HOME | POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI/TECH | OPEDS | HELPFUL TIPS
|
May 24, 2005 Here are some cooking tips I've accumulated over the years – most will probably make Julia Child turn in her grave, but hey, they are real-world tested and kid-approved, so to those experts I say, “expert-shmexpert!” Here they are, in no particular order – these are meant for fast and cheap “cooking”, for the most part: That left over sour cream you bought for Mexican night is about to go bad, so mix it with sugar until good and sweet and then pour over cut fresh fruit. Even my picky kids will eat it. If you smother apple slices nice and good, it prevents them from going brown and the salad will keep longer. It's not what I would call a low-fat food, but it's nutritious. To make a quick lunch and ensure that the young kids will actually eat the bread too, spread a thin layer of mayo and then ketchup on a slice. Next, sprinkle with cheese and lay a hot-dog in the middle; nuke until done. Then, roll or fold each one up (depends highly on the bread), allowing the melted cheese to stick the whole bit together. To make almost any leftover a real quick meal, place a small portion (anything, even spaghetti with meat sauce) onto the middle of a tortilla – the bigger the tortilla the better. Sprinkle with cheese. With practice, you can fold it nice and neat so that it makes a burrito and you can often therefore serve the dish as finger food (no silverware to wash). Nuke until the cheese melts and holds it together, of course. It's 5:45 and you've spent the dinner-prep time writing an article for UK. You have some quick protein, but no starch side dish. You ran out of potato flakes, pasta, and instant rice, and real rice takes a good half hour. Simply take some Ramen “noodle” packages and turn into a side dish! Add one cup of water for each package. Once boiling, add the “noodles” and boil for 3 minutes – no need to drain (remember to break the “noodles” apart inside the package first). Then, add half of the seasoning packets. For example, add one and a half packets and use three cups of water for three packages of “noodles” and remember, MSG is our friend ;) It makes a nice and thick, pasta-like side dish that kids love entirely too much. The left over seasoning packets make great gravy seasoning. This method is better than their directions for making it “thick”, because they have you cook as normal, then drain the liquid; this wastes energy and time (as there is twice the water to boil), as well as seasoning. A quick and dirty variation on the theme above when in a lunch rush is to mix a can or two of tuna and some cheese with the Ramen “noodles” – add when it's done and nice and hot. Add fresh fruit on the side, and lunch is done. An equally fast lunch is using Ramen “noodles” again as a side dish – while waiting for the water to boil, stick a pack of hot dogs in the microwave – a whole pack, still in the packaging. Nuke 'till good and hot, remove and carefully cut a slit, vent, and then pull them out, and don't forget to plop a plop of ketchup on the plates for dipping. If you are out of spaghetti sauce, a can of crushed tomatoes makes a nice substitute – it already has about the right thickness for a sauce. Add garlic powder, some salt, and dump a generous amount of Italian Seasoning in – simmer for 20 minutes for the flavors to mix. It actually makes a rather tasty sauce. If you are out of meat, cocktail shrimp (or any shrimp) in the sauce work pretty nicely. If you want to go all out, first fry the shrimp in garlic and olive oil before adding the can of crushed tomatoes. This is actually a healthy dish, and one of my favorites. My kids are really picky about vegetables – they hate beans, except the sweet kind. Adding some brown sugar to non-sweet beans often quickly remedies this. Being an amateur cook, I often find myself making everything into a gravy, so I use a lot of flour. Cooking down a cheap bag of beans into a paste is a good and healthy substitute as a thickener; leftover paste freezes just fine too. A bag of dry, non-fat milk, is a great and cheap thing to have around. While most kids cannot be fooled into drinking it straight, sometimes, it works with cereal, and it most certainly works to add to boxes of mac and cheese, pudding, and any baking that asks for milk. Pitchers of the stuff mixed with chocolate powder fools them as well. Often, when a gallon milk is about out, I dump the rest into a pitcher and add the water and dry-milk mix. I then add chocolate powder, mix, and then pour back into the gallon – this not only helps fool older kids, it also allows you to easily shake the gallon to remix the chocolate if it starts to seperate. A box of Jiffy Muffin Mix is a cheap way to make a quick desert. No need to buy muffin cups either, just lightly spray each cup in the muffin tin with oil. You can take a cheap piece of meat (chicken, beef or pork, with bone or without) and make a good meal from it. First, cut off as much fat as possible. If the meat is very thick, cut it in half if possible – this saves frying time. Next, cut up a few onions into thick sloppy slices and do the same for some fresh potatoes – wash them, but keep the skin on. Next, sprinkle the meat with seasoning – except salt – this dries it out. Paprika for color, garlic powder, etc. Then, turn the oven on to 425, and add some olive oil to a pan. Quickly, and on high heat, fry each side of the meat – enough to color it, but not enough to really cook it – just a few minutes total at most for a thick chunk, and 30 seconds per side for thin slices. In an oven safe, coverable container, add a good cup of hot water, some more of the seasoning you put on the meat along with something salty, soy sauce or a left-over seasoning packet from a package of Ramen “noodles” (dry Lipton soup mixes work well too), and the secret ingredient – vinegar. I prefer red wine vinegar – just a tad – lemon juice works too – no more than two table-spoons. Next, toss in the onion slices, then the meat and cover with the potatoes. Stick it in the oven for a good long time, an hour or two. Once done, you will have tasty, tender meat in a stew-like state. Of course, all manner of other veggies can be added, most notably carrots. We happen to have access to a good supply of deer meat – it's often tough but the above recipe makes it taste as yummy as beef. Finally, with a bit of mayo, anything becomes a play off of tuna salad. The basic salad is mayo, tuna and eggs. Add pees and/or corn for veggies and cooked, drained and cooled pasta, or add cooled rice. Pasta is a favorite – cook the eggs and the pasta together to save time. Before you begin cooking the pasta/eggs, place the cans of tuna in the freezer. Rinse the pasta and eggs in cold water to cool them. At this point, your tuna should be cold, and you have an almost instant cold salad – perfect for a summer dinner. Cooling the eggs as soon as they are done makes peeling them a breeze as well. If you are out of tuna, don't sweat it. Tuna salad without tuna becomes egg salad. A can of salmon works instead of tuna – anything works – even sardines (though your kids may not like it). Leftover ham, cubed small, will do the trick, as will bacon – even that meat we love to hate, spam, will work. In all cases, adding horse radish and/or strong mustard and/or salt and pepper gives it more of an adult flair. For the kids, skip the spices and use Miracle Whip (or store brand Whipped Salad Dressing) instead of real mayo. Most of these ideas are meant to be cheap, fast, and made with stuff most of us have around the house – use sparingly – some are not too high on the health-chart ;) Keep an eye out for a future article, where I show how to cook and bake anything in your microwave. Surprisingly, cooking with the microwave doesn't always save time, but it is much less hassle. ------------ About the author Frederick Smith: I enjoy writing about the positive virtues of humanism - humanists are the good guys. Email: dahlek65@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
