated, put the cheese on a plate or in a bowl for easy access later on.

Step 4 - Brown the Meat

Your meat should be defrosted now, so take it out and put it in your frying pan. Heat the burner to medium. You might want to drain it before you do this if there is a lot of fat and water at the bottom of the plate. Begin chopping the meat into fine piece and continue flipping and chopping it until there is no pink visible. Once the meat is brown, turn the burner off and set the meat to the side.

Step 5 - Drain the Noodles

If your noodles are fully cooked, put your colander in the sink and drain your noodles. Either leave them there, or put them in a bowl so you can make your lasagna.

Step 6 - Assemble the Lasagna

Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Put a layer of tomato pasta sauce at the bottom of the pan. Then put a layer of pasta noodles down. Add another layer of pasta sauce and then cover that with the ground meat. Add a layer of cheese. Repeat this noodle, sauce, meat, and cheese layering until you have the desired height to your lasagna.

Step 7 - Bake the Lasagna

Put aluminum foil on top of the lasagna pan and put it in the oven. Bake it in there until the cheese is fully melted. This may take up to 30 minutes, depending o the oven and the size of the lasagna. If you want to brown the cheese on top, switch it to broil and cook it like that at the tail end of the time.

Step 8 - Serve

Take the lasagna out of the oven and let it cool for a bit. Then cut it up and serve it to your family. Pairs great with salad and bread if you're aiming to truly prepare a meal. Enjoy!

Make Creamy Chicken Pot Pie - Recipe and Cooking Tips

Chicken Pies are feel-good food. This Chicken Pot Pie Recipe is just the thing for rich and flavourful dinner idea. the perfect home-cooked meal for your family. The wine adds an amazing flavor to the pie filling. Using ready-made puff pastry will help you save time.

You can make the whole thing ahead of time and bake it just before serving. A really great idea and time saver, is to make a double portion of the pie filling and then freeze it for when you need a meal in a hurry. You can try tasty variations once you've mastered the basics. Not exactly low-fat diet friendly but perfect served with buttery mash and baby peas.

Some Chicken Pie Baking Tips

• You can make the chicken pie ahead of time and bake it just before serving.
  


• Make a double portion of the pie filling and then freeze it for when you need a meal in a hurry.
  


• Always have a ready-made roll of puff pastry in the freezer for when you feel like pie.
  


• be sure to make a few small slits in the top of the pastry so that the steam can escape during the baking time.
  


• Use left-over chicken or ready-cooked chicken if you want to save time.
  


• Use vegetables in season as these will be cheaper and readily available.
  


• Adjust the seasoning in the filling to suit your own taste.
  


• Wine adds amazing depth to the flavor of the filling so if possible don't leave it out.
  

Chicken Pot Pie Recipe Ingredients

• olive oil and butter, for frying
  


• salt and milled pepper
  


• 500g deboned chicken thighs, diced
  


• 2 leeks, sliced
  


• 2 celery sticks, sliced
  


• 1 packet (250g) white or brown mushrooms, sliced
  


• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  


• 2 Tbsp (30ml) thyme leaves
  


• 1/2 cup (125ml) white wine
  


• 1 cup (250ml) chicken stock
  


• 1 tub (250ml) cream
  


• 1 small packet (80g) baby spinach, blanched and chopped or frozen vegetable mix
  


• 1 cup (250ml) fresh or frozen peas
  


• 1 roll puff pastry, defrosted, divided into 4
  


• 1 extra-large egg yolk, beaten
  

Cooking Instructions For Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pies

1. Preheat oven to 220 C.
   
   


2. Heat the oil and butter in pan and lightly saute the seasoned chicken until browned. Remove the cooked chicken from the pan and set aside.
   
   


3. Fry the leeks, celery and mushrooms until soft but be careful not to brown too much. Add the chopped garlic and fry for another minute.
   
   


4. Toss in the thyme leaves, wine, chicken stock, cream and browned chicken. Let this simmer for 25 minutes - the liquid should reduced by about half. Stir through wilted spinach and peas.
   
   


5. Spoon filling into 4 ramekins /small pie dishes and cover each with pastry. Crimp edges with a fork and make a few slits in the pastry to allow steam to escape from the chicken pies while they are baking.
   
   


6. Brush the tops of the pies with egg yolk and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry has gone that delicious golden colour.
   

This Chicken Pot Pie serves 4 people.

Can a Healthy Diet Recipe Actually Taste Good?

If your idea of "health food" is a simple green salad, then you haven't been eating the right kinds of foods. By using a healthy diet recipe book and trying out many recipes, you will find that you can eat healthy and tasty at the same time.

The benefits of any healthy meal plan are many, but for most people it is the weight loss that it promises that urges them to make the switch. It is certainly true that by removing processed foods from your diet, you will see immediate weight loss. It is actually hard to keep weight on when you are eating natural, healthy foods and cooking them the right way.

The truth is that if you go on a calorie-restricted diet, you will not have a fun time. You will constantly crave foods that you can't eat because your body won't be getting either the number of calories or the nutrition that it requires. However, when you switch to a healthy recipe plan, you will find that your cravings are gone and that you feel fuller than ever before. Losing weight on this kind of diet is easy.

That being said, the advantages of a healthy diet recipe plan go well beyond losing weight. In fact, the primary purpose of any healthy diet should be to put your entire body back into balance. With the amount of processed foods we eat these days, not to mention our stressful lifestyles, it is no wonder that so many of us are unhealthy. By eliminating toxins, chemicals, additives, colorings, and artificial flavorings from your foods, you will find that not only does food taste better, but that you lose weight, too. A healthy meal plan really does give you the best of both worlds and is something your family will appreciate.

