Cast Iron Dutch Oven Seasoning How To Get Your Dutch Oven Ready For Use

Writen by Scott Carey

Seasoning your cast iron Dutch oven is required before its first use, so make sure that you have accounted for this after buying your Dutch oven.

The steps are pretty simple, but take some time. You won't even have it completely seasoned after the first time, but will occur as you use your Dutch oven.

1. Cast iron Dutch ovens are shipped with a coating that keeps them from rusting during shipping. This must be removed before you start the seasoning process. Use soap, hot water, and a steel wool or other type of scrub pad to remove as much of the coating as possible. After this, never use soap to clean your Dutch oven again.

2. Warm the Dutch oven and lid on the stove (or in your oven) to completely get rid of any moisture that might be left.

3. Apply a coating of melted shortening to all surfaces of your Dutch oven, inside and out. Make sure to do the lid as well.

4. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place your Dutch oven on a cookie sheet covered with foil on the top shelf, upside down. Bake for one hour. Turn the oven off and let the Dutch oven cool. Note that this will probably cause some smoke and certainly a smell in your house. If you have a propane grill that is large enough to hold the Dutch oven, then you may prefer to do it outdoors instead.

5. When done, remove the Dutch oven (it will be hot, so make sure to use an oven mitt, or hot pad (and make sure it is an old one, since Dutch ovens hold heat very well and may ruin a nice oven mitt).

6. Use a paper towel to wipe off any excess oil. Then recoat with shortening and cook it again for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and let it cool. You can repeat this step again, if you like, but twice should be enough.

7. Once done with this initial seasoning, wipe out all excess oil and then apply a light coat of vegetable oil (like canola oil). This will help keep it protected and ready for your first use.

8. The more you use your Dutch oven, the better seasoned it will get. It can help to cook foods, with high fat contents, such as bacon, sausage, or hamburger, the first few times to help speed up the seasoning processor. Deep-frying is another way you can help speed things up.

9. After each use, make sure to completely dry the Dutch oven, and then oil lightly before storing for your next use. Over time, it will darken and improve. When well-cared for, cast iron Dutch ovens can last for many, many years.

Scott Carey has many hobbies and interests, including outdoor cooking. See http://www.outdoorcookingmagic.com for Dutch oven cooking tips. Get a Free Dutch Oven Recipes eBook.

High Altitude Baking A Cooks Guide

Writen by Lauren Danver

High altitude baking can be a real adventure for the cook, with a number of challenges to keep you on your toes. The higher you are in elevation, the less pressure there will be. How does this affect your baking creations? Low air pressure creates increased evaporation of liquids during the baking process and this can cause your cakes to fall. Baking at high altitudes means a few more adjustments so that your baked goods will come out perfectly, ready to tempt the finest of taste buds.

Start by following the high altitude recipes by the letter. For some bakers, this will work out fine. For others, changes will be necessary. Begin with making adjustments to your oven temperature by 15 - 25 degrees F. Next, adjust the ingredients in your recipe. For cakes that are supposed to rise, using either yeast or baking powder, you will need to make some changes.

If you are using yeast during high altitude baking you will have to make sure that the dough rises slowly. For cakes using baking powder make certain not to over-beat the eggs. You will also have to decrease the amount of baking powder used.

A decrease in atmospheric pressure will cause gases to expand easier. For your lovely meringue toppings, meringue (angel) pie shells, angel and sponge cakes, follow the following suggestions: Whip the egg whites to medium-soft peaks instead of stiff peaks. Add more stiffening with a bit more flour and a bit less sugar. Also, with your increase in oven temperature by 25 degrees F, the batter will have a better chance to set before the air bubbles or leavening gases have the chance to become too expansive.

When preparing puddings and cream-pie fillings above 5,000 feet, using a double boiler will not provide you with the maximum gelatinization of starch. You can simply use direct heat rather than a double boiler.

High altitude will affect the rising time of bread the most. At high altitudes, the rising period will be shortened. To maintain the development of a good flavor in your breads, you will need to preserve the longer rising period. Punch the bread dough down twice to give the time for the flavor to develop. Remember that flours tend to be drier and able to absorb more liquid in high, dry climates. Use less flour when bringing the dough to the proper consistency. You may want to experiment a bit with this for best results.

When buying cake mixes, look for the high altitude baking instructions on the box. Your quick breads will vary from muffin-like to cake-like in structure. The cell structure of biscuits and muffin-like quick breads should be firm enough to withstand the increased internal pressure at high altitudes without the need of adjustment. Be cautious,though, as a bitter or alkaline flavor can result from inadequate neutralization of baking soda or powder. To avoid this, reduce the baking soda or powder slightly and this can often improve your results. The quick breads with a cake-like texture will be more delicately balanced and can often be improved at high altitudes when you follow the adjustment recommendations given for cakes.

You can also take advantage of a variety of charts available for high altitude baking. These will come in handy and help you determine what adjustments to make according to how many feet above sea level you are. The higher the altitude the more adjustments are needed.

The following guidelines may be used as a general rule of thumb. Remember to test each recipe, first, for best results:

3,000 to 4,500 feet:
decrease baking powder 1/4 tsp per required tsp
decrease liquids by 1 Tbs for each cup required

5000 to 6000 feet:
decrease baking powder by 1/4 tsp for each tsp. required
decrease sugar by 2 Tbs for each cup required
increase liquid by 2 to 4 Tbs for each cup required

6000 feet and above:
decrease baking powder by 1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp for each tsp. required
decrease sugar by 3 to 4 Tbs for each cup used
increase liquid by 2 to 4 Tbs for each cup used

Altitudes over 10000 feet: same as 6000 feet, but add an extra egg to recipe

High altitude baking can be fun. As you experiment, you will come up with the formula that works for you at your level of elevation. You should begin with the suggested adjustments and then make minor tweaks here and there. Your good efforts will produce quality baked goods, sure to please even the gourmet in all of us.

About the author:
Lauren Danver is the owner of All Kitchen Supplies, where you can find all types of discount kitchen products. She also recently relocated from living at sea level to over 5,000 feet!

How To Make An Omelet

Writen by Janice Faulk Duplantis

Eggs are high-quality protein and are reasonably priced. They lend themselves to an endless number of flavor combinations and are the basis of a large variety of wonderful dishes. The omelet (sometimes spelled 'omelette') is one such dish and this article will discuss basic techniques and tips for preparing an omelet.

So...what is an omelet? An omelet is a dish consisting of beaten eggs that are cooked until set and folded over, often around a filling of cheese and/or vegetables. They are remarkably easy to prepare and can provide a quick, yet impressive, evening meal to serve at the end of a busy day. Omelets may also be an elegant addition to any breakfast or brunch menu.

An individual omelet is generally prepared with 2 or 3 whole eggs, although they may be prepared from egg whites only. The list of suitable filling ingredients is quite lengthy and the combination of fillings to include in an omelet may be varied endlessly. To mention only a few good omelet fillings, one might choose: diced cooked turkey or chicken, chopped cooked ham, smoked salmon, crab meat, cooked shrimp, crumbled cooked bacon, proscuitto, chives, shredded cheddar, Swiss or jack cheese, bell peppers, spinach, sauteed fresh mushrooms, chopped tomatoes (omitting seeds and pulp), pimento, minced onion...the choices are limited only by the imagination. Filling ingredients other than cheese may be omitted to create a plain cheese omelet.

As mentioned above, omelets are easy to make and anyone can master the technique. Merely adhere to the following steps and preparing the perfect omelet will become as simple as scrambling eggs.

Basic Technique for Preparing an Omelet...

1. Start by cracking 2 or 3 eggs into a bowl. Whisk the eggs with a wire whisk or fork until the yolks and whites are combined. One or two tablespoons of milk or water may be added to make the eggs fluffier. Add seasonings such as ground black pepper, favorite herbs, etc., to the egg mixture if desired. (Avoid adding salt as it will toughen the eggs.)

2. Coat an 8- or 10-inch nonstick omelet pan or skillet with cooking spray and heat it over medium heat. The smaller the pan, the easier it will be to manage the omelet, however, if using more than 3 eggs, a pan of greater size will be needed.

3. Once the pan is hot, pour in the egg mixture and gently swirl the pan to evenly distribute the eggs.

4. The eggs will begin to set after 20 or 30 seconds. Once the edges are set, gently push them toward the center and allow the uncooked liquid to flow into the exposed pan.

5. When the eggs are about 70% to 80% solid, add the filling ingredients on one side only in a half moon shape, leaving a little room around the circumference so that the fillings do not spill out. Do not add too much filling, or else it will be difficult to fold the omelet.

6. Once the eggs are cooked, run the tines of a fork around the edge of the omelet to make sure the egg layer has not stuck. Carefully run a spatula under the empty half of the omelet and gently fold it over the top of the full half.

7. Allow the omelet to remain in the pan for an additional 30 seconds. Take the spatula and run it under the omelet to make certain it has not stuck to the pan. Angle the pan over a serving plate and slide the omelet out of the pan onto the plate. Yields 1 serving.

How to Separate an Egg...

Many people, who wish to reduce fat and cholesterol in their diets, prepare omelets using egg whites only. Separating the egg white from the egg yolk is a simple skill to master. Just follow the step-by-step guide below:

1. Fresh eggs separate more easily than older ones, so choose the freshest eggs possible.

2. Lightly crack the shell of one egg at its midpoint on the edge of a bowl. Glass, ceramic, or steel are preferred as a plastic bowl will not crack the egg shell as well.

3. With thumbs placed on either side of the crack, carefully open the shell into two halves, making sure that the egg yolk stays in one half of the shell.

4. Over the bowl, gently pour the egg yolk back and forth between the two shell halves, allowing the egg white to fall into the bowl while keeping the yolk in the shell.*

5. Once all the white is in the bowl, put the yolk into a covered container and refrigerate for later use in sauces, custards and cream fillings. Discard the shell or add to compost.

