In the current culinary frenzy, the joys of simple green salads are often forgotten. A little selectivity at the market and proper preparation can yield a salad worthy of lingering over. A good salad is a mixture of textures and flavors. Instead of just plain iceberg lettuce, mix a soft butter lettuce with a crispy, mild flavored romaine or a stronger flavored leaf lettuce. Additionally, it just takes a few leaves of bitter radicchio, arugula, watercress, or baby organic greens to make the salad even more interesting. After bringing your greens home, wash them in cold water and spin them dry. Besides diluting your dressing, moisture will spoil greens more quickly. Store the greens in reusable bags or plastic containers with a slightly dampened paper towel at the bottom to maintain humidity. If you are serving the salad within a few hours, place the dressing in the bottom of the serving bowl and lay the serving utensils crosswise over the dressing. Pile the greens over the utensils, cover the bowl with cellophane and refrigerate to keep them crisp and flavorful until service. The addition of some freshly chopped herbs such as parsley or chives just before serving will also boost the salad’s flavor.

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Opening Coconuts:
Open the coconuts by flinging them onto a cement or rock surface (this is how the monkeys do it!) Don’t worry about losing the liquid, as it’s not the coconut milk called for in cooking. Each coconut should break in 3 to 4 pieces. It is also possible to open a coconut by piercing the eyes of the coconut with a screwdriver or ice pick, draining the liquid through the holes and placing the coconut in a 400 degrees F oven for 20 minutes. Wrap the coconut in a towel and hit it with a hammer to loosen the shell and split it into pieces. Pry out the white meat and then pare off the dark skin.

Grating Coconut Meat:
To grate the white meat, put the meat through the grating disk of a food processor or use a hand grater. You should get about 7 cups of grated coconut from the two coconuts, which will keep in the refrigerator for 2 to 3 days.

Coconut Liquado:
To make the coconut milk, combine the remaining 3 to 4 cups of loosely packed grated coconut with the milk (use 3/4 cup of coconut for each 1 cup of milk) in a heavy saucepan. Heat slowly, bring to a simmer, then remove from the heat and cool. Strain the milk, pressing down on the coconut meat to extract all the liquid. Squeeze all the coconut through a towel to get any last drops. Discard the coconut.

If you are tired of your vegetables losing color, texture, and flavor before you serve them, then blanching may be the solution. Prolonged exposure to heat deteriorates vegetables. Blanching lightly cooks only the outer layer of their flesh. To blanch vegetables plunge them into boiling salted water for a short period of time, and then immediately stop the cooking process by placing the vegetables into ice water until they cool. Green beans and other fibrous vegetables retain their crispiness and color. For other vegetables and fruits, such as tomatoes and peaches, a brief blanching loosens the skin while keeping the flesh firm, making them easier to peel. In all cases the color is set and the flavor is retained. You must remember not to overload the pot because this will increase the cooking time. Blanch in batches if necessary. The vegetables can be used immediately in salads and other cold dishes, or they can be stored or frozen for later use. A quick sauté or stir fry is all that is needed to finish cooking the vegetables, and if they are being added to a dish such as a soup or stew, adding them during the last few minutes of cooking will insure colorful results.

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You may be a great cook already, but if you want a future in the culinary arts world you’ll need training and education in order to succeed. And that’s where culinary schools come in. They are educational institutions that are designed for one simple purpose, to teach you what you need to know in order to pursue your vocation in the culinary arts field.

So if you want a career in culinary arts, you need to start considering which culinary school you should attend. And a lot will depend on what kind of job you wish to pursue after you graduate. Perhaps you want to be a restaurant manager or owner, maybe a chef, or even a food writer. In order to qualify for almost any of these positions, you’ll need the education and training that are provided at a quality culinary school.

So what should you look for when searching for culinary schools? Perhaps the first thing you should look at is whether a particular culinary arts school is fully accredited or not. This is very important to your future employment opportunities as only accredited culinary schools provide the kind of education degrees that are really valuable in the workplace. So do your best to avoid any school that is not fully accredited by a review of its educational peers as being well worth your educational investment. There are many education scams that are out there, and you want to be sure to stay far away from these.

You also want make sure that the particular school you are interested in will be able to teach the specific courses that apply to the career you are pursuing. Some schools will specialize more in certain fields of the culinary arts, whereas others will pay attention to different kinds of courses. So narrow your field down from the accredited schools that you found to those that offer the kind of courses that will benefit you most.

