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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Rosemary Chicken Recipes - Easy & Quick To Prepare!

These rosemary chicken recipes are quick, easy and delicious. Just check these out and I'm sure you'll be amazingly surprised.

So here we go for some rosemary chicken recipes:

>> Rosemary Lemon Chicken

1 t grated lemon peel

1/2 c lemon juice

2 tb honey

2 tb vegetable oil

2 tb fresh rosemary, chopped

4 lg chicken breasts

Marinate the chicken in the rest of the ingredients for 30 minutes to several hours. Cover and bake at 375f for 30 minutes, remove cover and bake for another 20 minutes. This recipe is for chicken breasts that still have the bone in. If you use chicken breast fillets reduce the baking time to 15 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered.

Here is the chicken wings version of Rosemary. This is a delicious recipe that you can serve in parties.

>> Rosemary Chicken Wings

1 t salt

1 t black pepper

1/2 c lemonade

10 to 12 chicken wings

2 ts dried rosemary

2 tb finely chopped shallots

2 tb butter

2 tb olive oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a small saucepan, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add shallots and rosemary and cook 2 to 3 minutes. Add lemonade, pepper and salt. Simmer over low heat for 6 to 8 minutes or until slightly reduced and syrupy. Cool slightly. Meanwhile, cut chicken wings into three pieces, discarding wing tip joint. Place wings in shallow pan and coat well with sauce.

Bake in oven until skin is golden brown, about 30 minutes. Serve with rice or as hors d'oeuvre. Makes 20 to 24 pieces.

That's it for today! If you want more rosemary chicken recipes, be sure to visit us today at:

Microwaves and Metal - What's the Problem?

Metal, we are told, should never be used in a microwave. Yet that is exactly what the oven is made from, right down to the reflective mesh in the window.

So what's the big deal?

To understand the relationship between microwave ovens and metal, it helps to know a little about how these modern cookers work. Most people who own one are already aware that the oven itself never heats up; so how does it cook food?

The answer lies in the power source, which is a device called a magnetron. This bombards the interior of the oven with electro-magnetic waves similar to those found in sunlight. These 'microwaves' bounce off the metal sides of the oven, as well as any other metal object placed in their path.

In the course of doing this, they will pass through any non-reflective containers and agitate the water, fat and sugar molecules of any foods they find there, thus beginning the cooking process. And therein lies our first clue.

If the waves bounce off metal, it should be obvious that any food inside such a container will remain unaffected and therefore will not cook - or at least will only cook very slowly.

This phenomenon can actually be used to the cook's advantage. By wrapping parts of unevenly sized food particles in baking foil - for example, the ends of chicken legs - we can slow down the rate at which these cook and produce a more even finish.

Of course, when doing this it's important to ensure that the foil does not touch the inside surfaces of the microwave and cause electrical arcing. While this may not be harmful to you, it could be lethal as far as the oven is concerned.

Food can also be cooked in shallow foil containers, with the same proviso as before; these must not be allowed to touch the interior surfaces of the oven.

With these, the effect is for the food in them to be cooked from the top down, with practically all the heating of the bottom layer taking place through convection. Again, the crafty cook uses this to advantage.

When the bottom of any metal container used in this way feels hot, it follows that the food sitting on top of it must be at the same temperature since that is what is providing the heat. There is no need to guess.

To sum up, contrary to popular belief and some uninformed comment, metal can be used in a microwave providing it is used sparingly and with caution. Most often you will not want to use it at all for the reasons given above, but just occasionally it can be your staunchest ally.

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Little-known Tips for Easy Holiday Baking

Are you wondering if you have the time to bake homemade Christmas cookies this year? Every year at about this time we all start to get a little panicked that the holidays are coming up fast and we're not really ready yet. Here are a few little-known tips and tricks, for almost every type of cookie, to help you get the most out of the time you spend baking.

Cutout Cookies

Don't struggle with dough sticking to your rolling pin. Instead, roll out your dough between two sheets of waxed paper. This will eliminate the sticking problem.