* Note: Be careful not to pierce the yolk on the rough edge of the egg shell, as this will cause the yolk to mix with the white. A small amount of yolk in the egg white is not a problem when making an omelet, but if the white is intended for use in making a meringue topping, even the tiniest amount of egg yolk mixed in with the white will prevent proper whipping.

Omelet Tips...

<> It is best to not add salt to the eggs before cooking. Doing so will toughen the eggs.

<> Eggs come in different sizes. Most recipes assume the use of large eggs.

<> To reduce fat, omelets may be prepared using only the egg whites. Two egg whites are equivalent to one whole egg.

<> An egg white is easiest to beat at room temperature. If time allows, take the eggs out of the refrigerator about one-half hour before using.

<> The addition of a tablespoon or so of water or milk beaten into the eggs will result in a fluffier omelet. This, however, is strictly a matter of personal preference.

<> Many omelet recipes call for butter. Butter does not merely prevent the omelet from sticking to the pan, but it also enhances the flavor of the omelet. To avoid butter, an olive oil spread or nonstick cooking spray may be used.

<> When using a non-stick pan, the amount of butter may be reduced to half the amount specified in the recipe.

<> Chopped vegetables may be sauteed in a little butter or olive oil before adding them to the omelet.

<> If fresh mushrooms are used as an ingredient, they should always be sauteed before adding them to the omelet.

Your Perfect Omelet...

If your cooking skills have been limited to serving scrambled eggs, take a little time to step out and broaden your horizons by learning how to prepare an omelet. You will not regret it and your family and friends will be greatly impressed.

Omelets are quick and easy to make and with the broad range of filling ingredients, their versatility will allow you to introduce a great deal of variety to your meals.

Please consider including omelet preparation in your cooking repertoire. You may wish to follow omelet recipes verbatim at first, but with a little experience you will quickly become an expert omelet chef creating your very own variations of the perfect omelet.

Copyright ©2005 Janice Faulk Duplantis

About the Author: Janice Faulk Duplantis, author and publisher, currently maintains a web site that focuses on both Easy Gourmet and French/Cajun Cuisine. Visit http://www.bedrockpress.com to see all Bedrock Press has to offer. Janice also publishes 4 free monthly ezines: Gourmet Bytes, Lagniappe Recipe, Your Favorite Recipes and Cooking 101. Visit http://www.bedrockpress.com/subscribe.html to subscribe.

Chop Till You Drop

Writen by Lisa Paterson

You use it everyday in the Kitchen. If not looked after it can make you sick – And yet you probably never give it a second thought.

The Chopping Board is a large board you use in the kitchen for chopping, cutting and preparing food on.

When purchasing a new board there are heaps of options to choose from – timber, glass, marble, plastic. And it can be a confusing choice.

Glass and Marble type cutting boards may look good but they play havoc on your knives. The hard surface will quickly blunt your knife and damage it's edge.

So, keep your glass and marble boards for serving food only.

When it comes to wooden and plastic boards, even the experts are divided as to which is best. It comes down to personal preference. And mine is…. wooden.

Wooden boards are generally heavier and less inclined to slip. They are also more attractive and can be used to serve food at the table.

Where as plastic boards are lighter, come in various colors and are dishwasher safe.

Whichever type you choose, it is imperative you clean it well. Harmful bacteria can breed on your board and cause dreadful food poisoning.

So … be sure to scrub your board well after each use, with hot water and detergent. Then allow it to stand and drip dry. Your board should be completely dry before using again.

It's a good idea to have more than one board, to avoid cross contamination. Have one for raw meat and one for other foods.

Or take it to the extreme and do what the professionals do. Use 5 different colored boards:-

Red – Raw Meats

Yellow – Poultry

Blue – Seafood

Green – Fruit and Vegetables

White – General

So, if you board is starting to look a bit worse for wear, then it is probably time for a new one. And now you will be well informed to choose the right one for you.

Happy Cooking!

Lisa "The Crock Cook" has been using her Crock Pot for years and now shares her wealth of practical knowledge and Crock Pot Recipes with you at http://www.a-crock-cook.com

Webmasters - Please feel free to add this article to your site. Just remember to ensure the links remain live and static back to http://www.a-crock-cook.com

Regards Lisa

10 Dishes Every New Bride Or Groom Must Know How To Make

Writen by Emily Sigers

Okay, you've either gotten married or are planning to pretty soon. Congratulations! I'm sure you're aware that this means you will be responsible for at least half the meals you and your loved one will eat from here on out! Not to mention future children, your visiting family members and - of course - inlaws.

A while back, one of my young daughters (who I hope wasn't getting any ideas), asked me which 10 recipes I thought every newly married person should be able to make. After thinking, off and on, about it for a few days, I came up with what I believe are the top ones. Before we get to the recipes, I'd like to just share a few words that would have made life a lot easier on me had someone shared them with me when I first began cooking!

Cooking is an art. It isn't a chore to be endured or a duty to get out of the way. It truly can be one of the most rewarding and satisfying things you'll ever do. Just like most things, anyone who wants to become good at it can. Anyone who wants to become great at it can. There's an ancient Chinese Proverb that says, "The only difference between a good housekeeper and a bad one is an hour a day." I took the liberty to edit the proverb to tell you, "The only difference between a good cook and a bad one is an hour a day." If you make up your mind to become a great cook and dedicate even just one hour a day to honing your skills, you'll earn your apron's stripes!

A few things you should always remember:

Never leave the kitchen when you're baking cookies or biscuits. I wouldn't advise ever wandering away from the kitchen while cooking, but when it's something like cookies or biscuits, doing so is usually disasterous. They're just looking for a reason to burn and take your departure as the open door they need.

When getting cookbooks, go to the used bookstores - or check online auctions or Amazon.com. The cookbooks that were written in the 70s and 80s were some of the best. You'll find ingredients you've actually heard of, for one thing, plus they tend to have more of the basic recipes you'll need for starting out.

Watch Food TV! It is really addictive, and even more informative. I'd suggest you not ever, under any circumstances, miss an episode of Paula Deen's "Paula's Home Cooking", Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals" or Alton Brown's "Good Eats". They're the top, in my opinion. After you're more familiar with your way around the pots and pans, you'll be ready for Emeril, but you have to work up to him!

Now, to the top ten recipes you'll need. Either consult some of those cookbooks I told you about, or a website, such as http://www.foodtv.com or http://www.buttermilkpress.com, or ask various family members for their favorite recipes for each. They'll get a real kick out of that. Plus, if you happen to ask an inlaw for their favorite recipes, you'll get off on an especially agreeable note!

Breakfast/Brunch:

1. French Toast and Pancakes. Nothing will impress him or her quite like a tall, warm stack of delicious pancakes with butter melting off the sides.

2. Egg dishes: Scrambled, fried and poached. Note: When cooking eggs, remove them from the skillet before they actually look completely done. They continue cooking even after they're removed to the platter.

3. Buttermilk BIscuits. Buttermilk in a recipe makes everything instantly better. Whether it's biscuits, pancakes or cornbread, it's presence improves the flavor ten-fold.

4. Great coffee. You absolutely must be able to make a sensational pot of coffee. Do your research, try out different beans and always, always grind your own coffee. You can get a grinder for under $20.00, and it will be 20 of the wisest dollars you ever invest.

Lunch:

5. Hamburgers and their cousin, Cheeseburgers. I'll let you in on a family secret, a little garlic salt is the difference between, "Honey, this is good." and "Wow! My mom (dad) never made burgers like this!"

6. At least one really good homemade soup. I know, the little red and white cans are awfully convenient (and you'll find about 10 in my own pantry), but being able to make a sensational potato or vegetable soup is a great big feather in your culinary cap.

Supper/Etc:

7. Fried Chicken. Back to the Buttermilk for a minute, soaking your chicken in buttermilk (in the fridge) for about an hour before coating and frying makes for a juicier, more flavorful meat.

8. Mashed potatoes. Never. Under. Any. Circumstances. Use. Instant. Potatoes. Don't even look their way in the store. Peel, boil, and mash your potatoes with milk, butter and....pssst, another family secret, sour cream. It's worth the effort.

9. Yeast rolls. Okay, I'll admit it, these aren't as easy to make as the other 10 or so foods talked about here. That's because yeast is tempermental. It can be likened to Goldilocks, of all things. It gets angry if the liquid is too hot, it gets angry if the liquid is too cold. It wants it just right, and when the temperature isn't just right, whereas Goldie laid down, your bread will lie down. Flat rolls. Ugly rolls.

10. (3-way tie!) Chocolate Chip Cookies, Apple Pie and Your sweetheart's favorite cake. Master the desserts and even when the main meal isn't up to par it'll be okay. The last thing a person eats, after all, is the thing they'll most recall. You know the saying, all's well that end's well.

Congratulations, good luck, and have fun. It may sound like something out of a 1940s cookbook, but that really is the biggest secret. To most things in life, actually.

Visit Buttermilk Press for more articles, cooking tips, food facts, resources, and more. E-mail the author at joi@buttermilkpress.com

Top Tips For Good Nutrition This Thanksgiving

Writen by David Saunders

To many, good nutrition and thanksgiving dinner seem to cancel each other out. However it should be possible and even easy to make a nutritious meal that is a pleasure to share with friends and family. Here are a few tips to help you make your holiday meals healthy ones too.

Prepare a wide variety of foods. Traditional thanksgiving stories tell us of meals that contained wide varieties of dishes reflecting the backgrounds of the many people who came together for these meals and to give thanks. The nutritional benefit of eating from a wide variety of foods is you gain a wider variety of nutrients. Also, you are less likely to overload on a single type of food. If you don't have time to prepare a large number of dishes, many grocery stores sell prepared dishes that you can add to the variety of dishes you're cooking yourself. Gourmet grocery stores often prepare these dishes on site.

