Cleaning is cooking’s evil counterpart.  It’s a tedious task that never seems to stray from obnoxious and annoying. For that reason, I look for every way possible to cut down on cleaning time and reduce the number of dirty dishes.

If you’re making pasta and a salad, there is a little trick to prevent cleaning one extra dish. Sure, it’s only one dish, but it could be that last dish that breaks the chefs back!

Instead of breaking out the collinder to drain your pasta, remove the inside of your salad spinner - it should serve the exact same purpose!

It may take the fun out of cooking, but if you’re in a rush, can you think of anything better than food that automatically cooks itself? We didn’t think so. A company named Vita Craft has made that possible.

The company has equipped recipe cards, pots, pans and stovetops with a technology called RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) that allows them to communicate with eachother. The process of making your dinner would go something like this:

• Place ingredients in pot/pan
• Wave the recipe card underneath the pot/pan handle
• Let the meal cook itself as the stovetop recieves signals and directions 16 times a second, ensuring your recipe is cooked exactly as intended!

Sure, you might have to add some ingredients, perhaps even do some stirring, but there are most likely recipes where you do nothing but wait… and eat your food when it’s finished. Take a look at a few of the example results found on their website:

The product line is called RFIQin and you can learn more by visiting the Vita Craft Website. If you know someone who loves to cook, you should make your Christmas list a little early because how often are you scrambling last second to find the perfect thing? This could be it!

We’ll let you know if we’re able to get ahold of the product for testing. Let us know if you are as well.

The cooking world is certainly a tightly knit community, witnessed by the great number of interconnected blogs and websites dedicated to the art.  We’re doing our part to continue building relationships by dedicating the right hand column of this blog to pointing out other notable cooking blogs and sites that visitors to our blog might enjoy.  If you have, or know of, a blog that should be on this list then by all means let us know!

If the blog is updated frequently with content, we would be glad to place a link to it.  We would also appreciate a link back if you don’t mind!

Thanks!

The salad dressing often makes or breaks the salads and like anything else, we recommend going the homemade route rather than the bottled store bought dressings.  Why?  Just take a look at the difference in ingredients - in a store bought Italian Vinagrette you’ll find high fructose corn syrup, white whine vinegar, soybean oil, salt, onion juice, xanthan gum, caramel color, natural flavors and annatto extract.  Sounds like a manufacturing plant in full effect.

Meanwhile, the homemade alternative of extra virgin olive oil, wine vinegar, lemon juice and salt is a 2-minute endeavor that is not only healthier, but I would argue tastier!

Unfortunately, when you’re making a single serving salad, applying the dressing can be a little bit tricky.  You’ll often get too much or too little but seldom just the right amount spread evenly on the salad.  For that reason, many people have been turning to the “spritzers” which allow you to “spray on” your salad dressing.

I have to admit, it’s a great idea, but that doesn’t mean you have to use their idea AND their dressing!  Reuse their spray bottle or buy one of  your own at a local convenience store and whip up your own homemade salad dressing spray bottle!  It’s a great way to lightly coat your single serving salad with a dressing that is both healthy and tasty (and homemade)!

It happens with all types of foods in all types of quantities.  You use a portion of the total package and need to save the remainder.  Because bacon is often eaten infrequently (does that make sense?) freezing is  the preferred long-term storing method for the excess uncooked bacon.

Unfortunately, once you freeze it, bacon can seem impossible to seperate!  It’s hard enough to seperate the slimy slices when they are freshly opened.  Well, there is a simple way to do both and it’s all about thinking cylinderically:

1. Seperating Bacon -Take the unopened package and place it with the bacon strips laying horizontally.  Roll it up, as you would a sleeping bag, in a tight cylinder.  It’s too easy, because you’re done.  Unroll and the bacon slices should be slightly seperated, allowing you to pick them up by the slice.
2. Storing Bacon - You only used half the package so what do you do with the rest?  That’s right: roll them up, as you would a sleeping bag!  You can roll one or two at a time, lengthwise, and put them into a sealed plastic bag.  Next time you want to use the bacon simply pull out the tightly rolled clusters and defrost.