Cooking Meatloaf the Newbie Way

When you were a kid, your mom never failed to amaze you with her cooking. In fact, your favorite treat was that terrific crockpot meatloaf recipe she cooks whenever there are special occasions in the family.

Indeed, nothing is more palatable than to have a crockpot meatloaf recipe on the table. It makes every holiday worth celebrating and an ordinary day special.

Now that you are already a grown up, you want to learn cooking as well and of course you want to start with a delicious meatloaf recipe. However, what bothers you is that meatloaf can be complicated to cook. In fact, as far as you can remember, your mother has used several spices and aromatic ingredients to make her every meatloaf recipe captivating.

Perhaps, this is not the ripe time for you to aim for the most complicated meatloaf recipe. You are just a newbie thus you can settle for an easy-to-make yet delicious meatloaf recipe. Here is an example...

In this meatloaf recipe, you will need the following:

1 ½ pounds ground beef

1 cup bread crumbs

1 cup milk

1/3 cup ketchup

1 egg

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 onion (chopped)

salt and pepper to taste

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

2. In a bowl, combine the beef, bread crumbs, onion, milk and egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. Place the mixture in a lightly greased 5x9 loaf pan or shape it into a loaf and press it into a lightly greased 9x13 baking dish.

3. In a separate bowl, mix sugar ketchup and prepared mustard. Mix well. Glaze the mixture over the meatloaf.

4. Bake it for 1 hour at 175 degrees Celsius.

This meatloaf recipe is so easy that it will only take you an hour and 10 minutes to prepare and cook it. Isn't that wonderful? Your delicious meatloaf recipe that makes up 8 servings is now ready to be devoured.

Another easy meatloaf recipe is the meatless meatloaf. Perhaps you will be asking, is there something like meatless meatloaf? Certainly, there is. And it is also one of the easiest recipes that you can cook.

Gather the following ingredients to get started:

3 tablespoons dry vegetable bouillon

2 pints cottage cheese

1 cup pecans, chopped

½ cup milk

½ cup butter, melted

½ cup onions, chopped

5 eggs, beaten

7 ounces Special K

1 tablespoon Accent

1 tablespoon green bell pepper, chopped.

Here is what you should do. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Mix all ingredients. Bake it in a 9x5 loaf pan for an hour. That's it, your meatless meatloaf is done! In a little more than an hour, you can already savor your first meatloaf recipe.

If you want a no fail newbie meatloaf recipe, the aforementioned recipes can be what you are looking for. They will neither keep you too long nor keep your tasters waiting. They can arrive smoky on the table too soon that they can expect it.

After you have learned the basics in cooking, you can start experimenting different recipes. You can even make your own version of a tempting meatloaf recipe.

Cooking has never been this easy. Your qualms are stopping you then, you never imagined it could be this exciting and engrossing.

Differences in Flour Explained - Sift Out Your Flour Issues

I have been having an email conversation with another foodie who taught me a thing of too about meringue and was I ever thankful in learning her techniques in not have weeping meringue! But alas, we can all learn from one another, and soon she was asking me questions about flour and which flours are perfect for certain types of baking and cooking needs.

What is it about flour and how does it handle and stand up to our various baking and cooking needs? This simple question I wished to resolve and find out - and what I learned was more than I could almost handle since there seem to be several different points of views as to which flour is best to use for certain baking and cooking situations.

And as a result, a new article idea was born and hence the following is a result of today's research. I sifted through a variety of blogs and websites to come up with the information provided below. I list the resources at the bottom of the article for those who are so ever curious including one for the photo to the above.

Now some of you may think all flours are equal - well that is simply not true. Not all flours behave equally when used in baking due to their varying levels of hard and soft wheat flour, level of proteins including nutrients. The flour your mother and grandmother used can be very different to the flours now available on the market today and certainly can behave differently when used in baking and cooking. Furthermore, what we may be able to buy in the grocery store is not what your commercial baker gets and in fact all purpose flour purchased in the Northeast may be and will be very different than flour purchased in the South or out West by California (who knew!?!) This was something I had no idea about - so how the heck does one use the same cookbook (such as The Joy of Cooking) in all areas of our blessed country? I am not even going to approach that subject. But I digress.

For many occasional bakers, all purpose flour will stand up (and rise to the occassion) as needed and is perfect for almost every baking and cooking need. For others who are particular in their baking perfections and confections - different flours are preferred for their specific gluten contents and yeast raising abilities - I will try and share what I have learned about all types of flours. I also included on the bottom of this article a substitutions list that can come handy if you are in a jam for some of you bakers out there. Do note that not all substitutions will work for every recipe - as their are some limitations to the chemistry compounds.

I divided up the information into two categories, one in which the different flours are described, and the second, which type of flour is best to be used in your different cooking and baking situations.

For the Divaliscious record, I prefer to use unbleached un-sifted all purpose flour such as Heckers or King Arthur's for almost every baking and cooking recipe except for when the recipe calls for cake flour (I live in the NE). I also use the same flour for my gravies and sauces -I am personally not a big fan of Wondra -though I know it helps a lot of people in avoiding lumps in their gravies and sauces (but that can be avoided by not adding the liquid too fast and not walking away from your beginning gravy stages and using a whisk to stir).