Try some simple recipes. Instead of making the obligatory green bean casserole with mushroom soup and fried onions, how about a simple green bean dish with a dash of sea salt? Substitute yams, cooked in butter with marshmallows and brown sugar, with a more simple preparation of yams. You may be surprised at how much people enjoy the taste of the original ingredients.

Be careful of portion sizes. An ideal meal is derived from all of the food groups and should include a wide variety of individual foods. Instead of loading up your plate with mashed potatoes, start with smaller portions of everything that has been prepared. If you would like a second helping, follow the same procedure. By eating from a wider variety of foods you will be providing your body with a more complex array of nutrients and you'll be able to enjoy the many flavors as well.

Pace yourself. Unless you're on call for surgery, you probably have a little time. Instead of jumping right into your second helping, consider a short intermission and burn some calories by helping out with the dishes. By eating more slowly, your body will give you signals when you are full. If there are leftovers you can always eat them later.

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for all of the things that we have. It is a time for us to remember and reflect on the things that are important in our lives that we so often take for granted. The sharing of a meal with friends and family is a wonderful event and is cherished by nearly all cultures. So take pleasure in the eating and the sharing of food but also consider the nourishment that food gives you and be thankful and give honor to the abundance which you have to share.

Dave Saunders is a professional lecturer, and certified nutritional educator.

This article can be found, with an audio edition, at http://www.glycoboy.com/nutrition-articles/111/top-tips-for-good-nutrition-this-thanksgiving/

Making New York Style Cheesecake Recipes Your Own

Writen by Andrew Krause

So you've done your research on the Web or through cookbooks and finally, after much trial and error, you've settled on one recipe that not only produces the results you want, but provides the taste you've looked for. You've made it a dozen or so times, and are fairly confident you know the ins and outs and all the potential pitfalls.

Don't be surprised to find yourself getting a little bit bored. It's hard to believe you could ever grow discontented with the creamy perfection that is the New York style cheesecake, but it is human nature to seek out variety in all things. However, the base structure of the recipe is in such perfect balance that it does not invite much in the way of real change. You can add the occasional chocolate chip, a touch of amaretto or other flavoring, but that's about it.

Of course, you could spend months exploring the various add-ins, and that's all well and fine. But why not go outside the structure of the cheesecake and look at some of the sauces you can create? Let's look at the three main types:

Chocolate: Who doesn't like a good chocolate sauce? There really is no "making" to the sauce, really. Once you've got your double boiler going and a little heavy cream to mix with your chocolate, you're in business. Don't forget that you aren't limited to milk chocolate. Dark and bittersweet chocolates can add variety!

Caramel: This sauce is tricky to make, involving molten sugar that has the same characteristics (and damage abilities) as lava. However, once made, it will keep just about forever and the flavor is unlike anything else.

Fruit: From blueberries and strawberries to peaches and mangos, there are as many different kinds of fruit sauces as there are fruits in the market. Let your imagination run wild!

So remember, the next time you want to do something different with your cheesecake … build on top, not inside to make your New York style cheesecake recipes your own.

Andrew Krause is a Chef and Pastry Chef for over 30 years, at present I am retired, I owned a Gourmet Bakery called The Cheese Confectioner. You can visit my site at http://www.andies.cashhosters2.com NOTE: You are welcome to reprint this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the about the author info at the end).

Two For One Dinners Beef

Writen by Michele Webb

If you find leftovers boring, uninviting or downright "yuck," then here are some ideas to put the "zing" back into mealtime. With a little creativity your home-cooked meal can easily become a delicious meal another night. There are a six articles in this series, today we are going to look at what you can do with beef.

DINNER - NIGHT ONE: Pot Roast

Make a slow-cooked pot roast with onions, carrots and potatoes. Give it a flavor boost with bottled horseradish. Serve it over mashed garlic potatoes with a green salad. Put the leftovers in a tightly covered container, or ziplock bag in the refrigerator or freezer.

DINNER - NIGHT TWO: Vegetable Beef Soup

Chop the leftover beef into cubes and mix with a packaged beef broth with frozen mixed vegetables (i.e., green beans, carrots and corn) for a simple, and filling soup. You can find in your grocer's frozen food section packages of "soup mix" vegetables as well. Serve the soup with cornbread or biscuits on the side. This soup also makes a great lunchbox item that you can warm up and put into an insulated thermos.

Publishing Rights: You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your website, free of charge, as long as the author's information and web link are included at the bottom of the article and the article is not changed, modified or altered in any way. The web link should be active when the article is reprinted on a web site or in an email. Copyright 2005, Michele Webb. All Rights Reserved.

Michele Webb owns her own website and is a member of a number of organizations for women Netpreneurs and business owners. She has over 20 years experience in health care, clinical trials, management, project management and software development. She currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada USA with her two dogs.

You are invited to visit her website at: http://www.ebooksnstuff.com. Or, you can email the author at: support@ebooksnstuff.com

Tips On Preparing Hamburgers For The Grill

Writen by Pam Aran

There are many ways to prepare hamburgers. The most basic fundamentals follow. The first thing you need to do is preheat the grill. Make sure to do this part and not skip on it even if you have the urge to grill in a "quick and dirty" fashion. This really goes for any kind of meat you are preparing.

Usually you'd need to leave it on for about 10 minutes or so. Place the hamburgers in the grill and close the top of the grill. Leave it in there for about 4 minutes or so- making sure to leave it on medium. After this step flip the burgers once and leave it there for about 3 minutes or so.

Now you can put on the cheese, and after another minute you can eat the hamburgers. If you were going to use stuffed hamburgers instead of regular burgers you would set them for 5 minutes for each side before flipping.

By preheating, you can avoid a lot of the work involving flipping, reviewing, and tossing the hamburgers around to make sure they cook evenly.

Now you are ready to serve the hamburgers on any type of buns that you prefer to eat. The final step is to simply savor your masterful creation.

Excellent ducane natural gas grill informational pamphlets can be obtained from my site.

http://www.gasgrilldeluxe.com

Safe Food Handling Practices 10 Simple Tips For Cooking At Home

Writen by Lisa Barnes

Many times you and family do not feel well, because you've eaten food that was handled or prepared in an unsafe manner. This can be avoided when preparing food at home, by keeping the following in mind during food preparation.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the single most important thing you can do to prevent getting sick is "WASH YOUR HANDS." Clean hands, as well as clean cooking utensils and surfaces are your first defense against food-borne illness. Like washing your hands, most of the things you can do to help prevent a food-borne illness are really easy.

Here are 10 simple food safety tips, that together spell F-O-O-D S-A-F-E-T-Y.

Fight bacteria by washing your hands often. Wash for about 20) seconds (sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" twice) with hot, soapy water BEFORE fixing or eating foods and AFTER using the bathroom, changing diapers, handling pets, gardening, coughing or blowing your nose.

Only thaw perishable food in the refrigerator or the microwave. Never defrost food on the kitchen counter. Cook food immediately after thawing in a microwave.

Order perishable hot takeout foods so they're delivered shortly before serving. Whether takeout or prepared at home, avoid letting foods such as meat, poultry, seafood, dairy products, eggs, cut and/or peeled fruits and vegetables sit at room temperature longer than two hours.

Divide leftovers into small, shallow containers for rapid cooling in the refrigerator.

Set your refrigerator to run at 40 F and your freezer at 0 F to help stop harmful bacteria from growing. Keep an appliance thermometer in your refrigerator/freezer to monitor temperatures.

Avoid cross-contamination. Wash cutting boards, knives and other utensils in the dishwasher or with hot soapy water and rinse with hot water after they come in contact with raw meat, poultry and seafood, and before using them for another item. Avoid placing cooked food on a plate that held these raw foods. Multiple, colored cutting boards can help keep food types separate, to avoid cross contamination.

Fruits and vegetables should be thoroughly cleaned before eating. Wash fruits and vegetables thoroughly with running tap water just before eating. There are also special fruit and vegetable washes that can be purchased at health and grocery stores. Wash fruits and vegetables that you peel or cut, such as melons, oranges or cucumbers. Bacteria adhere to the surface of these and can be transferred to the part you eat when it is cut or peeled.

Eat foods that you know are safe. Most of the bacteria that commonly cause food-borne illness can't be seen, smelled or tasted. When in doubt, toss it out!

Take the temperature of perishable foods such as meat, poultry and seafood to assure harmful bacteria are destroyed. Cook hamburger and other ground meats (veal, lamb, and pork) to an internal temperature of 160 F and ground poultry to 165 F. Beef, veal and lamb steaks and roasts may be cooked to 145 F for medium rare and to 160 F for medium. Whole poultry should be cooked to 180 F as measured in the thigh; breast meat to 170 F. All cuts of pork should reach 160 F. Thoroughly cook fish until it is opaque and flakes with a fork.

Yolks and whites of eggs should be cooked until firm to avoid possible food-borne illness from salmonella. Store fresh eggs in their original carton and use within three weeks for best quality. Use hard-cooked eggs within one week -- do NOT return them to the egg carton for storage. Refrigerate them in a clean container.

Due to food quality and special preparation methods in restaurants and homes, some of these rules may not be adhered. Your favorite Caesar salad dressing may contain raw egg yolks, and a restaurant chef may recommend your pork chop be cooked to only 145 degrees. Usually your food server or menu will warn you about such items, so you can make an informed decision regarding your food choices. These items will probably not hurt you, however children are more susceptible to illness because they do not yet have the enzymes to fight some bacteria, thus your choices for them should be more cautious. If you are concerned about a certain food or food preparation method, avoid those items.

