Family Dinner - Baked Chicken Mozzarella Recipe

As a busy mom and wife, I am always looking for easy and time saving chicken recipes, and this one fits all of those ‘mom’ requirements.

What I like about this recipe is the fact that it is made with every day ingredients that you most likely have on hand. To save time, I will make step 1 the day before and then refrigerate it in a container. The next day, I will reheat the step 1 ingredients in the microwave for 1-2 minutes and then proceed with step 2. I do this so that I am not spending an hour in my kitchen on a busy work or school night.

Chicken Mozzarella Recipe

Step 1 Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs. of boneless, skinless, chicken breasts
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup seasoned dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce or spaghetti sauce
3/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves

Cut chicken breasts in half and remove skin. In a small bowl, beat eggs. Dip meat into eggs and then dip into dried bread crumbs. Heat butter in a large 12″ round frying pan until melted. Place breasts in the frying pan over medium heat and simmer until it has browned on all sides. Stir in the tomato sauce and basil; reduce heat. Cover and cook over low heat until done, about 30-40 minutes.

Step 2 Ingredients:

1/2 cup Mozzarella cheese, shredded
1/4 teaspoon paprika

In a small bowl, combine the Mozzarella cheese with the paprika until blended.

Arrange chicken pieces in an un-greased 9″ square baking dish along with the rest of the ingredients from step 1. Sprinkle the cheese mixture on top. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake in your oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until cheese has melted and is bubbly around the edges.

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Grandma Hystad’s Recipes, Food,Drink information, Cooking Tips

CONTENDS

POLISH STEW

POLISH PYROGY

UKRAINIAN GOLUBTZI (cabbage rolls)

FOOD, COOKING TIPS

POLISH STEW

8 slices of bacon, finely chopped

1 pound boneless, lean pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch chunks

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped, or 1-teaspoon garlic powder

3 onions, quartered

½ pound fresh mushrooms, sliced

1 cup canned beef broth

2 Tablespoons sugar

2 bay leaves

2 cups canned sauerkraut rinsed under water and drained well

2 medium apples, cored and sliced

2 cups Italian-style whole tomatoes with juice

1 cup cooked ham, diced

1½ cups cooked Polish sausage, coarsely sliced

Fry bacon pieces in large saucepan over high heat for about 3 minutes.

Carefully drain off some of the fat, leaving just enough to coat the bottom of the pot.

Add pork, garlic, onions, and mushrooms, and, stirring constantly, fry until meat is browned on all sides, about 5 minutes.

Reduce heat to medium. Add beef broth, sugar, bay leaves, drained sauerkraut, apples, and tomatoes with juice. Bring the mixture to a boil, increasing heat if necessary.

Reduce heat, cover, and simmer stew for about 1½ hours, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.

Add cooked ham and sausage, and stir.

Cover and continue to simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes more to blend flavours.

Remove bay leaves and discard before serving.

Serves 8 to 10.

POLISH PYROGY Everyone enjoys this dish. It’s one I could eat every day.

Dough

5 cups flour

2 cups warm water

1 tablespoon salt

4 tablespoons oil

3 eggs

1 tablespoon vinegar Mix flour and salt together.

Mix eggs, oil and water to make 2 cups.

Make well in flour add water mixture.

Mix well then knead. (the more you knead the better).

Roll dough flat, thin and cut into 2-3 inch squares Put filling (below) in each, seal edge, and use flour to pinch seal shut.

FILLING

Mashed potatoes.

Course cottage cheese.

Salt and pepper.

Mix together until course.

Drop into boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Do not place to many in boiling water at one time as they all should have enough room to float to top.

After cooking place in different pot and add butter, or place in frying pan, add butter, and (onions) if you prefer. Fry for a few minutes until they start turning a light brown. Can then be served with or without sour cream.

UKRAINIAN Golubtzi, (cabbage rolls)

1 large head of cabbage ½ pound hamburger

1 cup rice, cooked

1 onion

2 tablespoons fat

1 teaspoon salt ¼ teaspoon pepper

1 10½-ounce can tomato soup ½ cup sour cream Remove leafs from cabbage head. Cook in salt water for 5 Minutes, or until leaves are flexible. Drain and cool.

