Cooking Your Best

Home cooking brings back to mind, time spent in my grandmothers kitchen as a little girl. She always had a tasty meal, hot and waiting for us when we came to visit. In fact, she didn’t feel it was a proper visit if she didn’t have the chance to cook for us. My love of home cooking has never stopped and I have worked hard to create the same kind of environment in my own home now that I am grown.

Today’s fast paced world doesn’t always permit the time necessary to create these tasty meals but I still find that sad hearts can be cheered and weary bodies refreshed after sitting down to a nice dinner and a little home cooking. A lot of people ask me how it is I have the time to prepare home made meals on almost a daily basis and I jokingly tell them that it is a science.

The truth is, home cooking is even easier in this day and age than it was years ago, thanks to better freezing methods, instant and already prepared foods and ready made ingredients. These items make it easy to put together a great home cooked meal in no time and is my secret to home cooking. Not everything has to be from scratch.

There are a lot of products and canned goods out there that can be used to make a meal that tastes just like grandmas. Cooking equipment and household items such as plastic containers and zip top baggies have also added to the facility of home cooking.

You can make home cooked meals ahead of time and freeze them for later in the week or easily take a great meal to work with you. Home cooking may require a little more effort than picking up the phone and ordering a pizza but you will soon see the health benefits of cooking at home and preparing foods for your family.

Not all home cooking is considered healthy though and that is one area where you will want to be careful if a healthy lifestyle is your goal. But, the many unhealthy items used in recipes of grandmas day can easily be substituted with healthier choices. Recipes that call for cheese, butter, eggs and even meat can be substituted with replacements easily found in many grocery stores.

Products such as beans are a very healthy choice and make a great substitute for meats. Adding bean products to your meals is not only delicious but also makes a great combination when added to salads, soups, stews and rice dishes. Healthy home cooking is very easy and just takes a little bit of creativity and a desire to learn how to make great meals at home.

Not really sure if you have the necessary cooking skills for home cooking? Why not try getting tips from the internet or cookbooks? These are great sources of information and you will find many easy recipes for those just starting out. You might also want to try taking some cooking classes from a local school or university. You will find courses designed for new cooks and also for those who are a little more advanced or learning a new area of cooking.

You will also learn the basic cooking skills necessary for home cooking and will improve your confidence in the kitchen. The most important thing to remember is learning takes time and if you are like me, you might have a food disaster or two before mastering a certain recipe. Be patient and don’t give up.

Soon you will have friends and family impressed with your cooking. skills and coming back for more of your home cooking.

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Have you ever watched those cooking shows on tv wishing that you knew how to cook the great meals they were demonstrating?  It might be that you already have the skills you need and just do not realize it.  If you can do simple things like microwave, boil water, and use a toaster, then you are already well on your way! 

If you can microwave, you can make warm up microwave dinners.  If you can boil water, you can make great pasta dishes. And, if you can use a toaster, you can make English muffin pizzas or bagels!  Cooking is as simple as following a series of steps.  Try a new recipe and practice a new cooking skill each day.  Before long, you will be cooking great meals and adding to your growing list of recipes that you know how to cook!

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So, what is home cooking? Well, that phrase means different things to different people. Home cooking can change depending on the country and the culture where the food originates. The basic definition for home cooking is “food that is frequently cooked in a home environment”. However, there is a deeper level to it. Home cooking is nourishing and enjoyed in a loving environment. When people think of mom’s fried chicken or their grandmother’s apple pie, they not only think that the food is tasty, but they remember family meals and holidays spent together. To many, home cooking is almost the complete opposite of gourmet cooking. But even with that, if your parents were gourmet chefs, gourmet cooking
would be normal and therefore your idea of home cooking.

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Everyone, even those who think they can’t cook, have something that they are good at cooking such as salads, sandwiches, or soups.  Most people don’t think about the ingredients and methods of preparation that goes into making these foods and don’t write them down.

Writing your recipes down is a great way to keep track of the recipes that you enjoy the most and also a way to share them with others. Having a delicious recipe that your family enjoys, written down and ready for when you need it, will help you save time when thinking of what to make for dinner.  A great way to keep track of your recipes is on index cards, on your computer, or a journal.  Keeping these recipes together will help you be better organized and also help you remember which ingredients to buy at the store.