Do your cutout cookies always seem to turn out dry, tough, and tasteless? The trick with the waxed paper will help with this. Assuming that you started with a good recipe, the problem is that you are overworking your dough and working too much flour into it. Using the waxed paper will help you to manipulate the dough less, and the dough won't pick up any extra flour.

Refrigerator (Icebox) Cookies and Pinwheels Ever notice how your roll of icebox or pinwheel cookies gets flat on one side from sitting on the refrigerator shelf? Keep them nice and round by standing them upright in a tall drinking glass while they're chilling.

Do your cookies flatten further when you try to slice them? Try rotating the log 1/4 turn after each slice.

Having trouble with the cookies crumbling as you try to slice them? Start with a log that has been frozen for several hours. Then use a very a very sharp to slice through.

Cookie Press Cookies (Spritz)

Having trouble getting your cookies to form properly? When your dough doesn't seem to stick properly, put your baking sheet in the freezer for an hour or two, while keeping the dough at room temperature. Then when you press out your cookies onto the frozen sheet, the dough will stick to it just like your tongue sticks to a frozen metal pole when you lick it (assuming you've ever been silly enough to try this).

Don't forget you can pick up your mistakes and put them back into the press.

Bar Cookies

When making bar cookies, create a liner for your baking pan by turning the pan upside-down and covering it with aluminum foil, making sure to form the corners and leaving an overhang of an inch or two. Then, remove the foil, turn the pan right side up, turn the foil over and place it inside the pan. It will make a perfect liner for your pan. If required by your recipe, grease the liner. Then continue baking your bar cookies as directed. Once baked, you can lift out the entire batch of bars and place it on a cooling rack to cool completely. You can then immediately re-use your baking pan for another batch without having to wait for the previous batch to cool, and you won't have to wash the pan.

All Cookies

Eliminate the need to grease your baking sheets and wash them later by lining them with parchment paper. Parchment paper can be re-used several times and gives excellent results.

Do your cookies seem to brown too much, or cook too fast? Buy a dependable oven thermometer and check your oven temperature. Your oven's internal thermometer may not be accurate. Or, perhaps you are using a non-stick baking sheet or pan. The dark color of the non-stick coating can make your baked goods brown too fast. Try a shiny metal pan instead or lower your oven temperature by 25 degrees.

Are your cookies not browned enough, or take too long to cook? Again, verify the oven temperature. Or, perhaps you're using an insulated baking sheet or pan. Insulated bakeware can prevent your cookies from reaching the desired temperature in the right amount of time. Try using a non-insulated pan, or raise your oven temperature by 25 degrees.

For more information on minimizing the work involved in holiday baking, consult these articles: Hassle-Free Holiday Baking: 6 Easy Days to Perfect Christmas Cookies ( http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com/hassle-free.php ) A Cookie Assembly Line: Efficient Cookie Baking for Busy Cooks ( http://www.christmascookiesareforgiving.com/assembly.php )

A pinch of know-how combined with a dash of preparation can make for successful, easy, and stress-free cookie baking every Christmas!

Little-known Tips for Easy Holiday Baking

Cutout Cookies

Don't struggle with dough sticking to your rolling pin. Instead, roll out your dough between two sheets of waxed paper. This will eliminate the sticking problem.

Do your cookies flatten further when you try to slice them? Try rotating the log 1/4 turn after each slice.

Having trouble with the cookies crumbling as you try to slice them? Start with a log that has been frozen for several hours. Then use a very a very sharp to slice through.

Cookie Press Cookies (Spritz)

Don't forget you can pick up your mistakes and put them back into the press.

Bar Cookies

All Cookies

Eliminate the need to grease your baking sheets and wash them later by lining them with parchment paper. Parchment paper can be re-used several times and gives excellent results.

A pinch of know-how combined with a dash of preparation can make for successful, easy, and stress-free cookie baking every Christmas!

Little-known Tips for Easy Holiday Baking

Cutout Cookies

Don't struggle with dough sticking to your rolling pin. Instead, roll out your dough between two sheets of waxed paper. This will eliminate the sticking problem.

Do your cookies flatten further when you try to slice them? Try rotating the log 1/4 turn after each slice.

Having trouble with the cookies crumbling as you try to slice them? Start with a log that has been frozen for several hours. Then use a very a very sharp to slice through.

