Cool! Food Cooking Tips Information That Will Take Your Cooking To Another Level

This web page was created to help new cooks with some simple cooking tips that should take your cooking to a whole new level! Some of these tips are even advantageous to the more seasoned cooks out there. Let me know what you think. I would love to know which tips were most helpful and send me your favorite tips. I'd really love to hear from you.

I've been cooking since I was 10 years old, have owned my own restaurant, and am now opening a new catering business. My inspiration is to cook everything from scratch. I even make my own cheese! During a very bad winter, I had nothing to do, but cook! I decided to get as close to the earth as possible. I discovered that lots of homemade foods are much easier prepared from scratch than I would have thought. I will be building my site and teaching you all the new and fun things I've learned about making my own condiments, cheese, sauerkraut, and other various items completely from scratch.

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As this web site builds, you will be able to order food from me, as well as food from other great cooks around the country. I am offering resources for organic foods, along with recipes on how to cook them. I will be adding a culinary dictionary, cooking substitutions, cooking measurements and abbreviations. Its all about FOOD!

Cooking Tips Information, food passion, tips for cooking

Cooking Tips Information, food passion, tips for cooking

1) When making anything chocolate and the recipe calls for water, use coffee instead. You can use oldcoffee that is sitting in your coffee pot or make a cup of instant. This will enhance the chocolate flavor. I even use this little tip when I make boxed brownies or boxed chocolate cakes.

2) When a recipe calls for nuts, toast the nuts first and you will get a nuttier flavor. Remember to use nuts for your savory dishes. They are great on salads and in your favorite pasta and veggie dishes.

3) I like my meat very tender. Any meat, such as chicken breast, with a low fat content needs to be cooked sauted very slowly. It will be so tender you can cut it with a fork. Although sausage DOES have a higher fat content, I saute' it very slowly, as well. Again, it comes out juicy and tender.

4) How about ribs? Put ribs (or any other meat for that matter) in the oven wrapped in cellophane and then aluminum foil. Bake at 200 degrees for about 4 hours. They are so good, they can be eaten just like that, but they’re better on the barbeque. Baste them lightly. Put them on the grill and keep turning and basting. I like to coat them with several layers of barbeque sauce so it caramelizes on the ribs.

5) I believe sugar is under-used. Like salt, it can really enhance the flavor of many things. Do you like your sweet corn sweet? Did you ever notice that when you buy corn, sometimes it is extra sweet and other times its just bland. If you add sugar to the boiling water, it will be sweet all the time. This technique can be used for any veggies you’d like a little sweeter. It also works great for crab legs.

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6) And salad develops more flavor with a little sugar. Add a little zing by sprinkling a some sugar on the lettuce before tossing it with your favorite dressing.

7) Have you ever gotten your soup or stew too salty? Don’t you hate when that happens? Well, guess what! If you throw in a whole, peeled potato and let it cook, it will absorb the salt!

8) Forget about boxed macaroni and cheese. This is an easy version that is almost as good as baked macaroni and cheese. Boil 2 cups of elbow macaroni. Add two cups grated cheese of your choice and ¼ cup of sour cream. It’s almost as easy as the boxed.

9) Brush any pizza crust with olive oil to make it taste crispy and more homemade.

10) When you take meat out of the oven, seal it with plastic wrap or aluminum foil for at least 15 minutes before cutting and serving. It will be so juicy and tender when it is served. Cooking tips information, food passion, tips for cooking, tips to cooking, food delivery search

11) If you want your recipes to taste cheesier, use sharp cheddar or even extra sharp, depending on how cheesy you want it.

12) Add lemon and parmesan cheese to your veggies for a rich and unique flavor.

13) Let your meat come to room temperature before cooking it. It is too much of a shock to the meat to heat it when cold and will cause your meat to be tough.

14) Eggs work better for most cooking, and especially baking, when used at room temperature.

15) Just as fresh ground coffee tastes better, so does fresh ground peppercorns.

16) Always use the best products you can afford. For instance, in most recipes, use fresh butter when possible. Try to use fresh herbs, if available. (Remember to use 3T of fresh herbs if recipe calls for 1T of dried and vice versa.) When using products such as mayonaise, peanut butter and canned soups, use brand names. Unless you really "know" the "off brand", don't use it.

17) Get rid of that box of cheese! Grate your own parmesan or romano cheese. What a difference!

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18.) Hopefully you like garlic because I suggest using garlic, garlic, and more garlic. Not only does it boost the flavor of your foods, it is soooo healthy to eat. I especially like adding lots of garlic to my meatloaf and meatballs. When peeling garlic, smack it with a butcher knife and the garlic will slide right from the skin.

19.) Keep chopped onions and peppers in the freezer. Grab a handful whenever needed. They sure come in handy when making omelets in the morning. I like to throw a handful of onions in my omelet just before the eggs set. Great flavor!

