Frozen Ground Meat - How to Thaw in a Pinch

Ok, so you've just arrived home from work.  You want to make a dinner that involves ground beef (or some other kind of ground meat).  You reach for the freezer and suddenly, it hits you.  I'm reaching for the freezer...the ground beef is frozen solid...

What do you do now?

Well, the following is a tip for when you need to thaw your ground beef (or other ground meat) in a short period of time - shorter than running it under cold water for a couple of hours.  Is it the best way to thaw out frozen meat?  Nope.  The best way is to transfer the frozen meat into the fridge and let it take the time to thaw out - usually making the transfer the night before at a minimum.  This tip is only if you have forgotten to plan ahead.

Step 1:  Take out a frying pan and place it on the stove.  If the dish you're making involves cooking on the stove, then try to do this in the same pan you plan on using for the meal.  This will cut down on your dishes after cooking.

Step 2:  Put the frozen ground meat into the pan, and get a spatula and fork/tongs/etc. ready.

Step 3:  Turn the burner on the lowest possible setting.  This will heat the pan enough to thaw the frozen outer layers of the meat, but not enough that the meat will start to cook. 

Step 4:  Let the block of meat sit in the pan for about a half a minute, then flip it over.  The top layer should be nice and soft.  Hold the meat firmly with a fork or tongs as you use the spatula to scrape off the top layer of thawed meat.  Then, flip it over and repeat on the other side.  Continue flipping the meat over and scraping off the thawed areas.

Step 5:  Eventually, the block of meat will become too thin for this method to keep working, so just use the spatula to break it up into smaller pieces.

Step 6:  Continue with cooking your meal.

Remember, the key here is to keep the pan at the lowest heat setting possible.  Any higher, and you'll be cooking the meat while you're trying to thaw it - which makes timing cooking a little more difficult.  It also makes it harder to make things like burger patties if the meat is already partially cooked.

I hope that this tip helps.  I've had to resort to this method of thawing meat several times myself.  Like I mentioned, it's best to plan ahead and thaw your ingredients slowly.  If you don't though, here's a way that you can still cook the meal you want, even though your ingredients aren't necessarily ready.

Good luck!

Poor Little Citrus Fruit...

Here I am again with another "Don't do this" post.  This one took me completely by surprise, and the science-y part of my brain went, "huh....I wonder why that happened."

I turned my poor little lemons and oranges into rocks in less than 2 days.

How did I manage this incredible bit of alchemy, you ask?  Well, you see, I put them into the refrigerator.  That should keep them fresh longer, you say?  Not if they don't have the outer peel on them, it won't.

Here's how the tragedy unfolded:

I had a Christmas party this past weekend.  I baked cakes, made chocolate, decorated the apartment, watched my favorite claymation movies, and generally gorged myself on the sundry joys of the Christmas season.  One of my dear friends showed up early to make mulled apple cider, which included the use of fresh lemons and oranges.  As she was using a standard peeler to remove most of the peels (leaving just a little bit of the white pith left), I was trying very hard to not jump right into the pot and swim around with them.  After each lemon and orange had so graciously offered it's zesty goodness for the sake of the party, I diligently placed it into the fridge to keep.  After all...they'll spoil if I leave them out, now that they have no peel left.  What I didn't know was that that simple act sent the poor unsuspecting citrus fruits to their doom.

I've tried searching online for the cause of this phenomenon, but to no avail.  My best guess is that the peel maintains the moisture within the fruit, preventing it from drying out.  Therefore, if you have an unpeeled citrus fruit (even if it seems to be mostly intact and covered by a little bit of pith), you should put it in a sealed, airtight container or bag right away.  I should have done the smart thing and put the orange in the fruit bowl with the blueberries and raspberries, and squeezed the lemon into the iced tea.  But then again, you all wouldn't be reading this post, and I wouldn't have had my "huh, that's cool" moment of the evening.

So please, save a citrus fruit - don't leave it unprotected from the harsh elements!

Lard vs. Vegetable Shortening - My Experience

First, let me set up the story behind this post for you.

My great-grandmother developed a set of Christmas cookie recipes from scratch while growing up in Sicily.  It took years to develop the amazing pastries that we - the family - and those lucky enough to know us and, therefore, get close enough to eat some of these cookies, enjoy.  It's the kind of recipe that we get asked for ALL the time...but we can't give it out.  It was my great-grandmother's wish that her recipe never leave the hands of the immediate family.

Every year, for as long as I can remember, we used vegetable shortening as the "fat" content for the dough.  But this was not the way the recipe was designed.  Just like pie crusts and other flaky doughs, lard was the original ingredient.  So, this year, we decided to try the recipe the way my great-grandmother intended - with lard.

To me, this made sense.  It's a special set of cookies that we make once a year.  I wanted - just once - to taste the real thing.  Evidently, this didn't seem to make sense for many other people outside of the family - especially once we tried to find lard.  It was nearly impossible to find in a grocery store.  I walked into one very small store and asked if they carried lard, and you know what the cashier actually told me?  She said, loud enough for all the people within earshot to hear, I quote: "Oh God, no!  Just the thought of that makes me want to gag.  I mean, I'm Southern, we used it in everything, but really, do you know how bad that stuff is for you?!"  Well, cashier, I'm not using it in everything...I'm using it in cookies.  And I'll think twice about the way you tried to humiliate me at the register next time I decide where I'm going to shop.

For this reason, I am giving you my unbiased experience with using lard versus vegetable shortening, and why, hand to God, I will be using lard instead of vegetable shortening in my pastries for the rest of my life.  This, obviously, will not be of any help to those of you who are vegetarian or Jewish (lard is pork fat).  But, for the rest of you, I hope this account from someone who has worked with vegetable shortening for over 20 years will give you something to ponder.

Observation #1: Incorporation of the fat into the dough.  When mixing pastry dough that incorporates a fat into it, the goal is to keep the fat content nice and cool so that it doesn't melt.  For this reason, the first step is to do what my nonna calls "cutting the fat into the dough."  You use a funny looking metal device called a pastry blender to cut the fat up into smaller pieces.  This incorporates the fat into the dough without having to touch it with your hands.  Why is this important?  Your hands generate - and radiate - heat from your body, which will warm up and begin to melt the fat.  This fat incorporation step was much easier using lard, and the lard started to melt even with the use of the pastry blender.  This is something I hadn't seen with the vegetable shortening.  In general, it made making the dough so much easier (and when you're making enough cookies to use up multiple 5lb bags of flour, that's a big deal!).