Add ground meat, cooked rice, and seasoning. Put a tablespoon of the mixture on each leaf. Roll and place each in a baking pan, pour undiluted tomato soup over them. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes or until tender.

Serves 6. Option: Add sour cream 5 minutes before serving.

FOOD INFORMATION, COOKING TIPS

General Roasting Guide for Turkey

Allow enough time in the refrigerator for complete thawing — one day for every five pounds, not counting the day you cook it. A defrosted turkey will keep a day or two under refrigeration.

Ready To Cook Weight, Stuffed Turkeys:
Cook turkey at 325 degrees F.
8 - 12 lb 3 - 3.5 hrs
12 - 14 lb 3.5- 4 hrs
14 - 18 lb 4 - 5 hrs
18 - 20 lb 4.5 - 5 hrs
20 - 24 lb 4.5 - 5.5 hrs

For unstuffed turkeys of the same weight, reduce total cooking time by 15 to 45 minutes. Turkey is done when the thigh temperature reaches 180 degrees F and stuffing reaches 165 degrees F.

OTHER COOKING TIMES

Ground Meat & Meat Mixtures.  Beef, Pork, Veal, lamb=160

                                                                   Turkey, Chicken= 165

Fresh Beef, Veal, Lamb Steaks, roasts, chops=145

Poultry: Chicken & Turkey, whole, Poultry breasts, roasts,

Duck & Goose, Stuffing (cooked alone or in bird)=165

Pork and Ham, Fresh pork, Fresh ham (raw)=160

Precooked ham (to reheat)=140

Eggs & Egg Dishes=Eggs, cook until yolk and white are firm

Egg dishes=160.

It’s not safe to cook a turkey all night at 200 °F. The minimum oven temperature is 325 °F to ensure any bacteria are destroyed.

Prepare wet and dry stuffing ingredients ahead of time and refrigerate them separately. Don’t combine the ingredients until just before cooking the stuffing – inside or outside the turkey.

All turkey meat, including any that remains pink, is safe to eat as soon as all parts reach at least 165 °F. When turkey is removed from the oven, let it stand 20 minutes before removing the stuffing and carving the turkey.

After dinner, cut the leftover turkey into small pieces; refrigerate stuffing and turkey separately in shallow containers within 2 hours of cooking. Use leftover turkey and stuffing within 3-4 days or freeze these foods. Reheat thoroughly to a temperature of 165 °F or until hot and steaming.

The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) and the door remains closed.

Discard refrigerated perishable food such as meat, poultry, fish, soft cheeses, milk, eggs, leftovers and deli items after 4 hours without power.

Food may be safely refrozen if it still contains ice crystals or is at 40°F or below when checked with a food thermometer.

Never taste a food to determine its safety!

Obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator and freezer as cold as possible if the power is going to be out for a prolonged period of time. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic-foot full freezer for 2 days.

If the power has been out for several days, check the temperature of the freezer with an appliance thermometer. If the appliance thermometer reads 40°F or below, the food is safe to refreeze.

If a thermometer has not been kept in the freezer, check each package of food to determine its safety. If the food still contains ice crystals, the food is safe.

Discard any food that is not in a waterproof container if there is any chance that it has come into contact with flood water. Discard wooden cutting boards, plastic utensils, baby bottle nipples and pacifiers.

Thoroughly wash all metal pans, ceramic dishes and utensils that came in contact with flood water with hot soapy water and sanitize by boiling them in clean water or by immersing them for 15 minutes in a solution of 1 tablespoon of unscented, liquid chlorine bleach per gallon of drinking water.

Of course, a “single hamburger” can include meat from hundreds of animals. Hamburger meat is often composed of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, but there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen.

In fact, American Foodservice, which grinds 365 million pounds of hamburger a year, had to stop testing trimmings 10 years ago because slaughterhouses did not want to sell to them!

One retailer that does test their trimmings for E. coli before grinding is Costco, and according to The New York Times, Tyson will not supply them because they don’t want their product tested.

SANITIZE CUTTING BOARDS

An effective way to sanitize cutting boards and other kitchen surfaces, is with a diluted bleach and water solution — just 1 tablespoon unscented liquid chlorine bleach (not more) to 1 gallon of water.

