Eating out can sometimes be boring /expensive, if its done all the time, but how about if someone  can only microwave boxed dinners/ frozen pizzas? By the way I’m not against boxed dinners/frozen dinners. It doesn’t matter how many recipes & cookbooks you have/use, the actual cooking can be challenging, unless you watch a demonstration. Thanks to iFood Tv website, you can now enjoy over 100 free video recipes prepared by superstar chefs Niall Harbison and Pieter Plaetinck at the comfort of your home.

You will learn easy to use cooking tips that produce incredible results. The site also can be a good way of networking whether you are an excellent chef or a beginner. You can build a profile, post your own cooking videos, see what other members are cooking, participate in cooking competition, challenge the iFood Tv Chefs, and lastly get rid of your receipes & cookbooks that already collecting dust at the corner of your house.

via Josh Spear 

Lately I’ve been really freaked out by Teflon pans. Which I realize isn’t something that keeps most people up at nights, but I’ve been reading lots about the potential health risks of being exposed to PFOA (the chemical that gives Teflon that fabulous nonstickiness). PFOA is “the most persistent synthetic chemical known to man,” according to Environmental Working Group senior scientist Tim Kropp, who notes that “it would take your body two decades to get rid of 95 percent of it, assuming you are not exposed to any more. But you are.” And while we’re not yet sure how harmful PFOA might be to humans, the Environmental Working Group reports that overheated empty nonstick pans can produce toxins that are lethal to pet birds.

For a safer alternative to Teflon, many health experts suggest using cast iron pans, such as the Lodge Chef’s Cast Iron Skillet selected by Brian Preston Campbell. “With regular use, these inexpensive pans become almost as nonstick as Teflon (without the health concerns),” says Brian. “Care for them properly and they will last several lifetimes.” Mata agrees that “cast iron is the original non-stick cookware once you season it properly. These pans are inexpensive, good conductors of heat and last forever.” Alex Jamieson also cooks with a Lodge cast iron skillet and even points out that “I personally think that Teflon and other nonstick surfaces should be banned.” And Dorinda Lindberg advises going for the pre-seasoned Lodge skillet so that “you won’t have to go through the multiple steps of seasoning one. With care and use, the pan will have the same qualities as a Teflon pan that costs 3 times as much!”

...continued: Stick it to ya

Hey, we’ve all heard the rap about how hemp is the most flexible (and underused) natural material in the world.  The green people at ThisNext have a rival candidate to consider: bamboo. That single tag alone yields a truly amazing array of enviable objects, all made from bamboo.  We’re talking flooring, tableware, kitchen tools, fishing gear, furniture, shirts, and jewelry.  Let’s take a peek…

...continued: Bamboo-a-rama on ThisNext

Once again we have a food blogging meme that’s a shopcast in the making. The exceedingly prolific Cate from Sweetnicks wanted to know just what kitchen tool food bloggers everywhere simply could not live without. Food bloggers love their tools, and now we have a comprehensive shopping list to punch into turn into a super shopcast, with everything from microplane graters to ice cream scoops to food processors to Kitchenaid stand mixers, not to mention a selection of knives and the all-important oven mitts to go with those dual ovens we all wish we had.

Le sigh … I thought I was all stocked up, and now there’s a whole new universe of things I didn’t even know I needed. That is, until Cate and her cadre showed me the way. 

 “I would like to see a world where permaculture, green building, energy-efficiency, gardening, eco-groovy crafting, art, thrifting, environmental sustainability, and social justice are normal, everyday stuff,” says mimulus of Greenjewls.  “I want a world where healthy children can grow up to inherit a healthy planet.” And sustainability often means finding the perfect piece of equipment, investing in it, and even celebrating it…like the Aeternum Ellipse Pressure Cooker. 

“In the beginning I used it rarely,” she says, “scared off by mom’ s horror stories of exploding bean pots and terrified of the hiss. But the last few years it has become one of my favorite kitchen tools.  With the ohsawa pot and pressure cooker you can have great brown rice in 20 minutes…a few more minutes for steam fluffing, and presoaked beans take 10-15 minutes. Cooking with these tools vastly reduces the amount of natural gas/and or electricity needed to cook food. Pressure cooking helps to tenderize cheap cuts of meat and cuts down on the amount of time in the kitchen.”   As good as all this is, Greenjewls wishes there was an even cheaper way to go, but “unfortunately I have never seen a good pressure cooker at the thrift. This is definitely one tool that is worth the splurge.”

What, you haven’t been to the Emerald Market yet? It’s a great on-line green market, filled with mindful picks from the familiar to the brand spankin’ new…like this olivewood coffee bean scoop made by a loose collective of woodcarvers in and around Nairobi, Kenya. Beautiful, handmade, eco-friendly products of every kind…right here.

I love fish, shellfish and pretty much anything that comes from the sea. And so thanks to a hot tip from Brys at Cookthink, I am going to swim my way forthwith to purchase a copy of James Peterson’s Fish & Shellfish, so I can indulge my pescetarian ways. Peterson’s books are always extremely erudite and clear, so this is no doubt one of the definitive tomes on fish cookery.

We’re all about the accessories that make the everyday better. Why just roast a chicken in the oven when you can seal it into a heat-radiating chicken brick? The clay pot absorbs heat from the oven, then radiates it evenly internally to your chicken (or whatever else you’d like), while trapping in moisture and flavor. Boy, when they called their site 101 Things Every Cook Should Cook, they weren’t kidding.

