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More Southern Cooking Techniques

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:24:00 +0000

More Southern Cooking Techniques
By: K. Miller
I know this first technique may sound unrelated to Southern Cooking , but you will see the connection as we proceed. Here's the first tip, which should be applied to all your recipes, not just Southern Cooking.The Chinese figured this out long ago. Combine sweet and sour in your cooking. That is, in a dish that is intended to be sweet (deserts), add a pinch of salt, vinegar or hot spice. In a dish that is intended to be sour (not sweet), such as vegetables, chili, meats, add sweet. I prefer syrup or molasses rather than regular sugar to add sweetness.As an example, in Southern Recipes, I add a teaspoon of molasses to greens (turnip, collards, mustard), green beans and breakfast gravy. One exception to the adding sweet to sour is in cornbread. If you want real Southern cornbread, never put sugar in it. Sorry, that's not cornbread, it's cake (or Yankee cornbread.) I also add a teaspoon of regular sugar to my cole slaw and chili. Likewise, in all deserts I cook I add a pinch of salt. You are probably aware that most desert recipes call for this anyway. I have discussed the next technique at length in my other articles and on my websites, but it is so important I want to repeat it here. You must use cast iron cookware for most Southern dishes, especially cornbread. First, it is the traditional way to cook Southern. Additionally, the cast iron transfers heat unlike any other material, making it uniquely suited for Southern dishes. So, please use cast iron.This next technique is employed in many Southern recipes. Southerners use cornmeal in many fried dishes to coat the food. This produces a crunchy texture and adds flavor. When frying chicken, coat (batter) the chicken in flour, but add cornmeal to the flour mix at a 3 to 1 ration. In other words 1/4 cup cornmeal to 1 cup flour. Also, fried okra should be coated in a pure cornmeal mix (with salt and pepper, no flour.) Here's the point...experiment a little. When a recipe calls for flour or just because you have always cooked it that way, try substituting cornmeal for flour.Here's something I remember from my grandmother's kitchen. She was a great cook of traditional Southern food. She made the best biscuits I ever tasted. At first, I thought it was her recipe, until I found out there was nothing unusual about it (I think she got it off a bag of flour.) It wasn't the ingredients that made them so good. It was the size of the biscuits. I always knew she made bigger biscuits than I was use to but I didn't make the connection until after I found out her secret was not the ingredients. Larger biscuits will have more of the soft insides and a larger area outside for the brown crust. They are especially good with gravy or anytime you will be using a sauce. Here's what she did. She rolled out the biscuit dough to about 3/4 inch thickness. Then she used a biscuit cutter that was a little over 3 inches in diameter (who knows where she got it...it was probably a hundred years old.) A word of caution if you use this technique for your biscuits, do not make the dough over 3/4 inch thick. You may think that if 3/4 inch is good, then 1 1/2 inches should be better. Not so. The 3/4 inch rule seems to be the optimum for Fat Biscuits. If you make them much thicker the tops will crack and they will have a doughy flour taste. So, if you are one that has always made slim 2 inch biscuits, give these a try. And, try out the other techniques mentioned for real Southern Cooking.

Author Bio
Ken Miller is a free lance writer and webmaster for itzalgud.com Southern Cooking - Southern Recipes, where you can get free recipes for authenic Southern favorites.
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Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 02:10:00 +0000

Easy Chocolate Chip Cookies
By: Stephanie Foster
"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love chocolate, and communists." - Leslie Moak Murray
I can't help but love that quote. When I was a kid, my grandpa always called any store bought cookies that somehow made it into the house "Commie cookies." For him, it was Grandma's homemade cookies or none at all.
There's just something special about homemade cookies, especially chocolate chip cookies, so far as I'm concerned. It's a great family activity, something even children can help with, and everyone loves eating the results.
Here's an easy recipe for chocolate chip cookies I think you'll enjoy:
Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 package butter pecan, chocolate chip, chocolate fudge, devil's food, German, chocolate or yellow cake mix
1/2 cup butter or margarine -- softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 (6 ounce) package semisweet chocolate chips (1 cup)

