The Beginners Guide To Basic Kitchen Appliances

Setting up a new kitchen is both exiting and overwhelming. You will see new stuff that you do not have but might need in every store that you visit. On top of this, friends and relatives will swear by their own favorite kitchen appliances and utensils and store salesmen will convince you that your kitchen cannot be complete until and unless you pick up each and every appliance available in their store ranging from ovens, steamers and coffee grinders to toasters, citrus fruit juicers and grill sandwich makers. While you will eventually get to know what you need and what you don't as you start using your kitchen full time, given below is a list of necessary basic kitchen appliances that will help you out till then:

Food Processor: A food processor is the best thing to ever happen to the kitchen. Many people will tell you that the attachments are tough to handle and cleaning up is the biggest chore ever, but a food processor can actually speed up your time and productivity in the kitchen provided you know how to use one. Any good quality food processor will let you make juices; chop, slice, shred, mince and grate vegetables and meat; grind and puree and knead your dough for bread and pizza bases. Buy a food processor that comes with a blender so that you do not have to buy an additional blender, which is one of the most used and useful kitchen appliances.

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Blender: If you are not buying a food processor or if your processor comes without a blender, then make sure that you buy a blender before you start cooking. It is a major necessity in any kitchen and extremely efficient and useful for making shakes, smoothies, purees, soups and sauces.

The Beginners Guide To Basic Kitchen Appliances

An Electric Beater Or Mixer: An electric beater, stand alone or hand held is a necessity for you if you plan to bake. These hand held or stand alone beaters ensure that your eggs and cream are perfectly whipped for cakes and that your batter is perfectly mixed. You can go for a manual beater/mixer if you are short of money, but they tend to consume a lot of time and energy and still fail to provide the results that an electric one does. They are also helpful in making soups, sauces and pastes of all kinds.

A Microwave: In a day and age of pre-packed, pre-prepared frozen foods, no kitchen is complete without a microwave. Microwaves are necessary for reheating and defrosting, which not only take up time but also result in a large amount of dirty utensils if you use a stove top. You can also use your microwave for basic cooking and end up saving a lot of kitchen time.

A Crock Pot: The only way that you can get perfect steamed rice with each and every grain standing out separately is by using a crock pot or an electric rice cooker. Just put in the desired amount of rice and water and switch in the device and your restaurant grade rice will be ready within no time. It is an ideal instrument for making soups and all-in-one meals and is also great for steaming vegetables.

The Beginners Guide To Basic Kitchen Appliances

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Sweet Twist On Tamales

Tamales are a wonderful food made of various fillings inside a corn masa shell. The whole thing is steamed while wrapped inside a corn husk. When it is done, you have a delicious traditional Mexican dish. The great thing about tamales is you can make them savory or sweet. Fill them with meat, vegetables, or sweet fruit filling. You will love all the variations.

It may take some practice to perfect your tamales, but once you have got it mastered, you will be able to make large batches ahead of time and freeze them until you need them. Since tamales are a big undertaking, it was common for families to get together to make large quantities.

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If you like these tamales filled with apples, try experimenting a bit with other fruit fillings. You should also try savory versions to make for your main meal.

Sweet Twist On Tamales

Recipe for Sweet Tamales

Tamales can be either savory or sweet.

What You Need

4 ounces of dried corn husks (approximately 32 husks) 1-1/4 cups masa harina 1-1/4 cups boiling water 2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped 1/3 cup raisins 1 cup and 1 Tablespoon sugar 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 3 cups water 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 cup vegetable shortening 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt

How to Make It

Separate the corn husks and soak them in a large bowl of hot water for about an hour. They should become pliable.

In a medium bowl, add 1-1/4 cups boiling water to the masa harina. Beat until smooth with a wooden spoon. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it cool to room temperature; about an hour.

Place the apples, raisins, 5 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 3 cups of water in a medium pot and simmer over medium temperature for half an hour. Strain, retaining 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Move the fruit to a bowl and use a fork to mash it. Add vanilla. Set aside with the cooking liquid to cool completely.

