Tips For Healthy And Fun Family Mealtimes!

Are you one of those people who can’t cook to save your life? Have you burned water or spilled an entire carton of milk? Don’t worry — cooking is easy, and this article is here to show you how! Read on to find out simple tips to help you cook better!

Throw a hassle-free dinner party. If you have company coming for dinner, cook a signature dish that you are comfortable preparing. This way you won’t have any disasters in the kitchen. Prepare as much as you can in advance, so that you can spend time with your guests prior to eating.

Add salt when boiling pasta. Not only does it shorten the cooking time by increasing the temperature of the water, it also adds great flavor and keeps the pasta from tasting bland. A general rule is to add one and a half tablespoons of salt to each pound of pasta.

Don’t use pre-made vinaigrettes. Homemade vinaigrettes have far fewer ingredients and are much better tasting that the bottled ones that you find at the supermarket. You do not need to use a whisk when you make them, but you do need to shake all the ingredients together in a sealed container.

When making stocks, make them in large quantities and store the extra stock in your freezer in plastic bags. This is very convenient and will save a huge amount of time when cooking future recipes. All you will have to do is grab the bag of stock from the freezer and thaw it.

When you are boiling rice, pasta, or vegetables it is very important that you salt the boiling water before placing the food in the pot. This helps the salt absorb, and it will taste better than if you add salt to the food after it has already been cooked.

Go easy on the herbs and spices. Do not over-season your foods. Spices and herbs are meant to compliment your food, not overpower it. Try with the least amount, and add more only after you have tasted the effect of a small amount. Too much seasoning can easily be worse than not enough.

When you are baking in the oven and some of the food splashes into the bottom of the oven save yourself time on using over cleaner. After removing the food from the oven coat the spot of the spill with salt. The food will lift right off of the bottom once cool.

If you are in the process of chopping up a lot of herbs for one of your recipes you should try putting a little salt on your cutting board before you get started. That will stop the herbs from flying all over the place and making a very big mess.

For perfect hard-boiled eggs, follow these simple rules. One, the pot should be big enough that the eggs do not touch. Two, bring water just deep enough to cover the eggs to a boil. Three, add each egg with a spoon to the boiling water, so it doesn’t crack. Four, boil eight minutes. Five, run eggs under cold water.

Don’t get caught out when entertaining. If you are entertaining 8 or more people, aim to serve four different kinds of hors d’oeuvres. Each from one of the following categories: fish or shellfish, meat, vegetables and cheese. Bite-sized pieces are ideal, with the exception of veggies for dipping. When figuring out the amount of hors d’oeuvres, try to offer 6 pieces per person per hour.

Choose fresh mozzarella cheese. Most mozzarella available at the grocery store is American part-skim, primarily intended for pizza or lasagna. A much more tasty variety is mozzarella fresca, which is a whole-milk cheese, or mozzarella di bufala (buffalo mozzarella). Use these types of mozzarella sliced in salad, or as a simple snack with roma tomatoes and basil leaves on toasted focaccia bread.

As you can see, cooking isn’t so difficult as you might have made it out to be. As long as you stick with simple recipes and follow the simple tips laid out in this article, you’ll be cooking like a pro and saving yourself money on food in no time.