Yesterday would have been the birthday of the arguably the most influential figure in home cooking in America, Julia Child. Such an event could not go unnoticed by the food blogosphere, of course. So Lisa of Champaign Taste put out the clarion call for bloggers everywhere to make and post their favorite recipes from one (or more) of Julia’s cookbooks. A dozen bloggers total took heed. The net result is a recipe for one massive birthday feast for the grande dame of lovers of food and cooking everywhere. Bon appétit!

It happens even to the best of us. You’re happily cooking along, everything seems to be going just fine, and then somehow, something goes horribly, terribly awry. What happened?

Remember that in Chinese the words for “crisis” and “opportunity” use the same characters. Kitchen F#!% Ups is where one experienced food blogger can post the things she’s less than proud of, to help others learn from her errors. And learn we shall.

If you pine for the days of yore, when meals involved creamed this or jellied that, check out the mid-century modern marvels at Retro Food. Featuring mainly recipes from The Modern Family Cookbook, this site will give you a glimpse into the culinary life of the Eisenhower era. Just slap on your A-line dress, a frilled apron and your June Cleaver pearls, and you’re ready to make magic in your brand-new All Electric Kitchen ® .

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. Handmade pasta is one of life’s sublime pleasures, and when it’s made with your own two mitts, your guests can taste the love. Barbara at You Gonna Eat All That? broke out her Atlas pasta maker to whip up some tender  linguini. Sure, you could invest in the mechanized version yourself, but we think the hand-crank version does wonders for the pasta’s texture and your handshake.

The problem with eggs is you can’t see inside them until you crack them open. (We suppose that is sort of the point.) So getting that perfect soft-boiled egg, or a hard-boiled egg that hasn’t gone all hard and green around  the yolk is more art than science. Supermarket Guru tells us of eggs soon to hit the market in the UK that have a temperature-sensitive dye that tells you exactly how cooked they are. Egg-cellent.

My friend Kathleen is a self-proclaimed cookie monster. She has never met a cookie she didn’t like, and can turn out some mean confections from her modest kitchen. Myself, I’m not much of a baker, which is why I have unlimited admiration and respect for those that are. And Anna at Cookie Madness has my undivided attention. She serves up an astonishing array of sweetness, neatly categorized for easy research. Check these scrumptious-looking New York Brownies, for example. Wait, are brownies cookies? Oh, who cares. Just send ‘em our way.

I have to confess: I am not a camper. It’s not that I don’t like nature (though what has she done for me lately?), but the very word conjures up thoughts of sleeping on the hard ground, swarms of bloodthirsty mosquitos and, worst of all, lackluster food poured out of cans and burnt to cinders over an open fire. “Campfire Cuisine” may change my mind, though. This pocket-sized guide not only contains recipes, but a comprehensive guide on what to buy both for gear and goods, how to store it for maximum safety and convenience and how to cook it all well and simply for maximum flavor. But still, I think I’ll try these recipes out in the backyard first.

Via Juliette Rossant’s superchefblog.  

Sushi is more than making maki and slicing sashimi. By layering rice and fish into one of these sushi presses, you can create square pressed sushi. It’s a lovely alternative presentation, and makes for great party food. Props to Ninecooks for expanding our sushi horizons.

YouTube revolutionized the internet by providing a stage upon which anyone can strut their stuff, but what people choose to strut often leaves us scratching our heads (or washing our eyes). Frankly, we like to be educated as well as entertained, which is why we just love Crash Test Kitchen’s peppy instructional cooking videos. Waz and Lenny whip out tempting fare such as a perfect French onion soup, or some mouthwateringly simple peas and feta, all while narrating in their charming Ozzie accents. Real people, real food, real fun.

Since ThisNext is all about bloggers who tell it like it is, we’re eating up FitJulie’s rundown of what’s wrong with the Food Network’s healthy-cooking shows: First there’s Cooking Thin with Chef Kathleen (“decent recipes,” but “I want to poke myself in the ears with skewers when she’s on”), then Low Carb and Lovin’ It (“That whole ‘applesauce works as well as oil and you totally can’t tell!!!!’ is a dirty, dirty lie and I wish low fat diet zealots would STOP SPREADING IT”).

But FitJulie shows major love for Healthy Appetite with Ellie Krieger, which she deems a “pleasant, diet-agnostic, healthy lifestyle and cooking show.” A registered dietitian author of Small Changes, Big Results, Ellie won a spot in FitJulie’s DVR lineup by sharing recipes that “call for fresh ingredients that aren’t too exotic or expensive, they aren’t loaded with salt, and they’re generally pretty weeknight-friendly.” The blogger raves:

“Ellie advocates small manageable changes that, maintained over time, will over big results. She offers tips that make it easier to eat healthy, like cooking ahead and freezing meals. Finally, and this is one of my favorites, she’s not a fat free freak. Sometimes you need a little fat for flavor, and that’s okay! She encourages using less of the ‘fully leaded’ stuff or finding an acceptable reduced fat alternative.”

We love this: Not only are Ziplocs useful for storing food, they’re also pretty good for cooking it, too. Christine at The Cooking Critic shows us a handy way to make compact, log-like omelets in a seal-top bag submerged in boiling water. It’s boil-in-a-bag food, but in a good way. Easy cooking and easy cleanup … now that’s better living!

The combination of the terms “fat-free” and “vegan” might cause many to curl their lip and slowly step backwards away. But a visit to Fatfree Vegan Kitchen will demonstrate that the absence of added fats or animal product does not necessarily mean the absence of flavor. With tempting recipes for a fabulous fava bean dip (pictured) or a colorful Turkish tomato salad, you may not notice what’s missing for enjoyment of what’s there.