And of course I will sneak in some Bisquick (a self-rising flour product) in making my oven-fried chicken, dumplings or a quick pancake or coffeecake when I am in a jam as it is a tried and true product - but would never use Bisquick as an all purpose flour if I was making cakes, breads or cookies from scratch.

Descriptions on the different type of flours:

All Purpose Flour - is made from a blend of high and low gluten wheats, and has a bit less protein than bread flour. All purpose flour sold in the North, usually has a blend of both soft and hard wheat flours whereas in the South, it is a blend of soft wheat flours. All purpose flour can generally be used in all recipes. But for the truly picky - see belows list for the preferred flour type for what you are baking and cooking.

Bread Flour - has a higher hard wheat content than say all purpose flour, and is used a lot by commercial bakers. There is also a higher gluten content (more protein) in bread flour with a small amount of malted barley flour and vitamin c or potassium bromate added to it in which the bromate helps increase the elasticity of the gluten, creating a dough with which can easily be worked.

Cake Flour - has a low and delicate gluten content and is finely milled with a super smooth texture allowing cakes to be light and airy - think of jelly rolls, sponge cakes and angel food cakes.

Pastry Flour - is finer in texture than all purpose flour but it is not as fine as cake flour. This flour is usually distributed to commercial bakers and contains a lower gluten content and is made mostly of soft wheat attributes.

Self-rising Flour - is an all purpose flour to which additional ingredients have been added such as baking powder and salt. And it should be used as according to its package directions since there are differences per each self-rising flour product out there - there are several available on the market (Bisquick comes to mind once again, and it was the one 'allowed' cheating self-rising flour we used in our household when I grew up - and still allow in my cupboard for those dumpling moments that come to pass every once in awhile when I make a stew) - You can also make your own if you wish, just keep it in a sealed container due to the baking powder which you want to keep fresh to retain it's leavening properties. (1 cup self-rising flour is equal to 1 cup cake flour with 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder and a pinch of salt added to it.)

Whole Grain Wheat Flour - wheat flours can vary in their amounts of white flours added, but most are tried and true and can now be used successfully in bread recipes without adding any additional 'white' flour.

Durham/Semolina Flour - is used primarily for breads and pasta doughs due to its high gluten and protein amounts.

Rye Flour - rye flour usually needs to have wheat flour added to give it some lightness due to its lacking the necessary proteins to form gluten which is essential in making breads.

Soybean Flour - Neither gliadin or glutenin, the necessary proteins when moistened to create gluten can be found in soybean flour, hence a strong wheat flour needs to be added to soy bean flour for good results in making breads with soybean flour. Although, with quick-breads and cakes, soybean flour may be substituted up to half of the amount of all purpose flour with good results.

Buckwheat Flour - has very strong characteristics, a nutty flavor and is very 'heavy' and must always be combined with wheat or white flours to create good results in breads.

Enriched Flour - since after WWII, the demand for an enriched flour product was at a all time high (and the FDA demanded it during the war), and since due to the milling process, many of the nutrients were lost and had to be replaced - so enriched is simply what it implies; enriched flour has added nutrients such as iron, niacin, thiamine, folic acid added to the mix.

Other types of flours can also include rice, peanut, potato and of course in the world we live in, a variety of other different types of flours can be bought over the internet from other countries and in local health stores and specialty stores.

Did you know that there are pizza restaurants out in California that have both water and flour 'imported' from NY so they can create the NY Pizza? That's is how different flours and (water) can change a recipe and its' basic tastes.

I would highly recommend, trying out some of the other types of flours when you make bread the next time - experiment with different combinations and you will soon be creating your own interesting hearty breads.

When in doubt, look at your package of flour to see what combinations of additional flours and/or ingredients have been added - you may find that the whole wheat flour is actually not completely whole wheat but in fact has white flour already added. This is particularly true when you wish to avoid certain 'flours' or are trying a new bread recipe that calls for different types of flour such as rye.

Unbleached Versus Bleached Flour - Bleached flours will have a slight lower protein content than unbleached. Unbleached flours will be so ever 'not as white' as bleached flours in their color. And due to the less protein amount, bleached flours when making breads specifically may not rise as much and bake out flatter (I know this since I have experienced this).

Sifted Versus Unsifted Flours - This may seem self explanatory - but there is a huge difference in weight when comparing one cup of unsifted flour to a sifted flour. I have personally experienced a half a cup more of flour once it has been sifted! Imagine adding unintentionally an extra half cup of flour to your recipe and what that could do to ruin a perfectly good recipe. Since I mainly refer to cookbooks that are 50 years old, I like to use the unsifted flour and sift accordingly to the recipe directions. Remember, cooking and baking is chemistry - and the correct amounts make for perfect results every time.

In most cases, my recipes will call for me to measure, sift, measure again, then add the salt, baking powder, etc. then sift once more. Yes, I will sift my flours twice. But, my cakes are extra light as are the cookies crisp and chewy as a result with having extra happy eaters.

If I happen to be using a pre-sifted flour (it has been known to happen) I will still carefully measure the flour, add the salt and other dry ingredients, then sift them all together, since flour whether sifted or not easily settles (like your bag of potato chips and cereals) during its many travels in shipping to your local grocery store.

Sifting the flour will aerate the flour, remove any lumps and will create a lighter texture to your fine baking goods. I do not sift my bread flour since I mainly use a bread machine to make my dough, but will sift my flour for when I make quick breads such as banana loafs, etc. which I do not make in my bread machine. And for the most part, I use my bread machine to simply make the dough, then I take the dough out of the machine so that I can create a more homemade and rustic-looking bread.