The next consideration is how important is it for the school to be close to where you live? If you are able, do they provide dorms and living quarters on campus where you can stay? If at all possible, it’s a good idea to visit the college campus and tour the facilities, perhaps even observing a class if you can. This will help you get a good feel about whether this particular school will be a good fit for you.

You’ll also want to consider the kind of qualifications that they require for acceptance, and whether or not you meet these qualifications at this point. Then review the length of the course program, as this can vary greatly from one school to another.

Finally, education costs should also be considered, but keep in mind that the education you receive will provide for a lifetime of solid income. So is usually best to make your decision based more on the quality of the education that you will receive rather than the costs of the school instead. And if costs seem prohibitive, there are many scholarships that are usually available to those who are willing to work hard and apply for them that can help offset these expenses.

So whether your interest is in being a baker, a gourmet chef, a restaurant owner, a food writer, or some other field in the culinary arts, following the suggestions provided above should help you get the culinary arts degree that you really want.

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Vegetables can play an important role in helping control kids’ weight gains while supplying important nutrients they need for growth and development.

But getting kids to eat them can sometimes be a challenge.

“To get kids to eat vegetables, they must be available when and where kids tend to eat, be very easy- to -eat, and taste good,” said Joan Carter, R.D., an instructor in the department of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and a cordon-bleu trained chef.

To make vegetables more tempting to kids, Carter offers these tips:

* Offer the new vegetable at the beginning of the meal when small children are the hungriest. Serve vegetables in new combinations. Children tend to favor peas, potatoes, carrots, beans and corn. Mix these vegetables with others they are less likely to eat, such as broccoli and cauliflower.
* Use a little fat, sugar, and salt to make the healthy foods ‘taste good’ to kids. Cook carrots with a little sugar and chicken stock; make carrot ’slaw’ with raisins; top broccoli with low-fat cheese sauce; add grated vegetables like carrots or squash to home-baked muffins.”Kids are born liking sweet tastes, so use this to your advantage,” Carter said.
* Prepare vegetables in new ways. Try a stir-fry or ‘fortify’ prepared soup with extra fresh or frozen vegetables. Mix a vegetable in with a favorite food, such as peas in macaroni and cheese or blend soft cooked carrots into mashed potatoes. Add vegetables to pizza toppings or sautéed minced veggies like broccoli and red pepper and add to spaghetti and pizza sauces, meat loaf, and pureed soups. Make oven-baked sweet potato ‘fries’ or bake this high-fiber, vitamin-A rich alternative to white potatoes with a touch of sugar, cinnamon and cloves.
* Make eating veggies fun and easy. For kids over the age of 4, keep veggie ‘kabobs’ with cherry tomatoes and cucumber slices or ‘grab bags’ with baby carrots, broccoli ‘trees,’ and celery sticks near low-fat dips or salsa on a child-level shelf in the refrigerator. Use cut-up pieces of vegetables to make a “smiley face” on mashed potatoes. Offer an edible spoon, such as a stalk of celery, to scoop up chili or stew.
* Enlist kids to help scour magazines for new veggie recipes that the family could try. Engage kids in an “ingredient-list scavenger hunt” at the grocery store and later let them assist in preparing the new recipe at home.
* Become a family of Farmers’ Market ‘explorers’ who stop and ask growers about their produce, their farms, and how they cook their vegetables for themselves. Grow a family vegetable garden.
* Be a good role model. Eat your vegetables, and show you excitement about finding and trying new ones.

But, what if despite your best efforts, your children still turn up their noses at anything yellow, green or leafy?

“Don’t give up,” Carter said. Young children tend to be ‘neophobic,’ which literally means they are ‘afraid’ of new foods. “It may take some time before kids try a vegetable and it might take a lot of tries before they begin to like it,” she said.

Carter’s advice: Continue to offer vegetables at each meal and encourage children to try one bite. If they don’t like it, that’s fine. Allowing young kids to stop at one bite can make trying new foods less scary, while forcing them to eat something they truly don’t like will only make the situation worse.

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Recipes for winter squash usually begin with the instruction, “Cut the squash in half.” However, squash vary tremendously in size, shape, and skin toughness - compare hubbards, spaghettis, turbans, and delicatas - and cutting them can be a perplexing and dangerous task. Luckily, heat can soften a squash and alleviate some of the difficulty. Using a pairing knife or metal skewer, pierce the skin in three or four places, and cook the squash in a microwave set on high, then proceed with recipe. It will take 5 to 15 minutes to soften depending on the squash’s size and hardness. After cooling, remove the stem and lay the squash on its most stable side. Holding it with one hand, pierce the center with a medium or large knife. Then pull through and down the squash until one half is cut through cleanly. Turn the squash and repeat the process on the uncut half. The squash can then be seeded and cooked further. Squash too large for the microwave can be baked in the oven until their skin softens. No two squash are the same, soft or hard, and attempting to cut even a small squash in half with one stroke can be dangerous. Remember, safety first.