Observation #2: Consistency of the dough.  For this recipe, it is very important that the dough be neither too moist nor too dry.  The texture is something that you learn as you go along.  At this point, I still ask my nonna to check the dough, but I can pretty much hit the nail on the head as to when it is ready.  I cannot remember a time when we did not have to add extra moisture to the dough once the wet ingredients had been incorporated.  The dough has always been too dry....Until this year.  For the first time, the dough was perfect without any extras added.  Considering the main difference was the substitution of lard for vegetable shortening...we've all chalked it up to the lard.

Observation #3:  Cleaning up! I love mixing the dough because, at some point, you have to dig right in with your hands.  It's a very therapeutic - and arm strengthening - exercise throwing around over 5lbs of cookie dough over and over until it's fully mixed.  The not so fun part is cleaning your hands afterward.  Vegetable shortening made it a nightmare.  The dough would stick to my hands like glue, and it would take about 10 minutes of scalding hot water interspersed with repeated applications and thorough scrubbing with dish soap before the stuff would be gone.  Even then, my hands were left with an unsettling film.  Not so with lard!  I didn't even need soap half the time with this stuff - just some warm running water for a minute.  And what did my hands feel like afterward?  Why, they felt beautifully moisturized instead of sticky and filmy and not-quite-clean!  Now, for those of you reading this still clinging to the idea that lard is soooooo much worse for you than vegetable shortening, I have an honest question for you.  If vegetable shortening is subjected to that much work and heat and is still a sticky film remnant when outside your body, what must it be doing to the inside of your body?  Lard, on the other hand, liquifies with body heat, and removes quickly and easily.  It's still your call, but I know which I'd rather be putting inside my body. (Note that this is meant as a "within reason" statement.  Too much of either fat is going to be unhealthy for you - whether it was derived from animals or vegetables!)

 Observation #4:  Making the cookies.  Many of the cookies we make involve a twisting or "braiding" of the dough...sorta...It's hard to describe.  In general, the thing you need to understand is that we do more than just roll out the dough and use cookie cutters.  In the past, the dough would crack, fall apart, and cause me to do a lot of cursing in my head as I'm trying to fill up one cookie sheet with braided Christmas wreath-shaped cookies.  This year, I was a pro.  The cookie dough was smooth, easy to handle, and generally worked beautifully for everything from the cut-out cookies to the more-intricate wreaths.  My nonna and my mom both commented on how great the dough was to work with this year - so it's not just me having gained some extra dexterity!

Observation #5: THE ALL-IMPORTANT TASTE!  Last - but not least - we come to the evaluation of the taste and texture of the dough using lard instead of vegetable shortening.  The verdict: These were the best Christmas cookies we'd ever made.  My nonna said that the cookies hadn't tasted this good since she was a little girl (when her mom was still using lard before switching to vegetable shortening).  My parents agreed that these were the best cookies they'd had.  My brothers probably devoured their fair share of cookies before they even made it off the cooling table.  And me?  Well, you can probably guess what I thought.  The only person who wasn't as thrilled was my grandfather.  Why?  Because these cookies were lighter and flakier...he preferred the harder, denser cookies that we got with the vegetable shortening.  *shrug*  To each his own.

In conclusion, if you are thinking about making a pie crust or other kind of pastry from scratch, I urge you to try it with lard instead of vegetable shortening - at least once.  Based on what I've seen and experienced, I honestly don't think lard deserves such a bad rap as it gets when compared with vegetable shortening.  I'm not saying that you need to start cooking with lard for everything.  Going overboard is not going to be healthy no matter which fat source you choose.  I'm just saying that, for things like pastries, just be open-minded.  Don't automatically assume that veggie = healthy and animal = unhealthy.  Do some more research, if you feel so inclined.  Just give it a shot, and you'll probably be glad that you did.  I know my family was.

Crunchy Cheddar Chicken

This recipe is how I made Real Simple's Cheddar Chicken, and is annotated with my own personal tips to make this recipe even easier (which is hard to believe, because it is such a simple recipe to begin with!). 

Crunchy Cheddar Chicken

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:

-  4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
-  16 buttery crackers (like Ritz)
-  6 oz (3/4 cup) grated Cheddar cheese
-  1 clove garlic, finely chopped (or 1 tsp minced garlic)
-  1/4 tsp each of salt and pepper
-  4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Directions: 

1) Preheat your oven to 350° F, and cover your baking sheet in aluminum foil.  REMEMBER: Aluminum foil is always shiny side down.  Do you need aluminum foil? No, not really.  It just makes cleanup a lot easier.  Also, I used my toaster oven for this.  It's the perfect size, and requires a lot less energy to heat up and maintain the temperature.

2)  Put the crackers into a large zippered plastic bag.  This will make crushing them - and the steps following - a lot cleaner and easier than if you are switching between bowls like the original recipe calls for.

3)  Get out your aggression from a long day at work.  Crush the crackers until they are a reasonable size for breading the chicken.  The buttery crackers are easy enough to crush - I just pounded them with my fist.

4)  Add the grated cheese, garlic, salt, and pepper to the bag with the crushed crackers.  Fun fact: if you don't have fresh garlic on hand, don't use garlic a lot, or don't feel like chopping it up, you can used minced garlic.  A jar of minced garlic will keep for a long time in your fridge - and has the conversions for a clove of garlic already on the jar.  This is what I used for my version of the recipe, and it turned out delicious just the same!

5)  Close up the bag, making sure the zipper is fully closed, and shake to mix all the ingredients.

6)  Put the butter into a microwave-safe bowl that is large enough to fit one chicken breast at a time.  If your butter doesn't look like mine in the picture, don't worry.  I used homemade butter instead of store-bought. 

7)  Take the time now to prep the chicken.  Rinse each breast with cold water, and make sure that as much excess skin or fat as possible is removed.  Pat dry with paper towels, and set aside.

8)  Put the butter in the microwave, and heat until melted.  BE CAREFUL: Butter will melt and overheat very quickly and easily.  I suggest heating for 10 second intervals to ensure overheating does not occur.  Once the butter is 98% melted, remove it from the microwave.

9)  Dip the first piece of chicken in the butter, making sure it is thoroughly coated.

10)  Transfer the chicken to the bag with the "breading," and gently press the mixture onto the chicken to make sure the "breading" fully covers the chicken.

11)  Transfer the chicken to the baking sheet, and repeat until all chicken pieces are "breaded."

12)  If any butter or mixture remains, pour over the top of the chicken.  No need to waste delicious flavors!

13)  Place in the oven and bake for about 35-40 minutes.  The original recipe called for 25-30 minutes, but my chicken was sorely undercooked after 30 minutes.  It definitely took closer to 40 minutes.  Remember to double-check the chicken before you stop baking it and start eating.  Don't trust the recipe to know exactly how your oven works!  When you check to see if the chicken is done, always remember to check the thickest portion of the meat, as that will take the longest time to cook.