Cookie Press Cookies (Spritz)

Don't forget you can pick up your mistakes and put them back into the press.

Bar Cookies

All Cookies

Eliminate the need to grease your baking sheets and wash them later by lining them with parchment paper. Parchment paper can be re-used several times and gives excellent results.

A pinch of know-how combined with a dash of preparation can make for successful, easy, and stress-free cookie baking every Christmas!

Barbecue Success With The Rule Of Thirds

Ever been to a barbecue party where the 'chef' placed as much food as he could possibly fit onto the barbecue grill, every so often stabbing the food with a fork and juggling it around so that it cooks evenly? Ever noticed how, within a few minutes, the flames start gently flickering under the food, the chef proudly standing back admiring the char grill effect that he's creating? Ever notice the panic that sets in when the flames suddenly leap up and around the food burning it black on the outside and leaving it raw on the inside?

The difference between great char grilled barbecue food and burnt offerings lies in a few small precautions. The chef that we've just described made a few fatal errors that could easily have been avoided. Before discussing the errors though, lets consider the equipment that we're talking about. Although the same can happen with gas as with charcoal, gas grills can be turned lower, or off, when the flames start getting out of control. The flames can also be controlled if the barbecue grill has a tight fitting lid, as with a Weber kettle grill. However most people seem to cook on an open top barbecue grill with the lid, if it has one, open. Note that we're talking about a barbecue grill here, where the food is cooked directly over the hot coals. True barbecue uses indirect heat with the food fully enclosed as though in an oven. So, the barbecue grill that our imaginary chef is using is an open top, charcoal, barbecue grill.

Now lets have a look at our imaginary chef's errors.

First, he filled the grate with charcoal along its entire length, providing a constant heat source, with no area of lower heat to place food if it started to burn. A simple solution is to use the rule of thirds. Imagine the grate of your barbecue being in thirds. Fill two thirds of the grill with charcoal and leave the remaining third empty. Cook your food over the hot coals and when your food is ready, or starts to burn, or creates out of control flames, move it over to the section above the empty grate. The food will stay warm but won't cook any more (or possibly it will but much more slowly), and wont cause any flare-ups. A further refinement can be had, if you've a large enough grill, by placing a double level of coals in one third of the grate, a single level of coals in the middle, and no coals in the final third. You now have three levels of heat!

A further mistake was to overfill the grill. Completely filling it leaves no room to manoeuvre the food. You're not able to turn it for even cooking and you've no space to move the food to a lower heat. Assuming that you're using the rule of thirds as described above, , when you first start cooking, leave empty the area of the grill above where you've placed no coals. You've then space to move the cooked food into. Secondly, don't pack the cooking part of the grill with food. Leave room to comfortably turn your food.

A second problem caused when over filling the grill is to use foods that require different cooking times. When the coals are first ready to use, they're at their hottest. This is the time to cook small, thin items of food that can be cooked in a short time with a high heat. These include items like sausages, burgers, kebabs and small pieces of meat off the bone. Don't forget that food, such as burgers and sausages, drip fat and juices onto the charcoal during cooking and it's this that causes flare-ups. So you'll need to constantly watch the items of food and move them to an area of lower heat if necessary (did I mention the rule of thirds? ). After the heat has died down somewhat, start grilling food that takes a little longer to grill like chops and steaks and meat on the bone. Finally when the heat is even lower, grill food like fruit kebabs that really only need heating through.

Last, but not least, our imaginary chef stabs his food with a barbecue fork to turn it over. During the initially few minutes of grilling, the heat seals the surface of the meat, sealing in the juices. When the meat is stabbed the juices flow out onto the coals, causing the meat to dry out and become tough, and producing a flare up which burns the food. When turning food, always use barbecue tongs.

With a charcoal barbecue controlling the heat is difficult. Instead you need to ensure that you cook your individual items of food at the most appropriate time and that you have separate areas of heat. Use the rule of thirds to provide separate areas of heat. When cooking your food, first grill quick cook food when the coals are at their hottest. Second, cook food that requires cooking at a mid temperature for a longer time. Thirdly, cook food that needs a low hea