Cooking with more consciousness.

The person whose job it is to prepare the food for the household (or group) has a very important duty to the health of the family or group.
It is not merely a situation of cooking for compliments, but the cook is the family (group) pharmacist behind the scene.
Food maketh the man.
The person who cooks for his/her family can do much to relieve stress, obesity and other ailments. If you love your family, you will love to see them healthy and happy.
A conscious chef will not only cook the food that his/her family (or group) likes, but will prepare it in such a way that it is not only pleasing to the eye but feeds body mind and spirit.
Food preparation is a science and not merely plonking food on a plate to fill tummies.

How to use your juicer (The gadget that extracts juice from raw food.)

More about the juicer.

Please note that I am not going to write about citrus squeezers which are also referred to as juicers.
People often get confused about the difference between a juicer and a blender.
One would put fluid-like or mushy food into a blender (Not a juicer). If the food is too dry some extra fluid needs to be added.
A blender simply mashes and chops everything up into a pulp depending on what you put into it.
A juicer on the other hand will remove the fluid from the food so that you can drink it.
It may be a good idea to do some research on the various types of juicers before buying one.
Personally it does not worry me too much, because I only put edible stuff in my juicer;
What it does not turn into juice, I eat for extra fiber in my diet. Nothing gets wasted.
Some juicers are easier to clean than other, but not much. Some of the juicers that brag about separating the pulp into its own little compartment only have an extra part to clean in the end. You will need to remove the blades and strainer to clean it before you store it again, anyway.
Mushy stuff does not go into a juicer (food hat can be mashed with a fork) like banana or avocado. You will not get any juice out of them. It is better to use your blender for mushy stuff. You can add a little milk, cream, ice-cream, yogurt or water to it if you want to drink it.
If you are going to do a lot of juicing perhaps you need to look at the bigger, stronger models. Find out for how long it is guaranteed. Perhaps that is an indication of how soon you may be experiencing problems.
I still have some research to do on juicers. I have only tested two models so far and both were middle of the range ones. It is my intention to contact some suppliers and find out if they want me to test some of their appliances. It is just a thought. I am not sure if I am going to do it.
I bought my first juicer twenty years ago and it is still going well. Yes, I have two juicers because Hubby bought me another juicer to replace my blender; that is why I decided to write about the different appliances. The fact that my juicer is over twenty years old is possibly an indication of how often I juice things.
One of my friends still had pitch black hair at the age sixty four. When I last saw her she was seeking medical advice to lower her libido. She used to juice a selection of herbs and vegetables from her garden every day and she kept her yogurt jar in the fridge door. When she only had a tablespoon of yoghurt left, she just filled her yogurt jar with fresh milk and put it into the yogurt maker overnight. She always had honey and nuts at hand, which she purchased from the local market. You guessed, she is vegetarian.
Carrot and apple juice are two juicing favorites. Just remember that people who eat too many carrots turn yellow. That’s true. You can tell some of the health fanatics by their hollow eyes and yellow skins. One needs a balance in whatever one does; Even eating healthy. I have seen more than one fruitarian turning completely bananas.
I do not worry about the taste of the juice I make. I just drink it down for health then savor the pulp by mixing it with yogurt, honey, nuts or muesli or something nice.
Some foods that can be juiced raw are:
Fruit:

• Apple - remove core (and the skin?)

• Apricot, peach pear, quince (remove pip (and skin?)

• Coconut

• Gooseberry, strawberry, raspberry

• Grape (remove seeds?)

• Pineapple (remove outer skin)

• Mango (remove pip and skin)

• Papaya, watermelon (remove skin and pips)

Any salad vegetables can be used: (Just put the parts of the food you like to eat into the juicer)

• Alfalfa, Aloe Vera, Asparagus, Beet, Broccoli, Brussels, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celery, Chives, Corn, Cucumber, Dandelion Leaves, Eggplant, Endives, Fennel, Garlic, Ginger, kale, Kohlrabi, Lentils and other sprouts, Lettuce, Mung Beans, Mustard, Onions, Peppers, Radishes, any herbs, Spinach, Nettle, Zucchini.

In other words use any raw salad herbs and vegetables.
Cooked and mushy foods are blended rather than juiced. (Use your blender and not your juicer)
Skins and pips you do not use can go into the compost. Perhaps I shall post about compost making at a later date.
Remember if you are not going to eat the pulp, you do not have to remove the skins from most fruit or vegetables unless it is bitter.

If you want to make nice juices, here are some recipes:

• Recipe links:

• The juice book

• Life-tips

• Detox

• Juicing book

Electric mixer, blender, food processor, juicer or grinder?

As promised, here is a bit more information about the different kitchen gadgets:

Electric mixer, blender, food processor, juicer or grinder

Electric mixer,
Mixes ingredients and is mostly used when baking cakes
Meat mincer. Pushes food through a sieve to make minced meat or fruit.

