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When I am cooking there are times I like to add stock or broth and I enjoy it even more if that broth is home made. Today I am preparing some broth from last night’s chicken dinner.

I just can’t see throwing out perfectly good chicken bones, when it only takes a few minutes to begin the process of turning those bones into the tastiest chicken stock.

Note: I prefer to roast the bones in the oven for a while, it just imparts a whole new level of flavours, but be forewarned that once you roast your bones before making your stock, well you just won’t ever do it without roasting them first.

How I Make My Tasty Chicken Stock

Leftover Chicken Bones

1. Put the leftover chicken bones, I also include the skin if we didn’t eat it all, into a large stock pot and cover with cold water.
2. Add some veggies like celery, onion, carrots, parsley for extra flavour.
3. Add about 1/2 tsp of salt, 1/4 tsp of pepper.
4. Bring to a boil and immediately reduce heat to bring the stock to a low simmer.
5. Leave simmering, uncovered, for at least 4 hours. I like to remove that foam a couple of times before it’s done.
6. Once it’s done just strain it all until you have your chicken stock.

We freeze what stock we don’t use but seriously it’s seldom it every reaches the freezer. I make a few quarts a week and it just disappears. Give it a try.

Hummus Marinade is great for poultry, lamb and fish.

• 4 Large garlic cloves
• 4 T White sesame seeds
• 6 T Olive oil
• 1 c Canned chick-peas
• Juice of 1 large lemon 1 T Fresh parsley; chopped
• 1/4 t Salt
• 1 t Dark sesame oil

In the container of a food processor or blender, place the garlic cloves, sesame seeds, and 2 Tbsp. olive oil. Process until smooth. Add the chick-peas, lemon juice, parsley, and salt. Process once more. Slowly add the remaining 4 Tbsp. olive oil and the sesame oil. Makes about 2 cups.

If you already know how to grow sprouts, here is a fast, simple (and awesome) hummus recipe using your sprouted garbanzo beans or lentils! The growing sprouts will start to sprout little tails and when the tails are half an inch long they are ready to eat. There is nothing wrong with letting them grow longer and in the end it will come down to your own personal orientation for taste. Some people believe the sprouts are sweeter when they are smaller and you will find what you like with a bit of experimentation.

The hummus recipe and directions are as follows:

• Simply put 2 or more cups of sprouted beans or legumes in a food processor and [puree]
• Add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, preferably freshly squeezed
• One chopped onion
• A diced bell pepper
• Some freshly ground black pepper
• Optional – your favorite herbal seasoning to taste

You can serve the hummus in many different ways; as a spread for sandwiches or toast or as a dip with corn chips or flaxseed crackers. Take your simple hummus to a gathering and it will be gone in no time, so make certain you get in early! You can of course make more than just this hummus recipe with your sprouted beans. They can be gently steamed and used instead of refried beans in nachos, burritos, tacos, or any other food that usually includes refried beans. Sprouted lentils can be turned into a low temperature lentil soup with just a few slices of celery, carrot, and seasonings.

Growing sprouts and sprouting beans is as simple as making this hummus recipe (if you use the right sprouter). Preparing the sprouts to make a huge variety of different meals and recipes is also very straight forward. Average preparation time is less than half that of regular meals.

If you want to use sprouted garbanzo beans as we have suggested and recommend, you will need to plan ahead to have them ready when you make your simple hummus recipe. The adavantages however are great, as the sprouting process activates the bean or legume, increasing the vitamin content, digestive enzymes and allows the nutrients to be more easily absorbed for use by the body. So you get a great tasting, simple hummus recipe that is good for you! To take the hassle out of sprouting, you can use the Marche Sprouting Method that requires no daily rinsing. Enjoy your sprouting (and eating)!

I love Italian food! This style of food has some of my favorite flavors. I like looking for a creative twist on a traditional idea. I found a Crispy Volpi Pancetta Spinach and Ricotta Cannelloni recipe and it has very quickly become a family favorite. This cannelloni recipe is unique and fun to prepare. I discovered this recipe on Chef Michael’s blog page at “volpifoods.com”. You’ll love how the textures and flavors combine to create an Italian masterpiece!