To clean your cutting board, first wash it with hot water and soap. After rinsing it off with clean water, sanitize by letting the diluted chlorine bleach solution stand on the cutting board surface for about a minute. Rinse and blot dry with clean paper towels. It is important to clean and sanitize – just because a surface looks clean, does not mean it is free of disease-causing bacteria!

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You Won’t Believe This Easy, Simple Method for Cooking Sauce

One of the most difficult things for a cook at home to make is a flavorful sauce. A great sauce will cover some of the worst cooking mistakes, enhance most of the best cooking successes and make you appear to be a home cooking genius.

Cooking a sauce means adding flavor, texture, and appearance to your home cooking dishes. A sauce or gravy is made of three simple ingredients: liquid, thickener, and flavorings. When you need easy cooking ideas for cooking sauces at home, you need only think of these three things.

Liquid for Your Sauce

If you’re making a chicken dish, you’ll probably want to add something like chicken broth. If you’re making a tropical dish, you might add a fruit juice or add soy sauce to an Asian dish. Add the liquid that makes sense for the protein that you’ve cooked and once you’re comfortable making sauces, be open to experimenting with new and different flavor combinations. Next, you will need to be able to thicken your liquid so that it sticks to your food for some great home cooking.

Thickener for Your Sauce

A sauce needs to be thick enough to cling to food and not wind up as a puddle on the bottom of the plate. The easiest way to thicken a liquid is with a cornstarch slurry. This is the same method that most of our grandmother’s used to make gravy from the pan drippings of the holiday turkey. When you dissolve cornstarch in a cold liquid, then add it to a hot liquid (your sauce), it will gelatinize, and thicken the sauce.

While slurry is the easiest way to cooking sauce success, roux is the most widely used and most flavorful because of the fat needed to separate starch molecules. If you’ve ever noticed lumps in your gravy, it’s because groups of starch molecules have stuck together and only thickened on the outside of the group. Butter, oil, or solid fats in a roux help to “line up” the starch molecules for the introduction of hot liquid and their opportunity to individually absorb the liquid and swell, this thickening the sauce.

Flavoring for Your Sauce

The liquid that you used to create your sauce may give you enough of a flavor profile that you don’t need to add any additional flavors. However, if there isn’t enough flavor, add some! You could add garlic, onions, ginger or any number of different ingredients while you are cooking your sauce to help to liven up your home cooking.

No matter what the liquid, thickening agent or flavor profile you choose, you can find that cooking sauce is a skill you’ll enjoy and will lead to more easy cooking ideas without recipes. Before you know it, everyone will be begging you to have them over to your house for some great home cooking.

chicken cooked in british favourite way
Video Rating: 4 / 5

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Quick and Easy Chicken and Salad Meal Ready in Minutes With Strawberry Shortcake For Dessert

You can get a tasty meal on the table in around a half hour so there is no need to stop by the fast food restaurants on a regular basis.  Onion Baked Chicken In Less Than 30 Minutes is easy to prepare and bakes in 20 minutes.  The coating of crushed canned French fried onions and flour gives you a crispy crust with juicy chicken inside.  Marzetti’s Broccoli Salad is easy to prepare and is a nice compliment to the chicken.  Finish off your meal with a fancy dessert that is easy to make; The Quickest Strawberry Shortcake.

ONION BAKED CHICKEN IN LESS THAN 30 MINUTES

2 cups canned French fried onions
2 tbsp flour
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

In a large zip-top plastic bag, combine flour and onions; crush onions. Put egg into a shallow bowl and dip chicken into egg. One piece at a time, shake chicken in the plastic bag to coat. Place on a baking sheet lightly sprayed with vegetable oil spray and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until cooked through.

MARZETTI’S BROCCOLI SALAD

2/3 cup Marzetti’s Roasted Garlic Italian Viniagrette

4 cups fresh broccoli flowerets

1 pkg (6-oz) white button mushrooms

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

3 scallions, 4-in green and white parts, cut into 1/4-in pieces

1/2 red bell pepper, cut into pieces

1/2 yellow bell pepper, cut into pieces

Bring a large pot of water to a boil; cook broccoli two minutes.  Drain broccoli, rinse under cold water and drain again.  Combine mushrooms, parsley, and scallions together in a bowl.  In a serving bowl, combine the broccoli with the mushroom mixture.  Add the peppers and toss with the viniagrette.

