Cut Lemons Lengthwise to Get More Juice
Posted: May 19, 2013 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a comment »
From Lifehacker
When you need lemon juice for a recipe, nothing beats fresh-squeezed, but it’s always a struggle to coax a lot of juice out of the fruit. As it turns out, the secret is to cut the lemon lengthwise.
Ian Knauer at Gourmet demonstrated this surprising trick by cutting two lemons, one lengthwise, and one the “normal” way, across its equator. He then juiced the lemons, and found that the one cut lengthwise yielded him nearly three times as much juice. For added juice, he also recommends warming the lemon up in the microwave for a few seconds if it’s coming from your fridge. Once it’s warm, be sure to give it a firm roll on the counter too before you cut. Lemons cut the “wrong” way might work a little better with a handheld reamer, but if you’re using a citrus juicer, or just squeezing by hand, there aren’t any downsides to cutting lengthwise. Click through the source link to check out the video.
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12 Lifesaving Canning Rules
Posted: April 27, 2013 Filed under: Gardening, Going Green; How and Why..., In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's | Tags: canning, Gardening Leave a comment »If you can your garden bounty and especially if you are new to canning this could be handy.
Canning rules to keep your food safe from Modern survival blog will give you tips you need to can safely.
One thing I didn’t know was that you can’t do raw pack for stewed tomatoes. Good thing I haven’t done it yet but I probably would have if I was worried about losing a whole lot of ripe tomatoes. Good info.
photo credit modernsurvivalblog.com
http://modernsurvivalblog.com/survival-kitchen/12-lifesaving-canning-rules/
Nutrition For Life Seminar
Posted: February 10, 2013 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's | Tags: #Nutrition, Paleo Leave a comment »
NEWS FLASH; There is no such thing as “bad” cholesterol!
Posted: November 2, 2012 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health, In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a comment »For cooking;
or 
?
Butter, beef fat or olive oil?
Someone pasted something today on Facebook telling us we should eat more apples, as the help the body to not absorb bad cholesterol.
BUT, there is no such thing as bad cholesterol!
This is a very very important distinction! Understanding this can mean the difference between health or illness, life and death.
There’s no such thing as BAD cholesterol. Cholesterol is your best friend as all biological functions depend on it;
- Lowers risk of heart disease and helps elevate HDL’s, and lowers LDL”s.
- Saturated fats are crucial to help the body build bone density and the absorption of calcium.
- Saturated fats and the depth of vitamins they contain help us build and repair an immune system.
- Saturated fats are crucial in brain development, brain function and is the best anti-depressant there is.
- aids in hormone production.
- Is crucial for the absorption of all vitamins and minerals.
So, we know that we need cholesterol, which comes from animal products, proteins contain fat, butter, coconut oil, beef and chicken fats, duck fat..all great for cooking with! The reason these foods are great to cook with is because they are not harmed by heat, they are stable fats when heated and/or exposed to oxygen. They also contain high amounts of Vitamin D, one of the nutrients crucial to the health of your immune system.
On the other hand; vegetable oils are greatly harmed by heat and oxygen. They are liquid at room temperature and ANY heat above 120 degrees renders them HIGHLY carcinogenic. They are rancid almost from the moment they are removed from the foods they in which they naturally occur. This causes high free radical production in the body AND because these oils thickened when heated they cause sticky blood lipids. This is a MAJOR problem when we ingest them because they cause sticky blood lipids. THIS is what causes our cholesterol to clump together, causing blockages, heart disease and strokes.
Avoid heated vegetable oils and gluten containing foods and get plenty of healthy organic saturated fats to keep this from occurring and to help heal.
Cooking Time-Wasters You Should Toss in the Garbage Bowl
Posted: June 13, 2012 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's 1 Comment »I agree with all of these except the dishwashing method; I wash by hand in two dishpans, pour the water used on my flowers or on the compost.
We do plenty of stupid things in the kitchen, including things that seem smart or helpful, but really just waste our time and make cooking and cleaning up more annoying than it needs to be. Here’s a list of kitchen time-wasters you should stop doing right now.
