Quick and Easy Recipes by Ella

Cooking is so cool! However, almost all my friends are in search of fast and easy recipes that look just like the complicated, time-consuming ones. I’m asking you: is this cheating, or what? If you want to cook stuffed pork chops, then you have to be prepared to spend all the time needed to make the stuffing, brown the chops, bake them until they are soft and tender. If you’re in a hurry, you’ll only get chewy, dry food, food that you wouldn’t like your mum to taste. Here’s an example of good pork chop casserole, which I invite you to cook, if you want a great dinner. It’s true that recipes described here are not fast and not so easy, but they are surely worth the pain, I can tell you that. I’ve just cooked those lovely stuffed chops and they were so mouth watering that my family now wants me to repeat the recipe every week. I’m happy they loved the dish, but I wonder whether or not am I going to manage finding the time needed to make it awesome each and every time. Life’s hectic, you know that, don’t you? What do you want to cook today?

If you love cooking, then most probably you enjoy trying new recipes. This can be a lot of fun and besides, it can help you improve your cooking. As there are so many cooking websites these days, having a computer in the kitchen is a great idea. Unfortunately, my kitchen is small, so there’s no way I can accommodate a computer in there. Even a laptop would be too much. Not to mention that when I cook everything gets dirty on a 2 meter range around me, so a laptop wouldn’t be safe.

Thanks God they invented the iPad. I’ve got one a while ago and this is the best use I could find for it: cook book. What I don’t like about the iPad, though, is that it doesn’t come with a kind of stand to keep it in an angle which allows reading without using your hands to hold it. Today I finally managed to solve this issue by buying a book holder which can also hold an iPad. I thought the price of less than $15 was absolutely reasonable, so I went for it and ordered one. I can’t wait for it to get delivered. I promise I’ll take photos of my hi-tech kitchen when I get it. Until then, I found this little video which will help you see how nice the BookGem iPad holder is:

One of the latest trends in our civilized world is health and what does it take to improve and maintain it. More and more people just start realizing their kids get overweight because of all that junk food that’s so tasty and so convenient, yet so damaging for the health.

So, we all agree we want to eat healthy. However, when it comes to defining healthy eating recipes, many arguments and contradictory beliefs show up. Some nutritionists claim that cow’s milk, for instance, is highly detrimental to a baby’s normal development, because its formulation is completely different from the human milk one. They base their reasoning on the fact that a calf needs to grow much more than a human baby grows over its first year of life. I don’t really know what to say… we’ve grown up with cow’s milk and some of us are in an excellent shape and in good health.

One of the most appreciated meals in my group is the beef brisket. It’s never missing from our table whenever we meet for a small party, mostly over the weekends. Yet, there are so many beef brisket recipes out there, some of them healthier than others, that we can argue forever if eating this kind of food is actually healthy or not. Moreover, the beef brisket quality matters a lot: if you make sure to buy only high-quality, organic meat, coming from beef that’s been fed solely with grass, with no chemicals or artificial nutrients added, then you’ll probably be on the safe side with this kind of meals. There are some studies that have revealed that feeding an animal with grass leads to a higher level of good fatty acids like Omega 3, which are known to be a great helper in stopping the aging process.

I’d be happy to know what’s your take on that: can beef brisket recipes be considered healthy eating? Please just don’t tell me vegetarian is the way to go, because I don’t think I’m ready to drop meat from my diet, at least for the time being.

I’ve been asked by younger ladies who have just moved in with their boyfriends, about a guide of what cooking utensils they need to buy for their kitchen. All of them mentioned the cook books, but then they realized that there must be an inventory which makes cooking possible. This is my view of what to buy in a new kitchen:

Slow Cookers or Crockpots

Slow cookers and crockpots are mainly the same thing. A crockpot is a deep cooking recipient which can be filled with water and various food ingredients, then put on the fire or in the oven for a certain period of time, without needing anything else. This is the easiest way of cooking and almost everybody can learn how to cook crock pot recipes. Advanced cooks will know when in the cooking process to add each meal ingredient, according to their cooking time, but a beginner cook can put everything together and still obtain a delicious dish for their family or friends.

