Investing in an Anolon Set for Your Kitchen

By Moses Harun

Anolon, previously respected because of its top selling cookware line, has diversified into knife manufacturing. According to its website, its pots, pans, and accessories are designed to serve you for a lifetime and be attractive as well, two characteristics that one may surmise apply to any set, such as the Anolon Advanced 15 Piece Knife Block Set.

Product Range

Anolon offers three categories for knives - Advanced Cutlery, Advanced Bronze Cutlery and Advanced Stainless Steel Cutlery. It appears as if Anolon hopes that the term, "advanced" will help the knives to sound better than the knives made by different manufacturers before anyone has getting their hands on the knives. Regardless of the reason for the name, there are 19 knife sets available, varying from the 15-piece sets to the individual knives, and they come with a universal sharpener thrown in for good measure.

Since a knife is only as tough as its blade, Anolon knives are made from high-quality German steel. The Advanced Collection uses carbon steel, the Bronze Collection uses high-carbon stainless steel and the Stainless Steel Collection uses stainless steel, all of which can be too complicated to a person who simply wishes to purchase knives without worrying about metallurgy. Having said that, you are able to tell the difference between these collections by the knife handles - black for Advanced, brown for Bronze and silver for Stainless Steel.

Advantages

The Anolon knives are forged, not cold rolled, and that form of production enhances the density, flexibility and hardness of the metal. Obviously, a denser and more flexible cutting blade will be easier and safer to chop with, and the metal will also sustain its sharpness longer.

It needs to be said, Anolon knives are manufactured in China. Although their workmanship appears as though it is topnotch, especially with regards to the condition of the blades when pulled from the package. The price of these knives isn't bad either, particularly as you recieve high-quality knives that don't have exceptional prices.

Other useful advantages of owning the 15-piece sets include the resilient bamboo knife block which comes with slot labels and one more slot for an old favorite knife in addition to Anolon's handy knife sharpener. For single knives, you could benefit from the protective sheath that accompanies every purchase.

On balance, an Anolon knife purchase is a good use for your money, seeing as not much of it will be required.

Disadvantages

There are not too many things to dislike concerning Anolon knives. Still, these are worth listing up because you prefer to be aware of all the facts in advance of putting down your good money on any cutlery.

For one thing, the bamboo blocks occasionally arrive in not-quite-perfect shape. There will occasionally be instances of the knife labels being rusted and the bamboo itself being black rather than the lovely brown as seen in the ad photos. For another thing, the rubber handles can occasionally flake off in places, particularly when you wipe them. It might be a result of everyday wear and tear, but it is usually a cause of annoyance at first.

Additionally, you need to sharpen your Anolon knives at the end of every use to keep them in ideal form, and the knives are less than dishwasher friendly. For the use-toss-replace type of cook, these Anolon knives could present a challenge. A great set to consider is the Anolon Advanced 15 Piece Knife Block Set.

Although, given all the information, an Anolon knife set is a useful group of utensils for your home. It blends well with most other kitchen appliances, it is made up of knives that keep their sharpness for a decade or two, and may be stored safely. - 30289

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Choose A Rice Cooker For Perfect Rice

By John McKain

One of the most useful small appliances that you will ever buy is a rice cooker. A rice cooker can do much more than cook rice and is useful in both the kitchen and the dorm room.

Rice cookers can cook rice of course, but they can also cook other hot cereals, steam vegetables, cook deserts and even cook stews and soups. While not all rice cookers can do all of these tasks, many are able to do most of them.

Most people that use rice cookers swear by the ones that are made in Japan. While less expensive brands are available from other countries, the Japanese make the best machines by far.

You will find rice cookers range in size from a three cups to ten cups. Buy the size that is closest to the amount of rice you normally cook. While larger cookers will cook smaller amounts, they work best at full capacity, but not over filled.

Additionally, you need to know that a Japanese cup is six ounces as compared to the American cup size of eight ounces. Be sure that you adjust recipes by remembering that the cups from the rice cooker are only three quarters of an American cup.

The Japanese home prefers a five cup rice cooker.

A non-stick cooking pan in the rice cooker makes cleanup very easy. Rice cooker manufacturers use a high quality non-stick surface that works perfectly with rice. Be sure that you only use the plastic rice paddle to remove food from the pot.

There are three basic types of rice cookers, the on/off models, the keep warm models and the fuzzy logic models.

Some models are either on or off. The good thing is that they automatically turn off. They may not have an indicator light, but simply turn off when all the water is absorbed into the rice. These cookers are very versatile and can do a good job at cooking rice.

Keep warm models cook the rice and then after it is done maintain the rice so that it is warm when you are ready to use it. Just be sure that you unplug the rice cooker when you are finished with it since there is no off position.

