Once a Month Cooking

If you are like most moms around the world, there never seems to be enough time or energy at the end of most days to prepare the nice home cooked meal you would love to have ready made for your family. Unfortunately, cooking a good family meal requires both time and energy. A few wise moms have discovered a concept that has become known as once a month or freezer cooking to assist in those nights when time, energy, or both are in short supply.

The thought behind once a month cooking is that for one or two days (if you prefer to spread the process out over a couple of shorter days rather than one long day of cooking) of intense culinary effort your family can dine well for an entire month. Many women who have tried this have also discovered that not only does it help by always having something nice and home cooked for dinner, but also helps families stay within budget.

Far too many mother’s will guiltily raise their hands when asked whether or not they’ve ever resorted to fast food or junk food meals simply because they were too tired to cook or were missing one ingredient for a meal and did not feel up to running to the grocery store in order to pick up the missing ingredient. This practice can get expensive over time and rob your family of some well-earned fun money.

There are some important things you must keep in mind if you are considering once a month cooking as a way of life for your family. The first thing you need to keep in mind is that planning is the key. You will need to set aside a day (or two) for the cooking when nothing else is on the calendar. It is simply too difficult to see to all the details if you are planning your cooking event around car pools, soccer games, or dance practices. You need a full day that will be relatively uninterrupted. If you have a spouse, partner, or family member that can take the children for the day this will be the ideal situation. Otherwise be sure to have plenty of distractions on hand for the little ones or find a way to enlist their help with any cutting, chopping, slicing, dicing, or peeling that may need to be done.

You should also create a thorough menu followed by a list of each and every ingredient you will need. Shopping needs to be done on a day other than when you are planning to cook. This means that you aren’t likely to rush through the shopping trip and forget something as a result. Bring your menu and your list and get everything you need in one trip whenever possible. You can also save money by planning your meals for the month according to the sales circulars and coupons you have for the week in order to stretch your budget a little further.

Finally, you need to make sure that you have all the supplies, dishes, and containers you need in order to prepare and store the meals you’ve prepared properly. You should also make sure that the recipes you are using for your once a month cooking marathon are recipes that freeze well. It is even better if you have recipes that double well so that you can get twice the results from the same effort.

You should also make sure you are mentally prepared for your marathon cooking session. Beginning with a nice and tidy kitchen is a great start. Folding card tables make an excellent flat surface for storing things out of the way and freeing up valuable counter space for preparing and assembling the foods that will be prepared. You should also utilize as many appliances in your kitchen as possible for maximum efficiency. Don’t limit all cooking to the oven. Find dishes that freeze well and can be prepared in the crock pot or on the range top. Once a month cooking is a challenge but many women will agree it is well worth the effort on those nights when the thought of cooking seems unbearable and the wallet has been stretched to its limit.

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What About Candied Flowers For Cake Decorating

Edible flowers are often used as a garnish or as an ingredient in salads. While not all flowers are edible, there are many out there that are. Very few supermarkets carry edible flowers, but they are available at specialty markets that carry gourmet produce. These flowers can be stored up to a week in the refrigerator as long as they are wrapped well. This is fine if they are to be used in a salad, but when they are used in cake decorating they need to be fresh.

You should never eat flowers that have been sprayed with pesticides. Some of the most popular edible flowers are:

Nasturtiums have a Peppery flavor, Chive blossoms taste like a mild sweet onion, Roses, Violas and Pansies taste a bit like grapes. Other edible flowers are apple blossoms, almond, lavender, borage, chamomile, lovage, lemon, orange blossoms, plum blossoms, peach blossoms, and squash blossoms. We also have daisies, chrysanthemums, geraniums, marigolds, jasmine, lilacs, and violets.

Candied Flowers

Candied flowers are great for desserts and in cake decorating. Here is a recipe to make your own.

Time to prepare: 8 hrs. and 15 minutes
Yield: 2 dozen flowers.

1/4 cup beaten egg whites
1/2 cup superfine sugar
2 cups edible flowers of your choice

Clean and blot flowers dry with a paper towel. With a paint brush, brush on a thin layer of egg white on each side of the flower petals or blossoms. Place flowers into a shallow bowl of superfine sugar and sprinkle more sugar over the flowers so that they are coated. Make sure all of the flower has been sprinkled with sugar. Remove flowers and place them on a sheet of waxed paper. Sprinkle each flower with another layer of sugar, again, make sure the entire flower gets a layer of sugar.

