Midnightglory

Chocolate chip cookies are a source of comfort food not only for kids but for adults as well. I mean, who doesn’t love these good old choco chip cookies? They have always been a staple in our household and even the adults can’t get enough of these much loved treat.

Here are 2 delightful and delicious choco chip recipes that you and your kids would surely love. Enjoy!

Chocolate Chip, Pecan and Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1.5 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground clove
1 cup quick-cooking oats
2 cups pecans; chopped
2 teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
12 ounces semisweet choco chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat (nonstick baking mat). Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until it is light & fluffy.

Next, add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about three minutes. Stir in eggs,1 after the other. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl.

Then add in half of your flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. Stir in oats, pecans, orange zest, and choco chips.

Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet then bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden. Remove from your oven then cool cookies on a rack. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 ounces unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 scant teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1.5 cups semisweet choco chips

Instructions:

Heat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with a silicone liner or spray with baking spray.

Combine the flour, baking soda & salt in a medium bowl.

In a mixing bowl with electric mixer, cream butter sugars together until light & fluffy. Beat in eggs, egg yolk, and vanilla.

Slowly beat in flour mixture until blended. Fold in choco chips. Using a tablespoon or cookie scoop, drop dough onto a baking sheet, leaving about 2 inches between cookies.

Bake for 9 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned and set in the middle

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2361.shtml

If you are in the market for a trustworthy coffee machine, then you ought to consider the tassimo coffee maker by Bosch. The Tassimo coffee maker is an awesome product to put together coffee, cappuccino, latte, hot tea or whichever additional brew that you would crave to concoct. By way of the T disc system you merely place in a pre-packed T disc from your beloved coffee brand; Starbucks, Seattle and so forth. You can buy this coffee machine on the net from the comfort of your house. It is habitually delivered rather quickly and without inconvenience. It will come with the standard warranties. In this article, we will go into further details about what the tassimo coffee machine created by Bosch is, what it does, as well as how it works.

Because the Tassimo coffee machine has a straightforward process for brewing your beloved coffee you never have to be bothered about measuring the accurate amount of water or filling in your grounds for your coffee, tea, or latte. All single T disk has a bar code on it that can inform the coffee maker what heat along with how much water to put through the filter. Given this unique feature you can always have a perfect mug of brew.

The mug slot allows for one beverage at a time to be brewed, flawlessly including drinks with fresh milk. The height is large enough to accommodate just about any size cup. Therefore, you can make professional looking hot drinks for your guests straightforwardly. You can bet they will be impressed. If you like entertaining and would like to exhibit your coffee making talents this Tassimo coffee maker is for you. You can show your visitors that you rival the local coffee hot shop with no difficulty.

Keep in mind that purchasing T disks on the net should only come out to between fifty to seventy cents for each cup. When you put side by side this to the charge of a little cup of coffee at any restaurant or coffee shop, it isn’t hard to see that it is a good trade. It is also perfect for people in a hurry, because it simply needs 1 minute to concoct a cup.

Because the drinks are brewed in the T disk filter you need never fret about bitter coffee that comes through the filtration system and makes the coffee overly strong. Washing this device is as easy as grabbing a moist cloth and wiping it clean. There may be an occurrence where you have to wipe the bar code reader clean with a rag or possibly a q-tip to make sure it can read the T disk, however that is exceptional and only after around a hundred cups of coffee. It is a excellent machine and easy to use.

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2379.shtml

There are a number of wine tasting suppliers out there, we aim to offer some impartial advice on the factors you may wish to consider before choosing a supplier for a wine tasting. Some companies, like are flexible, and can offer any type of wine tasting event the client desires, but not all companies are, so you should know what you want, and how to find it!

What’s the purpose?

Be clear on what type of wine tasting event you are looking for. Is it educational, entertaining, a “drinking” session, a team building, to impress a client, to have a competition? Different suppliers will have a variety of stances and be sure they are able to manage these requirements.

Off the shelf or tailor made?