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Chefs who specialize in healthy cooking have learned to modify existing recipes to make them lower in fat and cholesterol. This is a skill you can develop too. Here are some tips that will help you make your favourite recipes healthier.
• Substitute low salt and low fat chicken broth for oil or butter when you sauté vegetables.
• Use lower fat dairy products. If the recipe calls for whole milk, for example, you could probably substitute a product that has significantly less fat. The same goes for cheese and yogurt.
• Choose leaner cuts of meat. For example, if you need ground meat, try to find a butcher who can provide you with low fat options.
• Learn to replace fat and calories with other flavours. Use fresh and dried herbs and spices so that you do not miss the fat.
• Replace the fat in baked goods for other ingredients such as apple sauce. Apple sauce often works as a substitute in things like cakes.

Those are just some tips. A good thing to do is to follow a few healthy recipes to get a feel for the different ingredients that are used. Once you are
comfortable with the ingredients, you can start to modify your own recipes.

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To understand what Italian cooking is, one needs to understand certain things about the country and about the history of the country. The modern country of Italy did not become unified until 1861. What this means is that several regions of Italy were either on their own or they belonged to another country
such as Germany up until that time period.

This means that the cuisine of the country differs largely because different regions had their own identity. For example, the northern part of Italy is heavily influenced by the German and Austrian culture. In fact, if you visit that region today, you will find that the locals speak a dialect of German that is similar to Bavarian German or Austrian German.

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Learning how to cook from a true expert can really do a lot for your own cooking. Just by watching them chop and combine ingredients is a valuable education in and of itself. There are two ways you can approach learning how to cook from an expert. You could either enroll for cooking school or you could take a few local workshops at your community centre. The option you choose will depend a lot on what your end goals are. The first thing you will need to do is determine what your goals are. If you simply want to learn how to cook more interesting meals for yourself, friends, and family members, then a local class at the community centre will be ideal. However, if you’ve known how to cook for quite some time and have realized that it is a passion, you may want to go to culinary school to become a chef. There are other careers that have to do with food such as becoming a food writer or a food stylist. Food stylists are responsible for setting up the food for things like food photo shoots and when taking pictures for restaurant menus.Learn more at: www.cookingyourbest.com

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There is an art to cooking recipes and also in writing them. Taking the time to learn how to write them is an essential step to being a good cook. As you develop your own cooking style and your own dishes come under development, you may start having original recipes that you’ve created committed to memory. In order to write these down, you need to have the
skill of writing down recipes. Here are the steps:
1. Write the title
Choose a title that is descriptive and says exactly what the recipe is. For example, if the recipe is for roasted chicken that is seasoned with lemon and rosemary, the ideal title would be Roasted Chicken withLemon and Rosemary.

2. Identify yourself
A lot of chefs choose to identify themselves in the title. That is an option, as long as the title is still descriptive. Or, you can simply put your name underneath the title.
3. Write a description
This step is optional. You can write a few sentences describing the dish underneath the title, or relate an anecdote about the dish.
4. Servings
You can put this element before the ingredients, before the
instructions, or after the instructions. List how many servings the recipe produces and how big those servings are.
5. Ingredients
List the ingredients and the amounts in the order that they appear in the recipe. Remember to place the commas in the right spot. If you intend that the recipe will call for two cloves of garlic which will then get chopped, the ingredient will read “2 cloves garlic, chopped”.
6. Instructions
List exactly what people need to do to create the dish. Don’t forget to include the method of cooking, the cooking time, and any special tools that need to be used. For example, if you intend for the person who is following your recipe to use a 9 x 13 glass baking dish, make sure you say so.
7. Extra information
Some people find it helpful to get extra information such as how to present the dish on the plate or platter, recommended garnishes, and what to serve with it. Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Rosemary.

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Two of the most important things to have in your kitchen cooking equipment is a good set of knives and a large cutting board. Although most people buy the least expensive knives they can find, it is important if you want to learn how to cook efficiently to buy a quality knife set.
You can easily choose a quality knife set by judging the weight and feel of the knife. Don’t buy a knife just because it is expensive, however. The grip and balance may not be what you need. Test out knives that are in all different price ranges and buy the one that feels good to you.

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Ever wonder what a well stocked kitchen looks like? It seems that every time you turn on the television, there are people promoting different cooking tools and gadgets. Devices to help you chop faster. Mixers that specialize in smoothies. Electric knives that can help you carve a turkey. It is hard to separate the gadgets that are worth the money and effort and those that are a waste of time.

Baking especially requires special needs. Choose a good baking set with the following items:
• Round cake pans (2 of various sizes)
• Square baking pan
• Baking sheets and loaf pans
• Muffin pans
• Glass pie plate
• Tart pans
• Rolling pin
• Wire rack for cooling
• Pastry brush that won’t melt when hot liquids touch it
• Cookie cutters
• Pastry bags with special tips

It is a good idea to add these items to your cooking equipment. If you can’t find everything included in one set, consider buying them separately in order to have what you need.

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