Cooking Courses: Which Ones Work?

I have a great working relationship with most of my co-workers and good friendships with three of them. It seems that even though we see each other daily it is hard to keep up with what is going on in each others lives. We make it a point to have lunch as often as possible or to go to a happy hour after work, but so often it seems that we end up talking about work.

The last time we went out to a happy hour we started talking about doing some type of activity together. One of my friends mentioned that she was going to sign up for somecooking courses offered through community education. She thought it might be fun if we would do this together. The cooking courses were to concentrate on making thirty minute meals that were above average in taste and presentation. We decided that this would be fun as well as helpful in our lives.

The first evening of the cooking courses found the four of us putting on hair nets and aprons. Of course we all thought this was quite funny. We knew we had joined a serious class when the instructor threatened to separate us. Instead of being a fun activity where we could enjoy each others company thecooking courses became quite stressful. The first night the instructor timed us as we cut up onions and vegetables for the stir fry dish that we were making. She had a timer with a bell along with a whistle to make sure we all dropped our knives when she said that the time was up.

At our first break we went outside to get some fresh air. One of the other students heard us talking about how serious the course was. She said that she had taken othercooking courses and that they had been a great deal of fun and more laid back. She thought that the instructor was filling in for someone else. We made it through the first night. I did learn a few ways to cut off time in meal preparation but I was not that excited about going back. At work the next day we all agree that we would go the next week and if things did not improve we would skip the rest of thecooking courses and spend the time having drinks and dinner.

The next week there was a different instructor for the cooking class. She was a great deal of fun and had all of us laughing as we prepared short cut meals that could be frozen for later use. The evening flew by. It is amazing the difference the personality of the instructor can have on how much you enjoy a class as well as on how much you learn. The rest of thecooking courses were taught by the fun instructor so we kept going and learned a great deal.

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Clinton Idol is an informative resources site on everything Cooking related. Find out how Your Clinton Idol can expand your horizons at http://www.clintonidol.com

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Guilin Noodle - A Famous Snack in China

By Roy Armstrong

Guilin Noodle is a famous snack in the city of Guilin, which is a city located in the Guangxi province of China. If you go to Guilin, you would be able to find so many restaurants that serve this snack. I have been to this city so many times and I have tried many restaurants. In my opinion, the restaurant that makes the best Guilin noodle is a restaurant named Eight Sisters, which is located near Guangxi Normal University. Transportation is very convenient in this city. All you have to do is take a taxi and tell the driver to take you to Guangxi Normal University.

After you get there, you can ask anyone and they would tell you where this restaurant is. It only takes about two minutes to walk from the university to the restaurant.

First of all, the price of this snack is very low. You are provided with three options, which are small, medium, and large bowl. Small bowl costs 1.5 RMB; medium bowl costs 3 RMB; large bowl costs 5 RMB. I would always choose large bowl because it is delicious! You would be given a ticket after paying at the entrance and to get your bowl of noodle, you need to show the chef the ticket and you will be asked to choose the ingredients that you want to be added to your noodle. This is totally up to you but I recommend adding barbecue pork, peanuts, and the special sauce; these three are essential to a good tasting bowl of Guilin Noodle.

After you get your bowl, grab some chopsticks and stir the noodle to make sure that everything is evenly mixed. When you are done, you are ready to enjoy it! It may look simple, but after eating it once, you would come back for more everyday. If you think that eating it everyday would make you get bored or sick of it, you are totally wrong. This noodle is addictive and even if you eat it everyday, you would not be tired of it.

Roy Armstrong has always liked to write articles that give people the information they want and need. Not only does he write articles, you can also check out his latest websites on arm workout and wall mount fans.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Roy_Armstrong

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Great Ways to Prepare Shrimp

By Ryan Lacioca

Shrimp is a delicious seafood that can be used in a great variety of recipes, all of which are very quick to prepare.

The texture of Shrimp enables you to spice it right up or tone it right down. It is highly recommended by nutritionists due the healthy balance that is found is Shrimp meat.

I couldn't begin to go through all the recipes for Shrimp due to the sheer volume, I personally know of at least 600.

There are a few things that you should always bear in mind when you cook Shrimp. Cook it slowly until the skin just turns opaque, if you cook it for any longer it will dry out and become very rubbery. It will also lose its distinctive flavor. More flavor will be retained if you cook the Shrimp in its shell.