I use a fine mesh strainer to sift my flour - long gone are my flour sifters (which you may recall seen used by your mother and grandmother respectively) since they are hard on the wrists (from all the squeezing or cranking mechanisms) and they rust easily while taking up too much room in the kitchen where space is always at a premium especially for when they are used for one thing only. Why bother with sifters from year's past?

The fine mesh strainer can be used for so many multi-purposes in the kitchen, can be easily hand washed along with going into the dishwasher to be cleaned that this tool is a must have in your kitchen - and can easily be purchased for about $6.00. Effective, easy to clean multi-purpose gadgets are what I like in my kitchen - as I am sure you would want that too!

How To Correctly Measure Flour:

Using a smaller scoop, scoop up flour and place flour gently into your one cup measuring cup or other needed measuring cup. With the FLAT side of a dinner knife, scrape gently off the excess of flour back into your canister or bag of flour to create a leveled measured cup of flour. Do not pack your flour down like it is brown sugar for Pete's sake into your measuring cup. Doing so will result in heavy and dense baked goods. Yuck.

Pour your measured flour into your fine mesh strainer which is placed above a bowl, then measure any more additional flour amounts that you need. By tapping the strainer back and forth, you will quickly sift your flour. Just remember to measure the flour again now that it has been sifted once before putting your flour into your mixing bowls to get an accurate flour measurement.

When my baking recipe calls for sifting (since most of them do) I will measure and then sift for the first time. Then will have to measure again carefully since with one sifting a lot of extra flour can be created - try it and see for yourself (and as mentioned previously, I have experienced over an extra 1/2 cup of flour from the first sifting!) You will be amazed at the amount of extra flour which can come about from one sifting - and you will now understand why your cakes are not like your grandmothers'! This will be a thing of the past by following the simple tips as described above.

What kind of flour to use when baking and cooking:

All Purpose Flour - can be used for most recipes and for general cooking and baking purposes

Unbleached Unsifted flour - preferred by most fine bakers and cooks - great for cookies, pie crusts, cream pies fillings, gravies

Cake flour - for your angel food cake recipes and cake batters and recipes requiring a light batter (not brownies for example).

Wheat flour - great for your bread recipes since it has a higher protein and gluten amount than say your all purpose flour.

Self-rising flour - preferred by Southern cooks for perfect biscuits every time - one mentioned often enough is named Lily - It is not readily available here in the NE.

Substitutions:

• 1 cup of all purpose flour = 1 cup + 2 tbsp sifted cake flour




• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour = 1 cup minus 2 tbsp unsifted flour




• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour = 1 1/2 cups breadcrumbs

Hope this information is useful to those who need to know a little more about flour. Feel free to leave your comments, ask questions and share your ideas. I look forward to hearing from you! -Divaliscious.

How to Promote Your Cooking Or Recipe Video

Are you one of the people who have great knowledge of different recipes and want to share some of your most favorite recipes through various recipe videos? Or do you have some of your favorite homemade cookery videos highlighting more about the cooking process of various recipes, but don't know how to promote it? Well, if your answer is yes then in today's world, there are ample of options that can help you overcome each of these problems. Creating a recipe video highlighting more about the cooking process of various recipes and submitting it to online video websites is just one of few solutions. The important point to note is that creating and submitting a cooking or recipe video to any of the online video websites is not always effective in a long run. Like every online website needs traffic, your online cooking video clip also requires traffic. Adding to this, it is also important that your video gets noticed.

Today on the web, there are almost million videos related to subject like cooking that your audience can easily choose and select. If you think high quality video can result in an increase of web traffic or promote your cooking video then it's time to wake up from that illusion. These are several ways that help you make your presence felt, and in turn promoting your video as well. Here are some of the easiest and feasible yet most efficient ways that can effectively promote your cooking video-

1. Submit your cooking video to different video promotion websites. Nevertheless, the important point to remember in this approach is that these websites offer the facility to submit your videos totally free of cost.

2. Always make sure you tag and describe your videos. It doesn't matter, whether the duration of your video is 10 or more than 10 minutes. What matters more is the placement of the keywords that describe your video. Therefore, ensure you describe your video in the associated tags and description that in turn help search engines know what your video is all about.

3. Submit your recipe video to regular social bookmarking sites like digg.com, stumbleupon.com, etc. The key advantage of submitting your video to social bookmarking websites is that that these sites generally link to videos, and if it is really worth watching it repeatedly, online visitors might vote for it, which in turn may further help you can get many other visitors as well.

4. You can also post your cooking video in different cooking related discussion boards and forums as well. However, the key point to note here is that always ensure you read their rules first and never spam. Make sure that you choose the busiest forums to post in and your post is relevant to the forum.

5. Always try to participate in different video competitions. These days there are many video competitions out there, so the best thing you can do is always try...

6. Create or choose your video clip thumbnail properly. This is because, generally it has been found that visitors get more influenced to those videos that have thumbnail. Consequently, make sure you can choose the thumbnail do so and make it sharp, eye catching and relevant to your cooking video.

7. You can also email video blogs and websites to tell them more about your recipe video.

Apart from all these steps, the simplest approach that you can follow is that you may even send an email to all your contacts with your video link. Each video has its own distinctive link, which makes it easy to copy, paste and send in emails. Now, as the receiver clicks on the link it generates the traffic, which ultimately results in the promotion of video.