20.) If fish has a strong fishy odor, don’t buy it. Make sure it is firm and fleshy. I like to wash the fish with fresh lemon juice and cold water. This whitens the fish and helps to prevent fish odor while cooking.

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21.) Use fruit more. Add a slice of cantelope to a ham sandwich, along with a good mayonnaise. Grilled cheese is excellent with a slice of apple. And this was inspired by Elvis's favorite, grilled bananas and peanut butter.

22.) As you would use fresh ground coffee, also use freshly ground pepper. Lots of black pepper really kicks up soups and stews and fresh grated adds even more flavor. I make sure I can see the pepper specks before I know I have enough.

23.) It's hard for an avocado to taste good once it turns black so leave the seed in the unused half and it will stay greener. When making guacomole, I leave the seed in it until just before serving. Again, it keeps its nice green color.

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24.) For the juciest and most flavorful fried chicken, marinate it in buttermilk. I just leave it in overnight. And then, there is nothing fancy about making southern fried chicken. All you need is salt, lots of black pepper, and flour. I like it best pan fried. I throw it in really hot lard and then turn the heat down once I get a nice, crispy exterior. Don't touch it! Let it cook on each side for about 15 minutes each.

25.) When making garlic bread, use garlic juice. That gets it deep into the bread so that every bite tastes garlicky. Top bread with butter or olive oil and freshly grated parmesan cheese. Delicious!

26.) If you want a really moist cake, cover it with aluminum foil as soon as you take it out of the oven. After I take it out of the pan, I still keep it covered until it is cool.Heat fruits and raisins in the oven before adding them to cake batter. They'll be plumper and juicier.Placing flour in a custard cup in the oven next to a roast will assure nice brown flour for gravy when the meat is done.

27.) Try using a vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract in your recipes. Slit the vanilla bean in half and scrape out the inside. Now take the vanilla bean and put it in a jar of sugar. This makes a nice tasting vanilla sugar for baking or to put in your coffee.

28.) Oils and vinegars are fun to play with by adding peppers, spices, and herbs. Get creative! Some of my favorites are adding hot pepper seeds to olive oil for a dipping oil. Dip hard bread into the oil and then dip it in grated parmesan cheese. Tarragon is an exceptional addition to a good wine vinegar and adding hot chili peppers to cidar vinegar makes an awesome sauce for pulled pork. Don't forget the freshly grated black pepper.

29.) Adding a little oil to butter allows you to crank up the heat a little hotter. You get the excellent butter flavor without the butter burning.

30.) Use fresh oranges in an Italian salad or use fresh squeezed orange juice in your Italian salad dressing. What a flavor!

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31.) Keep your old bread in a paper bag. It comes in handy for making your own bread crumbs or croutons

32.) Making your own mayonaise is easy. Just take an egg, beat it, I use a hand blender. Add 1 cup of oil one teaspoon at a time until it thickens. Then slowly add the rest. Its great for potato salad.

33.) For a different potato salad, quarter red skin potatoes and certainly don't peel them, brush on some olive oil and bake until they are a crispy golden brown. From there, you can follow your favorite potato salad recipe or use the one I got off a Miracle Whip jar long ago. Crumble crispy bacon and slice up some scallions, add Miracle Whip to taste. I add a couple of chopped eggs, as well.

34.) And speaking of not peeling, I like to keep my skins on when making mashed potatoes. There is so much more flavor and I don't even notice the skins. You get lots more nutrition this way.

35.) Put your overipe tomatoes in the freezer, puree them, and throw them in your next batch of spaghetti sauce. Stick an overripe banana in the freezer, as well, skin and all. Use it for baking.

36.) Always keep cream cheese on hand. It has a long shelf life and makes a great appetizer when needed in a pinch. Soften cream cheese, add 1 T. softened butter and get creative. Any canned meats or seafoods can be mixed up with the cream cheese. Add some onions, garlic or both. Add another type of cheese or nuts.

Cooking tips information, food passion, tips for cooking, tips to cooking, food delivery search

I will be periodically adding to this list of cooking tips information, so stop back and remember to send me YOUR favorite food tips information. And by the way...why not build your own website? I decided to build a website offering mail order food. I always watch the food network and QVC as they show how you can order food from various people. I wished they had a website that lists all these small businesses and good cooks so I can try their wares! I ordered some items, but I had to do some searching. Since there is no such website that lists all these places, I decided to build it myself. So eventually, you will be able to find companies on my website.

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I totally stumbled upon Sitesell and it is an awesome program. Not a get rich quick kind of thing. They teach you everything and I knew nothing about building a website. I was ready to spend thousands of dollars and have someone do it for me. Now I can do it myself, edit it myself and have total control. I know my website is not that great yet, but it's only day 3! I can't wait to see how it looks in a month! So if you want to build your own web site, you can click below for more information. If you have questions, contact me.

Cooking Tips Information, food passion, tips for cooking