Category: Cooking & Food Storage

Various articles on food storage, food preparedness, cooking, and general kitchen stuff

Cutting Techniques: Four Knife Cuts That You As A Cook Should Know
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Working in a kitchen is not a child’s play, and those who work are completely aware of this.

Cooking in the kitchen could be boring or fun.

Those who find it boring are not experimenting at all, which is not right because kitchens are like laboratories.

People should experiment with different food items in order to create something magical.

One of the important kitchen related tasks is ‘cutting’. If you know how to cut properly, then working in the kitchen will be a lot more interesting for you.

It is important for you to know how a knife cuts and in how many ways a knife can be used.

But first, you need to have the best kitchen knife set for cutting vegetables.

Four Main Cutting Strokes You Should Know:
1. Slicing
2. Chopping
3. Back-slice.
4. Back-chop.
You can’t use all these strokes with a single knife, so you need to have a set of different knives that you can use for performing different tasks. For chopping and back-slicing, you can use santoku-style knives, whereas, for slicing and rock-chopping, you can use western-style curved blades.

If you have no idea regarding using a knife for a particular stroke, then you will get a decent idea by the end of this post.

The Slice:

Slicing is a stroke with which you cut meat and vegetables. You can also cut herbs with a knife that is used for slicing. In order to slice vegetables or meat, you must place them on a solid and stable surface. Then, slice the food item in half followed by holding the food item with your free hand and curling your fingers to a claw. Tuck your knuckles underneath.

The tip of the knife should be in constant contact with the cutting board with the angle of the knife in an upward direction. Press the knife in the downward and forward direction and use the entire length of the knife to slice food. Repeat the process using a circular motion, but make sure that the tip of the knife remains against the board all the time.

The Chop:

If you are looking for a precision while cutting your vegetables or herbs, then the concept of chopping is used. Chopping is same as slicing, but it’s just that chopping is done to style up the vegetables. For chopping, you need a very sharp knife in order to get precise cuts. The surface on which the vegetables are placed needs to be firm and stable. If chopping a long vegetable, then cut it in half. Hold the vegetable with your free hand and curl your fingers to make a claw followed by tucking your knuckles underneath.

Use your knuckles to hold the flat side of the knife blade and life the knife above cutting board. Press the knife in the downward direction making smooth and even stroke. Move the knife in the forward direction to chop further. Lift the knife after one stroke and repeat.

The Back-Slice

This stroke allows you to cut vegetables or herbs into fine, small slices. While slicing herbs, you need to stack leaves and roll them up so as to create a bundle. Hold the bundle tightly with your free hand and curl your fingers into a claw followed by tucking your knuckles underneath.

After that, place the knife’s tip against the cutting board with the rest of the knife resting against your knuckles. You should hold the knife at a very low angle and pull the knife in the backward direction after each stroke, as this will result in the slicing of the food properly. Don’t move the knife in the downward direction.

The Rock-Chop

This stroke is used to finely mince fresh herbs or zest. You don’t have to be that much precise while chopping as you were at the time of back-slicing. Just roughly chop the ingredients using the chop or the slice, then accumulate those into a small pile. Start rocking the knife up and down from one side and regather the ingredients in between. Keep repeating the process until you get finely minced ingredients.

When accumulating the ingredients, make sure to drag the knife blade at a low angle to the cutting board as dragging the blade perpendicular to the cutting board is going to make the blade dull at a much faster pace.
December 4, 2017
3 Simple Homestead Canning Recipes
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If you want to try making food by yourself, you should try the homestead approach. In this kind of lifestyle, you are going to grow food in your backyard. But if there is one thing more fun than this, it must be homestead canning.

Canning is actually a great hobby and survival project. It allows you to preserve your grown food as long as possible. These food items could come to your rescue, whenever you are trying to be frugal. But of course, canned foods are also great gift ideas!

When you are canning, it is recommended that you only create a recipe that you are familiar with. In this way, you won’t have any trouble in making the food. As a result, you are simplifying the overall cooking process.

But if you are still new to homestead canning, then don’t fret. I can pull certain recipes on my cooking repository that you can try. They are fairly simple to create since they only involve minimal ingredients and preparation. Take a look at each of these recipes and see which one you can try first!

Homestead Canning Recipes

Canned Tomatoes

Tomatoes are always a favorite ingredient when it comes to homestead canning. They are very accessible and relatively cheap, too. Since there are a lot of tomato varieties today, your options are pretty limitless. However, for those tomatoes that are relatively sweet, you should include a minimal amount of acid in the equation. With this, you can prevent botulism from happening.