In a large bowl, beat the shortening on medium speed with an electric mixer until fluffy (about 2 minutes). Add the masa dough and remaining sugar and cinnamon. Beat until smooth (about 1 minute). Add the retained cooking liquid gradually, beating until the mixture feels like thick cake batter. Add the baking powder and salt. Beat the mixture for another minute.

Drain the husks. Tear 8 of the husks lengthwise into 48 thin strips. Set aside. Place 24 husks on the work surface, concave side up. Fill the center of each husk with 2 tablespoons of masa dough. Put 1 heaping teaspoon of fruit in the center of the dough. Fold the long sides so they cover the filling. Tie the ends of the tamale closed with the strips of husk. Repeat until all 24 are finished. Place them upright, leaning against each other, in the steamer top.

Place the steamer over a pot of simmering water over medium heat. Cover. Steam until the husks separate easily from the tamale, about an hour.

Allow to stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Makes 24 tamales.

Sweet Twist On Tamales

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Italian Christmas Cookies - Anise Cookies

Whether a part of the assortment of Italian Christmas cookies or at a baby shower or wedding, these anise cookies are constantly making an appearances at my family celebrations (With a simple drop of food coloring they're perfect for any occasion!) If the licorice taste of anise doesn't suit you, try using almond, vanilla or even lemon extract...they are all delicious!

Makes about 8 dozen

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Cookie Ingredients

Italian Christmas Cookies - Anise Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons anise extract (almond, vanilla or lemon can also be used!)
2 1/2 - 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2-3 tablespoons milk
Icing Ingredients

2 cups confectioners' sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
1/8 teaspoon anise extract (optional)
food coloring (optional)
sprinkles of your choice(optional)
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Prepare your cookie sheets or pans by covering them with parchment paper.

To prepare these Italian Christmas cookies, get a large bowl and combine the butter and sugar together until the mixture is light and fluffy, which should take anywhere between 3 and 5 minutes. Crack in each egg, making sure to mix well after each one. Add your choice of extract.

Now combine the flour and baking powder, sifting it together so that there are no chunks of baking powder together. Take about a third of these dry ingredients and add them to the wet ones, using a hand or stand mixer to combine them. Then add about a tablespoon of milk. Repeat this process by adding another third of the flour mixture to your batter, and then another spoon of milk. The last batch of flour should be added very slowly, mixing in between so that you can determine how much flour is enough. You want the batter to be very easy to mold, but not sticking to your hands. The dough should not be stiff! If you add too much flour, try adding a few more drops of milk until the batter is easy to manage.

Using a tablespoon, drop balls of the batter onto the baking sheets, leaving space for them to bake and puff up in the oven.

Stick your pan in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes or until they puff up and the bottoms begin to turn a light golden brown.

While the cookies are baking, mix together the confectioners sugar, milk and extract of your choice (if you are using it). At this point you can also add food coloring if you want your icing to be a special color. White is also just as nice though!

After the cookies have mostly cooled, hold each one upside down and dip into your frosting glaze. flip it over and let it rest on a flat surface covered with wax paper. If you intend to use sprinkles, only dip a few at time and then sprinkle them, or else the frosting will harden and sprinkles will no longer stick. (If your frosting begins to harden before you are done dipping just microwave it for about 10 seconds to let melt again!)

Let the frosting harden to the touch, arrange on a plate and get ready to serve these Italian Christmas cookies to your family and friends!

Italian Christmas Cookies - Anise Cookies

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Insights on Specialty Kitchen Gadgets

Every kitchen needs the basic tools to function: a blender for sauces and milkshakes, a toaster, a stand or hand mixer to make batters and cookies, and a good set of knives. Once you've established yourself with those, a few specialty items may be in order to make working in the kitchen more enjoyable and tons easier.