The most expensive rice cookers offer fuzzy logic. They have different settings for soup, brown rice, texture of rice and some even offer the setting for sushi rice.

Some of the newest models of rice cookers offer induction heating. They make perfect rice every time and compensate for variations in water or rice measurements and for different types of rice.

If you like steamed vegetables, be sure that you buy a rice cooker that has the plastic steamer basket. You can even steam the vegetables as you cook your rice.

If you have a college student who will be living in a dorm room a small (three to four cup) rice cooker is the perfect gift. It allows the student to have rice, steam vegetables and warm soups. It is a great way for the student to have healthy meals and avoid eating only fast food. - 30289

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Ready-To-Make Boxed Meals Created At Home Inexpensively And Easily

By Susanne Myers

Serving convenience foods to your family is, well, convenient. With kids returning to school and starting all those hectic after-school activities again, having a few ready-to-go meals stashed in your cupboards is a definite must have. Unfortunately, those boxed meals really can ruin your family's budget and rob you of your hard-earned cash.

How can you afford to have your meals conveniently prepared on a tight budget? By creating an inexpensive alternative to those store-bought pre-packaged foods. Stocking your pantry with your own homemade variety of these foods will save you an enormous amount of money and give you the opportunity to choose healthier ingredients to serve your family.

It's amazing just how many boxed foods you can make at home in your own kitchen. Rather than roaming through your grocery store's aisles grabbing overpriced cardboard boxes of quick meal solutions, create a couple counterparts easily in your very own kitchen and save an unbelievable amount of money while maintaining the convenience factor.

Several popular boxed meals are easily duplicated for a fraction of the cost of buying the store-bought ones. Here are just a few examples of how you can make some classic dishes that I'm sure you'll recognize.

Red Beans and Rice Mix: This is a classic meal that is very versatile. By mixing just a few dry ingredients together in an airtight container, you create a ready-to-use version of the boxed meal that is so popular. This traditional Cajun dish is perfect to expand upon with the addition of sausage, seafood, chicken, meat, vegetables, or whatever you want.

Suggested mix ingredients: 1 cup long grain brown rice, 1 tablespoon dry onion flakes, 1 tablespoon dry celery or celery seed, 1 tablespoon dry green pepper, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 2 vegetable or chicken flavored bouillon cubes, 1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper, 1/4 cup bacon bits. Of course, this is a suggested dry mix recipe. You'll want to experiment with your own ideas. Cook according to the rice instructions, then add your beans, sauteed vegetables, or whatever other ingredients you choose.

Rice & Roni Mix: This is another classic take on a favorite boxed meal. You can, of course, make this as it is, but adding diced chicken, meat, and vegetables is an option. Use this mix as the jumping-off-point for lots of good one-dish skillet meals.

Suggested mix ingredients: 3/4 cup long grain brown or white rice, 1/4 cup broken vermicelli or spaghetti, 1 tablespoon dry onion, 1/4 teaspoon dry garlic, 1/4 teaspoon of a combination of dry thyme and dry sage OR 1/4 teaspoon dry poultry seasoning, 1 tablespoon dry parsley, 3 chicken flavored bouillon cubes. The basic recipe for this dry mix can be tweaked to suit your particular taste. Create your own special dish by experimenting with the seasonings and adding your own fresh ingredients when you make the dish.

Creamy Parmesan Rice Mix: Want a kid-friendly dish? This rice dish is nice and creamy and cheesy, making it perfect for kids. Because you use powdered milk, you can include it in the ready-to-use mix, rather than using fresh milk when the dish is prepared. You will really appreciate having this mix waiting for you in the pantry when your hungry little ones' are patiently waiting for dinner.

Suggested mix ingredients: 1 cup long grain brown rice or white rice, 2 teaspoons chicken bouillon, 2 tablespoons dry milk powder, 1 teaspoon onion powder, 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder, 1/4 cup grated dry Parmesan cheese (in canister) not freshly grated. Prepare this dish as is or add other ingredients, such as diced cooked chicken or mixed frozen vegetables, to create a full meal.

The cooking instructions for these mixes will depend on the amount of rice in the mix. The ingredients you use in the dry mix will depend on your own personal tastes. When it comes time to cook the meal, follow the rice cooking instructions from the box of rice you used, then add any other ingredients you wish, being sure the ingredients have been properly prepared and cooked if necessary.

When you get comfortable creating your own ready-to-make dinners at home, you'll quickly find new ways to make all your family's favorite "boxed" meals at home! Homemade pre-packaged foods are the perfect opportunity to experiment with all sorts of new and creative dishes. Add seafood, spices, herbs, vegetables, or anything you want to create a dish that becomes your own specialty.

