Posts Tagged ‘eating’
Texas Eats
Whatever enticements bring you to the great land of Texas, I can guarantee you one thing, the food is what will keep you there. The South has perfected their own unique standard of cuisine, and the Lone Star State is saturated with it. The delicacies and delights found here are quite lacking anywhere else in the world.
It’s easy to spell fun in Texas — BBQ. Despite the population, the biggest cities and the smallest towns all have their own barbecue establishment of some kind. Each self proclaiming themselves, no doubt, to be “The Best Barbecue in Texas!” With only slight variations, you can easily expect an atmosphere of brushed steel, wood planks, hickory smoke, and country music.
But since you are only there for the food, you should know that there exists any choice of beef, pork, or chicken. No matter where you go for your experience, you can expect the variation of a spicy kick, a sweet honey glaze, or a classic hickory smoked saturation to fit your preference. When I first came to Texas, it came as quite a surprise to find at even the most elegant of events a banquet arrayed in barbecue.
The barbecue succeeds due to the excess of Texas’ most precious asset of beef. Driving through the state it is not rare to see land roaming for miles with the most beautiful livestock. The great land spanning these acres feeds the most delicious animals in the state.
If you don’t prefer to have your animals barbecued, surely you couldn’t resist a melting piece of tender steak in your mouth. Fine Texas Steakhouses are hard to miss around the state as well. I would suggest a medium grill to your choice of cut in order to achieve the most tender and yet sufficiently cooked dinner delight.
Texas also has a lucky connection so close to the border which has given birth to a fascinating genre of food that only exists here as TexMex. The further south you travel, perhaps to San Antonio at least, the hispanic culture has authentically romanticized the food here. Warm tortillas, fresh salsa, and explosive flavors lull us away in this perfect union of Mexican style food made by the Texan grown culture.
All the acres of land that makes Texas proud gives fruit to unending varieties of succulent produce. Undoubtedly my favorite is, the peach. You can’t find a better peach cobbler than in the South, for good reason.
Peaches thrive in this climate and humidity. In our own backyard we grow a large fruitful peach tree that satisfies our craving for juicy sweet peaches with each summer season. Everyone in our community also looks forward to this season for my family to bring over paper bags full of peaches to share.
The land and humidity here in Texas are not always so unbearable. They bring forth the great fruits of quite enjoyable eating. Livestock, fruits, and vegetables all have a happy home grown in Texas. Any traveller will gorge with substantial delight in any of the unique culinary creations that all Texans should be proud of.
Tags: barbecue, bbq, beef, chicken, culinary, dining, eating, Food, livestock, Peaches, pork, produce, steak, Texas
Authentic Mexican Meals
Mexican cuisine is known for its colorful presentation and healthy qualities. Home to the Aztecs, Mayans and Zapotecs, Mexico developed a strong agricultural civilization early. They grew many foods like avocados, peppers, beans, corn, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash. They hunted for deer, turkey, rabbit, and quail. Chocolate is grown in Mexico, and was originally served as a drink to Aztec royalty.
When the Spanish arrived in Mexico, they brought their favorite foods with them. Pork, beef, cheese, and cream were added and combined with the native foods. The Spanish brought sheep, chickens, wheat, and sugar. Three hundred years later when Spain finally gave up control of Mexico, their influence on Mexican food was well established.
Corn is a major part of Mexican meals. Cornmeal, known as masa, is made into a dough that can be formed into tortillas, empanadas, or tamales. Corn is also added to soups, stews, and other dishes. Tortillas made of flour are more common in northern Mexico. Chili peppers are also a main part of the Mexican diet. Jalapenos, poblano, and Serrano chilies are just a few of the common choices in the Mexican household.
Another food source that is used daily in Mexico is beans. Different regions of Mexico have their own favorite beans, such as the black beans that are favored in the Yucatan. Beans are used to make frijoles, or refried beans or filling for tacos, burritos, and other favorites.
Beans are not the only food that is regional. In the hot, dry north, beef is eaten a lot because there is plenty of room for grazing. The Pacific coast offers excellent coffee and corn stew. On the Gulf coast, tropical fruits and vegetables are served with fish and seafood. The Spanish influence is very strong in Central Mexico, as this is where they settled. On the Yucatan Peninsula, seafood, eggs, black beans and corn are common food items.
When making a typical Mexican meal at home, there are many recipes you can try. Mexican chicken enchiladas recipe can be easily replicated at home, and it uses many of the most common ingredients found in Mexico. Once you have tried making them at home, you will see how tasty an authentic Mexican meal can be.
