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Cooking

  • Liven up boring lettuce salads with these tasty alternatives

    Salads have always been a part of our meals, especially at dinner. When you think of the word salad, an image of leafy greens probably comes to mind, but salad is just a general term that can refer to just about any dish that is dressed or tossed together.

    Alternative salads

    Tuna salad, potato salad, pasta salad, chicken salad, fruit salad and veggie salads are all easy to make. As salads are often dishes brought to potlucks or picnics, they make for great travel-friendly side items.

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  • Homemade stir-fry will satisfy your take-out cravings

    Stir-frying is one of the best techniques to produce dishes with vivid colors, vibrant flavors, and varied textures. It combines vegetables and protein in a single dish, it’s relatively healthy, and it requires no accompaniment other than rice or noodles.
    In addition, it’s a great way to use up produce that has been in the fridge for a couple days and that hunk of steak or pork that you cooked a few days ago that you haven’t gotten around to eating yet.

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  • Oven-roasted sirloin tip will yield a tender and juicy roast beef

    One of my favorite roasts to cook at this time of the year is a sirloin tip roast. It is a fairly tough cut of meat that benefits from various methods that cook the meat slowly or otherwise trap the moisture inside.
    The most common method is oven roasted. Other methods commonly used are grilling or using a slow cooker or a pressure cooker.

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  • Tortilla soup is a bowl of Mexican soul

    In the past few years, Mexican cooking has been increasing in popularity. Most dishes are usually made with various types of fruits and vegetables, such as corn, tomatoes, avocados, chilies, beans and zucchini.
    Classic tortilla soup is simply made with some good chicken broth combined with roasted tomatoes, white raw onion, garlic and chilies. Tortillas are then cut into strips, fried and served on top or blended in the soup.

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  • Balsamic vinegar brings out the flavor of fresh herbs

    I love cooking with balsamic vinegar, from the less inexpensive varieties used in
    cooking and dressings to a few drops of the very best aged balsamic (i.e. expensive!) with some well-aged Parmesan (see below), a traditional combination to end a perfect meal.
    Balsamic from Modena and Reggio, Italy, are the only true balsamic vinegars in the world. The vinegars produced in those provinces in Italy are truly the finest one can buy.

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  • Hearty soups are in order for winter

    With our weather beginning to cool down into winter, I start thinking about flavorful and hearty soups that are perfect for this time of the year.
    Many of my favorite soup recipes can be successfully adapted to a slow cooker or crockpot if you just follow a few simple rules. Try not to lift the lid of the slow cooker while cooking. Peeking will only increase the cooking time by 20 to 30 minutes.

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  • New Year’s food will bring you luck throughout the year

    Do any of you have any special foods that you eat on New Year’s Day to bring good luck? We always have pork and sauerkraut on New Year’s Day. I don’t exactly know why. This is just a tradition passed down from generation to generation. Pork and sauerkraut is always the first meal of the year. It’s supposed to bring good luck throughout the year. Again, I have no idea why.

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  • Merry Christmas! Don’t forget the tradition of holiday drinks

    Entertaining for the holidays? Make that gathering a little more festive and special by extending the holiday spirit to the drinks and refreshments you offer your guests.
    An age-old winter custom is the drinking of wassail, which is drunk at Christmas time, New Years and the Twelfth Night. Wassail is a greeting, meaning “Be in good health!”

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  • Slow-cooked hunter’s stew uses many cuts of meat and vegetables

    When the temperature dips into the 30s and 40s this time of year, it’s time to start thinking about making some good, slow-simmered stew on the stove.
    Using a combination of small cuts of meat (beef, pork, veal or lamb) along with various vegetable of your liking, and then placing them in a large covered pot and simmering them in a seasoned liquid for a long period of time would probably constitute being called a stew.

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  • Eating low-cholesterol foods is just one part of the equation

    Most of us these days are trying to watch our weight and eat a healthier diet. When you walk down the aisles at your favorite grocery store, you notice products labeled “no cholesterol” or “low cholesterol.” What does this mean?
    In some respects, it is a marketing gimmick. Stores could put a sign above the entire produce section that says “cholesterol-free,” since cholesterol is only found in products that originate from animals. Plant-based products have no cholesterol.

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