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If you run into the situation of having a knife go dull and you do not have the time or proper equipment, i.e. a steel or stone to sharpen it try this technique. Turn over a small 6″ to 8″ plate. A ceramic plate works best. You should see were the plate did not receive glaze prior to firing in the kiln (the round base). Take the knife you want to sharpen and hold it into your hand at a slight angle horizontally above the bottom of the plate. Now move the knife in a circular motion across the plate bottom of the plate. Reverse and sharpen the other side of the knife.

Ingredients:

4 large round tomatoes
2 - 6 oz. cans tuna (water or oil packed)
1 small cucumber (5 inches)
2-3 tbsp. red onion, finely chopped
6-8 pieces black olives
dash of sherry vinegar
drizzle of olive oil
4 tsp. shredded cheese (parmesan or a dry sheep cheese)
1 boiled egg - optional

Procedure:

Open cans of tuna and drain them, squeezing excess water or oil from the tuna. Flake tuna into a bowl. Chop Cucumber and black olives into small bits. Chop red onion finely. Add to tuna and mix. Splash a bit of sherry vinegar on the tuna mixture and drizzle olive oil over top. Mix thoroughly. Add salt if needed. Rinse and dry tomatoes. Cut off the tops of the tomatoes, then cut out the flesh, leaving a cavity large enough to fill with tuna mixture. Spoon mixture into tomatoes, allowing it to mound on top. If you want, you can boil an egg, cool and chop and add to mixture. Sprinkle tops of each tomato with cheese and place under broiler until cheese melts. Serve immediately with toasted French-style bread.

A roasted pepper is a beautiful thing; soft and juicy with a hint of smoky goodness. So how do you do that yourself? Read on to find out!

Here are some basics before we get started into the methods. First, when you’re picking out your peppers, make sure that the flesh is still firm. Soft spots are an indicator that the pepper is bad inside. Second, make sure you thoroughly clean the pepper, especially the top, as peppers often have field dirt still on them. Lastly, if you are working with spicy peppers, wear gloves and don’t wipe your eyes!

Now, on with the roasting…

One of the best and most expeditious ways for the home cook to roast a pepper is over an open flame. If you have a gas-burning stove, you can light one of your burners and roast the pepper there. Be careful, though, because this generally only works with the smaller peppers. Pierce the pepper with a long fork and turn the heat on the burner up to high. Hold the pepper just a couple inches over the gas flame until the skin blackens. Once the skin, blackens, start rotating the pepper until you get the whole skin of the pepper blackened. Let the pepper sit until it cools down, otherwise, it will be way too hot to handle. If you need to peel the pepper, gently grip the pepper and slowly tear away the skin from the flesh of the pepper. Sometimes, a bit of the skin will grip the flesh. The best thing to do in that situation is to simply leave that part on there or cut out that part of the flesh and skin. Note that this is much more difficult to do with a large pepper than it is with a small one because as the large pepper roasts, it will get soft and the extra weight of the pepper makes it tend to droop down over the fork, which can cause a big mess. This method takes about four to six minutes.

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1. To slowly bring up the temperature of a cold or room temperature ingredient by adding small amounts of a hot or boiling liquid. Adding the hot liquid gradually prevents the cool ingredient, such as eggs,from cooking or setting. The tempered mixture can then be added back to hot liquid for further cooking. This process is used most in making pastry cream and the like.
2. To bring chocolate to a state in which it has snap, shine and no streaks. Commercially available chocolate is already tempered but this condition changes when it is melted. Tempering is often done when the chocolate will be used for candy making or decorations. Chocolate must be tempered because it contains cocoa butter, a fat that forms crystals after chocolate is melted and cooled. Dull grey streaks form and are called bloom. The classic tempering method is to melt chocolate until it is totally without lumps (semisweet chocolate melts at a temperature of 104 degrees F.) One third of the chocolate is then poured onto a marble slab then spread and worked back and forth with a metal spatula until it becomes thick and reaches a temperature of about 80 degrees F. The thickened chocolate is then added back to the remaining 2/3 melted chocolate and stirred. The process is repeated until the entire mixture reaches 88-92 degrees for semisweet chocolate, 84-87 degrees for milk or white chocolate.