Ingredients:

Cannelloni Pasta Dough Recipe

1 T – Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 each – Extra Large Eggs

1/8 t – Sea Salt (fine)

1 c – All Purpose Flour

½ c – Semolina Flour

In the bowl of your stand mixer place the eggs, olive oil and sea salt. Use your paddle attachment and mix on low until well blended. Take the flour and semolina in a small bowl and blend well. Set the mixer on low speed and add the flour to the wet ingredients.

Remove the dough from the mixer bowl and shape into a ball. On a lightly floured surface, begin to knead pasta dough until a smooth texture is achieved. Flatten pasta dough to 2 inch thickness, wrap dough in plastic wrap and allow dough to rest for a minimum of 30 minutes. Once the pasta dough has had enough time to rest, next step is to make the sheets for the cannelloni.

A rolling pin can be used; however one of the BEST kitchen tools to have is a traditional hand crank pasta machine. Slice the dough in 4 equal pieces. With your hand crank pasta machine, start at the widest setting and roll out the dough until desired thickness is achieved. Approximate size needed for the pasta sheet is 3 1/2 x 22 inches. NOTE: Roll out all pasta before adding cannelloni filling. Be sure to keep dough covered with towel or plastic wrap to avoid pasta getting too dry.

Cannelloni Ingredients:

1 lb – Spinach, leaves only – fresh (blanched, finely chopped)

1 ½ lb – Ricotta cheese

Chef Note* – Visit Volpi web site ‘Recipes’ for “Home-made Ricotta”

1 ea – Egg, large and 1 additional egg for egg-wash

2 T – Heavy Cream

¼ t – Nutmeg, fresh ground

¼ t – Lemon zest, fresh zest

1/3 c – Parmesan cheese, fresh grated, additional for garnish

Sea Salt, Black Pepper (fresh ground)

1 bunch – Basil, fresh sliced in ribbons

12 oz – Volpi Pancetta, cut in ½ x ½ strips

1 T – Olive Oil

5 c – Marinara / Tomato Sauce

Method:

Bring large pot of water to boil. Seaons water with sea salt and put spinach in boiling water for 30 seconds to blanch. Take spinach out and shock in ice cold water, draink well and squeeze to remove excess water. Chop spinach very fine. (NOTE* Frozen spinach is quick, acceptable substitute)

In large mixing bowl place Ricotta cheese and add egg, heavy cream, nutmeg, and lemon zest. Mix well to incorporate. Fold in chopped spinach and Parmesan cheese. Add sea salt and black pepper to preferred taste. Set aside until required for cannelloni assembly.

Chef Tip: Fill a pastry bag with Spinach & Ricotta filling; this makes the cannelloni making process quick, easy and with little mess.

Volpi Pancetta ½ by ½ inch strips:

Place 1 T olive oil in sauté pan over medium low heat. Add in Volpi Pancetta and be sure to render the meat until it becomes crispy and golden brown on both sides. Remove meat from pan with slotted spoon and put on paper lined plate to allow draining.

Assembly:

Place one of the rolled pasta sheets on flat surface on top of a piece of plastic wrap in front of you. When using the pastry bag method, squeeze 3/4 inch bead of filling at the bottom edge of pasta sheet. Place a thin coating of egg wash on the top edge to help seal the cannelloni. Next, grab the plastic wrap, lift up and roll pasta sheet over to create the cylinder shape. Once you have the cannelloni shape, cut cannelloni into 5 1/2 inch pieces. Move cannelloni to parchment lined sheet pan and hold in refrigerator until ready for cooking.

Cooking:

Place a layer of tomato sauce on the bottom of a baking dish, approximately ¼ inch thick. Next, lay the cannelloni on top of the tomato sauce in an even row. Put plastic wrap, followed by aluminum foil on baking dish. Place cannelloni in the oven at 350 degrees F for 10-15 minutes.