Lisa Barnes is the owner of Petit Appetit, a cooking service devoted to the health and palates of babies and toddlers. She is the author of The Petit Appetit Cookbook (Penguin, March 2005) and a certified safe food handler. For more information and to sign up for a free newsletter, visit http://www.petitappetit.com

Creating Perfect Ribs In Your Smoker

Writen by Joe Johnson

In all honesty, I love ribs, but I hate the ribs that the vast majority of establishments serve. Rarely do I get ribs that are done properly as most tend to be either dry and leathery, or soft and mushy. Worst part is, most of these establishments believe that slathering the ribs in a barbecue sauce will bring them back to edible status. Well they are wrong…all it serves to do is add to my frustration by making the meal messy.

While very few, if any, chefs, pit masters, or home-cooks strive to achieve a leathery finish, you do hear the statement that "falling off the bone" is the way to go. While I agree that tender and soft is the ultimate goal, any competition rib that completely falls off the bone is considered completely over-done. A truly perfect rib will adhere to the bone, but fall off when tugged. So my goal with this post is to show you how to achieve a perfect rib at home. The key to good ribs has four components – the rub, the smoke, the heat, and the time. Let's begin with the rub.

The point of using a rub is to develop a flavor base and to create a crust or bark on the ribs. Depending on where you go and whom you talk to, the rubs you have to choose from will reflect regional influences. Some will be hot and spicy, whereas others will be sweeter. I am partial to the Pork and Poultry Blend from Caroline's Rub, which has a more typical Texas flavor – more savory than sweet. I like sweet, don't get me wrong, but I prefer my ribs with more kick than candy, so I let my wood choice add the sweetness. Before applying the rub, the first thing I do is remove the thin skin that covers the back side of the ribs. Using a filet knife, I loosen it from one end, grip it with a paper towel, and then pull it off in one easy motion. While you don't absolutely have to remove this skin, taking a few extra seconds to do so will definitely improve the tenderness of your final outcome. I then rinse and thoroughly dry the ribs, and follow that with a thorough coating of my chosen dry rub. How much you use, will entirely depend upon you. I like a thicker coating, some will prefer less. Next take the coated ribs, and tightly wrap them in plastic wrap, place in the refrigerator and let sit for at least 3 hours. This will give the rub time to penetrate and flavor the ribs. Once the ribs have sat, remove from the refrigerator and allow them to return to room temperature before putting on the smoker.

While the rub adds an immediate kick of flavor, the smoke you choose will work to complement the rub, and add that flavor we all recognize as barbecue. With meats such as pork ribs, I like to kiss the meat with smoke from pecan and cherry woods. The pecan is very similar to hickory in flavor, without the strong bite that can sometimes overpower the lighter meat of the ribs. The addition of cherry wood to the mix serves to work with the pecan to sweeten the meat.

Next factor for success is heat. While there are a thousand ways to cook ribs, many of which yield a truly great product, I prefer slow smoked ribs. Nothing gets my blood pumping like the smell of slow smoked barbecue. I have always found that higher temperatures result in tougher ribs, so my goal is to maintain a low heat level of around 215F to 225F in the smoker (or in your oven at home). This temperature range has yet to fail me. Once I have the smoker where it consistently holds the temperature within this range, I will place the ribs standing in a rib rack, inside for cooking.

Finally, the last factor for creating successful ribs is the cooking time. While many folks insert a thermometer in their ribs to determine doneness, I prefer simply watching the bones. For an average rack of baby back ribs, you can assume a cooking time of between 3 ½ and 4 hours at the temperatures I recommend. The easiest way for me to determine if my ribs are done is to perform two steps, starting with the first at the 3 hour mark - look at the bones. If I have a good ¼ - ½ inch of bone showing, I then perform step two, which is to take a toothpick and insert into the meat. If it slides through will little resistance, like going through butter, the ribs are done. You will want to watch them closely as they will go from done to overdone fairly quick.

Once cooked, I like to let the ribs rest for at least 10 minutes to allow the juiced to evenly distribute themselves within the meat, which will keep things tender and moist. Like I said earlier, I don't like messy, so I tend to serve the ribs dry, with a side of my favorite barbecue sauce for dipping.

Following this method has consistently provided me with ribs that are succulent, moist, and truly satisfying.

Joe Johnson is a proud Texan and founding partner and chief pit-master with Caroline's Rub, where he is in charge of product promotion and development for their line of gourmet dry rubs, smoked salt, and Texas chili seasoning.

Cooking Tips To Help You In The Kitchen

Writen by Kadence Buchanan

When you are cooking a meal, there are many things that can go wrong and many simple, household solutions to issues that arise that you may not know. To that end, we've written this article to discuss some simple hints that can make your time spent in the kitchen much easier.

- Did you burn food, and now the whole house smells of the terrible burning odor? Well, don't fret - there is a simple fix. Simply take a half of a cup of whole cloves and put them in a saucepan with two cups of water. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for twenty to thirty minutes. The house will now smell sweet due to this mixture.

- Flare-ups on the grill can be worrisome and dangerous. For that reason, it is important to minimize the risk of flare-ups while grilling. Any excess fat on cuts of meat that you are about to cook should be removed. Also, if you bring food to room temperature before placing it on the grill, you're more likely to cook it evenly.

- Need to check your grills temperature, but you don't have the feature on your grill? One simple test that you can perform is to hold your hand facing palms-down over the coals, roughly around where you will be cooking. You should count how long you can stand to keep your hand there as it will give you a rough estimation of the temperature. If you can only count to about two, the heat level is high, and it's best for cooking meat. If you're looking to grill vegetables, you should cook with a medium heat. If you can count to about four, the grill is the proper temperature. Be sure to keep it safe when you are performing this test.

- When baking cookies, it's tough to get them to turn out exactly round. There is an easy solution, however: after creating the dough, place it into empty concentrated juice cans and put it in the refrigerator. When you're ready to bake, just slice off the end of the can and push the dough through, slicing off cookies as you go. They should be perfectly round!

- Need to make your own croutons fast? There's an easy way to do it, and you probably have all the ingredients in your house! Cut slices of bread into cubes that are three quarters of an inch. Place them on a baking tray and add cooking spray and garlic powder. Broil the tray for roughly three minutes, and there you go! Try adding different spices to suit your individual fancy.

Kadence Buchanan writes articles on many topics including Women, Beauty, and Women's Health.

What If Cooking A Turkey Was Hard

Writen by Lance Winslow

What if cooking a Turkey was difficult? Would it be the most common dish for your families Thanksgiving Dinner? Would many families pick something simpler, something they could put into the Microwave?

Would Thanksgiving Supper be only celebrated by a few? What if Edward Winslow did not send four men out to shoot fowl and bring them back for the 1621 Harvest Feast, which inspired our current traditional Thanksgiving Holiday Family Feast? What if the men did not bring back any birds that day and instead shot a raccoon, skunk or brought back lobsters instead?

Did you know that the birds eaten at that first dinner were most likely swan and duck as well as wild Turkey? And by historical accounts no one knows for sure if they actually ate Turkey and if they did they most likely would have roasted it.

What if fresh turkeys were not actually as fresh as frozen turkeys? What if it did not take 24-hours to defrost a turkey? What if a 20-pound turkey could be defrosted in 15-minutes instead of one whole day? What if you could use a deep roasting pan without steaming the meat?

What if you could stuff your turkey at anytime rather than worrying about bacteria growth? What if you did not have to worry about the breast meat drying out? What if you did not need a big thermometer to cook a turkey? Ah what if indeed; What if Cooking a Turkey was difficult?

Lance Winslow

Great Marinading Tips For Grilling

Writen by Pam Aran

One of the key secrets to having great tasting BBQ dishes is in the marinade. So how do you create the right marinade for your grilling session?

More seasoned grilling chefs may have their own blends and styles when it comes to marinading. However the basic components of a good marinade consists of 3 core parts.

The first part contains an acid component: lemon juice, lime, vinegar

The second part consists of an oil: sesame oil, olive oil, corn oil, etc

The third part of a marinade consists of seasoning: salt & pepper, onion, rosemary, cayenne, and others

By having your key ingredients in place for all the different components of your marinade before hand, you will save lots of trouble later on in digging for these ingredients as you are grilling (which will leave many unhappy campers waiting on you).

By having a healthy mixture of all the ingredients on hand, you will also have much greater flexibility in terms of changing things up a bit in real time when you are actually doing the grilling. Every one has different tastes and so with those various ingredients on hand you can mix and match to your liking as long as those 3 components are fulfilled to some extent.

Wonderful ducane gas grill parts guides and articles can be downloaded from my website.

http://www.gasgrilldeluxe.com

Working With Eggs

Writen by George Lake

Bad eggs are rare but they do occur. Crack eggs into a separate bowl before mixing with other ingredients. If the egg is bad it will have an unmistakeable odor.

If you find an egg stuck to the carton, fill the indentation with cool water and let sit for five minutes. The water will soften the dried egg white that is holding the egg in the carton.

Many techniques are used for cracking open an egg. Their is an easy method you can use if you want to keep the eggshell out of the frypan. Using the following method will keep the egg shell from shattering when you crack the egg.

1. First, find a flat surface, you want to crack the egg on a flat surface and not on the edge of counter or frying pan.

2. Place the egg in the upper part of your palm, between your thumb and first three fingers. Leave a space between your middle and ring finger. Give a short, sharp crack to the exposed area on a flat surface.

3. Once the egg is cracked, quickly bring the egg over the bowl or pan and quickly spread apart the two halves of the shell. Pull the lower half down with your ring finger, while pushing up the upper half with your thumb and middle finger. The egg will gently fall into the bowl as the shell spreads apart.

If you drop an egg on the floor, pour salt on the floor, heavily. Wipe it up fifteen minutes later. Salt will set up the eggs protein so that it's easier to clean up.

If you have to clean up a mixing bowl that has eggs coated on them, use warm water. Hot water may set up the egg's protein and make it harder to wipe off the bowl.

