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Showing posts with label Restaurant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Restaurant. Show all posts

11/15/2010

Restaurant Recipe Replicas Are the Way to Go

I have a confession. I don't really like cooking that much. I tend to eat out a lot more than I would really like to, because it's easier and faster than cooking for myself. Over the years it has had an effect, though. My waistline has increased, and it's straining the budget. Anyone who says that costs of even basic things hasn't increased lately has not been looking too closely. I thought for a long time about looking for restaurant recipe replicas and kept on putting it off. Like I said cooking and I are not a perfect match.

When it comes to food, I go for taste and I have favorites. I love ribs, for example, but had always thought that they were beyond my meagre skills. I like pizza and ditto to that. It put me off cooking more than the basics. It doesn't have to be that way, so I found out.

Have you ever watched the cooking channel? Despite the fact that I can't cook to save myself I seem to watch it compulsively. Really, I should know better. The channel has experienced chefs showing us all the tricks of the trade, but what they don't tell us is the amount of years it took for them to become that proficient. If you can find the ingredients, and the right tools, and then try to replicate what they have done, the chances are that what you'll end up with is something...less than optimal. And even worse, it may not taste the way you expected it to. You are playing the lottery, and who wants to do that with your tastebuds? They deserve better. So, where does that leave you?

Back to buying food from chain restaurants. Not exactly the answer to the budget problems, is it? Or, you could take a gourmet cooking course, but let's face it, who has the time or energy to do that. After all the reason you're going to the chain restaurant in the first place is lack of time, or lack of motivation to cook.

About a month ago I stumbled across a site claiming to have discovered all the secrets to how to cook like the restaurants do, and to have a cookbook based on these recipes. Let's face it, any search of the Internet will bring up a variety of these types of sites. They are a dime a dozen, and the free recipes you find on them don't necessarily work that well. I was skeptical, but the offer was good, and I had yet another book to add to my collection. The good thing was, at least this one was electronic, and I could ignore it without it gathering dust. I was curious, though, and did give it a read...and then another one and another one. The recipes looked easy enough, but that didn't mean that they'd taste authentic.

I found an easy one, with only a few ingredients and gave it a try. There was nothing to lose but my dignity, after all. Imagine my surprise when it worked! Have you ever had your mouth watering for Applebee's Babyback Ribs? If you have then "America's Most Wanted Recipes" is the cookbook to get. there are more restaurant recipe replicas beside this one, one hundred in the first book alone. Since my first foray into cooking the restaurant recipes I've tried more and surprisingly, they've worked. Even more surprising was that they weren't hard to make.

If you want to cook great meals at home that are easy, and accessible then there are ways to do it. If you are like me, and don't really like cooking, except from afar, then consider "America's Most Wanted Recipes". You'll be glad you did.

5/02/2010

Cooking Restaurant Meals at Home With Copycat Recipes

There is something about cooking at home that is so much more satisfying than eating out all the time. Not only can you save alot of money by cooking at home, it is also genuinely gratifying when there is great appreciation from friends and family eating your specially prepared meals.
Restaurant recipes are usually closely guarded secrets that are never revealled to the public. One obvious reason is that they don't want to lose business. There is a new trend sweeping cooking circles and that is restaurant copycat recipes. There are some sites on the web that specialize in selling copycat restaurant recipes and many are very good. The secret to copycat recipes is careful research. There are Ebooks available that contain hundreds of copycat restaurant recipes from some of America's most popular restaurant chains including Applebee's, Chili's, McDonalds, KFC, Boston Market, Hard Rock Café, Joe's Crab Shack, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, The Soup Nazi, Outback Steakhouse and many many more.

While the restaurants themselves don't really want you to know their secrets, you know the old saying " imitation is the sincerest form of flattery".

So if these recipes are jealously guarded secrets by the restaurants, how can you buy them in ebooks? Easy, because interested chefs and cooks from hundreds of backgrounds spend years reverse engineering the original recipes. What they come up with are copycat restaurant recipes which are true to the originals.These contibuting chefs recipes are compiled into ebooks that are available online such as America's Most Wanted Recipes book. It is hard to find many of the best copycat recipes for free,mainly because when someone finds out the secrets to a great recipe, they are not eager to share it lightly. The bright side though is that you can spend under $20 online and get incredibly large collections of restaurant copycat recipes and have them instantly downloadable so you can get cooking right away.