Cooking Too Little, Too Often: Cook larger meals like soups and stews in a crock pot or on the weekend, and pack enough away as leftovers so you don’t have to spend time cooking when you don’t want to. Check out our tips on healthy eating for people who hate cooking for more time-saving suggestions anyone—even people who love to cook—can use.
Fetishizing Manual Work and Ignoring Useful Kitchen Gear: When we asked Mark Bittman for his cooking tips, he warned against spending too much time chopping and dicing, and not embracing some kitchen workhorses—like the mandoline slicer and immersion blender—that can make cooking easier, faster, and more fun. Speaking of essential kitchen gear, check out this list of budget kitchen upgrades.
Washing Your Meat in the Sink Before Cooking: The USDA says there’s no point in rinsing meat before cooking it. However you plan to cook your meat, if you’re cooking to the appropriate internal temperature, anything on the outside will be long dead, whether your meat is headed for a searing hot pan or the oven. Rinsing meat does one thing though: it washes all of the bacteria off of the meat and all over your sink, raising the risk of cross contamination. Now excuse me, I’m off to wash down my sink.
Using Dull Blades: Dull knives are more dangerous in the kitchen than sharp ones, but they’re also more time consuming to use. Struggling to slice vegetables before you cook, sawing at meats and bread after you cook, it all adds up to precious wasted prep and eating time that could trim down the time you spend in the kitchen. Please, for time and safety’s sake, hone your knives regularly.
Millie; I use a Spyderco for sharpening my knives, easy to use, gets the angles perfect and is as well designed object as I have found…hats of to the developer!
Hand-Washing Your Dishes Before Putting Them In The Dishwasher: Not only does pre-washing dishes waste water and energy; it wastes time. Most modern dishwashers are designed to handle the tough, caked on ick all over your pots and pans, so unless you enjoy hand washing, rinse them off, wipe, and toss right in the dishwasher.
Ignoring Simple, Time-Saving Skills: The few seconds it takes to master many kitchen skills can save countless minutes in your cooking. Some favorites include:
- Use a Two-Bowl Method for Easy Kitchen Cleanup
- Peel a head of garlic in 10 seconds with two bowls
- Keep canned soups from sticking in the can with a knife
- Get the most juice from a citrus fruit
- Make spice kits for faster, more flavorful cooking
- Core a head of iceberg lettuce in three seconds flat
Sprinkle Salt While Chopping Garlic to Keep It From Sticking to Your Knife
Posted: June 13, 2012 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's 1 Comment »From Lifehacker
When you start chopping garlic or any other vegetable that gets a little tacky when it’s sliced, a little salt on your cutting board is all it takes to keep it from sticking to your knife while you dice. Plus, keeping the garlic on the cutting board means a more even, fine dice with less effort, and some cooks will tell you the salt helps extract the oils from the garlic as well, boosting the flavor of the dish you add it to.
Dessert Tasting at Green Man Gourmet June 16th
Posted: June 11, 2012 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's Leave a comment »
Please join me at Green Man Gourmet in Avondale on Saturday, June 16th for Tasting of Gluten and Lactose Free Desserts from 1:00 to 4:00 PM.
These luscious desserts are healthy and taste amazing! You would never guess they are gluten and lactose free!
Green Man Gourmet is one of Jacksonville’s best gourmet retail establishments. The range of salt’s alone will wow you along with a wonderful array of herbs, spices, teas, wines, beers and gourmet foods.
Green Man Gourmet
7 Common Grilled Chicken Mistakes
Posted: May 29, 2012 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's 2 Comments »And 10 Awesome Recipes!
Photograph by Marcus Nilsson
From Bon Appetit
Even though it’s a cookout classic, chicken can be tough to get right on the grill. How do you know when it’s done? When should you slather on sauce? What temperature should you cook it at? We consulted the good people of the BA Test Kitchen for solutions to the most common mistakes people make. Read on to crown yourself the king or queen of chicken on barbie. –Danielle Walsh
Not Starting with a Good Bird
It should be antibiotic and hormone free at the very least. If the yardstrutter was raised right, then chances are that it will taste good.
Forgetting the Seasoning
Make sure you sprinkle it with salt and pepper before you throw it on the grill.