George Lake updates his blog Monday-Friday with cooking tips and recipes that relate to each other. Check out the following blog if you want new recipes and additional cooking tips:

http://www.dailyrecipes.blogspot.com

Oven Mitts Spaceage Materials For Safer Cooking

Writen by Terry Kaufman

It is Thanksgiving morning and an absolutely beautiful autumn day. Even though it is cold, the sun is shining brightly and the kids are bursting with energy. However, you have been in the kitchen since 5 a.m. and it is getting awfully warm in there. Perspiration is dripping down your face, splashing on your arms. Suddenly, you see smoke seeping out of the oven and the smoke alarm has begun its insistent and annoying blare. Uh, uh. Your magnificent 20-pound turkey is not getting golden brown - it is well on its way to becoming midnight black. Not good. You frantically search for your oven mitts - you know, the ones that have burn holes all over them. But the holes are a moot point because your two dogs have snatched the mitts off the kitchen table. Oh, boy! A new chew toy! They are off and running, shooting through the doggie door and to their favorite digging sites in the yard. You stand there, in front of the oven, wondering what to use to retrieve your turkey and the very expensive roasting pan under it before the oven explodes. You just stand there totally stunned. It is time to load up on oven mitts - quickly!

Sounds familiar? Perhaps your situation is not quite so frantic. But, it is true. Where are the intact oven mitts when you need them?

There are many different types of oven mitts available today. It all depends on what features you are searching for in a mitt. What to buy? Which material? How long? What special features?

Probably the most fascinating and unusual oven mitts are made of the versatile space-age Silicone. They boast of so many advantages: they are waterproof; repel stains; have easy cleanup; can be thrown in the dishwasher with your other dirty kitchen gadgets; and can withstand very high temperatures anywhere from 280º F ( 138º C) to over 600º F (316ºC). Besides that , they are really nifty to play with - they are so flexible you can bend them in practically any position your hand can move.

Silicone oven mitts are so protective that you can plunge your mitt-clad hand directly into a stock pot of boiling water to retrieve a bobbing ear of corn on the cob. That could be very painful, to say the least, with an ordinary cloth oven mitt that you might purchase at a grocery store. You have greater sense of touch because of the thinness of the silicone. Because silicone repels water, there is much less of a chance of receiving scald burns. Oil also is repelled with the silicone mitts.

Mitts of silicone come in all sorts of shapes and colors. I am like a little kid when I see a store display of these wonders. Such great colors - black to white with almost every color in between. For the kid in you, they also come in animal shapes, such as a dog's or frog's head. Some mitts have ridges on the underside of your hand to help grab heavy items. They come in varying lengths which cover mid-arm to elbow so you will not get burned reaching deep into the oven. Some enterprising person even designed tiny silicone finger protectors.

Silicone oven mitts tend to be rather expensive, especially since most of them seem to be only available as a single glove rather than a pair. I have seen listed prices ranging from about $15.95 to $29.95 per glove. If the glove does not burn you the prices certainly will!

Quilted oven mitts can be coated with a silicone spray on the outside and have fabric insulation on the inside. These mitts can be compared to a conventional oven mitt.

Some oven mitts are made of Neoprene, the same material used to create wetsuits. They are safe up to about 400ºF (204ºC) and can safely go through either the washing machine or the dishwasher.

Next are the type of fabric oven mitts your mother used. Quilted on the outside, they are generally lined with cotton on the inside. They are always designed so that one glove can be used on either hand.

If you search long enough online you might be able to find oven mitts made of hemp. Most of them are made of pesticide- and chemical-free hemp, in Romania. Another unusual oven mitt can be made by following a knitting pattern with 100% cotton yarn. I do not know about you, but I do know I value my fingers far too much to use non-heat retardant gloves. Maybe these knit mitts would look better displayed on a kitchen wall.

You can find all sorts of kitchen gadgets made from all of the above-discussed materials. Not only are there silicone oven mitts - you could go crazy looking at silicone baking mats to line your cookie sheets, vibrantly colored place mats, spatulas, whisks, and all sorts of bakeware.

Enjoy your space-age oven mitts. Remember, they are not your grandma's daintily crocheted pot holders.

Terry Kaufman is Chief Editorial Writer for http://www.niftykitchen.com, http://www.niftyhomebar.com, and http://www.niftygarden.com. ©2006 Terry Kaufman.

A Quick Guide To Buying And Cooking Asparagus

Writen by Shauna Hanus

Asparagus is a sweet and nutty flavored vegetable that is as versatile in color as it can be in serving styles.

There are three types of asparagus widely available in grocery and specialty stores today.

1. Green Asparagus, this is the traditional type of asparagus that can be found sold in bunches of either young thin and tender spears or older heartier thick spears.

2. Purple Asparagus, this newer variety is a deeply colored asparagus that requires special techniques when cooking. For purple asparagus to retain its distinctive purple color it must be cooked with some sort of acidity such as lemon juice or vinegar.

3. White Asparagus is nothing more than green asparagus that was covered with soil during the growing season. By covering the asparagus with soil chlorophyll is not produced by the plant. White asparagus while delightful as an alternative is less sweet and not as tender as its green counter part.

When buying any of the three varieties look for fresh tender asparagus. Follow your nose, sniff the asparagus if it has a strange or musty smell it is not fresh. Also look at the ends of the asparagus. The ends should be moist and free of mold. If the ends are exposed to air in the store then bring them home and cut about 1 inch off the bottom. Then stand the spears up in about 1 inch of water and store in the refrigerator for up to three days.

Cooking asparagus is easy, fresh young asparagus can be boiled, steamed, grilled, sautéed, roasted, or eaten raw in salads. Steaming and raw will retain the most amount of nutrients while grilling sautéing and roasting will bring out a unique sweet nutty flavor.

Shauna Hanus is a gourmet cook who specializes in creating gourmet recipes. She has extensive experience cooking with easy to find grocery items to create delightful gourmet meals. She is also the publisher of a no cost bi-monthly gourmet newsletter. Her newsletter is always fun and informational packed with tips and trivia you can use everyday. Sign up for her newsletter and learn more about Gourmayeats Weekly Recipe Club at http://www.gourmayeats.com

Whats The Thick On Roux Thickening Soups And Sauces

Writen by Richard Massey

Soups and sauces can be thickened in a variety of ways. A sauce must the thick enough to cling to the food, but not so thick it stands up on its own. Starches are by far the most common thickening agent. Cornstarch, arrowroot, waxy maize and the ever popular, roux (roo). But what is a roux and how does it work?

Roux is a cooked mixture of equal parts by weight of fat and flour. If you mix a starch with water, such as cornstarch it is called a slurry

How does it work?

Starches thicken by absorbing water and swelling to many times their original size. This process is called gelatinization. In order for the starch to function at its maximum, each granule of starch must be separated before heating in order to avoid lumps. If granules are not separated the starch on the outside of a lump quickly gelatinizes into a coating that prevents the liquid from reach the rest of the starch inside. This is accomplished in two ways.

1. By mixing the starch with cold water – This is used with starches such as arrowroot and cornstarch. This method is not recommended for flour because it lacks flavor and has an undesirable texture.

2. By mixing the starch with fat – This is the principle of the roux. A roux must be cooked for a short period of time so the finished sauce or soup does not have the starchy taste of flour. If cooked for just a short period of time, it is called a blond roux. If cooked longer until it takes on a light brown color, it is called a brown roux.

The most preferred roux in cooking is made by mixing melted butter and flour. Many cooks clarify the butter first because the liquid in whole butter tends to gelatinize some of the starch and make the roux hard to work with. A roux made with butter gives a nice rich flavor to sauces and is easy to work with.

Margarine and oils can be used to make a roux as well, but because of there lack of flavor they are very seldom the top choice.

Fat drippings from animals such as chicken and beef can make superior sauces. Animal fats enhance the flavor of sauce, but again must be clarified to eliminate any liquid that might cause lumping.

Mixing it all together

A roux can be added to the liquid or the liquid may be added to the roux. The general rules are: The liquid can be hot or cool, but not cold. A very cold liquid will solidify the fat in the roux. The roux in the same way can be warm or cold, but not hot. A hot roux could cause spattering and possibly lumps. For medium sauces and soups I use 8 ounces butter and 8 ounces flour per gallon of liquid. For home it comes out to about 1 tablespoon each per cup of liquid. Use less or more depending on how thick you like your sauce. By follow these simple steps you'll have lump free soups and sauces for the rest of your life.

About The Author

Chef Richard has worked in the top fine dining restaurants in Washington State and is the author of the ebook "Chef's Special". You can find free recipes, informative articles and order the ebook at http://www.csrecipes.com

The Special Pickle Jar

Writen by Bonita Anderson

I am a firm believer in organic food. Anything that is made or preserved without chemicals tastes much better than something that contains ingredients that a person can not pronounce. If I can not pronounce it I will not eat it.

There are dozens of different pickles in supermarkets today. I think I have tried every mass produced brand there is. They all look delicious in the jars. If they tasted half as good as they looked it might be okay. Some are too sour while others are nothing but salt. I have even tried those pickle mixes that say the pickles are ready to eat a few days after making. I will never use those mixes again. All I could taste when I tried making pickles with them was formaldehyde. I thought I was back in biology class dissecting frogs again.

Needless to say, I make my own pickles. I like bread and butter pickles, beet pickles, pickled peppers and dill. Pickles are usually processed in a water bath for ten minutes after packing in jars. All that is needed for a good tasting pickle are the right ingredients. Firm cucumbers are a must. I always try to get them in jars within one hour of picking. Letting the cucumbers sit for a long time will result in a soft product. Only use kosher canning salt. Iodized salt will not give a good result. Good quality water is also important.

My favorite pickle is not processed in a water bath. It is fermented much like sauerkraut. I make them in gallon jars. I prefer 2-3-inch size cucumbers for this pickle. First I scrub them with a vegetable brush, making sure they are free of dirt. Next I place them in a non-metal container and cover them with a brine made of 1-1/2 cups of salt and 4 quarts of water. Let them sit over night in the brine. In the meantime make a brine of 10-quarts water, 1-quart vinegar and 2-cups salt. Boil for 10-minutes. Let this brine stand over night.

