Learn how to cut and prepare a whole chicken into parts in this free cooking video on how to prepare and cook chicken recipes. Expert: Louis Ortiz Bio: Louis Ortiz is a professional chef instructor at a culinary institute. He has been working in the culinary industry for 10 years. Filmmaker: EV studios
Sunday, December 25, 2011
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Poverty Cooking
For the past several months, we have been on a really tight grocery budget and so I had to really be inventive to spread it as far as it would go. These are some recipes that worked out really well for us and we ended up eating rather well! Some of the veggies came from our garden, so they were free!
Spanish Rice
Rice
1 can crushed tomatoes
Mexican seasoning
1/2 - 1 lb. ground beef or turkey
Diced onion
Diced bell pepper
Beans (rinsed & drained)
Make the rice according to package directions for the amount you need, cook in chicken broth if you can afford. Brown the meat and drain. Add the cooked rice, onion, bell pepper and beans to the meat and stir-fry until everything is heated through.
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French Bread Spaghetti Bake
1 loaf French bread (get at day old bread store or clearance at Wal-Mart)
1 jar spaghetti sauce
Grated mozzarella cheese
Tear bread into bite size pieces. In a skillet, heat some oil and butter. Toast the bread until golden on all sides. Place bread into the bottom of a casserole dish. Pour spaghetti sauce over the bread. Heat in a 350° oven until heated through. Top with mozzarella and return to oven until cheese is melted.
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Ground Meat Gravy and Mashed Potatoes
1/2 - 1 lb. ground beef or turkey
Brown gravy mix (use as many as you need to spread)
Mashed potatoes (as much as you need)
Brown the meat and drain. Mix the gravy mix according to package directions. Add to the meat and heat through. Pour gravy over servings of mashed potatoes.
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Chicken and Rice
1/2 - 1 lb. chicken drumsticks, boiled, deboned & shredded
Rice
Chicken broth
In a saucepan, add the dry rice, chicken and salt & pepper. Add enough water to the chicken broth to cook the rice according to package directions. Let cook until rice is done. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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Budget Goulash
1 lb. macaroni
1/2 - 1 lb. ground beef or turkey
1 can green beans, drained
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Cook macaroni according to package directions. Brown the meat and drain off grease. Mix together the macaroni, meat, green beans and mushroom soup. Heat through.
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Potatoes and Smoked Sausage
Potatoes
Onion
Smoked sausage
Cut the potatoes and onions into thin slices. Put in a large skillet with just enough water to barely cover. Season with salt and pepper. Cut sausage into small chunks and add to the potatoes. This will make it's own gravy.
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Leftovers Soup
We have a big plastic tub in the freezer (from ice cream). Every time there's left over veggies (with left over juice), meat, or gravy we put it in there and freeze. When it's full, I put it into my soup pot and add water, tomato juice and things like onions or potatoes and maybe some noodles or rice. I know this sounds kind of gross, but it has always turned out REALLY good! I'll make cornbread, biscuits or bread to go with it. Makes a pretty good meal on cold winter days. I've also done it in my crock-pot.
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Hobo Hash
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
2-3 diced tomatoes
1 diced onion
1 diced bell pepper
Cook the potatoes, onion and pepper in a little oil until potato is done. Add the meat and brown. Drain. Season to taste. This can spread pretty far by adding more potatoes.
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Ground Meat Stir Fry
1 lb. ground beef or turkey
2 bell peppers, diced
1 onion diced
3-4 ribs of celery diced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Brown the meat until almost done, drain. Add the vegetables and stir-fry 2-3 minutes before adding the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce. Continue to stir fry until vegetable are crisp-tender and meat if done. I've also done this with shredded cabbage and thinly sliced carrots.
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Nanny's Tomato and Bacon Macaroni
2 lb. hot cooked Macaroni
1 can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 lb. bacon
Vinegar
Cook the bacon crisp and break into small pieces. In a large bowl mix together all ingredients. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add a splash of vinegar to taste.
