Cheap Stock Pot

Portuguese cuisine is well known for being comprised of simple, handy ingredients. However, the country’s people have an uncanny way of preparing “simple” ingredients in the most delectable ways! Most Portuguese dishes have a particular emphasis on ingredients easily found in local markets, which includes fish, seafood, vegetables, and spices. This article has three great traditional Portuguese recipes that are easy to make and extremely tasty!

Sweet Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup lukewarm milk

1 egg

1 tbsp butter

2 1/4 tbsp sugar

1/3 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups bread flour

1 tsp yeast

Pour the yeast into the milk and let it dissolve for a few minutes. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and sugar. Next, add the milk/yeast mixture, butter, and egg. Mix well. Knead the dough on a floured surface. Once the dough is smooth, place a wet towel over it and allow it to rise for at least an hour. You can place the dough in a greased bread pan, or shape it into a round loaf and bake it on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees F for until the bread is light brown. You can test its doneness by sticking a toothpick in the center. If it comes out clean, it’s done.

Portuguese Soup

Ingredients:

1 lb Chorizo

1 bunch of kale

1 small cabbage

1 can kidney beans

8 potatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

Beef bone (optional-for flavor)

Directions:

Bring a stock pot full of water to a boil. Add the beef bone and chorizo and let it boil for about half an hour. Add in the kale, beans, potatoes, cabbage, and salt and pepper. Continue to boil the soup until the potatoes are tender. After everything is thoroughly cooked, let the soup stand for an hour (covered) before serving.

Egg Pudding

Ingredients:

1 egg (white only)

12 egg yolks

1/2 tsp butter

1 cup white sugar + 1 1/3 additional cups

¼ cup hot water

Lemon peel

1/2 cup hot water

1 cinnamon stick

Directions:

In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks, egg white, and butter until smooth. Set this aside for later. Heat 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of water over low heat. Stir the mixture occasionally until the sugar has dissolved. Pour it into a baking dish, taking care to coat the bottom and sides of the dish with the mixture. In a separate sauce pan, mix together 1 1/3 cups of sugar, lemon peel, 1/2 cup of water, and the cinnamon stick. Bring this mixture to a boil and continue boiling for two minutes, then remove it from the heat. Remove the lemon peel and cinnamon stick from the mixture. Beat this mixture into the egg mixture, then pour into the baking dish with the sugar/water mixture. Place a damp towel in the bottom of a roasting pan, then put the baking dish on top of the towel. Fill the roasting pan with water until it reaches half way up the side of the baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees F for about an hour. If the pudding begins to brown too early, cover it until it finishes baking. Cool the pudding completely before inverting it onto a serving dish.

A great Wedding Shower Game you can play with all your guests is the popular recipe game. This fun game is a great way to include everyone and provide a new bride with a bevy of fail safe recipes to stock her kitchen. It should be known that this game requires advanced notice of all the guests, since they will need plenty of time to find a suitable recipe for submission. Consider sending guests a special recipe card with their wedding shower invitation so that they can complete their part of the game at home.

When the guests arrive, have them deposit their recipe cards into a special basket or a cute recipe box, this begins the fun Wedding Shower Game. Be sure that each guest includes his or her name on the recipe card so that the bride knows exactly who sent the recipe. Also, suggest that guests include potential side dishes or courses that will go well with their dish. This will help the bride a great deal when it comes to meal planning and grocery shopping.

Once all guests have arrived and all recipe cards are in their respective holder, the wedding shower game can begin in earnest. Provide each guest with pen and paper so that they can rate each recipe on a given scale. Develop a rating scale, allowing certain points for a clever name, ease of cooking, end results, and how easy the item is on the budget. Consider providing a gift for the winner of each of these categories and choose kitchen or cooking relating items for fun gifts.

Have the bride read each recipe to the guests, and then allow everyone to rate the recipes on your given scale and categories. This will determine who is declared winner of this specific wedding shower game. In reality, the bride is the true winner, since she will gain a wealth of knowledge from the experienced cooks in the crowd. Be sure the bride calls the name and identifies each individual who wrote the recipes.

This fun wedding shower game is a great way to introduce everyone to each other as well. Before the bride arrives, allow a time for individuals to swap recipes and provide additional recipe cards for the guests to take home. This is a great way for everyone to converse in addition to gaining a new recipe to add to their trusty kitchen arsenal at home. Another way for everyone to share their recipes is to create a website that each guest can access in order to further look into each recipe submitted.