If you want to steam artichokes evenly, you should start with a pot large enough to house all the artichokes side by side, without having to stack them.  This will ensure an equal amount of moisture gets to each artichoke.

Unfortunately, this creates another problem: with plenty of room, the artichokes may tip over causing half to be submerged and again, causing them to cook unevenly.  There is a quick fix you can employ to prevent this, too.

Slice an onion between one and two inches thick.  Remove the outer rings and place them in the bottom of the water filled pot.  Place the artichokes in the center of the sliced onion rings.  Not only will this keep the artichoke from tilting left to right, but it will buoy the stem of the artichoke above the bottom of the pot, ensuring it does not overcook!

Happy steaming!

Every summer, my family heads down to a little Island off the coast of North Carolina called Topsail Island.  It’s quaint and relaxing – a nice diversion from the touristy traffic that clogs much of the beaches my friends visit. 

Ice cream has been a part of trip tradition every year.  On a country road, a small peach stand sits by the road selling peaches from the farm.  The elderly couple also sells Peach Ice Cream – and I believe it to be the single best ice cream I’ve ever eaten.  I’m able to enjoy it twice a year: on the way there and on the way home.

We also make our own ice cream every year – it’s not that difficult.  But, if you don’t have the right ice cream maker it can be a real pain in the patoot!

Pour the freshest ingredients you desire into the “freezer” of your ice cream maker, mix, and you’re ready to go.  One type of electric ice cream makers will produce more textured ice cream because you have to continually add ice and rock salt while the “freezer” spins the ice cream mixture.  The freezer is surrounded by ice inside of a larger “bucket” – rock salt mixed in with the ice helps transfer the cold temperature to the ice cream. 

There are more sophisticated ice cream makers these days that will also stir the ice cream to ensure equal consistency throughout.  You’re usually able to deliver a larger amount of ice cream with these newer devices, however, our family likes some the good old-fashioned texture.  Both will work well but get one that fits your needs.

One of the most fun parts of making ice cream is experimenting with different fresh ingredients and recipes.  Start with a simple recipe like the one the “Serious Vanilla Ice Cream Recipe” from the Food Network.  Mix in some of your own ingredients such as strawberries, blueberries, crushed cookies, cake or peaches!  From there you can experiment even further.  It really is delicious and fun to say the least.

A couple of the most popular (and affordable) ice cream makers seem to be the Cuisinart ICE 20 and the White Mountain 4-Quart Ice Cream Maker.

A few tips when you make your ice cream:

• Let the ice cream chill in the freezer after made – it will give a more full flavor
• Ingredients like whole milk, cream, eggs and sour cream will make rich, creamy ice cream while fruit juice, skim milk, and low-fat yogurt-based ice creams will be thinner and contain more crystals.
• Adding unflavored gelatin will result in a smoother, creamier ice cream.
• Artificial vanilla loses its flavor when frozen so use the pure vanilla extract.
• One quart (4 cups) will serve about 6 people.  Unless you’re like my family, in which case, use one quart per person (jk)!

During a recent episode of Iron Chef, this guy captures an awkward sequence of frames. Was it intentional subliminal advertising? Was it an accidental technical error? Watch the McDonald’s logo blink for one frame in the middle of the program and decide for yourself. What do you think?

If fresh ingredients are so important, what could be better than growing your own?  It’s that time of year (for Americans at least) and vegetable gardens are on my mind.  It’s really just a step process: (1) planning your garden, (2) preparing your soil, and (3) planting your seeds. 

Planning Your Garden
Location, location, location!  While it might be convenient to have your garden directly next to your house, you’ll need 6 full hours of sunlight each day for them to grow and mature properly.  You also want to avoid wind and areas that easily form water puddles after rain storms – so look for areas with good drainage.  An area close to your house is probably still preferred, after all, you’re garden will need care and monitoring and the more convenient that is the more often you will do it. 