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Tuna Pie with Gravy
1 can tuna
1 egg
1 tuna can of milk
Parsley
2 pie crusts (one for the top and bottom)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Mix together first 4 ingredients and cook in a saucepan for just a few minutes, stirring all the time. Place 1/2 the pie crust into the bottom of a pie plate. Pour in tuna filling and top with remaining piecrust. Cut slits into top piecrust. Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile, pour the soup into a saucepan and add 1/3 can of milk or water. Heat, but don't allow to boil. Cut pie into wedges and serve with gravy poured over top.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Holiday Health Alert - Cut Out Sugar - Cut in Cookies
Cut out Christmas Sugar Cookies because your child has sugar and wheat allergies? No way! This article aims to convince you that it is easy to make the infamous Sugar Cookie healthy without using processed sugar and flour. You may know these two white wonders as the evil twins most likely responsible for the symptoms I call the holiday haze. They are sugar binging and crashing, irritability, and tummy aches just to name a few. If you are at all curious how to make healthy cookies that feature an all natural and organic sugar-free icing, read on and get ready to roll out the dough.
Cut in sweets without the ill side affects. This in it self is a miracle. First, I would like to tell you about the origins of this heaven sent cookie and why I want to share this treat with you and your family.
Christmas means make a mess in the kitchen with the kids: white confection masks everyone from head to toe, even the dog and kitty. Nothing lights up a child's face like making Christmas cookies, not even the Christmas tree.
I love the sugar cookie because it is creatively kid friendly. The dough is durable, can be rolled out over and over, and the character cut outs make a story for all to imagine. As a kid, all I could do was happily anticipate eating the angel, Santa, and Rudolph the reindeer. About five times each. This holiday joy was inevitably distracted by dread. I'd soon feel the sugar rush through my little obese body. I was always 45 pounds overweight. My joints would ache and messed up was my digestion all night long and into the next day. The memory of feeling the warmth of my mother's kitchen, the freedom to express with cookie cutters, and the ultimate disappoint of ill-health just didn't mix. This was not a recipe for success. Sugar Cookies used to mean joy and pain. At least they did for me, and so I did something about it. I wanted just joy.
I took a sugar cookie recipe from my Aunt Diane, Sicilian by decent, an expert in dough from pizza to cannolis, and when she belts out the Ave Maria, it brings me to tears. Any woman who sings while she bakes you know is going to roll out a tasty dough. So taking my aunt's family recipe, I used my transcribing method of converting the white processed sugar and flour to alternative sugar-free/gluten-free ingredients and created a Cut Out Sugar Cookie to share with everyone.
I use alternative ingredients to white wheat flour such as an all-purpose gluten-free flour by Bob Redmill's that combines garbanzo bean, fava bean, tapioca and potato starch for the right cookie texture. I use white rice flour for a white cookie color and for flouring the dough and cookie cutters. Xanthan gum is a necessary ingredient for gluten-free baking and is added to hold the gluten-free flour together. Just a small amount is needed of this plant based gum.
For the sugar I substitute agave, stevia, and a combination of oligofructose and erythritol in a product called Swerve that can be found at pcflabs.com, some Whole Foods, and health food stores. Organic erythritol is a fermented polyol or sugar alcohol with no digestive ill side affects. Swerve also adds oligofructose which is inulin from chickory. Both ingredients have no glycemic or very low glycemic index and very easy digestion. Neither promotes tooth decay.
Swerve is the most affordable healthy baking sugar replacement that looks and acts the most like sugar in baking. Swerve replaces the volume and firmness as well as adding an extremely low calorie sweetness in a recipe. Just using erythritol products without the added oligofructose like ZSweet and Zero brands of erythritol are not as good for baking because the taste isn't as sweet, but straight erythritol works great as table sugars to sprinkle on cereals and yogurts. They can both be found at Whole Foods and health food stores on on the internet.
Also in the recipe, my aunt Diane uses sour cream which gives the dough an extra added moistness and elasticity that makes for great taste and a dough that can be rolled out many times over. The easy roll out factor is very important when it comes to making this cookie recipe with kids.
