Saturday, February 27, 2010

Cooking Games and Sundae Parties


One of the easiest yet most enjoyable ways to treat yourself is to invite your friends over for a sundae party. Setting up the party isn’t even that expensive. Start with some tubs of ice cream. Get a bit crazy with the flavors, but be sure to keep at least one basic flavor to avoid traumatizing picky eaters. Then get a huge number of toppings to include on the ice cream. Buy everything from fresh fruit to candy bars to nuts to gummy bears. Then display it all beautifully on a picnic table in the backyard. (Sundae parties get messy, and you’ll want to keep that mess outside.)

Once you’re prepared for the party, invite your friends over and get started dishing up some delicious treats. Have brightly colored bowls and fun, funky spoons to use and let them serve themselves. You’ll see the conservatives with their vanilla and chocolate syrup and then the outlandish who’ve made huge sundaes with all of the best toppings. Enjoy the company of your friends and the deliciousness of the treats on the special day. Best of all, you’ll have all of those leftovers to enjoy, too.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Cooking Games and Grilling


The grilling cooking games were supposed to be easy, and they seemed that way until I tried to play them. Playing cooking games is often straightforward. You have to cook certain items in order so that you can fill customer orders at a staggering rate. If you don’t move fast enough, food starts burning on the grill and you lose points. You can’t move food off the grill until it’s time to put it on a plate and you can only arrange the food in order of plate – no skipping ahead.

The first few times I played the grilling cooking games, I failed miserably. However, as I played a bit more I got a better handle on it and started to do tolerably well at least. I’m certainly not a pro, but I can hold my own when friends and I decide to have a contest to see who can do the best with the cooking games. So far I haven’t won a single contest, but I have dreams of some day doing well enough to be considered a grill master.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Cooking Games and Making Pizza


One of my favorite cooking games is one where you make pizzas and rush them out to waiting customers. The first few times I played I was pretty terrible. In fact, it took my two tries to realize that you can’t just make any pizzas you want, you have to make the pizzas that the customers are requesting if you want to progress and win the game – oops!

But once I had the basics figured out I got pretty good at playing cooking games and making pizza. You’re given an order and you have to start slinging ingredients and popping those pizzas in the oven if you’re going to make it in time. You have to time the removable of the pizzas with the orders being placed which requires essentially being in two places at once. Or at least doing two things at once. Once you get going though you fall into a pattern which helps you finish the game and move from level to level easily enough. Fortunately the challenge is a fun one.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Cooking Games and Making Breakfast


I’ve determined that making breakfast is the best part about the day. Of course, in full disclosure, I almost never get to make breakfast in the beginning of the day. I’ve started cooking it at the end of the of the day so that I can enjoy it properly. Breakfast in my house is eaten as supper most often, and when trying to throw something together in the few minutes you have between walking in the door and being confronted with hungry children, eggs and bacon sound great.

Breakfast has some of the yummiest items on our daily menu and prepared correctly, there is a huge amount of nutritional value in a well prepared breakfast as well. Bacon and pancakes aside, having eggs, steak and fruit is a nice start to the day, especially if you stir in vegetables to the eggs or make an omelet with other healthy items. Even bacon can have merit at times and pancakes can hold fruit such as bananas or blueberries and nuts for an added dose of healthy protein. Get creative and make breakfast the yummiest part of your day – at the very end of the day.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Cooking Games and the Toaster Oven


I’m not a huge chef in the kitchen, and in fact, I’m pretty pitiful at time when it comes to slicing and dicing. But I do have a certain edge when it comes to one instrument in my kitchen. I am a whiz on the toaster oven. I have a very nice model of the toaster oven. Mine is a stainless steel convection oven large enough to cook a dozen cookies or a full frozen pizza. It’s really an oven that sits on the counter, which is good since my “real” oven is about thirty years old and not the ideal.

Using the toaster oven, I’m able to make toast, bake cookies and broil French fries. The convection feature on the oven helps it to cook evenly and is now a standard for everything that goes into the machine. Want to bake cookies? Use convection settings. Want to heat up pizza? Confection. It actually browns things more naturally than just baking alone, especially in such a small setting. If I could have nothing else in my kitchen, I’d bring along a mini fridge, a small microwave and a confection oven. I’d be set, at least until I needed to wash dishes in a sink I didn’t bring along.