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As a third generation butcher at B&B Grocery, Meat & Deli, I’m often asked how to pick out a perfect steak. Here’s what I tell my customers.

Don’t just pick out any steak. That is one of the worst things you can do. All steaks are not the same. Therefore, take your time when picking out a steak. There are steaks that are better for grilling and some steaks are better to slow cook. Generally, if the steak has “chuck” or “round” in the name then it is better to marinate and slow cook. If the steak has “rib” or “loin” in the name it will be a lot more tender and better for grilling. Ask your butcher which types of steaks are best for the way you want to cook your steak.

The thicker the better. Steaks that are cut too thin are easy to over cook. Over cook a steak and you could end up with a dry, tough piece of “leather”. It is easy to tell how thick steaks are at an old-fashion butcher shop. In fact, most butchers will cut thicker steaks for customers who request them. Be careful when buying steaks in packs. It can be hard to see the thickness of all the steaks.

It is important to look for steaks with the most fat marbling and streaking. Steaks with the most fat marbling are generally more flavorful and tender. The most marbled cut is the rib-eye. It is cut from the same piece of meat as the prime rib.

Don’t cut the fat off! A lot of my customers want all the fat cut off the sides of their steaks. I don’t recommend this at all! I tell my customers to leave the fat on while they cook their steaks. Fat helps keep the steak juicy and enhances the steak’s flavor. You can cut all the fat off you want once the steak is cooked.

Knowing what to look for in a steak is as important as cooking a steak. Still not sure what to look for in a steak? Ask your neighborhood butcher. They always like to help ensure you get the best steak for your special occasion.

John Brooks is a 3rd generation butcher for B&B Grocery, Meat & Deli. A neighborhood grocery store that has been family owned and operated since 1922. You can learn more about John Brooks and B&B Grocery, Meat & Deli by visiting their web-site at http://www.bbgrocerymeatdeli.com

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1. Plan meals by the week.

2. Make a grocery list, grouping foods by category. (Meat, dairy, produce, etc.)

3. Only buy what is on your list. Don’t succumb to impulse buying or kids’ demands for products hyped on TV.

4. Shop at stores that have the most specials.

5. Use coupons for healthy foods only. Don’t buy a product just because you have a coupon.

6. Roll your cart past “helper,” “partner,” “bakes” and “kits.” These products are over-priced, over-salted, and you can’t even pronounce some of the ingredients.

7. Mix up your own rubs. They take only minutes to make and you can customize them to your tastes.

8. Buy store and less-known brands, often made by top manufacturers.

9. Buy lean hamburger. It is better for you and there is less waste.

9. Drink water instead of pricey soda pop, which is often loaded with sugar and erodes your teeth.

10. Make your own salad dressing. You’ll save a bundle!

11. Make your own granola. Lots of recipes are posted on the Internet and kids will enjoy helping you.

12. Eat boxed hot cereal, not the kind in packets.

13. Buy day-old bread and coffee cake. The bread is perfect for French toast and grilled sandwiches. Stale coffee cake makes some of the best bread pudding you will ever taste.

14. Stores put pricey foods – the foods they want to push – at eye level. Bend down and look on the bottom shelves for bargains.

15. Learn how to cut up a whole chicken.

16. Eat seasonal fruits and vegetables.

17. Buy staples in bulk.

18. Make your own pudding. You will get twice as much for your money.

19. Buy a refrigerated or prepared crust and make your favorite pizza.

20. Use meat for flavor, as in stir-fry, instead of making it the feature of the meal.

21. Maximize leftovers. Make cream sauce for a little left over spinach. Use leftover vegetables in soup.

22. Put leftovers in sturdy plastic zipper bags to prevent freezer burn and waste. Label and date the bags.

23. Turn old bread into new, delicious croutons. Cut the bread into cubes, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle with garlic powder, oregano and basil. Bake in a 350 degree oven until crispy.

