This post is sponsored by Equal. All opinions are my own.
I love coffee. No, I need coffee. And in the summer, I crave iced coffee, but don’t want to have to go to a coffee shop every time I have a hankering (that can really add up!)
Really solid iced coffee is made strong enough to stand up to the ice as it melts. I also prefer a really strong brew so that I can add sweetener and half and half to make the perfect iced beverage. So overnight iced coffee is a simple and awesome option, plus it’s ready for you in the morning!
Overnight iced coffee is cold brewed; the ground coffee “brews” in the water overnight to give a rich deep flavor, and is really easy to make. I was sent a summer beverage kit from Equal to get ready for all the delicious drinks of summer and thought this would be the perfect time to try out an overnight coffee using the kit and Equal 0-calorie sweetener!
Equal 0-Calorie Sweetener pairs wonderfully with a strong brewed iced coffee. Equal packets are concentrated (1 packet = the sweetness of 2 teaspoons sugar) while Equal Spoonful measures cup for cup. Equal is a great option to sweeten recipes without adding calories! (For more recipes using Equal, check out their recipe page.)
Cool Peach Iced Tea Recipe Card from The Diabetic Chef® Chef Chris Smith
Equal® Recipe Guide Booklet
Equal® iPad holder
I decided to use the Takeya Flash Chill Tea Maker to make the overnight iced coffee and sweetened my coffee with Equal Spoonful. The Tea Maker has a built in Tea Infuser which also works great to hold the coffee grounds. (Equal is also providing one reader with a kit of their own! Details after the recipe…)
Today, I have a great guest post from Doug, at The Kitchen Professor! I have been trying to teach myself better knife skills, and this post is really helpful as I hone those skills. I hope you get as much out of it as I did! I’ll turn it over to Doug, but first, here’s his bio:
Doug blogs at The Kitchen Professor and while his degree is honorary (bestowed upon him by his wife), he has enjoyed cooking his whole life, and especially likes the science of cooking. He loves to cook on cast iron, barbecuing, grilling (especially with a smoker), and loves adding the small, special touch to a recipe that takes it from just “okay” to “wow.”
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You wouldn’t decide you wanted to be a runner, and then head out to run a marathon without training, would you? Of course not – you would research training schedules, buy the right running shoes and equipment, and maybe even join a running group so you had moral support.
Cooking is a skill that takes practice, just like anything else. You certainly could try to make an elaborate four course dinner for your friends, and you probably would “finish” (just like limping over that marathon finish line without training), but it most likely wouldn’t be an overwhelming success.
Becoming a great cook takes practice and skills, and mastering certain skills will help increase your success when trying new recipes.
So where should you start?
A great place to start is by learning knife skills, because just about every recipe you encounter will probably involve some cutting during the “food prep” stage. The prerequisite is to have a couple of sharp knives, like a paring and chef’s knife. If you are like me, then you probably need to make sure that your knives are sharp. (Learn more about knife sharpening and sharpeners here.)
With that in mind, let’s review 8 of the standard knife cuts with which you should become familiar. Remember, practice makes perfect, so grab your favorite snack food (I’m always partial to veggies that I can dip into hummus) and start practicing! I was inspired by the “Sharp Things” chapter in the Alton Brown book, Gear For Your Kitchen. Alton is an idol of mine since he gets into the science of cooking which I really enjoy.
Often recipes will call for you to cut your food into cubes. The first four cuts below focus on the terms for cube-type of cuts, going from largest to smallest.
Chop – cut into rough chunks (no standard shape)
Think about the bite size pieces that you would want in a stew, or maybe even the size of watermelon pieces you would want in the summertime. Sometimes if I am making a hearty stew, I allow my chunks to be quite large since they need to hold up to a long cooking time.
Dice – to cut into cubes – usually around 1/4 – 3/4 inch.
If the recipe doesn’t say “large” dice or “small dice,” it would probably be a good idea to shoot for the middle range, around ½ inch. You’ve probably seen “diced” a lot with reference to tomatoes. I dice things more than any of the other cuts since it cooks fast, and we are all shorter on time than we want.
