The Importance of Good Kitchen Equipment Before You Start a Recipe Mistake #6 – Not Having the Right Equipment As part of reading the recipe and getting your mise en place together, you should also have inventoried your cooking equipment. While it is acceptable to make some substitutions with equipment – using a sauté pan […]
More Mistakes Home Cooks Make When Starting a Recipe Mistake #4 – Not Prepping Your Ingredients Almost as important as making sure you have all your ingredients is making sure that your ingredients are cooking ready. How many times have you started a recipe only to realize you need a chopped onion or diced carrot […]
Before You Even Think of Starting a New Recipe, Read This Mistake #2 Not Giving Yourself Enough Time I cannot stress this enough: just because recipes say that they can be made from start to finish in thirty or forty-five minutes does not mean that a person who is unfamiliar with the recipe or the […]
What A Recipe Is Before I talk about how not to start a recipe, I want to take some time to talk about what a recipe is. According to Miriam Webster, a recipe is “a set of instructions for making something from various ingredients.” The second definition is “a formula or procedure for doing or […]
Common Mistakes When Seasoning With Salt Salt is critical for bringing out flavors in the foods we cook. One of my problems with eating out, especially at good restaurants, I find chefs often over salt their dishes. I’m not sure why and this would be a great topic for another article but I find it […]
A Simple Chart Describing Herbs & Spices & How to Use Them Let’s take a look at some of the more commonly available herbs and spices. These listings are by no means exhaustive. Many of the spice plants are not native to the United States; in these cases, I provide the USDA hardiness zone information […]
More Common Mistakes When It Comes to Herbs & Spices Mistake #2 Keeping Herbs and Spices Forever Most of us have a dark, dusty corner of our spice cabinet where old spices go to die. You know the place. It’s where you keep the rarified spices that you bought to make a special dish for […]
Mashed Potatoes Frequently Asked Questions Should I peel the potatoes before cooking? This is purely a personal preference. I peel my potatoes first, but I also know people who leave the peels on and then peel them after they are cooked. This sounds like more work than I want to do, but it is an […]
Now Let’s Consider A Few Options When Mashing Potatoes Choosing the Right Potato to Mash A potato is basically a package that contains starch, sugar and water along with some nutrients, especially in the skins. But, there are many different varieties of potato, and they differ in the proportions of each component. Most cookbooks tell […]
How NOT to Season Foods – Common Seasoning Mistakes & How to Avoid Them Spices and seasonings are our passport to a whole world of flavor possibilities. We are very lucky that we live in a time when a host of spices are readily available for our use and experimentation. In the past, wars have […]
I'm a work-at-home dad who enjoys cooking, learning everything I can about the culinary world and sharing it with you. To learn more about me... Read More
How to Make the Best Beef Wellington This Beef Wellington recipe has become a tradition in our house. We prepare it every couple of years for Christmas and made it again this year. If I’m lucky, we will have it next year and the year after that. My wife originally found a recipe in Fine […]
Christmas Standing Rib Roast Thanksgiving is a holiday in which turkey really shines. Many of you would rather not deal with another turkey just four weeks after Thanksgiving. Some of you might still have some frozen leftovers. The Christmas meal is a celebratory meal, and as such, celebration food is a natural at the Christmas […]
How to Bake A Ham For Christmas
Baked Christmas Ham Recipe Would you like to serve a wonderfully flavorful and juicy ham for the holidays? Here’s a can’t-go-wrong recipe that will have your guests asking for seconds, and for a plate of leftovers, as well. Be sure to read about the history of serving ham on Christmas and the various types of […]