THE QUICKEST STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE

1 frozen pound cake, thawed
1 tub (16 oz) frozen whipped topping, thawed
1 pint fresh strawberries

Cut the pound cake in half horizontally. Spread half of the whipped topping on the cut side of the bottom half. Reserve 6 strawberries with the stems still attached. Thinly slice the remaining strawberries and place atop the whipped topping. Place the top half of the cake over the strawberries. Spread the top with more of the whipped topping and place the strawberries with the stems on the top as garnish.

Enjoy!

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Reviews of Gordon Ramsays Cooking For Friends

Here is a summary of reviews for Gordon Ramsay\’s Cooking for Friends. On average the book scored very highly with fourteen of eighteen reviews on Amazon in the UK scoring it 4 or five stars.

“Gordon Ramsay is a GREAT chef - but sometimes his recipes can be too complex for the enthusiastic amateur like myself.

However, this book is just right - in that the recipes are excellent and there is some great stuff in here but, most importantly, the recipes are well written and easy to follow.

I think this is perfect for those who want to cook quality dishes for dinner parties but not spend several days in the kitchen preparing for it!!

Highly recommended. ”

“This book is full of inspiring and easy to follow recipes, delicious photography and lots of personal touches and anecdotes which make it a \’real\’ book. I like the way the dishes are made using accessible ingredients as sometimes celebrity cook books are full of ingredients which are difficult to come by or expensive. In fact I love the old fashioned and \’simple food\’ element, but above all the recipes are for \’proper\’ good food, ideal for family meals and social gatherings without days of worry and preparation beforehand.

A must have for everyone who loves to cook good food with simple, quality ingredients. ”

“I have about 20 cook books, but this is the one in most use. I have bought it for a few friends, so this speaks volumes. I cannot recommend this book enough!”

“It\’s probably the most often-heard gripe in reviews of cookery books, especially celeb-chef ones. “There aren\’t enough pictures”. How are you meant to know what it looks like when it\’s finished? What are you aiming for? Even for a simple recipe, it\’s nice to have a picture. Besides, it\’s often the pictures of the recipe-made-meal that inspire you to have a go at creating it yourself.

If this is something that irks you, perhaps steer clear of this book. Although rather handsome, I\’d say only about a quarter of the meals have accompanying pictures. This might not be such a bad thing if there weren\’t dozens of completely irrelevant pictures taking the place of potentially useful ones. We are treated throughout the book to images of Ramsay sitting down, of Ramsay resting his head between his hands, of Ramsay sitting at the table outside with lots of friends, of Ramsay sitting down at the table with his friends, again. If you buy the book, you\’ll already know what \’Chef Ramsay\’ looks like, and probably don\’t give a crap what his friends look like.

There are also lots of pictures not of meals, but of ingredients. Instead of the finished dish, you might get a few mackerel on a worktop, or a swede chopped in half, or two eggs on a plate with a feather. It\’s pointless and often slightly infuriating.

This somewhat major annoyance aside, it\’s a pretty nice book. The recipes inevitably do taste nice, for example the fisherman\’s stew. The ingredients lists can be a little extensive - it\’s not a book to be used every day - but most of them are things that are at least readily available. Too many cookbooks call for things like toasted goblin eyes or strained dreams of ocelots.

This book won\’t make you a three-starred chef, and the cooking for friends moniker is a little unjustified as there\’s no reason why these dishes should be made exclusively for large groups; they can be made for any amount of people. But it does feature some genuinely nice meals to make, which is after all the purpose for a book like this. You\’ll just have to assume that what comes out of the oven looks the way it\’s meant to. ”

“I bought a signed copy from an independent seller on Amazon, and I was very excited to receive it. So far I have made the Shepherd\’s Pie with branston pickle, and the lamb and prune casserole and both were superb. I can\’t wait to try some more recipes, as I am sure they will be just as good. The book itself is really nice quality with some lovely photos (unlike most people reviewing this book, I quite like a few pics of Gordon!)”