As some foods are very hard to get boiled, the steam cooker crockpots appeared. They have a sealed lid which gets pressurized when the food boils, thus lowering the boiling point and dramatically decreasing the cooking time. Beans are such difficult foods: if using a normal slow cooker, you may need between one and two hours to boil those beans. The same food, prepared in a steam cooker, will be ready in as little as 30 minutes. Boiled food is healthier than fried one, so more and more mothers and housewives are starting to consider either normal or electric crockpots as a must have in every kitchen. There are many brands of crockpots available on the market. The first one that comes to my mind now are the Rival crockpots, but I can’t tell if they are better than others or just more advertised.

If you are usually cooking for only two persons, you’ll need two slow cookers: one smaller, for preparing main dishes and one bigger, for making soups. The soup is very good even after one day, so this is why you could use a big crockpot, to cook for two days, in case you also have to go to work and take care of your house.

Cutlery

Cutlery sets are a must have in every kitchen. You obviously need them both for cooking and for eating what you’ve cooked. In past times, people used to save money to buy silvery cutlery. Nowadays, we can live very well with stainless steel knives, forks and spoons, which cost less and in my view are better because they are easier to clean. When you buy your kitchen furniture, you’d better make sure it has a drawer which you’ll dedicate to cutlery storage and which you’ll need to provide with a cutlery tray. Being organized in the kitchen means that you’ll spend less time cooking and setting up the table for eating. If you have small children, you can buy special kids cutlery, which actually doesn’t cut that well, so it can’t be harmful in case of inappropriate use.
Among the most known cutlery brands there are: Solingen, well-known for the quality of their knives, Henckels, Wusthof, Sheffield, Stellar, Sabatier or Rada. Modern cutlery sets can have colored handles, red or black being two of the most fashionable trends over the past two years.

Pay special attention to kitchen knives: you need one for peeling veggies, one for cutting meat, another one for bread. The best way to sort out this issue is to buy a knives set which contains knives for all various purposes in a kitchen.

Frying Pan

While boiled food is known to be healthier than fried food, there’s no doubt that we all enjoy fried meat or vegetables, at least once in a while, if our health doesn’t allow it more often. Frying pans are needed for preparing the eggs for breakfast, for making steaks, for cooking schnitzel, or for fried potatoes. The modern frying pans are made of aluminum and they have the interior surface covered with a layer of non-adherent material, such as Teflon from Tefal. Other materials frying pans can be made of are stainless steel or cast iron. Electric frying pans are also an option, but if you can cook with gas, I see no reason why to fill your kitchen with wires and plugs. Pancakes are another delicious meal you can’t prepare without a frying pan, so you’d better buy one for your kitchen arsenal.

Food Grater

Grated cheese is delicious on top of so many meals, that you really need to buy a grater. You can find universal graters, with special parts for grating cheese, cucumbers, apples, onions, horse radish and other vegetables. I’ve got a manual rotary grater with four blades, which is very easy to use and to wash and which comes with a bowl for not spreading the grated foods all over the kitchen.

Dinner Plates

I can’t imagine that there are ladies who didn’t think of buying dinner plates for their home. Most of the times, you’ll get such plates sets as new home gifts from your friends. Such sets usually include soup plates, second dish plates, dessert plates and a couple of bowls for salads. Colors and designs of ceramic plates are countless, so you’ll probably find something that matches your furniture. A fruit plate can also be useful, as well as a cake plate. If you like to cook pizza at home, you can buy a set of pizza plates, which are usually a bit bigger than normal ones.

Can Openers

Not all cans come with that special key which allows easy opening without a can opener. You can always use a sharp tip knife to open the tin cans, but in time it will get broken. Besides, you risk to have your fingers hurt, as the knife can slide and cut your hands. There are many types of can openers, from the electric, one touch, automatic ones, to those classic, manual ones which you have to twist around the can, in order to have it cut all around. I’m left handed, and although I’ve heard about can openers for lefty people, I wasn’t able to find one in stores, so I use a normal one. I don’t know if brands are important here, but some of the most known ones are Kitchenaid, Cuisinart, Hamilton or Edlund.

Hand And Smoothie Blenders

If you like mash potatoes, you could surely use a hand blender. It is also good for a big variety of foods, such as mayonnaise or blended beans, or any type of puree you may want to prepare from vegetables. Food blenders are relatively cheap and they can do a lot of work for you. Most known brands of kitchen blenders are Braun, Oster, Kitchenaid, Breville. Smoothie blenders are those big jars with cutting blades at the bottom, which can turn any fruits into fruit smoothies is seconds. They are electric. Smoothies make great breakfasts, so you may want to buy such a blender for your new home.

