Cooking A Prime Rib

 by: Rondle Tomsen

The average bovine has 13 ribs. Some younger ones have only 12 but most mature ones have 13 so I am referring to them when I say that a prime rib roast comprises 7 ribs, starting from the 7th rib at the shoulder and continuing back to the 13th rib at the loin, part of which is the most tender part of meat on the animal.

The reason the loin is so tender is because it is a muscle that is rarely used. The most heavily used and strongest muscles are the toughest cuts of meat.

The prime rib is the piece of meat that rib-eye steaks and rib steaks are cut from. A normal, full 7 rib roast will yield 14 rib-eyes or 7 rib-eyes and 7 rib steaks. The only difference between a rib steak and a rib-eye steak is that the rib-eye does not have the rib bone attached as the rib steak does. When you remove the bone you have a rib-eye.

Many butchers will call a rib steak a bone-in rib-eye. Nevertheless, the rib steak, although it is the exact same cut of meat, should always be cheaper per pound than the rib-eye because you are paying for bone, which obviously, you cannot eat, but many times they are the same price.

The tenderloin is the cut of meat that continues back from the end of the prime rib roast, or 13th rib, along either side of the back and is usually cut into three sections called the sirloin, tenderloin and top sirloin. The tenderloin is the most tender piece of meat on the entire animal and is what the filet mignon is cut from.

A full prime rib roast is a very expensive cut of meat, so it is important to know many things about buying, preparing and cooking one before you ever attempt to do one, because a ruined prime rib roast is a lot of money wasted.

Before cooking a prime rib you'll need to know how much (how many ribs) you will need to buy as per how many hungry people you are going to feed. You also need to figure an estimated cooking time and you need to know exactly what temperature it needs to be when you take it out of the oven.

The roast will continue to rise 10 degrees in temperature during the resting period. The resting period is usually 20 to 30 minutes and that allows the juices to re-settle into the meat. If you carve a roast without letting it rest, you will lose a lot of juices and your roast will be dry.

So, since the roast will continue to rise in temperature, you will need to take it out of the oven 10 degrees before it reaches your desired temperature for the perfect doneness, whether you want it rare, medium rare, medium, medium well and well done.

The Food of Spain

 by: Lamberto Fresnillo

Many tourists who go to Spain each year never get to sample real Spanish cuisine because most of the popular tourist destinations are filled with restaurants from other countries and it has been invaded by the fast food culture.

To truly taste the real flavours of Spain, one must not go to the typical tourist traps but follow how the Spaniards go about their meals. Food should not just be something that will give you nourishment but it should a whole new experience of really going into the Spanish way of living. Spanish food is a reflection of the country's history, from the violent to the glorious moments. It is also a reflection of all its regions, each reflecting their own unique history and also from the Mediterranean way of life.

The Moors who occupied Spain for so many centuries were the first to cultivate olives and oranges. They made a huge impact on Spanish cuisine just as Franco's oppressive regime brought on extreme poverty influenced it. There is a Moorish influence on a lot Spanish dishes and the most outstanding flavours are the spices such saffron, cumin and others. The various soups and stews that you can sample all around Spain were the staple dishes of peasants that are surviving on locally grown vegetables and meat bones that have been stewed for hours to get out all the flavours.

Andalucía is made famous because of the gazpacho which is chilled tomato soap and the tapas that is served with every drink. The Costa del Sol is a beach that is famous for its grilled sardines. A tapa is traditionally a cover for the sweet sherry which could be a piece of dried ham, tortilla, or manchego cheese. The snack is on a small plate that covers the drink and it usually comes free, nowadays you have to pay for it if you buy from a famous tourist area but in some parts of Andalucía and anywhere else in Spain it is still for free.