“There seems to have been a shift in Chef Ramsays style of books recently, since the launch of 3 * Chef he has moved back to more basic home cooking. And for all keem home cooks thats a good thing. Although hos previous books were beautiful to look at and filled with gorgeous recipes they were costly & time consuming to make.

Cooking with friends is a real back to basics, quality cook book, one to have by the stove all the time.

As usual well presented with great pictures, hints & tips from the great man and some pretty good dishes too. It\’s the sort of food you want to cook and eat on a regular basis things like chicken pie, Broccoli soup, blue cheese tarts etc. Real quality home cooking. The book is well layed out with sections on:

1. Hot & Cold Soups - Inc Roast Chestnut, Parsnip & Apple, Curried cauliflower & cheddar, oxtail, chilled cucumber

2. Pasta & Grains - Linguine with lemon feta & basil, Kedgeree, goats cheese lentil & beetroot salad

3. Fish & shellfish - fish curry, Red mullet, Devilled mackerel

4. Meat & poultry - Rabbit stew, Honey roast ham, Duck wit port & cherries,

Pies & tarts (my favorite bit!) - Raised Game Pie, Chicken pie, smoked salmon & horseradish cream tarts

5. Vegies & salads

6. Puddings - Apple pie, lemon meringue, Trifle

coffee & chocs, - dark chock cake, coffee & choc pots

A great book that will keep your testbeds happy for a very long time ”

“Full of quick and easy recepies that even someone with the most basic knowledge of cooking would find easy to follow,full marks for amazon for a great price.”

“I bought this for my brother who is an accomplished chef in his own right, we both found it entertaining and easy to follow and gives a good insight on how to prepare and cook dishes in a new variety of ways. A good purchases for even the intermediate culinary operator.”

“Gordon Ramsey\’s recipe books have never particularly appealed to me and I didn\’t own any until I was given this as a gift. As mentioned by other reviewers the emphasis seems to be mainly on Gordon, with loads of photos of him sitting on tables etc, but that\’s not entirely surprising as I think he\’s one of the most over-exposed personalities on TV these days. He didn\’t even deign to be photographed demonstrating a recipe for this book.

Having said all that, I think the recipes in this book are very good and the few I have tried have been lovely. I was quite shocked to learn that they were written by Gordon\’s number 2 Mark Sargeant, but maybe that\’s what being a celebrity is all about. Gordon\’s name sells, I doubt I would have been given this book if it hadn\’t had the famous man on the front.”

“This book is full of inspiring and easy to follow recipes, delicious photography and lots of personal touches and anecdotes which make it a \’real\’ book. I like the way the dishes are made using accessible ingredients as sometimes celebrity cook books are full of ingredients which are difficult to come by or expensive. In fact I love the old fashioned and \’simple food\’ element, but above all the recipes are for \’proper\’ good food, ideal for family meals and social gatherings without days of worry and preparation beforehand.

A must have for everyone who loves to cook good food with simple, quality ingredients. ”

“I am usually not impressed by Gordon\’s “rushed” which he calls “high-energy” approach to cooking. Nevertheless his recipes are usually easy to follow and as tasty as it gets - if that\’s what you are looking for you won\’t be disappointed. Cooking books do not need anything else than that - so why have I rated it as 4 stars only? The simple answer is I do not like his non-cooking, not recipe related introductions and the title. On one occasion he\’s ranting about Delia\’s “cheat approach” which led him to donate all his Delia cooking books to a charity shop. My second “favourite” is the revelation that his wife has started to cook something vegetarian for the kids once a week. These statements are not only unnecessary they distract from the subject which is food. I do love cooking and great food but hey in the end it\’s food not world peace so stop ranting, argueing and self-praise. In my humble opinion the only absolute in the world of cooking is to COOK YOURSELF and avoid fast food/ ready meals. So it does not matter if you are using cheats and cheap ingredients if this creates the basic conditions to make you cook.

The other annoying point is the title. Nothing in this book relates to “cooking for friends”, it\’s just a selection of recipes, which are suitable everyday and anytime.

To summarise: A decent cookbook with a misleading title but a good selection of very nice recipes written by a chef with an attitude.”