Enjoy!
Tips:  For variations, try different cuts of chicken (drumsticks or thighs), but remember to remove excess skin and fat first.  Also, try substituting about 3/4 cups of crushed cornflakes for the buttery crackers.

Handy Tools: Cookie Scoop

A cookie scoop is not something that is absolutely essential in your kitchen, a spoon works just as well.  It's just a nifty little gadget that makes life a little easier.  For an investment of $10 or less, a cookie scoop makes portioning out cookies faster, cleaner, and more uniform.

A cookie scoop is like a mini, spring-loaded ice cream scoop.  The bowl of the scoop is perfectly sized to make the right size cookie.  When you squeeze the handle, a little bar on the inside of the scoop scrapes along the bowl and deposits the cookie dough on the baking sheet (or in an ice cube tray pocket, like for Pick-and-Place Cookies).

There are two main benefits to using the cookie scoop:

1)  Your fingers stay cookie dough free, so no need to wash cookie dough off of your hands in between batches of cookies.

2)  The cookies are uniformly sized, so baking times are consistent both in between batches, and across an entire sheet of cookies.  This is probably the most important bonus to the cookie scoop.  It doesn't matter how much of a stickler for perfection you are - you cannot possibly make each and every cookie the exact same size if you are using a regular spoon.  This can be a problem if you are baking multiple sheets of cookies at once, as the cooking times will vary depending on the size of the individual cookies.  There's nothing more frustrating than a batch of cookies with some overdone, and some not done enough.  If you don't bake cookies enough to be a spoon-scooping virtuoso, this issue can be even more exaggerated. 

In the grand scheme of kitchen tools, the investment in a cookie scoop is a drop in the bucket.  Still, though, make sure you decide based on how much you like to make cookies.  You could probably find other clever uses for it in the kitchen, too.  Maybe filling tarts, scooping ice cream onto tiny pies...other possibilities are certainly out there!

Pick-and-Place Cookies

I love baking, and I especially love cookies.  What I don't love is making a batch of several dozen cookies and having them all stare at me saying "eat me" in that singsong-y voice that cookies have.  I also don't love when I really am in the mood for only one gooey, freshly baked cookie and have neither the time nor the ingredients to make an entire batch.  And then there's that singing cookie thing again...

Is there a solution to this dilemma?  Well, yes, there is, and it comes from the inspiration of ready-made food producers.  There is both refrigerated and frozen cookie dough, which keeps the dough for a longer period of time.  There is also this fantastic notion of refrigerated cookie dough that is already portioned out into individual cookie amounts.  All you have to do is "pick" up the individual dough portion, "place" it on the cookie sheet, and bake.

Well, I went to work figuring out the easiest way to replicate this idea at home, and I came up with an easy, hassle-free solution.  I'll give you a hint: it involves ice cube trays and the freezer.  The result?  Beautiful, freshly baked, ooey gooey cookies made from scratch in the quantity I wanted to eat, and in about 15 minutes after getting home from work.  The best part is that this technique can be used with your favorite cookie recipe!

Pick-and-Place Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Idle Time: Undefined
Cooking Time: 9-11 minutes

Yield: Varies

The above parameters may vary depending upon the cookie recipe you use.

Ingredients:

- One batch of your favorite cookie dough (I like the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag).

Tools:

- Ice cube trays
- Baking sheet

- Cookie Scoop (optional)

- Plastic Wrap/Plastic Freezer Bag

Directions: 

1)  Follow the instructions for your favorite cookie dough recipe.  This includes preheating the oven.

2)  Decide how many ice cube trays of cookies you would like to save for later.  Remember, that each ice cube "pocket" will make one cookie.  Make sure that the trays are washed and dried properly.  

3) Using either a cookie scoop or spoon, fill each of the ice cube pockets in the trays with the right amount of dough for an individual cookie.  Don't worry too much about over-filling, as the freezer will harden the dough, preventing blocks of cookies from sticking together.

4)  Take the trays that are now filled with cookie dough and either cover them with plastic wrap or place them in a sealed freezer bag.  this will help keep the cookies clean and free from rogue flavors that might be floating around your freezer.

5)  Put the trays into the freezer.  Make sure that they stay level, otherwise, the dough will run together before it has a chance to harden.  If the portions of dough are not level with the top of the pockets, do not stack multiple trays, as this will mess up the cookie portions in the bottom tray(s).  

6)  Bake the rest of the cookie dough into cookies to enjoy now (mine took 9 minutes per batch).

7)  Wait until the next time you get a craving for a cookie.

8)  Preheat your oven to the required temperature.  

9)  Remove a tray of cookie dough from the freezer.  The cookie dough does not completely harden like an ice cube, but stays slightly sticky to the touch.  Therefore, take a spoon and "scoop" out an individual cookie portion, placing it on a baking sheet.  Repeat for the number of cookies you wish to bake.

10)  Bake the cookies the required amount of time.  Remember that you may need to add a couple of minutes to the baking time that was required for the freshly made cookie dough.  This dough is coming from the freezer, so it will need a little more time.  Just keep an eye on them and adjust the cooking time according to your dough and oven.  My fresh batch of cookies took 9 minutes per batch, and my Pick-and-Place Cookies required 11 minutes per batch, as an example.  

11)  Enjoy!

Don't Freeze Milk-Based Soups

Ok, so my blog revolves around suggestions for helpful hints in the kitchen.  Things to do that help make your life easier, or recipes that work.  Well, I'm beginning to think that posts about mistakes I've made might turn out to be just as important to you, so I'm going to start throwing those posts into the mix.

This post is about just that - a mistake I made that turned what used to be yummy food into something gross.  I decided to freeze a cheddar corn chowder.  Bad idea.

Freezing soup is a great way to save the food for later.  Normally, this works beautifully.  Not so with a cheese/cream/milk-based soup or chowder.  You see, what I found out the hard way, is that the freezing process causes the cheese/cream/milk to separate into chunky bits floating in the clear-ish liquid base.  Reheating did not fix this problem.  I tried.  It was more than a little gross and disappointing.

Bottom line - DON'T freeze a soup or chowder that has a cheese, cream, or milk base.  Make sure you finish it before it goes bad.  The freezer might be my friend, but it certainly wasn't my chowder's.

Simple Chicken Salad

Perhaps you aren't in the mood for a warm, fork & knife style sandwich for lunch, like the Fork & Knife Chicken Sandwich.  Well, fear not, odd duck (just saw a show with a food cart called "Odd Duck," so I had to figure out how to use that phrase!).  This is a recipe for a simple - yet quite delicious - chicken salad that can also be made from the leftovers of the Roast Chicken with Vegetables.  It can be eaten as a sandwich (which is my favorite), over a bed of lettuce, or with a fork and some crackers.  As always, don't be afraid to tweak the proportions of this recipe to suit your own tastes.  Once you get the hang of it, you can also experiment with other spices and ingredients.

