Cooking Spoons, Gadgets and Tools

What do you do with your stirring spoons when you are cooking?  Do you have a little dish, spoon holder or do you simply place your messy spoon on the counter?  Many times when I'm cooking, I wonder what to do with the sloppy cooking tool once it has been in the pot.  Knowing that I'm going to use it again, I don't want to throw it in the sink, but then again, do I want to leave a message on the counter. 

If I leave the cooking spoons, gadgets or tools in the pot, they get too hot for me to handle, so I don't like to do that.  So....

I did get myself one of those spoon holders that I keep by the stove, but it only holds one cooking tool.  Therefore, I typically have a mess on my counter.

Then I found these nifty slotted, notched spoons.    The Rachael Ray Lazy Solid Spoon-Blue is awesome for your cooking and stirring needs.  With the notched side it easily sits on the edge of the pot and will not fall in.  Furthermore, because of it's silicone material, it does not get hot, so you can handle it easily.  Finally, because it stays on the edge of the pot, there is no messy counter because you placed the cooking spoon on the counter.

So keep the drips off your countertops for less clean-up with the Rachael Ray Tools and Gadgets Lazy Solid Spoon. The spoon is made from silicone material that's comfortable in your hand and heat safe up to 500F. When you're all done, the spoon is dishwasher safe for quick and easy clean-up.






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Food Garnishing Tips and Decoration Ideas

Let’s quit having the dull, unorganized and every-day picnics.  Let’s throw the picnic or party that everyone would envy.  Everyone who is anyone in your circle of friends will be in attendance and will be talking about the great party you put together for days, weeks or even years. 

Food garnishing tips can be found in a variety of places.  You can Google it.  You can find books at the retail store and you can come up with your own ideas. 

My niece is a huge Disney fan and has cut watermelon slices into the shape of Mickey Ears with a popsicle stick inserted for handling.  My sister has cut apples into flower designs, on skewers sticks to make a beautiful edible bouquet.  I had found a recipe to Pilgrim hats from cookies, candy and icing. 

You can be creative and make a themed party more interesting with a few helpful hints.  Food garnishing tips and decoration ideas can provide for you easy-to-follow directions, too. 

Here are few food garnishing tips and decoration ideas that I’m happy to share with you. 

 

 

Take the snack size milky way bars, with some plain m&ms and a teddy grahm to make these cute little car. 

 

Garnish a few bananas, kiwi and halo slices placed perfectly on a plate to create a summer themed treat. 

 

If it’s Thanksgiving, take a Hershey kiss, with a chocolate chip and half of a nutter butter round to create the perfect looking acorn favors.  (This picture shows the full nutter butter cookie, but I prefer using only 1/2 of it for thinner "cap" on the acorn.  Connect them with a small of icing, or lightly held the end of the Hershey kiss and chocolate chip)

 

If you wish to be more creative a need a helpful tool for your food garnishing and decoration ideas, consider this item.  The Ronco Food Decorator and Garnishing Tool helps you to easily decorate a variety of foods with the V-Shaped Food Decorating Knife. With it's dual-ended design, you can easily use the knife for a variety of jobs. Use one end to decorate grapefruit, potatoes, tomatoes, and more, and use the other end to grate carrots or create cheese strips. It's the perfect way to add that extra touch to your dish. 

Make your party the one everyone talks about for a long time to come.

 

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Best Way to Make Hard Boil Eggs

I enjoy a hard-boiled egg.  Do you?  I make about one dozen hard boil eggs nearly every week.  I have at least one for lunch 4-5 days a week.  My grandchildren come over often and enjoy them, too.  To not have hard boil eggs in my house is taboo!

There are a few ways that you can make them.  You can put them in a pot and boil them, or pick of number of other ways.  If you google “how to make hard boil eggs” you will get a plethora of options from which to choose. 

The problem we often have is cracking and peeling the shell.  Ouch!  The sharp shell can poke your fingers.  The sticky shell can adhere to the egg and you end up peeling part of the egg with it.  Once in a great while you will get one that shells perfectly.  But there is another way.  Hard boil you eggs and create them to be without the shell. 

 Eggies can potentially be the best way to make hard boil eggs.  Do you have this set?  These are great because they are hard boiled and already shelled and ready to egg.  You have the best of both worlds by getting hard boiled eggs, already without the shell and without the pain of remove the shell. 

Consider using this best way to make hard boil eggs without the shell.  You will be glad you did. 

 

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Food Injector, Do you have one?

Do you baste?  Do you marinate?  Do you inject flavors to your beef, chicken, pork or fish?  I was a pretty bland cook when I was first married. I was not raised to add many spices or flavors to my food.  My parents truly believed that beef should taste like beef, chicken like chicken and so forth.  My dad would say, if you want your beef to taste different, then eat something different. 

