Appliance Holiday Cooking Tips

       Don’t think of a holiday meal as a one-day cooking project that will only take a few hours to cook. Be prepared and start in advance. Our advise to you is to Prep, Prep, Prep!

       Start a couple of days ahead of time. Plan what you are going to make way in advance, make your grocery list a week before the event, and start getting some of your items ready just a few days before the big holiday feast. Here are some helpful tips of things that you can do with your appliances to make it easier for you on those big important holiday meals.

Refrigerator

       About a week in advance, clean out your refrigerator. The best time to do this is right before you go grocery shopping. This will make it easier for you because all of the things that you do have will be fresh in your mind.

       Make sure to start unthawing your turkey about 4-5 days before the feast. That big turkey will take a lot of room in your refrigerator, so utilize your refrigerator's special features like the extra shelves, airtight crisper drawers, herb storage, or the adjustable fridge freezer compartment. If you still find yourself not having enough storage space, utilize a second refrigerator stored in the garage or basement.

       A few days in advance, you can start cutting your produce and store them in air tight containers in your refrigerator.

       You can organize your refrigerator by putting the ingredients that take the longest to cook in the front of your refrigerator. The things that take the least amount of time to cook can be stored in the back of your fridge.

Range

       Preheating your oven can sometimes be a struggle. A great tip for preheating your turkey is to have the temperature at about 500 degrees Fahrenheit while it's preheating and then lower it back to the cooking temperature at around 350 degrees Fahrenheit when you put your turkey in. Because the turkey is so big and cold, it sometimes can shock your oven and make the temperature decrease even as low as 90 degrees Fahrenheit making cooking times even longer. So to avoid longer cooking times, make sure your oven is at the right temperature at the beginning.

       On the day of cooking, more burners can be a blessing on a busy day in the kitchen.  If you can, consider adding an induction cook top to your Kitchen. What I like about induction cooking is there’s no flame, so you’re keeping the surface area cool making it safer making sure none of the kids or guests get hurt. It’s going to be more efficient than gas, and it can be as precise. If you want to melt chocolate, it can set it at 78-79 degrees. It’s more about the precision temperature than anything else. Of course, if you use induction cooking, you’ll need cookware made from cast iron or another magnetic material.

       Some ranges have a fifth burner in the middle and/ or a griddle on gas burners. The griddle is nice because you can just place some of your food directly on the surface without using pans. As an extra bonus your meat and veggies can have those nice grill marks on them to make them look like you grilled them outside.

       At the bottom of most ranges is a warming drawer. Utilize this space for big meals by placing bread in there to rise the dough before you cook it and keep it warm after they are done.

Microwave

       A week before your event, make sure to clean inside and outside of your microwave. This appliance is sometimes the thing that we forget about during the holidays. None of your guests want to open up a dirty microwave.

       A microwave oven is made for a Thanksgiving feast! Microwave ovens use the precision of convection cooking with an element and fan the distribute the heat better. This speeds up cooking times three times faster than conventional microwave cooking.

Dishwasher

       About a week before your holiday feast, clean your dishwasher. Use an Affresh dishwasher cleaner tablet and have your dishwasher run a cycle with no dishes in it. This cleaning product will take out any mineral build-up and will clean inside of the machine making it work more effectively.

       Make sure that your dishwasher is completely empty at the beginning of the day of your feast. That way it is ready for new dishes.

       On the day of, pre-wash your dishes while you are cooking by filling half of your sink with hot soapy water. Once they have soaked for a little bit, place them in your dishwasher.

       If you have a quiet dishwasher (a sound rating of about 46 dba or lower) will make your life so much easier on event day. Once everyone is done eating and you load up your dishwasher, you can run it while mingling with your guests. It is so quiet, no one will even know that it's running.

       With these tips, you will be ready to tackle the challenge of cooking for 10 plus people. You can always have helpers in the kitchen and remember to have fun!

Learn How to Make Heavenly Crab Cakes

Chef Mark is here to teach you a few tricks to make perfect sauteed crab cakes. Use your cooktop or range to cook this recipe in a skillet. There are some great techniques to help you make your patty into a cylinder looking patty. Chef Mark also goes into details about how to saute your crab cakes instead of frying them. This is a healthier option that still gets that golden brown crispness that you want.




