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How to Cook without Water
At simplyKitchenware.com , we are often asked about the problem of cooking without water. Nobody likes the smell of burning food, and the most obvious response to the pan drying out is simply to add more water. However, this is not always the best ...
How To Prepare Rice
Rice has been around for a very long time. It is known to have been cultivated for over 5,000 years and is thought to be one of the very first crops. With over 7000 varieties, rice has become the staple food of more than half of the world's population. ...
The regional cuisines of Chinese cooking (Part 1 of 4)
With China covering the immense land within its boundaries, it is no surprise that there are many regional variations in Chinese cuisine. Traditionally, Chinese cooking is divided into five styles of regional cuisines. It is headed by the 3 great schools ...
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Hiking, camping, and boating are good activities for active people and families. However, if the food isn't handled correctly, food-borne illness can be an unwelcome souvenir.
1. Choose foods that are light enough to carry in a backpack and that can be transported safely. Keep foods either hot or cold. Since it's difficult to keep foods hot without a heat source, it's best to transport chilled foods. Refrigerate or freeze the food overnight. What foods to bring? For a day hike, just about anything will do as long as you can fit it in your backpack and keep it cold -- sandwiches, fried chicken, bread and cheese, and even salads -- or choose non- perishable foods.
2. Keep everything clean. Remember to bring disposable wipes if you're taking a day trip. (Water is too heavy to bring enough for cleaning dishes!)
3. It's not a good idea to depend on fresh water from a lake or stream for drinking, no matter how clean it appears. Some pathogens thrive in remote mountain lakes or streams and there's no way to know what might have fallen into the water upstream. Bring bottled or tap water for drinking. Always start out with a full water bottle and replenish your supply from tested public systems when possible. On long trips you can find water in streams, lakes, and springs, but be sure to purify any water from the wild, no matter how clean it appears.
4. If you're backpacking for more than a day, the food situation gets a little more complicated. You can still bring cold foods for the first day, but you'll have to pack shelf-stable items for the next day. Canned goods are safe, but heavy, so plan your menu carefully. Advances in food technology have produced relatively lightweight staples that don't need refrigeration or careful packaging. For example:
==> peanut butter in plastic jars;
==> concentrated juice boxes;
==> canned tuna, ham, chicken, and beef;
==> dried noodles and soups;
==> beef jerky and other dried meats;
==> dehydrated foods;
==> dried fruits and nuts; and
==> powdered milk and fruit drinks.
5. If you're cooking meat or poultry on a portable stove or over a fire, you'll need a way to determine when it's done and safe to eat. Color is not a reliable indicator of doneness, and it can be especially tricky to tell the color of a food if you're cooking in a wooded area in the evening. It's critical to use a food thermometer when cooking hamburgers. Ground beef may be contaminated with E. coli, a particularly dangerous strain of bacteria. Illnesses have occurred even when ground beef patties were cooked until there was no visible pink. The only way to insure that ground beef patties are safely cooked is to use a food thermometer, and cook the patty until it reaches 160° F. Be sure to clean the thermometer between uses.
6. To keep foods cold, you'll need a cold source. A block of ice keeps longer than ice cubes. Before leaving home, freeze clean, empty milk cartons filled with water to make blocks of ice, or use frozen gel-packs. Fill the cooler with cold or frozen foods. Pack foods in reverse order. First foods packed should be the last foods used. (There is one exception: pack raw meat or poultry below ready-to-eat foods to prevent raw meat or poultry juices from dripping on the other foods.)
7. Camping supply stores sell biodegradable camping soap in liquid and solid forms. But use it sparingly, and keep it out of rivers, lakes, streams, and springs, as it will pollute. If you use soap to clean your pots, wash the pots at the campsite, not at the water's edge. Dump dirty water on dry ground, well away from fresh water. Some wilderness campers use baking soda to wash their utensils. Pack disposable wipes for hands and quick cleanups.
8. If you're planning to fish, check with your fish and game agency or state health department to see where you can fish safely, then follow these guidelines for Finfish:
==> Scale, gut, and clean fish as soon as they're caught.
==> Live fish can be kept on stringers or in live wells, as long as they have enough water and enough room to move and breathe.
==> Wrap fish, both whole and cleaned, in water-tight plastic and store on ice.
==> Keep 3 to 4 inches of ice on the bottom of the cooler. Alternate layers of fish and ice.
==> Store cooler out of the sun and cover with a blanket.
==> Once home, eat fresh fish within 1 to 2 days or freeze them. For top quality, use frozen fish within 3 to 6 months.
9. If using a cooler, leftover food is safe only if the cooler still has ice in it. Otherwise discard leftover food.
10. Whether in the wild or on the high seas, protect yourself and your family by washing your hands before and after handling food.
Copyright (c) Terry Nicholls. All Rights Reserved.
Terry Nicholls is the author of the eBook "Food Safety: Protecting Your Family From Food Poisoning". For more tips like these, and to learn more about his book, visit his website at http://tinyurl.com/3fr2t
yourguides@cogeco.ca
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 Egypt Will Import Cooking Fuel From Saudi Arabia and Algeria (Bloomberg)
Jan. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Egypt, the most populous Arab country, will increase imports of cooking fuel from Saudi Arabia and Algeria after shortages led to riots in several cities last month.
Students cooking up health: Grad students host 6-week class to fight obesity (The Adobe Press)
Graduate students at Cal Poly have joined the fight against childhood obesity wielding some unlikely weapons: common household cooking utensils, a stove top and an oven.
Quick takes on food: gluten-free cooking; tastings at Casa Larga (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)
The Wegmans Menu Cooking School in Pittsford is offering Great Gluten-Free Cooking Jan. 13. The Cooking School at Tops in Greece is offering Living with Celiac Disease: A Gluten-Free Diet Jan. 19. Casa Larga has two free wine tasting opportunities coming up this month for Rochester-area teachers and Pinot noir fans.
Foodie’s offers cooking classes (Duxbury Reporter)
Foodie’s Duxbury Market will offer cooking classes and demonstrations with guest chef Laura Brennan.
UPDATED: Unattended cooking behind house fire which killed four children (The New Zealand Herald)
The Fire Service says the blaze which claimed the lives of four children in a south Auckland home was caused by unattended cooking. Four people remain in hospital with burns from the inferno, which took hold of the brick and tile home in Mangere just before 1am.
President Yudhoyono calls for cooking oil and meat prices cut (Philippine News Agency)
JAKARTA, Jan. 6 (PNA/Antara) -- President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that meat and cooking oil prices would decline following a drop of the prices of the commodities on the world market, and last December's fuel price cut.
"White Trash Cooking" At Home: Hoppin' John (Chicagoist)
All the cool kids (and some not-so-cool ones ) have been tripping over each other to re-create the recipes from the Alinea cookbook that it set us thinking, "What cookbook would be the complete opposite of Alinea that could we utilize the same approach?" For us, only one came to mind. One of our most prized cookbooks is the spiral-bound tome pictured above. White Trash Cooking ...
Mooresville offers cooking class for kids (The Mooresville Tribune)
Hey, kids: Want to learn to cook? The Mooresville Recreation Department is planning a four-week cooking class in February for ages 11-15.
Cooking gas prices go up for Tet (Vietnam Net)
VietNamNet Bridge – The retail price of cooking gas on the domestic market has increased due to the world gas price hike and high demand locally with Tet rapidly approaching.
Thanksgiving top day for home cooking fires (The Celina Record)
Thanksgiving Day topped the charts as the peak day for home cooking fires in the United States in 2006 and 2007, according to the National Fire Protection Association.
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