Some wine tasting suppliers offer standard tastings, others offer tailored wine tastings according to client needs. In some respects there is nothing wrong with standard wine tastings. However, a tailored wine tasting costs no more to deliver for a client than a standard one. Is the standard wine tasting offering reflecting something else (limitations of the knowledge of the presenters or limited sources of wines available)? Particularly if your wine tasting is accompanying food, try to understand how the wines will be matched with the food (or the food with the wine)

What style do you want from your presenter?

This is probably one of the most important things to consider. He or she is key to your wine tasting event’s success. Make sure you get the chance to at least talk to the presenter on the phone before your event – use your instincts….if they don’t engage you on the phone, they probably won’t in front of an audience either! Think about what style you want – serious, amusing, knowledgeable, approachable, a stand up comic or a lecturer?

What information do you want from your presenter?

Do make sure the staff running the event are qualified in wines and spirits. It may seem odd to say such a trivial point, but we know of wine tasting suppliers where the person running the tasting has very little knowledge about wine at all, they use a standard package, a standard talk and fall down at the first sniff of a difficult question. With the exception of those that regularly drink Blue Nun, your guests will soon know if the wine tasting presenter knew what they were talking about. The credibility of the whole event rests on the credibility of the presenters.

Do you want your event to sell wine to your guests?

Be clear on whether wine will be sold after the wine tasting event. Events with a wine sales element, will naturally have a sales “pitch” however subtle. It may also limit the choice of wines presented, as presenters may be working on sales commission on top of their fee.

How do I compare costs? The hardest question to answer.

Firstly try to get a sense of the type of wines that you will be drinking at the wine tasting. Ask for examples of wines each supplier plans to use in your tasting. Any wine tasting event cost will be made up of fixed costs and the wine costs. Wine is often the most variable part – you could be drinking a £2.99 bottle of plonk or a £100 bottle of fine wine. If the wine tasting supplier is providing the wine, and there are no corkage charges, the wine element should be at normal retail price. But be warned, some will charge restaurant prices. In this business, a “Price per head” is notoriously difficult to quote on, particularly if attendee numbers may fluctuate, and if wines are truly tailored to the event. Where prices per head are quoted immediately on a website for example, you should expect an off-the-shelf standard tasting. Try to understand how many people are making money along the way – are you dealing with an event management company (who is of course adding an addi!

tional fee), or directly with the wine tasting supplier? Usually the smaller the company, the lower the overheads and therefore the lower the price to the customer. As with all purchases, be clear whether prices include or exclude VAT.

One Recommendation: Champagne Tuesdays

Champagne Tuesdays will typically quote a total wine tasting event price, which will be for an estimated number of people. If numbers fluctuate significantly, the price will of course change. All events and the wines used are tailored to the client, but they do not use poor quality wines though. Ever. Where food accompanies wine tastings they will always endeavour to ensure the two are appropriately matched. We are happy to discuss with venues, caterers and others how best to do this. Champagne Tuesdays staff style is typically very entertaining and enjoyable, although they are also qualified tutors, so if a more formal approach is required it’s no problem. Champagne Tuesdays wine tasting events are focused around enjoyment, not sales. http://www.champagnetuesdays.com

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2374.shtml

Learn the importance of clean water. There are several procedures that you can learn. You can use distillation, filtration or boiling procedures. If the water is cloudy, it needs to be processed. Many had been ill because of contamination. Read this article to learn about the best water purification system.

A safe drinking water system is crucial to your health. Without treatment for your drinking water, you will never know if you have consumed pollutants or contaminants that are detrimental to your health over time.

Because of modernization, your drinking water is no longer as safe as 100 years ago. However, there are methods to ensure that you can enjoy pure and clean water to drink. Boiling is one way of killing germs. It is also used during emergency or when you are in emergency situation, such as going camping or hiking and you consumed all your bottled water.

The benefits of boiling include killing off pathogens, and removing Volatile Organic Compounds or VOCs. However, on the negative side, it is not advisable if there are toxic metals, chemicals or nitrates present in your water.

If the water is cloudy, it should first be filtered before boiling. Filtration is another process of ensuring a safe drinking water system. Filters are also used during camping. There are two types of filters, namely the sediment and activated carbon. Sediment filters include fiber and ceramic filters.