The next morning I drain the cucumbers and rinse with clear water. I sterilize my jars. Then I add a few peeled cloves of garlic to the bottom of the jar. Next I add a whole head of dill weed, stalk and all. I start packing the cucumbers tightly, adding more dill between layers of cucumbers. When the gallon jar is filled to about 2-inches from the top I pour the cold brine over the cucumbers, making sure they are completely covered with brine. I put the sterile cover on and tighten well.

These will ferment in the jar for a week or more, depending on the temperature of the room. I let them sit on my counter. When they start fermenting they will get cloudy and look like something to be discarded. Just be patient, do not panic. When the fermentation process is done the pickles will clear up. At that time I move them to a cool place and leave them alone for at least 5-6 weeks. If you open them up too soon they will not be translucent, meaning they have not ripened long enough.

I make these pickles in August and usually open the jar for Thanksgiving day. After opening I keep them in the refrigerator. My family looks forward to that special pickle jar every year. They know that good things are worth waiting for. They will not eat store bought pickles.

Look for more food tips at http://www.pothaven.com

Wok This Way Part 3 Of 5 Seasoning Your New Wok

Writen by Helen Fan

Seasoning is the most important thing you can do to your wok. Only carbon steel and iron woks need to be seasoned. The purpose of seasoning is to remove the manufacturer's protective coating and coat it with a thin layer of oil. This creates a smooth cooking surface which enables food to shift and glide easily, thus preventing your food from sticking, discoloring, and picking up a metallic taste.

The initial step is to scrub it thoroughly. Take a steel wool scouring pad and scrub both the inside and outside of the wok with soap. This will remove the anti-rust coating that comes with most woks. If your new wok comes with some rust spots, don't worry. It is completely normal for unseasoned woks to develop some minor rust. Just make sure that you scrub out the rust before you move on. Rinse it thoroughly with hot water. Then, to make sure that you remove all the coating, set the wok on the stove, fill it with water, and boil it for 5 to 10 minutes to dissolve the remaining coating. Pour out the water and scrub the surface again with steel wool scouring pad and soap. New woks may cause a slight metallic taste to the first two or three dishes that are cooked in it, but after that, the metallic taste will disappear.

Reminder: the steel wool scouring pad is only to be used in this initial step prior to seasoning your new wok. Do NOT use a steel wool scouring pad on a seasoned wok, EVER! It will waste all the effort you put forth in seasoning your wok, and will require you to re-season it again.

Next, place the wok on the stove over high heat. You're ready for the next step when you sprinkle a few drops of water into the wok and they start to dance around the bottom. Then, roll up a few sheets of paper towel, or use a piece of cloth, and dip it in cooking oil. Peanut oil or corn oil are preferred because of their high smoking point, thus minimizing smoke fumes when you are seasoning the wok.. Naturally, turning on your stove top vent will help reduce the fumes, too. Using a pair of long wooden chopsticks, or tongs, wipe the soaked paper towel over the entire inner surface of the wok. Reduce the heat down to low, and let the wok sit for 15 minutes. This allows the wok to absorb the oil. If the surface begins to dry off, then wipe the wok again with the soaked paper towel. You want the wok to obtain a thin film of oil when it's seasoned. The bottom of the wok should be slightly brown. Repeat the above steps two more time, and the bottom should darken even more. Over time, the entire wok will turn black (that's good). Now the wok is ready to go.

But we're not nearly done. Ever wonder why Chinese restaurant dishes produce that mouth-watering aroma when they are served on your table? And ever wonder why you can't quite match that flagrant flavor when you try to cook Chinese food at home? They come from cooking food on an almost impervious shiny black coating in a well-seasoned wok. That black coating is called "patina", which is essentially harmless carbon residue from cooking in a wok repeatedly on high heat. A well-seasoned wok cooking at a high heat will impart what Chinese chefs lovingly call "wok hay". Its literal translation is "breath of wok". Wok hay is so revered in Chinese culinary tradition that in China , especially in the Canton region (south), when a customer is served stir fry dish without wok hay, it is considered an insult or bad luck.

It takes time, care, and regular use before a wok develops a patina. There are no shortcuts. But having patina on your wok is still not enough produce wok hay on your dishes. It is imperative that you heat the wok on high heat to the point where you see some faint smoke coming from the bottom before you add cold cooking oil. The cold cooking oil cools down the wok slightly, and makes the food taste tenderer once it's done. If the wok is not hot enough, or cold (gasp!) when you pour in the cooking oil, the ingredients will stick to the wok (even with the patina) and inevitably burn, also leaving the ingredients raw inside. Not to mention you lose that coveted "wok hay".

In Part 4, we will talk about cleaning and caring for you wok.

Helen Fan grew up in a family that has owned various Asian restaurants all over North America, from Vancouver (Canada), Houston (Texas), Decatur (Illinois), to Chicago (Illinois). She, and the rest of the Fan family are now sharing their decades of knowledge on the art of Chinese cuisine at http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.Com

You can read more of our articles at http://www.ChineseHomeCooking.Com/resources/resources.htm

Why We Cook

Writen by Lia Soscia

It's interesting really, all the reasons I can come up with as to why we cook. If you look back into ancient times, people cooked to survive. Would you eat raw buffalo? How determined they were to create a fire by rubbing two sticks together and then making contraptions to create a spit to roast the catch of the day. Back in those days, cooking was a full time job just to get a single meal on the table (did they even have tables?). Surely, if I had similar circumstances, that is to have to live without my 101 kitchen gadgets (Yes, they call me "gadget girl". In fact, I get kitchen appliances and such as birthday, holiday, even anniversary gifts from my husband each year and my girlfriend yells at him each time. But truly, I asked for these gifts…he wasn't TRYING to keep me in the kitchen! I don't do diamonds unless they come in a knife sharpener or something similar. But I digress.

Why else do we cook? Some say they cook to impress others. If you prepare a meal for your girlfriend or boyfriend during courtship, they are sure to be swooned by your culinary skills. I remember when I was dating my husband he would invite me over to his house for an authentic Chinese dinner. He would cut up all the vegetables perfectly, create his marinade, and toss everything in his newly purchased wok. How impressed I was! You don't only get to a man through his stomach. He certainly got to me by demonstrating his cooking skills. He created my image of the perfect husband.

Here's a basic reason why we cook, because we need to eat. Another is that we want to be sure we know what our families are actually eating and that they are eating healthy. Sure, we can go out a get a bite to eat at a local fast-food establishment or take the time to be served at a local restaurant, but do you really know what you are getting? Is it really nutritious and healthy? Obesity is becoming one of the major reasons for premature death. If cooking for ourselves to assure a healthier life isn't reason enough to do it, then I don't know what is.

Although there are many more reasons why people cook I would like to point out why I believe we "should" cook at home. Cooking is a great way to demonstrate how much we care about those we serve and the great amount of satisfaction it gives us when you know they appreciate your efforts. There are also numerous side benefits to cooking at home two of which are to eat healthier and to spend more time with the family around the dinner table to talk about the day's events. Studies have shown that families who regularly cook and eat together have happier marriages, improved children's health, and stronger family ties. Taking time to plan, shop and create a wellrounded, healthy meal is the greatest demonstration of love and devotion. Although I find the unending list of tasks associated with preparing daily meals somewhat daunting at times, I truly enjoy the process. And, after that first taste, if I hear, "Gee Mom this is really good!"…Wow, how great it feels to know the fruits (no pun intended) of my labor are appreciated and that my family is gaining profound benefits.

Positive feedback from those you cook for can provide you with a "can-do" cooking attitude. My grandmother was a constant source of feedback for my culinary creations when I was young which is how I think I got hooked on cooking for others. Once you begin to get that kind of feedback, it's addictive. You start to challenge yourself by creating even more complex creations time and again. The more they like what you cook, the more you cook. It's really hard not to want to hear positive comments on each and every dish, which then makes one want to try harder to please. You see where I'm going with this? And, if you know they are really eating well and enjoying these culinary moments, you know you did your best to thwart the bad diet demons.

If you don't already cook or perhaps you only cook occasionally, you probably haven't felt the amazing sense of gratification it brings. Today, many of us are time-starved and therefore the best we can do is grab the phone and order take out. But next time, before you think about ordering that mystery food, realize that many recipes today can be completed in 30 minutes or less and that they taste much better! There's many a cookbook, magazine and TV show to prove it. Simply browse your favorite on-line bookstore or recipe website and I'm sure you will find a gazillion books with 30 minutes in the title.

No time for browsing you say? Okay, here's a few of my favorite recipes that can be put on the table start to finish in no time. Whoever gets to taste these culinary creations you've prepared will no doubt feel special that you took the time (they don't need to know it didn't take all day) to create something wonderful for them to eat. I know that once you hear their "oohs and aaaahs"…you too will begin to get hooked on cooking. You will start to realize that cooking can be a pleasure as well as a necessary part of our day.

About Chef Lia Soscia Lia is a personal chef and owner of Home Cooking Consultant Personal Chef Services located in Long Island, New York. Personal Chef Services include dinner preparation, private cooking lessons, recipe research and recipe testing, personal cookbook publishing, and kitchen organization and design consultation. http://www.ChefLia.com

Asaf0etida Ferula Foetida Devils Dung

Writen by Bruce Burnett

Devil's dung sounds like a less than appetizing ingredient to add to your recipe, but when a pinch is used judiciously, it is sinfully good. Asafoetida is native to Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. A perennial plant growing to about six feet high, it is one of several species of ferula, or giant fennel. Asafoetida has finely toothed leaves, clusters many white or yellow flowers in umbels and a hollow stem growing from a fleshy taproot. It is the root that produces the spice. In summer, the stems are cut from four-year-old plants and the root is sliced. A gum is excreted which dries into a resin. This is then crushed into a powder to produce the spice. The name originates with the Persian word Aza, which means resin, and the Latin word Fetida, which means smelly. Stinking gum (another name for the spice) earns its name. When bought, you will usually find it tripled wrapped for the smell can be quite offensive. However, sauté it lightly in oil and it develops a pleasant onion or garlic like aroma. A mere pinch is all you need in any recipe.