Heat oven to 350°. Combine half of the dry cake mix , butter, vanilla and eggs in large bowl and mix until smooth. Stir in remaining cake mix, nuts and chocolate chips.
Drop dough by rounded teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are set (centers will be soft). Cool 1 minute; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.
Author Bio
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Gimme Chocolate and offers a range of gourmet chocolate products as well as chocolate recipes on the site. For more recipes, please visit www.gimmechocolate.com/recipes/
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University Selection

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 02:04:00 +0000

University Selection
By: Keith Carter
One of the classic dilemmas faced by students after school is the selection of the right university. With a huge number of options with varying specializations, campus facilities and of course the recognition and accreditations, the selections become really puzzling.
While selecting remember to consider:
1. Your aptitude and your past records on subjects
2. Compare courses of your choices across university to see if they offer the ones you want to go ahead with and their relevance
3. Accreditations
4. Facilities
5. Industry acceptance
The choices are more than enough for students with the right aptitude and skills and I am not talking just about the toppers. After all a lot of mediocre students do make it big, at times bigger than the toppers just because they made the right selections along the path.
The opportunities for university education have enhanced with the upcoming of online universities. Online universities like Almeda University, offer students access to a larger number of options and flexibility, as physical presence is either not required or just about minimal.
One of the boons of the modern technology is the scope of online education. Online degrees from Phoenix, Purdue, Almeda, Illinois, Kaplan and many more helps thousands of students and professionals worldwide to pursue education and development that would otherwise have not been possible for various reasons. Barring a few, regulatory authorities recognize all the online programs and the programs themselves comply with industry standards and requirements.
There has been some unnecessary talk about the validity of Almeda University in the recent past. What I have found and so have about a quarter of my students and thousands of Almeda University students is not only a high degree of acceptability of the courses, but the students themselves being able to secure above average positions in top corporations.

I do not want to get into any canvassing for a certain name or type of online degree but the fact remains that management and tech degrees are indeed the ladders that run high and online and distance education degrees have consistently and successfully placed students to their deserving seats.
For students though I have a word of caution. Be it Almeda University or any other body offering you an online degree anywhere in the globe, make sure you have checked for their accreditations in their home country and in your home country, if they are different. If they are, and beyond this, the world is your playground and an exception or two would not make much of a difference.

Life experience degrees are highly focused programs that are high on industry relevance. Students of such programs can look forward to being one of the most updated professionals as these programs are designed with the present and future in mind. The feather in the cap is the option to upgrade as relevant additions to the programs are made to offer students and easy upgrade from their current kills.
There has been a lot of hoopla over the acceptability of online universities and their programs. Let me tell you, the acceptability is all about a candidate's ability and credentials relevant to the job responsibilities. If a degree is found ornamental, with the incumbent lacking the required skills, the only way to is the door!

Author Bio
You can get more information and post your comments and feedback at drkeithcarter@yahoo.com. Dr. Keith Carter is an retired educational consultant.
http://360.yahoo.com/drkeithcarter
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Career Changes for Baby Boomers: Ability, Not Age, Matters