Another fun way to play this great wedding shower game is to have each guest submit a great household tip. These tips can include everything from how to identify and remove stains to how to care for a garden. This game is easily adaptable to any theme of a party, and may be the best gift the bride receives! Guests can also bring a gift that is associated with their recipe of tip, perhaps a hard to find ingredient or unique tool to make life around the house a great deal easier.

Put a romantic spin on this classic wedding shower game by asking each guest to include a great date tip or romantic gesture. Have two categories, one for the bride and one for the groom, so that both individuals are included. Encourage guests to include tips like budget friendly dates, sweet romantic gestures, and great ways to get any couple out of the relationship rut! Everyone will certainly enjoy this great wedding shower game.

You don’t have to spend a great deal of money to attract more buyers to your home at sales time. Remember, your home is in the limelight once you place it on the market, and people will be looking at it more closely than they would if they were just making social calls.

Making sure your house is spotlessly clean, odor-free, and devoid of clutter will go a long way toward getting more and higher offers, but there are other small and inexpensive things you can do that can pay big dividends when it comes to selling your home. The time to begin is BEFORE your home is put on the market.

First, hold a garage sale to rid your home of as much clutter as possible. After the sale is over, call your local charity and donate everything that’s left over. Everything else that you don’t use on a daily basis should be packed away or placed in a storage unit so your home will seem more spacious and open.

One source of clutter that’s often overlooked is the kitchen refrigerator. If you’re like most folks, your fridge is covered with magnets, pieces of paper, recipes, your children’s artwork, photos, and a hundred other things. While they say “home” to you, they say “clutter” to potential buyers, so clear off the refrigerator before your home goes on the market.

Next, make sure the entryway invites people into your home. Put out a nice, friendly new doormat, put pots of flowers on the porch, and make sure the door is clean. If the front door needs paint to make it say “welcome,” do it. It’s an inexpensive way to make a favorable first impression on potential buyers.

Inside the home, some home stagers recommend that you set the dining room table with your finest place settings, including candles and nice cloth napkins. However, you want to be careful that your home doesn’t look too “staged.” The idea is to give buyers a feeling for how nice it would be to entertain in your home once it has become THEIR home. You can do this with candles and a gorgeous flower arrangement. If you don’t have flowers in your garden to cut and need to skip the expense of florist flowers, cut branches of trees and bushes. Fresh greenery provides eye appeal and also makes buyers feel connected to the outdoor natural environment from inside your home.

Make every effort to eliminate any unpleasant odors. If you don’t detect any odors yourself, bring in someone else and ask them to walk through your house and tell you if they smell anything unusual. You may be surprised at what you find out, but unpleasant smells are one of the biggest turn-offs for buyers, so don’t skip this important step.

Fix all squeaky doors or sticky drawers, especially in the kitchen. Since it’s one of the focal points of most home searches, everything in the kitchen must be in perfect working order to make the most favorable impression upon potential buyers. That also means clearing off countertops to make sure buyers can see how spacious and efficient your kitchen really is.

When it comes to selling your home, you want it to stand out from the competition, but you don’t have to spend large sums of money to accomplish that goal. Some common sense and some good old-fashioned elbow grease will go a long way toward selling your home more quickly and for more money.

Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher

The word ‘crockpot’ is a name which is actually a trademarked name, but is often used as a generic term. The terms ‘crockpot’ and ’slow cooker’ have come to be used interchangeably.

‘Rival’ is the original holder of the trademarked term ‘Crock-Pot‘.

The Rival Crock-Pot / slow cooker has been one of the most important cooking tools for busy families since its introduction in 1971. Slow cooking is a great way to provide delicious home cooked meals for people and families on the go and produces flavorful meals time after time.

This appliance is made of fired clay and is usually glazed and surrounded by a metallic housing. It contains a controlled heating element to maintain the slow cooker temperatures whuich allow food to be cooked over longer periods of time.

Typically a slow cooker will have just two heat settings, and a glass lid is used to retain the heat and moisture. An important tip to be sure to follow is this: Don’t lift the lid while it is cooking the food! Letting the heat escape in this way will add twenty minutes to the cooking time! The lid is important as it prevents escape of hot water vapor which would, if permitted, lead to lowering the internal water level, loss of heat and drying out of the contents.