After marriage, however, my husband taught me to experiment.  I was nervous and rarely did so, but when he got in the kitchen we had some of our best meals.  They were full of the flavors of this world and threw me into a new realm of cooking, and enjoying various foods.  We would marinate and/or use a food injector to put other flavors in the meat.  We would use the food injector to put jelly in baked rolls, or pudding in cupcakes. 

Do you have a food injector?  I didn’t for the longest time and now it is one of the neatest gadgets I have in the kitchen.  One injector that I like is the Ronco Liquid Flavor Injector. 

It’s perfect for:

                *injecting all type of liquid flavors into your favorite foods

                *injecting liquids and other juices or oils into chickens, turkeys, roasts and other meals
                *can be used for injecting puddings or fillings into baked good.

Having that one food injector that can do a variety of jobs in the kitchen is helpful.  This food injector can also be used as a baster.  It has the capacity of seven (7) teaspoons. 

You should get one for your kitchen today. 

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NO BAKE CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES Recipes and Hints

When I was young, I started making the No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies.  My paternal grandmother made these yummy cookies for the family reunions.  They were in huge hit by everyone.  She would have to stash some away so that they were not consumed all at once and when everyone thought that the No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies were gone, she drag out the stash, only to see big smiles yet on all our faces.

In 1979 , sadly, my grandmother passed away and I was blessed to receive her recipe.  So I started making them for the family reunions.  Like my grandmother, I found that I had to put a stash away for a later time in the day, too.  This way, they would be spread out for the group to enjoy throughout the day.  Since that time, I’ve been requested to make them for many different gatherings 

Is my recipe is special?  No.  Does it have anything different in my No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies that is not in other recipes?  No, not really, but I do have a few helpful tips that can help you to make good No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. 

The recipe is forthcoming, but first, read these helpful hints:

1.        Don’t double the recipe.  It work for me to double the recipe, because of the formula of the ingredients and the amount of heat and boiling that it requires.  If more than one batch is your need, simply make them individually. 

2.      Use the timer.  The recipe calls to bring the ingredients to a boil.  Be sure to bring it to a complete boil,  then start the timer for one minute.  Do not over cook or under cook the cookies.  Over cooking the cookies will result in crumbly, dry cookies.  Under cooking the cookies will provide you with a runny mess. 

3.       Let Stand for One (1) Minute:  I let my cookies stand for about one minute before dropping them on the wax paper.  This gives it a little cooling time and will not drip as much. 

4.       Shape them for appeal.    After dropping them by spoonful on the wax paper, I take a fork, dipped in cool water, and press them around the sides shape them to a round appearance and eliminate the rough oatmeal edges that tend to spread.  I also press the top lightly to flatten slightly, getting rid of the “high-top”.  Continue to dip the fork in cool water often to keep it from sticking to the cookies.

5.       Loosen the wax paper from the countertop.    After the No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies have hardened (hours later), remove them from the wax paper more easily, by lifting the wax paper off the counter or table top first.  Then they will easily peel from the wax paper.

6.       Store in air tight container.   To prevent the cookies from drying out, keep them in an airtight plastic storage container.  Keeping them on a plate with plastic wrap will work, but a container that is air tight  would be better. 

The recipe for No Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies that I make follows:

1 stick of margarine

2 cups of sugar
½ cup of milk

    Combine in a sauce pan, cook ingredients and bring to a boil.  Once the margarine is completely melted and the sauce comes to a hard boil, boil it for one minute, stirring occasionally. 

Add :

½ cup of peanut butter

Once melted, add:

4 tablespoons of cocoa

1 teaspoon of vanilla

 Mix well and add

3 cups of 1-minute oatmeal.

 Stir well.  Let stand and then drop by teaspoons on wax paper.  Yields approximately 42 cookies

Enjoy.

 
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The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

My children think that I make perfect chocolate chip cookies.  Do I?  Maybe, maybe not but they think that I do and that is all that I care about.  I will say, however, that many others will tell me the same and ask me how I do it?

They are appear nearly all perfectly round.  They appear to be perfectly browned, and they are light and fluffy, not flattened or crunchy.  The picture to the right is of some chocolate chip cookies that I just freshly baked yesterday. 

There is no big secret or special ingredient that makes the cookies seem so perfect, but, I do have a few things that I do consistently when baking, especially my seemingly perfect chocolate chip cookies. 

I believe elevation and humidity can play a large part in how any baking may turn out.  It can affect the temperature that you should use on your oven and it can affect how long you may need to bake your tasty treats.  However, for me, the brand of ingredients can make a huge difference.

I have found that all granulated sugars differ in the amount of moisture they contain as well as the size of the grain.  It can be real fine, or heavier.    These differences have been found to make a difference in how my baked goods turn out. 