Simple Chicken Salad

Prep Time: 5+ minutes

Cooking Time: N/A

Yield: 2 cups

Ingredients:

-  2 cups roast chicken, chopped (all skin and fat removed)
-  3/4 - 1 cup mayonnaise
-  2-3 Tbsp sweet relish
-  2 tsp garlic powder
-  2 tsp onion powder

Tools:

-  Bowl
-  Spoon/fork/spatula

Directions: 

1)  Make sure the pieces of chicken are approximately bite-sized and put them in your mixing bowl.

2)  Add the mayonnaise, relish, garlic powder, and onion powder, and mix until well combined.

3)  Taste and adjust the amount of each ingredient as you see fit. 

4)  Proceed with eating the chicken salad.

Helpful Hints:

-   I do not recommend freezing chicken salad.  If you are going to freeze anything out of this recipe, just prep the chicken by chopping it up and freeze that in a container until ready to use.  Make sure you thaw it thoroughly first...otherwise you'll be eating chicken ice cube salad...which is decidedly not appetizing.

-  This is exactly what I do to make tuna salad.  My nonna and mom have been making tuna salad this way for as long as I can remember, so I just transferred the recipe to chicken salad.   All you do is substitute a can or two of tuna (I prefer the chunk white albacore) for the chicken.

-  This recipe very much follows the "eehhhh, that looks like enough" measurement style.  You pretty much add stuff until it looks right.  After making this enough times, you will be able to make this without measuring and get it perfect every time.

Enjoy!

A Note About My Cooking Style

As I've been writing my recipe posts, I've realized that there's something very important I should discuss with my readers - my cooking style.  My cooking style is often reflected in the way I write my recipes, especially when I note that you should experiment with different spices or proportions of ingredients to suit your own tastes.  This also means that my recipe measurements are the best approximation of the amount of an ingredient I use - so it's perfectly fine if you decide to use a little less or more of something, or substitute an ingredient for something you are more familiar with, or simply add something extra.  In fact, I encourage this approach.  You aren't cooking for me (although that would be very sweet of you) - you are cooking for yourself.  Cook what will make you happy...cook like an Italian.

My cooking style is the result of growing up surrounded by Italian-style cooking.  If you don't know how that works, let me give you a basic run-down.

-  Cooking involves using your hands - be prepared to get messy.  Become "one with the food," so to speak.  When you put your heart and soul into a dish, it will show.

-  Measurements are given as "pinch, dash, eeehhhhhh that looks like enough."

-  Recipes are for the weak at heart.

-  Meals are once-in-a-lifetime events.  The proportions will always be slightly different, so you will never be able to exactly replicate a dish.  That's ok - it makes cooking an adventure!  It also helps you to cherish each and every meal.

-  No two people will cook the same way, or use the same amount of a particular ingredient - this is what makes Nonna's pasta sauce hers, and why, try as I might, the same exact "recipe" will never let me make Nonna's sauce - only my sauce.

-  The only way to learn to cook is to roll up your sleeves, and get into that kitchen.

To sum it all up is a quote that I have hanging in my kitchen: "Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon."



So what's the moral of the story?  Read a recipe I've written and try it out.  Add more or less of a spice.  Substitute olive oil for butter for a different taste.  Don't go out and buy ground beef - chop up some of the chicken that's already sitting in your fridge.  Take my recipe and make it yours...make it work with the ingredients already sitting in your pantry.  Yes, it's scary the first couple of times you try this because it may not work out.  But you'll never get there if you don't give it a shot!  In the words of Miss Frizzle from the Magic School Bus: "Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!"

Fork & Knife Chicken Sandwich

Part of making large meals to save your budget is learning how to deal with the leftovers.  No one really wants to eat the same thing every day, but you also can't afford to buy a lot of different ingredients.  This is a recipe for what I did with some of the leftovers from Roast Chicken with Vegetables.  It is delicious, hearty, hits the spot, and only involves 3 extra ingredients that you should have lying around in your pantry.

Fork & Knife Chicken Sandwich

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 1-2 minutes (varies with microwave)

Yield: One sandwich

Ingredients:

-  1-2 cups roast chicken (pulled off the bone, all skin and fat removed)
-  3 Tbsp of juices from roasting the chicken (more or less to taste)
-  1 Tbsp mayonnaise
-  2 slices bread


Tools:

-  Microwave
-  Microwave-safe bowl

Directions: 

1)  Put the pieces of roast chicken (already pulled off the bone, with all skin and fat removed) into a microwave safe bowl.

2) Open the container of juices from roasting the chicken.  If you have not already removed the layer of fat since roasting the chicken, you will see a white "film" on the surface of the juices (which will be more firm - like Jello).  Don't worry, this is normal!

3)  Use a spoon, or something similar, to skim the fat off of the top if you have not already done so.  Just throw it directly into the trash.  Once you've skimmed the fat off, you won't need to do this again, as more fat won't develop on the surface.

4)  Once the fat has been removed, spoon about 3 Tbsp of the juices (more or less to taste) over the chicken waiting in the bowl.

5)  Microwave for 1-2 minutes, or until the chicken is nice and hot and the juices have liquified again.  Time will vary depending upon your microwave and the amount of chicken you are reheating.

6)  Prep the bread by spreading mayonnaise on both slices, and seasoning with pepper, to taste.  Place the bread - mayo side up - on a plate.

7)  Use a fork, your hands, or some other utensil to place the pieces of chicken on the bottom bread slice.

8)  Drizzle the juices left in the bowl over the chicken, letting the rest get soaked up by the bottom slice of bread.  Put the top slice on, and break out the fork and knife!

Enjoy!

Handy Tools: Roasting Pan

A roasting pan, like the one I used to make Roast Chicken with Vegetables, is specifically designed to make the process of roasting as easy as possible.  Roasting is such an easy way to make a meal that will save you a lot of money in the long run, so having a roasting pan is extraordinarily useful because it makes the process all but foolproof.  The following are the features that make a roasting pan (with lid!!!!) so useful:

1)  Perfect size and shape.  No need to fiddle with making sure that the chicken will fit in the pan, the pan is deep enough to hold the liquid, or the lid will fit over the turkey.  A roasting pan is designed to handle exactly these food items - making sure that your meal will fit!

2)  Dome-shaped lid.  Get a roasting pan that has some kind of dome-shaped - or at least very tall - lid.  The purpose of this shape is twofold.  First, the height of the lid helps accommodate larger items, allowing you to cook more in a smaller space.  The second - and most important feature - is that it helps with self-basting.  This fact is so important that I'm going to give it its own number in the list!