A slow cooker works in a much different way than a pressure cooker which allows much higher temperatures than the boiling point of water. Because the lid of a slow cooker is on very loosely, the temperature inside will never get above the boiling point of water. Any vapor that does occur condenses on the lid and returns as moisture back onto the food.

Because of the nature of slow cooking, food can be cooked for longer than expected with no harm to the food. In fact, your meats become more tender when they are cooked like this over longer periods of time.

Recipes for these cookers must be adjusted to compensate for the nature of the cooking. Often water must be decreased. Most (probably all) come with recipe booklets. Many cookbooks with slow cooker recipes are available and there are numerous recipes on the Web. A small number of cookbooks seek to make complete dishes in a slow cooker using fewer than five ingredients while others treat the slow cooker as a serious piece of culinary equipment capable of producing gourmet meals. With some experience, timings and recipe adjustments can be successfully made for many recipes not originally intended for these cookers. The long, moist nature of the cooking method allows for lower quality cuts to be used.

And even though a slow cooker takes longer to cook the food, it will actually save you time! How is this possible? Well, you can quickly load the ingredients in the morning and turn it on. That right there is the bulk of your time -not very much! And at dinner time, your home will greet you with a flavorful aroma fit for a king or queen!

Copyright 2006 Tony Buel

Call and What?

An option is a “legal financial contract”. The holder has the right, but is under no obligation, to accrue or sell a predetermined number of stock shares. This is to be done at a price that has been predetermined which is called a strike price. It is also to be accomplished on or before a specific date.

There are just two basic types of stock options, the European and the American. An American stock option is a contract that can be exercised between the purchase date and the expiration date.

Each stock option is designated by the following:

o Name of the stock

o Strike price

o Expiration date

o The premium that was paid for the option plus the broker’s commission

Two of the most popular types of stock options are Calls and Puts. If you own a call you have the right but are not obliged to buy a stock at the strike price at any time before the stock option expires. If an option expires, it is useless and worthless.

The other most common stock option is the PUT. This is almost the exact opposite of a Call. If you own a put you have the right, but are not obliged, to sell a stock at the strike price any time before the expiration date of the option.

How in the world do people trade these stock options? Stock options traders will rarely exercise their option and purchase (or sell) the underlying security. Instead, they will buy back or sell the option. This saves on commissions.

Options officially expire on Saturday following the third Friday of the month in which the option expires. Shares of stock have a 3-day settlement interval but option settle the very next day. The option has to be traded by Friday in order to settle on Saturday.

Another thing you may hear about with regards to stock options is volume and open interest. Volume is the number of contracts that are traded on any given day. The open interest figure is the number of contracts that are outstanding at any given time.

For those who are curious, a Put-Call theorem has been formulated which defines the following relationship for the price of puts and calls:

P=C-S+E+D

o P= the price of the put

o C= the price of the call

o S= the stock price

o E= the present value of the exercise price

o D= the present value of the dividends

An ordinary investor will see a violation of the put-call parity from time to time. This is not a time to instantly buy, but it is a reason for you to check your quotations for timeliness because as you will probably see at least one of them has expired.

If you want to get into the stock option trading business, then you should probably start by writing covered call option for stocks that are currently trading below the strike price of the stock option.

There are many places on the Internet if you do a search for stock options where you can set up an account for just a small amount of money. My advice to you is to do your research well and only put up as much money as you are willing to part with.

Think eating healthy on a budget is impossible? Many people believe that cutting back on food costs means that you can’t buy healthy food anymore.

Some people even convince themselves that healthy weight loss is not possible unless they spend a lot of money.

But eating healthy on a budget as well as healthy weight loss is not only possible, with a little planning you can cut food costs and still eat healthy food.

Here are a few tips to make it easier for eating healthy on a budget.

Plan your weekly food menus with healthy eating recipes and make a grocery list with those items before you shop. This saves you time in the store and can save you a lot of money because you are less likely to buy on an impulse.

Stock your fridge and cupboards with healthy foods, and to keep costs down, stay away from extras like soft drinks, chips, baked goods, and other high-calorie items.

Children and sometimes even spouses are usually the ones asking for junk food. Remember, food choices are a big factor in what determines the health of you and your family.

Buy more water or milk instead of soft drinks when shopping and you’ll save money. You can still enjoy your favorite soft drinks at a

sporting event or night out. For healthy weight loss just make it a diet soda.

