Holiday Recipes You Can Make in Your Crockpot

Are you always short oven space when preparing holiday meals? Let your crockpot or slow cooker help you out. This article has recipes for Diabetic Sweet Potato Casserole and for Bread Dressing. Now how about that for convenience? And aren't we all looking for convenient ways to help us with those large meals!
BREAD DRESSING
1 cup butter
2 cups chopped onion
2 cups chopped celery
1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley
2 cans (8-oz) mushrooms, drained
12 to 13 cups dry bread cubes
1 tsp poultry seasoning*
2 well-beaten eggs
1 1/2 tsp salt*
1 1/2 tsp sage*
1 tsp dried thyme*
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp marjoram, optional*
3 to 5 cups chicken or turkey broth
Melt the butter in a skillet; saute the onion, celery, parsley, and mushrooms.
Place the bread cubes in a very large heat-proof bowl. Pour the butter/vegetable mixture over the bread crumbs. Add the poultry seasoning, salt, sage, thyme, pepper, and marjoram, if using; toss together well to blend in the seasonings. Pour in enough broth to moisten to your desired amount of moisture. Add the well-beaten eggs and mix very well.
Lightly spray the crockpot or slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray. Pack the dressing into the cooker. Place lid on cooker and cook on high for approximately 45 minutes. Reduce the heat to low setting and cook for 4 to 8 hours.
*Omit if using packaged stuffing mix.
Because you are dealing with raw eggs, be sure to follow the instructions and heat on high first!
DIABETIC SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE
This casserole uses Splenda for those who avoid sugar. The other recipe (below this one) uses actual sugar and brown sugar. This recipe is for diabetics or anyone who avoids sugar.
2 cans (18-oz each) sweet potatoes, drained & mashed
1/3 cup butter, melted
2 tbsp Splenda Granulated
1 tbsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1 tbsp orange juice
2 large eggs, beaten
1/2 cup milk
In a large bowl, mix the sweet potatoes, butter, Splenda granulated, Splenda Brown Sugar Blend together. Beat in the orange juice, eggs, and milk.
Lighly spray the crock of the slow cooker or crockpot and transfer mixture to the cooker.
Topping:
2 tbsp + 2 tsp Splenda Brown Sugar Blend
1/3 cup chopped pecans
2 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter, melted
Combine the Splenda, pecans, and flour. Add the melted butter stirring until combined. Spread topping over the sweet potato mixture.
Place lid on cooker and cook on high setting for 3 to 4 hours.

Tips For Fine Lobster Cooking

Enjoying fresh, moist lobster is a fine delicacy, and thankfully preparing a live lobster is rather easy! One warning any chef will share is that it is important to cook it immediately and to avoid over-cooking, and therefore drying out the delicate meat. A fresh and thoroughly cooked piece of lobster will be white in color, firm, and juicy. To prepare a lobster and keep it’s fresh from-the-sea flavor Fine Lobster recommends several traditional cooking techniques.
The easiest, most delicious way to cook a live lobster is by boiling as takes least amount of time. Start with a big pot and fill it with seawater (easy for those close to the ocean) or with water heavily salted, roughly about two gallons of water per three pounds of lobster. Thankfully, being crustaceans, they are similar to other arthropods (such as insects) and have a very primitive nervous system that lacks a cerebral cortex, or the part of the brain in humans that detects pain. Therefore, the best process is to place the live lobster head first into boiling water. An easy rule of thumb is to boil the lobster for about eight minutes per pound, and it will be cooked thoroughly but not over done.
Another Fine Lobster recommendation is to steam your live lobster, as it is harder to over cook them and equally delicious as boiling. Select a pot large enough to hold all of the lobster without crowding them, place a steaming rack and about two inches of seawater (or heavily salted water) in the bottom. Over high heat, bring it to a boil, and add the live lobsters one at a time and cover. Steaming takes about ten minutes per pound, but halfway through ensure they are cooking evenly by shifting them around being careful of the hot steam.
Finally, one cooking technique that is often used is parboiling, or partially cooking the meat to later finish it. Parboiling is a great technique for when one wants refrigerate or freeze a whole lobster to finish cooking it later when needed. This also works well to later include the meat in a stir-fry, or even finish it on a grill and avoid drying it out. Before placing the parboiled meat on a hot grill, be certain to brush it with olive oil to avoid it sticking or drying out.
Parboiling follows the same rules as boiling, however only cook the lobster for about two minutes per pound instead of eight. Be sure when done to immediately rinse it in cold water to stop the cooking process. Unless leaving the meat in the whole shell to freeze or refrigerate and finish boiling later, it is advised you remove the meat as this is when it will be easiest. If planning on finishing the meat on the grill, serving a lobster tail on the shell creates a beautiful presentation (it is also easier to handle while grilling!) Simply snip the tail shell lengthwise and pull the meat out and rest it on top of the shell, leaving it connected nearest the tail flipper.
No matter how you prepare it, there is nothing like a fine, fresh Maine lobster to compliment any special occasion. We recommend pairing it with clarified butter or sauce and a fine white wine will bring out the best flavor of the lobster.

