I've run across several recipes lately that have called for "beaten" or "thin" chicken breasts. I've even had a number of stuffed chicken breast recipes, but have avoided them because pounding chicken breasts is such a messy, loud, and icky business. I was talking to one of my daughters about this, and she came up with a unique solution that uses gallon zippered storage … [Read more...]
Keeping a ham from drying out while cooking
The biggest trick to keeping a ham from drying out is to keep it securely covered in foil for the majority of the cooking. I prefer to cook my ham on a roasting pan that separates the meet from the drippings in the pan. Most recipes call for the ham to sit directly on the pan, but I've found that this creates a situation where part of the ham is too moist and part of it is too … [Read more...]
Kitchen Gadgets – Sunbeam Heritage Hand Mixer
I used to be a firm believer that anything that couldn't be mixed by hand wasn't worth mixing. I figured you could use a fork or maybe a spoon to mix up the stiffest cookie dough. A fork or whisk could handle the eggs that needed to be beaten. And if worst came to worst, you could mix the really tough stuff (like meatloaf) with your hands. But I've finally come around and … [Read more...]
Christmas Day 2013
We're having a different kind of Christmas at the Hectic Household this year. Instead of having our big family meal (60-120 folks depending on the year), we're only going to have our immediate family here for the meal on Christmas day (10 of us this year, including Hectic Grandma). We'll have the larger meal on Saturday the 28th. This modification in our annual routine made … [Read more...]
Draining Ground Beef
Buying ground beef is like rolling dice. If you don't know what you're doing, the results won't mean anything to you. Once you've bought your ground beef, the most common next step in cooking it is to brown it. While that's not really that hard, the next step is one that often gets overlooked...draining away the fat. If you don't drain the fat, not only is it less healthy, but … [Read more...]