Today even though you are one of the renowned restaurant owner or chefs and have different cooking or recipe videos, but to make your way in the online field is not easy. You must be aware of various tricks of promoting cooking or recipe videos. Using some of the above mentioned tips can effectively help you grab deserving attention. These days, there are many chefs or individuals involved in restaurant business who are using these tips to promote their cooking clips.

Cooking Measurements

Just consider the situation. You go to your relative's home and accidentally happen to peep into the kitchen. You see a weighing balance, a measuring cylinder and all such sort of things near the cooking place. You are muddled, and out of curiosity you enquire about it. To your astonishment you learn that these are the instruments they use for measuring their cooking ingredients. It sounds wacky, doesn't it?

Though accuracy demands the use of all these sort of things, it is sometimes as in cooking that convenience and portability surpass precision in importance. This is exactly why the obvious cooking measurements have prevailed in the kitchen. These obviously are less accurate than if we use some scientific measuring systems. But the slight deviation is not only manageable but sometimes even desirable as the little change caused may improve taste.

Now, let's talk a little more about these cooking measurements? The cooking measurements are generally done in mass, volume or counts. Liquid ingredients are generally measured in volume. Even solid ingredients such as salt, sugar, flour and spices are measured in volume in most kitchens. The unevenness in the size of vegetables generally disables their precise measurements in weight. However chopped meats are generally measured by weight. Meats are also sometimes measured in counts like "two chicken", "four large pieces of beef", etc.

Acquaintance with cooking measurements, though not mandatory, is often very helpful in smooth performance at the cooking table. Delicious concoctions can be horrible dishes if the cooking measurements are deviated beyond a narrow range. Another thing you should learn this for is the sake of knowledge; after all these are always there around you. You should also learn how to substitute a cooking measurement with another when you don't find it. For example if you don't find a tablespoon and need one tablespoon of sugar, just know that you can add three teaspoons.
Here are some of the most widely used cooking measurements(of Volume measurement) :

Cooking Measurements (for Volume)

Cooking Measurements      Abbreviation	  Teaspoons Equivalents

Teaspoon	                Tsp	          1

Tablespoon	                Tbsp	         3

Ounces	                         Oz	           6

Cup	                           C	             48

Pint	                            Pt	              96

Quart	                          Qt	            192

Gallon	                           Gal	             768

Now through the information given above, you can calculate the relation between any two of the above cooking measurements units. If you didn't catch it yet, let me tell you how.
Just take the two quantities that you need to compare and their teaspoon equivalents. Now divide the teaspoons equivalents of both and get the required ratio.

For Example :
If you need to compare Ounces(6 tsp) and Pint(96 tsp), then just divide 96 by 6 to get how many ounces make 1 Pt.
So, 1 Pt = 96/6 = 16 Ozs.

Go on. And next time when your mother asks you to add one ounce of oil, don't get flustered. However all the cooking measurements don't find use in all places. It depends on the size of the meal that is to be prepared. If a meal is meant for two people, the salt and sugar will be added in teaspoons. On the other hand, if the meal prepared is for 20-30 people cups will be used instead. Cooking measurements are all pretty simple if you are a little keen to heed them.

Japanese Hibachi Cooking - Free Recipes Inside

Are you a fan of yakitori? Japanese food is one of the healthiest foods worldwide, and so it is not surprising to know that the Japanese often grill their food. This grilling is called hibachi, and Japanese hibachi cooking is not only famous in Japan, but in other parts of the world as well. These meats on sticks are a favourite of many, as these taste good, and come fresh and hot; grilled over direct fire.

The best way to do Japanese hibachi cooking is to grill over fire-and not a hot plate. The fire gives your meat a smoky, authentic flavour, which lacks in those which are prepared using metal plates. One example of Japanese hibachi cooking is the sukiyaki. A favourite among many, sukiyaki involves grilling thin slices of beef and then adding vegetables and noodles or rice.

But whether it is beef or chicken you want to grill, the principle holds the same: use authentic over the fire grillers. Also, many agree that one of the secrets of great Japanese hibachi cooking is the sauce.

A great recipe for shrimp sauce is this: you will need two cups of soy sauce, a cup of whipped cream, one-third cup of ground, roasted sesame seeds, a pinch of garlic powder and a teaspoon of dry mustard (dissolve it in a teaspoon of water). Place all ingredients except the cream in a blender for fifteen seconds. In a saucepan, put the mixture and the whipped cream, stirring it over low heat.

Another example of great sauce is simply a mixture of the following: a cup of mayonnaise, a couple of teaspoons of sugar, one and a half teaspoons of chilli sauce, a half teaspoon of paprika, half teaspoon of garlic powder, half teaspoon of lemon pepper, a quarter teaspoon of black ground pepper, one and a half tablespoons of catsup, and a pinch of salt. Use these sauces and your grilled meats will have that extra zest and tanginess.

Cooking for a Crowd? Need Large Quantity Recipes? Why Not Create Your Own?

It is often hard to find just the right large quantity recipe for the theme of your party or for the "culinary experience" you are aspiring to offer your guests. Here are a few tips and suggestions on how to modify your favorite 4-6 serving recipes when you find yourself cooking for a crowd of 20 or more.

What constitutes a crowd? Of course it's all relative (your relatives, not mine). Seriously, if you are accustomed to cooking for one to three, cooking for 20-50 people may seem overwhelming. When cooking for a crowd, there are three important considerations; adequate cookware, sufficient refrigerator space and recipe selection.