Place remaining marinara sauce in pot and heat to simmer and hold until plating.

Remove from oven, place cannelloni on plate or serving platter. Ladle marinara sauce over the top and garnish the dish with fresh basil, Volpi Pancetta strips and Parmesan cheese.

Serves 4-6 people.

Chef Michael’s spinach pasta recipe is truly a wonderful rendition of traditional cannelloni. Adding Pancetta as a garnish was inventive and complemented the meal nicely. You have to taste it and see for yourself! I think a sangiovese or merlot would complement the meal nicely.

Nothing says fall quite like apple crisp, the warm cinnamon scent and sweet apples as much a part of autumn for many folks as red leaves and cold weather.  Or, probably, it reminds you of highschool cafe, where a really sad and limp version of apple crisp is a common staple of lunchtime.

Apple crisp, or apple crumble if you’re from the United Kingdom, appears like the kind of old time dish that has been handed down for generations.  You can pretty easily imagine the travellers eating it at the first Thanksgiving.  Despite this antique feel, apple crisp has a surprisingly brief account.

Apple crisp doesn’t make an appearance in cookery books till 1924, so its creation probably only goes back a few decades before.  This is a record of a bit more than a century, making it a fairly recent addition to the american menu.  The dish became swiftly and massively popular with a few years of appearing in cooking books, as newspapers and word of mouth spread the apple crisp recipe.

A benefit of apple crisp is that it’s significantly better to make than apple pie, another fall favourite.  Instead of needing to be able to create a crust for a pie and then get it baked just right , an incredibly difficult task, apple crisp only requires that you be able to layer the ingredients in an appropriate pan.

At its most elementary, apple crisp is just a dessert composed from baked apple covered by a crisp crust.  Generally, the crust is also covered in brown sugar and cinnamon to add an extra level of sweetness to the top, as well as the brown sugar that’s normal with the baked apples.

More specifically, you’re going to find cooked apples, butter, sugar, flour, cinnamon, and frequently oats, brown sugar, ginger, and / or nutmeg.  There are approximately as many different recipes for apple crisp as there are people that eat it, and even veteran bakers seldom make it the precise same way twice.

There are lots of variants possible , from the choice of sugars to using oats to including other fruits.  Peaches are a reasonably common addition to apple crisp, and it’s not at all uncommon to find stuff like raspberry or blueberry crisp on the menu.

Rhubarb is a favored ingredient, because it gives a tart taste that contrasts with the sweetness of the pie.  For a similar reason, you need to consider your choice of apples, the most basic ingredient in the dish, when you choose to make your apple crisp.

An apple, naturally, is not just an apple.  They come in dozens of kinds, with a huge range of sizes, tastes and textures.  Apples can range between fairly sour to very sweet, and ensuring to get the right sweetness is critical so that you’ll know how much sugar to use.

similarly, apples can have a selection of textures, from crisp to almost floury, and it’s vital to know the feel of your apples before baked them so that you get an apple crisp that essentially tastes good and has an agreeable mouth feel.

Try my favorite Apple Crisp recipe: Click Here

There are so many wonderful culinary herbs that it’s difficult to pick just five for our top five list, but here goes:

1. Basil. Rub basil gently and enjoy its heavenly scent on your fingers. For pasta lovers this herb should be tops. It reminds us of wonderfully, relaxing summer days and it is especially enjoyed with fresh garlic, black pepper, big cuts of mozarella, generous slices of juicy beef tomatoes all covered with a light drizzle of an oil and vinegar dressing. Basil is also the main ingredient in pesto. Basil not only works well in Italian food but also American and Thai cuisines.

2. Lavender. Our most used herb blend is Herbes De Provence and lavender is part of this delightful mix, along with savory, thyme, basil and others. It’s great on grilled food, especially fish, and in veggie soups and meaty stews too. Not only is lavender for eating, it helps us de-stress. Lavender relaxes the body, so a lavender bouquet by your pillow will help you have a restful night’s sleep!

