French Foods We Love And They're Easy To Prepare

Written Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 by Theresa H Hall

August is another memorable month celebrating great foods. How very thoughtful of the French to have bequeathed to us some impressively beautiful dishes to enjoy. Here are three that are being honored this week! They include three cooking methods for you to try: baking, frying and grilling.

August 11th is National Raspberry Tart Day.

August 12th is National Julienne Fries Day.

August 13th is National Filet Mignon Day.

I have searched for some good videos to show you how to prepare these three delicious foods.

Click the name to watch the How-To Videos.

Give them a try ... Bon Appetit!

April Bakers

Written Sunday, April 3rd, 2011 by Theresa H Hall

I read that the first Monday of April marks the start of National Bake Week. Baking is the most traditional and fundamental way of preparing food. It may be achieved by using open coals, a wood-burning fire, a campfire, a pizza oven, a deck oven, a carousel oven, a spit, a pit, a double-decker oven, earthen rocks built up to enclose a fire, a fireplace, a dutch-oven, a crock-pot and inside aluminum foil. Baking is done by intensely hot and dry heat over a prolonged time.

Down through the centuries, men and women have chosen a variety of ingredients and given them a new spin, just by baking them. It is one of the best ways to cook and add flavor to a dish or a meal. Because most of the time wet and dry ingredients are mixed together, there is a chemical reaction, a complexity of hot air sculpting those ingredients into a newly molded food. After it is baked it has taken on a whole new persona. The end results are always pleasant.

The other side of baking is roasting meats, poultry, fish and vegetables. You don't need to do much. A little seasoning, put it into the oven, and it turns into something so luscious. Imagine being the first person to discover fire. I think everyone can be glad of that!

Many cooks use their ovens on a daily basis. When an oven is calibrated correctly, and always allowed to preheat to the proper temperature beforehand, the oven produces dependable baked products that are usually perfectly cooked. Ovenware is also considered not only as a container, but as a conductor of heat. Again, it helps provide even heating and also helps shape the food into a certain form. Sometimes when cooking with dark colored bake-ware, stoneware, or glass bake-ware, the temperature of the oven should be 25º lower than what a recipe calls for. One way to decide on correct baking utensils is to feel the weight in your hands. If it feels sort of light it could have a tendency to bake unevenly, resulting in a dish's being overcooked, very dry, or even burned. In such cases you would do well to double your pans, or use a cookie sheet  beneath. A lot of times it is necessary to double pan for cookies, biscotti, and scones, too.

So, this is the week to pull out those muffin tins, spring-form pans, cake pans and roasters. Do a bit of practicing on some new recipes, and then fix the ones you like the best over the upcoming weeks. You'll be sure to have some fun and enjoy tasting all of your hard work. Do leave a comment about what you are baking this week. Baking is one of life's pleasures!

Here is the link to our member's baked goods recipes. Be sure to try one.

Hot Mocha Souffle

Written Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 by Theresa H Hall

This is a delicious chocolate dessert and I found it in the cookbook "Desserts & After Dinner Treats". They provide you step-by-step instructions and I did mention the book before. You cannot go wrong with a souffle, and you'll gain the admiration of your dinner guests. You'll want to do this on a day you have the extra time * to devote to making it.

Hot Mocha Souffle

* Preparation time: 25 minutes. Total cooking time: 45 minutes. Serves: 4-6

1 Tbsp caster sugar

40 grams butter

2 Tbsp plain flour

3/4 cup milk

1 Tbsp instant expresso-style coffee powder

! Tbso hot water

2 Tbsp caster sugar, extra

100 grams dark chocolate, melted

4 eggs, separated

Dusting at end with 10X sugar

Preheat Oven to 180º C

1) Brush a 5-cup capacity souffle dish with oil or melted butter. Sprinkle sugar in dish, turn dish to coat base and sides evenly; shake out excess. Wrap a double thickness of baking paper around dish to sit 3 centimeters above rim; tie securely with string.