Galicia is the best place to visit if you are looking for the freshest and finest fish in the world. It is situated in the northwest corner of Spain. Pork eaters are going to love Spain because it is the most widely consumed food partly as a Christian defiance against the Moors because they cannot eat pork because of their religion. Aside from food, you also have the taste the wine that Spain has to offer, the most famous is the rioja, porto, and sherry. Never leave Spain without tasting their cured hams. The Bellota and Serrano The beach that is famous for its grilled sardines is the Costa del Sol.

The Production of Ham

 by: Lamberto Fresnillo

Hams can be classified as fully cooked, cooked before eating, country, and picnic types. There are so many kinds of ham that their storage times and cooking times can sometimes get confusing. First, let us define what a ham is. The word ham is a term for a cut of meat that usually comes from the hind leg of animals like pigs. Hams are named according to where they were taken from the body of the animal. Ham that is taken from the front leg of a hog is labelled pork shoulder picnic while turkey ham comes from the thigh of a turkey.

Hams are either fully cooked or cured and sometimes cured and smoked. The usual color of ham is deep rose or pinkish and fresh ham which is not cured has the color of fresh pork which is beige or pale pink. Prosciutto is a ham that is dry cured has a color that ranges from pink to mahogany.

Ham can either be ready to eat or those that needs to be cooked. Ready to eat hams are the prosciutto or jamon iberico de bellota. They can be eaten raw or straight out of the package. Ham that is fresh must be cooked by the consumer and should have the safe handling label displayed prominently.

Curing is the process of treating the meat with salt, nitrites, seasonings, phosphates, and ascorbates to preserve the color or enhance the flavour. The characteristic reddish to pink color of cured ham is caused by the addition of nitrites and nitrates. Salt and nitrites protect the meat from invasion by Clostridium botulinium which is a deadly microorganism that can cause food poisoning in humans.

Addition of these curing solutions to the meat are by injection and tumbling or massaging into the muscle to make the meat more tender. Dry curing is the process that is utilized to make country hams and prosciutto. In this method of curing, the fresh meat is rubbed with a mixture of salt and other ingredients. Dry curing will eventually produce a salty product with different degrees of saltiness that would depend on the length of time to cure the meat. Dry curing will reduce the weight of the ham by at least 18 to 25 percent and this results in a more concentrated flavour. A good example of ham that is cured in this process is the Bellota or Recebo Ham from Spain.

Dry cured hams are aged from a few weeks to a few years. Six months is the usual length of time for a dry curing process but can be shortened depending on the temperature. Dry cured hams can be stored even at room temperature because because bacteria cannot penetrate through the meat.

Mobile Coffee Van

 by: Gareth Hoyle

To coffee-lovers, good coffee is the key to happy mornings, to feeling prepared for the day, and for just about all the good things that happen in the world. Good coffee always ‘hits the spot’, especially if it is lovingly prepared by experts, and hand delivered immediately after we have just thrown the alarm clock at the cat. While our grand-parents survived the Second World War by battling Hitler with a few powdered eggs and a series of nice cups of tea, our own generation has learned to love coffee just as much as a good old cuppa. Perhaps the War would have been over much quicker if we Brits had had a couple of espressos inside us!

Finding good coffee suppliers and coffee houses is much easier than it used to be in the UK. At one time the best you could hope for was a tasteless freeze-dried beverage and a ‘frothy coffee’ was the height of sophistication. In the case of coffee – progress is always good! Today coffee is everywhere and it’s even possible to hire a mobile coffee van for just about any function you can think of to prepare perfect, quality and piping hot coffee for your guests.

If you love coffee, and want to take advantage of specialist caterers you will be looking for the best. The small coffee vans that you see around our High Streets and City Centres have been branching out in recent years, and you can now hire one of them for functions and events. While waiting for the photographer to snap all the wedding shots, you can give your guests a surprise by having a mobile coffee van ready and waiting to serve Latte, Espresso, and Cappuccino – a really unique surprise for your guests!