This is a brief inventory for you to start with. Of course, over time, you’ll realize that the more you learn how to cook, the more accessories you’ll want to have in your kitchen. Pyrex trays and bowls are among those recipients that can be exposed to flames and they can help you cook delicious meals like chicken casserole, or other casserole recipes. You’ll see. Start with the basics and don’t forget to get some cooking recipes to help you start.

Did you know that there is a cabbage soup recipe which is used for losing weight? It seems that cabbage has certain fat burning properties, if prepared in a certain way, and if consumed in large quantities. However, I doubt this cabbage soup would make what I call a healthy nutrition. On the contrary, I think it deprives the body of the necessary nutrients. This is why, despite the fact that I love cabbage in all shapes and recipes, I avoid using it for weight loss. I’d better use an easy weight loss tea recipe for that, instead giving up normal food. This doesn’t mean that the cabbage soup cannot be tasty, if you know how to prepare it and if you use the right spices.

My Delicious Cabbage Soup Recipe

I’ve inherited this recipe from my grandmother. This is how to make the most delicious cabbage soup ever:

1. take one small cabbage
2. wash it very well and remove the outer leaves
3. cut it in four
4. chop it in small pieces
5. boil water with onions, carrots, celery and rice
6. after 20 minutes of boiling all these together, add the cabbage
7. boil the soup for 10 more minutes
8. add salt, a hint of pepper and the juice from one big lemon
9. boil for one more minute
10. serve with toast and garlic butter; optionally, you can add a pinch of coriander to give it more flavour.

This cabbage soup recipe is for 4 persons.

Cooking schools are very popular nowadays, due to their reputation, and due to some famous chefs who decided to pass on their secrets of the art of cooking to the next generations. Students in cooking schools are usually young people seeking to learn a profession, but not only: there are also middle aged persons who want to change their trade for cooking, and they thought this was the way to go in learning from the pros. Cooking is definitely an art that takes a long while to master. It’s not like making coffee, where single cup coffee makers do all the job while you wait.

Where to find cooking schools

Cooking schools and culinary art colleges can be found in pretty much any area of the United States, as well as in the most developed countries in Europe. Asia is also famous for its cooking, countries like China, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines being frequented by gourmand tourists attracted by food specialties which are specific for this area of the globe.

Cooking classes in such academies may not be exactly cheap, but the secrets you’d learn would probably pay off very soon, due to the fact that you’ll be able to find yourself better jobs as a chef, many times paid very well.

Cooking Career Specialties

Cooking schools is only a general term to define places where you can learn the art of cooking. when it comes to finding jobs, there are more specializations available, all related to cooking and cuisine: broiler cook, chef de cuisine, executive chef, food and beverage manager, fry / saute cook, pantry cook, pastry chef, sous chef and sommelier, or wine steward. If you want to know more about each of these cooking jobs, check out the details in this cooking schools resource.

Working in the hospitality industry can be very demanding, as you have to please so many different guests from so many different cultures, that you can end up in frustration very easily. However, if you manage to leave your ego aside and apply what you have learned in the cooking schools, the rewards won’t let themselves too long awaited.

Many housewives say that the best foods are the ones which are cooked slowly. I tend to agree with them, as I’ve noticed this myself not once. But not all recipients are suitable for this kind of preparation. Slow cookers (also known as crock pots) are the best, so you’d better make sure you have some of them in your kitchen. You can use them for basically any food. You can even cook a delicious slow cooker spinach artichoke dip in as much time as you want.

For instance, if you have a large family, the Hamilton Beach Meal Maker 7 Quart Slow Cooker can be one of the best choices. Not only you’ll cook delicious chicken crock pot recipes, but you won’t have the hassle of stirring the food continuously, because once you’ve put everything inside the slow cooker, you just put in in the oven and wait for the food to get ready. It is just that simple, and the result will be outstanding.

If you don’t know what to choose, you can read the reviews on crock pots (slow cookers) at Wize.com, to see what other users had to say about their cookers, and learn from their experience with the products. This can be very helpful for your cooking adventures, and for the happiness of your family.

Drugs and alcohol are two of the big problems for many people. That’s because in many cases, even occasional users may develop addiction, thus turning their life into a hell and their families’ lives into a bigger one.

