August 27th, 2007
A few years ago when I actually attended a cooking school through HomeChef, the instructors strongly suggested that if you were going to cut corners in making pasta sauce, at least use the boxed stuff, like the Pomi Chopped Tomatoes, in place of chopping up tomatoes yourself. Any admittance of using a jar of tomato sauce or a can of chopped tomatoes was looked down upon as the ultimate cop out and sacrifice of taste and freshness.
Why? Apparently the sweet and tangy taste of tomatoes is compromised by canning it in those tin things. Jars of sauce are guilty of having lots of sugar and water added to them.
Filed under: Kitchen, Italy | No Comments »
July 19th, 2007
For any reader who has mangled a practically full bottle of wine by contaminating it with broken cork bits, here’s a tip on how to not throw away all that precious wine.
Of course, it can get a little messy if you’re at home and this happens to you and your full bottle of wine. If this happens, do your best to pour out some of the wine (through a strainer, ideally, to remove any cork bits).
Filed under: Kitchen, Free | No Comments »
June 12th, 2007
For those of you of legal drinking age that are looking for ways to save some money on your next alcohol and liquor purchases, consider buying liquor at your local Costco. 
Fox News’ SmartMoney.com reported that little-known legislation in several states requires that warehouse-type retail outlets sell alcohol to non-members without requiring any additional fees:
These laws date back to the 1930s, when Prohibition was repealed. Massachusetts’ law, for example, provides that applicants for a license to sell alcohol must “serve the public need and protect the common good.” In simpler terms, alcohol sold must be available for purchase by the greater public — no membership restrictions.
Filed under: Kitchen, Other Food Stuff | No Comments »
June 6th, 2007
I recently bought two bags of cherry tomatoes on the vine from Safeway. After a few days in the refridgerator (oops! more on that later), they started looking wrinkly. Since they didn’t look good for eating in salad anymore, I decided to cook a few of them in a chicken dish I was making.
After throwing in a handful of the cherry tomatoes into the saute pan, and stirring for a few minutes, I noticed that the cherry tomatoes were plumping up again. After cooking my meal, I served myself and noticed that the cherry tomatoes did not shrivel up again, despite having been removed from the heat. I tried a bite and they were still great.
Filed under: Budget, Kitchen | No Comments »
A few years ago when I actually attended a cooking school through HomeChef, the instructors strongly suggested that if you were going to cut corners in making pasta sauce, at least use the boxed stuff, like the Pomi Chopped Tomatoes, in place of chopping up tomatoes yourself. Any admittance of using a jar of tomato sauce or a can of chopped tomatoes was looked down upon as the ultimate cop out and sacrifice of taste and freshness.