Try something new and experiment. Adding a different bean can change the texture or flavor to a dish. Add tortillas or refried beans as a side dish, or throw together some fresh seafood and citrus juice to make a cooling ceviche on a hot day. Mexican food is great for kids to make, too. Let them make their own quesadillas or tacos.
For something new, try a Mexican breakfast. In the summer, a simple bowl of mixed tropical fruit is an authentic choice. On a colder day, try some scrambled eggs mixed with salsa. Fill a tortilla with a fried egg, tomatoes, ham, chilies, and cheese and serve it up with some refried beans for a taste you will find exciting.
Tags: cooking, diet, eating, family, Food, food and drink, Health, Home, home and garden, lifestyles, mexican food, mexican recipes, recipe, recipes
Fried Chicken is Popular Worldwide
It seems like just about everyone loves fried chicken. Many cultures have their own recipe for the tender, crisp taste sensation that we all want. From the Far East to the United States, this delicious meal tempts almost everyone to take a bite.
Korean fried chicken is one of the newest forms to make its presence known in the United States. The lightly battered, delicate portions are very different from American chicken. Perfect cooking techniques result in a light crisp that is enhanced with a light painting of sauce. In Korea, the chickens are smaller, so they can get the same results with almost any part of the chicken, but the larger American birds make it difficult if not impossible to cook evenly. To compensate for this, boneless chicken can be cut up into smaller pieces or you can just use wings.
Japanese and Chinese chicken are prepared in a similar fashion, but they use different herbs and spices. Both cuisines prefer to use boneless chicken. For a Chinese flavor, use soy sauce or five-spice powder. For a Japanese flavor, you can use wasabi, sake, or ginger. You can choose to serve these crispy chicken bits plain or with a sauce, which can either be poured over the top or used for dipping. Orange chicken, almond chicken, and lemon chicken all use breaded fried chicken as the basis of the recipe.
Fried chicken in India is made by rubbing spices like turmeric, fennel and mustard seeds, black pepper and udad dal into the chicken and letting it marinate. Then each piece is dipped in egg white, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried in hot oil until crisp and golden.
As this shows, people all over the world like their fried chicken! Just by changing the ingredients in the marinade or the breading, you can come up with quite a world tour of chicken.
South American recipes feature ingredients like lime juice, corn flour or corn meal, hot sauce and garlic. To make it more Italian, use crushed red pepper, oregano, garlic, chili powder, onion powder, dry mustard and add salt and pepper to taste. Cook it in olive oil.
You can also try varying your cooking method to get a different result. Oven frying is lower in fat than deep-frying. You can still get tasty chicken with a crunch in the oven. If you use skinless chicken, be sure to marinate it beforehand in buttermilk to help maintain the juiciness. Add a coating of seasoned flour and you will get a nice crunchy coating that helps seal in the goodness. You will end up with a delicious low fat chicken dish that holds up well cold for a picnic as well as being wonderful right out of the oven.
You can also use the tried and true method of putting oil in a cast iron skillet for frying chicken. This method can make the simplest of breading tasty and keep the chicken moist. There is something about cooking the chicken in a cast iron skillet that makes it incredibly crisp and delicious while still cooking the interior completely. This is the traditional way used for generations of cooks before the advent of deep-frying.
Tags: chicken, chicken recipes, cooking, diet, eating, family, Food, food and drink, Health, Home, home and garden, lifestyles, recipe, recipes
Cooking with a Crockpot
Crockpots make it easy to come home to a delicious hot meal already waiting for you. Take a few minutes to fill up the crockpot before you leave in the morning and you’ll be rewarded with a meal that is easier than picking up take out at dinner time.
Tips for Using Your Crockpot
With a few easy tips, your crockpot can become the best appliance in your kitchen. First of all, never overfill your crockpot. If you fill it more than three-quarters full, your food will not cook properly. You also want to make sure it is at least half full. If you fill it less than that, your food will be overdone by dinnertime.
If you cook with fresh vegetables, be sure to put them on the bottom, beneath your meat. Surprisingly, they take longer, so if they are closer to the heat source your food will cook at the same rate. Frozen vegetables should be placed on top of your meat, since they need less time to cook.
You may want to try browning your meat before placing it in the crockpot. This renders fat and caramelizes the natural sugars in the meat, creating a delicious flavor. If you wish to deglaze the pan afterwards with broth, water, or wine, you can add these tasty drippings to your crockpot so you can enjoy them later. Removing extra fat and skin will also help your meat cook better.
