Food Basics

Another Cheap Cooking blog!

Cooking 410 is all about cooking for a family with eight children. Check it out!

ALSO:
http://www.fivesandwiches.com Book Reviews & SciFi News

http://www.fullenglishbreakfast.org For sufferers of Ovulo Carbonaresis, the
addicted to cooked breakfasts

The Truth about Convenience Foods

From Reveries -- Cool News of the Day -- Laura Shapiro is a food historian who thinks American food companies have succeeded by making women feel like failures, as reported by Dinitia Smith in The New York Times. Laura's out with a new book, in fact, called Something From the Oven, in which she documents "how in the 1940s and '50s, the food industry tried to convince American women that cooking was difficult in order to persuade them that they needed newly developed packaged and frozen foods and cake mixes."

We've suspected for some time that some convenience foods actually had little or nothing to do with convenience!

Carnival Food

Also found at County Fairs, these recipes from FoodTV can help you make some of those things you get a craving for when there's no carnival to get them!

Recipes
Caramel Popcorn
Funnel Cakes
Corny Dogs
Soft Pretzels

Bread

Plain white bread is not all that hard to make. This is the main recipe I use, since it only makes

one loaf or a dozen rolls. It's easy to use this simple recipe as a springboard for other kinds of

breads or rolls, with added ingredients, which I'll outline below.

Basic White Bread

1 pkg dry yeast
1 Tbl sugar
1 1/4 cup water (at 105-115 degrees)
2 Tbl oil
3 1/2 to 4 C all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. salt

Dissolve yeast in water, add sugar, and allow to proof for 15 mins to an hour. Stir in oil and 3

cups of the flour and the salt. Add more flour until mixture "cleans" the bowl. Turn out onto

floured board and knead for 3-5 mins. Put dough into greased bowl and allow to rise until

double in bulk, about an hour if you're using quick-rise yeast.

Shape into loaf or rolls, using loaf pan or 9x13 inch cake pan for rolls, and let rise again, until doubled. Bake in preheated oven at 375

degrees for about 25 mins.

ADD-INS

Substitute 1 cup of whole wheat flour for 1 cup of the all-purpose to make wheat bread. you

can add 1/2 cup sunflower kernels or 1/2 cup of uncooked whole-grain cereal for variety.

Substitute 1/2 cup of rye flour for 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour to make rye bread. Add 1 Tbl

caraway seeds, if desired.

Grind 1 cup oatmeal in the blender (measure before grinding) and substitute for 1 cup of the

all-purpose flour.

For spicy rolls that don't require buttering, melt 4 Tbls (1/2 a stick) butter or margarine in the

baking pan, and sprinkle 1/2 a capful Mrs.Dash and 1/2 tsp seasoned salt over the butter

before you add the rolls.

HINTS

It's best to use a thermometer to check the temperature of the water. If you don't have one, sprinkle a few drops of the water on your wrist and if it's comfortably warm, you're probably close enough. I microwave the water for about 30 seconds in a glass measuring cup, but the time will vary according to the temperature of the water coming out of the faucet.

If you live in a hot climate as I do, store your yeast in the refrigerator. High temps above 85 degrees or so for a long period of time can kill yeast. That's the reason for the "proofing" stage in the recipe -- to make sure your yeast is alive and kicking!