3)  Self-basting lid.  The dome-shaped lid of roasting pans (that come with them) today is self-basting.  What does this mean?  Well, remember the water that I put in the bottom of the pan in the Roast Chicken with Vegetables recipe?  As the roasting begins, the chicken (or turkey, etc) will loose flavorful juices, which will mix with the water on the bottom of the pan.  Now, remember back to Thanksgiving commercials from when you were little, and they'd show a woman taking a turkey out of the oven, and using a baster (nozzle with a bulb on the end) to take the juices from the bottom of the pan and drizzle it over the turkey.  This is a crucial step for making sure that the turkey (or chicken, etc) does not loose flavor or moisture.  Well, the self-basting lid does this for you.  As the water/juice mixture heats up, it evaporates.  When it hits the lid, it condenses and falls back down onto the chicken (in my case).  It's one less thing you need to worry about while the chicken is roasting, but the flavor and moisture will still be there.

4)  Grate.  Most roasting pans will come with a grate with handles that rests in the bottom of the pan.  This keeps the chicken and vegetables off of the bottom of the pan (which helps prevent sticking and burn spots), and makes it easier to lift the chicken out of the roasting pan for carving. 

As far as kitchen tools go, a roasting pan is a great investment that will help make things like roasting easier, but can also be used without the grate to cook other dishes.  Make sure you get one with a lid....otherwise, you'll need a baster and a fondness for acting out old Thanksgiving commercials.  Just enter the search "Hi-dome roaster" in your favorite search engine, and I guarantee you'll find one at a price your wallet can stomach. 

Roast Chicken with Vegetables

Nothing is easier to get you started cooking than a roast chicken.  Cross my heart.  Not only is making a roast chicken easy, it is also incredibly easy on the wallet - especially if you get a chicken on sale!  In addition, the leftovers from a roast chicken are delicious just reheated as is, or they can be remade into sandwiches, chicken salad, and countless other dishes.  I firmly believe that a key to being happy with cooking is to eat a variety, otherwise you won't want to do it.  You can have a variety with a roast chicken, without much more investment in other ingredients.

One of the things I like to do is compare prices for ready-made food and food I make myself - just to make sure that I am really saving money.  Here's a quick comparison of a store-bought, ready-to-eat rotisserie chicken and the roast chicken that I made myself.  (Just a note, roasting and rotisserie is the same method of cooking, it's just that the latter of the two rotates while it cooks).  One approximately 4lb store bought chicken will cost you $6 on average: that's $1.50/lb.  I just bought a 9lb chicken on sale for $8, or $.89/lb.  In order to buy 9lbs of chicken ready made at the store, you'd have to spend an extra $5.50.  Let's say you buy a chicken once a month.  That adds up to $66 per year that you can save by making a chicken at home.  Sound like a chunk of money you'd like to save?  Thought so.

So, here's my basic recipe for Roast Chicken with Vegetables.  You can certainly roast a chicken without the veggies, but you're already investing the time to roast a chicken...what's cutting up a few veggies and throwing them in, too?

Roast Chicken with Vegetables

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: Varies based on the size of the chicken

Yield: Varies

Ingredients:

-  One roasting chicken
-  Olive Oil
-  1 Fresh Lemon
-  ~2 tsp Herbs de Provence (or a similar substitute).
-  Several Root Vegetables (Onions, Carrots, Potatoes, Yams)  One or two of each should do.  Feel free to experiment with other root veggies, too.
-  Water - enough to cover the grate at the bottom of the roasting pan.

Tools:

-  Roasting Pan or other oven-safe piece of cookware with a lid (just make sure the chicken will fit first!)
-  Cooking Twine (optional)
-  Cooking Thermometer (optional)

Directions: 

1)  Preheat the oven to 350F.

2)  Remove the bird from the wrappings.  Make sure you do this over the sink, as there will be blood that will drip out.  You don't want to have to worry about cleaning blood off of your countertop.

3)  Reach into the cavity of the bird and remove the packet of "stuff" (a.k.a. giblets). This packet has the innards of the chicken in it.  Sometimes the bird will come with the giblets, and sometimes it won't.  It's best to check and make sure because you do not want to roast the bird with the giblets still inside.

4)  Rinse the chicken - inside and out - in cool, clean water.  Pat the chicken dry with some paper towels, and place the bird - breast side up - on a dish or pan.  This will help keep the chicken in one place as you season it.  A dish or pan will also catch any excess seasoning that falls off, making your cleanup easier.

5)  Take a piece of cooking twine and tie up the legs of the chicken.  This is an optional step.  It just makes handling the bird a little bit easier.

5)  Take the fresh lemon and cut it in half.  Insert both lemon halves into the cavity of the chicken.  In lieu of lemon halves, you could also use stuffing.

6)  Gently separate the skin covering the breast from the meat.  Try not to tear the skin, and do not remove it.  The skin helps retain moisture and prevent the meat from becoming too dry.

7)  Once you have the skin loosened, pour some olive oil (about 1 Tbsp) and herbs de provence (about 1 tsp) in the pocket formed beneath the skin.  Rub the olive oil and herbs into the meat as best you can.  Add more oil or herbs as you see fit.  This will also vary depending upon the size of the chicken you use.  The purpose here is to help infuse flavoring directly into the meat, rather than only on the skin (which is not always eaten).

8)  Use another Tbsp of Olive Oil and tsp of herbs to cover the skin of the chicken.  Don't forget to cover the skin of the wings and legs in addition to the breast.

9)  Fill the bottom of the roasting pan with water until it just covers the grate at the bottom.  If you don't have a roasting pan, make sure to read the amended directions after step 12.

10)  Place the chicken in the roasting pan, on top of the grate, breast side up.

11)  Roughly cut the vegetables to be roasted with the chicken.  Large chunks are fine.

12)  Toss the vegetables around the chicken in the roasting pan.

Amended directions for use without a roasting pan:  Chop the vegetables first, and scatter them across the bottom of your pan.  Then, fill the bottom of the pan with about an inch of water.  Use the vegetables in lieu of a grate to hold up the chicken, and put the chicken on top of the vegetables - still breast side up.
 
13)  Put the lid on the roasting pan and place in the oven.

14)  Roast the chicken at 350F according to the following rule of thumb:  30 minutes per pound and add 15 minutes if there is a substantial stuffing (i.e. the lemons don't count as stuffing).

15)  The chicken should be done when the meat of the inner thigh close to - but not touching - the bone reads 165F.  The stuffing (if applicable) should also read that temperature.  I did not use a thermometer this time because the chicken came with a pop-up timer.  See that little white plastic piece in the picture?  That's the timer.  When it "pops" open, the chicken is done.

