An Easy Route to Sausage Making

Do you like homemade sausage?  (But you don’t have either a grinder or sheep intestines?)

Here’s how to make `em!

A Good Appetite – An Easy Route to Sausage Making – NYTimes.com.

How to Stock A Kitchen: Must-Haves For Today’s Pantry

How can you save time, money AND produce healthy meals for your family? Today, online wellness community, InnerRewards, released a list of the must-haves for a healthy and budget-friendly pantry. The list was put together by culinary instructor Emily Dellas of San Francisco’s First Class Cooking.

Must Haves For The Cupboard:

• Canned beans — Fast and easy vegetarian protein. Drain and rinse before serving. Use in soups, pasta, salads, or eat them on their own.
• Canned tuna, canned salmon, sardines — Provide a good source of protein and beneficial fats.
• Lentils, split peas, barley, farro, wheatberries, and quinoa — These protein-rich items cook quickly, do not require any advanced preparation, and serve as a neutral backdrop to a wide array of flavors.
• Rolled oats — Full of fiber, oats cook extremely quickly (about 5 minutes).
• Pasta — Stock both semolina Italian pastas and Asian rice noodles.
• Canned tomatoes — Ideal for making sauces.
• Chicken or vegetable stock.
• Coconut milk.
• Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce — A great way to add a smoky heat to dishes.
• Nuts and raisins — Store them in the freezer to extend their shelf life.
• Bread crumbs — Make your own by grinding leftover, dried bread in a food processor or blender.

Must Haves For The Fridge:

• Capers, olives, anchovies — These have a long shelf-life and deliver a delicious briny flavor to dishes.
• Mustards, chutneys, horseradish — Mix into salads or transition them into marinades and dressings.
• Eggs — This inexpensive, easy-to-cook, lean protein has a shelf life of about three weeks.
• Fresh ginger — Store this unpeeled in the fridge for up to four weeks.
• Jalapeno chilies.
• Yogurt.
• Cottage cheese.
• Parmesan cheese — This will last three months and can be grated as needed.

Must Haves For The Cabinet:

• Onions, garlic, shallots — Store in a cool dark place and they will last four to six weeks.
• Potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash.

Must Haves For The Freezer:

• Vegetables — Flash-frozen vegetables are frozen right when they are picked, so they maintain much of their nutrients.
• Frozen shrimp.

Must Have Sauces:

• Oils — Buy a cheap olive oil for sautéing and a bolder-tasting one for finishing, such as garlic infused olive oil. Also, buy a cooking oil with a high-smoke point. This includes canola, vegetable, grapeseed, or peanut oils.
• Balsamic vinegar — It’s versatile and can be used in a wide array of dishes.
• Light and white vinegars — Keep a white wine, rice wine, or champagne vinegar on hand for when you wish to use a less-intense vinegar.
• Sherry vinegar — Bold enough to stand in dressings, but does not dominate a dish. Apple Cider vinegar and Red Wine Vinegar are also worth stocking.
• Soy sauce — Don’t cook Asian food? Soy can cross cuisines as a wonderful flavoring.
• Fish sauce, Siracha, curry paste, tamari, sesame oil.
• Honey, molasses, maple syrup.
• Salad dressings.

Must Have Spices:

• A good starting point includes: chile pepper, cinnamon, cloves, cumin, curry powder, garam masala, thyme, marjoram, paprika, Herbes de Provence and dried mustard.

Must Have Fresh Produce:

• Fresh lemons, limes, oranges.
• Fresh parsley or cilantro.
• Scallions.
• Salad greens.
• Broccoli or cauliflower.
• Bell peppers.
• Green beans or sugar snap peas.
• Sweet-Tart apples, such as Pink Lady or Fuji, add perk to salads and can be cooked in savory dishes.

“The motto, “Be prepared,” isn’t just for Boy Scouts”, says Ms. Dellas.  “It is a mantra for cooks who want to prepare nutritious and delicious meals at home. If you have the right foods in your kitchen, you are halfway there.”

Tips for Tempering Chocolate

Making some chocolate for your sweetie this Valentine’s Day?

Tempering melted chocolate ensures that it will set up firmly with a glossy sheen. Any leftover chocolate can be tempered again later.

Tips for Tempering Chocolate | Food & Wine.

How to freeze eggs for later use

Egg whites and egg yolks can be frozen.

Food & wine | How to freeze eggs for later use | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Home Cooks: Wasting Time, Money and Energy in the Kitchen

Americans waste hundreds of dollars per year when cooking because they are unaware of the opportunities to save energy and time in their home kitchens. Based on ongoing research and kitchen observation, most cooks use inappropriate appliances, misuse kitchen tools and select the wrong methods for their cooking tasks.

According to KitchenetteCookware.com Chef and Founder Sara Hohn, these seemingly minor decisions made when cooking result in countless hours lost and energy wasted every day. “A lot of progress has been made in making the public aware of conserving energy throughout the home,” said Hohn. “but the kitchen, with its many appliances and high energy usage, is often overlooked.”

Hohn has developed the concept of “Green Cooking.” Green Cooking pertains not only to the appliances cooks use, but the habits practiced when cooking. Some ways to reduce a household’s energy consumption through Green Cooking are:

1. When cooking or reheating small meals, use a small toaster oven. In general, the smaller the appliance, the less energy used, so choose the smallest appliance suited to your cooking task.
2. In the oven, stagger dishes at different rack levels to ensure proper air flow. Good air flow helps the oven work more quickly and efficiently.
3. Pressure-cooking is the easiest and fastest green cooking method. A new, efficient pressure cooker can reduce energy consumption for cooking by more than half.

In general, using Green Cooking tactics, cooks can reduce waste, use less energy, less water and make less noise during the cooking process.