Tomatoes, mushrooms, and other tender ingredients should be added towards the end of cooking. Dairy products should not go in earlier than the last 30 minutes. When adding dairy, make sure your crockpot is on low so they do not curdle. Thickeners like cornstarch can be added in the last hour. Be sure your temperature is on high to activate the thickening. Pasta and rice should be added only during the last 45 minutes so they do not turn to mush.
While cooking, try not to remove the lid. If you need to add more ingredients, add them all at once if possible to reduce losing heat from the crockpot. Every time you lift the lid, add another half hour to your cooking time.
Crockpot Recipes
These easy tips can help make your crockpot useful and versatile. You can make almost anything in the crockpot. Pulled pork with barbecue sauce is easy in the crockpot, as is Asian chicken. Stew and chili are old standbys for the crockpot, as is chicken soup. Vegetable dishes like creamed corn with cream cheese is delicious for a side dish.
Did you know you could even bake in your crockpot? It is true! Cakes, breads, and other baked desserts are simple to make in your crockpot. All you need is an insert pan. Crockpot cookery is easy and versatile. It can serve you well several nights a week.
Tags: cooking, diet, eating, family, Food, food and drink, Health, Home, home and garden, lifestyles, recipe, recipes, soup, soup recipes
How to Make the Best Tasting Stew Recipes
Stews are very popular, especially when the weather is cool, and you want something warming and tasty. A stew is a combination of solid foods, usually meat, or fish with vegetables that have been simmered or cooked slowly in a liquid sauce to allow the flavors to combine well. The sauce is served as well as its contents.
Popular ingredients to use in stew recipes include chicken, seafood, meat, potatoes, fish, beans, fruit, and carrots. You can use bouillon, water, beer, or wine in the stew liquid and seasonings give the dish more flavor.
Soup and Stew – What is the Difference?
Stewing is often used for cheap, tough meat cuts because stewing is the only way to make them tender. A stew has larger pieces of meat, fish, or vegetables than a soup and there is more of those and less liquid than you would get in a soup.
Stew is served as a main dish rather than as an appetizer and always contains chunky ingredients. Soup can be served as pureed liquid only without any bits in and is always served in a bowl or deep dish. A chunky stew can be served on a plate.
How to Add Flavor to a Stew
Meat, water, and vegetables cooked together will produce a stew but a very bland one, so it is helpful to know how to liven up your stew recipes and make them more delicious.
Stew is a very versatile dish and can work well with many different combinations of meat, vegetables, liquids, herbs, and spices. It is a good idea to season your stew meat with plenty of salt and pepper before searing them in a hot pan.
You can also roll the meat in flour to thicken up the dish. Check the meat is browned all over before adding it to the liquid, to stop it from drying out. This applies to other meats such as pork, lamb, and chicken.
The next thing to do is saut your vegetables before adding wine, water, broth, juice, or another liquid. You need to scrape the bottom of the pan to get any stuck on bits off and mix them into the liquid. This adds lots of flavor. Put the meat back into the pan with the vegetables and liquid and cook it slowly until the flavors are well combined and everything is tender.
It is a good idea to check your stew every fifteen minutes or so to see if it needs more seasoning or more liquid. When it is ready, you might like to add some lemon juice, parsley, crispy crumbled bacon or cider at the very end to brighten up the flavor. It is also a good idea to serve your stew with some warm bread to mop up the delicious juices.
It is fun to make stew and extremely simple too. Whether you want to make a traditional Irish stew or a Moroccan chicken stew, as long as you follow the above tips your stew should be very nice.
Tags: cooking, diet, eating, family, Food, food and drink, Health, Home, home and garden, lifestyles, recipe, recipes, soup, soup recipes
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cooking Fried Chicken
Fried chicken, also known as southern fried chicken, is a very popular food. There are many different recipes for fried chicken and you can cook it in various ways too. Deep frying is a common way to make fried chicken but you can also shallow fry it or even oven fry it, which is baking the chicken so it tastes like fried chicken but without the extra calories.
Fried Chicken Tips for Beginners
Do not worry if you have never made fried chicken before. There is a first time for everybody and frying chicken is not difficult. You have to be careful when handling raw chicken. Using hot soapy water to wash everything the raw chicken has come into contact with is important. In order to make a fried chicken recipe, you need to dip your chicken into a batter and fry it until it is golden brown on the outside and cooked all the way through.
One of the easiest ways to coat your chicken pieces is to use a Ziploc bag full of your dry ingredients and add a few chicken pieces at a time, shaking well to coat every piece well. Next, you dip them into your liquid batter then fry them. This method also cuts down on mess!
