How To Cook A Steak

Writen by Anne Kennedy

– Always oil the meat, not the pan.
– Remove any excess oil and wipe off any marinading herbs as they will burn.
– Heat the pan as high as you can – don't use a non-stick pan as you can't heat it high enough without the possibility of it giving off fumes. Use a cast-iron skillet but don't oil it. (If you use a stainless steel frying pan, you have no choice but to oil it lightly, as it will stick otherwise. However, you will find that the smoke goes everywhere.)
– If you want your steak rare, cook it over high heat to an internal temperature of 50ºC, then take it out of the pan and leave it to rest covered and measure the internal temperature with a meat thermometer again after 5-10 minutes and after that, until it reaches 60ºC. If you cook it to 60ºC in the pan, the meat will continue to cook after that and you will end up with medium-rare meat.
– For medium, cook the steak until it reaches an internal temperature of 61ºC and leave it to rest, covered, until the thermometer reaches 71ºC. – For well done, take it off the pan at 67ºC and leave it to rest until it reaches 77ºC.
– If you find it does not reach the required temperature, just pop it back in the pan and sear it again on both sides quickly. Then take it off, cover it, let it rest and measure the temperature again.
– It is very important when you are cooking meat that you sear all sides of the meat. Just lift the meat up with a tongs and hold the edge of the meat against the pan until it is browned.

Testing done-ness by touch
– You can also test the doneness of meat with your fingertip. If the steak is rare, it will feel fleshy. As it turns to medium-rare you will see droplets of bloody juice appearing on the surface.
– When it reaches medium-rare, the surface will 'spring' back when you touch it. The juices emerging will still be red.
– Medium-done meat is firm, and the juices are pink.
– Medium-well-done meat feels more sturdy, firmer to the touch and the juices are brown and pink.
– Well-done meat has a hard surface, and doesn't spring back. The juices that come out will be brown.

Anne Kennedy is a food writer, based in Ireland, who just loves food. She thinks there is nothing better than a rare steak served with french fries and mustard, her absolute favourite meal when she visits Paris. Thankfully she is the Managing Editor of a food and wine website, http://www.greatfood.ie so she gets to cook it quite a lot, especially when she is testing a recipe or a cooking method. (After all, you can never be quite sure!)

Kid Birthday Cake Idea Collection Cake Decorating Without Fear

Writen by Patricia Jensen

Our kid birthday cake idea collection makes cake decorating fun and fearless. You don't have to be a pastry chef to create a professional quality cake for your child's birthday or other special event. Learn unique and easy cake decorating ideas to make spectacular homemade cakes.

PARTY CAKE CONCEPT AND DESIGN

The most important kid birthday cake idea is choosing a cake concept which fits with your party theme. You can start with a simple sheet cake topped with small toys or figures, or piece the cake itself to form a unique design.

For example, a Construction Party cake could be topped with tiny toy dumptrucks and bulldozers pushing a chocolate chip mountain. Or, the cake itself could be cut, pieced and frosted to look like a dump truck.

For a Train Party, set a miniature choo-choo train on licorice tracks atop your cake, or line up several brightly colored frosted loaf cakes to form train cars.

For a Luau party, a simple round or sheet cake can be festooned with a silk flower lei, or form a string of cupcakes in a circle and adorn each one with silk or frosting flowers. Connect with a licorice string to make a cupcake "lei".

Baking cakes in an oven-safe glass bowl or in a special 3D sports ball pan is great for making any kind of perfectly round ball cake, or the dress part of a Barbie doll cake. A wonder mold cake pan makes small single serving doll cakes and other cute creations!

Think of the design you'd like to make and what shapes you need to make it - round, sheet, loaf, cupcakes, or a combination.

Peruse cake decorating books for a kid birthday cake idea which fits your needs. Many books provide templates forcutting and piecing cakes to create any number of popular designs. You decide just how simple or challenging your cake will be.

For a no-fuss kid birthday cake idea, apply an edible cake art image to the top of a frosted cake. Many popular themes and copyrighted images such as Disney are available to provide a professional looking cake design.

Themed cake pans are another popular cake decorating option. They provide the shape and visual design to follow for an impressive finished cake. Popular TV and cartoons characters are well represented in cake pans, as well as teddy bears, butterflies, pirates, Tigger,Mickey Mouse, and lots more.

FROSTING CHOICES

Homemade Frosting - Dig up that famous family recipe or check out one of the many online recipe sites and make your cake frosting from scratch. Be sure to plan ahead how much of each color will be needed for both basic foundation and decorative trim.

Canned and Tube Frostings - Easiest and quickest, prepared canned frostings are available in grocery stores in the baking aisle with the cake mixes. They generally come in white, chocolate, and a handful of other popular flavors. Keep a few ready-to-use tube frostings on hand in various basic colors to add the finishing touches.