Obviously you should seek out recipes geared towards feeding a crowd. It is often easy to find large quantity recipes for basic dishes such as lasagna and mashed potatoes. But what do you do if you have your heart set on using your favorite 4-serving recipe for Corn and Black Bean Polenta for a party of 25?

Even for expert cooks, modifying a recipe for large quantity cooking is not just a matter of endless multiplications. If you expand a recipe too much--you are bound to run into trouble and end up with an off tasting or a poorly flavored dish.

For a basic dish like mashed potatoes, it would be acceptable to multiply all of the ingredients in a 4-serving recipe by two, thus doubling the recipe to serve 8. However, recipes are not indefinitely expandable (or shrinkable for that matter) and enlarging a recipe any more then 2-4 times is not
recommended.

You may also use recipe converters which are easily found online. The converters however, simply "do the math", multiplying each ingredient amount by the increased number of servings you enter into the converter. It does not take into account, for example, the pungency or texture of the ingredients. If a 4-serving recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of finely chopped rosemary and you want to triple the recipe to serve 12; 3 tablespoons of rosemary will probably overwhelm all the other flavors and seasonings in the dish.

It is a good idea to be cautious when multiplying ingredients like salt, flour, cornstarch, eggs, seafood, meats, robust herbs, oils, onions, garlic, celery and peppers. Some ingredients will impart enough flavor, texture or body when only increased a fraction. In addition some of these ingredients can be added a little at a time as you continually check for taste.

What if you want to serve 25 people with a not-so-simple, 4-serving recipe with numerous ingredients? Doubling or tripling more complex recipes could get complicated. One trick is to batch cook. Batch cooking requires planning ahead and cooking in advance. It may also mean freezing prepared dishes. It is also a matter of "doing the math".

To serve 25 with a 4-serving recipe, you can cook 5-6 individual batches of that recipe or, you can expand the recipe (no more then 2-4 times) and cook in batches accordingly. For example, to serve 25 from a 4-serving recipe, double the recipe to 8 and cook three batches or, triple it and cook two batches. To serve 18 with a 6-serving recipe, cook it three times or cook one 6-serving batch and one batch that has been doubled to serve 12. You get the idea.

It is almost impossible to double or triple recipe ingredients for cakes, cookies, pie dough, or breads, without meeting with utter disaster. It's a chemistry thing. Instead, prepare a single batch repeatedly until you have enough food to feed your guests. Again, cooking in advance is the key.

Chances are you can successfully double or triple the ingredients of recipes for individual appetizers, such as stuffed mushrooms or crostini; and for snack mixes, dips, salsas, punches, one serving-size pieces of meat, poultry or fish, tossed salads, pasta salads and vegetables dishes.

If you are cooking for a crowd of 25 or more you will most likely serve buffet style. It is the best way to serve larger crowds. On a buffet of numerous dishes, people will take smaller portions of each in order to sample everything. Also, not everyone will sample every dish. This means that every dish
you prepare need not serve 25. You need only prepare a few large quantity dishes. Look for recipes that serve 8-12 and double them (or not).

With a calculator and a little ingredient know-how you can comfortably convert most of your party food recipes and present a tantalizing menu to your
guests.

Have fun!

Debra Haydel

Italian Ingredients

Do you love cooking, but are sometimes unsure of the ingredients. Well here is a guide to some of the more common Italian Recipe Ingredients.

Amaretto - A liqueur made from apricot kernels and bitter almonds. You will ofter find this used in dessert recipes.

Amaretti - Small, dry biscuits (cookies) similar to macaroons. Made with bitter almonds, almond essence and egg whites.

Baccala - is salted, dried cod. You will need to soak it for at least 24 hours and changing the water often.

Bocconcini - means 'little mouthfuls'. And that's what it is, little balls of fresh mozzarella cheese stored in water.

Campari - A crimson colored spirit.

Carta di musica - This is a crisp, twice baked flatbread. Can use toasted Lebanese bread or lavish as a substitute.

Ciabatta - A crusty bread that is airy on the inside. The best type is wood fired.

Dried Porcini Mushrooms - A type of mushroom used to add intense flavor to dishes. Choose light brown or tan ones that are not crumbly.

Limoncello - This is a citrus based liqueur. Made by infusing lemon rind in pure alcohol. Serve chilled as an after-dinner drink or a fabulous palate cleanser.

Mascarpone - This rich, smooth cream cheese that has a high fat content. Used in both savoury and sweet dishes.

Mozzarella - A stretched curd cheese known for its melting qualities.

Pancetta - This is dried pork belly. It is generally used like bacon.

Pappardelle - Is a pasta. It can be fresh or dried and is a wide flat ribbon.

Pecorino - A hard cheese made from sheep milk. It has a sharp flavor and is used to grate over pizza.

Pecorino dolce - Known as sweet pecorino, is less aged and has a milder flavor.

Prosciutto - Is a dried and salted (cured) ham, generally served in wafer thin slices.

Radicchio - A red leafed salad ingredient that has a slightly bitter flavor.

Risotto Rice - This is the rice used for making Risotto. It is a short grain rice that is capable of absorbing much fluid while still maintaining it's shape and firmness. This is what gives Risotto it's creamy texture.

Scamorza - Very similar to mozzarella. A slightly salty cheese made from cows milk. It can be hung and dried and is often smoked.

Taleggio - This cheese has a pinkish-brown rind and a soft creamy texture. It is made from cows milk, has a strong flavor and becomes acidic with age.

So next time you are cooking Italian, you will be sure to know what ingredient to reach for.