Ceramic water filters integrate nano-silver penetrated into a porous ceramic outer shell to trap bacteria down to as small as .22 of a micron in size. Charcoal water filters have many forms. Carbon block is the solidified form of a honeycombed carbon. For many, it is the best form of filter; however its flow rate is slower than with loose charcoal.

Activated silver impregnated charcoal is called Chlorgon. It has chloramines exclusion and bacterial killing ability. Carbon filters are not known to change the pH balance of water. So if you have acidic water, you will still have acidic water with carbon filters, because the minerals causing the acidity will be dissolved and pass through the carbon filter.

Reverse osmosis is another popular drinking water system. It draws water through a fine membrane which acts like a fine filter to produce drinkable water from salty water. The contaminated water is passed through one side of the membrane, with pressure. It then reverses in the osmotic process.

The advantages of reverse osmosis include reduction of salt and most inorganic and organic compounds present in the water. They are trapped in the filters, which purifies the treated water.

Ultra Violet Radiation systems use high frequency light to irradiate water through a glass element. The water passing the element is exposed to the light which kills all living organisms.

This drinking water system is common among third world hotels to ensure that the local water consumption is safe from harmful elements like fecal matter. Water distillation is another process of purifying drinking water.

It is believed to be the effective approach in eliminating water of all impurities. But just recently, there have been studies that link water distillation to the imbalance of minerals in the body. It also has acidic results that typical distilling drinking water systems create.

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2375.shtml

A recipe to do at home on Valentine’s Day – easy and good value with all the tips from the top anyone could need to produce a heartwarming supper for two.

Venison au Poivre for Two

Venison is delicious, unusual and incredibly good for you. Thanks to companies like Donald Russell (www.donaldrussell.com) and Blackface (www.blackface.co.uk) , both online butchers based in Scotland, it is now incredibly easy to place an order on the internet and have a box of steaks arrive on your doorstep a few days later. What’s more, it is better value than beef at the moment.

Steak au poivre may be a seventies cult dish, but there are reasons why dishes become cult in the first place. The creamy sauce laced with the flavour of brandy and dark, rich-scented peppercorns feels incredibly luxurious, especially if you pair it with venison instead of the more usual beef. It may be a simple dish but it tastes a million dollars.

Preparation time: 5-10 minutes

Cooking time: 5-10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp each of black and whitepeppercorns
• 4 venison medallions
• 30g butter
• ½ onion or 2 baby shallots
• 1/4 beef stock cube
• 100ml brandy
• 150ml water
• 75ml crème fraiche

Up to two hours before you are ready to eat, crush the peppercorns in a pestle and mortar and press them into the medallions. The pestle and mortar gives the peppercorns the perfect texture for this dish, but if you don’t have one, put the peppercorns into a hard-wearing plastic bag and bash them with a rolling pin. Leave the meat aside for the pepper flavour to penetrate the meat. Pre-heat the oven to 60C and put in two plates to warm.

TIP

The secret is to take the steaks out of the fridge about 10 minutes before you cook them so that they can come up to room temperature. Then, the only other must is to get your pan (a heavy steak at the highest temperature possible. -bottomed frying-pan is ideal) smoking hot before you even add fat to it. That way you can really sear the

Five minutes before you are ready to eat, heat a large heavy-bottomed frying-pan until it is smoking hot and then add half the butter. When the butter is sizzling (the pan should now be extremely hot), add the medallions and cook on one side for 2 minutes (if the medallions are thin you could cook for less – say 90 seconds), before turning and cooking for a further 60-90 seconds.

Venison is very lean so is best eaten rare or it tends to get dry and chewy. When eaten rare the meat is so tender that it is almost like biting through butter. It will continue cooking in the oven while it rests so put the medallions on one of the plates whilst you make the sauce.

Add the rest of the butter to the pan, turn it down to a medium heat and add the shallots and stock cube. Sweat for five minutes so that the shallots soften but do not colour before pouring in the brandy and water to de-glaze the pan. Simmer the juices rapidly for a few minutes before turning the heat right down and stirring in the crème fraiche.

