Passim Educativa» Cooking, Food & Wine

Baking Made Easy with Nonstick Baking Pans

admin — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:21:35 +0000

The weather around here has turned gray and brisk and for some reason that makes me want to eat more than usual! I crave warm foods like hot soup and hot chocolate. Of course the best part of this time of year is all of the goodies you can cook and bake. I love baking with cinnamon because it makes the whole house smell wonderful. You can come in from working in the yard or biking in the neighborhood and just soak in the aroma. And enjoy the treats too! I recently made a yummy batch of peach cobbler that turned out better than I expected. I think it helped that I had finally purchased some good quality nonstick baking pans so the food cooked very quickly and evenly.

If you like to cook and bake than it’s really worth investing in quality bakeware because it makes a big difference in the kind of results you’ll get. If you’ve ever baked in flimsy bakeware then you know that most of your food will cook unevenly and even worse, stick to the pan. Like when you try to bake a birthday layer cake and it comes out of the pan in piece, leaving you to try to glue it together with icing and trying to hide the chunks that are out of place.

A Classic 3 Quart Whistling Tea Kettle

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:37:44 +0000

I have been trying to decide what to give my aunt for a housewarming gift. She’s downsizing and moving out of her big family house up North into a nice 2 bedroom patio home in the South. She’s been doing a lot of work going through all of her belongings and deciding what stays and what goes. It’s a lot of work but I can tell she’s really looking forward to the change – especially to living in a warmer climate and having a more manageable house to live in. When I was helping her pack up some of her kitchen items recently I noticed that her tea kettle was looking worn and had a chip in the handle. So I think I’ll be buying her this Classic 3 Quart Whistling Tea Kettle for her new kitchen.

This attractive tea kettle is perfect for her – especially because it whistles and will remind her when her hot water is ready. It’s constructed of high quality 18/10 stainless steel and features an ergonomically designed sturdy handle. Plus it’s protected by manufacturer’s 25 year limited warranty.I just know my aunt will love this new stainless steel tea kettle in her new home.

A Simple Yet Elegant Holiday Appetizer – The Cheese Ball

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:46:12 +0000

The cheese ball may seem a bit retro, but I have found it to be a simple but tasty and elegant appetizer that’s perfect for the holidays since it can be made well in advance. Here is my favorite basic cheese ball recipe. You can very easily add just about any flavor you’d like from a hardy smoked sausage and cheddar, to the more refined Swiss cheese and almonds. Serve it up with a variety of crackers and you have yourself a crowd-pleasing dish.

In my humble opinion, cooking for the holidays should be simple and I should be able to do much of the work ahead of time. I keep both of these in mind any time I look for new holiday recipes. This allows me to make sure that I can spend plenty of time with my loved ones. And that’s really what counts, not how fancy the food is. Believe me, as long as your holiday dishes are tasty, no one will care how much time you did or didn’t spend preparing them.

Make Italian-Style Sandwiches in the DeLonghi Panini Grill

admin — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 21:55:13 +0000

We eat a lot of sandwiches in our home for lunch and sometimes even for dinner. One of our children always wants cinnamon raisin bread, another wants plain white bread, and another always wants wraps. So we eat a lot of turkey, ham, Swiss and American cheese, the usual sandwich meats and cheeses. But after awhile sandwiches can seem a little boring. Then recently we went out to eat and had Panini sandwiches filled with herbed chicken, melted mozzarella, tomato, and crispy grilled bread – they were delicious. My neighbor mentioned that she owned a Panini grill and that she used it quite a lot, but we could borrow it and try it out. We used it that same weekend and it worked like a charm, so I decided to buy the same DeLonghi Panini Grill for our family.

So now sandwiches are a lot less boring around our house. We still make regular sandwiches during the week for school, but if we’re making a sandwich for dinner or over the weekend, we always use the Panini grill now. We can even use our grill to cook chicken, fish, and fresh veggies. The hinged top adjusts to accommodate even the thickest sandwich or cutlet, grilling perfectly on both sides. It’s retro style and mirrored finish looks really sharp on our counter top. When it comes to our favorite kitchen tools, this indoor grill is now at the top of the list.