“I have all Gordon Ramsey\’s books and this one is ideal for people who think everything he creates is expensive

This book deals with things like Oxtail soup which is a simple recipe and easy to make

I really recommend this title for everyday cooking with the Ramsey touch ”

“I\’m a big fan of Gordon\’s cookbooks and I think this is the best yet. I agree with the other reviewer that the recipies are much easier to follow that from the other books I have, and I think that I\’ll actually use more of them because of it.

And I like the look of the insides more that the other books too. It\’s not as cluttered and is very smart–but I think I\’ll add a few of my own splashes from the hob.”

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Indian Food - What Makes Indian Cooking Unique?

Apart from the obvious answer that it originates from India, a more concrete answer to the above question is quite complicated but very interesting.

Indian history is extraordinary, shaped by numerous unique cultures that resulted from invasion, migration and merging of different tribes. This reflects in its unique cuisine. While everyone can find something unique about Indian food, be it the curry which is a complex but unique blend of spices or masala or the exotic looking lamb and chicken dishes, any attempt to pin it down has been futile so far.

Take the humble chutney. This simple blend of fruit and spices could not have originated anywhere else around the globe but India. Who else would dare to be so inventive as to mix a sweet, in this case ripe fruit, with a blend of spices?

While chicken is a common ingredient in almost all types of cuisines, no chicken dish is internationally acclaimed as the Indian Tandoori Chicken. The sizzling clay oven in which it is cooked and the vivid colors of this dish is only a part of its unique taste. The perfect blend of spices and distinctive method of preparation is what makes this dish an international favorite.

Similarly, lamb is an integral part of Italian, Greek and a number of other cuisines. These places also boast of rich history and culture, but the flavors of Indian Achari dish is something exceptional when compared to, say a Greek lamb stew.

Is it the coriander? But then it is also found in Greek cooking. Likewise, tomatoes are a common ingredient in many cuisines. Can it be the exotic Indian spices that give the uniqueness to Indian food? Well, Greeks were renowned for their travels worldwide and brought home many spices from far off exotic places. The discussion can go on and on, but the fact remains that Achari is a pungent, exotic dish that is a treat to your taste buds, while the Greek stew is tasty but mild.

The doughnut which is an oil-fried, fat-filled, sweet dish is omnipresent in America as well as in China. But the Indian vada which in no way resembles a doughnut is crisp, savory and flavorful.

While you can try to pin point the uniqueness of Indian food with its use of spices or colorful presentation, the exact answer is still a mystery, just like the country it originated from.

www.DedeMed.com Chicken Shawarma Recipe for Sandwich from DedeMed Make Chicken Shawarma at Home http
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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!

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Summer-Vibe Chicken Sticks

Do you feel summer is around the corner? Do you urge to experience that steak of scent in the air… on a summer’s night? Well, here’s an opportunity. This dish, made for two persons, consists of the following ingredients: 4 bone free chicken thighs/2 chicken breasts 2 wooden sticks

For the marinade:

1 pickled ginger

1 piece of garlic (cannot find the english word for this; you know what I mean; not a slice but…) 1 table spoon soy

For the sallad:

200g noodles (un-cooked)

2 table spoons soy

2 tea spoons sesam oil

2 tea spoons ricewinevegar/red wine vinegar

1 tea spoon sesam seed

1 table spoon sweet chili sauce

1 carrot

1 small radish

This is how this “summer-starting” dish is made: Blend the marinade and put down the chicken; the chicken “likes” lying over the night, but one hour is good enough (if your standards are very high, you might want to consider if one hour is enough). Put the chicken on the stick and grill, meanwhile this is going on you put the marinade on the chicken. For the salad:

Cook the noodles, going by the directions on the noodle package - then pour cold water on them and blend with soy, sesam-oil, sweet chili sauce and vinegar. Pour sesam seeds over. Peel carrot and radish, cut thin pieces using a potato peeler - and blend the vegetables with the noodles.

Serve the noodles cold, with the chicken-stick - that are good both cold and warm. One beer, two, three, four, five might be good for this - or wine! I don’t know, pick your choice and really enjoy this meal… Bon appetít!