Hopefully, you are using a lot of vegetables and fruits in your cooking. A cutting board and knife set will work just fine to slice and dice for every recipe. However, a much more fun way to get the same results is a mandoline. A mandoline is a kitchen utensil that can slice, julienne, and waffle cut, just to name a few. It has extremely sharp cutting edges and the ability to switch cutting styles through different slicing attachments. If you are sticking with the knife and cutting board, there are plenty of cutting boards to choose from. Wood is the traditional choice. It's especially good for cutting dry things like bread and cheese. Other types of boards include flexible cutting mats and synthetic cutting boards. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. Wooden boards are heavy and beautiful. But they can trap bacteria and they can't go in the dishwasher. Plastic cutting boards can be purchased in a variety of colors to match your kitchen and they can go into the dishwasher. However, they aren't heavy and substantial feeling like a wooden cutting board. Metal and marble cutting board are not to be used. They wear out knives quickly.

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If you've been working in the kitchen a lot, you know the prep work is the most time consuming part of all the cooking process. Several tools have surfaced that make all the prep time shorter and shorter. One of these is these is the garlic press. If you love garlic in your dishes and use it frequently, you know how much time it takes to peel and chop it. The garlic press takes over this job with ease. You simply put one clove of garlic in the press and squeeze the handle. It comes out through the tiny holes, ready to go. Another similar product is the micro-plane zester. It works to remove the zest or outer skin of citrus fruit for recipes. You just rub the fruit on like you would sand a block of wood. This handy tool can also be used for chocolate.

Insights on Specialty Kitchen Gadgets

Insights on Specialty Kitchen Gadgets

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Two Simple Cupcake Recipes for Beginners

Every cupcake baker needs to start somewhere. These two recipes are for everyone's favorite flavors: chocolate and vanilla! Some people might find these flavors to be boring, but I think they are perfect! Additional ingredients can always be added to fancy them up and the "plainness" of the flavors allows for the use of more interesting frosting.

This chocolate recipe has been in my family forever and it is absolutely the best chocolate cake I've ever had. And as an added bonus, there are no eggs in the batter so feel free to lick the bowl!

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No Eggs Chocolate Cake

Two Simple Cupcake Recipes for Beginners

3 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
8 Tbsp. cocoa
2 c. water
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla
¾ c. canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line your cupcake tin with paper liners.

In a large bowl, sift together the first five ingredients. Put the remaining ingredients in the large bowl of a stand mixer. Beat until well blended, about 1-2 minutes. Gradually add the dry ingredients until well combined. Pour the batter into your prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely before frosting.

This next recipe is for vanilla cupcakes. I love a vanilla cupcake because they are so versatile! You can add any flavor frosting to make it more interesting. You can also add in additional items to the batter, like sprinkles or finely chopped fruit, and it completely transforms the cake.

Vanilla Cupcakes

1-3/4 c. cake flour, not self rising
1-1/4 c. all-purpose flour
2 c. sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1" pieces
4 large eggs
1 c. whole milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line you cupcake tin with paper liners.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Mix on a low speed until combined. Gradually add the butter until just coated with flour.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, milk, and vanilla. With the mixer on a medium speed, gradually add this mixture in three parts. Beat until the ingredients are incorporated, but don't overbeat.

Fill the cupcake liners until they are 2/3 full. Bake, rotating the pan halfway through, for about 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Allow cupcakes to cool completely before frosting.

Two Simple Cupcake Recipes for Beginners

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Selecting The Best Tortilla Maker

One of the popular Mexican food items is the tasty Tortillas. With the electric tortilla maker, you can make them at a fast and in an easy way. As the rime is passing, this particular device is improving itself with reliability and efficiency. The only problem with this particular device is to select exactly which device to buy. One of the best and easiest ways to compare this particular appliance is by searching online for the reviews related to that particular item. With this method, you will know that why people recommend this particular appliance. This particular appliance comes in different sizes, functions and models. As they are available in different models, so you can choose one without any difficulty.

