I thought I’d dig up all the videos I could find of us on Youtube and post them all in one location for you to peruse at your leisure! We are hysterical not only in person but embarrassingly so on video so these of course are entertaining as well as informative. Enjoy and please feel free to ask us your food questions!
Profile of a Culinary Educator-Melinda
A Kitchen Knife a Basic Primer
Braised Lamb with Hazelnut Nectar
Many times people look at things like soufflés and think there is a mystery and that they are too intimidating to master themselves. We are here to change that with as many things as possible.
We’ve all heard about banging oven doors, cupboards, yelling in the house, or yes the dog farts in the other room and the soufflé crashes ruining a beautiful dessert or breakfast.
First of all the leavening for soufflé, or what gives it it’s lift is air and steam. That’s not unusual, things like puff dough and croissants also have the use of steam that is created when the butter starts to melt. What makes this notoriously less stable Continue reading Culinary Mythbusting #1 A Souffle
How do I make those veggies last as long as possible in my refrigerator? If you are the person that tries to do the majority of your shopping all at once instead of running to the store everyday (which causes us to spend more), or are trying to incorporate more veggies in the diet, you’ve probably run into the problem of soggy, moldy, limp or browned masses in the bottom of the crisper.
I made Indian food for my husband a couple nights ago. I love indian food and so I made curry and chole, samosas and rice and I have to say, and my husband would agree it was the worst Indian I have ever made.
Continue reading Learn From My Mistakes: Garam Marsala Gone Wrong
That’s right it’s just around the corner and one of the things we get asked about a lot is the gravy. For those of you who wait until the family is in the other room and then sneak the gravy into the blender in hopes of frappe-ing the lumps out before anyone sees, this blog’s for you.
Let’s talk about the meat of the matter. What makes gravy, gravy, is the use of the pan drippings. That’s the only thing that differentiates it from a regular ole sauce. But whether you are making a sauce or making a gravy the thickener that you need to be concerned about is the roux and this is the part that trips people up.
One of the theories that holds me enrapt is one that Malcolm Gladwell talks of in his book Outliers. It originated from Dr. K Anders Ericsson and it discusses the ten thousand hours of mastery. It fascinates me because it shows over and over that no matter economic status, gender, background or a slew of other variables, that if someone practices they will always catch up to someone with inherent ability. Anyone can achieve a level of mastery at ten thousand hours. Do you know what that means? That means my mother was right about practicing the piano, and seeing that now is really irritating.
Continue reading Culinary Tip #8 Ten Thousand Hours of Mastery!
Culinary Tip Week 6
Thank goodness for the pig and the magical animal that it is. I don’t really care which part you are serving me I will happily eat it. I am a total utilization food girl. And yes deep-frying is cheating; you can make it taste good in many other ways.
Continue reading Culinary Tip Week 6 Pork the Magical Animal
Let’s talk about meat. As a teacher first and foremost I get really irritated by the packaging in grocery stores. It gets more and more confusing trying to figure out what’s what in the meat department with all of the marketing terms that they use. It seems like it’s meant more to fool you than to help you to make a decision about what you want to put on your table for your family.
Continue reading Cooking Tip Week 5ish Taking the Mystery out of Meat Cuts!
Sorry I’m a couple days late, it took a couple days to recover from Teen Week, but we had a total blast and so did they. It’s nice to know that we helped a few kids learn some valuable life skills. If you missed it, it was so popular we scheduled another for Aug. 22-26th Sign up now before it fills up!
So this is a quick tip though highly valuable. If you are anything like me, the more I multitask the worse the individual results. I have to rely more and more on timers and reminders and the really messed up part is I even need one to remind me that I’m filling the wash sink. What??! It’s full of bubbles people, it doesn’t make any noise! I don’t remember until I hear the water pattering on the floor.
My whole chicken comes with a little bag in it. When you buy whole chickens in the restaurant world you usually buy WOGs, or WithOut Guts, when you buy whole chickens at the regular grocery store most of the time they come with a little papery bag inside that contains the liver, kidney, heart and neck. I’m 100% sure that the pieces in that bag did not come from that same chicken, but you’ve got ‘em so you might as well use them!
Today we are concentrating on the livers. Save them! Put them all into a little baggy and throw them into the freezer until you get enough to make a cup or a pint depending on how many people you are feeding or how much you like Chicken Liver Mousse.
Continue reading PCW Cooking Tip Week 3 Chicken Liver Mousse