Fondant Frosting - Gaining in popularity in this country in recent years, fondant frosting gives a beautiful smooth finish to your cake decorating creation. Fondant can be rolled out and draped over a cake, poured on as a glaze, or sculpted into shapes. It is easily tinted, and can be flavored as well. Ready-made fondant is available through party supply outlets. There are also many recipes online for homemade fondant.

CAKE DECORATING WITH CANDY AND SMALL TOYS

Cookies, candies, and other materials can be used for special and impressive effects. Frosted sugar cones can serve as the fins on a space ship cake or the turrets on a castle cake. Make a surprise cake filling with jello.

A wide variety of plastic stand-ups or cake toppers are available in craft stores. Or, simply use a toy which fits in with the party theme as a cake topper and give it to the party child when the party is over. Action figures, small dolls, animals and cartoon characters all make good choices.

Add cool candy accents with M & M's, licorice pieces, licorice whips, animal crackers, oreo cookies, paper umbrellas, pretzel sticks, tootsie rolls, jimmies, gummies such as worms, bears, etc, gumdrops, mini marshmallows, colored coconut, jellybeans.

THE LATEST CAKE DECORATING FADS!

There are many novel choices for placing the finishing touches on your party cake. Dress it up in style with one or more of these unique special effects:

Spray Color Mist - is a fun addition to your baking repertoire. Frost your cake white, then spray on edible color from an aerosol can. Available in many colors, it can be used with stencils to make unique designs, as a highlight to whipped topping - even on your child's mashed potatoes!

Luster Dusts - are an edible food safe "dust" which can be used on any frosting recipe that dries hard and firm to the touch. Brush it on white frosting for a metallic-like glossy sheen or layer it for interesting color effects.

Cake Stampers - can be used along with brush-on color for fondant icing. Simply stamp shapes and designs into the finished fondant and tint with brush-on color.

Cake Stencils - Place stencil on iced cake and sprinkle edible glitter, confetti sprinkles, or use spray-on color mist.

Edible Color Markers - These unique markers are used just like an ink marker. Draw fun designs on cakes, cookies, fondant frosting, even cheese, fruit slices and bread. Decorating marker kits are available for children.

Edible sugar-shape decorations, decorative candles, themed cake picks and rings,and edible glitter are all fun tools in your cake baking arsenal.

Now you're armed with lots of great ideas for cake decorating success - without fear!

Go forth and create... and above all, have fun!

For more cake decorating information, check out our webpage: Kid Birthday Cake Idea Collection

Copyright 2005 Kids Party Paradise All Rights Reserved

Patricia B. Jensen is a mother of three and kids party enthusiast. She is the webmaster and owner of Kids-Party-Paradise.com - a complete resource for kids party ideas including invitations, cakes, decorations, games, costumes, favors, and food.

For all the latest party news, read her Kids Party Blog.

Home Open Fire Pizza Maker

Writen by Peter Boston

The world's very best pizza is made in wood-fired, open flame, brick pizza ovens. These ovens get much hotter than your home stove ever will, and hotter than the regular steel pizza ovens you see in most pizza shops. Not many restaurants have these special open-flame ovens but if you are eating out and have a pizza that is so good it knocks your socks off be sure to ask the cook about his oven.

If not many restaurants have these ovens then you can be sure that the number of homes that can cook a pizza the right way can probably be counted on your hand. Well, that has all changed. A company called Villaware has come out with something it calls the PizzaGrill BBQ Pizza Maker.

The Pizza Maker consists of a metal enclosure, a clay pizza stone, and a thermometer. The pizza maker is on short legs so the whole device, with your soon to-die-for pizza, can be placed on the grate of a gas or charcoal grill.

Outdoor grills, whether fired by charcoal or gas, can achieve some significantly high temperatures. You would be lucky if your kitchen oven could hold 500 degrees F. These babies can get to 600 or 700 degrees F. If you have something that retains heat well (like a clay pizza stone) in the open flame you can get a cooking surface one or two hundred degrees hotter than that.

The manufacturer is not recommending it but I think the way to go is to level four or five inches of charcoal and place the oven on top when the cauldron is glowing bright red. You do not need a top enclosure like a regular oven because the pizza will cook from the bottom, through the crust, just like it does in a brick pizza oven.

Super high cooking heat is exactly what you need to emulate a brick oven pizza. The pizza stone will provide the heat to crisp the crust, probably in less than 10 minutes, and the heat from the coals or the flame will melt the cheese and cook the toppings.

The final result is going to be the best pizza you may have ever eaten. Be sure to prepare two or three different kinds of pizza, in addition to that big sausage pizza, in advance because you want to take advantage of the heat while you can. And do not be surprised when the kids in the neighborhood start calling you Chef Dominoe.

(c) 2006 by Peter Boston. Get the facts, info, and tips you need satisfy your every desire for the most popular kitchen gadgets. Shop for kitchen cutlery too.