White Chocolate, Chocolate Cookies

INGREDIENTS

* 1 cup unsalted butter
* 1 cup white sugar
* 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 2 cups white chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well with each addition. Combine the cocoa, flour, and baking soda, gradually stir into the creamed mixture. Finally, fold in white chocolate chips. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto the prepared cookie sheets.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, until puffy but still soft. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Read More..

How to make cappuccino in 3 simple steps!

Consider this the basic in the how to make cappuccino series. This article would highlight the steps to make cappuccino like the baristas you see in Starbucks and most coffee shops...

Before moving on to the 3 simple steps to make the cappuccino, do you know what is cappuccino? The key to understanding this, would be invaluable to learn how to make it. Knowing the components of a cappuccino enables you to visualize the procedures later.

Cappuccino is actually an espresso filled with 2 types of heated milk, i.e the steamed milk and the frothed milk. And, it is the frothed milk that gives cappuccino that classic look and it is also the "so difficult " frothing that lead world coffee bodies in using the froth to evaluate the skills of baristas.

The proportion of cappuccino is 1/3 espresso, 1/3 heated milk and 1/3 frothed milk. We would not touch on espresso in this article, as it warrants one entire article on how to get a good espresso, here we would highlight the other 2 components, the steamed and frothed milk, to better your learning in how to make cappuccino.

You would get steamed milk when the heat source (usually the steam wand) is injected into the milk, slightly below boiling point. As the injection of hot air is controlled to a minimal, there would not be any change in the milk volume except for a small amount of micro bubbles or froth.

To get more bubbles, i.e. to get frothed milk, place the steam wand at the surface of the milk, and this would creates more of the micro bubbles, remove the steam wand, when the froth has the look and feel of whipped cream.

Now, let's learn how to make cappuccino in 3 simple steps:

i. when using an espresso machine, while waiting for the espresso to brew, steam and froth the milk in a frothing pitcher. Once done, set it aside for approximately 30 seconds.

This is to allow the milk densities to separate. To speed up the process, you can try what Starbucks or most coffee shops' baristas are doing -by knocking the frothing pitcher on the table, this would separate the steam from the froth milk.

ii. Then, take a large spoon to keep the milk foam as you pour out the steam milk. As you pour the steam milk into a mug, do it slowly to prevent breaking the froth, and stop when you reaches 1/3 of the mug.

With the 1/3 steam milk done, spooned up the froth milk and put it on top of the steamed milk, this foamed milk should take up another 1/3 of the mug.

iii. For the last 1/3 of the mug, pour in the espresso down the middle of this foamy sculpture. And there you have it, a foamy cappuccino!

Not that complicated right? No need to ask how to make cappuccino like that Starbucks baristas anymore right? You can do it with 3 simple steps!:)

Read More..

Find Delicious Food Recipes Online

Humans like variety. Whether it is everyday dressing up or the food we eat. We especially like to experiment with food to satisfy our taste buds. The same food everyday diminishes our appetite for that food. We always prefer to have variety in what we eat.

In this Internet era, our day begins and ends being online. It is quite easy to go online in search of gratifying your appetite for an exquisite evening.

Just imagine after a long & hard day; you get home and mmmm, what an aroma?

These exquisite recipes are just a few clicks away from you in the times of Internet. There are thousands of varieties of recipes available. We are going to list and discuss few websites that allow adding and viewing recipes for your ready reference.

A number of online sites share recipes online, where you can find the best recipes along with tips. Online recipes are easy enough to understand and the ingredients are easy to find. Besides you can easily copy, print, or email the recipe. They provide methods of cooking as well as the ingredients, standard serving instructions etc.

Recipe sites can help you in all kinds of food you prefer whether it is dietary food or pregnancy time food, even child food or food for week! You can use the ingredients you've at home and can find a recipe based on it.

Some of online sites ask you to purchase their cookbooks while some of them ask you to register and log in to the site to view their recipes. If you find the cookbook to your interest, click to download it. Some sites may charge you for downloading the cookbook. Many users simply copy the recipe and save it in their computer.

www.allrecipes.com

Allrecipes.com has more than 40,000 free recipes. All recipes are created, tested, reviewed and approved by users worldwide. This site has a popular collection of recipes in sections like appetizers, Mexican, Italian, chicken recipes, soups and stews and many more.

Allrecipes.com allows its users to create an online recipe box where they can manage private recipes, submit recipes and photos, post recipe ratings and reviews, create shopping lists, and more.

The distinguishing feature of this site is that of creating a cookbook. You can publish your favorite recipes in your personalized cookbook.

www.canadianliving.com

Canadianliving.com is an interactive site for Canadian families featuring food, nutrition recipes and family information.

Canadianliving.com has a categorized section in their menu. It also gives out timely ideas, real solutions for a healthy lifestyle, tips, and great recipes.