Just a few of these basic go-to mixes in your pantry is all you need to quickly stir up a delicious and nutritious meal for your family. We all know that pre-packaged meals help make it possible for a busy household to get dinner together and on the table quickly and easily. But, unlike those store-bought boxes, these mixes are inexpensive and have your own special ingredient... love! Mix up a few of these ready-to-go mealtime shortcuts for your own busy family, and save yourself valuable time and money. - 30289

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Do You Really Need Bread Machine Mixes?

By Marion Jones

Do you use bread machine mixes when you want to make yeast bread in your automatic bread-making machine? If so, why? Is it because you think it's simpler? It is so easy to make gourmet bread quickly from easy bread recipes and so much more variable too. If you use bread machine mixes you are limited to the bread machine mixes there are in the stores " no matter how many of them there are there.

On the other hand, a good bread machine recipe book is infinitely more flexible than bread machine mixes. A good bread machine cookbook might give you 150 or so recipes originating from several countries, but it will also inspire you to adapt those recipes, encouraging you to be creative and invent your own style of bread.

Bread machine mixes are really quite restricting and you have no control over what goes into the bread machine mix either: preservatives, colouring, MSG, salt or who knows what. Yes, it says on the label, but you cant take them out, if you limit yourself to bread machine mixes.

Making bread is really quite easy. Or to put it correctly, the ingredients to making bread are really quite simple. To bake a very basic loaf of bread, you only need: flour, water, yeast, sugar, salt and fat or oil. The difficult part about making bread is the mixing. It can take four hours to mix the bread making ingredients together; to wait for it to rise; to knead it; wait for it to prove; knead it again and bake it.

So, if you have a bread making machine you can automate the hard bread mixing, proving, kneading cycle and if you have a bread-making cookbook you will be provided with recipes to guide and inspire you.

What could be easier? You look in the bread-making machine cookbook for an appetizing recipe; you put the everyday ingredients into the bread mixing bowl of the bread machine and you put the yeast into a time-release box on top of the bread machine; set the timer and go about your daily life or go to sleep!

The bread making machine will stir the ingredients and check the timer. My bread-making machine has a sixteen-hour timer. That means that, if you want your gourmet, yeast bread ready for 8:30 AM, the bread-making machine will stir the flour, water, salt oil and sugar at once, add the yeast at say, 5 AM, knead, prove and bake the bread and ring a bell at 8:30 to announce that your gourmet food is waiting for you.

But you won't need the alarm to tell you that. The aroma of freshly baked bread will [permeate|fill your house and you will be very much cognizant of the fact that your bread making machine is just about ready to deliver one of the best loaves of bread you've ever had in your life. And you will never look for bread machine mixes again. You'll be overflowing with your own bread machine mixes in no time at all and you'll be giving bread away as gifts so that you can try out your very own latest bread machine mix recipe.

Bread machine mixes: why bother with them? - 30289

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Where Does a Lobster Call Home?

By Sherry Shantel

Did you ever look at a lobster swimming around in the little fish tank at a restaurant and wonder where he lived before he was caught? You may remember he lived in the ocean, but did you realize that most lobsters live in only the coastal regions around the world. Once considered unfit to eat, lobsters have risen in such popularity in the last few decades that fishermen can hardly capture enough of them to meet demand.

Right after he's born, a very tiny lobster looks nothing like an adult lobster and has a 1/1000 chance of surviving to adulthood. During the first 15 days of his life, he lives in the top three feet of water in the ocean and is extremely vulnerable to predators. During this period he molts three times before moving into the fourth stage as a miniature adult.

After reaching stage four, the lobster has the swimming abilities to search for a permanent place to live. He prefers the rocky bottom of cobbles such as are found in the waters off the coast of Maine. If this isn't an option, he may choose a different habitat such as the salt peat marsh that surrounds the coast of Cape Cod. Lobsters are versatile and can survive in whatever their surroundings happen to be.

Cobble is an exceptionally suitable habitat for lobsters. There are many crevices and cracks around and under the small rocks that make up the cobble which offers him places to hide and wait for his food to come to him. While many coastal regions offer rocky bottoms, Maine is ideal in that it also has just what lobsters like, clean, cold water.

Shortly after he molts for his fifth time, he moves to the new location he has found on the ocean bottom. For the first year or so in his new residence, he remains hidden in his tunnel or crevice so that his predators can't find him. As he gets a little larger, say after his first year there, he begins to hide in the kelp and search for food. He'll continue to do this for another three years.

Small lobsters seldom come out in the open. If our lobster were to swim out into the ocean at this point in his life, he'd be eaten by fish within minutes. Only when he gets larger will he move to an area with larger rocks. He may also choose to live in sandy or muddy areas between the shoreline and the edge of the continental shelf. Being a loner, he lives by himself in a crevice or burrow under rocks.