If you dredge the chicken pieces in flour, then into a milk and egg yolk mixture and finally into breadcrumbs, this makes a really crunchy and crispy coating.
Be careful when using hot oil for cooking. Never leave the oil unattended and keep your face away from it. Use tongs to place the chicken in the oil and to remove it when it is done. This stops spattering.
Different chicken parts cook at different rates so if you are using a variety of chicken pieces, you will need to start the thighs and legs first because these cook at 165 degrees F. Next add the breasts, turning the heat down to 160 degrees F and finally the wings which cook the fastest.
If your chicken is ready before the rest of the meal, do not panic. Just put some water in an oven dish and put some rolled up foil balls into it. Put a large piece of tin foil across the top, put the chicken on this, and cover everything with a lid. Keep it in a 175 degrees F oven until the rest of the meal has finished cooking. The foil works as a steamer, keeping the chicken moist and tender.
Serving Fried Chicken
There are lots of different side dishes that go well with a deep fried chicken recipe including French fries and corn on the cob or mashed potatoes with green beans.
If you are making party food, fried chicken is always a popular dish. Estimating how much food for a party is the right amount can be hard but make too much rather than too little because it is nice cold the following day. Serve mayonnaise, catsup, and other dips on the buffet table so people have something to dip their fried chicken into if they choose too.
Tags: chicken recipes, cooking, diet, eating, family, Food, food and drink, fried chicken, Health, Home, home and garden, lifestyles, recipe, recipes
A Vegetarian Restaurant Primer
Being a vegetarian is still something of a conversation killer even in today’s health conscious society. Expect your friends and family to react with some skepticism when you declare you’re to become a vegetarian for whatever reason, whether economic, health, animal rights, or religious. You may want to consider a vegetarian diet for improving and maintaining your physical, mental and spiritual health. It is unfortunate that while a healthy diet, there are certain nutrients that can only be obtained from animal produce.
You will probably be aware that putting your child on a vegetarian diet can greatly improve his or her health and limit the exposure to animal products that are often linked to hormones and preservatives. While a vegetarian diet is a healthy one, there are other issues to consider when placing a child on a vegetarian diet so some research is necessary.
A vegetarians diet with involves regular servings of fruit, vegetables and whole grains is known to be healthy. By adopting the vegetarian diet, many obese people could deal with the problem of too much protein and animal fat in their diet and increase the amount of fiber. Low amounts of Cholesterol and fat are two other advantages of a vegetarian diet.
The higher than usual amounts of fiber found in a vegetarian diet means that it doesn’t stay in your system for as long nor does it take as long for the food to be produced initially. History and archaeology has shown us that our ancestors hardly ever ate meat so being a vegetarian would be normal for us. Although a vegetarian option is usually on the menu in almost any Italian restaurant nowadays, it’s always a good idea to remind the server that you require a vegetarian option and whether or not you eat dairy products and eggs.
Medical research into the vegetarian diet highlights some interesting statistics. Of late, increasing numbers of people have switched to vegetarian meals – as scientific research has shown the adverse effects of animal meat. There is also, for instance, a 50% less chance that a vegetarian will develop heart disease. A large number of the population has decided to start a vegetarian diet during their life.
It is in America today where the health benefits of being a vegetarian would be most keenly noticed. Like all things in life, something worth doing that will benefit your health in the long term, is not necessarily the easiest thing to do. In the end though, you will be disappointed if you only consider a vegetarian diet as a replacement for meat.
Tags: cuisine, eating, Food, restaurant
A Blackberry and a Raspberry Walk Into A Bar
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were to cross a blackberry and a raspberry? The answer, which we have thanks to a couple of Scottish botanists, is the tayberry a large reddish purple berry.
Originally cultivated in 1962 by David Mason and David Jennings of the Scottish Crops Research Institute, Invergowrie, Scotland the tayberry is a wonderful cross-involving a raspberry and a blackberry. It is a summer berry usual baring fruit in the months of July and August and is rather delicious both cooked and eaten fresh of the cultivated shrub in the genus Rubus of the family Rosaceae.
It both tastes and smells just like a blackberry. Taking a bite into one, you may notice that there is a slight tart flavor to it. There is more then one way that you can enjoy this wonderful meticulously merged fruit.
Tayberries are perfect for a summer picnic basket or a late summer pie. If you are planning a picnic to your local park, tayberry jam and peanut butter sandwiches may be exactly what you have the taste for it makes a wonderful jam. Before heading to your picnic, you may want to prepare a tayberry pie the night before.