Ingredients:
- Tomatoes (2 pounds)
- Lemon juice
- Salt
Materials:
- Mason jars
Instructions:
1. Start by peeling the tomato. Use a sharp knife to this process. If you are working with huge amount of tomatoes, the peeling could take time. Therefore, it is better if someone will help you out.
2. Next, blanch the tomato. You can do this by removing its core. After that, make an X cut on its bottom. Once done, you can put the tomatoes in a pot of boiling water. Let them be simmered for around 30 seconds. After simmering, put the tomatoes in a bucket of water with ice.
3. If the tomatoes are all naked already, you should start preparing the jars. Make sure that your jars are clean by running them on a dishwasher.
4. Put the tomatoes in the jar. Include at least two tablespoons of lemon juice per jar. This will stabilize the acidity level of the canned tomatoes. Adding the salt is optional, but you can still add one teaspoon of it per jar.
5. Fill the jar with water. After that, put the lids and close the jars tightly. Afterwards, put the jars in simmering hot water. Let them be boiled for around 45 minutes.
6. Store the canned tomatoes in a cold and dark storage.
Canned Fig Jam

The fig is a seasonal fruit. Therefore, it would be a pain to crave it on the wrong season of the year. But if you are quite ingenious and creative, you can solve this problem by canning the fruit. One way to do it is making a puree or jam out the figs. They are great ingredients for various desserts like smoothies! The fig jam is also a great baby food, too.

Ingredients:
- Figs (2 pounds)
- Sugar (1/4 cup)
- Lemon juice (1/2 cup)
- Dash of cinnamon
Materials:
- Mason jars
Instructions:
1. Slice the figs into small quarters.
2. Put the quartered figs in a pan together with the sugar. I recommend that you will use an unrefined sugar for this canning recipe. But of course, you can utilize whatever sugar you have right now!
3. Cook the mixture in a low heat setting. Stir them properly until they become a puree.
4. For better results, you can use a handheld blender to mash the puree while the cooking. This is not a necessary procedure, but doing this can smoothen the texture of the puree.
5. Throughout the heating process, you can notice that the color of the mixture turns dark while its texture begins to thicken. Just continue stirring until such time the mixture is thick enough to be called a jam.
6. Before you remove the jam in the pan, add the cinnamon and lemon juice. They can certainly enhance the flavor of this recipe.
7. Store the now fig jam into the jars. Let them be cooled before you store them in your refrigerator.
Canned Apple Butter

We like making food from scratches. Even if we have the option to buy them, the pleasure and satisfaction of making your own food are still an irreplaceable thing. That is the story of the apple butter.

We can see a lot of commercial variants for this food item. But didn’t you know that you can actually make this delectable treat by yourself? Check out the procedure below to get started.

Ingredients:
- Applesauce (9 quarts)
- Cloves (1 teaspoon; ground)
- Cinnamon (2 tablespoons; ground)
- Sugar (4 cups)
- Allspice (1/2 teaspoon)
Materials:
- Mason jars
Instructions:
1. The first thing that you need to acquire is the applesauce. You can make this ingredient, or you can buy it on the market. It is your choice.
2. Use a crockpot and pour the applesauce there. The pot should be semi full. If you have a lot of applesauce, you can pour them later. Put the pot on the stove and cook it over low heat until the applesauce boils.
3. While the applesauce is not yet boiling, add the rest of the ingredients. You can use honey as an alternative to sugar if you are quite distancing yourself from the latter.
4. The cooking process of the pot will take around 8 hours. Therefore, if you want to quicken the process, you can increase the heat of the stove to medium heat.
5. Once the mixture is already cooked, cover the pot with the lid. Don’t tighten the lid too much. Otherwise, the moisture won’t be able to escape. Leave the pot for another 10 hours. You can stir the mixture from time to time to prevent it from sticking to the sides of the pot.
6. After the period, the mixture will only be half of its original volume. This time, you can already pour additional applesauce and some sweeteners. Let it be cooked for another 4 hours.
7. Once the cooking is done, pour it into a bowl. Let it be cooled for awhile before putting it in your blender. Blend the mixture until the texture becomes fine and smooth. Pour the apple butter in your jars and cover them tightly. Place them in your refrigerator afterward.
Conclusion

These are just a few recipes that you can try for homestead canning! If you can finally learn all these, you can already explore some other options, too. Don’t limit your food palette. I am pretty sure that you can discover other great homestead canned recipes sooner!

Hello! Rose here! I am a full-pledge mother and a kitchen warrior at the same time. I created the GimmeTasty.com blog so that I can share my cooking knowledge to each interested individuals out there. If you want to catch up with my culinary adventures, just visit and subscribe to my site! I am excited to see you there!
October 8, 2017
How to Make a Month of Freezer Meals in One Day

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Cooking in any sort of way has been my passion since the age of 9. My mother used to cook dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. Most of the time she complained how stressful it was for her to cook day-after-day after a hard day at work.

