Category Archives: Food

Food

Top Chef Season Premiere

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For those who don’t know, I just had surgery. So this week all I am going to do is a couple of initial thoughts. Next week you will get a more detailed post;).

Finally they took Top Chef to New York. What took so long?

Quickfire Challenge: I love that they are getting to the speed challenges up front. Lets see if they actually have the technical skills to play with the big boys. Versus someone getting to hang around on just a quirky ingredient.

Elimination Challenge: NerdDad had a great question. Would it be better to make something that tastes really good but not as ethnic or use and ingredient you don’t know and it not taste good? I tend to say make what you know with a twist but at least it will taste good.

I will be back next week with a little more detail (and wit;)!

Food

Sticky Cheese?

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We all have had this happen. We have some yummy dish covered in cheese that then needs to be covered with foil to cook. When you go to look at your lovely creation it has lost some of its cheesy goodness. Well, here are a couple tips that might help.

  • There isn’t a lot of magic in fluffy shredded cheese when baking. So just lightly press down your cheese into you dish.
  • While for freezeing you do want the aluminum as close to the surface as possible, the same isn’t said for cooking. If you are covering something to go right into the oven just add an inch to your length and tent it up a little. The it may look like a little pyramid;).
  • Another thing you can do is lightly (very lightly) spray you foil with a bit of non-stick spray. I don’t do this often but it has helped in the past.
  • If all else fails take a long, thin, straight spatula and scrape you aluminum as you are lifting it off your dish. Then you can save as much of the gooey cheese as possible!

Food

Pampered Chef Giveaway!

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It is time for Bloggy Giveaway’s Carnival again. I am giving away a Pampered Chef Season’s Best, Quikut paring knife and a mini serving spatula. All you have to do to win is leave me a comment with a food question or issue you need help with. That is it! I will answer those questions in the future.

Make sure that you leave your email in your comment or have it in your profile. I will close comments on Saturday, 11/1, and the winner will have 3 days to contact me. That is it.

Oh, 1 comment per person.

Food

Cooking With Kids: Tools

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Let me preface this post with the fact that I don’t believe in buying “kid sets” of things for the kitchen but;). Knives are something that you want to be very careful in allowing a kid to use. I love using this Pampered Chef Kid Safe knife with my oldest. These really are safe knives and can cut most basic things that you would allow your kids to help with. Now from it isn’t that expensive from Pampered Chef (like $3 but then add shipping and handling) but there may be a cheaper alternative. I think this knife looks a pumpkin carving knife. So you might want to be on the look out when you are visiting the bargain stores!

Food

Phenomenal Cookware Deal at Amazon!!!

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I was checking out the Amazon Friday Sale (as I have a habit of doing) and saw this great deal. This is normally over $500 and it qualifies for free shipping. I paid more for a similar set from Pampered Chef with a hostess discount and everything.

If you read the reviews you will see that it is a real quality set and I love everything from Kitchen Aid.

Food, kitchen, organizing

Silicone Muffin Cups

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I was trying to come up with something I own that truly makes my life work better and I came up with Silicone Muffin Cups. I know that seems indulgent and silly but they have improved my life greatly. If you optimize your oven with large sheet pans you can put all of the muffin cups free standing them. I make 48 at a time (24 on each sheet pan). This works great for my Sweet Corn Muffins. I just multiply the recipe by 4 and cook them at once. This way I get everything dirty at once and yet I just have to go through one cooking cycle. Everything cools very quickly in the silicone so I just pop them out. Nothing sticks and I am not pulling paper off either. I even use these for Individual Egg Quiches. When I did this will the old fashion tins everything stuck:(. Then I just stack them up in a small little pile and don’t have to figure out where to store clunky muffin pans. You do have to wash them by hand but you get a 99 cent toothbrush and just scrub on them a little (the brush is more to get in the crevices than for scrubbing) and you are done! So there is one of my favorite things!

Food

Carnival of Recipes

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Welcome to this week’s Carnival of Recipes. We have a great group of recipes for all different types of food. I have a confession first. I wasn’t sure how to organize the recipes. At first I was going to do breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert but then I realized that I never stick to those designations when I am cooking. So I have them relatively grouped but forgive me if it doesn’t make sense.

First up we have something that we in the NerdFamily usually eat for breakfast, a snack or dessert. Stephanie from Make It From Scratch has not 1, not 2 but 3 different yummy, easy quick bread recipes. Another breakfast type submission (though we often have them for dinner) comes from How To: Tips and Tricks. They give us How to make Healthy Pancakes: Tips for the best pancakes.

Then we have a quick and easy recipe from World Famous Recipes that would be great for a NerdFamily lunch, Quick Ham Salad.

Next up we have a couple of recipes that would make a great lunch, side dish or light dinner. Jennie at Adam’s Brag Book has a hearty Barley Chili for us (that I will definitely be making). Then Wacky Hermit at Organic Baby Farm has a Squash Soup (or as she says,“What to do with a Gigantic Squash”) that is a perfect fall recipe. The Expatriate’s Kitchen has an interesting Curried Eggplant and Long Beans that is a Thai-inspired vegetarian dish using some of the unique kinds of eggplant in season right now.

Then we have a couple of neat and easy entertaining recipes. Stop the Ride has a Tuna Spread that is great either as a dip or a canape. Then RecipesRecipe has an easy no-bake Brie with Sun Dried Tomatoes.

Next we are onto dinner time. Me-Ander has a complete meal with Quick, Easy, Healthy Cooking. Wasabi Bratwurst has an intriguing Beef Tongue recipe. Famous Recipes has a Classic Lasagna Recipe.

We have a great grouping of chicken dinner recipes. Cyndi over at Busy Family Meal Planning starts up off with a Fast and delicious chicken cacciatore. Idyllic Dreams has a must try recipe called MidSummer Risotto & Monterey Chicken. Marsha at A Weight Lifted has an easy Cantonese Lemon Chicken.

Our last stop is dessert. The Phoenix Arizona East Valley Living Blog has a really easy and delicious Cherry Cream Cheese Pie. Kathee at World Famous Recipes has a delicious sounding Berry-Topped Brownie Ice Cream Cake.

That concludes this Carnival of Recipes. Thank you so much for joining me and please go read all these great recipes. Next time you should submit a recipe and play along;).