How To Cook For Beginners

Chocolate covered strawberries are one of the highest in demand things for Valentines day. So, what are you going to be making for your honey on the big day? Here is a quick recipe that you can do that will allow you to have a wonderful, hand made show of love for that special someone.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries Recipe

Ingredients You will need for your Chocolate Covered Strawberries:

* 6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
* 3 ounces white chocolate, chopped
* 1 pound strawberries with stems (about 20), washed and dried very well

Directions for Chocolate Dipped Strawberries

Put the semisweet and white chocolates into 2 separate heatproof medium bowls. Fill 2 medium saucepans with a couple inches of water and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Turn off the heat; set the bowls of chocolate over the water to melt. Stir until smooth. (Alternatively, melt the chocolates in a microwave at half power, for 1 minute, stir and then heat for another minute or until melted. If doing in the microwave, you need to run it for 10 seconds at a time or you risk burning the chocolate.)

Once the chocolates are melted and smooth, remove from the heat. Line a sheet pan with parchment or waxed paper. Holding the strawberry by the stem, dip the fruit into the dark chocolate, lift and twist slightly, letting any excess chocolate fall back into the bowl. Set strawberries on the parchment paper. Repeat with the rest of the strawberries. Dip a fork in the white chocolate and drizzle the white chocolate over the dipped strawberries.

Set the strawberries aside until the chocolate sets, about 30 minutes.

Special Notes About Chocolate:

Make sure you use good quality chocolate. Get chocolate brands like Ghiradelli, Valrhona, Noel. Nestle won’t work in this application because, while it is good for baking cookies, the chocolate has lots of other things in it, and is not couveture…Couverture Chocolate is a very high quality chocolate that contains extra cocoa butter (32-39%). The higher percentage of cocoa butter, combined with the processing, gives the chocolate more sheen, firmer “snap” when broken, and a creamy mellow flavor.

When you get ready to dip your strawberries, make sure the chocolate is melted, but not hot! It will hurt the berries. Take some chocolate and dab it to your bottom lip. If it feels just cool, under body temperature ( under 98 degrees farenheight ) then you are good to go.

My favorite berries to use are Driscoll brand strawberries. If you look you will find them. Usually Whole Foods Market always has them.

Happy Valentines Day and have fun…maybe you and your lover should do the choclate dipped strawberries together…Sound sexy and sensual?

Seven Layer Dip Recipe

Seven Layed Dip Recipe

Another one of those all time party recipes that everyone needs to have is a 7 layer dip recipe. At the end of the day, we all love to get our fix of dips, and well, this is one you can make easy or complicated.

Let’s talk about the easy way, and then we can talk a little bit more about the harder way to make seven layered dip.

Things You’ll Need for your seven layer dip:

* Plastic Wrap
* Tortilla Chips
* Serving Platters
* Plastic Wrap
* 1/4 c. sliced green onions
* 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese
* 1 6-oz. container guacamole dip (there is a difference between guacamole dip and guacamole.)
* 2/3 c. chopped, seeded tomatoes ( you can leave the seeds in if you like, they add flavor too)
* 1 8-oz. carton sour cream (low fat or fat free if you care)
* 1 9-oz. can bean dip ( or pureed pinto beans, or what ever you like from the mexican section)
* 2 tbsp. sliced, pitted olives
* 1/4 c. taco sauce or picante sauce ( basically salsa)

You can use your imagination, when creating this, but basically, all you need to do is start from the bottom and work your way up.

First, I place in the beans on the bottom. Here is a tip. sometimes the bean puree is too hard, so you can add some vegetable oil to thin it and make it spreadable so you don’t break chips.

next, layer on the guacamole, and then the sour cream.

Once that is done, you can evenly pour on the salsa, and then sprinkle with tomatoes, Cheese and then olives.

Finally garnish with the green onions.

There are just tons of ways you can take this and make it even better…

Start of by mixing different salsas when you do your seven layer dip. You can literally make hundreds of different varieties.

There are also lots of guacamole recipes to try. What you really should think about is using better ingredients. Instead of cheap cheddar, use something nice from Vermont. Use fresh avocados for your guacaomole. Try using vine ripe tomatoes in the salsa….

See where Im going from here?

Oh and the last thing…For me, three of the most important ingredients for great Southwestern cooking are lime juice, cumin and cilantro. Try sprucing up your seven layer dip with those items and you will see the difference.

Have fun at your next superbowl party, or tailgate event!

Buffalo chicken dip recipe. Ready for Super Bowl? Looking for a cool and easy buffalo chicken dip recipe? Well, we have one here for you. There are lot’s of them on the net, but here are some of the ones that we think are great.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

At the end of the day, when we did our research, I find that I like to make regular buffalo wing sauce using Franks Red hot, so I decided to check out their website. They have a great recipe, and we are going to post it here for you.

Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe from Franks Red Hot:

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup blue cheese or ranch salad dressing

1/2 cup any flavor FRANK’S® REDHOT® Sauce

1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese or shredded mozzarella cheese

2 cans (12.5 oz. each) SWANSON® White Premium Chunk Chicken Breast in Water, drained

DIRECTIONS:

HEAT oven to 350°F. Place cream cheese into deep baking dish. Stir until smooth.

MIX in salad dressing, Frank’s RedHot Sauce and cheese. Stir in chicken.

BAKE 20 min. or until mixture is heated through; stir. Garnish as desired. Serve with crackers or vegetables.

TIPS:
Microwave Directions: Prepare as above. Place in microwave-safe dish. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH 5 min. until hot, stirring halfway through cooking.

Tips: You may substitute 2 cups shredded cooked chicken.

Slow Cooker Method: Combine ingredients as directed above. Place mixture into small slow cooker. Cover pot. Heat on HIGH setting for 1 1/2 hours until hot and bubbly or on LOW setting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Stir.

Tailgating Tip: Prepare dip ahead and place in heavy disposable foil pan. Place pan on grill and heat dip until hot and bubbly.

Franks Red Hot