Cookware Gallery
Easy Meal Preparation
Weeknights are chaotic in my house. I’ve got three kids on three different schedules. Someone always has practice or a recital or a school project to work on. Getting a home cooked meal on the table each night would be impossible without my electric waterless fry pans.
These fry pans can cook vegetables and entrees in no time, with very little effort on my part. They can be easily cleaned by hand or simply tossed in the dishwasher. A lifetime warranty means that I don’t have to worry about ever being without these weeknight mealtime lifesavers.
Additional Cleaning Tips
Earlier in the month we discussed how to remove hard water stains from stainless steel cookware. This time, we’re going to tackle removing baked on foods and blackened cookware bottoms. To remove baked on foods pour vinegar onto the pan so it covers the offending areas. Sprinkle baking soda on top; you should see the mixture start to bubble. Swirl the mixture for a bit, let it sit for two minutes, then wash normally. If all went according to plan, the dried food should have come off easily.
To restore the shiny bottoms of non toxic cookware sets use this simple technique: Begin by pouring vinegar over the bottom of the pots and pans. Sprinkle table salt on top of the vinegar, let the mixture stand for one minute, and then, using a sponge, scrub the mixture in a circular motion. Rinse off the mixture and those blackened bottoms should look new again!
Cleaning Stainless Steel Cookware with Vinegar
Stainless steel cookware is not only healthier to use than aluminum or Teflon, it is also far more attractive. Keeping stainless steel cookware looking its best, but we have a few useful tips. First, you’ll need vinegar, table salt, baking soda, sponge, dish soap, spray bottle, and water.
To remove hard water stains from non toxic stainless steel cookware, mix ½ cup of vinegar into four cups of water. Boil the mixture in the pot or pan you are cleaning for 10-15 minutes. Let the mixture cool, pour out the water, and wash gently using a little bit of dish soap and mild water.
To Your Health: Pomegranates
In Season, Colorful, Tartly Sweet, Versatile and delightfully healthy.
“Pomegranates are a good produce choice for December,” says Marisa Moore, a registered dietitian in Atlanta and spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association. “They’re in peak season, and you can store them in the fridge for up to two months.”
Consider Pomegranate Chutney: easily made & wonderfully flavored: …try this recipe.
The fruit’s vibrant red seed sacs, which hold a hard kernel surrounded by juice, offer a bit of Vitamin C and potassium, Moore says, and a half-cup serving provides a healthy 3.5 grams of fiber. Thanks to the antioxidants they contain, pomegranates may help fight some cancers and possibly slow the growth of prostate cancer.
Moore suggests adding the tangy-sweet pomegranates seeds to Greek yogurt; tossing them with golden beets, goat cheese and salad greens for a winter salad; or reducing the juice to create a sauce for chicken or pork. Simply prepare as with cranberries:
- one to two cups in a small sauce pan over low/medium heat until tender;
- add a teaspoon of flower or corn starch then reduce heat to simmer;
- put the lid on & allow to thicken (ten minutes or so);
- add a dash of dry agave & few drops of fresh lemon to enhance robust flavor
Part of the beauty of Stainless Steel cookware is retention of Nature’s Honest nutrients. ENJOY!
Pomegranate juice is tasty but not as good a choice as the seeds. Half a cup of juice has [about] 70 calories, just like half a cup of seeds, but most people drink more than half a cup, and eight ounces adds up to [about] 135 calories. The juice contains little to no fiber so much is lost without the seed.
To separate seeds from pod, Moore suggests cutting the fruit into quarters and placing the pieces in a bowl of water. “The seeds will fall to the bottom, and the rind and pits will float to the top.” You can freeze the seeds in an airtight container for up to three months. Handle them with care; they can stain hands and clothing.
Cook healthy, eat honestly, and thrive…
Slitzer knives sets
Finding the right knives for the kitchen can be so frustrating. There are so many types and uses that it can get really confusing especially for a new homemaker or a novice cook. Fortunately, there are cutlery sets available that do the job of selecting for you.
