Kitchen and Cooking Questions Answered!

**YOU CAN LISTEN TO THIS POST AS A PODCAST HERE: Cooke's Frontier: Your Kitchen and Cooking Questions Answered, you can listen to all of my previous podcasts here: Cooke's Frontier Radio Show *****

I've had so many kitchen and cooking related questions in the last month or so, I thought we would take this podcast to answer them.  I hope you are all starting to thaw out and Spring is finally arriving for you, we're supposed to be enjoying some very pretty weather for the next couple of days but we shall see!

On to the questions:

1) What type of salt do you use and why? Oh, this is a good one! I use two kinds of salt in all of my cooking and baking. I use course kosher salt most of the time, because I like the texture of the salt and a little bit goes a long way. Because the grains are a little bit bigger, you get a definite salty taste without so much salt and you can use a lot less to season your dishes. Another salt that I use a lot is Real Salt. It's kind of weird to look at, it sort of looks like it might have some sand or something in it, but what it is is real rock salt with all of the minerals left in and ground up to make the salt. This salt has a lot of other nutritional benefits in the form of minerals and I use it a lot as well.

2) Why do my biscuits never raise very high? It could be a couple of things, really. I would first check to see if my baking soda was still good. The next thing I would be sure of is that my fat (butter lard, shortening- whatever you are using) is cold. Very, very cold. You also need to make sure that your oven is all the way preheated and very hot. It's so important for that cold fat to hit the hot oven, because that's what makes the steam to help the biscuits puff up nice and tall. Next, are you sure that you are handling the dough as little as possible? Biscuits can become so tough and dry is they are over mixed. Just mix the ingredients enough to get everything wet, turn it out and knead just a couple of times before patting or rolling out to cut. Here's a good tip I learned a couple years ago: roll your biscuits out half as tall as you want them to be when they are finished. And last, are you cutting with a drinking glass or mason jar? If you are, I cannot tell you how much your biscuit making life will change when you switch to a metal biscuit cutter. They make ALL of the difference. A cup seals the edges of the biscuit and doesn't allow it to raise while a metal cutter cuts clean. If all else fails, keep trying! Sometimes it just takes practice.

3) Why do you bake your bread? It just seems so silly when there are so many different kinds of organic, all natural breads out there that you could buy and save yourself all that time. This is actually a question that I get and answer a lot! I bake my bread because I can be sure that the flour has been ground only minutes before, I can be sure that the wheat berries I grind are organic and GMO free, I can use my own, pastured organic eggs. I can add or take away ingredients as I want and I can be assured of the quality of the ingredients I put into the bread. Also, those loaves of organic, all natural breads are expensive! In our area $5.00 a loaf is pretty much standard. I can bake a loaf of organic, all natural whole wheat bread for just about .50. By that pricing, we save close to 300.00 or more per year by making our own loaves of bread. Throw into that the fact that we also make our own bagels, English muffins, hamburger buns, dinner rolls, bread sticks and pizza crust and the savings become really substantial in a very short period of time.

4) How do you read a recipe? I see all of these abbreviations and I never know if it means teaspoon or tablespoon or cup or what. Ok, so this is kind of Home EC 101. Start by reading the recipe like a story, from top to bottom, left to right, all the way through. Then, take note of a few things. What temperature should the oven be? Should it be preheated or not? DO you need special equipment or ingredients? After you are sure you have what it takes to make the recipe, you can start looking at those abbreviation. tsp in all lower case letters stands for teaspoon. Tablespoon can either be Tbs or Tbsp in a lot of old cookbooks, it's simple a capitol letter T. C is for cup. Those should be the only abbreviations that you see. I hope that helps a little!

5) What's a good substitute for cool whip on top of pies and other baked goods? Whipped cream! I think people forget about good old whipped cream. It's so much more delicious and it's easy to make. You can sweeten it or not, you can add flavors if you wish and it's really just so good. You'll just whip some heavy whipping cream in a bowl until it forms stiff peaks and that's it! It really is so simple. If you want to sweeten it, you just add a little sugar or honey and begin to beat. Whipped cream isn't as stable as cool whip, so you need to eat it within just a couple of days, but it's a great substitute.

6) What's a good way to build up freezer meals without spending a whole day cooking? This is an easy one! Every time you make a meal that could be frozen, double the recipe. Cook one to eat that day and pop the other one into the freezer for later. If you could do that for every dinner for a month, you'd have a whole months worth of meals waiting for you in the freezer!

7) My pie crusts are always soggy on the bottom, is there any way to prevent this? YES!!!!! Soggy bottoms are no good for anyone, and they can be prevented by baking your pie for the first 15 minutes on the bottom rack in your oven! Then just move it up to the middle and continue baking for the remainder of the time. No more soggy bottom pies!

8) What can I use as a replacement for shortening in my recipes? I use either coconut oil or lard. Tallow is another option, but harder to come by unless you can render it yourself. I like coconut oil in cookies, cakes, muffins and those types of things and butter or lard in biscuits, pie crusts and cakes.

9) Where can I buy wheat berries in bulk? There are so many places to purchase wheat and other things in bulk now. There are a lot of companies that you can order from online, you might check local healthy foods stores, or see if you have a co-op in your area. Lastly, I know that our local walmart and costco both sell wheat in 5 gallon pails. Also, ask around, you never know who has found a good deal in your area unless you ask. If all else fails a good old google search will help you find companies that sell online and you can order through them.

10) What are some great ideas for meals to take camping? Oh, this is a fun question to end with. I like to take meals that are simple but filling. Roasting weenies is always a favorite, but can get kind of old and isn't very exciting. Cold fried chicken is always a favorite. We also like to take a loaf of french bread, slice it and make sandwiches with it, then put the loaf back together and wrap in tin foil. Let it sit over the fire for a while and the cheese gets all gooey and the meat heats up. That's always a fun one. Anything that we can cook over a fire wrapped in tin foil is good because clean up is a breeze. Last time we went camping, I baked potatoes at home and when we were at the campsite, we stuffed them full of cheese, veggies and thin sliced meat and wrapped them in foil. We baked them for a while to heat everything through and then dug in, that one was fun. I think what you take camping depends so much on what you like to eat, how you are comfortable cooking over a fire, or how you plan to cook. Old favorites like hobo packets and even pan fried trout right out of the lake are really delicious. Anything you cook and eat outdoors tastes better anyway, so be creative and try making your favorite foods over the campfire!

I always like to answer questions that you send me, and I hope that if you have a question, you'll email me at cookesfrontier@yahoo.com.

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