Once A Month Cooking - How To Make It A Reality

Once a month cooking - who me? I don't have time. Once a month cooking sounds like an option for the stay-at-home mother rather than today's woman who juggles family and career and is more likely to found driving her kids to soccer practice than toiling away in the kitchen.....

Once A Month Cooking
How To Make It A Reality

Once a month cooking - who me? I don't have time. Once a month cooking sounds like an option for the stay-at-home mother rather than today's woman who juggles family and career and is more likely to found driving her kids to soccer practice than toiling away in the kitchen. It sounds like something that our mothers did not us.

But once a month cooking is a realistic option for a busy working mother. What is more it can save you money and make sure that your family gets nutritious food.

We hear so much about the problems of obesity and poor nutrition that results from a diet based on fast food. We know the virtues of good home cooking but finding time to do it is another matter. Once a month cooking offers a way of achieving that traditional ideal without spending every day in the kitchen. Once a month cooking offers a way of ditching the convenience food without becoming a stay-at-home mom.

Everything you need for once a month cooking is already to hand in the modern kitchen. You may need to invest in a few more freezer proof dishes but you already have the freezer and a cooker.

What you are aiming to do is to cook all the meals you need for a month and freezing them. We are talking about a weekend really. The whole family can get involved. It can become part of your family time. Measuring, weighing, mixing, planning and working as a team all make an excellent educational experience for the children. They get lessons in math and life skills as well as nutritious meals.

I mention planning, and this is the secret to cooking one a month. You need to plan your menus for the whole month. No one wants pasta Bologna ever day for a month so build in plenty of variety. Think about any special dietary needs that members of your family may have. The vegetarian daughter needs her meals too. The advantage of cooking once a month is that you can plan for your whole family and provide alternatives.

If you are cooking alternative options for some members of the family you need to think about portion sizes. Some individual dishes should be frozen as well as larger dishes for the whole family. One of the advantages of cooking once a month is that you have far greater control over portion size than usual. You can calculate the calories contained in a meal.

When you plan meals in this way you can ensure that you include enough fruit and vegetables. When you grab hurried meals it is all to easy to miss out on fruit and vegetables and essential nutrients. With once a month cooking you become aware of just what you are eating. Taking time to plan lets you make rational decisions and to discuss the health benefits of eating a nutritious diet with your children.

Once you have planned your menu you can draw up a shopping list. Taking a shopping list to the supermarket is one of the best ways of avoiding impulse purchases that pile on calories that are empty of nutrients. When your children have contributed to planning the menu they are less likely to demand treats.

Once you get used to the idea of once a month cooking you can plan little treats in the form of cakes and desserts. Even home-baked bread or pastries for those occasional lazy Sunday mornings can be included in your once a month cook. The advantage of once a month cooking is that you know what is in these treats.

Another advantage of once a month cooking is that you have much greater control of your budget than usual. There may even be things you can buy in bulk and make savings that way. Quite apart from what you save by planning your shopping you also save on the cost of gas by making fewer trips to the store. You benefit directly from that and the rest of the community benefits from less pollution. You may also like to consider whether it would be better to use a store that will deliver. Internet shopping and home delivery may the best option.

One word of caution: if your friends and neighbours get to hear about once a month cooking you may find that you have started an once a month cooking business.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, "Cooking Mastery!" from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.
By Abhishek Agarwal
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Cooking Italian Pasta - Simple Tips To Cook Pasta At Home

Cooking Italian Pasta***As with all the most basic foods the key to cooking good pasta is to choose good quality ingredients. The simpler the food the more important quality becomes. Poor quality can be less easily disguised in a simple pasta dish than in something more elaborate.....

Cooking Italian Pasta
Simple Tips To Cook Pasta At Home

Pasta is the simplest of Italian foods. It is the most widely known and can be found all over the world. But it is easy to go wrong with it and to end up with a soggy uninspiring mess.

As with all the most basic foods the key to cooking good pasta is to choose good quality ingredients. The simpler the food the more important quality becomes. Poor quality can be less easily disguised in a simple pasta dish than in something more elaborate.

Good quality pasta is made from durum wheat. Many people swear by fresh pasta rather than dried. They feel that fresh pasta must be more authentic than dried. But in Italy cooks will often choose dried pasta for preference. A good quality dried pasta made from durum what is always preferable to a poor quality fresh pasta.