Blender (liquidizer),
A blender mashes food into a pulp and is mostly used for making drinks or soups.
The stick blender.
This works the same way as the blender but you plunge the stick into the food instead of putting the food into the blender. blender.

Food processor,
A food processor is a gadget with sharp and blunt blades to chop food finely, make breadcrumbs or kneads dough.

Juicer

A juicer will extract fluid from food, mostly vegetables and leaves the non fluid portion of the food as a pulp which can be eaten separately.
A citrus juicer is a glorified lemon or orange squeezer.

Grinder
A grinder is used for grinding and spices and coffee beans. It is the most time saving device and replaces the old mortal and pestle.

I shall post more details about each gadget in due course.

Most two most useful items in thee kitchen are the stick blender and the humble hand whisk.
Every new housewife should have those.

Cooking by intuition.

There was a time when man was naturally as intuitive as some animals are today.
Man developed his mental capacity at the expense of his intuitive nature.
Perhaps it is the historical attitude of men towards woman that lead to humankind loosing this gift because women are naturally more intuitive.

Before I explain how to tap into your intuitive nature, you need to remember that the organ in control is always your brain and common sense.
The ability to tune into intuition is not supposed to turn you into a robot.

Who have the ability to use this method?
Mostly woman and people who are well grounded; Men are often too critical and logical to allow themselves to tap into their intuition. The brain can override intuition.

So for people who know about radionics, this is no secret. (Using a pendulum)
There I am loosing at least the interest of half of the readers.

My belief of how this works is that the earth is a big magnet that keeps within its magnetic field an accumulative memory of all the thoughts and happenings that takes place (Past and future).

Man can truly not have one thought or experience that does not become part of this memory bank that influences the destiny of humanity.
How does it fit into cooking?

One can turn one’s own body into a pendulum to give answers.

My belief is that the information you can subtract from the collective consciousness, requires seed thoughts that are already into your mind.

Remember – let common sense prevail. Do not pour a cup of salt into the stew if your common sense indicates it is wrong.
Perhaps you are just not grounded enough to tune in and it is better to use a recipe if you get such stupid inspirations.

Before I tell you how to turn yourself into a pendulum, remember if you want to bake fruit cake, for instance, first read through a few recipes to get the general idea of how to bake one. Build up your ‘seed thought bank’ on the topic.
I even sometimes ask: “what shall I cook for my husband tonight that he will enjoy the most?” and then suggest a few meal choices and see when I get a positive result. I don’t think I ever made the wrong choice.

As I said before, if you are the mental type, it may not work for you.

METHOD:

• Relax while standing straight.

• Clear your mind from dominant thoughts and just tune into the moment.

• Imagine there is a string that attaches you to heaven and run through you into the centre of the earth.

• Relax until you can feel yourself lightly swaying on the currents of this imaginary string.

TESTING

• Now put the question into your mind (ask) for a YES response and feel your body sensation.

• Now ask for a NO response and compare the sensation.

Do it a few times until you are sure of your yes’s and no’s.
For me YES simply records on the front of my body and NO at the back.

Once you know how to do this, you can ask about what vitamins to use or buy and all sorts of other handy frivolous information.

QUESTIONING

• Remember your answer depends on your seed bank of knowledge, so be informed.

• You can only ask YES or NO questions.

You can not ask: “Do I use apples or pears?”
You must ask: “Do I use apples?”
“Do I use pears?”
If you get yes for both then you ask: “Do I use both together”
If the answer is no then ask: “Do I use either?”

So the answer would have been, in many cases, the same as your common sense would have told you that it does not mater which one you use.

• Use the pendulum method only when your common sense lets you down.

Most men will say if you know so much about something, why you have to tune in.
That is the attitude that may have resulted in humanity loosing this art.

This method I find is most useful when I have to decide between two ingredients or quantities in times when my brain lets me down.

Well, there it is: Cooking by intuition. I don’t know of anyone else who COOKS BY INTUITION like this so let me know how you get on.

Cooking fresh spinach

To cook fresh spinach, dump the drained spinach into a pot. Leaving only the water clinging to the leaves from its wash, cover the pot and cook for 3-5 minutes. Spinach is a delicate leaf that cooks rapidly. If it is overcooked, it loses its tenderness and sweet flavor. It gains only in toughness and slime.

Read more

more ideas

Making Yoghurt

My friend in Australia used to make her own yogurt every night for the next day.


Here is a blog post relating to yogurt making:
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/dining/15curi.html?_r=1&ref=dining)



To make yogurt, first choose your starter yogurt. If no one offers you an heirloom, I recommend one of the ubiquitous global brands, sweeteners and stabilizers included. They tend to have very active bacterial cultures, including EPS producers, and the additives end up diluted to insignificant levels. Delicious specialty yogurts make less predictable starters.

