cookingdiva

Scalding milk has many uses like cutting down the cooking time and infusing the milk with flavor. Scalding milk using microwave is find and I have one tip for you: Place a bamboo stick or a chopstick in the milk as it will prevent the milk from super-heating. I hope this helps.

I'll celebrate New Year with only some close family members so I'll just cook beef steak with mashed squash and brownies for dessert. I'm also thinking of cooking spaghetti... Happy New Year everyone!

In my experience, it's better to cut it into pieces to avoid drying it. Then wrap it in a foil and reheat it for around 20 minutes. Also, don't forget to make a mouthwatering gravy.

You may try using some tomatoes or simply add a teaspoon of lime juice. The acid will help reduce the amount of slime.

Hi Nancy. I've found a prickly pear sorbet recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/george-duran/prickly-pear-sorbet-recipe/index.html I think it's also good to make some prickly pear margarita. http://whatscookingamerica.net/Beverage/PricklyPear.htm

I never go shopping when I'm hungry. Going to a supermarket while you're hungry will just make you buy more food. I don't use specific apps and sometimes I just use pen and paper. However, I make sure that I always have a list of things to buy. I also plan my meals for the whole week so that I can prepare my budget.

You might also want to try this recipe. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/naturally-fermented-dill-pickles/ I've read from the page that it's really a lot better to use brine instead of vinegar because the latter prevents natural fermentation from occurring.

I used to hate them too but I love raisins now. I always add raisins to my macaroni salads and fruit salads. I also know of someone who hates raisins a lot. If he finds that a food has raisins, he removes them one by one. And if it's impossible to remove all the raisins, he just forgets about eating the food no matter how delicious it is. I think one of the greatest solutions to avoid raisins is just to prepare your own food (cookies, bread, etc).

Let's share here photos of food that we've eaten. Let's find out what the other members love to eat. Here's my dinner!

I just want to share the recipe of the food that I've cooked today. It's good to try this during the rainy season. Ingredients: 1/2 kilo baby prawns Raw tamarind fruits 1 big tomato (quartered) 1 large white onion (chopped) Water spinach leaves 5 pcs long green chili 4 cups of water Procedure: 1) Bring 4 cups of water to a boil. 2) Add the tamarind fruits and mash them while the water is boiling 3) Use a strainer to filter bits of tamarind 4) Add the tomato and onion to the tamarind soup and let it simmer for 10 minutes 5) Add the chili and bring it to a boil 6) Add the baby prawns and let it cook for 3 minutes 7) Lower the heat, add the water spinach leaves and let it simmer for two more minutes. 8) Remove from heat and transfer it to a serving bowl. Enjoy!

I also had an experience before where I spent 20 minutes waiting for my food to be served. I followed-up with the waiter and they informed me that the food I ordered is no longer available since it's currently out of stock. Why did they make me wait for 20 minutes without informing me that my order is out of stock. I walked out and never went there again. I even made a topic about it on a local forum in our place to warn other people.

I remember experiencing this as well. I was still eating my buffalo wings and the waiter already started taking the other plates as well as the dipping sauce. He then said, "Are you done with this already?" Of course I don't want to eat it anymore since he already touched it. I know they have lots of customers waiting in line but I wish they would still show some respect to those who are still eating...

What are things that waiters do that annoy you and how do you deal with them? I find it annoying when waiters push you to order something or to buy more. This is especially true if I decide to eat light. Waiters usually urge me to order more by saying "Is that all your going to order? How about some dessert? Do you want to try our specialty?" What I usually do is I just maintain a straight face and I don't smile. But I don't really frown at them. I just want to show them that I'm not approachable because smiling might just give them the hope that I'll order more if they put more effort in convincing me.

Ordering a burger without tomato is a little different than ordering the bourguignon without wine or the hollandaise without butter or some of the other ridiculous things people come up with. I don't think anybody actually has a problem with trying to accommodate allergies, the problem is people figured that out and everybody that doesn't want something in their food claims to be allergic to it. So now you get the person who doesn't like tomato on their burger telling their server they're allergic to it even though they ate all of the tomato in the salad they had to start. Makes people lean towards the skeptical. But, for the most part, I agree there's nothing wrong with accommodating sensible special requests. I think it also depends on the request of the customer. It's okay if you want to replace your rice with mashed potato or order a burger without tomato. However, ridiculous requests like half of the steak should be well done while half should be medium rare shouldn't be accommodated.

I agree that customers are really not always right. But not allowing customers to customize the menu is a different thing. What if you're allergic to an ingredient and you want it removed? I always order burger without tomato.