24. Make your own baking mix and store in a tightly covered jar. (Recipes are posted on the Internet.)

25. Involve kids and grandkids. The involved kids of today will turn into smart shoppers tomorrow.

Copyright 2006 by Harriet Hodgson

http://www.harriethodgson.com
http://www.healthwriter.blogspot.com

Harriet Hodgson has been a nonfiction writer for 27 years and is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Assocition for Death Education and Counseling. Before she became a health writer she was a food writer for the former “Rochester Magazine” in her hometown of Rochester, MN. Her 24th book, “Smiling Through Your Tears: Anticipating Grief,” written with Lois Krahn, MD, is available from http://www.amazon.com A five-star review of the book is posted on Amazon. You will find another review on the American Hospice Foundation website under the “School Corner’ heading.

To find out if your yeast is good, first dissolve 1 tablespoon of sugar or other sweetener in warm water with 2 cups of liquid and then add your yeast. Wait several minutes for it to dissolve and start working, developing tiny bubbles. If there are no bubbles then discard it and go through the process again. Since yeast and salt don’t get along, add it after finding out the yeast is good.

Measuring

Fluff up your flour before measuring since it always settles when stored. Now sprinkle flour into measuring cup and slide off excess with a knife blade. Taking this step will cause you to measure a true 4-ounce cup instead of getting a 5-ounce cup from being compacted.

Knead

Knead dough for about 5 minutes and let it rest to relax the dough. This helps the rest of your kneading easier.

Liquids

To add a different flavor and even make nutrition better, substitute water for juices or broth or when a recipe calls for milk try buttermilk.

Sugar and Sweeteners

It’s not necessary to have or add sugar in a recipe, but it does bring out the flavor. If you want to add sugar and need moisture try honey or molasses.

Oil

Unless you’re counting calories adding oil to bread is better because it will make your bread fresher longer.

Storing Flour

If you use your flour fairly fast, store it in a cool, dry place. If you don’t use your flour very fast then put it in a lock-type plastic bag and store it in your freezer.

Dry Ingredients

Substitute a little dried fruit, vegetables, cheese, nuts, grains, seeds or herbs and spices for some of the flour in your recipes. Just add it into the cup before you measure your flour. It will change it up and it is wonderful.

You can find many more tips and recipes at Cristie’s Cookin. Submit your favorite recipe to win a free “Gotcha Covered” Apron. Check out those spices, Bling It, Ring It and Zing It. Cristie’s novel “11.11.11″ by TJ Stokes is a thriller you won’t want to miss.

Cooking lessons for Cristie began at 8 years old with the best teacher in the world — her Mom! Later, she cooked for the restaurant the family owned, and her love of the “trade” has grown ever since. Cristie’s creative cooking has continued for over 40 years. Her creations can soon be on your kitchen table. Check out Cristie’s books at http://www.cristiescookin.co m and http://www.tjstokes.com

They parboil, or partially pre-cook their pasta; so when an order comes in to the kitchen, a cook can turn out a dish of perfectly ‘al dente’ pasta in a minute or two. Pre-cooking is a worthwhile technique for home cooks, because it enables them to pull together a great sit-down meal in practically no time, no matter how busy their day may have been.

It’s also a great method to use when you plan to serve pasta for a crowd. I once catered a party for fifty, where I had a “pasta bar.” With the assistance of one helper, and two propane burners, I served fifty portions of freshly cooked pasta (al dente) without holding anyone up in the buffet line.

To parboil pasta at home, bring a large pot of salted water (at least six quarts) to the boil. Add one pound of pasta and stir until the pasta wilts (in the case of spaghetti or linguine) and becomes submerged. When the water returns to a full, rolling boil, cook the pasta for exactly two minutes, then drain, shock in ice water, and drain again. Note: Strand pasta like spaghetti or linguine will be brittle, so handle them with care.

Place the pasta in a container large enough to hold it, then add enough olive oil to just coat each strand. Cover and refrigerate until needed. Parboiled pasta will keep, refrigerated, for four to six hours.

Note: Coating pasta with olive oil flies in the face of conventional wisdom that says, “Never coat pasta with olive oil. The sauce won’t adhere to the pasta.” Well, conventional wisdom aside, sauce sticks to parboiled pasta like glue. What else can I say?