16)  Carve and serve.  Use a spoon or ladle to get some of the juices from roasting to drizzle over the meat and vegetables.  I tried to get a pretty picture of the plate of food, but the drumstick fell apart before I got it to the plate.  I left it like that to illustrate how tender this chicken was.

 

Things to do after you've eaten:

1)  Whatever chicken is left, carve and put it away.  This will make life easier when you want to use the leftovers.

2)  Collect the veggies and save them in a separate container, too.

3)  Don't throw out the juices!!!  Instead, strain the juice into another container (to remove the larger chunks of vegetable or chicken from the juice).  Let the juice come to room temperature before putting it in the fridge.  When the juices cool in the fridge, they will solidify and a fat layer will form on the surface.  This is normal.  Just use a spoon to skim off the layer of fat into the trash.  The juice will re-liquify when heated.

I've made several different dishes from the leftovers, and they are still coming.  I will post them, too, to give you some more ideas of what to do with the leftovers.  

Enjoy!

Handy Tools: Pizza Stone & Peel

I realized that, in making some of my recipes, I use tools that a lot of people might not know about: what they are, how they work, is it really worth the investment.

Here's a post explaining the tools I used in the recipe for Pull-apart Flatbread: the pizza stone and the pizza peel.

Pizza Stone
The pizza stone is a fantastic device for baking pizzas and breads.  It is made out of earthenware or ceramic and, much like a good piece of cookware will do on top of the stove, a pizza stone evenly distributes heat inside the oven.  By absorbing excess moisture, it also helps give a crispiness to bread and pizza crust that a normal baking sheet simply cannot accomplish.

Bottom line:  A pizza stone turns your regular oven into a brick oven.

Pizza Peel
A pizza peel can best be described like a giant spatula.  You've probably seen one, if you've ever watched somebody make pizza.  Essentially, it is used for putting pizza/bread/etc into a brick oven, or removing the delicious little morsel after cooking.

Bottom line:  A pizza peel makes working with pizza on a pizza stone much easier.

Recommendations

So, if you are wondering whether or not you need/want a pizza stone, think about the following questions:

1)  What do you want to cook?  If you already bake your own bread, or make a lot of pizza at home (Pizza stones work great for frozen pizzas, too! It's not just for made-from-scratch.), then I would honestly consider a pizza stone.  It's something you know you already enjoy doing, and you will get a lot of use out of this tool.  If you are only thinking about baking bread or making pizza, start out with just a baking sheet.  Wait to see if you even enjoy cooking those things.  If you don't enjoy it, you won't use the pizza stone enough to make the investment really worth it.

2)  Can you afford a pizza stone?  A complete pizza stone kit can run anywhere from $30 and up.  You can also find pizza stones to fit something as small as a toaster oven to as large as 14" x 16" x .5".  Base the decision on your own budget and how much you think you will use this.  If you are a bread-baking fiend, then I'd probably save up for a really good pizza stone (just like you'd save up for a tool for any other hobby - knitting needles, really nice yarn, a good sewing machine, a camera).  If you will only use it sparingly, going whole-hog won't really help you all that much.  Get a smaller stone, and save the "extra" money for something else you will use much more often in the kitchen.

3)  Is a pizza stone easy to care for?  Absolutely.  As far as kitchen tools go, pizza stones are one of the easiest things to have around.  Pizza stones are porous - one of the reasons they make breads and pizza crusts so crispy.  This means that the only thing you should use to wash it is pure, clear water - absolutely no detergent!  The stone will soak up detergent like there's no tomorrow, and you will ruin the stone.  For cleaning, just use a brush or detergent-free scrub pad to get off any bits that are stuck and rinse with water.  Pizza stones (much like cast iron) develop a seasoning and hardness after repeated use - increasing the quality of the stone.  Unlike cast iron, you do not need to "re-season" a pizza stone.  Instead, a pizza stone can just be left in the oven permanently (Except for oven self-cleaning cycles! Remember to remove it during those times!).  Whenever the oven is being used, just put the baking sheet or pan on top of the stone, and the stone will develop further.  Remember, a pizza stone will crack if exposed to extreme heat changes, so make sure you put it into a cold oven first - then preheat the oven.  Let the pizza stone completely cool in the oven before removing and rinsing.  These are pretty universal ways to care for a pizza stone.  Always refer to the instruction and care manual when you get one.

So, what do you all think?  Are you considering getting a pizza stone?  Do you already have one and want to share your thoughts and suggestions?  Feel free to leave comments!

Pull-apart Flatbread

Some of the best recipes come from making something out of seemingly random things you find in your fridge.  Be creative, and use what you have in your own fridge to make this a unique and budget-friendly dish!

Pull-apart Flatbread

Prep Time: <10 minutes

Cooking Time: 8-10 minutes

Yield: approx. 10 pieces

The above parameters may vary depending upon the brand of biscuits you use.

Ingredients:

- One can of country-style biscuits 

- Olive Oil

- Sliced Ham

- Sundried Tomatoes packed in Oil

- Minced Garlic

- Italian Seasoning

- Sour Cream

- Corn Meal (optional)

Directions: 

1)  Preheat your oven according to the directions on the biscuit package. 

2)  Set out a baking sheet, aluminum foil, or pizza peel on which to assemble the flatbread.  If you have a pizza stone, use the peel only for transfer.  This is not a bread that should be placed directly on the oven grates, as the pieces will fall through.  Bake only on a "solid" surface.

3) Sprinkle corn meal on the surface of the baking sheet/aluminum foil/pizza peel.

4) Open the can of biscuits, and remove the first piece.  Flatten the biscuit between your palms until an even 1/8"-1/4" thick.  Place it onto the sheet/foil/peel.  Repeat this with all of the biscuits, tiling them together, and pinching the dough to form the "flatbread."

5)  Drizzle the bread with olive oil, then break the sliced ham up into smaller pieces.  Toss the ham, sundried tomatoes, minced garlic, and italian seasoning over the surface - evenly distributing the ingredients as much as possible.

6)  Transfer the flatbread to the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes (or according to the directions for the biscuits you are using).  Any ingredients you top the flatbread with should be able to be eaten with only the cooking time required for the bread.  If the ingredients need more cooking first - cook it separately beforehand, then toss on the flatbread to maintain the warmth.  Be careful to not overcook those ingredients!

7)  When the dough is cooked to a nice golden brown, remove the flatbread from the oven.

8)  Cool slightly before serving with a dollop of sour cream for dipping.

 

This is great for lunch, as a side dish for dinner, an appetizer, or something nice to bring to a potluck-style party, as it's easy to serve.  Try different toppings or dipping sauces based on what you have in your fridge.  

Comment to share your own variations.  I'd love to hear how you make yours!