Brunoise – a specific and smaller dice, usually around 1/8 of an inch.
Do you know the julienne cut (see below)? You can julienne the food first, and then finish the food into a bruinoise cut. The bruinoise cut is often used for garnishes.
Mince – rough chunks, like the chop cut, but much finer (even smaller than a bruinoise).
You will often read to “mince garlic” in recipes. Also, the smaller the cut, the more “flavor” it will add to your dish, so you can take some license with recipes if you don’t want (for example) an especially strong garlic flavor.
These next four terms sound fancy, but once you know what they mean you will realize they aren’t intimidating at all. You will definitely run across these terms if you use any French cookbooks!
Lyonnaise – Vertically sliced slivers, usually onions.
The terms “lyonnaise” comes from the region of Lyons, France, and is usually used in reference to onions. It means to cut off the stem and to slice vertically into slivers. Most likely you will only see this in a French cookbook or used in conversation by a chef. Most normal folks will just say, “Vertically sliced onions.”
Julienne – Little skinny sticks.
Also called the “matchstick” cut, involves cutting the food into thin strips, 1 – 2 inches long and 1/8 inch square (think carrot sticks, or really any of those veggies like peppers that I might want to dip into my hummus). These look great when all the veggies are very uninformed and the same size and shape.
Chiffoande – Ribbons, strips of leafy veggies.
This type of cut is used for “leafy” types of food, like lettuce or herbs (especially basil). Simply stack the leaves, roll them up, and slice perpendicular to the roll and you will be left with thin strips. Like the brunoise cut, you can use this for garnishes – I do this most often with basil. You can put the basil on pizza, tomato soup, or fresh cut tomatoes.
Roll – Angular shaped chunks.
The purpose of a roll cut is to have non-parallel surfaces on the cut ends. This may be Chinese in origin, and is used for long vegetables like eggplants, zucchini or carrots. The roll cut adds a visually interesting appearance, but also exposes more of the vegetable’s surface area to heat (for faster cooking) by cutting at a 45 degree angle.
After you cut at the 45 degree angle, you “roll” the vegetable before cutting again. It is much easier to see in a video.
Conclusion and Helpful Links
When it comes to knife skills, practice makes perfect. Get some carrots, onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and anything else that strikes your fancy!
Make sure you have a couple very sharp knives to work with so you don’t pick up any bad habits.
You basically only need a chef’s knife and a paring knife 90% of the time. Start with a 1 or 2 of the cuts above and practice for about 10 minutes a day for a week.
Then, move on to other cuts after you feel comfortable.
Thanks for breaking that down for us, Doug! There are a bunch of really helpful links in this post too, so definitely bookmark this for the future. Doug’s site is filled with awesome tips and tricks like this post as well as reviews of products, so head on over to check out what else he can teach you!
I’m in another busy period of work, so expect a lot of quick weeknight dinner meals! Seafood is always a favorite quick meal of mine, and this recipe from Cooking Light’s latest issue is ready in no time! I paired it with an adaptation of a Bon Appetit Couscous recipe.
The trout is pan seared and then topped with a chunky warm parsley-caper vinaigrette. I’d suggest doubling the recipe so you have some to toss into the couscous!
If you’ve ever dreamed of publishing a cookbook, Kimberly Yorio’s THE JOY OF WRITING A GREAT COOKBOOK: How to Share Your Passion for Cooking from Idea to Published Book to Marketing It Like a Bestseller is right up your alley. I was sent a free copy of this book to review, and I was surprised with how much content was in this book that I never really even considered before!
Kimberly Yorio is a brand strategist, food authority, and women’s business advocate who has worked as an in-house publicist and marketing director, a for-hire publicist and agent, a cookbook co-author and proposal writer.
Kim, with 20+ years experience in the cookbook industry, has developed an amazing how to for cookbook author hopefuls. In her own words, the cookbook “will show you how to get from great idea to bookstore shelves (or, at the very least, Amazon).”
This book is filled with not just Kimberly Yorio’s advice, but tips and tricks of publishers, editors, publicists, recipe testers, food stylists, journalists, bloggers, agents, and celebrity chefs. It even includes a history of cookbooks and a thorough review of social media, which I found to be really helpful for my own blog!