Simmer for a few minutes more to reduce the crème fraiche and check for seasoning Serve with a crisp, green salad and some small, waxy potatoes that you can either roast until crisp in the oven, or steam until tender. It is delicious accompanied with some kind of jelly like rosehip, quince or redcurrant.

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2376.shtml

Most people love to eat cookies because they are sweet, flavorful and yummy especially when they are properly prepared and baked. Cookies are great desserts. If you like munching on cookies, then now is actually a very good time to learn how to bake cookies. You may start with easy-to-cook recipes.

Personally, I always look at those easy-to-cook recipes because my 2 year old son also enjoys cooking and baking. He owns a small toy kitchen furnished with stove, sink, fridge and oven. He often stands over a small footrest and puts on his little apron.

He measures, mixes and pours as if he’s really baking. The funny thing is when he cooks inside his little kitchen, my son becomes like 1 of those food network stars on TV cooking and making funny anecdotes.

It was only recently when I discovered my eagerness to search for easy- to-prepare sugar cookies because I thought these cookies will be an interesting shift from my typical choco-chip cookies. Nothing’s a miss with our choco-chip cookies. In fact, everyone in our house loves them. However, I thought to myself that it will also be nice to expose my son to a broader scope of easy-to-make cookies. Besides, lots of easy-to-cook sugar cookies are found online.

Although the Old-Fashioned Sugar Cookie recipe seems difficult to make, I still consider it as an easy-to-bake recipes. You only have to combine the ingredients, put it inside the refrigerator and roll them in sugar after. After the dough has chilled, you just slice it according to your preferred sizes and then bake them. The best portion of doing this recipe is when you are about to decorate your cookies. Your kids will definitely enjoy this part. You may decorate it with colorful food paint.

During my search for easy-to-bake recipes, I found lots of recipes that do not entail baking. The recipes call for minimal stove action but still no baking in the oven is needed. Since summer is fast approaching, no-bake recipes are really good and fun ideas. They are relatively easy to do and almost all the recipes have similar main ingredients. Finally, my kid will also experience actual cooking.

My boy loves doing lots of mixing when he does his play-cooking, so what I do is allow him to scoop the mixture and place it over the parchment or wax paper. This activity will be fun and interesting because the kitchen will become a big mess. It’s totally fine as long as my son enjoys the day.

So what are you waiting for! Check out the World Wide Web for those easy to make recipes and have fun making them with your kids.

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2364.shtml

Both young and the old ones love and enjoy the sweet treats brought by cookies. Children most especially are hooked with these little bites of sweetness. Different terms and names are given to these delicious cookies. Spaniards name them as galletas while English people termed them as biscuits.

Germans name these small goodies as kels whereas people from Northern part of America name them cookies. Earliest forms of cookies actually were just tiny cakes known as koeje, a simple Dutch term for small cakes. This term koekje later developed and become cookie. Regardless of the label or name given to this delicious and aromatic flavor, they remain good treats for all children.

Usually, children love sweets or cookies which are bought commercially. In a report given by www.timeforkids.com, there were five in demand brands of cookies in the market.

1. Oreo which sells around $519 M (million) annually
2. Chips Ahoy sells around $347 M (million) annually.
3. Chips Deluxe earns $160 M (million) per year.
4. Newton gets $137 M (million) in one year.
5. Fudge Shoppe earns around $127 M (million) in one fiscal year.

Even if kids enjoy cookies which are bought from stores, children still love the ones made from their homes. Children enjoy baking while the parents find quality moments with their children in this activity.

When you want to give your children some freshly baked cookies at home, here is a list of the most popular and tasty cookies which children love.

1. Gingerbread Flavor Cookies: Gingerbread always brings delight to all children because these tasty treats usually are baked in numerous figures and designs. Plus, frosting is being used also to decorate these delicious cookies adding to their appeal. The ingredients are: flour, butter/margarine, sugar (granulated), soft butter, cinnamon powder, molasses, baking agent, ginger powder, crushed cloves, salt, grated nutmeg and leavening soda.

