Family Cooking Tips

Archive for August, 2009

You’re planning on taking the entire family camping but you’re tired of the same old camping food. You know you have to eat while you’re out there but you can only eat a certain amount of hotdogs, smores and trail mix before you begin to despise it. That’s why you should get your hands on the camper’s guide to outdoor cooking. The camper’s guide to outdoor cooking will include everything you need to eat well with a little variety. You can make things like chili, baked potatoes, stew and more. The best part is that most dishes don’t require much preparation. They’re quick and easy recipes and they’ll allow you to enjoy camping without hating the food you normally eat.

Taking Supplies

When you plan to cook with the camper’s guide to outdoor cooking, you’ll want to plan your meals before hand. That’s because you’ll need to take along the required ingredients. This should be no problem if you’re camping with a camper or trailer. However, if you’re hiking and sleeping in a tent, you’ll need to take along the supplies in a bag. This bag shouldn’t be too heavy because you don’t want to bog yourself down. But take enough so that you can cook a few decent meals to keep everyone happy while you’re enjoying the great outdoors. You might want to even bring some cold or frozen items in a cooler that each person can take turns lugging around.

As You Plan

You should plan the meals you’re going to make using the camper’s guide to outdoor cooking as you’re planning your camping trip. Do this as you’re selecting your sleeping bags, tents, cooking utensils, and more. It might also be a good idea to select a few backup plans in case you’re not able to make more elaborate meals. This is a good idea in case it rains and you need to make something very fast inside the tent, for example. You never know what you might encounter when you go camping so make sure you plan your meals accordingly using the camper’s guide to outdoor cooking.

With the camper’s guide to outdoor cooking, you’ll be able to eat foods you actually enjoy. No longer do you have to eat the same boring foods as you lay back and stare up at the stars. Far away from civilization, you should be able to eat with a little variety while enjoying the free life that only camping offers.

Are you one of those individuals who are very interested in cooking? A very good cook knows as much as cookbook recipes does, so if you would like to be an expert cook someday, then you better start memorizing your recipes for your favorite dishes and collect more of those from your friends, family members and from other sources.

Definitely you want people to admire what you can prepare for them while you are in the kitchen. If your family is fund of eating then you definitely have to serve them something special from time to time. Nobody wants to eat the same thing all over again. So if you have a simple gathering at your place with all your friends and family you’ll probably be needing help from one of your unique cookbook recipes to provide them with another one of your new specialties.

Now, if you are short of new ideas, you may try asking your other family members if they have anything in mind that they want you to sample out for cooking. They can share their own cookbook recipes with you and you can get your ideas from there.

However, family recipes are almost the same thing, so you can probably ask the help of your other friends who love cooking so you can peek on the secrets that they have with their own cookbook recipes. They’ll probably be hesitant at first but eventually, since you are their friend, they’ll get to share those secrets with you.

Let’s say that you still can’t get enough ideas in creating your own unique recipe for the day. There are other sources that you can consider like for instance going online and finding websites which offers free recipes for their members. Login to their website and register an account with them. You may even get newsletters which includes cookbook recipes which have been chosen to be posted on their homepage for the day.

Then if you are familiar with all the recipes you have in mind, you can even create your own personal cookbook recipe, revised with all those new ideas you have in mind. This time you’ll love having it updated from time to time with new recipes that you may have in mind and have people gather around to try your new recipes and make sure it works.

Make your cookbook recipes unique than those that you have copied from the Internet or you have learned from your friends. Give it a personal touch of your own ingredients, for you have to keep in mind, the more unique your recipe is, the more people will enjoy eating the food that you prepared.

I adore shrimp! I love eggs! I begged and pleaded, don’t take them away from me. All these years the nutritive pros have been enlightening us they’re high in cholesterol and if you eat these 2 foods you will have a heart attack! Now, well conducted studies indicate that low-fat shrimp and eggs, substituted for fatty foods, don’t raise blood cholesterol and are not a major contributor to heart disease. A study published in the Yank Book of Clinical Nutrition says despite all that cholesterol, shrimp is completely good for you.