Medicinally, asafoetida is used in Middle Eastern and Indian herbal medicine for simple digestive problems such as gas, bloating, indigestion and constipation. It has been used for respiratory problems such as bronchitis, asthma and whooping cough. Like garlic, asafoetida's volatile oil contains components such as disulphides that leave the body via the respiratory system and aid in the coughing up of congested mucus. Asafoetida has also been used as a sedative. It also thins the blood and lowers blood pressure. Although safe for adults, asafoetida may be harmful to young babies.

One beneficial use for asafoetida's unpleasant smell is that of a natural pesticide. Two of the sulfur compounds isolated from asafoetida are similar to the insect repelling qualities of marigolds and nasturtiums. Asafoetida's fetor will also repel deer and rabbits.

In magic and mythology, asafoetida is used to gain insight and to banish all negative energy, evil spirits and demons. It is used to invoke male gods, especially those of a phallic nature. One myth claims that asafoetida developed from the semen of a god of fertility when it soaked into the earth. Asafoetida is sometimes worn around the neck as an amulet to ward off colds and fevers.

Although very reasonably priced today, in ancient times it was a precious and expensive condiment. The Roman epicure Apicius recommended adding an uncrushed piece of asafoetida resin to a jar of pine nuts. When the asafoetida flavor was required, a few of the pine nuts were crumbled and added to the dish.

Culinary uses of asafoetida include the flavoring of pickles and sauces (it is one of the ingredients in Worcestershire sauce) and it is used extensively in the Middle East to flavor spicy vegetable dishes. Some people simply rub their broiling rack with the spice prior to cooking meat. Here are a couple of recipes that can be prepared individually or together as a vegetarian meal or as accompaniments to a meat dish.

Nutty Rice with Mushrooms
· One cup of long grain brown rice, cooked
· 8 - 10 mushrooms, sliced
· A large fistful of chopped fresh parsley
· A small fistful of pine nuts
· Juice of half a lemon
· Two Tbsp. butter
· Pinch of ground asafoetida
· Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Sauté the mushrooms in the butter, pouring the lemon juice over them after they are nicely browned. Lightly roast the pine nuts for a few minutes in a small, unoiled pan, which should be constantly shaken. Mix all the ingredients into the cooked rice and reheat if necessary. Serves four.
Peppery Tomatoes with Mushrooms
· About 1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
· 5 medium-sized fresh tomatoes, cut up
· 2 fresh jalapeno peppers, diced
· 2 Tbsp. olive oil
· Quarter tsp. turmeric
· Pinch of ground asafoetida
· Half tsp. ground cumin
· 2 tsp. salt
· Quarter tsp. brown sugar.

Heat the oil over a medium heat in a deep-sided, lidded frying pan. Add the spices in the order listed allowing a few seconds between additions. Stir in the mushrooms and lightly brown them before adding the tomatoes, salt and sugar. Cook over medium to high heat uncovered until the liquid from the tomatoes has been reduced to a stew-like consistency. Cover and reduce heat to simmer. Serve after about 10 minutes of simmering or, even better, prepare ahead of time, allow to cool and then reheat. A few hours of dormancy really develops the flavors. This recipe will serve 2-4 as a side dish. Increase ingredients proportionately if serving more or if preparing as main dish.

Bruce Burnett is a Chartered Herbalist, an award-winning writer and author of the best-selling book HerbWise: growing cooking wellbeing. Contact Bruce through his website: http://www.herbalcuisine.com

I Know How To Cook Why Do I Need Culinary School

Writen by Christopher Luck

Is culinary school really necessary? I always thought if you knew how to cook, you knew how to cook. It turns out I was wrong. If you want to go into culinary arts as a career, culinary school is just as necessary for you as law school is for a lawyer. I found that even if you are a great cook, there are simply skills and qualifications you will get from culinary school that you need when it comes time to enter the professional culinary arts world.

You, like many people, may believe that cooking is a talent that you are just born with. That is partially true, but many in the culinary arts industry recognize that it is indeed a talent, but it is also a skill. Though you may have an understanding of how to make food, in culinary school you will learn more about ingredients, foods, and how to combine them. By being well informed and educated, you will be able to take better advantage of your given talents.

You may also not realize that culinary school can prepare you for more than just becoming a "cook." Most people think of chefs, caterers, and restaurateurs as the only people who attend culinary school, but that simple isn't true. There are countless jobs available to graduates of culinary school. You can choose to be in restaurant management, work in retail food markets, or even become a food writer to name a few of the options. Culinary school is an education to prepare students for any career in food, not just becoming a cook.

The point is that if you really are serious about a career, any career, in culinary arts, then culinary school is necessary. Yes, like any education, it is expensive, but in the end wont it be worth it to be able to get a good job doing what you want at the restaurant or company with you want to do it? If you were to become a lawyer, you would have to go to law school and if you want to become a doctor, you need to go to medical school. So to have a successful culinary arts career, you have to go to culinary school.

When you go to select the culinary school you want to attend, you should look for one that is accredited and will get you the certificate or degree you need for the career you are after. A good culinary school will train you in the use of quality ingredients, proper presentation, and even balance for meals. The program will help you to understand everything about the food from the purchase of the ingredients to the presentation of the finished meal. With the overall culinary education you will get, you can then make full use of the talents you have.

If you love to cook and see yourself as a chef, restaurant manager, or even a food critic, you should consider culinary school. The knowledge and basic skills you will acquire there will allow you to pursue a long and successful career in the career you want.

If you would like the latest cooking secrets, or find more of my personal articles like the one you just read, visit my culinary site.

Cooking With Culinary Lavender

Writen by Jenny Bishop

Have you tried whole grains with culinary lavender? Whole grains are making a comeback, and their advantages in terms of health and environmental conservancy are well known. However, to many palates accustomed to refined flour, whole grains seem tasteless and heavy. By using our Culinary Lavender, you can create healthy, satisfying meals that taste - and smell - delicious. Adding Lavender Lemon Pepper or Italian Seasoning with Lavender to your whole grains is the key to making nutritious meals that your entire family will love.

Why are Whole Grains So Beneficial?

Natural grains consist of three parts - the germ, the bran, and the endosperm. White rice, flour, and other refined grains are made by processing endosperm and discarding the bran and germ. The endosperm consists almost entirely of starch, while minerals, vitamins, proteins, and other healthy substances are found in the bran and germ. Although the endosperm has a milder taste and softer texture, adding culinary lavender to whole grains makes them just as appealing as refined grains - or even more so!

Using Culinary Lavender to interest your family in whole grains is also environmentally friendly. Nearly one third of every bushel of grain is discarded in the refining process. By using whole grains, you are extending the usefulness of every acre of grain that is planted.

What does Culinary Lavender Add to Your Meal?

Culinary Lavender looks and smells wonderful, but it also does more than just make whole grains more appetizing. Culinary Lavender has been known since Roman times for its soothing and healing properties. A pinch of Italian Seasoning with Lavender in your rice can relieve dizziness, or some Lavender Lemon Pepper mixed with whole grain flour for a fish batter can ease the pain of headaches as well as tasting great.

How Can I Use Culinary Lavender with Whole Grains?

Here are some suggestions for using Culinary Lavender while cooking with whole grains:

·	Add Italian Seasoning with Lavender to homemade whole grain pastas, or use it to spice up your spaghetti sauce when cooking store bought whole grain pasta.  ·	Bake whole wheat breads with a touch of Culinary Lavender, to add a hint of alluring flavor to your loaves.  ·	Sprinkle Lavender Lemon Pepper over your stone-ground whole grain grits in the morning.  ·	Make a spicy topping for your whole wheat bread using a mixture of garlic, olive oil, and Italian Seasoning with Lavender.  ·	Use whole grain flour mixed with Lavender Lemon Pepper as a batter dip for fried vegetables, fish, and chicken fingers.  ·	Crush some Culinary Lavender with raw sugar, and sprinkle it over your whole grain oatmeal for breakfast.

Jenny Bishop teaches many culinary classes with the use of culinary lavender and is one of the judges for the Lavender Gourmet Recipe Contests hosted throughout the year by Lavender-n-Things. Click for free lavender recipes.

Preparing Your Food For Winter

Writen by D. S. Epperson

Summers were always the best time of year for me when I was growing up, except for Saturdays, when my mother would raise the dead with her "Wake-up" voice and we would all have to go out to the garden in the early morning, before the dew was off the grass, and pull weeds. We would all work for a few hours and then she would let us off the chain gang for some summer family fun.

What I hated worse then the early morning wakeup calls on summer Saturdays, were the Fall after-school and weekends when canning took over our lives. The house would fill with the smells of Jams or Jellies, Pickles, Pears, Peaches, Grape Juice, Tomatoes, Apple Sauce, Apple Pie Filling, Green Beans and Corn.

For weeks, when I got home from school and could smell the humidity in the air from the canner or the pressure cooker, I would try desperately to sneak out the back door and enjoy some freedom with the horses, but my mother always seemed to find me, like a heat-seeking missal launched out of spite, and I would be escorted back into the canning kitchen to help with our winter food storage.

I will have to say, that when winter came, our table was always set with the best of preserved food. I have never tasted food like that from a grocery store shelf, natural and with a taste I just can't describe. After all these years, and all my complaining, I am grateful that my mother "forced" me to learn the secrets of gardening, canning and cooking. Pickling and curing are ancient forms of preserving foods with Mesopotamians pickling vegetables 4,500 years ago.