If you like your Shrimps to be highly flavored, a simple Shrimp scampi is delicious. You only need red and green peppers, olive oil, onions, garlic and parsley. This can be thrown together in less than ten minutes.

Another delicious 10 minute recipe is garlic Shrimps. Get together some parsley, garlic, lemon juice, salt and butter. Very tasty, very quick and perfect with pasta.

Another dish which combines the two is Shrimp Alfredo. This has pasta as one of its ingredients and is a complete meal. Just get the Alfredo ingredients and buy a ready made Alfredo sauce. This makes life easier and the dish even simpler to make.

When I think of summer I think of Shrimps done on the barbecue. This is another super simple recipe which takes no time at all. You will need basil, rosemary, lemon juice, a bay leaf and some garlic. From start to finish you are looking at no more than 7 minutes.

I hope that this article has erased the images of Shrimps only being cooked successfully by gourmet chefs in a professional kitchen. As you can see, it is just the opposite.

For more by Ryan, see his bead bracelets tutorial at http://beadbracelets.org.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ryan_Lacioca

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4 Cooking Tips Will End Your Recipe Guessing

Cooking is not made easy when you’re still guessing. In fact, guessing at cooking increases the stress because guessing makes you unsure of the results to come. I’m going to give you a little cooking help by offering some tips on how to end your guessing.

One of the reasons that you guess is because it’s hard to believe something until you can actually see it. But I want to help you to wrap your head around the idea that you have to believe it first and then you’ll see it.

Quantifying your portion sizes, temperature and testing are great ways to allow you to stop guessing. Let’s go ahead and look at how that might work.

4 Ways to quantify your cooking and eliminate guessing:

Cooking Tip #1: Temperature

Temperature is important in cooking. Some foods will make you sick if you don’t cook them at the right temperature. Other foods will be utterly destroyed if you cook them much above “medium heat”.

Use water as an indicator of temperature. Water evaporates at 212 degrees F, so if you are using a saute pan, if you sprinkle a little water in the pan and it evaporates, you know that the pan is at least at the boiling point of water. The quicker the water evaporates, the hotter your pan is. This works on the grill as well.

You can also test a small piece of your food to test for temperature. For example, maybe you’re going to fry some chicken in oil on the stove, but you can’t tell if the oil is hot enough or not. Don’t ruin a whole breast by putting it into oil that’s not hot enough. Instead, take a small piece of the chicken and drop it in the pan. You’ll know right away whether the oil is hot enough or not to cook your food.

Cooking Tip #2: Test a Small Quantity

Sometimes, you just need to test a small quantity of something before cooking the whole thing. This is especially helpful in roasting. I can tell you that when I had my catering business, sometimes we would have to make hundreds or thousands of crab cakes in one big batch. Well, we would take one crab cake, cook it and test it. This would allow us to make adjustments on the rest of the batch and make a superior product! Cooking or roasting a small piece of something is a great way to see if your plan is going to work without sacrificing all of your ingredients during one of your guessing adventures.

Cooking Tip #3: Portion Size

Get a digital scale and begin to understand your raw portions sizes. Let me tell you a story about how I discovered the importance of this tip.

• When I used to make spaghetti for myself and my wife, I would cook a whole pound of spaghetti, basically one whole box for the two of us. When we sat down to eat, because so much spaghetti was available, we ate more than we should. After finishing our meal, there was always spaghetti left over, we would put the leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator and a few days later throw it out because we wouldn’t eat it.

• With my digital scale, I started by weighing 8 ounces of dry pasta for the two of us. I cooked the 8 ounces and still had some leftover, so I adjusted it down until I knew EXACTLY how much dry pasta to cook for the two of us…5.3 ounces is our perfect amount. Knowing this finally made cooking pasta easy, we don’t overeat and we don’t have leftovers.

Understanding and knowing your portion sizes will also help you to not overbuy at the grocery store because you’ll know EXACTLY how much to buy of a product to feed your family for a particular meal. And make sure you stick to the portion sizes. If you’re cooking frozen shrimp from a bag and the portions end up leaving 3 shrimp in the bag, don’t just dump them into the meal and cook them. NO, you’ll be feeding too much to your family! Leave them in the bag and cook them the next time. You don’t have to “just make the whole package.”