Try adding tayberries to a bowl of yogurt or ice cream, or incorporate them into fruit salads and smoothies for something a little different. In fact, you can use tayberries anywhere you would ordinarily use blackberries or raspberries. Tayberries are an exciting addition to your morning cereal, baked goods and of course, they are wonderful just eaten as they are – there’s no wrong answer to the question of how to enjoy these fruits.
Tayberries also make a delicious dessert wine. With a beautiful red color not unlike that of pinot noir, the wine has a sweet and sour taste which is very appealing and pairs well with meats, especially red meats and game. It also goes well with strong cheeses and is quite reasonable, usually costing about $15 a bottle.
Besides it’s one of a kind flavor, the tayberry also contains a lot of nutritional value. Tayberries are a good source of vitamin C, bioflavonoids, folate, and fiber. The tayberry fruit and leaves are also employed as a home remedy for diarrhea.
Tayberry leaves, like raspberry and blackberry leaves can be chewed as an effective home remedy for bleeding gums and a number of other ailments; in fact, the Scots have been using these leaves for 2,000 years!
Tayberry is a versatile fruit indeed, with applications from food to wine to home remedies. This is a new and different fruit, which you can use in many dishes. Tart, sweet, and absolutely delicious, the tayberry’s uses are limited only by your imagination.
Tags: cooking, dessert, dessert recipes, diet, eating, family, Food, food and drink, Health, Home, home and garden, lifestyles, recipe, recipes
pH Miracle Diet Basics
The pH Miracle diet it the latest and greatest diet on the horizon. Health experts are aware that new diets fade in and out of style. The 1990s saw the rise and fall of low-fat diets. The early 2000’s saw the rise and fall of low-carbohydrate diets such as The Atkins Diet, South Beach Diet, Protein Power and Sugarbusters. People will attempt a new diet after failing with their current one. A new diet on the rise is the pH Miracle Diet.
Turning completely away from the high-protein, low-carbohydrate diets of the immediate past, the pH Miracle Diet offers a new appeal. Robert Young took nutrition to another level and created the pH Miracle Diet which is also known as the Young Diet or the Alkaline Diet. Holisitic doctors and nutritionists seem to agree that this new diet looks at what the body actually needs and is well-balanced.
The human body has a bit of an alkaline pH. We know our body works at this pH, so it makes sense that any foods we ingest should also be slightly alkaline. Right now, most Americans ingest acidic foods, such as animal proteins, sugars, caffiene and other processed and packaged food. The acidity of these foods tamper with our body’s pH and cause problems in our body. The acidic foods change how our bodies handle alkaline minerals according to those who support the pH Miracle Diet. These minerals are sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium and can all correlate to chronic diseases.
This is the lynchpin of the pH Miracle Diet. The nutrition and health industry understands that the overall health of our body is affected by what a person ingests. While mainstream doctors as a whole promote well balanced diets including fruit, vegetables, meats and dairy; the pH miracle diet doesn’t stop there. The diet shows how eating acidic foods will steal minerals that your body needs. Followers of the pH Miracle Diet are saying no to foods that can harm their bodies and their lives.
The pH Miracle Diet avoids many common and popular foods. For instance, wheat and wheat products are prohibited on the diet. This may be surprising, because the FDA encourages us to eat whole wheat products as part of a healthy diet. But the pH Miracle Diet shows us that acidic grains like wheat, oats, millet and rice are dangerous. Alkaline grains, however, such as buckwheat, quinoa and spelt are beneficial to our bodies.
All meats and diary products are also probitied on the pH Miracle Diet. Goat milk, however, is ok as it is slightly alkaline. Other protein sources can be found in beans, tofu, nuts and seeds. Most vegetables, except mushrooms, are also encouraged because they are alkaline. Fruits that are acceptable are coconut, grapefruit, lemon and lime.
According to people who have tried the pH Miracle diet, you will feel beneficial effects on your health within the first two to three weeks of starting the diet. Regardless of if you follow this specific diet, eating less processed foods and more vegetable is good for your health. This has actually been a criticism of the pH Miracle Diet. Those against this diet claim that for those who already eat healthy and drink a lot of water, no future gains can be had from the diet. They are not taking into account the balance of acid and alkaline in the body.
It is true that as of yet, there are no scientific findings to back up the theories of the pH Miracle Diet. Many traditional doctors will not support the diet either. The diet’s principles are founded on Chinese and holistic medicine dating back centuries. These principles are being studied now at Johns Hopkins University and by Dr. Neil Solomon with the United Nations. When the findings are released, critics of the pH Miracle Diet may have to assess their position on the diet and it’s scientific theory.
Tags: diet, dieting, eating, Fitness, weight loss