When it’s time to cook dinner, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, add the pasta (You’ll note that the pasta has softened over the time you’ve had it refrigerated. This is perfectly fine.), cook for one or two minutes, then drain in a colander. Be sure to taste after a minute or so. The pasta cooks quickly. Serve as you would any pasta that you had cooked for eight to ten minutes.

Again, this is a great, worthwhile technique to use at home, because you can parboil the pasta at a time of day when you’re not juggling three or four other tasks, like preparing a sauce, or a salad. And when it’s time to prepare the rest of dinner, you’ll feel more confident in the outcome, because you can focus more of your attention on the other parts of the meal.

Try this technique once, and you could be hooked. You may not be serving fifty or sixty people per night, but you’ll be cooking just like a chef in a neighborhood Italian restaurant.

About The Author

Skip Lombardi is the author of two cookbooks: “La Cucina dei Poveri: Recipes from my Sicilian Grandparents,” and “Almost Italian: Recipes from America’s Little Italys.” He has been a Broadway musician, high-school math teacher, software engineer, and a fledgeling blogger. But he has never let any of those pursuits get in the way of his passion for cooking and eating. Visit his Web site to learn more about his cookbooks. http://www.skiplombardi.com or mailto:info@skiplombardi.com.

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Why Fruit Is Essential For Your Body
By Juan Mendoza

One thing that everyone has to do in order to survive is eat food and drink water. Along with air, food and water are the two other key elements that we need in order to allow our bodies to function. There is plenty of choices when it comes to food. However, it is well recommended that you eat a very nutritional balanced mean so that you can let your body work to full capacity. One essential area you should always keep track of is fruits.

Fruits are some of the best items we can eat because they contain so many good vitamins and minerals that our bodies thrive on. In all reality, fruits are pretty delicious, yet many people avoid them for one reason or another. The following will go over the nutritional facts of different popular fruit that we all have tried at least once unless your allergic to fruit or something like that.

The first fruit that will be discussed is the almighty apple. The famous quote goes, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away.” This is a scientifically proven fact but it is definitely a good idea to eat an apple a day just for the good natural nutritional ingredients that are associated with an apple. An apple contains about forty nine calories and consists of about eighty four percent water. It also has 2.3 grams of fiber, 0.4 grams of protein, 11.8 grams of sugar, 2 grams of vitamin A, 15 milligrams of vitamin C, 0.02 milligrams of vitamin B1, 0.01 milligrams of vitamin B2, 0.05 milligrams of vitamin B6, and 0.05 milligrams of vitamin E. All these thing are essential in order for our bodies to work properly. Apples may not seem like a super essential staple of someone´s diet but if eaten on a consistent basis, they can really make your body feel good.

Another popular fruit we all chew on from time to time is a banana. Bananas are really good to eat for several reasons. They are good for your skin and for your internal body as well. A banana contains about eighty eight calories and consists of about seventy six percent water. In addition, bananas also contain 2.7 grams of fiber, 1.2 grams of protein, 20.4 grams of sugar, and also has a small amount of other essential vitamins such as vitamins A, B, C, and E.

Those two fruits are the most popular fruits that people eat on a more regular basis then other fruits. However, all fruit is good for you in one way or another. One fruit can be better for you in one area of your health, while the other fruit is good for you in another area. All fruit is made up with a high level of water and almost all of them contain essential vitamins and minerals that our bodies need. Eat as much fruit as possible as well as the other vital things on the periodic food chart in order to be healthy and feel super good.

Written by Juan Mendoza. Learn more about buying and using an Apple Peeler and find out how peelers can add a new dimension to your recipes.

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I hope you liked the above article. Do you have sugar cravings? Would you like to know how to get rid of sugar cravings? Well, there is a guide that will teach you how. Click here to find out more.

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour
2 tablespoons of baking powder
1 pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of mix spices
1 cup of blueberry/fruits
150 gramme of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 egg
1 cup of milk (fresh)

Preparations:
1. Heat the oven at 200°C. Grease the muffin tin. In a bowl, add all the dry ingredients.
Add the fruits. Mix well and create a hole in the middle.