In addition many specialist providers will offer to cater for receptions or other parties. True, coffee may be included at your venue – but will it be really good coffee! The owners and operators of small mobile coffee vans are dedicated enthusiasts – the connoisseurs of the industry. The freshest beans, the best flavours all combine to make that perfect coffee. It may seem an extravagance to hire a mobile coffee van – but for small functions, bonfires, community events, and family parties they are an ideal and unusual talking point. Your friends, family and guests will be truly impressed by your attention to detail, and any event will go with an additional kick, once your guests have a little caffeine inside them! Hiring a mobile coffee van will add a perfect finishing touch to any event.

Cooking With Kids!

by: Chris Grimbilas

What a scary idea! At least, that the way it seems from the start. We know a few things from personal experience. One –cooking with kids can be messy. Leave some extra cleanup time, especially the first time. Second, cooking with kids means cooking for kids. They will want to cook what they want to eat. Third, quick and easy recipes are crucial to success. Fourth, the time spent will be precious in your memories.

If you want to be ready for the challenge, realize it will be a learning opportunity that can teach you about yourself and the way your children view you. Also recognize, its not only a good time, but almost required that you let your hair down a little, relax, and have fun in the kitchen. It really becomes fun, interesting and exciting as you watch little hands help you create easy cooking. Choose what to cook wisely. Make sure you find easy cooking recipes.

When you are trying to think of cooking ideas, remember, this is teaching more than easy recipes for dinner, but real life skills that will help down the road. Actually, my husband taught me a lot about cooking because his mom taught him. Yes, I do wipe the spills of the floor and the crumbs of the counter, though I haven’t had any pasta stick to the ceiling.

One of the biggies is what to cook. Keep it simple. Choose easy recipes for dinner. Shop in advance so you aren’t caught in the middle of cooking having to load the kids into the car for a fast grocery run. Quick and easy recipes are also needed because long, complicated recipes will not hold the kids’ attention. They really do want to learn and help mommy out, but if it gets to complicated they will get bored with the details. Use easy recipes for dinner when cooking with children. If you use easy dinner recipes your chances for success will be much greater than with overly complicated or ingredient intense recipes. Some simple cooking ideas always include casseroles and crock pot cooking. Remember, your goal is easy cooking with a minimum of ingredients.

Consider the cleanup. The cooking is fun, but here is a teaching moment regarding responsibility. In cooking with kids, clean as you go whenever possible and get them involved in that aspect of cooking, too. When you consider clean up, you have another reason to want quick and easy recipes. Yes, you also want healthy easy recipes. Set yourself up a cooking book that will allow you to clean as you go.

Cooking with kids can be a fun filled day of being silly with the sugar and frolicking with the flour. Let go. Have fun. Make memories. It’s worth it.

You can find some great resources, more cooking tips and claim some GREAT FREE GIFTS for the Creative Cookery website at http://cooking.cmg4life.net.

Cooking For Kids

 by: Chris Grimbilas

Welcome to the world of picky eaters! You have kids. They turn their noses up at everything from peas to oatmeal. There are two main goals when it comes to cooking for kids. First, you want to cook what they like to eat, or at least what they will eat. This means searching through your vast library of cooking ideas to satisfy their hunger. Second, you want them to eat healthy meals. They learn about the food pyramid in school, but getting them to live it at home can be a challenge.

Sitting at the table ordering them to eat their vegetables may sometimes be effective, but that doesn’t mean it will be fun for you or them. You can add some perennial favorites to health filled ideas. Try putting peanut butter on celery sticks. This works with cream cheese, too. Use cucumber chips and ranch dip instead of potato chips. You get a vegetable in their system and they are getting a treat at snack time. The same holds true for melon and cantaloupes. These make excellent snacks and are a much-needed fruit in these important diets for little ones.

You know you can’t eat macaroni and cheese at every meal, but meals don’t have to be complicated either. There are easy recipes for dinner kids will love. We do a lot of mixin’s. We put chicken or turkey in the spaghetti sauce. We add tuna and a vegetable to the mac and cheese. Cheez Wiz ® on a vegetable seems to induce my kids to eat their veggies. The result is quick and easy recipes that the kids love to chow down.