Delicious Food Services in Miami

Miami is one place in Florida where people are very concern about their food habits and what they eat. Good food along with healthy food is what mainly constitutes the idea of food in Miami. This is actually a very good eating habit which most of the people in the world do not follow. Miami Catering is also very famous for its delicious food served with healthiness.
Whenever there is a party in Miami, catering companies have their share of talent to show but, catering in Miami is as beautiful as the beach present there. Miami catering companies can cook different cuisine foods and along with different cuisine food they add fresh ingredients and healthy ingredients to make your meal full.
They also have different meal plans for everyday where they have different food for different people having different daily regimes. For example the food for a sportsmen is completely different from an actor, again the food for an actress is complete different from a normal human being. Catering in Miami have taken new leaps and their sole idea of serving people with delicious yet healthy food have earned them a very good name in many different places not only restricted to Florida.
Another best thing that Catering in Miami has is if you are not very well and do not feel like cooking, these catering companies provide you cheap meals delivered at your home just at a very small and reasonable price. Many such services are also opening at nearby places and also at different parts of the world but Miami still counts for the best in the market with their wonderful idea.

How To Cook The Delicious Food

     Dawn Roads from Aga will show you how to cook delicious seasonal food in the Museum of Iron café at Coalbrookdale on Wednesday, 6th April from 7-9pm.
Dawn Roads from Aga will show you how to cook delicious seasonal food.
Fresh from the oven, guests will have the chance to try fabulous dishes such as chocolate cake, Moroccan tagine, meringue roulade, hot cross bun pudding and goats cheese and asparagus tart – all with a glass of wine.
     There will also be a chance to buy Aga cookware at a discount and tickets include free entry into the Museum of Iron from 6.30pm – 9.30pm. The evening is being held to support the Museum and its charitable aims.
      Ruth Brown, Fundraising Manager, says: “This promises to be a fantastic event for anyone who loves Agas, cooking or eating. Aga has a long history in Coalbrookdale and we thought it would be a great idea to join forces and host an evening, which will support the Museum and inspire people to cook some brilliant spring and Easter themed food.

Tips For Delicious Food lover

　　Most of us think that we eat mainly to nourish the body and keep it fit and healthy. In fact, the food we eat plays a much greater role in our lives because it influences the way we think, feel, act and react every moment. It affects our faculties and behaviour. As many of us are aware, the food we eat has three qualities – inertia or tamas, aggressiveness or rajas and purity or satva. If we eat satvic food, it increases the purity in us. When our internal state is pure or satvic, we grasp things very easily and learning is instantaneous. When we eat tamasic food, our power of comprehension becomes very clouded and we find it extremely hard to accept and assimilate new concepts. When we are rajasic, we are apt to go off at a tangent and lack the ability to identify or resolve the salient issues in any situation. So our inner state of being depends on the food we eat as well as the company we keep and the efficiency and effectiveness of our outer actions depends on our inner state of being.