3. Dill. Great with pickles! And let’s not forget salmon. It’s decorative and delicious!

4. Rosemary. Think big when you think of Rosemary – it can really grow! This shrub that can be grown into mini culinary Christmas trees – a great gift for anyone who loves to cook. It smells heavenly too and it’s a perfect accompaniment for tomato based ishes and grilled vegetables, meat and soup.

5. Cilantro finishes out our list. It has a very different aroma and certainly livens up a dish. It’s the perfect herb for pico de galloand basically any Mexican dishes!

So many herbs are available that it’s hard to decide on just five top herbs. Growing herbs can be a lot of fun, so if you’ve ever fancied the idea of a herb garden then why not pick up these five herbs in the spring and get planting! You will then have a choice of herbs to enhance your dishes that are close by, for whatever type of meal you are making.

Regardless that the creation for hot sauce is normally currently a multi-billion dollar business, uncovering your personal hot sauce recipe can be described as must. However to obtain that recipe, you’re looking for a strong basis in what hot sauce might be in addition to just how it can be brewed. Hot sauce, as all of us recognize it nowadays, primarily developed to become fashionable in the beginning 1800s. Most of these sauces are already predominantly trendy in The united states for more than 200 years. They are a superb spot to begin with once planning your personal hot sauce recipe.

As may be the scenario with countless different foods, the appreciation of hot sauce originated via a particular locale located in U.S and there branched out. The first buffs associated with hot sauce around this countryside generally congregated within the South. One of several distinct peoples which the majority of served to trigger this appreciation with regard to hot sauce are actually the Cajun people. Probably amongst the most famous type of sauce that may be present in almost all kitchens and also restaurants at present would be the Tabasco trademark hot sauce. Most people utilise this model of sauce for a lot of distinctive options. A number splash it over sea food, although some splash it liberally on pizza. A few decide to put it onto noodles, while some apply it on hot wings. There is no such thing as a best or maybe wrong occasion to work with this hot sauce. Its use will depend on what you long for.

What place could be the right place to start organizing any hot sauce recipe? Many people state that experts claim Mexico is certainly leader of the hot sauces ‚ many individuals have departed Mexican restaurants having searing mouths aflame which included a spicy hot salsa or maybe sauce. However america just happens to be a major forerunner inside the hot sauce battle. Of course, is it possible to bring to mind more sophisticated or even hotter sauces when compared with those which will result from Texas and also Louisiana?

Actual hottest hot sauces will not be for all. In truthfulness, this indicates that not many persons will be able to actually deal with them. Which is among the strongest factors in relation to most of these sauces‚ individuals who really enjoy them and make use of them are able to experience a particular form of delight about feeling skilled to eat them effortlessly although some could merely employ 1 / 2 a drop at the same time. Needless to say, if coping with the hottest hot sauces, you must be mindful and to commence bit by bit. Actually those people with the greatest spicy tolerance might be overcome with the hottest hot sauces.

The Scoville scale is what is considered applied for you to evaluate the hotness with the pepper or hot sauce. While some individuals judge it is possible to best determine the warmth associated with a sauce through tricking a buddy into ingesting it, the Scoville Scale in reality has given to you a factor of reference in attempting to be aware of precisely how hot your object genuinely is. The scale measures the hotness regarding chili peppers or other things that that shows up coming from chili peppers (hot sauce, to give an example. This check has been in existance for just about Hundred years. Wilbur Scoville introduced this method evaluation in 1912. In line with this scale, the total hottest pepper-related matter specifically accessible happens to be 100% pure capsaicin, whilst the mildest pepper will be the bell pepper. Whilst the bell pepper registers at zero across the scale, the capsaicin will come in at near 15,000. A jalapeno pepper results among 2,500-8,000.

The brains behind finding the perfect hot sauce recipe is Cajun Mike, the creator of the blog HotSauceRecipe.net For years, Cajun Mike has been perfecting his own hot sauce recipes and methods and he’s now ready to share his secrets with the world.

The marvellous thing about slow cooking is the way that you can throw a tasty meal together with just a a couple of ingredients from the store cupboard.