The other thing to remember is that while we like the idea of easy cooking, it must be more than easy dinner recipes. We should plan healthy easy recipes. When it comes to fruits and vegetables, always go for fresh ingredients. If you can’t get fresh, use frozen. There are fewer additives in frozen fruits and vegetable. The water or juices that carry the sugar and preservative are used in frozen product. They make a healthier choice in you easy recipes for dinner.

Boldly go where no kid has gone before in your kitchen. Try new foods. This is especially a good idea if you will do some cooking with kids. They are more likely to try what they helped cook. It also affords you some great family time. If you do some easy cooking with kids, neither you nor they will get bored with the process and they will be willing to try some new foods and different flavors. This will add a fresh look to some quick and easy recipes and offer your family some great meals.

Work on the main things. You need healthy easy recipes. Great cooking ideas usually make great dinners. You need budget friendly and kid approved meals. This may take you a little effort in rewriting what you use for a cooking book, but it definitely has some long term benefits. Using easy dinner recipes and crock pot cooking will save you time, money, and exasperation. . You want meals that are kid friendly and easy on the budget. Make it fun. Make it healthy. Keep it easy. It is worth the rewards.

For more kitchen resources, cooking ideas and to CLAIM YOUR FREE GIFTS, visit the Creative Cookery at http://cooking.cmg4life.net

Healthy Easy Recipes

 by: Chris Grimbilas

Healthy living is sweeping the nation. That’s not a bad thing. There are all sorts of ads for exercise equipment, but healthy living is more than just exercise. It also requires us to make healthy eating choices. People have a challenge with this. When they think exercise, it is something they “add” to their routine. When they think healthy eating, they think, “What do I have to give up?” Healthy eating does not necessarily mean denial. This isn’t necessarily the case. There are quick and easy recipes that make up healthy foods. You have to determine to be creative and come up with healthy easy recipes that you like to eat.

There are three things you can do to adopt healthier eating habits. You can adjust how often you eat. Many folks advocate not eating big meals, but rather eat a little bit, but eat more often. This keeps you full, but at the same time reduces your overall food intake. You can adjust what you eat. You don’t have to cook pasta at every meal. There are easy dinner recipes that use healthy ingredients. Whole grain products are usually high on the chart in nutritional value and they do make whole grain pasta. You may have to investigate, but there are healthy easy recipes for dinner.

When you look at what to cook, healthy eating usually consists of high protein, low fat meats. You can exchange your ground beef for ground turkey and get a healthier meal for about the same price. It’s still easy cooking. Fish and chicken are also high protein, low fat meats and there are plenty of healthy easy recipes available for these. Healthy doesn’t mean you have to forgo quick and easy recipes.

Third issue really goes hand in hand with the other two. It’s not only how often you eat, and what you eat, but how you cook it. There are a lot of different ways to cook food. Deep fried is probably the worst in terms of nutrition. Not only does the deep heat suck out nutrients, the oil used often packs on fats and calories. Next is fried food. Two eggs over easy is not as healthy as two eggs scrambled in the microwave. When you grill or broil foods, you eliminate some of those fat issues, especially where meat is concerned. Steaming is a great way to of trapping nutrients in the food. Using a microwave will also accomplish the

Healthy easy recipes can be part of an active healthy lifestyle. It is what you make and the more creative you are the more fun it will be and the less you will feel deprived. Think about your cooking ideas. Focus on easy recipes for dinner. Work on what to cook, how you cook and keep it easy cooking. There are quick and easy recipes that are healthy.

There are a lot of advantages in healthy eating. You don’t have to think hard to come up with several. Consider your heart health, your vascular health, and weight loss, just to name a few. It is worth the investment in your health to adopt a lifestyle that includes healthy eating. Don’t delay. You can start today!

For more resources, cooking tips, and to CLAIM YOUR FREE GIFTS, please visit http://cooking.cmg4life.net