This is not a health concern, because shrimp is low-fat with a rich content of highly unsaturated greasy acids, which lead to the formation of high-density lipids, commonly known as “good cholesterol”. Consuming shrimp may very well lower blood cholesterol levels.

So, here is a great shrimp dish I make quite regularly. The first recipe came out of an old Weight Watcher Cookbook, but as usual ( something I learned from my Grandma ) I customarily chuck in some extras to make it taste better and substitute some ingredients, but it’s still healthy cooking. I lost 40 lbs. On these recipes even with additions. Here’s a tip I want to pass on about fish. I always soak it in milk before cooking ; it seems to take away any bad fishy taste.

Shrimp in Spicy Mustard Sauce

12 oz. shrimp, peeled, deveined
2/3 cup fat free ½ & ½, or substitute evaporated skim, regular skim or low-fat milk or soy milk
2 spoons Dijon Mustard
spoon curry powder
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon black black pepper
1 spoon black pepper
1 spoon lemon juice
spoon chicken bullion powder or one cube
1 spoon olive oil
½ onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
Parsley
Parmesan Cheese ( optional )

1. Shell & devein shrimp and set aside.

2. In 1-cup liquid measure combine milk, mustard and seasonings, put aside ( if you are using milk rather than the fat free &, mix some of the milk with a large spoon of cornstarch and add to sauce at end to thicken. )

3. In a pan, heat oil over medium-high heat ; add shrimp, onion and garlic, stir consistently till shrimp just turns pink, 2 to 3 minutes.

4. Pour milk mixture into pan and cook, stirring consistently, till mix comes to a boil. Reduce heat to low, ( add cornstarch mixture if using) let boil till a touch thickened, 1 or 2 minutes.

5. Using a slotted spoon, remove shrimp to serving platter; set aside.

6. Increase heat to medium-high ; resume cooking sauce till mix is reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Pour sauce over shrimp and sprinkle with parsley and parmesan.

Makes 2 servings

This is great served over noodles or rice. Hope you enjoy your shrimp!

What kind of food do you like making? Visit cooking101.org to get some of the simplest recipes you can use for your next meal. Also check out scrambled eggs.

In case you are aiming for good meals and good results from your slow cooker, you shouldn’t go cheap with the spending. But on the other hand, you also don’t need the deluxe super model either. You’ll need to do a little bit of research here as I’m not just gonna say that you buy a Philippe Richard or a Mirror cooker. But you may be pleasantly surprised that all you may need to spend is around $40.

If you decide on any of these brand names- brand names like Rival, Hamilton Beach, Kitchen-Aid, Cuisinart or Proctor Silex – you won’t go wrong. I know you want that your pressure cooker lasts for years, so you should not go cheap here, look at it as an investment.

When you search for a good deal, you shouldn’t cut off the quality and the features of a pressure cooker. You will want an automatic shut-off and warm feature which means you don’t have to make it home by the time the meal is finished cooking. Slow cookers can engage a lower warming mode all by themselves. The dishes will be ready to serve any time, and this is very helpfull when it comes to serving large meals.

After you picked the brand that yuo trust the most, you need to pick the size of the slow cooker. Most popular cooker sizes are 3.5 and 4 quart models. You can find large or small slow cooker, according to the needs of your family.

Now as for what you should put into it, you can be as creative as you want. When we talk about slow cooking, there is no perfect recipe actually. Few choice ingredients will blend in their flavors with a big help from your slow cooker. The range of choices when it comes to meals you can prepare in a cooker is quite big. Slow cooker will make it all good, whether you are making stew, a roast or a simple soup.

Remember, fast food is out and slow cooked meals are in. You can make a delicious meal by tossing some ingredients in the pot just before you leave the house.