Since I can’t control the humidity, I try to be consistent with the brand.  When I make these so-called perfect chocolate chip cookies, I use Domino sugar, and Robin Hood flour. 

So that they give the nearly perfectly round appearance, I roll the dough in 1” balls, rather than dropping by teaspoons on the ungreased cookie sheet.  When they bake out, they have no choice but to stay round.

Typically when you bake cookies, especially those calling for baking soda as one of the ingredients (much like the recipe I use does), the cookies will puff up through the baking process.  When they are in the last minutes of baking they will tend to flatten out.  Therefore, I remove them from the oven in advance of the “flattening” process, just before the cookies is completely baked. 

One last little tip that I have for making these seemingly perfect chocolate chip cookies, is that although the recipe calls for the use of butter, I opt to use shortening instead.  Additionally, I’m particular about the type of shortening.   Do I think there is a different in shortening?  Not really, my sister makes the best pies and she says there is no difference  I guess I’m just a particular in this department.   Butter will make the cookies tastes more rich, and creamy, but shortening will make them more light and fluffy. 

Below is the recipe that I use:

                ¾ Cups of Domino Granulated Sugar

                ¾ Cups of Domino Brown Sugar

                2 eggs

                1 teaspoon of baking soda

                1 teaspoon salt

                1 teaspoon vanilla

                Cream these items together and then add:

                2 ¼ Cups of Robin Hood Flour

                Mix well and then fold in semi-sweet chocolate chips by hand.

                Roll the dough in 1” balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet

                Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned, but not yet flattened.  Remove from the oven, and let the cookies sit on the tray for about 30 seconds before removing to a paper towel to cool.  Store in a seal-tight container, so that moisture stays with the cookie and doesn’t dry out.

Tip:  Do not leave on the cookies on the baking tray too long because the cookies will continue to bake on the heated cookie tray. 

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'Tis the season - Homemade Ice Cream Maker

Tis the season for hot fudge sundaes, banana splits and ice cream cones.  We gather together to enjoy the summer season boating, swimming, playing ball and having picnics.  What better way to celebrate the warm season but to end the day with a cooling ice cream cone or sundae. 

Do you prefer soft serve or hand dip or even homemade ice cream?  Maybe, due to dietary restrictions, you would choose frozen yogurt or a refreshing smoothing instead.  Regardless of your need and/or desire, this is the season for it. 

For my daughter’s baby shower, we did an ice cream social.  The ice cream was not home made, but regardless, we had ice cream.  We had hand-dipped it previously into the little balls for the guests to easily enjoy.  There was chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.  Then we surrounded the ice cream selections with twenty different treats from which to choose in order to enhance your frozen treat.  It was a hot summer July day, spent with good friends, celebrating a happy occasions and enjoying ice cream together. 

When I was a child I would spend time with my cousins and we made homemade ice cream.  They had their own homemade ice cream maker and we would churn by hand the ice cream, taking turns, until we had the smooth, cooling treat.  We would then smother it with all types of toppings:  Sprinkles, fudge, caramel, nuts, cherries and whipped topping. 

I recall how rewarding it was to eat that nice creamy homemade ice cream, after using the manual homemade ice cream maker.  We worked pretty hard churning it by hand to get the proper consistency, all the while continuing to add ice to keep it cold.  Wow, what a chore, but oh, how so enjoyable with that sense of accomplishment. 

With today’s technology, we can enjoy that creamy sensation and tasty treat without the extra work of churning it. 

Now you can make your very own crazy ice cream flavors right in your own home with the Deni Square Ice Cream Maker. This ice cream maker makes it easy to create a variety of frozen treats, right in your own home, including ice cream, frozen yogurt, or even margaritas. The maker works in as little as 20 minutes and features a clear-vue lid so you can easily add your favorite ingredients without having to turn off the machine. A double insulated canister helps keep the bowl colder longer for better results and the small, compact design easily fits on your counter without taking up tons of space. Plus, the hidden cord storage makes it easy to tuck away the cord, so you never have to worry about messy, tangled cords getting in the way. 

 

·         Easily create a variety of frozen treats right in your own home including ice cream, frozen yogurt, margaritas, and more

·         Makes your favorite frozen food or beverage in as little as 20 minutes

·         Features a clear-vue lid that lets you easily add ingredients through the opening without having to turn the machine off

·         Double insulated canister helps provide thorough and even freezing by keeping the cylinder bowl colder longer for best results

·         Small, compact design features a 50 watt high performance motor and easily fits on any counter without taking up tons of space

·         Includes special anti-slip feet that help keep the ice cream maker in place during use

 

Enjoy your summer this year and celebrate the season with homemade ice cream.

 

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