Best Stainless Steel Cookware

We have a winner!

We found what we think is the best stainless steel cookware set on the market

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Best Non-Stick Cookware Set

For Lovers of non-stick cookware

This non-stick cookware set is excellent value for money and we rate it highly

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Best Dutch Oven Overall For Quality and Color

This will be no surprise

There is no doubt about it, we had to rate the as our number 1 choice for Dutch Ovens.

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Themed Meals and Drinks for a Movie or Television Party

Friday, May 14th, 2010 at 6:36 am  
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New DVD releases, the end of a television series, anticipated movies coming out, awards shows – each occasion is often a great excuse for a party. I myself hosted a fun dinner when the cartoon Family Guy returned to the air – I served up a variety of martinis to honor Brian, the martini-soaked dog.

It’s always more fun to match your food and drinks to the show, and bonus points if you can turn your meals into a groaner of a pun! Here’s a list of recent movies and television events, and themed recipes for each.

Avatar DVD Release Party

With James Cameron’s epic fantasy Avatar now on video, it’s only appropriate to invite your friends over for dinner and watch the movie on your big screen television (The 3-D version of the movie won’t be out until near Christmas – I myself will be waiting for that.) Avatar party supplies are available now too – if you wish to have a themed birthday party.

For your meal and drinks, everything has to be blue, of course! Here’s a dinner and drink suggestion:

Main Course: Blue Cheese Burgers

  • 1 pound lean organic ground beef (why organic? Because Avatar carries an environmental message!)
  • 1 tbsp barbecue sauce
  • 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • ½ tsp garlic powder
  • ½ tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

Gently mix with your hands, divide into 4 sections. Shape each into patties. Cook on your barbecue.

Drink: Na’vi Bi’kini Mar’tini

  • 2 ounces gin
  • 2 ounces blue curacao
  • a splash of peach schnapps

Serve with a slice of lemon – for extra effect, add a glow stick!

Final Episode of Lost Party

With all the plot twists, mind bends and multiple story arcs in different places, different times and different dimensions, you’ll need your own brainwashing room to clear your head! Nevertheless, the show has been a fantastic series, and I for one will miss it deeply. Will we find out what happens on that island? Or will the Dharma Initiative be lost in time?

Main Course: Mango braised bbq pork ribs

In the first season, John Locke hunted wild boar. That would be a little hard (and dangerous) to do in your neighborhood, so the next best thing is hunting for some ribs at your local grocer. To keep with the tropical island motif, mix a mango sauce for your ribs.

I tried this recipe before, and it’s delicious! I substituted a can of green chillis for the chipotles. You can view and print the recipe here.

Drink: Dharma Initiative beer

Take your favorite beer, and stick on the appropriate beer labels. Due to copyright issues, you can’t find a complete beer label online. But you can find high-quality Dharma logos here. Use the Swan one. If you know somebody with Photoshop skills, they can easily print “BEER” below the logo. Print out on sticker paper and wrap around your beer bottles. Note: Do not use 30-year old beer from a VW van – you do not have to be that authentic!

Alice in Wonderland Tea Party

The new movie with Johnny Depp revived interest in tea parties that never really went away, as Alice has been a perennial favorite since it was first written in the 19th century. An Alice in Wonderland theme party is a lot of fun to create – with the wild and wacky decor, terrible puns and elaborate setups of high tea, there’s probably no other theme that’s as fun to do! Heck, with un-birthday parties, you have an occassion to celebrate 364 days of the year (365 if it’s a leap year!)

Pop in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland or prepare for Tim Burton’s 3-D DVD release with these foods as part of your party:

Main Course: Mock Turtle Soup

A famous scene in the book has the queen looking for the mock turtle, which is what mock turtle soup is made from. About.com has a thick, comforting soup that is filling enough to be a main course.

If you’re really creative, you can make bread in the shape of a turtle to dip in the soup. Using your favorite dough recipe, divide into one large ball and five smaller balls – the large one will be the turtle’s body, and the other five will be the legs and head. Use a knife to score lines in the body to make the turtle’s “shell”, and pinch the head in to form the resemblance of the eyes and mouth. Arrange and stick together on a pizza stone and bake.

Drink: Earl Grey Tea Tea, of course. Any English tea will do. Don’t forget to put “Drink Me” labels on each cup. Serve tea at 6:00, with bread and your best butter. Dress in a top hat and have yourself a mad party!

By Chris Molnar, editor of Themeaparty.com. Click here for more movie theme party ideas for your DVD release or special television event (farewell, Lost!)

