When the weather outside warms up, the kitchen can be a terrible place to be. There are lots of things you can do however, when it comes to cooking a nice home made meal that does not necessitate traditional stove top or oven cooking.

Learn to make use of some of the less heat-producing equipment in your kitchen, such as the crock pot, in order to truly overcome the summer heat and keep your cool while cooking a nice hot meal for friends and family.

So, how does crock pot cooking actually help beat the heat? Simply put, the crock pot in and of itself gives off far less heat when cooking than an oven or stove top. This is the first and possibly the best reason to utilize the crock pot in your summer meal planning.

You should also take into account the fact that by not heating the house by using your stove top or oven you are also reducing the load on your air conditioning (or other cooling methods) so you are not requiring it to work overtime in order to make up for the additional heat that other cooking methods introduce.

This makes crock pot cooking a win-win situation as the costs involved in operating a crock pot are far less than the expenditure involved in operating a stove or oven. Whether electric or gas, your stove and oven are serious energy users. Add to that the fact that you are not increasing the temperature in your home by traditional means of cooking and you are using even less electricity.

Regrettably, the general consensus has been that crock pots are intended for comfort foods and hearty winter meals. The truth is that the crock pot should be one of your best loved and most often used cooking methods. When it comes to cooking with a crock pot, the options are almost boundless. Almost anything that can be baked can be cooked in the crock pot and many, many more magnificent and enticing meals and treats as well.

Benefits of Crock Pot Cooking

In addition to the cost advantages written above, when it comes to crock pot cooking there are many other advantages that are worth mentioning. First of all, the bulk of the work involved in crock pot cooking takes place early in the day when you are fresh rather than at the end of a hectic work or play day.

This means that you are less likely to forget an ingredient or make some other slip-up, which can undoubtedly happen when trying to cook after a hectic day.

Second, many great crock pot recipes include the vegetables that ensure that we get the nutrients we require. So often, when preparing a meal at the last minute, vegetables and other side dishes are left out for the sake of expedience. Crock pot cooking, on the other hand, is a meal in one pot.

Another great reason to use a crock pot for your summertime cooking is the simplicity of washing up. Unlike conventional cooking with several pots and pans, most crock pot meals are made in one pot. This clearly reduces the hardware required to be washed up or loaded into the dishwasher (or if you are like me – both) afterwards.

So, you spend less time cleaning up, just as you spent less time slaving over a hot stove. Well, make that no time slaving over a hot stove and once the washing up is done, you can get back to enjoying the sun set, mucking about with with the dog or kids, or just waiting for the first stars.

While there will never be a method of cooking that suits everyone, crock pot cooking comes pretty close. So, if you have a crock pot collecting dust somewhere in the back of your cupboard it is time to get it out, dust if off, and dig up some great summertime crock pot cooking recipes.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the 2 quart crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

Everybody likes a meal properly prepared. The evidence of this, if it needs proving, is that members of religious orders like monks often have to eat dreary food like porridge, gruel and unleaven bread for atonement.

I would like to share a few tips with you to help you get the most out of your food.

Chicken Tarragon – I love chicken tarragon, but this is my preferred version. Take: 1 chicken; .25 teaspoon of chopped onions; 1 heaped tablespoon of dried tarragon (double of fresh); brown stock or Bovril and water, cream, flour and salt.

Roast the chicken, carve it and put in a plate. Pour off the fat and make a gravy with it, the salt and the flour. Bulk the gravy up with the stock or Bovril and water. Add the tarragon and cream and cook for a minute or two. Serve with the gravy already poured over the chicken or serve the gravy separately. Add your favourite vegetables. This recipe will serve four.

Chicken Left-Overs – if you are unsure what to do with left over chicken, you could do worse than try this recipe.

Chop the chicken up small and mix it with sliced avocado. Cover with mayonnaise and sprinkle with crumbled, fried, crispy bacon. If this sounds excellent to you, take it from me that it tastes even better.

Apple Sauce – if you like apple sauce with your pork, bake a couple of cooking apples beside your joint of pork. Prepare and core them just as you would as if you were going to cook them normally. Sprinkle with sugar, if required. Then, run a knife tip around them, so that they will puff upwards, but still retain their shape. Gorgeous.

Sauces – if you cannot get the sauce right, just strain it and do not tell anyone. Nobody will know the difference and what are strainers for if not straining?

Soups And Stews – if you find that you have added too much salt to a soup or stew at the last moment, do not be concerned. Put a cube of sugar in a large spoon and lower it into the liquid for twenty seconds. It will absorb the surplus salt. If you have longer, and it is appropriate, add a diced potato and it will absorb the salt too.