All things have pros and cons related to it, so it is natural that the electric tortilla maker would also have them. Before buying this particular appliance, you should first find out their advantages and disadvantages so that you can buy the right device. Making a correct decision is very important than making delicious tortillas. There are different types of tortilla makers available in the market. One such popular appliance is the Chef Pro Tortilla Maker. This particular appliance is made in such a manner that it has become popular among the different appliances available in the market.

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This particular kitchen machine can be easily cleaned and this is very helpful for the person who works in a kitchen. Nobody wants to spend time in cleaning the device after spending time in cooking. When you are buying a kitchen device, you should keep this particular thing in mind. Making a decision can be a difficult task but if you do a bit of research, you will be able to find the right equipment. You can search for the information published online which is also reliable. Here, you can even know other people's view about this particular product.

Selecting The Best Tortilla Maker

Selecting The Best Tortilla Maker

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Cuisinart Vs KitchenAid Food Processor - Learn About Pros and Cons of Each Brand

If you love to spend your time in the kitchen, whether it's cooking or baking, I'm sure you would need great a food processor to help you in simplifying the process of your food preparation. Don't get confused with a blender; food processor helps you to do repetitive task in processing various ingredients, it has different blades and discs for different results. There are many different brand of this unit in the market, you need to pick which one that suit your needs best. We can help you with that. In this article we'll do comparison between KitchenAid vs Cuisinart food processor, 2 innovative products from famous manufacturers which have been proven by many customers to be the best in the market.

Nowadays, the demand of designing sophisticated food processors is very high, so far, only those 2 big names have met beyond expectation. So, as far as the quality concerned, you can be sure that you get the best no matter which product you choose to buy.

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We're going to start the comparison by giving you details of pros and cons for each brand. First, let's start with KitchenAid.

Cuisinart Vs KitchenAid Food Processor - Learn About Pros and Cons of Each Brand

If you are not familiar with KitchenAid food processor, you might be familiar with its legendary stand mixer which was launched in 1919. Today, the company has released various modern kitchen products which are loved by many customers. Let's talk about the pros and cons of this crucial kitchen appliance.

Pros

You can choose from a range of small to powerful one, from 300 watt to over 1000 watt motor power. This power determines how fast and how much food it can handle at a time.
With each purchase, customers will get various mini bowl cups. These cups come in handy when you need to process small amount of food. However, these bonuses depend on the model of the food processor too.
The wide and narrow feed tubes have been designed separately to make it easier to fill the food.
Compared to Cuisinart, many of KitchenAid models can be found cheaper.

Cons

This food processor has bigger shape and size compared to Cuisinart. You need some space in the kitchen for this device. It could be a problem if you only have small kitchen counter.
Although we said this device is cheaper than Cuisinart, compared to other brands, this kitchen appliance can be considered expensive. Not everyone can afford this luxury.
The machinery parts change from time to time. You might not find some spare parts of your older model food processor. However, this usually happens to a very old model.

What about Cuisinart? Well, this brand introduced food processor as one of essential and revolutionary kitchen appliances in America in 1973. Since then, this brand has introduced many great appliances preferred by chefs and professionals.

Pros

Similar to KitchenAid, this brand offers a range of motor powers from 275 watt to more than 1000 watt.
If you cook and bake, you might want to consider this brand. The unique dough control system provides great consistency result.
It comes with various different blades for chopping, mixing, or blending attached with the unit. Replace the blades to prepare multiple food.

Cons

There are many complains related to lock and unlock of this appliance, perhaps there's something wrong in the mechanism of the spring.
This product is not just simple and plain product, it's pretty sophisticated. To some people this can cause a problem if they don't really like complicated stuff.
It comes with additional bowls, however not as many as KitchenAid

As you can see here, these 2 brands deliver great results when processing your food. Don't let the down sides stop you from making buying decision since each person has different needs when it comes to process the food.

Cuisinart Vs KitchenAid Food Processor - Learn About Pros and Cons of Each Brand

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