Delicious Home-Made Ice Cream Using the Cuisinart Ice-45

Friday, March 26th, 2010 at 5:38 pm  
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Do you love ice cream? Who doesn’t! With all the gadgets filling your kitchen, you may think you don’t need an ice cream maker. I thought so too, until I looked more closely at the ingredient list on some of the popular brands of ice cream. First of all, if you look closely, a lot of the brands say “frozen dessert”, not ice cream. That’s because they use varieties of vegetable oils instead of milk. When they do use milk, it’s usually “modified milk ingredients.” What do they modify it to?

That’s why I decided to get an ice cream maker, and I decided on the Cuisinart Ice-45 Soft-Serve ice cream maker. With home-made vanilla ice cream, here are the complete ingredients you and your children will be eating: milk, cream, sugar and vanilla. That’s it. No chemicals, salt or anything modified. For chocolate ice cream, it’s milk, brown sugar, cream and coco. No more fake desserts for us! And the taste? Much more delicious than store-bought! And there’s a freshness to it, even if we store it in the freezer for long periods.

How to Make Delicious, Home Made Ice Cream

For this model, place the ice cream freezer bowl in a deep freeze. Not your refrigerator, which isn’t cold enough, but a non auto-defrost chest freezer. (Auto defrost cycles from warmer back to cold.) You need the bowl to get really, really frozen, several degrees below freezing. If it’s not cold enough, your ice cream will be too runny. We leave it for around 48 hours.

When the bowl is ready, place it into the ice cream maker. Put 1 cup milk and 3/4 cups sugar (brown sugar for chocolate) in a blender and whip it. Then, gently mix in 2 cups table cream and 2 teaspoons vanilla (or 1/3 cup coca for chocolate). I say gently mix. Whip it too much and you get – you got it, whipped cream! Pour the mixture into the bowl, and turn it on. 40 minutes later and you have about 1 and a half quarts of soft ice cream! Times vary – the more frozen the bowl, the sooner your ice cream is finished. Do your own tests – too short and it’s liquidy, too long and it’s too thick. Instructions say 20 minutes, but it takes 40 for us.

Ice Cream For Parties

The one draw-back with this machine is that it does not make a huge amount of ice cream. Though there’s plenty to go around for a family or two, it’s not enough if you have eight kids at a party. So what we did is make several batches in advance and freeze it into hard ice cream. It freezes very well, much better than commercial ice cream that will develop crystals if it’s been frozen too long. For an Elmo themed party, we put a bit of red food coloring into the mix (very little! You want the friendly Elmo red, not vampire red!), and spent a week making 3 batches. Just to clarify the lack of work involved, the “week” consisted of washing and drying the freezer bowl, leaving it in the chest freezer for two days, making ice cream, repeat. If you buy a second freezer bowl , it would make the job a lot easier! The day of, we sculpted the hard red ice cream into circular faces and used marshmallows, whipping cream, bananas and chocolate chips to make Elmo’s eyes, nose and mouth. Viola, a gorgeous and creative party dessert!

What we Like:

  • We’ve always loved Cuisinart products. They seem old-school durable, in that they build their products to last decades.
  • No chemicals or salt. Mix the ingredients and pour in – it’s as easy as that. And the consistency is smooth and creamy.
  • Versatility – You can try sorbets and custards as well.
  • Easy to clean – the parts easily come out to rinse, and easily slip back in.
  • The ice cream freezes perfectly into hard ice cream, so we can make and store a lot for future uses. A quick zap in the microwave or simply leaving it out for a few minutes will soften it.

Though it isn’t a problem for us to spend the time to freeze the bowl, in the future we might skip that step by upgrading to the Cuisinart Ice-50. It has a built-in compressor, so there is no bowl to freeze.

Contributed by Chris Molnar. Chris is the father of two toddlers, so he and his wife host a lot of parties and serve lots of ice cream! He is the editor of Themeaparty.com, a website with party theme ideas for kids and adults. Click here for a guide to personalizing your party supplies.

Dr Andrew Weil From Spring Switzerland – Frypans Cookware

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010 at 11:40 am  
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The first thing that comes to mind when you begin cooking with cookware from Dr Weil of Switzerland is that It heats evenly and quickly helping you get to a meal on the table in good time. Additionally, it has handles that stay cool while you cook.