Allow flowers to dry on the waxed paper for 8 hours. Store these tasty treats in an airtight container at room temperature until they are needed.

We are seeing more real flowers and fruit in cake decorating than ever before. The addition of these wonderful edible gifts of nature, gives the cake an elegant look. Whether you are making a wedding, anniversary, retirement, birthday, or a cake for any special occasion, you will get many compliments on your choice of decoration.

Cake decorating can be a bit frustrating and time consuming, but once you learn the techniques and utilize the newest ideas when cake decorating, you will find that it can be fun, rewarding, and lucrative. Most cake decorators have an artistic background, or artistic talent.

If you are thinking of starting a cake decorating business in your home you will need to keep up with the latest trends in cake decorating to be able to offer your clients new unique and wonderful choices. As with anything designs get old, while some will stick with the traditional white or ivory for a wedding cake, but there are those who want to step out of the mold and have a little color in their wedding cake.

What Type of Methods is Used To Cook Mexican Food

What Type of Methods is Used To Cook Mexican Food

Mexican foods are cooked similar to how you cook your everyday meals. They can be fried, boiled, and grilled. Mexico has cooked their foods differently in the past.

Long ago, the natives of Mexico did not have ovens like we have today. They would have to cook foods by an open fire pit.
They would hold the foods in iron pots and pans. It cooked like how we grill our foods on the barbeque. Before the Spaniards introduced the iron pots, the Aztecs used to steam and boil foods in two-handled clay pots which were called xoctli. The pot was filled with the food and heated over the fire. Frying foods was a popular way to cook. Many Mexican dishes still use this method.

Today in the present, it is a lot easier to cook Mexican dishes. It takes less time to prepare the foods. If someone wants to make homemade tortillas, there are iron pans that make it easy. Flan can be made simple using spring form type pans. Long ago, it was a long process to make masa, which is a dish that includes a certain type of corn that has to be grinded. Nowadays you can purchase a metal grinder that helps grind the masa.

The oven is perfect for making many Mexican foods. It makes cooking vegetables and meats a snap. They can be placed in a pot of water with added spices and simmered for hours. Bigger steaming pots make tamales easier to cook. You can make many tamales and steam them all at once, making it very convenient. Tamales take a long time to make, so big pots are perfect.

Grilling on the barbeque is also a great way to taste authentic Mexican foods. Long ago foods were made this way and called Barbacoa. It consisted of steaming meat that was suspended over boiling water in a deep pit. Before steaming the meat cactus and banana leaves were wrapped around it. These days, barbequing allows the spices and sauces to burst with flavor. It tastes similar to how the food once was cooked over open flames. Fajitas are great on the grill!

Centuries ago, the natives used what was called metate y mano. It was a large tool that was made out of lava rock or stone. The surface was slightly concave. The tool was used to mash the ingredients. Another tool they used to mash ingredients was molcajete. It was mortar and pestle. When cooking, you have to be able to stir. Wooden spoons have been used for centuries and still are. Today different types are available for you to use, depending on what type of dishes you are making. Some are made for stirring thicker foods, while others are thin for stirring foods such as onions and garlic.

Mexican food has a rich history behind it. The methods might have been modernized, but the food is still traditional. Depending on how the foods are cooked, you will taste different flavors and textures. There are many Mexican dishes to cook and enjoy.

Microwave Cooking is the Wave of the Future

When it comes to cooking there are few tools that are more versatile in the kitchen than the microwave. This device offers so many functions when it comes to cooking that most people never bother to utilize. It’s sad really. In most homes, the microwave has been relegated to doing duty as a meat defroster, popcorn popper, and coffee warmer rather than using is as the fabulous device for actual food preparation that it really is capable of being.

Before you set up to change your ways, you need to understand that when it comes to microwave cooking, not all microwaves were created equal. Wattage is vitally important as is the quality of your microwave. The average el cheapo microwave that you can find in discount stores will simply not stand up to the rigors of regular full meal preparation though they are perfectly acceptable for many wonderful dishes that can be prepared as side dishes. The correct microwave however, can actually brown and bake a full sized Thanksgiving turkey.