Buy fruits in quantity when they are in season and freeze any extras. Just wash the fruit well, dry thoroughly, then freeze in plastic zipper bags.

While lean meat and seafood are a great source of protein, they can get expensive. To cut your costs, use beans a substitute for meat on a few occasions.

Beans are very economical and makes eating healthy on a budget really simple. There are several varieties of beans and preparing them in a crock pot and making a salad turns into an easy meal.

Another great way for eating healthy on a budget is brown-bagging your lunch. It takes a little more time, but with the right food choices, it is both healthier and less expensive.

Peanut butter is also great for those on a budget and almost everyone likes it. Use it for sandwiches along with jam instead of expensive lunch meat.

For healthy weight loss try adding sugar free jam because it has a lot fewer calories and fat than regular jam but still tastes great.

If you eat foods that have a high content of water like watermelon, salads and even sugar free gelatin, they are inexpensive, ideal for healthy weight loss and work perfect for eating healthy on a budget.

It easy to fall into a rut of eating the same unhealthy and expensive foods. But once you take back control by planning your weekly food menus with healthy eating recipes, you can enjoy a nice variety of meals again.

Eating healthy on a budget can be as simple as just making different choices.

Copyright © 2006 Fat-Burning-Secret.com All Rights Reserved.

1 Tbs Olive Oil

1 Red Onion, chopped

1 Green Pepper, seeded and diced

3 Cloves garlic, minced

1 Jalapeno Pepper, seeded and finely chopped. Use the same substitution as above for the jalapeno if you are not able to buy fresh or want a milder taste.

1 Tbs Chili Powder

1 Tbs Dried Oregano

1 tsp Cumin

6 cups Chicken Stock*

1 Cup Tomatoes, chopped

1 Cup Zucchini, diced

1 Cup Frozen Corn

Salt and pepper to taste, if you use homemade chicken stock you may need additional salt.

Sautee over low heat the onion, green pepper, garlic, jalapeno, chili powder, oregano and cumin in the olive oil for bout three minutes.

In a large stock pot combine the chicken stock, tomatoes, zucchini and corn. Bring to a boil and add the sautéed ingredients. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

You can garnish with crumbled tortilla chips and cheese or with a dab of sour cream. If you are looking for a low fat alternative try plain yogurt in place of sour cream.

* I use homemade chicken stock. To make this simply boil in 6-8 cups water with a chicken carcass, one large onion cut into quarters, 2 carrots, 2 celery stocks and one bay leaf. Boil for 3 hours. Drain and strain the broth then cool for use later. I do this after we have roast chicken and then freeze the broth. This broth makes a great base for chili, split pea soup, potato soup or your families other favorite soup.

Beef short ribs were a bargain meal during my graduate school days. How things have changed. My local butcher shop stopped carrying beef short ribs because they had gotten so expensive. “Most of the short ribs are being shipped to the Orient and this drives the price up,” he explained. “Now that the price has dropped a bit I’m carrying them again.”

When the weather turns cold I crave “stick-to-the-ribs” meals like beef short ribs. The ribs, a combination of lean meat and fat, are cut from the end of a standing rib roast, and this is what makes them so tasty. Many cultures have recipes for beef short ribs.

The Polish fix beef short ribs in a sauce made with bacon, onions, and caraway seeds. Texas short ribs are a different thing all together. “The Complete Round the World Meat Cook Book” by Myra Waldo contains a recipe for Texas short ribs made with bottled chili sauce. The book also has a recipe for deviled short ribs.

But I didn’t want caraway seeds, or chili sauce, or lots of spices in my short ribs, so I braised them in red wine. For a more complete meal I added onions, tomatoes, and carrots to the sauce. You may bake the covered short ribs in a 325 degree oven for two hours if you don’t have a slow cooker.

INGREDIENTS

3 1/2 pounds beef short ribs

2 tablespoons extra light olive oil (more if you need it)

3/4 cup regular flour

14 1/2-ounce can of no salt diced tomatoes and juice

2 cups red wine (cabernet or hearty burgundy)

3 inch-wide pieces of orange zest

1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon prepared chopped garlic

1 cup frozen pearl onions

3 carrots, peeled and cut into one-inch chunks

3 tablespoons gravy flour

METHOD

Ask the butcher to cut the short ribs in half. Remove extra fat from ribs with a boning knife. Dredge the short ribs in flour. Pour olive oil into a cast iron skillet. Brown the short ribs, front and back, and them set aside. Add the red wine to the skillet. Cook over high heat for two minutes to evaporate the alcohol.