Pie Crust – if you need a fast, yet flexible topping for a savoury pie like chicken or beef, leave the pastry off. Take a large bag of crisps; pop the bag to let the air out and scrunch it up until the crisps are but crumbs. Pour this over your pie before you bake it. It is odd but you can carry out trials with different flavoured crisps.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the Rival Versaware crock pots. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

In the USA, most people call these electric cookers crock pots, whereas in the Great Britain they are normally called slow cookers. Crock pots by Rival, DeLonghi, Hamilton Beach, Cuisinart and Toastess are particularly good examples of advanced crock pots. Some of these crock pots are programmable, which allows the cook more flexibility that the slow cookers of twenty years did not.

The first crock pots had only an on/off switch and no temperature control. This meant that the recipes you could cook with them were restricted, if you used your crock pot for preparing food while you were out of the house or work for eight hours or more. Modern slow cookers like those crock pots mentioned previously have changed all that. These days, modern crock pots are programmable.

These modern crock pots are very versatile and with the best of them, you can set the temperature that the slow cooker should function at and the duration of time it should heat for a bit like a microwave oven. For example, you could program a modern slow cooker to cook at, say, 180c for an hour and then 100c for two hours

Most people do not appreciate the features that modern crock pots have. Regrettably, there are still a lot of individuals who still believe that slow cookers are only any good for cooking rice, boiling soup or preparing cheap cuts of meat like scrag end of mutton. This is just not true any more, although manual crock pots were capable of more than that as well. Modern variable slow cookers can be used to make bread, cheesecake, custards and even sponges.

In fact, it is a good idea to get away from the old fashioned concepts people have about slow cookers and try to perceive them as an oven, which does not need a pot to cook in. Try the recipe below and judge for yourself.

BANANA BREAD

1 3/4 c flour 2 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/2 tsp salt 1/3 c shortening 2/3 c sugar 2 eggs, well beaten 1 1/2 c banana, well mashed, overripe 1/2 c walnuts, coarsely chopped

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. With the electric beater on low, fluff shortening in a small bowl, until it is soft and creamy. Add the sugar gradually. Beat in the eggs in a slow stream. With a fork, beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture, ? the bananas another 1/3 of the flour mixture, the rest of the bananas and then the last of the flour mixture. Fold in the walnuts. Turn into a greased and floured baking unit or a 2 1/2 quart mold and cover.

Place on a rack in your crock pot. Cover the crock pot, but prop the lid open with a toothpick or a twist of foil to let the excess steam escape. Cook on HIGH for 4 to 6 hours. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Serve Warm.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the crock pots by Rival. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

In the West, alcoholic drinks are never far away from the scene at festive times, but do we aways know how to get the most from these costly luxuries? Too many people these days just think its a question of ‘getting as much down as possible in as little time as possible’. This is the wrong approach.

After all, most people realize that a good meal does not consist of eating as many chips as possible in fifteen minutes, so why should that principle not apply to having a drink too? You will get far more pleasure from a bottle of wine, if you spend an extra dollar on it and drink it slowly with a friend and some appropriate food than if you swill down a cheap bottle of plonk on your own. It makes evident sense, but not everyone realizes it.

So, with that thought in mind, I have put together a few tips on how to get more enjoyment from your alcoholic drinks, if you are old enough and of that frame of mind.

Gin and Vodka – if these white spirits are your favourite snifter, always keep the bottle in the fridge, not the drinks cabinet. Keep the mixers in the fridge too. That way the ice will last longer and you will not be tempted to have to gulp it down before the ice melts. If you are having friends around, go one step farther and put the bottle in the freezer. It will not go solid. You can even cut the top off a plastic cola bottle, put the bottle of gin or vodka in that, fill it with water and then freeze it. Remove the plastic bottle and you have an attractive “collar of ice” around your bottle.

The Last Tot – five minutes or so after finishing a bottle of spirits, tip it out one more time and the bottle that you thought was drained will deliver one more tot of contents. It is not a lot, but it is a pleasant free surprise. The same works for many alcohol based products including underarm roll-on and scent.

White Wine – white wines taste best when they have been gently chilled over a prolonged length of time, but if you get caught out by surprise visitors, put the bottle of wine in a container of ice and cold water. Try not to have to place it in the deep freeze, it is too harsh, but if you have to, then ten minutes is all that it takes.

Port – it is always better to decant port and older, heavier red wines, because of the sediment that may be in the bottom of the bottle, which tastes horrible and because it aids the aeration of the wine. However, it is not always easy to see when the dregs are coming. The manuals say to use a candle, but they were written a hundred years ago. The concentrated beam from a torch is far better. Try using a Durabeam because its rotateable head allows it to be directed more accurately.

Decanters – sometimes the stopper becomes stuck fast. Tap it with another glass item and it should come loose. If not, run the neck of the decanter under hot water for a few seconds and it will come out.