Canadianliving.com provides a personal Recipe Box where users can save their favorite recipes from the recipe menu, or add their personal recipes to share with the world. You can also join online forums, where you can chat and discuss with other readers.

www.kraftfoods.com

Kraftfoods.com is one of the great online recipe cookbooks. This site has different varieties of recipes to prepare food items that attract food lovers. Kraftfoods.com provides tips to prepare quality, nutritious and healthy foods. Beside all this they have introduced how prepare food from their own special products, like Kraft cheese.

They have categorized recipes into dinner, food and family, healthy living, delicious cereals and cereal bars for the convenience of users.

To help lovers of cooking Kraftfoods.com has a section known as cooking school where there is an extensive collection of cooking videos, tips, and more.

Kraftfoods.com allows storing all favorite recipes in one spot. Just sign up for free and get your own personal recipe box to store your favorite recipes from the Kraft Kitchens, or a favorite from other online recipe cookbooks.

Kraft foods invite its viewer to post their recipes and share their secrets of making delicious food.

www.food.yahoo.com

Yahoo is mainly known as search engine. It has a special section on food where recipes are also featured.

Yahoo food's recipes section features articles and blogs on food recipes. The Yahoo recipes section has functionality to filter by ingredient, meal, cuisine, occasion, diet, dish, taste, method that help visitors to find recipes.

Yahoo food features a home food section where you can find recipes according categories: Everyday, Special Day, Recipes, Blogs, Restaurant and Cook. It's the best way to find recipes every day and on special occasions.

This site also has Food Videos with reviews and recipe of the day. Yahoo foods allow you to send email from the site and also to take a printout of each recipe.
www.g2bux.com

There are so many amazing and delicious vegetarian and Non Vegetarian recipes on the Web, you could spend days scouring every cyber corner and barely scratch the surface of what's out there. Wouldn't it be great if there were one place on the Net where you could access those thousands and thousands of recipes? Well now there is! G2bux Recipes, it's the Best of the Net Recipe Collection. Now everyone can use the Internet to make living delicious and easy!

Each month hundreds of new recipes are added by genuine users here on G2bux recipe section from variety of corners around the world. Do you have a favorite recipe you'd like to add? There is a provision to post it and it will be listed on your recipe list instantaneously.

G2bux allows sharing of recipes, cooking tips, and serving suggestions. Visitors can search recipes by tags. This is a good feature and it saves time.

G2bux also has a feature to send recipes to a friend and allows users to share the link of a particular recipe with your friends by mailing them. You can post a comment on each other's recipe. Above all, G2bux gives 2 G2bux Points for each recipe you add.

Read More..

Know All About Mexican Food

Mexican food has captured the hearts of people around the world. Mexican food varies in taste and style from region to region in the country. Climatic conditions and ethnic differences have cast their impact on Mexican gastronomy. In northern Mexico, you will find beef and meat items aplenty. To the contrary, the south-eastern part of the country is famous for its spicy vegetable and chicken items. Now let us taste virtually a few well-known Mexican delicacies.

If you were scared away from Mexican food by the Center for Disease Control’s last report about it-and even if you weren’t-you may be wondering if there are any healthy choices in Mexican cuisine. Mexican food is an American favorite-even if it is just the Taco Bell variety. The key to eating healthy and enjoying Mexican cuisine is to make simple changes in the ingredients that you use and to change your preparation techniques. Before “civilization” came, centuries ago, Mexican food was very healthful. By using the key elements of beans, corn, fresh vegetables, and lean meats you can make your Mexican food healthy.
One of the finest cuisines that satiate the gastronomic desires of people worldwide is Mexican food. Mexican food refers to a style of food that originated from Mexico. You will love Mexican cuisine due to its varied flavors, grand decoration and its enticing spicy taste.

The history of Mexican food can be traced back to pre-Hispanic traditions. The Aztecs and the Spanish colonists contributed handsomely to the evolution of the cuisine. Beef, chicken, pork etc. are some of the chief non-vegetarian ingredients. Pepper, broccoli, cauliflower, radish etc. are some of the vegetarian ingredients that are used in abundance. It is said that Mexican gastronomy is also to some extent influenced by the Caribbean and the French.

Enchiladas are a favorite Mexican dish-but they are usually loaded with fat as well. Just eliminate dipping the corn tortillas in the hot oil and soften them with a tomato or low fat broth based sauce and you can cut out a lot of calories. Aquas frescas is a refreshing beverage formed of fruits, cereals or seeds, sugar and water. The beverage is not only popular in Mexico, but also in Central America and the Caribbean islands. Aquas frescas has some highly sought-after flavors. Aagua de tamarindo is a popular variety of Aquas frescas that includes tamarind pods. Agua de jamaica is prepared with Roselle and agua de horchata includes rice. You can easily obtain the beverage from street vendors.

