Archive for December, 2006

Since having our son, I really enjoy getting ready for Christmas. One of my favorite things to do is bake cookies, cakes or anything that will make people smile. My mother used to bake alot when I was younger, and she would make tins for friends and family. I always begged her to make my favorite cookie. I called them Oatmeal Cookies, but they were so much more. Here is that recipe:

• 3 cups oatmeal
• 1 cup coconut
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla
• 1 stick of butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa
• 1/2 cup milk

In a large bowl, combine the first three ingredients. In a boiling pan, combine the remaining ingredients. Cook exactly one minute after it starts boiling. Pour over ingredients in bowl. Stir until well combined and drop by spoonfuls onto wax paper. Cool well before removing from wax paper.

Relevant pics from Flickr

Related News
7 On Your Side:Cholesterol-Lowering Cookies, Candy – KLTV
Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies – WBAL
Flakes for fitness – Calcutta Telegraph
Weekend Well-Being: Bake Some Cookies – FitSugar.com

Yahoo Answers
Really thick & chunky oatmeal cookies?
Can I bake oatmeal to make cookies?
is oatmeal cookies healty?
How to make Oatmeal Cookies?

You’ve seen the commercials, ads and infomercials, but have you ever had the opportunity to use one?

Several years ago, I received a George Foreman Grill as a housewarming gift. I didn’t think that much about it and just left it on a shelf in my kitchen. Well, one day (several months later) I decided to give it a try.

And am I ever happy that I did! It cooks food very quickly and even has a bun warmer on the top. I have used to the most to cook fish (it does a much better job than the oven). I love how the grease just slides down the grill into the plastic catcher.

It is very easy to clean up afterwards too. Since the grills themselves are non-stick, you don’t have to send a lot of time trying to “scrub” it clean. It cooks food very quickly, so you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen.

There are newer and better versions of the Grill on the market today and I have considered buying a new one just to try it out. The new George Foreman G5 has interchangeable plates, giving this grill alot more food options. It has 84 inches of cookable surface and as always, it is non-stick.

Even though the newer grills are much larger and have a lot more options available, I am still happy with my original Grill and will continue to use it with pride.

So I was browsing the interweb looking for an good Christmas dinner post or article without much sucsess – there is allot of cruft out there in the blogosphere.

Just when I was about to give up, I came across the untilimate Christmas dinner post called christmas-countdown by Bernard Matthews:

Here we give you our recommended timetable for the day itself. The plan is to leave you time to enjoy the people, the presents and the celebrations by keeping things simple. We’ve done our best to anticipate problems and provide handy hints from our vast experience of what is the biggest day of the year. Most importantly…stay calm!

So take my advice, if you are looking for a great step by step to cooking that Christmas turkey you are not going to do any better then clicking over to this site.

They also have a great festive entertainment post as well.

I had been hearing about Chouriço allot lately so I decided to investigate a little.  Wikipedia says:

Chouriço is a spicy Portuguese smoked sausage. It is made with pork meat and fat, wine, paprika and salt, stuffed into tripe (natural or artificial) and slowly dried over smoke.

The name chouriço is sometimes used outside of Portugal for other similar smoked dried sausages.

Of course sausage consists of ground meat, animal fat, herbs and spices, and possibly other ingredients, generally packed in a casing (traditionally the intestines of the animal, though now often synthetic), and preserved in some way, often by curing or smoking.

And while looking up Chouriço I learned that there are 2 other kinds of portuguese sausage Alheira and Linguiça.  The alheira is a Portuguese sausage made with many meats other than pork, usually veal, duck, chicken or rabbit, and bread.  Linguiça is a form of Portuguese pork sausage seasoned with onions, garlic, and paprika. It is similar in taste to chouriço; however it is usually spiced much milder than chouriço.

Check out Emeril’s Home Made Linguiça Recipe

These special heart shaped homemade soft pretzels were the perfect valentines day food. While it is not simple it is not as intimidating as you may think. I started with this recipe from Paula Dean from the food netwrok and then made it my own.

These are the actual photos from the batch that I made, they went very fast.

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