Not only has Kim given novice writers all of the tools to create a cookbook of which they can be proud, Page Street Publishing is offering a chance to win your very own cookbook contract and marketing campaign executed by Kim and her team. Hopeful cookbook authors can submit their proposal by August 1, 2015 and have a chance to earn a publishing deal for a printed book and an e-book. (Guidelines and official rules can be found at pagestreetpublishing.com.)
If it’s always been your dream to write a cookbook, don’t hesitate, and enter now!
screen shot of pagestreetpublishing.com
A copy of Kim’s book would be super helpful in preparing a proposal for this contest though, wouldn’t it? Luckily, I have also been given the opportunity to give away one copy of The Joy of Writing a Great Cookbook to one reader! Use the widget below and good luck!
For those who can’t wait to get their hands on a copy, the book is available now and retails for $21.99.
This post is #sponsored by LongHorn Steakhouse. All opinions are my own.
With summer in full swing, it’s time to get grilling! As I’ve mentioned before, I unfortunately do not have any outdoor space at my apartment for a grill, but that hasn’t stopped me! I use my trusty grill pan as often as possible to bring the flavor of summer indoors.
This yummy recipe for Grilled Citrus Salmon was sent to me by LongHorn Steakhouse, and a version of this is actually available in their restaurants as part of their Summer Chef’s Showcase menu. I adapted it slightly to include ingredients I had on hand, so be sure to stop in to your local LongHorn Steakhouse to try their version as well!
As we all head out to grill this July 4th, LongHorn Steakhouse will have their Grill Us Hotline open Thursday, July 2 through Saturday July 4 from noon to 5 pm to answer grilling questions via phone and text. At-home grillers can call 1-855-LH-GRILL or text LHGRILL to 40679 (wait for a response & follow the prompts) to be connected with a grilling expert to answer questions live in real-time.
LongHorn Steakhouse was also kind enough to offer to give away a LongHorn Steakhouse Summer Grilling Party Pack to one winner! The grilling pack includes various grilling tools, koozies for your outdoor grill-out and a $25 gift card to visit LongHorn Steakhouse. More details after the recipe.
Ingredients:
Salmon
4 (7-oz.) salmon fillets
Salt and Pepper, to taste
8 oz. crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
Citrus Glaze
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 tablespoon freshly chopped flat-leaf parsley
Summer Vegetables and Pearl Couscous
4 cups cooked Israeli (pearl) couscous (~1 cup dry)
I am a carb fanatic — I’d eat pasta with some day-old bread every single day if I could. But on really hot summer days, sometimes you need something that feels lighter while still filling you up. Cooking Light’s Pulled Pork Lettuce Wraps are a nice filling meal that are perfect on warm days; pulled pork is wrapped in Boston Bibb lettuce rather than added to a roll. The result is a super yummy and crunchy dinner!
I use my slow cooker year-round and this adaptation is no exception. Slow Cookers are such a simple way to get an awesome meal on the table in no time. Plus, it gives your oven a break!
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 white onion, quartered
1 (2 1/2-pound) boneless pork shoulder, trimmed
1 tablespoon grated peeled fresh ginger
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted chicken stock
1 tablespoon gochujang (Korean chile paste) (gluten free is available)
1 1/2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free)
I live in an apartment that has no outdoor space, so we clearly do not have access to a grill, which is causing me to only want grilled food! Luckily, I have a grill pan so I can get my fix, and I’ve been using it nonstop!
A really simple weeknight favorite of mine is to grill up some shrimp and serve over rice. This recipe is quick and easy to make, but delivers on flavor! Blue Chair Bay Rum sent me a bottle of their Coconut Rum that I knew would be perfect for a glaze on grilled shrimp. The glaze caramelizes beautifully, adding a nice char and sweetness to the shrimp.
I adapted this recipe from a Cooking Light recipe, adding more hints of coconut to play off of the Blue Chair Bay Coconut Rum.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
the juice of one lime
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced
24 jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined (about 1 1/2 pounds)
6 sugarcane swizzle sticks, each cut into 2 pieces
Here’s a round up of some great gifts dads would love:
I was sent the Fathers Day Gift Tower, which is filled with yummy sweet and salty snacks within a 4-tiered tower. Snacks include popcorn, candies, roasted honey peanuts, and more.