Happy Cooking!

Lisa "The Crock Cook"

Cooking Traditional Food From The UK

Cooking traditional food from the UK in the comfort of your own home can seem like the impossible. The wonderful foods that one thinks about from England may seem only possible if you eat at the finest restaurants in the UK or around the world.

The truth is that you can make your own favorite traditional English foods at home now. The Internet has opened many doors for food lovers. The average person, as well as the professional chef, has added to the many incredible British recipes that can be made at home by using the net.

Where to Find UK Traditional Food

It can seem a bit out of reach to be able to find real traditional food from the UK if you do not live there. The idea that what you get will be the same as if you were fine dining in London seems very farfetched. The truth is that you can get the real deal to serve at home. Many traditional British meals are available on recipe sites all over the Internet.

If you want to find the best traditional UK food recipes to make at home, simply log onto your computer and search online. This will offer up hundreds of authentic meal idea all straight out of Great Britain. You will be able to recreate each of these meals for yourself, family, or guests. While cookbooks offer many generic recipes, the Internet can offer more traditional foods that are served in specific ways depending on the region in which they are being prepared.

Choosing the Right Recipe

Choosing the right traditional food recipe may not be as easy as one thinks. When you are looking online there will be hundreds of sites to surf through. Knowing which sites actually have traditional UK foods may not be easy to see at first.

The first thing you want to look for is the recipe site rating. Anything less than 4 stars should be ignored. There are so many sites that this will still leave you many, many options. You also want to look at where the site is derived from. Using a UK recipe site to get the best traditional food makes the most sense. You are more likely to find the real recipe the way it is made in England when using UK sites.

Finding the right recipe may take a bit of time, but since you are searching at your own leisure from home, it is not something that is daunting or horrible. You will be able to bookmark each recipe for future reference. This makes it very easy to pull up in the future. You can also save the UK food recipes onto your computer in a folder. This will allow you to retrieve them even if the website shuts down later.

No longer do you have to be in London to eat the traditional meals that they do. Now you can get the recipes you enjoy online and eat these great dishes at home.

Cooking Oils - Choosing the Best Variety For a Successful Recipe

Do you feel lost when you get to certain sections of a grocery store where there is so many choices and you have no idea which one is actually good for you?

Many people do actually want to eat healthier. They just have no idea where to start. Take a walk through the cooking oils aisle in any large supermarket chain and see what awaits you upon further inspection.

Vegetable oils, primarily from plant sources, and fats, usually hydrogenated from processing, are the two main sources of fats found in our diets. An oil is always liquid at room temperature and the fats (butter, margarine, shortening, lard, etc.) are solids. This rule does have a few exceptions though because of manufacturing processes.

Typical Selections On The Grocery Store Shelves
Below is a listing of some of the selections you can find in the typical supermarket. By understanding the scorch (or smoke) point of these varieties, you can best decide which product is best for your dinner preparations.

• Nut Oils: (walnut, cashew, almond etc.) - Most of the nut oils can not withstand fairly high heat without breaking down. Therefore these varieties are better used for cold processes such as salads and salad dressings.


• Macadamia and Peanut Oil - These two oils can and do like high heat so they are excellent for frying oils. Often many restaurants and chain restaurants use peanut oil in their deep fryers because it can withstand such high heat. This oil is also more cost effective for the restaurant than any other variety.


• Canola (rapeseed) oil, sunflower and safflower oil - Each of these also have a high scorch point which makes them excellent for use in frying, baking and stir-fry recipes.


• Corn oil - Corn oil is the most common of all the cooking oils. It is extracted from the maize (or corn) plant through several different operations. Although it is the most widely used, mainly because it is the least expensive, it is high in omega 6 fatty acids. Current research is suggesting that a diet high in omega 6's and deficient in omega 3's is currently suggesting a possible link to breast cancer in many women. To date though, not enough data has been collected to date to confirm this theory.


• Olive oil - Many varieties of olive oil differ considerably in their scorch points due to the different methods of processing. Cooking applications therefore must be changed to match the type of oil being used. Every variety of olive oil is part of the monounsaturated fats line (the good fats) and high in omega 3's which is commonly known as the heart healthy selection.


1. extra virgin oils: all break down at low temperatures so use for non-cooked foods only.


2. virgin olive oil has a medium scorch point. Although not generally recommended for deep-frying, baking or high-heat stir fries, it can withstand regular skillet frying on the stove top.


3. Light olive oils do withstand high temperatures so any application is generally considered safe.
• Trans fatty acids (TFA), partially hydrogenated oil and hydrogenated oil: each of these are not quite as familiar in the cooking oils section of the store shelves but check the labels before purchasing to be sure. The shortening or lard varieties will generally include this information on the ingredient label. Avoid all of these whenever and wherever you can. Their melting point is actually higher than the temperature of the human body thus commonly being used mostly in the food service industry. After ingestion, these type of oils stay in our system as a solid which leads to clogging of the arteries on a continuing basis.

Therefore, for most home environments, it generally is considered practical to purchase two types of cooking oils and inter-change them as the situation warrants depending upon whatever your dinner preparations happen to be for this night.

A Guide to Cooking Recipes

There is a common saying that cooking isn't rocket science, which is absolutely true. Everyone can cook, and if you have little imagination, you can soon come up with the innovative recipes of your own.

Getting Started

If you are going to try your hands on cooking for the first time, it is advisable to choose the recipes that are not too complicated, as you would not like to be overwhelmed by the recipe with unusual ingredients or difficult steps. Read the entire cooking recipe carefully before starting, and make sure you have all the ingredients, appliances and utensils ready.