One thing a lot of people are concerned about with aluminum in cookware,  is whether or not it is a health risk. So if you tend to worry about whether or not the aluminum and coatings on pans can be damaging to your health when you are cooking, you may want to take a closer look at this cookware. It has been created with rolled steel edges that are meant to stop any of the toxins from the aluminum that is used in construction from getting into your meal.  The Aluminum core is absolutely, completely covered with the stainless steel layers.

You can pick up Dr Weil’s  frypans in 12 inch 10 inch and 8 inch, so three handy sizes and the 12-inch Wok Set is also very popular and comes with a bonus cookbook and knife. So even more reason to consider buying th wok set.

What We Like

  • This cookware is 5 ply bonded with 18/10 Stainless Steel for optimum heating.|
    It has an aluminum core which allows for fast even heat distribution
  • The health-friendly aspects of this pan and that it was created with the goal of being toxin-free while cooking.  The unique rolled and sealed rim ensures aluminum never touches your food.
  • The pan heats evenly as you are cooking.
  • It’s easy to clean up after you use it since it is dishwasher safe.
  • Handles are ergonomically designed for comfort and also designed to remain cool even when the pot is hot.
  • This cookware can safely be used on induction and ceramic stove tops
  • Dishwasher safe.

Where Can I Buy the Dr Andrew Weil From Spring Switzerland – Cookware?

Amazon.com.

How to Choose an Indoor Grill

Sunday, February 7th, 2010 at 5:16 pm  
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Grilling is one of the most healthy cooking options. It lets any grease drain away from the food, cutting down on your fat intake and total calorie intake.

Almost anything can be grilled, from fish to steaks to veggie burgers. What you cook on your grill is limited only by your imagination.  Unfortunately for those us that don’t live in Hawaii or Florida sometimes we have to grill indoors. So the question is how to choose an indoor grill?

The first thing you’ll want to consider when choosing an indoor grill is if you want a stovetop model or a countertop model. There are benefits and disadvantages to both.

  • Countertop: A counter top model is a great cooking option. You can find countertop grillswith a heavy lid so that the food cooks evenly on both sides in much less time. You can find countertop grills that are set at an angle so any grease drains away from the food and into a grease

    trap. The only real disadvantage to a counter top indoor grill is the space you will need for storage when it isn’t in use.

    Stovetops: A basic stovetop grill is more commonly referred to as a griddle.  You’ll want a heavy cast iron grill so you can use the highest heat possible on your stove. The only disadvantage of a stovetop model is that grease doesn’t drain as easily as with a counter top model. Although ther are stovetop grills available that have a raised cooking surface which helps to eliminate this problem.  The best benefit of a stovetop grill is the high heat you can use.

How to choose an indoor grill basically boils down to whether or not you want to cook on the stovetop or use a separate countertop model. Both are great choices when you’re forced to move the grilling back indoors in the dead of winter. With an indoor grill you can enjoy that great grilled flavor all year round.

CorningWare French White 7-Ounce Ramekins, Set of 4

Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 12:19 am  
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A set of ramekins are a must for  any well equipped kitchen. Ramekins can be used as a small bowl for dipping  sauces, a bowl for your morning Kashi and of course for cooking up individual  servings of custard, flan, and crème brulee.  They can even be used as small  fruit bowls and for dipping sauce.

I have a set of these ramekins actually I have 8 of them. Along with everything else you can use them for, I find them great for making individual chocolate muffins. A treat I don’t make very often thanks to an ever spreading waistline.

The CorningWare French White 7-Ounce Ramekins are really well made.  They are a manufactured  stoneware that can hold up to the harshest treatment.  You can use them in the freezer, the fridge, the microwave and even  in the oven.

CorningWare French White ramekins,  are slick and non-porous. You don’t have to worry about food sticking to the  sides or staining. Since it’s non porous you don’t have to worry about any  strong food odors transferring between dishes.

The ramekins have a classic design with a flared lip and  fluting along the outer sides for a traditional classic look. These are a bit  larger than standard ramekins but that just makes them that much more  functional.

What We Like:

  • CorningWare have so much faith in their product that there French White Ramekins come with a ten year warranty. Something not too many other companies have the confidence to do.
  • The price point for this set of ramekins is perfect. They are  a quality set that can be used in any cooking environment. So the price is very reasonable for what you get. The Corningware set is quite competitively priced  compared to some other units we have looked at.
  • We really like the 7 ounce size. They are bigger than the  traditional four ounce ramekin. This just means that we get bigger crème brulee  servings, not exactly a bad thing.  The larger size also makes them much more  functional than standard four ounce units.

And while you are thinking about creme brulee you might like to consider buying the Bonjour Chef’s Torch.

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