New this year, GourmetGiftBaskets.com is offering Pops’ Top Popcorn Picks Tin. The tin of popcorn features the three top popcorn flavors chosen by (and for) Dads over the past year at GourmetGiftBaskets.com: hickory maple bacon, honey mustard and buffalo.
If your dad can’t get enough of the sweet, savory, tangy, smoky goodness that is all things barbeque,the Barbecue Boss Grilling BBQ Gift Basket is the perfect gift. This basket is includes an assortment of grilling products, like authentic fiery sauces and deliciously zesty rubs.
Praise Dad for all his hard work in the sweetest way possible! The Celebrate Dad Berries includes a dozen extra large strawberries hand-dipped in Belgian chocolate.
And for the beer-loving Dad, this year, there’s the Cigars and Beers For Dad Bucket — with three Torpedo Barber Cigars in a cedar case, a high-end cigar cutter, and beers from around the world
There are dozens of other offerings on the site, ranging from 25 flavors of cheesecake to Dad’s Day Towers, so if you’d see the full range of what’s featured, click here.
This month, Zwilling sent me a fun challenge: use a fillet knife. June’s knives of the month are boning and fillet knives, so Zwilling sent me their ZWILLING Pro 7″ Fillet Knife to try out. I have never used one before so I was so excited to learn how to use one; gotta love learning a new technique!
Fillet and boning knives are exactly what they sound like: knives used to cut meat off of the bone (to fillet something is to remove it from the bone). The knife is long, thin, and super flexible to allow it to get as close to the bone as possible.
You can fillet anything with a bone — chicken, beef, etc. but most people immediately think of fish, so I decided to revisit an old recipe on my blog to try out this lovely new knife!
This recipe for fish tacos with lime cilantro crema is a Cooking Light recipe and a favorite of mine. I switched it up a touch this time, just to try something a bit new.
One of my favorite cookbooks is Love and Olive Oil‘s Breakfast for Dinner. (I did a post highlighting their Huevos Rancheros Tacos a while back.) So it’s probably not surprising that I make a few recipes from this cookbook on a regular basis. One that I love to make in particular is their version of the Hawaiian dish Loco Moco.
Typical Loco Moco is usually made with white rice, topped with a hamburger patty (or spam), a fried egg, and brown gravy. Love and Olive Oil’s version substitutes coconut sticky rice for the white rice, uses ground pork instead of the hamburger patty, and finishes the dish off with a sweet-spicy-salty soy sauce reduction rather than brown gravy.
I decided to alter their recipe slightly to give it a local spin; this version is topped with pork roll (or Taylor ham) instead of the ground pork, and this recipe for New Jersey-style Loco Moco was born!
Pork Roll is originally from Trenton, New Jersey (hence the name of this post), but can also be found in parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The pork product is thinly sliced and pan fried and is a staple in most breakfast places in the area.
Most Sunday nights in my house are Pasta Night. Typically, we just thaw a batch of homemade tomato sauce from the freezer to mix in with the pasta, but I am all out of my tomato sauce at the moment! Cooking Light to the rescue!
This recipe from Cooking Light is really quick and easy — it takes about 30 minutes to make. I adapted the recipe a bit, but the general concept remained the same. For the original recipe, visit myrecipes.com.
Ingredients:
8 ounces uncooked mini bow tie pasta (or ziti, rigatoni, etc.)
The 3 inch paring knife is small and light, with a slim blade and centered tip. Paring knives are one of the most versatile tools in the kitchen and can be used for peeling, cutting, cleaning, and preparing fruits, vegetables, and meat. It’s no wonder they are the knife of the month, this knife is perfect for seasonal produce that is now available!
I used the knife for prep almost every night: slicing peppers, mincing garlic, chopping onions, etc. The slim blade also makes it perfect for chopping more delicate produce, like green onions/scallions.