2. Melt butter and sugar on slow heat , once melted, remove from heat.

3. Pour melted butter and sugar into the dry ingredients as well as the egg and fresh milk.
Don’t stir too hard to ensure the blueberries are not too crushed.

4. Pour mixture into muffin tin at 3/4 level. Bake for 25 – 30 mins or
until it’s turn golden brown. Wait few minutes before removing the muffin from the tin.

Preparation: 15 mins
Cooking time: 25 – 30 mins
Make: 16 pcs

Nora’s comments: Sounds good and ez pz, like my princess would say.

Thanks Liz for sharing!

I am no pizza expert but I love my pizzas. So if you think this looks yummy-licious, here’s what I did:

I used pastry pizza base and leftover french loaf for the base. Since I didn’t have the proper tomato paste for pizza, I used tomato ketchup instead. I added herbs like basil, thyme and parsely over the ketchup. Then I sprinkled just the slightest of grated cheese over that, next I sprinkled minced chicken meat which was earlier fried with some herbs. Then I added button mushrooms which were sliced. Next I sprinkled more cheese, alternating with sliced cheddar cheese which was tore in smaller pieces.

I used alot of canned pineapples which is my favourite topping, then sliced tomatoes. In between the sprinkling, I added the herbs just to get in between the ingredients. The idea of putting the cheese in between is also to produce the cheesy effect in the ingredients. Bake at 180C. How long you need to bake depends on the size of the pizza or the french loaf. The french-loaf pizza will take shorter time to become crispy so please watch over the oven – use only the top heat if you wish.

So if you are not ready to go on diet yet in 2007, you have got to try this!

There are two ways in which chickens or poultry can be cut up, one for home use and the other for professional use. The technique can be learned quite easily and it’s a useful skill to have.

The advantages are that it is more economical to cut up chicken or poultry yourself than buying in portions, and you can cut the way you want them in any various combinations such as drumsticks with or without the thigh, or breasts with or with the wings, etc.

A key point to remember is to feel the joints when you have to sever sinews and cartilage. To cut through bones, ideally a serrated knife or poultry shears are used.

The method that is common and popular amongst home cooks is as follows:

Basically there are eight steps to cut up the chicken or poultry. Firstly, by using a large sharp knife, free the leg by carefully cutting the skin between the body and the leg. Cut through the skin as far as the joint, bending the leg outwards with the hand. Then twist the leg until the ball of the joint springs out. After that, cut through the joint, pressing lightly. Cut through the leg at the knee joint to separate the thigh from the drumstick. Separate the wing at the shoulder joint, cutting off a small part of the breast with it. Press quite firmly to split the collarbone and divide the back parallel to the backbone. Cut across the back at the middle point, breaking the backbone with short movements of the knife. Finally to separate the breasts, carefully cut left and right along the length of the breastbone.

The professional cooks have a different method of cutting up chickens or poulty and the following method is based on 1-3/4 pounds poultry, in order to achieve portions of equal size:

In eight steps, firstly make a cut approximately 3/8 inch deep across the back under the shoulder blades. Cut along the backbone at a right angle to this and remove the “chicken oysters”, which is the tender part whose quality matches that of the breasts. Cut through the skin between the body and the leg. Spread out the leg and cut through the joint. Chop off the outermost section of each wing, cutting through the joint with a small chopper or large knife.

Remove the wings with some breast meat, along the breastbone and wishbone as far as the joint. To remove the breasts, first hold the chicken firmly by the wishbone and cut along the breastbone. Turn the carcass 180 degree, then loosen the breast from the front along the wishbone as far as the joint. Take off the breast, making a cut from the joint to the end of the breastbone.

The legs are left in one piece and the wing tips are removed, for the sake of appearance.

The number of individual pieces depends on the size of the chicken. You can use the remainder of the carcass to make stock, soups and sauces.

The two methods above are simple to master and whether you choose to cut your chickens simply or professionally, these are the correct methods to follow.