No matter where a lobster lives, there are sure to be fishermen after him. If he manages to evade natural predators and fishermen, however, he can live a very long life. During colonial times when lobsters were abundant, there are reports that some of the lobsters were five or six feet long.

Lobsters don't get the chance to grow as large in this era of modern fishing techniques. The biggest one on record was caught in 1977 just off the coast of Nova Scotia. It measured in at somewhere between three and four feet, and it weighed a mighty 44 pounds, 6 ounces. It was estimated that he was around 100 years old. How about that! - 30289

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Buy Live Maine Lobsters Online

By Sherry Shantel

I can't think of anything else more wonderful to enjoy from Maine than the delicious tasty Maine lobsters that this state is know for.

Maine is known for some of the best lobsters in the country. These delights are sure to become a culinary favorite, once you have sampled your first ones. They are simply delicious and succulent to the taste buds.

In order for the lobsters to be their finest quality, they must be fresh. When you bring back your own lobsters from Maine, or if you are buying them from a company online; your lobsters must remain fresh until you are ready for cooking them.

Freshness has a lot to do with the quality of the lobsters. When in Scarborough, Maine, be sure to visit the Pine Point Fisherman's Co-op for some fresh lobster that you are sure to enjoy and will want to bring some back home with you. . Even though bringing lobster home helps, it's still easy to miss this delicious seafood once you have eaten the last morsel.

Lobsters that are sent to you are shipped in insulated boxes with an ice pack and moist paper to keep your lobster at its best. This keeps your lobster cold and provides a supply of ocean water. Thus, all efforts are made to make sure you get the finest quality that you could ever hope for.

When the lobsters are shipped to you, they are shipped in an insulated box with an ice pack and moist paper. This helps to keep your lobster cold and provides a constant supply of ocean water. Thus, every effort is made to assure you of the finest quality of fresh seafood that you could ever imagine.

Are you in the mood for some really good seafood, is going to Maine not in your line of things to do soon?

Enjoy something sweet, delicious, and succulent. Enjoy some Maine Lobsters. Have a seafood feast soon. Don't put it off; you know you are craving the taste all of Maine is talking about-Live Maine Lobsters! Enjoy eating something that is nutritious and good for your health. Buy some live Maine lobsters and eat hearty! - 30289

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Can You Cook Live Lobsters Humanely?

By Sherry Shantel

Advocates for animal rights will protest the practice of putting live lobsters into boiling water. Their concerns are based on whether or not the lobster is capable of feeling pain. They believe that there has to be a better way to cook live lobsters.

Scientists have searched for information regarding the amount of pain a lobster is capable of feeling. Lobster lovers everywhere may be surprised at what they found.

A lobster cannot feel pain the way humans know it. Its nervous system is too undeveloped, and its tiny, simple brain is only a bunch of nerve endings. The brain of a lobster is about the size of a grasshopper's brain and lacks complexity.

There's no way a lobster can have a brain like that and have the ability to think or feel like we do. Researchers have concurred that the practice of cooking live lobsters by steaming and boiling and grilling are not inhumane.

Steaming a lobster starts with a four to five gallon pot containing two inches of seawater or salted water and containing a steaming rack being brought to a rolling boil over high heat. Once the pot is up to temperature, add the lobsters one at a time. Put the lid on the pot and start your timer. It takes about 10 minutes to cook one pound of lobster and around an hour for six to eight pounds. Halfway through the cooking time, rearrange the lobsters in the pot.

For every 1 to 2 pounds of lobster you want to boil, add three quarts of water to your large pot. Calculate the total number of gallons of water in the pot, and add one quarter cup of salt for each gallon. Heat the water to a rolling boil and add the lobsters one at a time. It will take about 8 minutes to boil one pound of lobster. Six to eight pounds will take 50 minutes to an hour. Halfway through the cooking time, stir the lobsters.

Grilling lobsters starts the same way boiling them does by cooking them in boiling water for about five minutes. Remove them from the hot water immediately and plunge them into a cold water bath so that they won't continue to cook. Take each well-drained lobster and place it on its back on a cutting board. Using a sharp knife, split each lobster down the middle and cut out the black vein in the tail and the sand sac by the head. Baste the lobsters with melted butter or oil and place them flesh-side down on the grill. Cook them for five to six minutes on that side before turning them over. Baste them again and continue cooking for another four or five minutes.

Although there are still people who spend time advocating humane treatment for lobsters, most are willing to accept the scientific data which says they do not suffer. The only way you can enjoy the taste of truly fresh lobster meat is by steaming, boiling or grilling it. The purchase of live lobsters isn't limited to grocery stores and restaurants any more, either. Online seafood shops will deliver the very freshest lobsters overnight to your home. - 30289

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