　　To put it in a nutshell, “what goes in is literally what comes out.” This is the absolute truth. When liquor is imbibed, what comes out is slurred speech. When meat goes in, what comes out is insensitivity to another’s pain. If we put a person who eats satvic food and another who doesn’t into the same traumatic situation, what happens? The rajasic or tamasic person will not even think of praying for the intervention of Divine Grace. His sluggish or aggressive reaction will aggravate the situation and make it more traumatic. The satvic person, on the other hand, will immediately surrender to God and seek Divine help. Then the traumatic situation is instantaneously resolved and passes by harmlessly. So the kind of food you eat decides what kind of person you are and how you shape your life.

Bubblegum Cupcakes

I made these for Cupcake Camp London 2010 and they were my second most popular flavor on the day. The kids really loved them. They’re just so fun who could resist! I was really proud they came in as a runner up in the most unique ingredient contest.
My popcorn cupcakes would make good companions to these as well.
They were made with white chocolate chip cake, filled with bubblegum pudding and then topped with Bubblegum buttercream. The pudding was bubblegum flavored Snack Packs that are typically sold in any US grocery store.
They look really cute all together.
All my varieties for Cupcake Camp. Click here for round up.
White Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
adapted from Martha Stewart (makes 24)
Ingredients
3 1/4 cups self rising flour, sifted
4 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tbs milk
1/2 cup plus 6 tbs unsalted butter at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
5 large egg whites at room temperature
2 cups white chocolate chips
bubblegum snack packs (4 filled all the cupcakes)
I got these from Bake it Pretty
1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Line muffin tin with cases (these popcorn buckets stand on their own). Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir the vanilla into the milk to combine.
2. With an electric mixer on medium speed, cream butter until smooth. Add the sugar in a steady stream, beat until pale and fluffy. Reduce speed to low. Add flour, mixture in three batches, alternating with the two additions of milk mixture, and beating until just combined after each.
3. In another bowl, with an electric mixer on medium speed, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold one-third of the egg whites into the batter to lighten. Gently fold in the remaining whites until just combined. Toss the chocolate chips in one tablespoon of flour and gently fold into batter.
4. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three quarters full (I usually do 2 cookie scoops worth of batter for each cup). Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean about 22 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. When completely cool cut out the center of the cupcake in a cone shape and scoop in two teaspoons of pudding. Place a small piece of the cut out section back on top.
Bubblegum Buttercream
Ingredients
3 cups unsalted butter at room temperature
2 pounds icing sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pink food coloring
2 vials bubblegum flavoring
gumballs for decoration
I got these at the $1 Store in the US. They also have them at Cyber Candy in London
1. With an electric mixer, beat the butter on medium-high until pale and creamy, about 2 minutes.
2. Reduce speed to medium. Add the icing sugar ½ cup at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl as needed; after every two additions, raise speed to high and beat 10 seconds to aerate the frosting, then return to medium. This should take about 5 minutes. Frosting will be pale and fluffy.
3. Add vanilla, and beat until frosting is smooth, add small amount of pink food coloring to achieve a pink color, and beat until color shows through. Add both vials of bubblegum flavor and beat until combined.
To Decorate
Pipe frosting in big swirls and add the sprinkles you want first before the icing becomes stiff.
Or pour some sprinkles into a bowl and roll the edges of the cupcake in. Or pipe the bottom swirl, roll in the sprinkles and then continue and pipe on the top swirl.
More details and photos about decorating and sprinkle techniques can be found here.