What you are looking for is a dried pasta made with 100 per cent durum wheat and preferably made by an Italian company according to traditional methods. Avoid supermarket own brands and other cheaper substitutes. Only the real thing will do.

If this seems too expensive then save money when it comes to the sauce. Pasta is a cheap food because it carries the sauce and makes expensive ingredients go further. You should not think of pasta as an economical food because the pasta itself is made from cheap ingredients.

Some fresh pasta is excellent. If you can find shop where they make it themselves it is well worth buying. You might even like to try making it yourself. There are wonderful gadgets for rolling out sheets of pasta. But these pasta machines usually end up forgotten in the back of the cupboard. They are not really necessary. You will rarely find them in an Italian kitchen. Home made pasta can be made quite easily with a rolling pin and a knife.

Home made pasta is particularly good for filled pastas such as ravioli. You can make your own filling to your own taste that way.

Whether you make your own pasta, buy fresh pasta or dried pasta you will need a large pan in which to cook it. When I say large, I mean larger than you think. Most pans are too small to cook pasta successfully. The pan should be made of a material that is a good conductor of heat. Many stainless steel pans are not good conductors of heat and will let your pasta sit in the water going soggy.

The reason that you need a big pan for pasta is that the secret of cooking pasta is to have plenty of water. That way the individual pieces of pasta are kept separate and do not stick together.

The water must be brought to a good rolling boil before the pasta is added. Bring it back to the boil as quickly as possible after the pasta is added and keep it boiling until the pasta is done. Do not put a lid on the pan.

Salt is important in cooking pasta. The water must be well seasoned with salt for pasta. Without salt you pasta will be bland and dull.

Some people like to add oil to the water. They believe that this will stop the pasta sticking together. This is not true, because the oil stays on the surface of the water and does not touch the pasta. But oil can help to prevent the foam that is produced when cooking pasta from boiling over the side of the pan.

Most packets of pasta have a cooking time printed on them. Treat this as a rough guide only. You must judge whether or not the pasta is done by touch. Lift out a piece of pasta from the boiling pan and squeeze it between the nails of your thumb and forefinger. If there is still a slight resistance then the pasta is done. It is, as the Italians say, al dente. There is some "bite" left in it. Your pasta is then ready to serve with the sauce of your choice.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, "Cooking Mastery!" from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.
By Abhishek Agarwal
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com

Authentic Italian Food - How To Enjoy It In Italy

Authentic Italian Food-Italian cooking has been formed by hardship and poverty....Italian cooking has its own character in each region of the country. That is as one would expect in a country that was only unified in the late nineteenth century....

Authentic Italian Food
How To Enjoy It In Italy

There is a famous story about an Italian professor who decided that he wanted to eat real Italian food so he hired a simple country girl to cook for him. On the first evening she cooked him beans and pasta. The professor was somewhat disappointed, but he told himself he had asked for rustic food. Perhaps the next meal would be different.

But on the second night his new cook came into the dining room with a plate of beans and pasta. So it went on until he finally decided to speak to the girl and asked her why she only cooked beans and pasta. "That is what we eat at home," she told the professor.

Italian cooking has been formed by hardship and poverty. That is especially true in the south and middle of Italy. Northern Italy has historically been richer and its traditional dishes are richer. In Southern Italy rich food was the preserve of the nobility and heavily influenced by French cuisine.

Italian cooking has its own character in each region of the country. That is as one would expect in a country that was only unified in the late nineteenth century. Italians did not even speak the same language until recently. They can hardly be expected to have the same style of cooking.

Industrialization has homogenized Italian cooking to some degree as it has everywhere. You will find the same brand names throughout Italy. Italian women seldom spend all their lives at home these days. They do not have the time that previous generations of women had to spend long hours over the stove. They are as likely to reach for a convenience food as other busy women.

But even having said all that there is something special about Italian food which comes down in the end to an attitude rather than to specific ingredients. In Italy there is an attitude to food that does not exist in many societies.