Your slow cooker will pay for itself in no time at all. The time you save when you are making a meal means it’s priceless. But, if you intend to make slow cooking part of your regular meal times, then it pays to have a few staples to keep in your cupboards to make meal planning easy.

Beans – Beans are a very economical source of protein that cook very well in slow cookers . Each bean has its own flavour which can be enhanced by the herbs or spices you use to cook them. Beans can make a meal base when you cook them with meat or be the meal’s staple ingredient if you are a veggie looking to create a quick and simple meal. Whether borlotti, lentil, haricot, or black-eyed, beans can be the start of some fantastic slow cooker dishes.

Fibrous Vegetables – For starters, these means good old spuds and the average kitchen has at least a few potatoes lurking around in the vegetable rack.  They are a really versatile food. Mash them, stew them, fry them, or chuck them in the slow cooker. Potatoes add thickening to stews, soups, and meat-free meals. Potatoes and other fibrous veggies like carrots, swede and turnips, take a time to cook, so they can be thrown in the slow cooker with meat and can cook for a long time.

Fresh Herbs – Using herbs can dramatically change the flavour of almost any meal you make. You can use dried herbs, but they release a much richer flavor if they are added fresh. You can even grow your own fresh herbs on your kitchen window ledge. All you need is a good spot in the sun, some compost, and don’t forget to water them regularly. Home grown herbs can even be dried to lengthen their shelf life, making them easy to keep in your store cupboard without worrying too much about wasting them. Remember herbs need to be added at the end of the crock pot cooking cycle so their flavor mingles in through the meal and isn’t lost during the cooking time.

If you are fascinated in Asian cuisine and are in quest of a healthy, yet filling food, making sushi may be the solution to your problem. With so many foods in North American containing high levels of fat, it can be complicated to find flavorful food that is healthy for you.

Making sushi, which contains many favorable ingredient, can form a good foundation for your diet. Once you are used to making sushi, it can be done quickly, allowing for you to spend more time doing the things you love and less time in the kitchen.

The key to making good sushi is the rice. You cannot use standard rice as sushi rice. Instead, you must make a sticky rice that holds its shape well when molded. For beginners to making sushi, this is often the hardest part.

The key component of sushi is rice. Regular rice cannot go with sushi.  Rather using stiff rice you have to take rice which will not lose their form while molding them. Due to this reason, sushi making can be very complicated for the learners.

The other basic component needed to make sushi is Nori. Nori is normally used in almost every sushi. It is a kind of seaweed and its color could be dark green to black. Nori functions like a holding agent for sushi roll or nigiri and it is also a very healthy ingredient.

Nori gives a very tasty flavor to sushi rice. Be particular while selecting the Nori, always go for a top quality Nori which should have no flavors in it. Either you can use it inside the sushi or wrap it over the sushi rice. Most usually it is used as an outer surface for sushi rice.

The final step to making sushi is determining what you want to go inside your sushi roll. The ingredient you can use are only limited by your imagination. Professional sushi chefs, however, try to marry flavor and colors for the best presentation and taste as possible. When you are learning to make sushi, start simple so that you can achieve good flavor. Then, it becomes much easier to improve your presentation.

To advancement in the sushi making abilities you have to first acquire the general skills required to make a regular sushi then you can experiment with fish and shrimps to prepare sashimizushi and nigirizushi.

Ingrid Preube
Obtain more info on sushi making set and making sushi.

2 Dozen chicken wings

1/2 ts Coconut extract

4 ts Curry powder

6 tb Melted butter

1 c Milk

2 c Instant mashed potatoes

3 tb Sweetened, flaked coconut

2 Cloves garlic, minced

Cut tips off wings. In a large bowl, combine milk, extract and wings. Stir to mix well. Marinate at least 2 hours (or overnight). In another bowl, combine potatoes, curry and cocoanut. Take wings out of marinade and roll in potato mixture. Place slightly apart on well greased cookie sheets. Combine butter & garlic. Drizzle over wings. Bake, uncovered, at 375 degrees until browned – 45 minutes.