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Entree Salads in Minutes: Choose From Tuna, Chicken, Or Ham

Sometimes a person just doesn’t feel like a full, heavy meal. When you desire a light meal and don’t have a lot of time, turn to one of these quick and easy entree salad recipes. Whether you choose the Wild Rice Salad with Tuna or the Cashew Chicken with Peas, you are sure to have a great salad meal. But if you are looking for a really refreshing salad, try the Fruity Ham and Pasta Salad.

WILD RICE TUNA SALAD

1 pkg (6-oz) long-grain and wild rice mix
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
2 tbsps finely chopped onion
1 (12-oz) can solid white tuna in spring water; drained and flaked
1 cup salted cashews
Lettuce leaves

Cook the rice mix according to the package directions. Add the mayonnaise, sour cream, celery, onion, tuna, and cashews. Stir to mix well. Chill. Serve on lettuce leaves.

CASHEW CHICKEN & PEA SALAD IN 15 MINUTES

1 cup leftover (or deli) chicken, diced
1 pkg (16-oz) frozen peas, thawed
1 can (8-oz) sliced water chestnuts, drained
3/4 to 1 cup unsalted whole cashews
6 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
Dash of garlic powder

In a large salad bowl, place all of the ingredients and toss well to coat. Serve immediately.

Note: If you are an oddball like me and don’t eat chicken, you can substitute chopped cooked ham.

FRUITY HAM AND PASTA SALAD

1 can (11-oz) mandarin orange sections
1 (8 1/4-oz)can pineapple chunks
1 (6 3/4-oz) can chunk-style ham
1 cup corkscrew macaroni, uncooked
1/3 cup salad dressing OR mayonnaise
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp vinegar
1/4 tsp celery seed
2 cups torn salad greens
1 stalk celery, sliced
2 tbsp sunflower seeds, optional

Chill unopened cans of oranges, pineapple, and ham in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook macaroni according to package directions; drain. Turn macaroni into a bowl of ice water. Let stand for 5 minutes. Drain well.

To make dressing: In a small mixing bowl, stir together salad dressing or mayonnaise, honey, vinegar, and celery seed. Stir to blend well.

Drain fruits and ham. Flake the ham into chunks. In a large bowl, toss together macaroni, orange sections, pineapple, ham, salad greens, and celery. Pour dressing atop the salad. Toss well to coat. Sprinkle with sunflower seeds, if desired.

Enjoy!

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Quick Fix Meal of Chicken Rollatini and Bowtie Pasta Salad with Toppings

For another quick and easy meal to add to your recipe files, try this inexpensive meal of Chicken Rollatini and a Bowtie Pasta Salad with Toppings.  Quick, easy, inexpensive, and quite tasty.  A great combination!

CHICKEN ROLLATINI

8 thin sliced chicken breast cutlets
1 cup garlic-and-herb cheese blend
4 jarred roasted red peppers, cut into strips
nonstick cooking spray
3/4 cup bread crumbs (I prefer 1/2 cup whole-wheat bread crumbs mixed with 1/4 cup panko (Japanese)bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Spread 2 tablespoons of the cheese blend on each chicken cutlet. Top cheese blend with red pepper slices. Starting at the short end, roll the chicken up and secure with wooden picks. Coat the chicken with nonstick spray and roll in the bread crumbs. Place chicken rolls, seam side down, in a foil-lined baking pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken juices run clear.

NOTE: These chicken roll-ups can be frozen after being breaded. To freeze, wrap each roll separately very tightly in plastic wrap, then put into a zip-top freezer bag. Remove from freezer and allow to thaw in the refrigerator overnight before proceeding to baking instructions.

BOWTIE PASTA SALAD WITH SALAD TOPPINGS

8-oz pkg bowtie pasta
1 cup your favorite Italian Salad Dressing
2 tbsp Salad Supreme Seasoning
1 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
1/2 cup diced bell pepper
1 cup cherry tomato halves
1/2 cup chopped red onion
3/4 cup Salad Toppins, divided

Cook pasta according to package directions. Rinse under cold water; drain well. Place pasta in a large bowl. Add the salad dressing, Salad Supreme Seasoning, broccoli florets, carrots, bell pepper, tomatoes, and red onion and 1/2 cup of the Salad Toppins to the pasta. Toss gently, cover, and refrigerate until serving time. Before serving, toss lightly and add the remaining 1/4 cup Salad Toppings.

Enjoy!

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