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:42:00 +0000

Career Changes for Baby Boomers: Ability, Not Age, Matters
By: Kelli Smith
Baby boomers. They're the generation born between 1946 and 1964. They came of age in the early 70s and early 80s. They're the generation that made changes and waves, worked harder and longer, put off marriage and children, did things differently than previous generations.
Whether because of financial necessity or because they have something to offer, baby boomers are staying in the workforce longer. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and projections indicate that by 2010 there should be 18.5 million boomers ages 45 to 49 in the labor force, as compared to 14.7 in 1995, and 16.8 million versus 10.6 million in the 50- to 54-years-old range.
They're still making changes. They're retiring later, or not at all. If not downsized or laid off, boomers often continue to work. When they don't choose to continue in the same career, it doesn't mean they're ready to stop contributing, and sometimes they're making transitions to new careers.
"On average there are three to five career changes in a person's lifetime and that's pretty common," says Kevin Gaw, Director of Career Development, University of Nevada, Reno. "It's pretty common that a layoff ends up being a great opportunity for someone to find something that's more suited to them, too."
But it can be challenging to a baby boomer to be suddenly confronted with a career change. They were raised in a world where you got your education, then got your job, and while you may not have stayed with the job until you retired, you would probably stay in the same profession. "It can be jarring to realize you have to transfer your skill set to another area," says Gaw.
In 2004, Gaw's office worked with 208 alumni. Nearly 7.5 percent were going through a career change, three percent because of a forced situation such as layoff or company closure or relocation. The rest of them just wanted to do something different. When you?re faced with an important career shift, there are things you can to do make it easier on yourself and achieve a more enjoyable, productive career change.
• Look at your skills. Determine which are transferable to other jobs.
• Find your passion. What do you love to do? "It's not about the money," Gaw says. "The money isn't what makes us happy. What makes us happy is doing something that's meaningful to us."
• Look at reality. If you want to be an astronaut but can't do math, Gaw says, the reality is it's unlikely. People need to work through that disappointment and maybe change that passion to a hobby rather than a vocation.
• Determine whether you want to make a radical career change? say from legal secretary to Web designer? or stay within the same profession.
• If you like the company you're with but feel the need for change, see if they can retain and retrain you. If it comes down to a complete career change, there are also some things you can do to help create a whole new career for yourself.
• Promote yourself rather than your age. Once you get into a position and can show off your skills, you'll be known for those skills rather than your years.
• Start slow. Before investing heavily in education, determine if it's the right career path for you.
• Network. Many non-entry level positions are found by references. Join professional organizations in the field you want to enter.
• Consider working for yourself. A job market survey conducted in 2005 by global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc., quoted on thematuremarket.com, indicated that of 3000 job seekers, 13 percent chose to work for themselves, and 86.6 percent of them were over 40.
Another option is to leverage your experience and teach or train. Moving into training and coaching people just entering the profession you're leaving is a fairly informal move. Teaching requires state licensing, and there are programs helping place retiring workers into teaching positions. The University of Nevada Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning takes executives through a first-time licensing program and puts them in the schools in just a couple semesters, often teaching in high-needs areas like math, science and languages. Likewise, IBM unveiled their Transition to Teaching program in September, reimbursing them for tuition and providing stipends while they student teach. Many of their executives are highly trained in math and computer sciences.
Whether making a career change to a new profession or a new position, Gaw says such changes are a normal life pattern. "It's a good thing to be open to change. The challenge is recognizing skill sets and knowing how to capitalize on them and present them to the new opportunities."

Author Bio
Kelli Smith is the editor for Edu411.org, a career education directory for finding colleges and universities, training schools, and technical institutes.
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Taking a Chance on Healthy Living!

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:34:00 +0000

Taking a Chance on Healthy Living!
By: Dan Farrell
One of the most important aspects of living a healthy and prosperous life is understanding "risk." By this I mean knowing how to understand and analyze situations in life that affect health. Being able to accurately weigh benefits and risks when making health decisions is very important! Too often decisions are based on incomplete or inaccurate information and this is a huge mistake with significant consequences!
Failure to accurately assess risk keeps people locked in all kinds of unhealthy situations including poor eating and exercise habits (lifestyle), relationships and jobs. Sometimes people are just afraid to step out and make a change. They see "risk" in making a change when the REAL risk comes from NOT making a change. From my perspective, living with the stress, unhappiness and frustration of indecision and poor health is the greatest risk of all, and one that is definitely not worth taking!
Accessing "risk" is nothing more than collecting information, weighing the alternatives and then making appropriate decisions based on the information.
Some risks to our health are more "real" than others. For example, it is common knowledge that obesity is associated with a wide variety of health problems. On the other hand, there are some health risks that are so remote we rarely think about them. On a practical level, eating highly processed foods and avoiding a daily dose of fresh fruits and vegetables is rarely considered serious. But, as too many have already discovered, the long range consequences of this practice are real and devastating.
Failure to accurately assess risk limits us in many ways. We imagine the "risk" of talking with our children about drugs, dating or sex and we put off having the "talk," even though the risks of NOT talking are infinitely greater. Fear of flying and public speaking are two more "risks" affecting millions of people. But practically speaking, these fears are unfounded. People ride in cars every day, even though cars are far more dangerous than commercial aircraft! It's a failure to accurately assess risk, and it limits our health, prosperity and pleasure in life.
The goods news is that failure to accurately access risk is reversible! The effects of those decisions to eat inappropriately or NOT to exercise are, as the common expression goes, "do-overs." We can effect positive change in our lives by following a few simple steps to accurately access risk:
1. Accurately define your present situation and access your health "risks". Are you eating a healthy diet? Are you getting enough exercise and good quality sleep? What are the consequences if you DON'T change? Weigh the benefits of healthier living vs the potential risks such as increased cost, inconvenience or discomfort.
2. What do you stand to gain if you change your present circumstances? Assess the "up-side" potential. Too often we look only at the "downside" risk and forget the benefits. What good things might happen if you take the risk and win?
3. Limit the "down-side" if you happen to make a wrong decision. Don't continue down a path if it does not produce results. This is especially important when following weight loss programs. If the pounds are not coming off or if the weight loss is only temporary, find a new program! You not only want to lose weight, but want to sustain the weight loss for as long as possible. Take steps to ensure this will happen. Clear, concise, realistic objectives will definitely help.
4. Reduce your risk by being smart! Understand the situation and seek the advice of experts in the field of health and nutrition. This includes finding and forming partnerships to receive support and get good advice.
5. Have a fall-back position. If the decision you make fails to produce the desired results, be prepared to take a long, hard look at the circumstances and be prepared to change what you are doing.
Everything in life involves some element of risk. Driving your car, meeting someone new, crossing the street...but we do them every day. Winners in life are willing to accept the risk and continue on their way! Get involved, be smart about how you play the game, come prepared for a few failures along the way, but don't quite. You will reap the benefits for your effort and live a happier and healthier life. I like to remember the words of the great Winston Churchill when he said, "Never, never, never give up!"
Author Bio
For more health articles and zyprexa side effect information go to: effects-side-zyprexa.com
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Is Your Family Really Benefiting When You Work at Home?