A very-good neighbor shared to her the idea of cooking a month of meals in one day. She gave it a thought and had consider the idea. Since often there’s always “what’s for dinner and who’s making it” debate at home, mom had it as her weekly strategy.

The idea of cooking a month of freezer meals all in one day makes it stress-free, saves money and time and make great deal for busy families just like us.

Since I am amazed and overwhelmed with the benefits I got from this easy and delectable freezer meal strategy, I am going to share few tips accumulated from my meal plans that might be a big help if you are a beginner.

First, Choose the type of food for freezer meal that will best benefit you.

It’s a matter of personal taste in your family and it all depends what your children love to eat. They like meals that are homemade and nutritious; eating healthy meals is unlikely for busy families like us but we want to get rid with meals typically with high calories.

Here’s a glimpse of what I did:

Breakfast – My kids are usually hungry when they wake up so I usually prepare what is practical and ready-to-go meals like muffins or pancakes, baked oatmeal or waffles and cheese biscuits

Lunch – They love my Homemade Granola Bars and Hot Pockets, you might want to try Chicken Taquitos, your way.

Dinner – Homemade Lasagna (my kids’ favorite), Hamburger Patties with whole wheat bread, Tuna Casserole, and, Creamy Cheesy Broccoli Soup, you choose.

Second, Stock up with the right supplies for freezer meal cooking.

You have to consider first right supplies or ingredients for freezer meal cooking. You have to know the kinds of vegetables or ingredient does not freeze well.

Example, bean sprout, lettuce, cucumbers and raw potatoes will turn soppy when thawed. Also, hard boiled eggs will go elastic so refrain freezing those as well. There are a lor more products, such as sour cream, yogurt, cheese sour cream and will sometimes go watery when melted.

The same thing with the containers and storage of your meal like foil baking pans, plastic containers, gallon sized freezer safe bags, casserole dishes and many more.

You may utilize a gallon or quart sized plastic or reusable freezer safe bags in storing your freezer meal. You just have to make sure to get out as much air as possible by crushing the food around and flattening the bag.

Next, you seal it as tight as possible to avoid from any spills or freezer burn as well. You can actually save much cost if you will use a reusable gallon-sized bag.

You can use aluminum foil pan when you do baking dishes and look for store that has cheaper cost where you can much save money. In the case of my family, since we are 8 in all, larger size is preferable. Well, it all depends on your preference.

Another one good for storing freezer meals are plastic Tupperware or commonly called as plastic containers. These are commonly used for meals with soup., however, this kind of container would take up bigger space in your fridge, but it can store large amount of food.

Third, Clean out the freezer before storing your freezer meals.

It is important to keep your fridge clean and organized before storing anything inside it. You have to make sure that the room in the freezer is spacious as well to be able to maximize its area. Regardless of its size or space what matter is its sanitation and capacity to store in.

The freezer at home is cleaned in regular basis whether it is full. We maintain its cleanliness since we are taking here the food that we eat.

Fourth, Begin making your freezer meal in a slow pace, no rush.

Since you are a beginner in making your own freezer meals, you must be that exhilarating. To prevent being completely overwhelmed, start slow.

In choosing the freezer meal you will prepare, make sure your kids, your whole family will like and anticipate to try the freezer meals as soon as it is done. A nice way to do this is when you are cooking for dinner. You just have to cook twice as much and one for freeze meal.

Make sure that only those meals recommended for freezing are ones that you will prepare. Keep in mind to avoid ingredients which are not good for freezing. If you are not certain about the ingredient you have whether good for freezing or not, you search it in Google and see whether others have had success with freezing that type of recipe.

Fifth, Prepare all the ingredients to avoid hassle.

Chopping, peeling, trimming, shredding and whatever else you need to prepare to the ingredients must be done beforehand cooking. This is to be more convenient and avoid hassle. Ingredients like vegetables that needed to be peeled and sliced can be done while boiling or simmering. Maximize the time you allotted to cook your recipe.

If you are establishing a kind of routine, then you will move swiftly every time you prepare a freezer meal. Set the time the moment you start prepare the dish to see variation next time you cook. have 2-3 different meals cooking at the same time.

Sixth, Freeze the ingredients individually.

Freezing is a quick and convenient way to preserve fruits and vegetables at home. It is a popular method of home food preservation throughout ages.

Whenever you have extra recipe or ingredient that you won’t be using yet before it expires, the good thing is, you can freeze it! Yes, that’s right. That’s how convenient it is, easy and quickly. Goodbye using of unused food and excess solution, just a pull away, there your freezer with lots of extra products. Then you won’t have to purchase another set of ingredient the next time you prepare a freezer meal.

For instance, if you were to brown ground beef and freeze, it can then be quickly and easily added to many recipes including tacos, pizza, soups/stews, spaghetti sauce and more. Another is, by browning a few pounds of ground beef all at once, you can freeze the meat in individual portions and then quickly add it to recipes to save a step.