The Freezer is Your Friend

So, you've spent valuable time, effort, and money making a good meal.  The amount of food you've made is too much for just you for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.  Let's face it, even the most diehard foodie can grow weary of eating the exact same meal several days in a row.  So, what do you do to save that food?

Freeze it.

Walk down the freezer aisle in the grocery store and look at all of the frozen meals populating the freezers.  How do you think they did it?  Premade food, put in a microwaveable container, and frozen.  Sound like something you can do?  Of course!

I've done this with a lot of things:  Eggplant Parmesan, Baked Ziti, Crabcakes, Pancakes, Soup...you can try it with just about anything.  Just portion the leftovers into individual portions, and freeze them separately to make your own "frozen meals."  Then, the next time you're running out the door with no time to make lunch, just grab a meal out of the freezer and go!

Quick Tips:

1. Soup:  I suggest using a plastic freezer bag for individual portions of soup.  It makes it much easier to remove the soup for reheating.
2. Pancakes:  When you make pancakes from a mix, make the whole batch of 23 or so 4" pancakes.  Let them cool, then pack them into a freezer bag and freeze them.  To reheat, pop one out, wrap it in a paper towel, and microwave until warmed (timing will vary depending on your microwave, mine takes about 45 seconds).
3. Bread:  Saving bread or biscuits is just the same as saving pancakes - just pop them in the freezer and either microwave or toast to reheat.
4. Vegetables:  Frozen veggies is almost a no-brainer.  If you have veggies that you might not use in time, freeze them!
5. Meat:  If you want to freeze chicken pieces, ground beef, or any other kind of meat, just make sure you separate the meat into amounts that you will use in one serving.  If you don't, you'll have to wrestle with frozen chicken or steak stuck together until it thaws a little.   
6. Butter:  Buy or make your own butter in larger quantities, and throw most of it into the freezer until you need it.
7. Buy some frozen foods in bulk.  This will save you time (chopping veggies) and money (fresh veggies can be quite expensive in the off season), while opening up new options for quick and delicious meals if you haven't had time to go to the grocery store.

Getting Started: Spices

Spices are what make cooking fun.  They also are a good way to jazz up ordinary ingredients without too much investment.  The only problem with spices when you are first starting out is that they are expensive.  Luckily, once you have a particular spice, it will usually last awhile.  It's that first purchase, though, that really hits your wallet.  Here are my suggestions for how to build your spice cabinet:

1) Start with the spices you grew up with.  The key to cooking on a budget is to cook with what you already have in your fridge/pantry.  You will be able to do this a lot easier and faster - and with fewer heartbreaking mistakes - if you blend spices that you're familiar with. 

Take this personal story as an example: I grew up with a lot of Italian food, so I can blend the standard Italian spices into a flavorful meal usually just by eyeballing it.  I did not grow up, however, with various spicy powders.  So one day, I made a meal that called for chili powder.  Well, I didn't have chili powder, but I did have cayenne pepper.  Not being used to spicy foods, I didn't realize that cayenne pepper is a lot hotter than chili powder.  Also not being used to spicy foods, I decided to follow the recipe...which meant I did a 1 to 1 substitution of cayenne pepper for the chili powder.  Those of you who are familiar with these spices are probably giggling in foresight.  Well, the dish was a lot hotter than I would have liked, and I didn't enjoy the many meals the recipe provided as much as I should have - especially knowing that the reason was that I messed up.  Take away message: If you have limited spices available, your meals are safer with spices you are familiar with until you learn how to use new ones.

2) Try new spices with a recipe.  Despite the fact that I blatantly messed up a recipe, the safest way to get used to new spices is with a recipe.  I don't even want to think about how that meal would have turned out if I had eyeballed the cayenne pepper...  So, when you want to try a new flavor, find a simple recipe that calls for one or two new spices.  Pay close attention to the amount of spice that is being added in comparison to the other ingredients, so that you learn how to use these spices.  This use of a new recipe will also allow you to add spices incrementally, slowly building your spice cabinet.  Before you know it, you'll have a whole world of flavors at your fingertips!

3) Make your own spice blends.  If a spice blend you want is something simple, or something you are very familiar with, just blend it yourself!  Perfect example: Cinnamon Sugar.  Please, for the love of food, don't buy the fancy little dispenser of cinnamon sugar.  Just mix it yourself - it's only two ingredients.  You can save so much money by mixing your own combinations because companies charge more to do that work for you.

4) Buy the spices you use most often in bulk.  Buying spices in bulk usually ends up saving a lot of money in the long run, so if there are certain spices you use very frequently, buy it in larger quantities.  The savings will add up over time!

Now - go get that spice cabinet started!

Most Used Cookware #1: 12" Skillet

The true workhorse of my kitchen - the 12" skillet.  I use this skillet for just about every meal I make.  There are too many things that this darling piece of cookware is capable of doing to even begin listing them.  Just trust me when I say that deciding which piece was the #1 most used piece of cookware in my kitchen was a snap.  The most difficult decision I had was deciding whether or not to include a cover for it in the title (I decided not to...but I'll say now that having a cover will greatly extend the usefulness of this skillet...and a helper handle, just because it makes life easier when handling a 12" skillet full of sauteed vegetables that need to be poured into another pot).

Why do I use this skillet for every meal instead of a smaller one?, you might ask.  The answer is one word: leftovers.  One of the keys to eating on a budget is cooking more than you can eat in one meal.  This way, you have leftovers to bring to work/school/wherever for lunch the next day without even having to lift a finger in the morning.  This drastically reduces the opportunity to make excuses about being late for work, or not having anything to make for lunch, and really, will eating out for lunch the third time this week really break your budget?  Yes, yes it will, if you keep adding it up.  Using the 12" Skillet helps me to minimize the occurrence of this cycle of next-day-lunch laziness, and my wallet thanks me repeatedly for it.

That, my dear readers, is why the 12" Skillet (with cover!) is the most used piece of cookware in my kitchen.

Most Used Cookware #2: 3Qt Saucepan

Ah, the saucepan.  Think of this as a baby stockpot.  Soups, small batches of pasta, vegetables, making yogurt (yes, that's right)...boiling, sauteing, steaming, baking (if oven safe)....really, the possibilities are endless. You can do anything and everything in this pan that you could do in a stockpot or skillet, except with either less or more space, respectively.  Granted, sauteing will be a little more awkward in a saucepan than in a skillet, but in a pinch (and with smaller portions!), you can make it work.

When trying to decide on which size saucepan I thought was the most useful, it was actually a toss-up between the 3Qt and 2Qt saucepans.  I finally decided to go with the 3Qt as the most used.  The reason being this: If you had to go with two pans of the top four, I would definitely recommend a saucepan as one of the two.  When ultimately deciding on which pieces to get first, I suggest erring on the larger side.  You might be surprised at how much you will really use that extra quart of space...and how annoying it is when milk starts to foam all over your freshly cleaned stove and it's because you used the 2Qt since the 3Qt was being washed...but that's a story for another post.