Cooking tip #4: Test Spices

If you are making a pot of something and you need to add spices, don’t start throwing in the spices and guess what it’s going to taste like. Get the spices that you’re thinking about using and put the “concoction” in a small ramekin or a small soufflé cup first. This will help you to know how the flavors work and give you the confidence that the combination is going to work.

So, by using these quantifying cooking tips, you can stop guessing at what’s happening to your food. Observe your results and purposely alter your steps for the next time. You will be amazed at how starting with these little visual cues can help you to stop guessing and be confident that what you see is what you believe will be true. This isn’t guessing, this is cooking made easy!

Chef Todd Mohr is a classically trained chef, entrepreneur and educator. Chef Todd's simple philosophy - burn your recipes and learn how to really cook - has helped many home cooks and professionals alike finally achieve success in the kitchen. Learn his 1 Secret for Free and discover how online cooking classes can really teach you to cook!

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Some Best Mashed Potatoes Recipes

By Ben Cook

In many homes, mashed potatoes are seen often as a side dish at the table. They go well with any meat, vegetable and gravy. The great thing about mashed potatoes is the range you are able to choose from. Simply by choosing a different potato, you can give them a completely different taste. There are many spices and other ingredients that can be added to the mixture to provide some extra flavor. Some individuals find mashing potatoes a straightforward task that is easy to do, whereas others put a lot of effort and time into making it to perfection.

Picking the potato of choice, is step one to creating a simple potato mixture. Some people enjoy the taste of red, golden, baking or russet potatoes used in their dishes. Depending on the number of people you are feeding you need more or less potatoes but normally for one family 5 or 6 potatoes is plenty. The potatoes ought to be washed or scrubbed and put into a pot of boiling water. When you place the potatoes in the pot, flip the stove down to about medium and let them boil. It normally takes about 30-45 minutes for the potatoes to become soft and prepared for mashing. Before you add something to the potatoes, you will want to drain the water from the pot. The potatoes can stay right within the pot, as you add the other items. Three teaspoons of butter and three/four cups of milk, is normally enough to get the potatoes started. A potato masher is required to smash up the soft potatoes and help mix up the butter and milk. When the mixture looks fairly smooth, you can add more butter or milk as needed. Utilizing more milk will create a smoother mixture, whereas adding extra butter will give it a buttery taste. For a richer and creamer potato mixture you may substitute the milk for heavy cream and by including in some green spices, you can make a big difference. Probably the most commonly used spices include, bay leaves and chives. They work nicely by bringing all the flavors and ingredients together.

For cheese lovers, there are many sorts that you would be able to include in your dish. Cream cheese comes in many flavors and may be added to give the potatoes a richer and heavier feeling to them. Shredded cheese could be added to the top of the dish, or blended into it. The cheese will give the potato mixture a pleasant color and some texture to enjoy. Half a cup of sour cream is another frequent ingredient present in potato mixtures, it also works well with any chives and bay leaves that could be inside the dish. There are many ways to have your potatoes mashed properly. Some prefer the steel hand masher, that presses down the potatoes and helps to blend in the butter and milk. And other individuals use an electrical mixer to whip up their fluffy potato dish. The mixer will give the potatoes a perfectly smooth texture but if you happen to like having a couple o chunks in your dish, then a hand held masher will do the trick.

There are mashed potatoes recipes for each ones taste and cooking skill. The key to discovering an ideal dish, is to test out a number of ingredients and experiment with potato types. Only then will you discover ways to make the perfect potato dish for you and your family because everyone's taste is unique and everyone will have his own version of perfect mashed potatoes.

Ben Cook uses different kinds of potatoes in the recipes he shares on his website. For instance - try his mashed sweet potatoes recipe or any other among the many recipes for mashed potatoes that are available. Don't eat plain taters, spice them up and surprise your family.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ben_Cook

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Cooking is an art as well as a necessity of our lives. It can bring great joy to both the cook, as well as those who partake of the well-prepared meal and it can also be a valuable and nutritious addition to our overall health and well being. One might think that cooking and science have little in common, yet that is simply not true, as cooking offers a wide variety of opportunities to teach science to our young. By sharing quality time cooking with our children, they can learn valuable lessons not only in the ethic of work and responsibility but also in the area of science.