You don't need to be a master chef or have years of experiece to cook your favourite restaurant meals at home. When you get a good restaurant copycat recipe you can be sure you will impress anyone you cook for. Just find out their favourite dishes from their favourite resturant..go to your copycat recipe book and hit them with a surprise feast that will blow their mind, while saving you money at the same time.

4/25/2010

3 Tips to Cooking Restaurant Recipes at Home

Whether it's Applebee's, Chili's, KFC or Wendy's, cooking your favorite restaurant recipe at home is easy, fun, and it can save you a lot of money. There are however a few things to be aware of. While cooking restaurant recipes at home may be easy, I get letters all the time from people wondering why their particular copycat recipe didn't turn out tasting quite right.

The following 3 tips to cooking restaurant recipes at home should be followed to achieve optimal results.

Recipe Source - Be sure that you have a good recipe source. The internet is full of both good and bad information and recipes are no different. At the very least find a site or, better yet, a cookbook that specializes in restaurant recipe clones. There are also a number of great digital cookbooks available that can be downloaded and get you ready to cook in a matter of minutes.

Ingredients - Often in restaurant chains the ingredients in your favorite restaurant recipe are not the typical ingredients found in the local grocery store. Preservatives, and flavor enhancers are things that you will have to take into consideration if you're looking for exact copycat recipes. However you might want to consider making slight modifications that get the flavor as close as possible but are also healthier than the restaurant recipes themselves.

Equipment - The proper equipment is very important. Using a copper pan instead of stainless steel, using a pressure cooker instead of a fry pan, using a steamer instead of blanching, are all examples of slight differences that can mean the world of difference when preparing restaurant recipes at home

3/03/2010

Cooking Famous Restaurant Recipes at Home

Eating out is growing increasingly expensive. Gas alone costs more than double what it cost only a year or so ago. Because shipping costs are growing, overall food prices are growing along with them.

Because biofuels are straining our food supplies, staples were rising in price even before the cost of fuel became a problem. The end: everything involving going out, from driving to paying for the dinner, is costing you more.But you can't just give up your evenings out. Or your chili cheese fries. Or the Awesome Blossom, one of the best of Chili's restaurant recipes.

What can you do?

Simple: prepare famous restaurant recipes at home in your own kitchen.

You can find famous restaurant recipes all over the Internet. Most are put together by amateurs who want to cook their own recipes at home, and just decided to share their favorites with the world. Others are a little more serious: groups who share what they think their favorite dishes are, and work together to refine them.

Just like anything online, you can't just trust the first two or three sources you find for a recipe; in fact, you'll find a bewildering variety of recipes online using surprisingly different ingredients for the same famous restaurant recipes.

Fortunately, the job of sorting through these for just the right recipe is also done for you by a few sites, where recipes are reviewed and critiqued for accuracy, quality, and ease of preparation.

Once you've found the right famous restaurant recipes, you can do one more thing: experiment with ingredient substitutions to make them more healthful or appropriate to your diet.

If you need to cut out the fat, you can do that; if you need to eliminate sodium, using all-fresh ingredients instead of canned or frozen, then using sea salt or salt alternatives can really help. When you're done, you may wind up with a dish even better than the one at your favorite restaurant.

Better Than An Evening Out:

An evening out is more than just a stop at your favorite restaurant. Besides famous restaurant recipes, you need atmosphere and ambiance. This is really up to you. Do you want a romantic candlelit dinner, or are you more a night-on-the-deck person? Beer and pretzels or champagne and cashmere?

Make your night out special, even though you're having it at home, by using the good dishes, by eating picnic-style, or by watching old movies on the new plasma television you'll be able to afford once you've cut out that restaurant expense from your budget.

Making famous restaurant recipes at home can do even more for you than this. They make perfect pot-luck additions to family get-togethers or office parties. If you make trays of appetizers and freeze them, they can be healthful after-school treats for the kids. And the tricks you learn while preparing famous restaurant recipes may enhance your own tried-and-true home recipes, turning you into your family's favorite chef.