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:23:00 +0000

Is Your Family Really Benefiting When You Work at Home?
By: Stephanie Foster
You've beaten the obstacles and found a way to work at home, whether by finding a job or starting a home business. But is your work getting in the way of time with your family? It may be time to make sure you are finding balance between working at home and your family.
Let's take a look at some easy things you can do to ensure that you are spending time with your family.
1. Make time for play. Family activities are a great way to relax away from work. It can be as simple as taking a walk or going to the park, or it could be a full day excursion to a museum, amusement part or beach. You don't have to leave the house, of course. You could play games, make cookies or do other fun activities around the house. The point is to simply have fun as a family and have time to talk to each other.
One way to start is to plan a family night. Tell everyone they have to be home on a particular evening each week and do things as a family. Even if you just rent a movie to watch together, it's something you're doing together.
If you're married, make sure you plan a regular date night with your spouse. Frequency may depend on how old your children are and how often you can get babysitting, but it is important for your marriage to have time as a couple.
You don't have to spend a lot of money to have fun with your family. Just make time for fun.
2. Be there for your children's activities. If your children are involved in sports, acting, singing or other activities, make sure you are there for all the games, performances or other important events. It will help your children to know that they are very important to you.
3. Set rules and enforce them. If your children understand when they can interrupt your work you will be able to get more done in less time, giving you more time for your family.
Of course, you need to be consistent. If kids get away with breaking the rules some of the time, they will test the rules often. Consistency will save you time in the long run, even if you aren't sure you want to spare the time at a particular moment.
4. Pay attention to what kind of attention each child needs. Every child is different. Some demand attention while others are so quiet it's easy to forget that they need you too. Make sure you spend time with each child as an individual.
5. When the kids come home from school, take some time to talk about their day. They will appreciate your interest. You should also make sure they understand their homework and start it at whatever time they do best at finishing it. Some do best starting homework immediately on getting home, while others do better if they can play for a while first. Be aware of your child's needs.
6. If your work is something the children can help with, let them be involved. If not, you can still at least talk to them about what you do. This sets a good example for your children by helping them to know what working is really about.

It's easy to get buried in the needs of your work when you work at home. A little bit of planning can go a long way toward making working at home a wonderful experience for all. Your family is why you decided to work at home, so don't let your time with them get put aside.
Author Bio
HomeWithTheKids.com is a resource for work at home moms and dads. It is run by Stephanie Foster, a mom who has worked at home since early 2002. For more advice on working at home, visit www.homewiththekids.com/wah.htm
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Print Coupons

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:19:00 +0000

Shopping

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:26:00 +0000

Print Coupons

noreply@blogger.com (Stacie) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:31:00 +0000