Then choose your milk. I prefer the flavor and consistency of yogurt made from whole milk. Many types of reduced-fat milk replace the fat with milk solids, including acid-producing lactose, and make a harsher tasting yogurt. Soy milk sets into a custardy curd that becomes very thin when stirred.

Heat the fresh milk at 180 to 190 degrees, or to the point that it’s steaming and beginning to form bubbles. The heat alters the milk’s whey proteins and helps create a finer, denser consistency.

Let the milk cool to around 115 to 120 degrees, somewhere between very warm and hot. For each quart of milk, stir in two tablespoons of yogurt, either store-bought or from your last batch, thinning it first with a little of the milk.

Then put the milk in a warm jar or container or an insulated bottle, cover it, and keep the milk still and warm until it sets, usually in about four hours. I simply swaddle my quart jar in several kitchen towels. You can also put the container in an oven with the light bulb on.

MORE

Carrot Muffins Recipe

This recipe is based on a recipe from "Joy of Baking" who gives the best muffin baking advice.

They write that the pitfall with all muffin batters is in over mixing the batter and ending up with a tough muffin.

Only mix the batter until the ingredients are combined and moistened. (A few flecks of flour are fine.)

To make the job easier, plus to give the baked muffins a nice doomed shape, use an ice cream scoop or two spoons to fill the muffin cups.

If you want standard sized muffins, only fill the muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. However, if you like your muffins with a crown, fill the cups to the top. Just make sure to grease the top of the muffin pan so that as the batter overflows it does not stick to the top of the pan.

Fill any unfilled muffin cups with a little water to ensure even baking as well as preventing the pan from warping.



Recipe:

1/2 cup (50 grams) pecans or walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

2 cups (270 grams) grated raw carrot (about 2-3 peeled carrots)

1 large apple, peeled and grated

2 cups (280 grams) Wholemeal flour

1 1/4 cups (250 grams) white or brown (not carmlized) sugar

3/4 teaspoon bicarb (baking soda)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (3.5 grams) salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 cup coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)

3 large eggs

3/4 cup (180 ml) safflower or canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract


The muffins do not need a frosting, but if you have a sweet tooth you can use the following topping:


Cream Cheese Frosting:

1/4 cup (56 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

4 ounces (1/2 cup) (110 grams) cream cheese, room temperature

3 tablespoons icing sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

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METHOD



Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place rack in center of oven.
Prepare muffin pans by placing paper liners in 18 muffin cups.
"Spray-n-cook" the lot if you have aerosol cooking oil avalible.

Toast the pecans or walnuts for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and fragrant.
Do not overcook.
Let cool and then chop coarsely.

Peel and finely grate the carrots and apple. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and ground cinnamon. Stir in the nuts and coconut. Set aside.

In a separate bowl whisk together the eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. Fold the wet ingredients, along with the grated carrot and apple, into the flour mixture, stirring just until moistened.

Evenly divide the batter between the prepared muffin cups and bake for 20 - 25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack.

After about 10 minutes remove the muffins from the pans and cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

Makes 18 standard-sized muffins.

This muffin was based on a similar recipe from JoyOfBaking: http://www.joyofbaking.com/CarrotMuffins.html#ixzz0Hls3dx9x&C

get more recipes here:
Read more: http://www.joyofbaking.com/CarrotMuffins.html#ixzz0HlsgaBG0&C

My other blog:
http://grannyrosa.iblog.co.za/

Easter Recipes

Click to view:

EASTER COOKING
(more links)

HOT CROSS BUNS
(more links)

How to cook rice ( beginner )

The cop-out way to cook rice is to place rice into a saucepan with a lot of water and a teaspoon of salt and boil it rapidly until soft. Then drain, add a blop of butter and extra salt - if needed and serve.
A lot of vitamins are lost cooking it this way and the rice needs to be watched closely so that it does not burn.

Here are the methods described on the Tastic rice wrapper

COOKING METHODS

Follow the recommended cookinq method for perfect rice every time:

• 250 ml Tastic Rice, uncooked 1 cup)

• 625 ml Water (2 1/2 cups)

• 3-5 ml Salt (1/2 -1 tsp)

Serves 4-6

STOVE

• • Place the Tastic Rice, water and salt in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

• • Cover with lid and reduce heat.

• • Allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes until the water has been absorbed and the rice is tender, separate, fluffy and white

MICROWAVE

• • Place Tastic Rice, water and salt in a microwaveable dish.

• • Microwave on a medium/high setting for 20 - 25 minutes.

• • Remove from the microwave and allow to stand until all the water has been absorbed.

FOR SOFTER OR FIRMER RICE

• • For SOFTER rice, increase water by 125 ml (1/2 cup) and simmer for an additional five minutes.

• • For FIRMER rice, use less water and simmer for a shorter time.

