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!