A set includes the basic knives most commonly used in a kitchen, for instance Slitzer knives set. The most common knives are bread knives, paring knives, utility knives, and slicing knives. Other knives that can be included are knives for filleting or deboning, and some steak knives. When choosing your cutlery, determine how often you plan to use it. If you plan to use it everyday, then it would be best to get stainless steel knives because they are easy to maintain and last long.
Greasless Fried Chicken
Retaining Mother Nature’s honest nutritive values, tastes, aromas and texture is easily preserved with Stainless Steel Waterless cookware; but the phrase itself, ‘Waterless Cooking’ can just as easily be misunderstood. For example, a question from a new user:
Comments/Questions:
My instruction book for waterless cookware has a recipe for greaseless fried chicken but it says to keep turning the chicken. I thought you were supposed to keep the top on and now I’m lost. How do you cook greaseless fried chicken?
Response:
The beauty of Stainless Steel Waterless pots & pans is that you have the option and capability to use the waterless cooking method if you want to; but that doesn’t mean you have to cook waterlessly. You can use these utensils in ways more familiar to you as you learn and become comfortable with waterless cooking.
We use the lid when searing meats to capture and keep the natural fluids (fats, oils & water) inside the pot or pan. I recommend keeping the lid on during the searing process to optimize the capture of these savory fluids. Once the sear is completed (3 to 4 minutes at medium heat), the lid can be removed to ‘fry’ meats. I again prefer to leave the lid on because doing so reduces cooking time and retains the natural moisture, but it’s not necessary.
I know the waterless cooking method recommends ‘no peek’ cooking—but that’s a common misnomer. Feel free to remove the lid, turn your chicken. Reapply the lid if you wish—but you don’t have to. Without the lid, some of the natural moisture is lost, and foods require a bit more cooking time. But this is not a huge concern. Over time, you will notice the difference between foods cooked without the lid (less moist, tender, savory & flavorful) and foods cooked with the lid on. Simply a matter of befriending your new cookware, becoming familiar with it over time and adjusting your technique to fit your tastes.
In the meantime, understand that you can cook conventionally with these fine utensils (the way most of us learned to cook), but you also have the capability to cook using the waterless method which has a host of tasty & nutritional benefits.
Cook healthy, eat honestly, and thrive
a good deed that costs you nothing
…yes, costs you nothing.
Many not-for-profit programs are vying for votes to secure a part of the CHASE COMMUNITY GIVING drive (awards up to $250,000).
Southridge High School Marching Band Program (Beaverton, Oregon) is just such a not-for-profit managed by a 501C3 booster organization.
Southridge is a registrant for the CHASE COMMUNITY GIVING drive. Simply take the following link to facebook, from there log in to your facebook page and vote for our cause by simply clicking your ‘like’ button.
That’s all we ask. That’s all Chase asks as well–there will be an announcement via facebook but you will not be contacted by either organization. Accept our HUGE & HEARTY Thank You in advance. Here’s the link:
PLEASE help us fund the extraordinary values of extracurricular learning–hard work, team work, mental and physical discipline, competition, and of course the natural motivating values of music and dance–the kind of learning not found in a seat in a classroom. …your help is just a click away
Thanks a bunch!
Steve Denning – WaterlessCookwareBlog
Treasurer, Southridge Instrumental Music & Dance Ensembles (SIMDE)
treasurer2@simde.org
Visit us on-line: Southridge Instrumental Music & Dance Ensembles
Watch this year’s competitive show on youtube:
“The more things change…
…the more they remain the same.”
The Seasons change…
But when it comes to people, it has always been a belief of mine that change is more aptly embraced by this phrase “one step forward, two steps back.” After a flurry to new beginnings, tried & tested, we tend to step back and re-view. What we step back to of course, are more fundamental virtues:
- basic values
- centering attitudes
- helpful behaviors
- the more substantial and valued virtues
- the more substantive renewals
- less of ‘me’ and more of ‘us’.