Visit the "Home of Rice"

All about Cooking with Turkey

Since I do not believe in trying to re-invent the wheel, I decided to just post links to how to cook the turkey.

Here in South Africa we never used to cooked turkey for Christmas in the old days. We used to eat meat during the week, because meat was cheap and chicken on Sundays and special occasions. The first time I got into the turkey for Christmas spirit, was when I lived in England in the seventies. We had turkey for Christmas and turkey and ham sandwiches until New Year.

That was then

This year I stuffed my turkey using (fried onion, chicken livers, bacon, salt to taste, mixed herbs and rice par boiled with canned tomatoes. I first cooked the rice with the canned tomatoes then I added the other ingredients prior to stuffing the bird.

It tasted quite nice)

Here are a few ways with Turkey.

Roast Turkey

Roast Turkey 2

Roasting a turkey 3

Classic Turkey Roast 4

preparing a turkey in the webber

Roasting times for whole turkeys

Turkey Tips and Cooking Times

How to Cook A Thanksgiving Turkey On A Charcoal Grill

How to make the stuffing

Different ways to cook turkey

More Hints?

What to do with Turkey Leftovers

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Preparing for Christmas fruitcake Baking day (absolute beginners)

The day before:

• Finding the recipe

• Buying the ingredients

• Finding or borrowing the baking pans

• Soaking the fruit

Baking day:

• I photocopy my recipe in big print and stick it on the fridge for easy referral

• Dress Comfortable. Use an apron if you have it. Flour has a way of getting onto ones clothes

• Clean the kitchen and clear the sink and working surfaces.

It is best to wash the dirty utensils immediately. One can get oneself tied in knots when one allow the dishes to pile up.

Preparing the work space

• Make sure your workspace is big enough.

• A plastic sheet over an ironing board can increase the work surface if you live in a caravan or small flat.

Oven and Pans

• Turn oven on take butter from freezer

• Prepare the baking pans and line them with wax paper or tin foil.

If you inherited old pans from granny, it is better to line them with tinfoil to cover rust spots or to prevent them from rusting.

• Get extra baking utensils and edible ingredients for little Mary or Johnny and space for them to make a mess where they will not bother you too much.

Final touches

• Measure out all the ingredients and group them in order of need.

• Put on your favorite relaxing music if you do not have a little Mary or Johnny,

• Make a cup of coffee or pour some of that fruit-soaking alcohol that is left over into a glass and have a sip now and again.

Follow the recipe.

My very late Christmas Fruitcake.

Don't need to read another word - Just go directly to the recipe and start baking

SOS

My Christmas cake was so nice, and we had visitors so we ate it.

Not to worry. This cake can be eaten immediately. The longer one leaves it (and feed it a bit of booze now and again) the nicer it is though, but it can be eaten almost immediately.

I prefer light fruit cakes so it does not matter if I bake late.

Regardless of the method of preparing the fruit in a fruitcake recipe,

I substitute it for my own, which is:

• Soak the fruit in brandy overnight,

• Drain as much of the brandy off just prior to baking

(The brandy is set aside for casual sipping during the baking process or adding to the wet ingredients later.)

• Pat the fruit dry and coat th fruit some of the sifted flour so that the cake mixture easier embraces the fruit.

(One can say I marry the fruit with the flour)

• If this is too messy, I just add a little of the sifted flour to the brandy and fruit mix first.

The reason for this is to get the fruit evenly distributed throughout the cake and not all the fruit doing breaststrokes at the top of the cake, or lazing around at the bottom.

When I choose a recipe I use my own dried fruit and nut mixtures as long as the combined weight is the same as the combined weight of fruit in the recipe.

I do the same with the nuts if I am going to use it.

I do not soak the nuts in brandy, though.

I choose the freshest ingredients and real butter for my very expensive Christmas cake, but many people will have to use what is cheapest this year.

Luckily for me, my husband is still working and Christmas cake time coincides with bonus month time, so I can splash out a bit.

• If the recipes I use do not make allowance for alcohol, I simply reduce the amount of fluid in the recipe.

Even people who do not take alcohol normally may add it to cooking.

The heat process used during cooking is supposed to destroy the active alcohol ingredient in fruitcakes. So they say, but watch out for my cake. I "skelmpies" feed it brandy or sherry so by Christmas time my cake is a swaying alcoholic.

We may no longer drink and drive so at least let the cake enjoy itself.

Something has to consume the booze.

Mind you, that is now another can of worms, come to think about it.

One does not want one of our guests to fail the Breathalyzer test because he/she ate a slice of my Christmas cake.

Perhaps I will bake alcohol free kiddies and drivers cake also and put a big warning sign on my alcoholic cake.

"Do not eat and drive" a doggy bag is recommended.

This particular cake is beboozled."

Happy late baking

Follow the link to the recipe