Meals are occasions for conversation among adults and children. Even small children are seldom sent to bed early. Go to any restaurant in Italy and you will see beautifully dressed children running about, eating a little, playing a little. They rarely have temper tantrums despite the late hour. A fractious baby or toddler will be whisked away to the kitchen in the arms of a waiter to be fed tit bits and entertained.

It is all part of that late evening ritual the passegiata when Italians put on their best clothes to stroll about the parks and squares of their town. They talk, have a beer perhaps, or a meal. The meal itself may be quite simple but eating an Italian meal is as much about developing that attitude to life as it is about the cooking.

But family meals can consist of many courses. When foreigners first encounter an Italian meal of this kind they are often surprised by the fact that pasta is only one course. Many an unwary visitor to an Italian home has accepted the offer of more pasta thinking that is the meal, only to find that they are confronted by the secondo or the main course afterward.

Before the pasta there may be antipasta which consists of various salamis, fish, cold meats, salads. boiled eggs, olives and other cold foods. They are served with bread and oil. It is more substantial than the appetizers we are used to.

The secondo usually consists of meat or fish with vegetables. An elaborate Italian meal may even have more than one secondo. There may even be two dessert courses. Fruit and cheese may be followed by a sweet desert such as a pastry or ice cream. Finally comes coffee and grappa which is the perfect end to an Italian meal.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, "Cooking Mastery!" from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.
By Abhishek Agarwal
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

How To Become A Gourmet Cook - Some Simple Tips

How To Become A Gourmet Cook****Gourmet cooking can be simple food. Increasingly, even top restaurants are serving food that would once have been regarded as the food of poor people.....

How To Become A Gourmet Cook - Some Simple Tips

Gourmet cooking seems to be hopelessly beyond the reach of most of us. We are used to preparing a hurried meal for our families or carefully following the instructions in a recipe book when we have guests to dinner. Gourmet cooking seems to be the preserve of five star restaurants and top professional chefs who have access to the most luxurious ingredients.

But gourmet cooking can be achieved at home if you are willing to devote some time and attention to it. Gourmet cooking is essentially good cooking that uses the best ingredients and has a certain integrity to it.

Gourmet cooking can be simple food. Increasingly, even top restaurants are serving food that would once have been regarded as the food of poor people. But today when our palates are assaulted by some much processed food this kind of food has an authenticity that most of our diet lacks.

A simple meal of cheese sourced from a farm's own dairy and hand made bread is a gourmet meal. A braised leg of spring lamb with minted new potatoes dug up only hours ago is a gourmet cooking.

Regional specialties cooked slowly with care and attention are gourmet cooking. When most food is fast food, slow food is gourmet food.

If gourmet cooking is about paying attention to ingredients it is also about paying attention to yourself. A gourmet cook must have integrity too. It is important to take pride in yourself. Hone your skills and always be prepared to learn more.

Books are useful. The best books are those that explain techniques rather than just give you recipes. It is your skill in technique that will make you a gourmet cook once you have good quality ingredients.

Some skills need to be learned from the experts. Consider enrolling on a course. A few days spent with a chef, a baker or a butcher will impart skills that cannot be picked up from a book. Not least working with a real artist in these trades will inspire you in your quest to become a gourmet cook.

Equipment is important to a gourmet cook. This doesn't mean acquiring a battery of fancy gadgets. All you need are knives and pans but they should be of the best quality you can afford. That goes especially for knives and take care to keep them sharp. Have respect for your equipment and it will help you to become a gourmet cook.

If one word sums up what being a gourmet cook means it is that - respect. As a gourmet cook you must respect your ingredients, the skills of others, your diners, your equipment, and above all yourself. That is the only way to become a gourmet cook.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, "Cooking Mastery!" from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.
By Abhishek Agarwal
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Cooking Vegetarian - Simple Ways To Cook Vegetarian Food

Cooking Vegetarian--Vegetarian soups are just as simple. If you cook some lentils, carrots and onions for about 15 minutes you can whizz the whole thing in a food processor to make soup.....Vegetarian soups**

Cooking Vegetarian
Simple Ways To Cook Vegetarian Food

In all forms of cooking there are some principles to bear in mind that can make it easier. Vegetarian dishes are no exception. Even the simplest recipe can look really complicated unless we understand the basics.
The simplest of all dishes is a one pot stew or casserole. There are vegetarian versions that taste just as good as meat based ones. If you have the essential ingredients to hand you can make a very simple vegetarian casserole.