The first step for somebody who wants to quit, is to find a Drug Rehab center and join their programs of drug rehabilitation, or even follow a drug treatment if the doctor so advices.

There are many centers like this, one of them being the Cliffside Malibu center, where trained personnel and counselors are trying to help adults with problems like alcoholism, drug addiction, eating disorders or depression. The methods applied in the Cliffside Malibu center are based on patients’ comfort and respect, and they exclude any kind of punishments from the therapy programs.

Patients who appeal to these medical services will benefit from all the comfort they used to have at home, as the facility is modern and very well equipped with TV sets, or wireless internet, only to give you a few examples. For those of you who are interested in more details, there is a toll free telephone line where you can call any time and speak with one of the counselors.

In order to be admitted into the center, you have to be over 18 years of age, to be addicted either to drugs or alcohol, but to be in a status where you can keep yourself and your room clean and in good order. As each case is unique, the best thing would be to give them a call, and they will tell you if those programs are suitable for you or not.

Gourmet cookies are suitable for many occasions, as anniversaries, celebrations, wedding ceremonies or any other kind of parties you can think of. Besides the fact that they are tasty, they also look very well and they come in beautiful packages which can also make them good corporate gifts. Why bother with crazy ideas of possible gifts, fearing not to annoy your business partners, when you can simply give them a splendid box of Gourmet cookies or some awesome-looking low carb muffins which will also help the receiver stay fit. Nobody would be upset with such a present, not to mention that you can make it a corporate branded gift, thing which will be remarkable for sure. Of course, in case you have some easy cupcake recipes, you can always bake the sweet gifts in house, but I think you really have to enjoy cooking in order to do that.

All these are offered to their customers by San Francisco Cookie Company, which was started by a cookie baking enthusiast, in October 2005, and which delivers such sweets, carefully prepared, ever since. If you are curious to see what they can do, you can take a look at their website and you can even place an order, as they have an online store.

Which cookie is your favorite? Would you like to get home baked cupcakes as a gift?

Most of the people, who are traveling for cultural purposes in Amsterdam, want to see the Anne Frank House. Like it wasn’t bad enough for her to live there. We have to witness, as well, the poor conditions the woman was forced to survive in. In fact, the only reason it is worth going there, is the beautiful building in front of the house. That is something not to be missed.

Less famous, but much more interesting from the historical point of view is visiting Willet-Holthuysen Museum and Van Loon Museum.
Those two museums are memorial houses owned by rich merchants who left a will saying that after their death, those 17th-century canal houses were to become the property of the city of Amsterdam.
Very well preserved, the houses offer an accurate image of how the wealthy lived in an Amsterdam canal house.
In Willet-Holthuysen Museum you’ll see on the first floor a magnificent ballroom, a dining room, a room looking over the garden, and an imposing corridor.
In other rooms furnishings have been brought from comparable 18th and 19th century houses, to recreate the atmosphere of bygone times.
On the second floor is the romantic bedroom with a wooden bed so wonderful that I felt like taking it home with me, or, better, ordering a copy of it.
In the basement are the kitchen and the scullery, suggesting what life must have been like for the servants.
At the back of the buildings is the garden, laid out according to the early 18th-century French fashion.

In Van Loon Museum you’ll see a collection consisting of of family portraits, furniture, silver and porcelain.
I specially liked the small interior garden and the richly ornamented rooms on the first floor.
Ferdinand Bol, Rembrandt’s most renowned pupil, first occupied the double canal house, built in 1672.
In the eighteenth century the interior was embellished with lavish stucco, marble and a grand staircase.
Willem van Loon was one of the founders of the Dutch East India Company in 1602.

In 1973 the family opened the house to the public.

Famous and interesting is The Rembrandt House Museum. For almost twenty years Rembrandt van Rijn lived and worked in the house on Jodenbreestraat in Amsterdam.
He bought it in 1639, when he was at the height of his fame. In 1656 he went bankrupt and everything of value was sold at auction.
A notary drew up a list of his possessions and that is how the historic interior of Rembrandt’s house was restored and furnished with items and works of art from the master’s time.

In Rembrandt’s workroom are demonstrations of how etchings are printed. Demonstrations of how paint was made in the seventeenth-century are staged in the studio, revealing what was a mystery over many decades. There are special activities for children, including a quiz quest through Rembrandt’s house.