Another popular Mexican cuisine that will tickle your taste buds is "Arroz con Pollo". This is a dish comprising rice and chicken in Spanish. This item is considered to be a traditional delicacy. The highly luscious dish is prepared from rice, sofrito - a mixture of vegetables and fresh herbs, saffron and off course – chicken. Taco is a traditional Mexican offering comprising rolled maize tortilla with meat feelings. Generally grilled beef, picadillo, fish, pork or chicken is used for the filling. Taco tastes even yummier with chopped onion, chilli salsa, and other garnishes. In Mexico, you will find several varieties of Taco. The serving of a Taco is quite interesting. It is traditionally served flat on a tortilla and the tortilla itself is being warmed up on a comal. The tortilla being soft, it can be folded into a U-shape for ease of consumption. Cheese, lettuce and beef- all contribute to make Taco a mouth-watering dish.

Now this is up to you that when you are taste these Mexican dishes.

Read More..

Food for Picky Eating Kids

Does your daughter push away more than she actually eats? Does your son move food around his plate in an intricate vegetable shuffle? If your child suffers from picky-eater syndrome, here are eight ways to help him broaden his culinary horizons.

1. Ask your child to try just one taste
The threat of having to eat an entire portion of any food is daunting. Promise your child that all you require is a single bite. If, after trying a new food, she still insists that it’s not going to be on her menu, you simply accept that statement with a nod.

2. Reintroduce foods periodically.
Many kids have to try a food several times before developing a taste for it. Continue to offer those vegetables without forcing your child to eat it. Eventually, she might just acquire a taste for more of them.



3. Be a role model
Let your children see you enjoy a wide variety of foods. Even if you don’t push them to try it, they will see that sauteed broccoli or green beans can be delicious. Scheduling family meals helps kids watch the adults in their family enjoying lots of different types of foods.

4. Try foods in different forms
Your daughter turns her nose up at potassium-rich bananas? Try a chilled fruit soup or a smoothie milkshake with bananas and yogurt. Some foods, that aren’t so appealing in their natural state, can take on a whole new appeal when "repackaged" to suit kids’ tastes.

Recipes to try:

**Summer Fruit Soup

**Frozen Fruit Smoothies

5. No snacks right before meals
If you want your picky eater to eat the dinner you’ve prepared, don’t give in to requests for cookies and milk late in the afternoon. If kids are hungry, there’s a far better chance that they will eat more of the meal that you place in front of them.

6. Let dinner be a special family-focus time
Think of dinner as a chance for quality time rather than a chance to focus on the food your selective son eats. There will be less pressure on him to please you and more emphasis on sharing the details of his day.

7. You child can help prepare the meals
Allow your child to help prepare meals or set the table. Now they are more involved in the meal entirely and may chose to eat more courses.

8. Know the amount of food your child really needs
Often, we think our children require more than they truly do and when they say that they’re finished, they usually are. Kids don’t need to eat as much as adults. We should take our cues from them and stop eating when we feel full. Learn nutritional guidelines and that may also help curb the need to push second helpings.

Read More..

Italian Food: A Good and Healthy Choice

Nowadays Italian food is getting popular day by day all over the world. People of every country have started liking this food. If you are one of them who like pasta very much then you must love this cooking because this is one of the main ingredients of most recipes. As with all ethnic foods, this eating uses its own group of spices. These are a number of most popular spices which are used in this cooking; these spices are garlic, oregano, basil and thyme. If you will use fresh spices in your cooking then it will really add a special touch to any dish, but if you are unable to find fresh and then you can use the dried spice. You can buy these spices in small quantities and you need not keep them stored in a cool, dark place, not over your stove on a rack.

The heart of this cooking or eating is the use of ingredients. These ingredients are available in all the seasons. These ingredients are used to change ordinary items into works of art in the form of pastas, side dishes, breads, sauces, main dishes, deserts and soups. The possibilities are rally endless and very exciting. If you are really Italian food lover then you must buy cookbooks so that you can easily increase the taste of your food. These are a number of recipe books that have pictures of the completed dish so that you will able to know what it should look like. These books can help you a lot if you have never seen the dish anywhere. It is really best to follow a recipe when you first start to learn a new recipe but don't be panic to start experimenting once you have the basics down.

Following are some ingredients that you need to have in your grocery list.

1) Tomato Sauce:

Tomato Sauce is one of the important ingredients. You need not have to buy the expensive tomato sauce. The national brand or house brand at your nearby local grocery store will be fine in your Italian dish. Try not to buy from the "pre-seasoned" blends, as you will be adding your own spices and herbs.

2) Pasta:

It is highly recommended that you should not buy a huge quantity of any specific pasta. It is preferable to keep a little amount of the most regular types such as wide egg noodle, large and small shells, elbow macaroni, linguine and spaghetti. It will be good if you have storage so that you can keep the long noodles in a long container. Moreover, you can find many Tupperware makers that are specially design to keep the pasta in to maintain freshness.

3) Parmesan Cheese:

Freshly ground Parmesan cheese is always a welcome addition to the top of any Italian dish even though it may not always be needed in the ingredients of the recipe you are cooking. The famous cheese brand, Kraft, has a new product with a block of cheese in its container along with its grater.

4) Olive oil:

Olive oil is also one of the integral parts of ingredients. One of the mistakes that many Italian food amateurs make is using pricey olive oil for things like pan-frying. Using the standard olive oil, which is yellow in color, is just fine for this.

Read More..