All you need to do is add a tin of beans such as kidney beans, pinto beans, butter beans of flagellate beans to a root vegetable casserole. You can develop some variations on this theme by adding a topping of breadcrumbs with or without grated cheese and putting it in the oven for a few minutes. You could even add a pastry crust or a cobbler topping and bake it. Dumplings are an excellent addition and make a hearty vegetarian meal.
Vegetarian soups are just as simple. If you cook some lentils, carrots and onions for about 15 minutes you can whizz the whole thing in a food processor to make soup. Season to taste and stir a spoonful of yogurt or creme fraiche into each dish as you serve it. A sprinkling of chopped coriander or parsley adds a special touch.

A pea soup is even easier. Cook some frozen peas in boiling water with a sprig of mint. When they are cooked put them in the food processor. Season to taste and serve. A slice of wholemeal bread makes a satisfying vegetarian lunch.

Another one pot stand by is risotto. A mushroom risotto makes a quick and easy vegetarian supper. Arborio rice cooks in about 10 minutes and it will take about the same to chop up some onions, garlic and mushrooms.
Stir fry is a great vegetarian stand by. The great advantage of this kind of cooking is that you can adapt it to whatever vegetables you have available. If you have some tofu in the store cupboard it is easy to make a vegetarian stir fry. Mushrooms also make a good vegetarian stir fry.

A stir fry is not quite a one pot dish because you will need to cook some rice or noodles to go with it. But noodles are very easy and only take about 10 minutes or less.
Cooking brown rice can be a slow business which puts many people off using it. But the best way to make this essential vegetarian food easy is to invest in an electric rice. cooker. Your rice will be done perfectly every time and become the basis of many easy vegetarian meals.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, "Cooking Mastery!" from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.
By Abhishek Agarwal
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Cooking For Children - Tips To Make Your Dishes More Attractive

Cooking For Children---Many of the problems associated with cooking for little ones can be overcome by cooking with little ones rather than just cooking for little ones....

Cooking For Children
Tips To Make Your Dishes More Attractive

Meal times so easily become a battle field when we are cooking for little ones. We spend hours preparing a nutritious meal but it all ends in tears with a toddler tantrum at the tea table.

Are there any simple guidelines we can follow when cooking for little ones? I would say after many years of experience and many tantrums, mine as well as the kids, that it is possible to take some of the tension out of cooking for little ones.

My first rule when cooking for little ones is don't cook. Or at least cook less. Children love raw foods and they are very healthy. Keep some cut up carrot sticks in the fridge. Washed, peeled and sliced into finger sized pieces they make an excellent snack. With a little houmous, or peanut butter maybe, they are extremely nutritious. Raw food really is good for children.

On the same principle why not try homemade smoothies. They can be prepared in advance and kept in the fridge. This is one of the simplest ways of getting children to eat fresh fruit and vegetables. You can also turn smoothies into a kind of ice pop by freezing them. They are lower in sugar than commercially available products.

A thing we easily forget when cooking for little ones is that they have small stomachs. They need to eat little and often. The large meals we habitually prepare for adults are just too much for children. They simply cannot wait four hours from one meal to another. You need to have lots of healthy food in small portions ready to hand.

When it comes to the main family meals the single biggest problem is vegetables. So many small children will not eat vegetables, especially green vegetables. The answer is to get creative. Sauces exist for a reason. Broccoli was surely made for garlic butter or cheese sauce.

Some people will object that children will not eat garlic. But if they are introduced to it slowly they will. It will soon become a favourite and it is very healthy. The same is true of cheeses. It is worth introducing children to variety of cheeses. They might not like them all but they will develop a taste for some. Cheese is a valuable source of calcium and vitamin D which are important to growth of strong bones and teeth.

It is important to introduce children to what we think of as "adult" tastes because that is the way to ensure that their diet is varied. You will also avoid the trap that so many parents fall into of having to cook two meals. One word of warning here: when cooking for little ones never add salt. Salt is very bad for babies and small children.

