Cooking Games: Shut Down the Oven

If your kitchen is already hot this summer it’s going to just get hotter when you turn on the oven. A hot oven may be great for making a giant batch of cookies, but when it makes your whole house that much hotter, it’s barely worth it. This summer, all of our cooking games should be done without using the oven at all. Need some ideas of cooking games that shun the oven? Try these!

Microwave – if you can, just microwave whatever you’re eating. Sure you can’t make cookies in the microwave, but you can cook a whole chicken in the microwave so why even use the oven?

Toaster Oven – The best $20 you’ll ever spend is on a great toaster oven. Get one that is large enough for a frozen pizza or a small tray of cookies and you’ll be able to do everything you’d normally do in the big overheated oven with minimal heat waste.

Grill – Fire up the grill outside and you won’t have to cook in the house at all. Learn to make all of your meals on the grill and you can go weeks without turning on any kitchen appliance.

Cooking Games and Picking Strawberries

I think one of the most important parts of cooking games is preparing for them adequately. If you’re doing something fun like a strawberry dessert or making strawberry jam, preparing for the cooking games can be as simple as going out to pick some strawberries yourself. If you don’t live in a hugely urban area, or even if you do, search your local listing for farms where you might be able to go out and pick your own strawberries.

This is the season for strawberries and they freeze very well making them easy to use later, too. When you pick the strawberries, find ones that are very ripe but not soft. You want firm strawberries that are bright red and ready to be used. When you have a nice collection, take them home and use some immediately with some cream or in a dessert. But then take the rest and freeze them up for use later. It will be nice to have fresh strawberries for your cooking games in the winter, too.

Grilling Cooking Games

Using an outside grill is one of the best ways to cook. The outside grill lets you heat up food over an open flame and the barbeque results are almost always yummy. There are endless varieties of foods you can cook on a grill, but if you plan on learning to use the grill, be aware of a few things.

Grills take some time to heat up. You can’t cook on a grill like you can the microwave. Leave the grill at least fifteen minutes to warm up before you put any food on it.

You’ll need to watch the grill. Unlike the oven, you can’t stick food into the grill and then walk away and wait on the timer. Cooking on a grill requires you to be present and ready to deal with any surprises. Fat dripping into the fire from a yummy steak can start a fire, for example. Granted, closing the lid on the fire with the vents closed ought to take care of it quickly enough.

Grilled food has a distinctive flavor. Grilled foods cooked over an open flame have a very distinctive flavor. You can change the flavor by adding different kinds of wood and different levels of smoke.

Cooking Games: Jello Jigglers

A favorite cooking game for all ages, Jello Jigglers are the kind of cooking game that is simple to do, but enough fun that you can use it at a party or some other fun occasion.

Gather Materials:

• Jello mix
• Water
• Gelatin
• Cookie Cutters
• Jelly Roll Pan

Make the Jello according to the package instruction. This will include adding hot water and then stirring. When adding the hot water, also add the extra packet of gelatin. A single extra packet will be plenty.

Stir the Jello very well to be sure it is mixed completely and then pour it into the jelly roll pan. If you don’t have a jelly roll pan, you can use a 9x13 inch baking pan, just be sure to keep the layer of the Jello thin.

When the Jello is cooled completely the extra gelatin will have made the Jello a bit harder than it would have been otherwise. Use cookie cutters and great care to actually cut shapes from the pan of Jello. Display and enjoy the Jigglers to your heart’s content.

Cooking Games: Clean Up Is Important

One of the most overlooked parts of cooking games, and any other game for that matter, is cleaning up. In all things, it’s important to clean up, but especially in the kitchen. While making the various components of your cooking games, you’ll likely spill something onto the counter that needs to be wiped up or maybe you’ll spill clumps of something on the floor that need to be swept. Going off and leaving these sorts of things behind is rude to the next person to use the kitchen and might even attract bugs.

When cleaning up after cooking games:

Put your dirty dishes in the sink or place them in the dishwasher. You’ll want to rinse them first and be sure you’re not putting a dirty bowl in a dishwasher full of cleaning dishes.

Wipe the counters. All manner of germs and other gross things can grow on a counter that looks clean, but isn’t. Use an antibacterial spray and get all the nasty stuff off – especially the items you can’t see.

Sweep the floor after wiping the counters to be sure that you’ve collected all fallen food and dirt.

Cooking Games – Using a Wok

If you’ve never used a wok, you don’t know what you’re missing. Cooking with a wok is often a healthy stir-fry alternative to more traditional means of food preparation. A wok is like a flat bowl that you heat on the stove or on it’s own burner. Throw in a bit of flavored oil and then all of your favorite ingredients. Toss the ingredients while they cook in the wok, and soon you’ll have a yummy meal ready to go.

Learning to use a wok is straightforward if you know how to use a skillet. Of course you should always be safe in the kitchen and be especially carefully with the wok as the pan gets extremely hot. A spatula or slotted spoon should help you handle your wok creations and an apron will help keep you clean while you toss and turn your food.

Woks originate from Asia where they have been used for centuries. You have many options when cooking food in a wok, however. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can only cook Asian food in an Asian wok. In reality you can cook anything in a wok that you can cook in a frying pan or skillet – so long as it doesn’t have to be totally flat. For examples, pancakes in a wok are probably not the greatest ides, but cut new potatoes would be a yummy wok treat.

Favorite Cooking Games

If you are like most people, you likely have a favorite cooking game already picked out. But for those who are just venturing into the realm of cooking games, there are all manners of games to choose from designed around American cuisine and foods from all over the world.

Barbecue Cooking Games
In a barbecue cooking game, you are the grill master and must make plates of food at command. You cook hamburgers, hot dogs, and often chicken or pork to be served up on buns with side dishes. If you fall behind on orders, you can get frazzled and food starts to burn, so be careful!

Pizza Cooking Games
When you’re making pizza online, you have to hurry to stay ahead of the many orders flying in. Get the toppings just right and throw the pie in the over quickly before the next order comes in. Just remember to take that pizza back out of the over before things get steamy!

Ice Cream Cooking Games
Want some ice cream? An ice cream cooking game will certainly make you hungry for a cool, sweet treat. Ice cream sundaes are often the name of the game with ice cream cooking games. Pile up those scoops of ice cream and start throwing on some toppings. Nothing burns in an ice cream cooking game, but things can certainly get a bit sticky.