Pour canned tomatoes and juice into the slow cooker. Add orange zest, thyme, pepper, and garlic.

Transfer short ribs to the slow cooker. Pour the red wine over the ribs and stir with a rubber scraper. Sprinkle pearl onions and carrots over the short ribs. Cover and cook on low for four hours. Using a slotted spoon, remove ribs from cooker and set on a large plate. Remove and discard orange zest.

Pour the sauce into a large pan and carefully skim fat with a spoon. Put gravy flour into a cup and, stirring constantly, add a little cold water. Pour this mixture into the sauce, stirring constantly. Cook over medium heat until sauce thickens. Return the short ribs to the sauce, cover, and cook over low heat for five minutes. Serve immediately with ciabatta bread and a green salad. Makes 6 generous servings.

Copyright 2007 by Harriet Hodgson

Crockpots aren’t just for meals! There’s all kinds of desserts you can make with your crockpot. Two are listed below. Be sure to see our website for other crockpot recipes.

APPLE BROWN BETTY

* 3 lbs. cooking apples

* 10 slices of bread, cubed (about 4 cups)

* 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

* 1/4 tsp. nutmeg

* 1/8 tsp. salt

* 3/4 c. brown sugar

* 1/2 c. butter or margarine, melted

Wash apples, peel, core, cut into eighths; place in bottom on crock.

Combine bread cubes, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, sugar, butter; toss

together. Place on top of apples in crock. Cover. Place crock into outer

shell. Cook on low setting 2 to 4 hours. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

APRICOT NUT BREAD

* 3/4 cup dried apricots

* 1 cup flour

* 2 tsp baking powder

* 1/4 tsp baking soda

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 1/2 cup sugar

* 3/4 cup milk

* 1 egg, slightly beaten

* 1 Tbsp grated orange peel

* 1 Tbsp vegetable oil

* 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

* 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Dip a knife into flour and chop the apricots finely. Flour the knife

often to keep the cut up fruit from sticking together. Sift the remaining

flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar into a large bowl.

Combine the milk, egg, orange peel, and oil. Stir the flour mixture and

the whole wheat flour. Fold in the cut up apricots, any flour left on the

cutting block and the walnuts. Pour into a well greased,

floured baking unit. Cover and place on a rack in the slow cooker, but

prop the lid open a fraction with a toothpick or a twist of foil to let

excess steam escape. Cook on High for 4 to 6 hours. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Ingredients

(A) Ground spice ingredients

15 fresh red chillies
15 dried red chilies
150 g shallots
10 cloves of garlic
40g galangal (Lengkuas)
2cm knob fresh turmeric root
1 tsp belacan granules has

(B)

4 tablespoons tamarind paste (ASAM Jawa), mixed and tried to get tamarind juice
300ml water
10 branches polygonum leaves (Daun kesom)
3 pieces dried tamarind skin (asam keping)
3 stalks lemongrass, lightly smashed
1.8Liters

(C)

1 kg mackerel (ikan kembung) or horse mackerel (ikan Selar kuning), cleaned
1 cup water
1 kg fresh laksa noodles
Seasoning

2 tablespoons sugar or to taste
Salt to taste
Supplements

1 wild ginger bud (bunga kantan), halved and finely chopped
1 cucumber shredded
1 / 2 pineapple, sliced and chopped
1 onion, finely chopped.
2 red chillies, seeded and cut into slices
A few sprigs mint (Daun pudina)
Shrimp paste (har koe),diluted with water to a drizzle consistency

Method

Boil fish in just enough water. When cooked, remove the fish and strain the stock. Then flake the fish and set the fish aside. Put tamarind juice, ground ingredients (A), water and fish stock in a saucepan. Polygonum Add leaves, dried tamarind skin and lemon grass. Bring to a low simmering boil for 10 minutes. Add the flaked fish and seasoning to taste. Furthermore, simmer for an additional 1-2 minutes can be. To serve, place aHandful of laksa noodles in a colander and immerse in a metal pot with boiling water to scald the noodles for half a minute. Drain and place in a bowl. Pour a ladle full of laksa soup garnish or sauce over the noodles and garnish with a little of each. Drizzle a little prawn paste over and serve immediately. You can also serve the prawn paste separately.