Cooking it at Too High a Temperature
If you cook the chicken on too hot a grill, the skin will burn before the flesh cooks. Medium-low is the best temperature on a charcoal grill, and medium on a gas grill. This way, you’ll crisp the skin and avoid flare-ups.
Drying Out Skinless, Boneless Chicken
Dark meat on the bone is more flavorful and will stay juicier on the grill. But if you’re cooking skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cook them on medium for a charcoal grill and medium high for a gas grill. Just watch it carefully and take it off a minute before it’s cooked through (the heat will carry-over the cooking as it rests).
Not Keeping an Eye On It
You’ll notice as you cook that some areas on your grill brown the food faster than others. You have to move the chicken around and turn it until the pieces are cooked evenly. You can tell the cool spots by putting your hand over the grill. It’s also ideal to set up for a two-zone fire (on a charcoal grill, push coals over to one side, or on a gas grill, keep one burner turned off) so there’s a definite cool area to move the chicken to if the skin is cooking too fast before the flesh is finished.
Not Using a Meat Thermometer
It’s the most precise way of telling if the chicken is done. The perfect internal temperature is 165 degrees for dark meat, 160 degrees for white. If you don’t have an instant-read thermometer, you can always do a little cut into the middle to check that it’s just about opaque in the center. With bone-in pieces, if you insert a small knife to the bone and juices run clear, you are good. If they are still pink, let it go a little longer.
Slathering On the Sauce Too Soon
Baste last! Apply any sugary glazes towards the end of cooking. Put it on too soon and it will burn.
–Hunter Lewis and Janet McCracken
Now get grillin’. HERE are ten of our favorite grilled chicken recipes.
Eating Organic Economically; How I Eat and Cook all Week
Posted: May 23, 2012 Filed under: Food and it's Impact on Our Health, In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's 2 Comments »
People tell me all the time that eating organically is too expensive. This is simply not true. Most people buy and use a lot of convenience and packaged foods nowadays. Americans eat out an average of 3 times a week. 30% of our meals are eaten in cars.
Then there are the doctor bills that come from eating poor quality food.
There are many way to eat healthy and avoid these financial and health issues;
1) If you cannot afford to eat 100% organic then eat organic those foods that have the most impact on your health- buy all meat and fats organic. This will give you the most nutrients for your money.
2) Begin container gardening; it’s easy, inexpensive and with a few months you can be harvesting. I can eat baby lettuce 2 weeks after planting! In 6 months you will see a huge difference in your grocery bills.
Below is a game plan for how I keep my grocery bills down and meet all of my caloric and nutrient needs. It shows how I plan and manage my week so that time and money are saved.
Here is my shopping list. Note that there arte almost no packaged foods. I make everything from scratch. An organic chicken costs me about 11.00 to 12.00 dollars and gives me 4 meals and bones to make stocks and fat to cook in! FOUR organic chicken breasts cost about 8.00 dollars, quite a difference.
1 whole organic chicken 9.00
1 pound grass-fed hamburger 7.99
18 eggs- Grassroots- 3.99
1 pound turkey bacon 5.79
½ pound salmon 4.99
1 pound raw butter 10.00
1 pound carrots 2.99
3 large onions 3.25 *
¾ pound coffee 7.99
3 beefsteak tomatoes 2.00 *
Garlic bulb .30 *
2 limes .99
2 lemons 1.10
3 green peppers bell peppers 2.99 *
1 bag celery 1.99
1 pint blueberries 3.99
1 bunch kale 3.99 *
3 large sweet potatoes 2.99 *
74.34~ grocery cost
17.52 minus the items I grow
52.82
The items with an asterisk are the things I grow in sub-irrigated containers; I used 5 gallon buckets, soil, perlite and made sub-irrigated containers. Growing from seed is cheap.
If you have a backyard, or a deck for container gardening, or grow lights indoors, you can save further in ways that processed food eaters can’t: Almost all year I grow salad greens, herbs, braising greens of some kind and cucumbers and tomatoes. (The salad herbs oregano, thyme, mint, basil, cilantro and parsley never quit here in any season!)
Items I make myself; almond butter made in the Champion juicer, coconut milk yogurt, mayonnaise, salad dressings. These things are very inexpensive to make, very easy to do…not much labor.