This approaching Holiday season serves to remind us of our shared story, our truer nature, our greater good—a story about the birth of hope, about the renewal of the truly priceless, about our greater community at peace. We have work to do of course.
Cook healthy, eat honestly, and thrive…
Two Steps Back… to Related Posts:
“…to till and to keep”
Good News from last November to include:
How to Carve a Turkey Video
Turkey Prep: Brine Rub or Brine Bath
Cooks Illustrated on the Best Cookware Value
A Black Friday Discount code from ChoiceCookery.com for our readers
ENJOY a few things that stay the same through all the seasonal changes…
(Quality Stainless Steel Waterless Cookware for example.)
Stainless Steel Cookware – a little history
Why Stainless Steel Cookware? … a little history
Metal cooking utensils have been in common use for centuries. Stainless Steel cookware is a more recent development.
The smelting of Stainless Steel (an iron-nickel-chromium alloy) didn’t occur until 1910 when Harry Brearley (under the employ of John Brown Laboratories and Thomas Firth & Sons, England) sought to smelt a metal resistant to rust, erosion and corrosion—a metal adaptable to military use, capable of withstanding nature and the intense heat fluctuations common to repeat firing arms.
Metallurgical studies dating back to the early 1820’s (Berthier, France), the 1870’s (Woods and Clark, Britain), and refined in 1909 (Giesen, England) pointed Brearley in the direction of an 18/10 chromium/nickel blended alloy to meet his performance criteria. Brearly’s alloy, known today as t304 Stainless Steel (one of the 300 series of ‘austhenitic’ Stainless Steel) contains a host of additional benefits—durable, nonporous, mirror-like sheen impervious to stain, easily molded, cleaned, polished and chemically inert (nontoxic).
Given the unique character of surgical grade Stainless Steel, Brearly’s t304 alloy has proved over the years to be far more advantageous as surgical instrumentation and cookware than bullet casings. The unmatched properties of t304 Stainless Steel produce the most hygienic, impervious (non-erosive, non-corrosive, non-porous, non-toxic, non-stick) cooking surface available in the cookware marketplace.
- non-erosive (will not leach, flake, peel or degrade into foods)
- non-corrosive (will not rust, tarnish or react to water, air, salt; no seasoning or tempering—wash in soapy water)
- non-porous (will not house bacteria in microscopic pores as will cast iron or other soft metals—copper, aluminum, etc.)
- non-toxic (t304 Stainless Steel is totally chemically inert)
- non-stick (real foods contain all the essential fats and fluids necessary to release themselves from a hot surface—excessive heat causes sticking, charring & burning, not the cookware).
But this is just the character of Brearly’s base alloy. Advancements in the fabrication of Stainless Steel cookware over the past fifty years has evolved to a point where Stainless Steel cookery is the established, unchallenged epitome of safe, chemically inert, healthy cooking utensils.
Related Articles:
A Lifetime of Value: An Investment in Quality
The Healthy Cookware Choice: Multi-ply t304 Stainless Steel
…for more on the Real Story of Stainless Steel Cookware
Cook healthy, eat honestly, and thrive…
Try Slitzer Knives & Witness A Kitchen Miracle
Some of my favorite shows are cooking shows. There is Food Network’s Iron Chef America. My favorites are Mario Batali and Masaharu Morimoto. And then there’s Gordon Ramsay in Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen. You kind of hate him for his insulting comments to the contestants. When I watch these shows I pay attention to the gadgets and kitchen implements being used.
I find Slitzer knives sets totally impressive. They have the sharpest, most precise blades you can find. See how Slitzer knives prepare their food with such clean cuts. These knives are produced from high-tech stainless steel so they cannot rust. If taken well cared of – like sharpening regularly – it will stay in the kitchen forever.
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