2.Double Choco-Chip Cookies: Double choco-chip flavored cookies are a favorite of most children. Ingredients are: sugar, salt, flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, leavening soda, cocoa (powder unsweetened), buttermilk and partially sweet choco-chips.

3.Peanut Butter cookie: Undoubtedly, this flavor is very much liked by children. You may enhance the flavor by using known brands such as: Jiffy, Skippy or Peter Pan peanut spread. When you want, you may combine it with choco-chips. You may also make your cookies healthier by using peanut spread that has no preservatives. The ingredients are: brown or unrefined sugar, eggs, peanut spread, butter/margarine, flour, shortening, leavening agent, salt, sugar (granulated) and baking agent.

4.Choco-Chip Cookies: Choco chip cookies are really famous to children. They feel soft, moist and chewy. You may consider the usual choco-chips, milk-choco chunks and gourmet choco-chips. Any of them would be a sure hit with your children. The usual ingredients are: eggs, melted unsalted margarine or butter, brown or unrefined sugar, flour (all-purpose), white or refined sugar, salt, vanilla, leavening agent and lastly partially sweet choco-chips/chunks.

5.Sugar-Flavored Cookies: This flavor of cookies is sweet and delicious. Plus, this cookie may be cut in various figures and designs. Ingredients are: margarine/ butter), sugar (granulated), flour (all-purpose), leavening soda, eggs, salt, vanilla and cream of tartar.

Children enjoy and love the sweet and delicious taste of cookies – that is why offering them these treats will surely give them much delight.

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2363.shtml

For many years now, I have been growing zucchini & looking for other ways and means to make use of them aside from your usual dishes like salads and etc. So I have experimented a lot of times to get interesting dishes that feature zucchini as the main ingredient.

Here are 2 delicious bread recipes that star the zucchini as main ingredient and they’re absolutely delicious.

Moist Zucchini Quick Bread Recipes With Nuts & Spices

6 cups unbleached white flour, or a combination of half white, half whole wheat
2 tsps salt
2 tsps baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 tbsps cinnamon, ground
6 large eggs
3.5 c sugar
5 tsps pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 c canola oil
5 c zucchini, finely grated
2 c walnuts/pecans, chopped

Preheat your oven to around 350 deg. F. Butter/spray with vegetable spray & flour 4 (8½ X 4½ X 2½ inch) loaf pans and set aside.

Using a food processor, grate the zucchini until it is fine. Set aside. Inside a big bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon and set aside. Beat eggs in an another large bowl, preferably with a stand mixer, or a hand-held mixer.

Next, add sugar, canola oil & vanilla then mix again until blended well. Scrape sides of bowl. Add grated zucchini then mix, scraping down sides of bowl once or twice.

Using a large rubber spatula, fold in your flour mixture until it is all combined and there are no dry ingredients left in the bottom of your bowl. Fold in the walnuts/pecans. Spread batter into the 4 prepared pans and bake at 350 deg. for 1 hour (60 minutes) or just until knife comes out clean.

Allow cooling for 5-10 minutes and then gently removing them from the pans and let them cool completely on wire racks before wrapping and freezing. Serve at room temperature or chilled.Refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 months. Make 4 regular size zucchini breads.

Delicious Blueberry Zucchini Bread

3 pcs eggs, lightly beaten
1 c vegetable oil
2 1/4 c white sugar
2 c zucchini; shredded
3 c flour (all-purpose)
1 tsp salt
3 tsps vanilla extract
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 pint fresh blueberries

Preheat your oven to around 350 deg. F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease 4 mini-loaf pans. Inside a large bowl, beat together the eggs, oil, vanilla, & sugar. Fold in the zucchini. Beat in the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon.

Gently fold in the blueberries. Transfer to the prepared mini-loaf pans. Next, bake 50 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until a knife inserted in the middle of a loaf comes out clean. Cool 20 minutes in pans, then turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.

from : http://www.articlecity.com/articles/food_and_drink/article_2362.shtml