And the #1 Most Used Piece of Cookware in my kitchen is......(drum roll please)

Most Used Cookware #3: 8" Skillet

The 8" Skillet is perfect for all the smaller things that need to be done on the stove top.  I especially like to use it for a quick breakfast, making this pan the third most used in my kitchen.  This little cutie is the perfect size for cooking eggs of all types, sauteing only a handful of vegetables for one meal, grilled cheese, a burger, cooking a smaller component of a dish that needs to be added to to the larger pot/pan, and the list goes on.

The usefulness of this skillet is that it is just the right size for small dishes where a bigger skillet would just be too cumbersome.  Also, in recipes (or meals) that call for ingredients to be cooked separately from each other, you need a second pan - and usually only one that is smaller.

Bonus: If you get a pan that is oven-safe, use it to bake small side dishes rather than a big baking pan, or to combine cooking techniques like sauteing and roasting.  Just remember to keep a pot holder over the handle once you take it out of the oven.  After enough cooking, you might not think twice about grabbing the handle of a skillet that's sitting on the stove, which can result in serious burns to your hands if that skillet has recently been in the oven!

Most Used Cookware #4: Stockpot

The stockpot is a hugely versatile piece of cookware, especially when cooking large amounts of food.  It is also the 4th most used piece of cookware from my initial 17-piece set. Remember: Cookware sets count lids as a separate piece, so this is actually 2 pieces.

Soups, pasta sauce, boiled potatoes/root veggies, pasta, deep-frying...this baby can do it all.  You can even use it to awkwardly saute in a pinch!  Remember, just because it's a big pot doesn't mean you have to fill it.  What it means is that you have the space available to you.  This comes in especially handy when making large recipes to portion out and freeze (the best way to save money and time while still eating well).

Bonus #1: A lot of good stockpots will also come with a pasta insert - eliminating the extra step of using a colander to drain pasta/potatoes/whatever you've boiled and potentially losing yummy morsels down the sink.

Bonus #2: Fill the bottom of the stockpot with water, but only enough to be a little bit below the pasta insert.  Fill the insert with veggies or fish, turn the heat on, and voila!  You have a steamer!  Multipurpose cookware at it's finest.

Getting Started: Essential Cookware Characteristics

Deciding on cookware is probably the biggest decision you need to make when starting out your kitchen.  Remember what I said about the tools making you either love or loathe cooking?  It's your pots and pans that are the most influential.  The pan you use could make or break your relationship with cooking - no joke.  This is also the point where biting the bullet to spend a little more on a good pan will save you a lot of heartache in the end.

So, to the all-important question: What does NAK suggest?

First off, do not - I repeat DO NOT - immediately get one of those sets of cookware that comes with 20 pieces for $50-$100 just because of the price.  Generally, those pots and pans are thin, do not distribute heat well, do not retain heat, and have handles that are weak (not something you want when carrying a pot of boiling water full of spaghetti!).  This is where a little research will go a long way.

Instead of going for the "college cookware" boxed deal, wait until a local department store has a sale on cookware, and get one or two really good pieces.  (Even better if you can get a set of good cookware on sale!)  If you must go with the cheaper cookware at first, only get a couple of pieces to hold you over - you will end up saving money by not double-investing in pieces!

Remember - a good piece of cookware is multipurpose and will last you a lifetime...which definitely pays for itself in the end.

Now, how do you choose what type of cookware to go with?

1. You want something that will heat evenly and retain the heat.  This usually means that you want cookware with either copper or aluminum in the base.  Copper is fantastic - but way too expensive to even think about buying now.  I did not want the aluminum to actually touch my food, so I found a stainless steel set with an encapsulated aluminum base.  
2. Non-stick versus plain:  I wanted to avoid non-stick because of issues with cleaning of the surface, and the potential to scratch it with metal utensils, thereby defeating the whole purpose of non-stick.  Really, in the end, this depends on your personal preference.  
3. A secure handle: You can test this by firmly holding the pot flat on a surface with one hand and trying to push down the handle with the other.  If the handle moves without the pan, then it's not secured well enough.  If the pan gives a little instead of the handle, it's a great hold.

Once you figure out which type of cookware you want, then you can decide which piece(s) to get first.  Next, I'll countdown the top 4 pieces of cookware I use most from my set.

Getting Started: Intro

A good cook should be able to cook with anything.  But let me tell you: NOTHING makes a project more fun than having the right tools, and nothing can deter you more completely than the wrong ones.  The right tools make the job easier, which means less heartache, less frustration, and more of a chance that you'll want to go back and do it again.

When on a budget, getting the right tools - especially when you are starting from scratch - becomes more of a paycheck issue than anything else.  It is still very possible to get good tools, though.  You just have to be prudent in what you buy first, and add on a little at a time as money allows.

Now, I must admit that I've been told by many of my friends that I have the most well-stocked kitchen they've seen in someone my age, and that I own gadgets they didn't even know existed.  Rest assured, that experience will be of use to all of you.  In having a lot of gadgets, I now know which ones are essential, which ones you should save up for, which ones you can do without completely, and which ones would be reeeeeally nice to get for Christmas. 

So, honestly, take the time between now and the next post to start getting into the mindset.  A good tool is worth it's weight in gold - whether that's a pot, a pan, a chef's knife, or one of those baby spoonulas.

Next up:  Cookware!

The Inspiration for "A NAK for Cooking"

I figured I should start this blog off by explaining what inspired me to write it in the first place.  Well, the simple and overarching answer is "food."  I love food, there's no question about that. 

You could probably blame my family for that.  Food was a family affair - from preparation to cooking to eating.  A lot of my fondest memories are set against the backdrop of a boisterous family meal.  The smell of pasta sauce that had been simmering on the stove for hours, my grandmother calling my uncle or dad in for "mashed potato duty," the chatter of my mom and aunt as we helped prepare the meal and set the table...nothing helps cement the love of food into you when food has always been surrounded by love.  It was a love that caught a hold of me and will never let me go. 

My opinion of cooking is that, when done right, the resulting meal is not just food for the body, but also for the soul.  We all know that feeling - when you taste something that's "just the way Mom used to make it."  It transports us to a place and time that makes us go all warm and fuzzy inside.  Feeding the soul is the real joy of cooking.

So, when I started cooking for myself, I couldn't bear the "Ramen every night" diet, but still had to worry about cooking on a tight budget.  Along the way, I've come up with some tips and tricks of my own to remedy the situation.  This blog is meant to share those insights with all of you - especially my friends who love food as much as I do and are in the same budget pickle.


I hope you enjoy this trip into my kitchen...