Here are the ingredients that are used in this video:

• Old Bay Seasoning
• Lemon
• Sauteed Onions 
• Sauteed Green Peppers
• Crab Meat
• Panko Bread Crumbs
• Mayonnaise
• Mint Parsley

What other food items do you want to learn how to cook better? Leave it in the comments section.

My Favorite Rib recipe (and I’ve tried many)

During the fall, there are still some really nice days and evenings that will make you want to go outside and grill. Here is one great recipe on the grill during fall.

I lived in Hawaii for about 5 years and probably the best thing I got out of living there was this recipe from a Hawaiian guy I knew.

I start out with 3 racks of pork ribs usually from Costco and I cut them out individually

Next I boil them in a stock pot for 2 hours.  I’ve heard this dries them out but I have not found that to be true. After that I rinse them off of any cooked rib debris.

I then marinate them about 24 hours or more if you like but I haven’t noticed a difference after 24 hours. Then I heat my grill up to about 400 degrees and then grill to caramelize them, I look for a dark red and small sections of black to know it’s done.

The marinade is the key

1.5 cups sugar

1.5 cups soy sauce

1.5 cups ketchup

.5 cup lemon juice

.5 cup oyster sauce

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1Tbsp dry mustard

If you are looking to spice it up I recommend red pepper flakes.  I tried siracha and it totally ruined the taste of the marinade.  I’ve tried many variations of this but nothing beats the original.

Ceramic Cookware 101

Last Christmas, my husband gave me a beautiful set of ceramic-coated cookware. Unlike Teflon or other types of traditional non-stick cookware, ceramic coating is much safer and healthier, not to mention heat- and scratch-resistant. After trying out my new pots and pans I was thrilled to see that they were every bit as nonstick as my old cookware set, with none of the unpleasant side-effects (Teflon-sprinkled eggs, anyone?) Here’s a helpful guide to get you the most use and highest performance out of your ceramic pots and pans:

Before the First Use:

Unlike traditional skillets and frying pans, it is not necessary to “season” your ceramic cookware with oil. It is, however, good practice to wash your new pots and pans in warm, soapy water and wipe dry with a paper towel. This will remove any leftover ceramic dust particles from manufacturing. Once it’s washed, it’s ready to go!

Use Proper Utensils:

Make sure to always use only wooden, silicone or plastic utensils when stirring or serving the contents of your cookware. Metal whisks, spatulas or spoons can leave scratch marks on the surface of the cookware. Though ceramic coating is more scratch-resistant than other nonstick surfaces, it is not entirely immune to scratches or gouges, so it’s best to stick with the safer utensils.

Skip the Cooking Spray:

Here’s one I didn’t know at first. Cooking sprays can cause a buildup of residue on your ceramic cookware, so use a tiny bit of oil or butter to coat the inside of the pan when you cook instead. The amount of oil or butter you have to use is so insignificant it will hardly add any calories to what you are cooking, and it will help the coating last longer.

Avoid High Heat:

Though ceramic cookware is heat-resistant, it performs best on low or medium heat settings. Because ceramics distribute heat effectively, foods will be cooked more evenly and quickly on low to medium heat. On the other hand, high heat can cause the food to stick, which can damage or discolor the surfaces of the pots and pans.

How to Clean Ceramic Cookware:

A year has come and gone and those pots and pans get put to use in the kitchen almost every day. Needless to say, they’re no longer as sparkly and white as they were out of the box. Luckily, washing ceramic cookware is easier than washing other types of nonstick pots and pans. Ceramic cookware should always be hand-washed in warm soapy water and a soft, non-abrasive sponge or scrubber. Soak pots and pans in hot water for 30 minutes prior to washing to make cleaning burnt food from pans easier. If you want to get your ceramic-coated cookware back to its original gleaming state, periodically give them a good deep cleaning to remove stains, buildup and discoloration. To do this, soak the pot or pan in hot, soapy water and wash with a non-abrasive sponge as usual. Then sprinkle a liberal amount of baking soda to the affected areas and let stand for 20 minutes. Using a plastic dish brush, scrub the pot or pan in circular motions until stains have lifted, then rinse with warm water and dry with a clean towel.