Masterchef Live 2010

I love food shows. I try to get to all the ones that come to London each year. I love looking for new, different and interesting food. I took lots of photos while at Masterchef. Click here to see them all.
Juan Sheet is Plenty (what happened to Brenda and Audry?)
I watched the invention test first. I thought about signing up but I don’t think I could think so quickly and cook without any recipes in front of me.
Jon and Gregg getting ready to judge the entries
I got Gregg’s Pudding book. I thought if I ever move back to the US I can impress at dinner parties with an English dessert. Can’t believe that they didn’t look up! Oh well…
I bought a few bars of Seed & Bean chocolate. The Lemon & Poppy seed was excellent.
Therapeutic Chocolate. Weird.
Giant Italian Sandwiches.
They have at least 3 different kinds of Toffee Vodka at every food show I’ve ever been too. I think it’s vile!
Bramley & Gage were selling mini bottles of liquor which I thought would be perfect for cupcakes.
I tried a sample of an African Yam. Interesting. Tastes a lot like a potato.
There were a few cupcake things but nothing that shouted out at me really. Holly Cupcakes had some good extracts imported from the US. I bought a bottle of Pineapple.
Powdered vanilla?
I liked these Glorious Soups.
This Harp & Lyre Tea was really nice. It will be on sale over the Internet soon.
I love this Revolution Tea! I’ve bought it at several different shows.
I bought some caramel, coconut & cinnamon popcorn from Joe & Seph’s.
I bought some restaurant tokens with my tickets. I loved this chocolate cake from Theo Randall
Slow Roast Pork from…Roast
Platter from Ming Jiang
Blueberry Cheesecake with Lemon Curd from The Luxe. It was only OK nothing special.
Chicken Satay from Bintang. Very good.
Lisa Faulkner’s Rhubarb & Custard Crumble
I had a really good time and went home completely exhausted and stuffed! I can’t wait for Taste of Christmas already!

Pumpkin Pie with Crunchy Pecan Topping

I love Thanksgiving and it’s such a bummer that I have to go to work each year. I would love to stay home and cook all day! Maybe I can stay home on our newly minted bank holiday, April 29th, and bake cupcakes in honor of the royal wedding.
I love Thanksgiving even more now. When I was studying to to be an accountant one sitting of the exams always fell on Thanksgiving. Between going to work all day, studying at night and on the weekends there was no time to bake pie. Now that I’ve been finished for some time I enjoy this time of year even more (really makes you appreciate your free time).
This is a basic Pumpkin Pie recipe but instead of evaporated milk I used vanilla soy milk to make it dairy free and it tastes exactly the same. I can only eat Pumpkin Pie with some kind of biscuit base. I think all the spices in the pie are complimented by the cinnamon in graham crackers or the ginger in ginger nut biscuits.
I love this topping (from Bakerella). It’s so amazing. The chocolate chips and the pecans are just heavenly. I should have maybe put some aluminium foil over the top towards the end so the edges didn’t get so crisp.
Dairy Free Pumpkin Pie
adapted from Sunset
Ingredients
Pie
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 can (15 oz) pureed pumpkin
1 1/4 cups vanilla soy milk
2 eggs
Crust
Graham Cracker shell purchased
or Ginger Nut biscuit base (300g ground biscuits mixed with 80g melted butter and pressed into a pie shell)
Topping
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 tbs maple syrup
1. Pre-heat oven to 425 F/ 220 C. In a large bowl, mix sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.
2. Add pumpkin, soy milk and eggs. Whisk until well blended. Pour into the pie shell. I had a little leftover so don’t overfill your pie.
3. Mix all of the ingredients for the topping in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Bake the pie for 15 minutes then reduce temperature to 350 F/180 C and gently pour the topping mixture evenly over the top of the pie and bake for 45 more minutes until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean (place a piece of foil over top towards the end if getting crisp on top. (I meant to make mine a bit crisp…).
5. Set the pie to cool on a rack for at least 2 hours.

Christmas Giveaway!

It’s only 23 more days till Christmas! Have you put your tree up and bought all your presents yet? Or is everyone waiting until Christmas Eve for that!?
To help, CSN and their really fabulous Coffee Tables site are sponsoring another fantastic giveaway. If you’re looking for a little something to spruce up your living room this is a great site. I never knew there were so many different kinds of coffee tables.
-Any of my US or UK readers can enter to win a $40 gift certificate to any of their 200 stores. Get something for someone special or treat yourself!
Rules
1. Enter by 12pm GMT Friday Dec 10th by leaving a comment below this post stating what your favorite Christmas cookie is. If you’re also a follower leave another comment stating so to get a second entry. Competition is now closed
2. Shipping costs are not included
3. Gift certificate is $40 or the GBP equivalent (UK winner must shop at the UK store).4. Winner will by chosen using random.org