Labels – if you store your wine in a damp place where the labels are likely to rot or fall off, spray them with hair lacquer first.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

There are few festivities celebrated around the world on the same fantastic scale that the Chinese New Year is enjoyed. This is an event that affects people all around the world. The celebrations are quite exotic and a lot of fun for everyone involved. One thing that many outsiders may not realize is that the majority of the aspects of the Chinese New Year celebrations have a very specific purpose and meaning. Even the food.

Whether you are Chinese are not, I ‘m certain that you could use a bit of good luck to make things run a little more smoothly in your life.

When it comes to cooking for a Chinese New Year celebration there are a few things you have to keep in mind. The dishes that are prepared each have their very own significance and a definite reason for being cooked.

Dumplings are supposed to bring riches in the New Year to those who eat them on this particular day. Of course, riches is something that most people want to have and there are many means of doing so. Other foods that symbolize the attainment of wealth on the Chinese New Year are bamboo shoots, black moss seaweed, egg rolls, and oranges. This is just the beginning of the tutorial in the symbolic nature of dishes for the Chinese New Year.

Longevity or long life is something else that the Chinese famously long for. Eternal youth some may term it. The secret, they say, to a long life is the consumption of the right food as part of the New Year festivities. Those foods include: noodles, Chinese garlic, chives, and peanuts.

Prosperity is attributed to foods such as lettuce, whole fish, and pomelo. In addition to success whole fish and pomelo are believed to bring abundance and togetherness (as in marriage or romance) during the coming year.

Chicken is the main course when happiness is the goal. In addition, chicken is associated with marriage, especially when served with foods, which are reckoned to be dragon foods, such as lobster.

Those wanting children in the near future should add eggs, seeds (such as watermelon seeds) and pomelo – above all the last two, if you want a couple of children.

To end with, if good luck is what you most require, try to add a tangerine or some seaweed to your plate on this special day. If your run of luck has been really very bad recently, you may want to double up on your serving of both.

The Internet contains loads of wonderful recipes to help you commemorate the Chinese New Year as traditionally as you can. Recipes for foods such as Jiaozi (Chinese noodles) and egg rolls are to be found online and they will go a long way towards creating the proper ambiance. Add a few lettuce wraps and longevity noodles and you will have a good basis for a Chinese New Year meal.

The only other thing you require then to make your Chinese New Year celebrations go with a bang (quite literally) is fireworks. The Chinese New Year would not be the same without them, so choose your food well, either buy it or cook it (or both) and then let off your fireworks safely for a great winters evening’s entertainment.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

Whether you are genuinely seeking opportunities to explore new cultures or you are Jewish seeking appetizing recipes and cooking tips, you have come to the right place to get some of the basics. For as long as there have been family customs, eating good food at special events and during holy times has been a part of the jollity.

Unfortunately, that appetizing food cannot be enjoyed unless someone goes to the trouble of actually preparing it. If you are looking for some tasty treats to do with the Hanukkah celebrations or just want to get a taste of what other cultures do during their religious or cultural celebrations there are lots of great foodstuffs you could be cooking for this particular holiday.

Oil is imperative in the celebration of Hanukkah and, as a result, many of the foodstuffs that are part of Hanukkah celebrations are prepared in oil. One popular favorite is Latkes, which are a kind of potato pancake that is deep-fried. Another popular favorite is fried lamb chops. The lamb is breaded and then fried much like many Americans fry chicken. Once again oil is used in the cooking of the meal.

If you are thinking about something more like finger food or a snack, you could consider deep-fried ricotta balls, fried zucchini, fried onion rings and fried mozzarella are appetizing savory fried delights for the season of light. Of course, fried food is not the only thing that is eaten during this 8-day celebration, but it does play a vital part in the menu and in the festivities.

Even the sweet treats for this celebration include a few fried goodies. There are apple fritters and raspberry dough nuts and lots of other luscious fried foods for you to snack on. If you like something a little sinful to eat during this delightful celebration you might like to try blintzes in your favorite flavor. There are many to pick from and their recipes can be found easily online.

If you would like to include something a little healthier in your cuisine, then you might like to include an Israeli salad, stewed white beans, and baked aubergines and peppers. These meals provide the opportunity to have something that is not either fried or sweet to assist weight watchers, who always have a problem during festive seasons no matter which religion they observe.

Other Hanukkah favorites include scrumptious dishes such as cheese gelt coins, loukoumades, vegetable kugel, and brisket. Once again the recipes for these dishes are very extensively accessible online and in books on Jewish cooking and traditions.

To make things go a little more efficiently prepare as much food as possible well ahead and store items away quickly in order to stop them going stale. Enlist the help of children and other family members when required to move things along by taking turns preparing food.

