Cooking Basics

How To Make Homemade Pudding

March 14, 2011

Several weeks ago when I posted a question for my Ask The Readers feature about homemade vs boxed pudding mixes, I received many comments and emails from readers who said that they did not know how to make homemade pudding. Several of you even said that you did not know that you could make homemade pudding, [...]

Read the full article →

What Is The Difference Between Cocoa and Dutch Processed Cocoa?

November 12, 2010

This time of year many of us will be spending extra time in the kitchen baking for the holidays. I don’t know about you, but when I spend my time and money on making special baked goods, I want to get the best results possible. And part of getting the best results is using the correct [...]

Read the full article →

How To Braise Meat

September 25, 2010

Many times recipes can seem overwhelming and difficult when they are not difficult at all. Once you know a few techniques and cooking terms cooking becomes much easier. One cooking term that often scares people away from recipes is when it calls for you to braise the meat. Braising meat is not difficult and is actually something most [...]

Read the full article →

Kitchen Basics: How To Cook Pasta

September 9, 2010

Cooking pasta is a very basic cooking skill. In fact it is probably one of the first things that many of us learned to cook, but it is something that many people do not cook right. There is one simple thing that you can do that will vastly improve the results of your pasta. Any guess what [...]

Read the full article →

Cooking Basics:Coating A Cake Pan With Cocoa

June 15, 2010

I love to bake cakes and I have made many of them over the years. In the directions for most cakes, it calls for you to oil and flour the cake pan. The main reason for this is to help the cake release from the pan. This works great and I recommend that you do this step. [...]

Read the full article →

Cooking Basics: Tips for Successful Baking

June 8, 2010

I have found that many people find baking to be intimidating. Even those that love to cook, often stay away from making baked goods like cakes, cookies, and breads. Baking really is not hard, but baking is more of a science. There are reasons that things are done in baking. I love to bake. In [...]

Read the full article →

How To Separate An Egg

May 11, 2010

I know that many of you know how to cook, but I also know many of you are new to cooking. I hope this series on Cooking Basics is something that all of you will enjoy. My goal is to show those of you that are new to cooking, that it is really not that [...]

Read the full article →

Cooking Dried Beans In the Crockpot

April 26, 2010

I mentioned earlier this year that I was planning on doing a series on kitchen terms and definitions. Well, I decided to call the series Cooking Basics. This way I can cover basics terms and definitions, but also some basic cooking how to’s. Today I thought I would start with cooking dried beans. Whenever I [...]