The modern canning process was pioneered by a Frenchman named Nicholas Appert at the turn of the 19th century to win an award being offered by the French Navy. Appert began experimenting with preserving meats and vegetables by heating and sealing them in bottles.

Every year, I plant a garden, full of vegetables, and I water and mulch my trees in hopes that the end of the summer will be filled with long days of smelling a humid house filled with Jams and Jellies, Green Beans and Corn, Tomatoes and Onions, Salsa and Apple Butter, Apple Sauce, Apple Pie Filling and other treasures from my garden. My husband may bring home meat from a hunt or the butcher, and the house will smell of Special Jerkies that will last through the kids Snowboard trips, sledding and my husbands long nights in his wood-shop making my Christmas present, or a present for one of the kids. If it's not preserves or jerky, the house smells of herbs drying for cooking those fabulous winter meals you invite your best friends over for. My house often smells of Peppermint Tea, picked young and fresh from my herb garden, dried and sealed for my girls Tea Parties at 4:00 with their best friends after a cold winter school day. My husband and son like the special teas made from my herb garden too!

In a society where everything is made from a box, or a store or a restaurant, the homemade or gourmet touch is pretty unique.

It use to be that the "Gourmet" label belonged exclusively to the European market. Americans have always presumed that European-made specialty items where put together much better then ours and in 1982, the American Specialty Foods market was much smaller than it is today.

Today hundreds of small American companies have flooded the market with gourmet fruit and vegetable products. The National Association for the Specialty Food Trade's two annual Fancy Food Shows are packed every year with exhibitors from all 50 states. Handwritten labels, country brochures and quaint catalogs are everywhere.

For those who crave the comfort of homemade taste, but can't imagine growing a garden, sterilizing their own jars, or dealing with all the steam and the huge pots, there is a special appeal in the phrases "slow-cooked," "old-fashioned" and "locally grown."

I recommend growing your own garden, either in your back-yard or in containers on your terrace. No Insecticides, No Pesticides, No Herbicides to hurt the environment, the produce just tastes better. Even in preserving your own food, the nutritional benefits are outstanding compared to the grocery store.

If you would like to try your hand at canning your own food, I recommend the following information:

USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning

Bon Appetite!

D.S. Epperson is the top formulator for Home Blend Gourmet / South Pacific Health, a leader in the functional food industry in the U.S.. With 20 years of experience in Nutritional Biochemistry, she has written reference books on botanicals and manufacturing of medicines from botanicals, and published articles on health, fitness and foods. She has formulated over 240 formulas and inventions for health, the environment and agricultural uses, and continues to research and study microbial advantages in nutraceuticals and functional foods. For more information or to view the articles that she has written: http://www.sugarblend.com

Baking Bread In A Dutch Oven

Writen by Dennis R Weaver

Dutch ovens were made for baking. In the hands of a practiced baker, a Dutch oven will create beautiful breads and desserts. (Though some of us tend to burn breads in a Dutch oven.)

You can always bake bread in a well-oiled Dutch oven but instead of baking directly in the oven, consider this method: Put the dough in a baking pan and the pan in the Dutch oven.

Recently, a reader from California told us of her success baking bread with a pan inside of a Dutch oven. She used a mix for Irish Potato Bread. This mix creates a large loaf and she made it according to package instructions. She formed the dough into a round loaf and placed the dough in a greased nine-inch metal pie pan. She then set the pan atop small rocks in bottom of her twelve-inch Dutch oven. She put the lid on the Dutch oven and the oven on ten briquette coals. Another fourteen briquettes went on the top. She baked the bread for 45 minutes, turning the lid occasionally. She was baking at an elevation of 7,000 in the Sequoia Mountains.

"I was surprised and delighted to find that the bread was perfect," she said. "The crust was brown on top and it was a real treat . . . a great success."

You should have similar success baking rolls in a baking pan or a loaf in a traditional bread pan. To get the right-sized loaves for a Dutch oven, consider bread machine mixes or recipes for single loaves. A bread machine mix will give you that single loaf or smaller batch of rolls, just right for a Dutch oven. If you crowd two loaves into a Dutch oven, there may not be adequate air circulation between the loaves. Without adequate space, the loaves will tend to be lopsided.

It is important that you elevate the pan off the bottom of the Dutch oven using small stones so that it does not burn the bottom of the bread. Make sure that you have enough top clearance so that the rising bread does not reach the lid.

You can use this same technique to bake great desserts or pastries. Consider baking sweet rolls or pasties in a raised pan in your Dutch oven.

Dennis Weaver is the general manager at The Prepared Pantry (http://www.preparedpantry.com) with recipes, ideas, and the best selection of mixes and ingredients. Visit the free Bakers' Library for more articles like this, free baking guides, and tested recipes.

Planning The Perfect Barbeque

Writen by Bob Alexander

So you think you're ready for a great weekend featuring your own unique talents at the barbecue grill. Before you even think about throwing a slab of meat on smoldering briquettes, there are important steps to follow in preparation for that special cookout; steps that could make the difference between success and failure!

You gotta have a plan! Nothing great has ever been accomplished without some kind of a plan! You should have everything in order before you start, getting all your ducks in a row as it were. Outdoor grilling can be an awesome experience but you have to get it right the first time, because each time you step in front of the grill, spatula and tongs at the ready, you're putting your barbequing reputation on the line.

The beginning of any weekend grill fest starts with a quick look at The Weather Channel. It's best to consult weather experts on such an important matter a couple of days before the big event. It wouldn't do to put in the time on strategic planning, only to be forced inside at the last minute by a steady rain. We, who have survived many battles fighting the rain on Saturday afternoons, think of such things as this!

Next you have to decide just who will be invited and how many there will be at your cook out. This is a critical part of the planning exercise. The number of people attending dictates whether you will have steaks, burgers or chicken! It would cost a small fortune to provide enough steaks for twenty people. Odds are there would be someone in the crowd that you didn't really like, anyway, so why would you feed this person a sizzling, delicious and scrumptious steak?

Barbequed chicken or hamburger is the answer. They're both reasonably cheap! Either chicken or a lot of burgers will satisfy a lot of people. There is no need to spend a lot of money on meat for someone you don't really like. Either one of these meat ideas will satisfy a crowd without breaking the budget.

Basically what it comes down to is this: Do you like the people in your party enough to buy rib eye steaks for everyone, or would it be better to have a lot of hamburger meat or a box of chicken quarters to throw on the coals. Whatever you decide, this is one of the first steps in planning for the backyard cookout. After the difficult decision of deciding on the meat that the occasion deserves, you can then decide how much to buy at the market.

IMPORTANT! Before you get too far along in the planning, it's wise to decide on the appropriate time to serve beverages. Adult beverages should be left in the cooler until after the flames have died. The festivities should never be interrupted by the sound of fire engines. I've heard that sound before at one of my cook outs and it's not pretty!

You've selected the meat and now you have to determine how much you're going to buy. If you buy too little, your guests will think you're a cheap skate. If you buy too much and have a lot left over, they'll think you're throwing money away and you're just showing off.

Of course the amount of meat you buy depends on the number of people invited to your cook out. A rule of thumb I use is to multiply the number of people times one and a half if it's chicken, burgers or steaks. Sometimes there are leftovers. If such a thing actually happens, that's great. Almost anything off the grill tastes great the next day, unless it's smoked sea urchin, but then no one in their right mind would serve smoked sea urchin in the first place. Yeech!

Hamburgers: I like to keep my burgers simple. I usually sprinkle a little salt, pepper and finely ground garlic on the meat about an hour before I start cooking. Although that's exotic enough for me, some folks like to stuff them with all kinds of things such as onions, peppers and even cheese. I'm old fashioned. I think cheese should remain on the top of the burgers where they belong. Burgers can be cooked to all degrees of readiness; I like mine cooked well with just a hint of pink in the middle. Pepper and salt to taste. (Try using garlic salt on the burgers instead of regular salt. It adds a little character to the meat.)

Chicken: For me, a good hot marinade on the chicken I cook on the grill is a must. Some folks however like it mild, so I always have some of both sauces ready to use after the cooking is ¾ done. You can make your own sauce or buy it at the store. The hotter marinades you usually have to make yourself. I know you can't please everyone but your friends will continue to come over for a free meal if you don't sear their esophagus with a fiery chicken leg hot off the grill! Give them a choice!

Cooking chicken over a charcoal grill is not difficult. The fire can't be extra hot because flames from the fat dripping onto the coals will burn your chicken to a crisp. Better to keep the fire at medium heat and add charcoal as you go along to maintain the proper temperature. When a meat thermometer is stuck between the joints of a leg quarter reads 175 degrees, it's time to take the chicken off the grill. When the leg pulls easily away from the thigh, I say it's done. That's the lazy way of doing things.

Steaks: It's easy to mess up a good steak by cooking it too much. Don't do that! A good sprinkle of garlic salt, a little pepper and you're off to the races. Throw the steaks on the grill and cook them one side for about two minutes them flip them, sealing in the juices, making the meat more tender and delicious. Depending on how thick the steaks are, cook them five to six minutes on one side. Leave them on longer if you want them well done.

While there are many kinds of grills to choose from, I prefer to use the old fashioned charcoal type. I get a sense of history every time I smell the smoke emanating from burning charcoal. Maybe this was how they did it back in the old west when cowboys huddled around the campfire after a hard day on the range punching cows. The cook, who had cool nicknames like "cookie" or "biscuit" would divvy out steaks, biscuits and scalding black coffee to the cowhands. Those were the good old days.

Bob Alexander is the author and owner of this copyrighted article. He is well experienced in the art of barbeque cooking, outdoor activities and leisure living. Visit his sites: http://www.bluemarlinbob.com and http://www.homeandgardenbob.com