You should also make an effort to keep the preparations as straightforward as possible to avoid delays and stress. This is a time of the year that is supposed to be dedicated to celebration not to struggling to cook tons of food. The good news is that with all that deep fried food, it is unlikely that you will find these dishes too difficult to prepare. Good luck and have fun exploring the world of cooking for Hanukkah.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with the 2 quart crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

In these times of superior alertness of the shortages in the world and the recent economic problems in the whole world, but especially in the wealthy Western countries, which are the powerhouses of most Third World countries’ expansion, people are more aware of waste. It is a sin again to throw away food, like it was 50 years ago.

This can only be a good thing although it is a shame that it took an international financial crisis to make us remember the lesson. These days, waste of any kind is greeted with public disapproval and so it is at home too. Most people spend a very high percentage of their outgoings on food and so anyone who wants to cut back, has to first look to this quarter to make a saving.

However, saving does not inevitably mean ‘not buying’, it can and should mean ‘not throwing away’. In other words, prepare your food and do not let your food go off. Preparation and storage are the key words. With that thought in mind, here are a few of my tips for preparing and storing food correctly.

Bread – tons of bread is thrown away every day, because it has gone stale or mouldy and yet it is totally unnecessary. Keep your bread in the deep freezer and not in the bread bin. A whole loaf will slice frozen with the proper knife and sliced bread will come away slice by slice. There is no requirement to defrost as it only takes a minute or two at room temperature.

Bananas – most people understand that banana skins turn black if kept in the fridge, but most people do not know that bananas can be frozen solid. Yes, the skins will still go black, but the fruit will be undamaged.

Cake – to stop cake from going stale, store it in a tin with an apple. The moisture in the apple will prevent the cake from going hard.

Watercress – to keep watercress from wilting, store it upside down in water, that is stalks up.

Salt – salt often gets damp, especially if stored in a steamy kitchen without sufficient ventilation, but you do not have to worry about that if you put two or three grains of rice in the salt cellar. They will soak up the moisture before the salt.

Cereal – stop cereal from going soft by resealing the bag with a few clothes pegs. Your cereal will last weeks more.

Jam – boiling jam produces a scum which has to be skimmed off and thrown away. This wastes jam, goodness and flavour. However, if you whisk a knob of butter into the mixture at the last minute the scum will not appear, saving time and goodness.

Funnel – you always seem to need a funnel when you do not have one. Then you vow to get a funnel for the next time. Do not bother. Just cut the top nine inches off a plastic bottle of cola. It makes an excellent throw-away funnel. Some of the larger bottles even have a handle on them which is even better.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots

There can not be a lot of individuals who do not like their food, but the human race, being what it is, I expect that there are a a small number of them. Nevertheless, for the rest of us, food is a source of every day pleasure and, like a beverage, it is often used to commemorate a celebration. not only that, but different foodstuffs are used for the different meals or distinct celebrations. Commemorative meals were indubitably planned around the seasonal foods available, but some foodstuffs were ferried huge distances for the consumption of those who could pay for them. For instance, my Dad deemed it a grand luxury to be given an orange in his stocking on Christmas Day sixty years ago. How the times have changed! Very few kids would deem an orange a present, special or otherwise, any day of the year these days.

Nonetheless, the preservation of food is still a daily affair and therefore, I have written a few good guidelines on preserving foodstuff below, so that you will obtain the best from that which you have bought or grown in your garden even a long while later.

Chicken Stuffed With Spoons: a great way of preparing chicken to be eaten at a cold buffet or in sandwiches, is to put as many spoons as possible into the cavity of the chicken (not silver or plated ones though). Then, place the chicken in a large saucepan or pot and bring the water to the boil slowly. Simmer for 10 minutes, cover and leave until the water is room temperature. The spoons will retain the heat and cook the chicken from the inside out. it will be one of the most succulent chickens you have ever eaten.

Roasted Crisp And Light: if you like crisp-skinned roasties, it is best to parboil them first, but that is only half the story. so, boil the potatoes for five minutes and drain thoroughly. Put the lid on the pan and shake it about violently. Bang it hard on the chopping block several times. The harder the better. Then put the parboiled potatoes in the baking tray with the meat or fowl to cook as you would normally.

Salad Soup: Do not throw away salad that has been soaked in salad dressing. Whisk it up in a food processor with a can of tomatoes of tinned soup. Add lots of garlic to taste and adjust the thickness to suit your taste. Chill it down and you will have one of the most delicious summer soups ever.

Curdling Cure: if your mayonnaise has curdled there is one sure fire way to bring it back to life. stir in a couple of tablespoons of Hellmann’s mayonnaise and your problem will be over.

Simply Scrumptious Topping: a really, quick, delicious and almost infinitely variable topping for a savory pie can be made in seconds. Choose the flavour you want from the crisp rack; puncture the bag to let our the air and then crush the contents in the gag. it really adds something to a pie. The same trick can be used on the bottom of a potato pie a Texan housewife told me.

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on many subjects, but is currently involved with researching the programmable crock pot. If you have an interest in cooking or crock pots, please go over to our website now at Large Crock Pots