When cooking a turkey, try laying down a “bed” of celery stalks first. The stalks will help
air circulate and keep the turkey moist while also adding great flavor. Another great tip
for keeping your turkey moist is to roast it breast-side down for the first hour and then turn it over for the remainder of the cooking time.
It is important to remember that when you cook tougher (but oh so tasty) cuts of meat (such as flank steak, skirt steak, chuck steak, and so on) you have basically 2 options:
1) Either long-cook/ braise the meat to a slowly-moist-cooked, fork-tender well-doneness that you can literally pull apart with a fork. (Slow-cookers, Dutch ovens, and Foil-covered in the oven are perfect methods for this.)
or
2) Marinate the meat first (for several hours) and quick-cook (being careful not to overcook) to no more than medium-rare-pink. This will keep the meat at its most tender and usually requires a bit of attention and timing. Start with your meat at room temperature (pull from the fridge about 30 minutes before cooking). At end of cooking, pull the meat from your heat source just a little under-cooked (remember meat tends to cook about another 5 degrees or so, while it is resting!). Let the meat rest for 10 to 15 minutes (to set its juices) then cut the meat into thin slices across the grain. (Grilling, broiling, and even pan-frying are perfect techniques for this.)
Beef…. its whats for dinner… click here
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Thanks to the National Beef Council that is an easy question to answer. Log on to this web site and you’ll find a free downloadable cookbook and many recipes and resources. My favorite feature? The downloadable wallet card that lists 19 cuts of beef and their nutritional information.
View the card by clicking here.
One of the most basic tips (and perhaps the most important) is to be sure to let your cake cool completely before frosting!
With a long, serrated knife cut off any “bumps or humps” so that the cake will lay flat on the plate and so the second layer will lay flat on the first layer.
Brush off any loose crumbs before applying frosting.
Use a flexible palette-knife-style spatula to apply the frosting.
Use 1/2 cup frosting for between the layers. Then frost sides and finish with the top last.
For a smooth finish you can dip the spatula in hot water and gently run it around the sides of the cake to smooth the frosting.
A great little appliance to have “two of” is that high powered mini-midget of a coffee grinder … one for the coffee beans at time of brewing and one for nuts, and spices, and everything nice. Small amounts of nuts and spices can readily be ground in a coffee grinder, rather than pulling out a big blender or food processor — but do keep them apart though, or you might start coming up with some weird tasting coffees or, vice versa. Some coffee-tasting herbs and spices-as the oils that accumulate, especially from grinding coffee beans and/or nuts are difficult to clean completely out.
If you don’t have a traditional biscuit cutter … cut your biscuits with the rim of a drinking glass, or the rim of a clean glass jar (such as a mason jar), or even the rim of a washed and cleaned-out empty tin can! (Biscuit cutters come in assorted circumferences, with the standard size being about 2 to 2 1/2 inches across, but the biggest difference between a biscuit cutter and a cookie cutter is the depth of the sides. Cookie cutters are shallow–biscuit cutters have deeper sides, to accommodate cutting out thicker dough.)