Understanding all the directions is important, and make sure that you have enough time to finish if off within the time you have at hand. Collect all the ingredients in one place, and measure each ingredient before cooking. Always wash your hands with warm water and wear an apron prior to cooking. Deal very carefully with raw meat, fish, poultry and egg products.

Where To Find Cooking Recipes

Cookbooks that are available in bookshops are a great resource for all kind of recipes. Cooking recipes are also available in magazines, newspapers, on food packages, in supermarkets meat section, television shows, cooking classes or you can get them from your friends. Internet is also a great resource for all kinds of recipes from all around the world. File all the cooking recipes in one place, and once you have enough collection, you can also categorize them.

Trying Your Own Cooking Recipes

Once you start feeling comfortable with cooking, you can get creative by experimenting with some ingredients such as substituting beans for carrots or beans for meats, and so on. You can also make use of various spices and herbs, as each of them gives different flavours and aromas. Try experimenting with different textures and colours in the meals. You can take one type of dish and learn lots of variations. Try some international recipes as well such as Chinese, Indian, Italian, Spanish, Continental and southern cooking recipes.

Once you start experimenting, you are bound to fail at times. It is hence a good idea to cook small portions when trying out a new cooking recipe. If you are trying to shed some extra pounds, try some healthy low fat cooking recipes. If you are fond of snacking in between, try some healthy snacks recipes that are made of whole-wheat flour with less fat. When going for grocery shopping, read the labels on the packets so that you know what you are buying.

How to Cook Mahi Mahi

If you’ve wondered why you’re seeing mahi mahi on so many restaurant menus these days, one of the reasons is a little trick that’s being played on you. Mahi mahi (Hawaiian for “strong-strong”) is just another name for the fish called dolphin. The restaurants have switched to the name “mahi mahi” so you won’t get confused and think they’re trying to serve you a slice of that mammal that is called dolphin. You wouldn’t like the idea of chowing down on Flipper (would you?).

Sometimes mahi mahi is hyphenated (“mahi-mahi”), and sometimes it goes by the alternative name, dorado. Whatever you choose to call it, this is a fish that has both great flavor and the nice, firm texture that most seafood lovers prefer.

Mahi mahi swim in many waters, but are found most abundantly in the warm Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Next time you dine on mahi mahi—or buy some from the supermarket—you can be confident that it probably came from one of those two bodies.

Fresh mahi mahi is generally available throughout the year, but, in North America at least, you will find the best selection in mid-spring through mid- to late-summer. You can also find frozen mahi mahi fillets all year round.

When buying fresh mahi mahi, look for fish whose meat is pink or light beige. Darker meat is certainly safe to eat, but the taste might be too strong for some people.

Mahi mahi is a great all-around fish for just about any cooking method you want to use. Poach it, steam it, fry it, bake it, grill it—it’s all good. Just be careful not to overcook it.

Here’s a recipe I particularly like for broiled mahi mahi. The zesty orange-juice glaze adds extra interest.

Ingredients

2 pounds mahi mahi fillets (skinless)

2 tablespoons prepared mustard

1/2 cup cooking oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate

1 bay leaf

Directions

1. Cut the mahi mahi fillets into serving size portions and place side by side in a baking dish.

2. Thaw the juice concentrate. Crumble the bay leaf. Combine these with the other remaining ingredients and mix well to create a marinade.

3. Pour the marinade over the mahi mahi (make sure you turn the fish to coat both sides).

4. Cover baking dish with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 30 to 43 minutes.

5. Place pan on top rack of oven and broil 5 or 6 minutes on each side. Fish will be ready when you can easily flake it with a fork.

6. Serve!

Tomato Basil Soup Recipe - Cooking With Basil

When the days start getting shorter and the growing season is coming to an end, it's the perfect time to make this tomato basil soup recipe. Enjoy the bounty of your harvest now and wow your friends and family with this wonderful soup. Add some yummy rolls and maybe a salad and your all set.

Before you start, be sure the herbs are clean and dry. One way to do this is to water them early in the morning and let them air dry until about mid morning. Harvesting herbs before the mid-day heat allows the plant to retain the essential oils which is what makes them taste so good. Another way to harvest your basil as suggested by Phyliss Shaudy in her book, Herbal Treasures, is to pick a warm breezy day and place two or three bowls of tepid water in the area you are going to work. Harvest the herbs and swish them in the bowls of water and shake off as much water as possible. Then, place the herbs between layers of white paper towels and allow them to air dry outside for 2 or 3 hours. Be sure to change the toweling once or twice. To speed up the process, de-stem their foliage and pat dry the leaves frequently.

Tomato Basil Soup Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons olive oil


• 2 garlic cloves, minced


• 3 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth


• 1/2 teaspoon salt


• 3 (14.5-ounce) cans diced tomatoes, un-drained


• 2 cups fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced (I used sweet basil)


• Basil or parsley leaves (optional for garnish)

Preparation

Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in the broth, salt, and tomatoes; bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer 20 minutes. Stir in basil.
Place half of the soup in a blender; process until smooth. Pour pureed soup into a bowl, and repeat procedure with remaining soup. Garnish with basil or parsley leaves, if desired.

Cooking with basil, especially if you grew it yourself, is wonderfully satisfying. There are so many recipes to try and over 150 varieties of basil worldwide. Pick your favorite to experiment with.