Experimenting In The Kitchen

Simple scientific experiments can be conducted within the comfortable confines of ones own kitchen and the end results can be edible! What an approach to science! Yet because the students are learning in a comforting and enjoyable atmosphere, it is not like the stifled book-learning approach to science. Cooking offers the child a hands on and tangible experience, while at the same time teaching them a life skill they can use daily. Children from kindergarten to college can gain practical applications and life-long knowledge by using this approach. Some example of fun experiments parents can incorporate include making candyfloss and ice cream. Making ice cream, for example, allows the exploration of the freezing point of matter. One can also talk about the role of temperature, whipping and foaming during the process. Children can learn a wide range of science concepts while they enjoy the learning process. What is more is that they get to enjoy a tasty treat at the end of the process.

Difficult chemistry concepts such as radiation, convection, conduction, energy and carbohydrate chemistry may seem overwhelming to many students, yet exploring and appreciating these science concepts during our food preparation can makes it a fun and exciting adventure. For a start, one can study the various forms of heat transfer and their different roles it play in the cooking process. With regard to specific foods, milk and dairy products can be discussed as you use them in your cooking, such as how the cows produce milk, what milk is made of, the nutrients within the milk and the difference between fermented and non-fermented products.

Plants can also be easily incorporated into our discussions. Cooking vegetables is a science itself. Even preseving them, such as kimchi, is an excellent introduction to food nutrition and preservation. By the way, talking about kimchi, in it lives a host of live organisms which one can conduct experiments on. Moreover, it also gives you an excellent opportunity to talk about Korean culture and food. Concepts such as osmosis, pH value, density of the food, as well as dissecting the vegetables to identify plant tissue and structure can be explored too.

With the wide variety of creative ideas for experimentation, the kitchen is a wonderful learning laboratory for people of all ages.

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Kelvin Ho is the webmaster of "PickUpCooking.com". He loves cooking and teaching students how to cook. Pick up cooking tips and resources at http://www.pickupcooking.com.

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Tips for Cooking Lobster

While it is true that if you can boil a pot of water, you can cook a Maine lobster - you have to make sure to avoid over or undercooking the lobster. Here's some tips for steaming, boiling and grilling lobster.

Steaming lobster
The ratio of lobsters to the pot is important; a 4-5 gallon pot is ideal for steaming 6-8 pounds of lobster. You should put 2 inches of salted water in the bottom of a large pot with a steaming rack on top of it. Bring the water to a rolling boil over high heat. Put in the live lobsters, one at a time, cover the pot, and start timing. Re-arrange the lobsters halfway through cooking.

Cooking times - (based on the lobster-to-pot ratio mentioned above)
1 pound - 10 minutes
1-1/4 pounds - 12 minutes
1-1/2 pounds - 14 minutes
1-3/4 pounds - 16 minutes
2 pounds - 18 minutes
2-1/2 pounds - 22 minutes
3 pounds - 25-30 minutes
5 pounds - 40-45 minutes

Boiling lobster
Fill a large pot with water with 3 quarts of water per 1-1/2 to 2 pounds of lobster. Add 1/4 cup of salt for each gallon of water. Bring the water to a boil and put the live lobsters in the pot one at a time, do not cover, and start timing immediately. Stir the lobsters halfway through cooking.

Cooking times - (based on the lobster-to-water ratio mentioned above)
1 pound - 8 minutes
1-1/4 pounds - 9-10 minutes
1-1/2 pounds - 11-12 minutes
1-3/4 pounds - 12-13 minutes
2 pounds - 15 minutes
2-1/2 pounds - 20 minutes
3 pounds - 25 minutes
5 pounds - 35-40 minutes
Grilling

Pre-boil your lobsters in a large pot of boiling water for 5 minutes then remove the lobsters and plunge into a large bowl of cold water to stop the cooking. Drain the lobsters and store in a refrigerator if you do not plan to grill them right away.

Place a lobster on its back on a cutting board. Then, using a large sharp knife split the lobster down the middle. Remove the black vein from the tail, the tomalley from the body and the sand sac located near the head. You can baste the lobster meat with some oil or butter and then grill the lobsters flesh side down for 5 to 6 minutes, or until the flesh is just beginning to look opaque. Turn the lobsters over, baste with more oil and continue to cook for 4 to 5 minutes longer, or until the lobsters are thoroughly cooked.

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Author Barney Garcia is a proud contributing author and enjoys writing about many different topics. Please visit my web sites @ http://www.enjoy-lobster.info/ and http://www.lobster-yum.info/

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