Starting on the day I shop, here’s how I eat and cook all week, very simply, but extremely healthy.
First Night; I roast a whole chicken by rubbing butter all over it, salt and peppering it, maybe some garlic or lemon juice and zest. Then roast it for 30 minutes on 450°. Then turn the oven down to 300° and bake for 30 minutes. Now turn the oven back up to 400° and roast that bird just 165°, checking for temp in the thickest part of the breast, not hitting the bone. Save the pan drippings for cooking, save the carcass for stock. Here’s a link to making stock-
That is dinner the first night; a leg and thigh and some breast meat, pour pan drippings over it, using fat and gelatin in roasting pan. With some sautéed peppers and onions and a few slices of ripe tomato, here’s a great dinner.
Breakfast is usually 2 eggs, fried in butter or coconut oil, 3 slices of turkey bacon, some coconut milk yogurt and a handful of blueberries. And 6 ounces of Turkish coffee, ground and brewed each morning. Some mornings I have Ezekiel bread.
Lunch is usually whatever I’ve had for dinner the night before, or an Ezekiel bread sandwich, with meat, fresh olive oil mayonnaise, or almond butter. Maybe Ezekiel with almond butter and sauerkraut, toasted. Usually a cup of meat stock and/or coconut milk yogurt.
Second night; take the rest of the meat off of the chicken, make stock. Have a great chicken soup that night, add sautéed celery, carrots, bay leaf. Maybe some kale sautéed in chicken fat, some gelatin from chicken pan drippings, onions, mushrooms. Sliced tomatoes.
Third night; 1/3 pound hamburger patty, sautéed onions and peppers, 8 ounces chicken stock, sliced tomatoes, coconut milk yogurt.
Fourth night; fresh salmon with dill, Dijon and fresh lemon juice, sautéed peppers, mushrooms and onions, sliced tomatoes. A cup of chicken stock.
Fifth night; Chicken meat prepared however you want, sautéed kale, ½ sweet potato, sautéed mushrooms. Coconut milk Crème Brule and a few blueberries.
Sixth night; 1/3 pound hamburger patty, pan gravy, ½ sweet potato with butter, kale with onions.
Seventh Night; Rest of hamburger with peppers, onions, tomato, salsa, avocado and fresh corn tortilla.
Shop again, or have leftovers, or breakfast for dinner.
Extras I buy if I can afford them; cherries, plantains to fry, dark chocolate, steaks, roasts, Ezekiel bread, wine.
Things I always have in the kitchen; raw butter, Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil and their coconut cream (to use in recipes that call for heavy cream or for decadent desserts) Dijon mustard, olives, herbs and spices, an array of vinegars, olive oil, sesame oil, masa harina, coconut oil, lemons, limes, Kava tea, organic coffee, Yerba Mate Tea, quinoa, rice, teff, coconut and tapioca flours, coconut milk, curry sauces, olives.
Bear in mind that this is a very basic dinner menu, showing how to meet all of your calorie and nutrient needs affordably. These dinners reflect basic eating, by adding other ingredients I can get real fancy, and I do at times.
Coconut Flour – Something Different to Bake With
Posted: May 20, 2012 Filed under: In The Kitchen with Millie- How To's 2 Comments »
Coconut flour is a great gluten-free alternative flour. I’ve been baking with coconut flour for several years, mainly because of its low-carbohydrate nature. Plus, I’ve enjoyed the creativity others have put into developing tasty recipes. Besides being a nice alternative to wheat flour, coconut flour has many benefits.
- Low in carbohydrates
- High in fiber
- Rich in protein
- Very filling
Keep in mind that since coconut flour is not grain based and contains no gluten, it does not perform like wheat flour. Because coconut flour is very absorbent, only small amounts are used. Sifting coconut flour is a good idea because it tends to clump. And lastly, coconut flour is dry so any recipe you see will require lots of eggs.
I have bought coconut flour at Whole Foods but I’ve found it less expensive to order online.
Tropical Traditions – they also have hundreds of recipes using coconut flour
Sweet Recipes
Coconut Flour Bread from Nourished Kitchen
Strawberry Muffins with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Coconut Flour Cake from Nourished Kitchen
Miscellaneous coconut flour recipes