To substitute for the dairy, a soy yogurt can be used but it may change the color of the dough to a darker color. The original look of the dough should be a backdrop of white and the color of the icing could be a pink or green for a holiday theme. Another way to switch out the sour cream is to use Total Greek 2% yogurt. This is a healthy version while still using dairy.
Knowing the substitutes, it time for the tricks of making the recipe.
"Carefully roll out the gluten-free/sugar-free dough with a white rice floured rolling pin between two sheets of wax paper. Make sure both sides of the dough are lightly floured with the white rice flour as well. White rice flour is my flour of choice for rolling out gluten-free dough because it is grainy and won't stick. Also, flour your cookie cutters in the white rice flour. Dip a thin metal spatula in the white rice flour to lift up the cut out cookies and gently slide onto your baking sheet," are words you would hear me say in a cooking class or on my Sweet Truth Cooking TV show on Veria. A hands-on interactive class is the best way for eager learners of the gluten-free/sugar-free alternative baking technique to experience a tactile difference in this healthy dough as compared to the old-fashioned white, wheat flour dough. To get a grip on gluten-free, one must see and feel how the new dough behaves: how it takes longer to mix up, looks more crumbly, sticks to your hands, needs more effort to roll out, easily breaks apart, and ultimately bakes and browns faster than a traditional sugar/wheat dough.
Sounds difficult? Trust me. It's worth the little extra effort and elbow grease to make this dough work like magic and create a healthy cookie that everyone will love. The best part is that you'll feel good about feeding it to the masses. Practice makes perfect when handling the dough. Use your senses to know when to stop rolling the dough. Also, a kitchen timer is the key safety device for perfectly baked gluten-free cookies.
The above mentioned techniques are just a few of the fun new tricks of the trade to acquire when it comes to the art and science of creating your version of beloved Sugar Cookie, alternative style. Like interval training, these methods go a long way: sugar-free/gluten-free baking allows you to have your cookies and eat them too! There is no extra calories, bloat, weight gain, or binging because there is no sugar or white processed flour. Sugar cookies are not just for holidays as popular culture would have it. Look at Starbucks, Gelson's, or your local bakery. They all sell fanciful, colorful, kid-like wannabe and wanna bite sugar-cookies all year round and for every change of season. It's not just the winter holidays that sugar cookies intrude our veins and spike our glucose levels. Yet who wants to really give up cookies? And icing. Um, no!
For the icing, again Swerve found at pcflabs.com is the sugar of choice and makes the best tasting. You can also use natural fruits and vegetables for food coloring for your icing by adding beet juice for pink or red and by juicing kale or spinach for green. Use unsweetened coconut and Goji berries for extra charm and creativity!
This Cut-Out Sugar Cookie recipe tastes and looks like the real thing. Now when I make these cookies, the kid in everyone comes to the table and can get up from their chairs feeling clear, vibrant, creative, and healthy. They are at peace with themselves and their stomachs. Have fun!
cut out sugar cookie
a frosted cut-out cookie made with agave - no sugar, no wheat, and no gluten
DOUGH 1 cup vegetable shortening 1/2 cup Swerve sugar alternative 2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 cup sour cream 1/2 cup light agave 2 droppers Liquid Stevia Vanilla Creme 3 cups gluten-free flour 1 cup white rice flour 1 cup potato flour 4 packets or 2 teaspoons Stevia Plus Powder 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon xanthan gum
ICING 1 cup Swerve sugar alternative, powdered 2 teaspoons unsweetened almond milk 1 dropper Liquid Stevia Vanilla Crème 2 teaspoons light agave 2 teaspoons beet juice (optional)
For cookies: With paddle attachment in stand up mixer, cream shortening and Swerve. Add in eggs and beat until fluffy. Add in vanilla, sour cream, agave, and Liquid Stevia and blend.
In separate bowl, sift together gluten-free flour, white rice flour, potato flour, Stevia Powder, baking powder, baking soda, and xanthan gum.