I asked my fiance to help me prep some ingredients for a post recently, and he seemed to have almost too much fun using the paring knife!
The paring knife also really came in handy with my recent dessert post with peaches and plums. The knife is sharp enough to cut into the fruit but is delicate enough to not bruise the fruit in the process.
Paring knives can also be used to peel fruit (such as apples or oranges), devein shrimp, hull strawberries, clean the seeds out of peppers, and many other uses.
ZWILLING J.A. Henckels knives are made in Germany and designed in Italy by Matteo Thun. The knife is forged from one single piece of steel, is ice-hardened, and is hand sharpened and polished. The knife is dishwasher safe, but it’s suggested you hand wash it to keep it in great shape longer (dishwashers are really tough on knives).
Did you know that May is National Barbecue Month? The weather is perfect for going outside and grilling, and with Memorial Day behind us, it’s time to take full advantage of grilling season!
I’ve partnered with Four Roses Bourbon to make an oh-so yummy summer barbecue-themed dessert. A lot of the steps of this can be made ahead of time to make serving the dessert easy enough for a weeknight.
This dessert includes ice cream, grilled fruit, a spiced bourbon butter sauce, and toasted pound cake pieces… what more could you ask for?!
This Slow Cooker Saucy Chicken Over Rice is one of my favorite go-to recipes, so I was really surprised to find that I hadn’t shared it on my blog yet!
My fiance is a runner, so I tend to make this recipe a few days before the race because it has a nice balance of carbs and protein with no dairy. (Note: every runner is different and has their own preferred menu on the days leading up to a race, this just happens to be one of my fiance’s favorites.)
This recipe from MyRecipes.com is a really simple slow cooker meal that involves about 15 minutes prep in the morning before popping everything into the slow cooker. The result is a yummy, tender, chicken recipe that freezes and reheats great as well! I’ve adapted the recipe slightly, but the general concept is still there. If you’d like to see the original, visit MyRecipes.com.
A while back, I was contacted by a healthy snack company based out of Britain called Natural Balance Foods. Their Eat Nakd Bars are snack bars made from natural ingredients including fruits and nuts and are gluten free, wheat free, and dairy free with no added sugars.
The company was kind enough to send me a bunch of the Nakd Bars to try, including their Cashew Cookie and Berry Delight Bars, which were my two favorites.
I brought a bunch of the Nakd Bars hiking and they were the perfect portable treat for the day. (I actually ended up spraining my ankle and spent most of my day at the base of the mountain, but hey, sprains work up an appetite as well!)
These little bars don’t skimp on flavor and are a great on the go snack for busy days.
So, what sets Eat Nakd apart from the rest?
A typical cereal bar can contain as many as 30 ingredients, many of which I can’t really pronounce.
It only takes 35 minutes to make an Eat Nakd bar, from start to finish, while a baked cereal bar can take almost 4 hours to process.
The lack of sugars doesn’t result in a cardboard tasting bar, however. The bars typically are made with dates, which adds natural sweetness to the other flavors. Eat Nakd currently has nine different bars, so it’s worth trying them all to find your favorite!
The company also has Eat Nākd Crunch bars which are are dairy, wheat and gluten free, packed with soya crunchies for extra protein to keep you feeling fuller for longer, and are completely vegan friendly. Flavors include Banana, Strawberry, Apple and Cocoa.
I enjoyed these bars so much that I want you to be able to try them too! One I Can Cook That Reader will will an Eat Nakd Sampler Box! The Sampler Box includes one of each of their yummy bars —
One of each 9 Eat Nakd fruit and nut bar flavors; Rhubarb & Custard, Caffe Mocha, Cocoa Orange, Cashew Cookie, Pecan Pie, Berry Delight, Cocoa Mint, Ginger Bread and Cocoa Delight (9x 35g bars)
One of each 4 Eat Nakd Crunch bars: Apple Crunch, Strawberry Crunch, Banana Crunch and Cocoa Crunch (4x 30g bars)
Use the widget below to enter. Also, be sure to check out their website and pick up some of the bars for yourself — because Natural Balance Foods is relatively new to the U.S., they are currently offering free shipping on all U.S. orders!