Microwave cooking is definitely not something that is meant for those who are afraid of trying something new or those that are afraid of making mistakes along the way. This is a process that is one part science and one part figuring it out. Research helps a great deal but even many of the recipes you will find for microwave cooking are written for microwaves of varying wattage so you will need to ferret out what times and temperatures would be appropriate for your microwave. This is to a large degree going to be a process of trial and error unless you are using the recipe book that came with your microwave.

Do not despair however, most that have tried microwave cooking find it to be a much better process for their meal preparation needs. While microwave cooking is great for big families it is an outstanding way to save money when cooking for and feeding one. It is also rather simple. In other words, even college students can benefit by learning microwave cooking for one or more as it will help them limit their expenses while still eating healthy fresh made meals.

Another great thing about microwave cooking that is often overlooked is that there are far less messes to be made than when cooking part of a meal stove top, part of a meal in the oven, and part of the meal elsewhere. By and large, microwave cooking keeps any spills and splatter isolated to your microwave. Most of these can be cleaned and controlled rather easily by using a removable plate in your microwave (that can be washed in the dishwasher) and covering your food whenever possible to avoid splatters.

Microwave cooking is gaining popularity despite the fact that is hasn’t caught on as well as the inventors would have liked. The proof of this is in the many products that have been created to make microwave cooking a little bit easier. From omelet makers to special trays for cooking bacon in the microwave industrious people are working to make the easy way of cooking that much easier.

If you have a microwave in your home that is used mostly for melting butter and warming pizza, then you have a microwave in your home that is being terribly under utilized. It is time you hit the search engines for recipes that will be appropriate for your microwave and get busy trying something new and different that will have your family awed and amazed. Imagine having them toss accolades for your tireless devotion and standing over a hot stove for hours when in actuality you only checked on the microwave when the proper time approached.

Microwave cooking very well may be the wave of the future. Get a head start and begin building your collection of wonderful microwave recipes right away for the best selection. The day will arrive when you can make microwave cooking the rule rather than the exception.

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Dealing With Hangovers

A hangover is something that just about all of us have experienced at some point in time. After spending a night out drinking, you may wake up in the morning with your head feeling heavy and your stomach in knots. At that moment, you probably decided that you would quit drinking, to prevent this awful feeling from happening again. No matter how hard you may have tried though, chances are that it happened again.

Even though we all know that alcohol can lead to hangovers, the cause of a hangover is something we dont know. Alcohol does have some positive effects on the body, although it can also lead to negative effects such as hangovers. Some doctors will actually recommend it, while others will tell you never to drink it. Even though drinking is good, moderation is the key. The easiest way to avoid hangovers is to drink in moderation – and never get drunk.

As many of us already know, whisky, bourbon, and wine can result in a much harder hangover than vodka or beer. For many people, chemicals in wines or yeast found in unfiltered beers can result in headaches. Beer, wine, and liquor can be fun and relaxing to drink, although if you arent careful you can easily get a headache or a hangover.

Even though the cause for hangovers is unknown, it has been proven that the headaches associated with hangovers stem from dehydration. With alcohol being a diuretic, it will make you urinate quite often. Therefore, if you drink alcohol or beer on a daily basis, your body will remain dehydrated. When you wake up in the morning with a bad headache and turn to coffee, which is also a diuretic, the process of dehydration actually gets worse.

Youll also need to do something with the alcohol that has been left in your body. Even though a hangover can make you want to stay in bed, the secret to getting yourself back on track is movement. To rid your body of the alcohol, youll need sweat. Sweating gets the toxins out of your body, and helps you feel better. You can exercise or have sex to get over a hangover, as the heat your body emits will be too much for alcohol toxins to handle.

Although a hangover can be a bit of a pain, it can be prevented. The first rule of drinking any type of alcoholic beverage is to never drink on an empty stomach. If you eat a good meal before you start drinking, youll find that the food can help you digest the alcohol much better. When the alcohol starts to attack your stomach, you should consider eating foods that are high in fat, such as cheese. You can also sip some olive oil or drink some water. The secret to making sure that you dont get a hangover when drinking is to drink in moderation and never let yourself get too drunk.

Beer is digested very fast by your body, which is why you should always drink beer first if you plan to mix drinks. Beer is digested the fastest, and will also help your body to absorb any other drinks you have faster. You should always keep in mind that when you drink alcohol, your body will get dehydrated. Any type of alcohol that you consume is a diuretic, therefore you should always drink water with your alcohol. Alcohol can dehydrate your body very fast – which is why youll need water to ensure that you stay hydrated.