With paddle attachment in stand up mixer, add pre-sifted dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix. Scrape down sides of bowl. If needed, add a bit of flour to hands first and then form dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic. Refrigerate 2 hours or over night for best results to firm up dough.
Between two floured sheets of wax paper, roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thick. Peel the top layer of wax paper off dough. Cut out cookies with floured cookie cutters and place on non-greased cookie sheet. This dough is very durable and can be rolled out many times.
Bake at 350 degrees for 6-8 minutes. Depending on how thick or thin you roll the dough will depend on long you bake the cookies. Watch cookies carefully. The cookies should not brown or even be golden, but will appear white when they are done. Cookies are done when spring back to the touch. Cool on wire rack.
For frosting: To make powdered Swerve, place Swerve in a high powdered blender and blend on high for about five seconds then measure 1 cup. In stand up mixer with paddle attachment, mix well Swerve, milk or water, Liquid Stevia, agave, and fruit or vegetable powder for coloring. Beat icing for 2-3 minutes until glossy. Frost cookies with icing when cooled.
Yield: Five dozen cookies.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Barbecue Chicken - Quick BBQ Chicken Legs
Quick easy BBQ grilled chicken. Very tasty...enjoy!
Shop Livescribe Pulse Swiffer Printable Coupons Discount Oxo Watering Cans Quick
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Monday, November 14, 2011
Drum Sticks 101
If you are a drummer, then you know that some thought is needed in choosing the right drum sticks. All drum sticks are not created equal!
The general classification of drum sticks falls under a series of numbers and letters, such as 5A, 7A, 2B etc. The different sizes and weights available allow for different styles of play and musical preference. The number relates to the circumference of the stick, the lower number having the larger circumference and vice verso. The letters are chosen to correspond with the styles of play. An 'S' stands for 'street', so are often the choice of marching bands. 'B' sticks are designed for the use of 'bands' such as symphonic or brass bands and the 'A', strange as it is, stands for 'orchestral' sticks which are increasingly popular with rock and jazz artists. Let's take a look at 2B for example; a heavier stick which is best-loved by rock and R&B musicians, as they need a lot of volume when playing. On the other hand a 7A is the preferred choice for jazz and acoustic as less volume is needed.
Another choice you will have to make when buying drum sticks is whether to go for wood or nylon tips. The standard wood tip creates a softer sound as opposed to the nylon tip which gives off a sharper sound, especially when used on the cymbals. Nylon tips can snap off under hard impact while wood sticks can splinter and break.
In recent years, musicians have been experimenting more and more with special designs aimed at a better grip or greater longevity such as rubber sticks, which should be impossible to break but do cost that little bit extra.
So what are the key things to look for when purchasing drum sticks?
You could start with choosing the type of wood. The most common woods used for drum sticks are maple, hickory and oak. Maple is the lightest of the three and therefore the most flexible, making it a good option to beginners. Hickory is the all rounder and most popular choice, it absorbs energy well and is still flexible although a little heavier than maple. Oak sticks have a longer lifespan as they are denser compared to the other woods, but for this same reason, they have a reputation of giving off too many vibrations.
To get the correct size, you should think about what type of band you will be playing in. 5B and 2B sticks will withstand the most abuse and are good in marching bands and heavy metal groups. Generally speaking, a 7A or 5A will be the best option for lighter play, such as jazz.
If you are prone to sweaty hands, try to avoid varnished sticks as you could end up losing your grip and the sticks flying out left, right and center. The look and feel of varnish is more desirable to most, but at the risk of discontinuing play, it's better to go without. There are also sticks available with added rubber gripping for those who are really conscious of losing their hold.
Test the sticks in store, that they are not malformed. If a stick is not straight you are under the risk of producing a distorted sound and they are also more prone to breaking. Roll them out on a level surface, it should be smooth and the tip should remain level.
Most importantly, a stick should feel like an extension of you. Experiment with different types until you have an optimal level of comfort and the sound you're looking for.
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Thursday, November 3, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
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