Freezing ingredients also saves you money. To avoid your bananas getting brown, slice it flash size and it can be stored until you use it from smoothies to banana bread.

Below is one of my favorite beginner freezer cooking recipes

Here is the best method to freezing blueberries.

Many ways in freezing blueberries, some would say to no wash it. Others would say just lay out on cookies sheets, freeze it, then later add to bags.

They said the best way is to gently wash the berries, pat dry, add some sugar or syrup, then freeze. So that method was tested and it worked! It worked well. The sugar helps to keep them all from sticking together. If you don’t like the idea of adding sugar, don’t worry.

Before using, give a quick rinse off with water then you will have some perfect preserved blueberries.

Step 1: Gently wash the blueberries, getting any stems or leaves out.

Step 2: Gently pat dry the blueberries.

Step 3: Add some sugar to the blueberries for every 2 cups of blueberries use 1/3 cup of sugar.

Step 4: Mix them all up gently.

Step 5: Add your blueberries to quart sized freezer bags and freeze them.

These blueberries should last up to 6 months in your freezer, and even longer. Freezing blueberries every gives me feeling of a little bit of my sweet summer love even in the cold wet season.

Jennifer Moran

Jennifer Moran is the author and the social media manager at TheBerkey.com and PreparedBee.com. She has been working and passionate with writing for over four years. When she isn’t glued to a laptop screen, she spends time playing tennis, practicing yoga, and trying very hard not to sleep in the meditation. You can reach her at jennifer (at) preparedbee (dot) com. PreparedBee.

September 17, 2017
Health Benefits Of Cooking In Copper Pots And Pans

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In this era of fitness, eating nutritious and healthy food is the top most priority of everyone. Choosing the right kind of utensils is also very important for healthy cooking. This includes Cooking In Copper pots and pans as they have shown tremendous results for improvement in your health.

Get the best copper pans for the maximum benefit. The benefits of copper pots and pans are given below:

Excellent Material Properties

Copper is known to be the perfect heat conductor. The heat emitted to copper is evenly spread to the entire cookware. This way there is proper distribution of heat so that your food can be cooked properly. This also prevents the risk of scorching your food as the temperature regulation is very easy in copper pans and also helps you to save a lot of energy.

They are very hygienic and are also corrosion-resistant, so you don’t need to worry about rust getting to your copper utensils. It is regarded as highly durable and can be used for many years without any replacement.

Anti-Bacterial Properties

With the increasing pollution in cities, we need to be careful with the type of environment we expose ourselves with.

Having a clean and hygienic environment is an essential for you and your family.

Studies have shown that the most damage done to our health is by the presence of microorganisms in cookware.

Copper has antibacterial properties which make it very hostile for micro -organisms to survive on it as it is toxic to them while humans have no such threat at all.

This is the reason that water pipes and door handles in a hospital are made of copper to prevent transmission of microorganisms.

Keeps the Digestive System Healthy

Copper has many properties, which help to fight acidity, gas, constipation, etc. copper can detox your stomach and clean it properly by preventing the formation of waste and other harmful products. Copper water is the best remedy for any stomach problem and can offer you various health benefits.

It also helps to regulate the kidney functioning and ensures the proper absorption of nutrients from food. Remember to drink a glass of water which has been stored in copper utensil every morning to ensure the good working of your digestive system.

Helps in Weight Loss

In today’s world, everyone is working hard to attain the perfect figure by working out every day in the gym.

It is also essential to eat and drink right to be fit. We all are well aware that drinking lots of water is beneficial for our body and also helps in reducing weight.

Drinking water infused in copper gives an extra benefit as copper helps in the breakdown and elimination of fat cells in the body.

This will help you to get rid of the extra fat cells and have a balanced weight.

They are a great alternative to sugary drinks, sodas, and caffeinated beverages.

Promotes Healthy Skin

Copper helps in attaining the perfect skin and also prevents your skin from the extra damage done by the sun and the UV rays. It is the prime constituent in the formation of melanin which helps in defining the color of your eyes, hair, and skin.

It also helps in fast healing of wounds and helps in the formation of new cells on your skin. The newly produced cells will replenish the top layer of your skin, and you can have a smooth and clear skin in no time.

It has been proved that copper is an essential trace mineral, which is vital to human health. Unlike other nutritional elements, a human body is unable to produce copper on its own, which is why we need to rely on other dietary sources to consume it. The innumerable benefits of cooking in copper make it a vital element for us so get your copper pots and pans as soon as you can to enjoy the high benefits.

May 7, 2017
How to Make a Mason Jar Vacuum Sealer | Brake Bleeder Vacuum Sealer

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February 26, 2017