Jot out a map of your garden and where you plan on putting each.  Some tips on some of the most common vegetables can be easily found with a google search.  For example, here is one vegetable garden site that can help you with some basics on 15 common veggies.  You’ll want to know WHAT you’re planting and jot down WHERE beforehand because each plant needs different spacing and so forth. 

You’ll also want to plan creating a mesh wall a few feet high to keep out dogs and other animals that happen upon your garden.  We love animals… but not ones that eat our fresh vegetables! 

Preparing Your Soil
So all the real hardcore gardners out there will have a dozen steps to preparing the soil.  And, perhaps rightfully sew (pun intended).  It may involve doing pH test of the soil acidity and a number of other detailed points in the process. 

You can delve into that if you’d like, but I’m going to keep it simple.  Sure, rotating crops each year and giving your garden a year off every 3 or 4 years is a good idea.  And, we know to buy some fertilizer and enriched soil to mix in when “plowing”. 

My rule of thumb would be to use your intuition.  Select an area that doesn’t seem to have rocks or stones in the soil.  Take a garden rake and how and dig into the dirt to see it’s consistency.  Does it look like the plant would enjoy it?  Good… let’s make food!

Planting Your Seeds
Following your map and the direction on each seed packet, sprinkle the seeds in the “v” shaped areas you dig in the soil.  Use a piece of string or ruler to make sure they are the proper depth.  When you cover the soil over, pack lightly so moisture gets to the seeds.  Water the seeds lightly so the soil is left undisturbed but keep the garden wet until the seeds have sprouted above ground.

For bedding plants that you transfer into you’re garden, you want to water these areas before transferring the plants.  And, make sure when you’re walking in you’re garden you are walking in the neatly created rows you have planned so as to not pack down the soil you worked to gently fluff.

Sure, this is an incredibly general guide but we hope it will get you started.  Having your own vegetable (and spice) garden can be fun, affordable and give you the freshest vegetables you so desperately desire!

Reading a “narrative cookbook” I snagged from the library, I spotted a common theme that I haven’t seen so simply and elegantly stated, simultaneously, “…My comfort level in kitchens has come only from spending a lot of time in them.  The more I cook, the more comfortable I get, the more fun I have, the more flavorful my food.”

Everyone begins a beginner.  Taking the time to learn about food and spending time in the kitchen are the only two things that will get you from Point A to Point B.  The best part is – anyone can do it.

While learning is usually a process, everyone can make one simple change to immediately improve the flavor of the dishes and the meals they cook – buy better ingredients!  You often hear sports analysts talking about teams only being as “strong as their weakest link.”  Well, you’re final product will only taste as good as the ingredients you put in.

A good comparison was made in Zingerman’s Guide to Good Eating: First, pour some cheap oil on a bowl of poorly made, inexpensive pasta, then sprinkle it with powdered garlic and pregrated, cardboard-canned Parmesan.  Most likely inexpensive and unappealing.  Then take the exact same recipe, cook up some excellent artisan pasta, toss it with an exceptional, full flavored olive oil, a touch of chopped fresh garlic, and top it with some real Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese.  You’ll probably eat one of your best meals all year.

Learning how to find the “quality” ingredients is a task unto itself – but a good place to start are farmers markets and smaller grocers.  Often times, the big chain stores push all the factory made products that are low cost and high margins.  Plus, the consumers are sucked into the brand name and the age of advertising prevails.

In Baltimore, MD I often take the short walk to the Cross Street Market which opened in 1846 and boasts a number of local vendors selling fresh produce, flowers, seafood, meats and more.  Nothing as large as Redding Terminal in Philadelphia, but you’ve got to work with what you’ve got!  And, by now you should know that “bigger isn’t always better.”

Companies are industrializing food by making it consistent, inexpensive and increasing shelf life.  But you can consistently cook inexpensive meals that are no hassle and incredibly flavorful.  It’s all about what you put into your recipe.

So take a look and think about the ingredients you’re using.  The best part is, more flavorful ingredients don’t always mean more expensive ingredients.  Sure, they may be more expensive on an ounce to ounce comparison, but you often have to use less of the same ingredient because of it’s flavor.