Many of the problems associated with cooking for little ones can be overcome by cooking with little ones rather than just cooking for little ones. That is to say let them help you in the kitchen. I know that will make twice as much work and twice as much mess, but it will be worth it in the long run. Cooking for little ones should be about introducing them to the world of food and encouraging a healthy relationship with food. It is better for a child to learn that a muffin is something you bake with care and love rather than something you grab in a hurry and eat without thinking. You can guarantee that the peas they have shelled themselves will be eaten and not left on the plate.

Even after we have done all these things there will still be time when the kids simply will not eat the meal you have lovingly prepared. This brings me to what is perhaps the golden rule when cooking for little ones. At this point you must resist the temptation to scream at them and throw dishes across the kitchen. Their refusal to eat is not a reflection on you or your cooking. They are only human and so are you. The best solution is to learn to make soup or keep some chickens in the backyard. They will always eat what you cook. Well, nearly always.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, "Cooking Mastery!" from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.
By Abhishek Agarwal
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Anchovies In Italian Cuisine - How The Italians Use Anchovies

Anchovies In Italian Cuisine --Fresh anchovies are hard to come by unless you have a good fishmonger nearbym,Anchovy paste is often used in Sicily to flavour pizza...

Anchovies In Italian Cuisine
- How The Italians Use Anchovies

Anchovies are a small sea fish found in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. They grow to about 3 inches long. Anchovies are related to the herring. Those found in the Atlantic tend to be slightly larger than the Mediterranean variety.

In Southern Italy and Spain they are often cooked fresh. if you are visiting these areas fresh anchovies are worth looking out for in restaurants and cafes. Fresh anchovies are often served grilled like sardines. They are good for barbecues. You can also bake them in the oven.

In Italy they don't clean the fish but it's probably a good idea to do so unless your guests are used to eating them that way. They are served with a rich garlic and tomato sauce.

Fresh anchovies are hard to come by unless you have a good fishmonger nearby. You will most often see them in preserved form because the season is short. Anchovies can be packed in salt or olive oil. In that form they are exported all over the world. Preserved anchovies have become a vital ingredient in most Italian cooking.

When anchovies they are salted they must be cleaned and gutted as soon as they are caught. They are allowed to dry before being layered in large round tins with salt. The tins are stacked into towers which are called seasoning towers. Weights are placed on top of them. They are left like this for up to two months. During this time the fluid in the fish is forced out and replaced by salt.

Anchovies preserved in oil must be treated differently. Fresh anchovies are immersed in brine for two months. After that they are washed in more salt water, cleaned and filleted. The two tiny fillets are then packed in jars or tins of olive oil.


Both types of preserved anchovy can be bought in small tins or jars as well as loose from the delicatessen.

Anchovy paste is often used in Sicily to flavour pizza. It has a less fishy taste than anchovies preserved in either salt or olive oil. You will find anchovy paste sold in tubes. Generally speaking it is less useful than the other types of preserved anchovies.

When you use anchovies it is best to soak them for about ten minutes first to remove some of the salt. That way you get more of the flavour of fish and less of the salt taste.

Anchovies and hard boiled egg yolks mixed with a little red wine vinegar made a great sauce for bland foods. You can use this anchovy sauce on cold meat or fish.


In Venice they have a dish of fresh beans served in anchovy sauce. In Naples they like to eat linguini in anchovy sauce on Christmas Eve. You simply have to cook some garlic in oil then stir in the anchovies until they dissolve. Add a bit of pasta water and the sauce is made. Just pour it over the pasta.

Try anchovies in a simple dish like artichokes with anchovies. Steam some artichokes in about half an inch of water. When they are almost cooked remove them from the pan and add the soaked anchovies. Cook the anchovies, stirring all the time, until they have dissolved. Return the artichokes to the pan for a few minutes so that they can soak up the sauce.

Serve this as a side dish so that your guests who think they hate anchovies can try just a little. This dish will surely change their minds about anchovies. Any bad memories they might have of nasty salty litte fish on their pizzas will be forgotten. Just let them taste the authentic flavour of anchovies in Italian cooking.

Abhishek is really passionate about Cooking and he has got some great Cooking Secrets. up his sleeves! Download his FREE 88 Pages Ebook, "Cooking Mastery!" from his website http://www.Cooking-Guru.com/770/index.htm. Only limited Free Copies available.
By Abhishek Agarwal
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/