2) Melt the butter in a medium pan, add flour. Stir over low heat for 2 minutes or until the mixture is lightly golden. Add milk, gradually to pan, stirring between each addition until mixture is smooth.

3) Stir constantly over medium heat until the mixture boils and thickens. Boil for another minute, then remove from heat. Dissolve the coffee powder in hot water, add to the milk mixture with sugar, melted chocolate and egg yolks; beat until smooth.

4) Using electric beaters, beat the egg whites in a clean, dry mixing bowl until stiff peaks form. Using a metal spoon, fold one third of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture to soften it slightly. Gently fold in the remaining egg whites. Spoon the mixture into the prepared souffle dish. Bake for 40 minutes, until souffle is well risen and just firm to the touch. Remove from oven, remove the collar from dish. Dust souffle with 10X sugar and serve immediately.

Storage time: Souffle is best made just before serving time.

ISBN: 978-0681020580 These instructional cookbook series is available at your local Borders Bookstores and are about $5.00.

Cranberry Tea Bread

Written Sunday, May 30th, 2010 by Theresa H Hall

This is one of the recipes we prepared in culinary school. Quick and easy it is, to combine the ingredients and put it into to bake. By the time your dinner is on the table, the bread will be ready to eat, hot out of the oven, as dessert. Add some ice cream on the side or top it with freshly whipped cream. Either way, it will be a huge and delicious hit.

Quick Breads/ Cranberry Tea Bread

Batter:

6 1/2 oz butter

5 oz sugar

2 large eggs

2 T orange zest

1 t almond extract

1 T orange juice

7 oz A. P. flour

1/2 t baking soda

3 oz buttermilk

1/2 c dried cranberries

1/2 c raw almonds chopped

10 X glaze with flavoring if desired

Instructions:

1) Cream butter and sugar.

2) Add eggs one at a time.

3) Add the juice and then the zest and almond extract.  Blend together.

4) in a separate bowl sift the flour and baking soda.  Add 1/3 to the batter.

5) Add 1/3 buttermilk, mix. More flour, more milk, until blended.

6) Fold in fruit and nuts.

Pour into greased loaf pans; 1 large or 3 small pans.

Bake 45 to 50 minutes for large and 25 minutes for smaller loaves. Make sure cake tester comes out clean. You may glaze if you wish.  Cool on rack.

Freeze a couple of weeks wrapped in plastic wrap.  Shelf life is only a few days.

Member Recipe: Scones

Written Thursday, November 19th, 2009 by Anne Coleman

I've had a lot of scones in my life. In fact, before I began blogging I was on a quest to own as many books about tea as I could. Now, I don't mean just tea The Drink, I mean tea The Meal. If you hail from any of the civilized countries that serve daily tea, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

With all of those tea cookbooks comes a lot of scone recipes. I tried many, many of them and consumed even more from tea shops, bakeries and bake sales, but there was not one that comes even close to as good as the scones posted by Blogcatalog here at Half Hour Meals.

It's rather diffiult to sit here and write about them when I'd rather be back in the kitchen eating them; therefore I'm forced to make this short. Please do give these a try, you will not be disappointed and I'm very happy, after trying a plethora of recipes and ingesting probably thousands of scones, to have found just the right one - the recipe I'll turn to each and every time from now on.

Enjoy!

Scones
Blogcatalog

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Sugar
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
6 tablespoons butter, room temperature & cut into one inch cubes
1 beaten egg
1 cup sour cream
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon water

Preparation

* Preheat oven to 400 degrees
* Lightly grease a cookie sheet
* Mix dry ingredients together
* Add cup of butter
* Add beaten egg and cream
* Blend all ingredients together very quickly
* Pat out on a lightly floured surface
* Cut into 2-inch circles with a cookie cutter or juice glass
* Place on a cookie sheet and brush tops with egg wash
* Bake for 10 to 15 minutes

For egg wash mix 1 egg yolk with tablespoon of water.