1. Get more sleep
2. Drink more water
3. Eat slowly
4. Put your fork/spoon down between bites
5. Put food on a smaller plate
6. Distribute smaller portions
7. Exercise easy/repeatable 30 minutes per day
8. Park away from the doors – walk more
9. Drink a glass of milk before your meal
10. Eat more fiber
11. Eat more fruits and veggies
12. Use hot sauce

Essentials

• Chef’s Knife – The best you can afford
• Paring Knife – make sure it feels good in your hand
• Ginsu Knife – really – I use mine all the time
• Santoku Knife – middle of the road will be OK
• Heavy duty meat cleaver
• Sturdy kitchen shears – Ideally they come apart to clean
  
• Honing/sharpening steel – Use at least every other time
  
• Flat sharpening stone – I just send mine out yearly
• Cutting Board – Small plastic and large plastic for raw meats and other things that cannot be eaten raw
• Cutting Board – Butcher Blok or Kiln Dried Maple or Ash for veggies and things that CAN be eaten raw
  • Occasionally sand the board with a fine sandpaper, and then use a food grade mineral oil to treat the surface
  • Sanitize occasionally with white vinegar
  • Never into the dishwasher though

Incidentals, but Important

• Smooth Edge Can Opener – no nasty cuts
  
• Measuring Cups – good quality 1/4 C – 1 C
  
• Measuring Spoons – good quality
• Glass Measuring Cup – 4 C
• Bench Scraper
• Mixing Bowls – Stackable glass set
• Large stainless steel mixing bowl – 20 quart ±
  
• Salad Spinner / Colander
  
• Strainer – Regular and fine
  
• Vegetable peeler – even expensive ones will grow dull
  
• Potato masher – sturdy / heavy duty
• Whisks – one steel and one for non-stick pans
• Grater / zester / microplane
  

Cookware and Bakeware

• 12 inch stainless steel skillet with lid
  
• 10 inch sauteé pan
• 8 inch non-stick omelet pan
• Saute pan – with lid
• Small sauce pan – with lid – 2 quart
  
• Medium sauce pan – with lid – 3 quart
  
• Large pot – with lid – 5 qt Dutch oven is a nice choice
  
• Large stock pot – with lid
• Grill pan – nice to have, but optional
• Cast Iron Skillet – lid optional
• Heavy duty rimmed baking sheet
• Wire cooling rack
• Casserole dish – 9*9 and 9*12
  
• Pyrex round glass pie plate
• Bread loaf pan
• Broiler pan

Cooking Tools / Hand Utinsels

• Spatula – silicon and wooden
• Stirring spoon – metal, silicon and wooden
• Sturdy tongs
• Ladel
• Oven mitts or hot pads (3)
• A rolling pin
  
• Infrared thermometer – from ThermoWorks
• Instant-read probe thermometer – ThermoWorks
• Oven Thermometer – Alternately, test periodically with infrared
  

Appliances

• Immersion Blender – alternate to a hand-mixer
  
• Digital kitchen scale (with tare)
  
• Countertop blender

Other Kitchen Essentials

• Food storage containers – I use yogurt containers, etc
• Aluminum foil
• Parchment paper
• Sandwich wrap – waxed paper
• Saran Wrap (or similar)
• Cloth towels
• Paper towels – I use washable Dollar Store wash cloths
• Sponges
• Scrub sponges
• Dish drying rack
• Small and large trash bags – I use grocery bags in a mixing bowl
• x

Most people use cornstarch as a thickener because that is what has always been used. It is also widely available; HOWEVER, after Passover (the Jewish holiday) Manischewitz (man-i-chev-its) potato starch is usually widely available and on sale.

Here is a quick comparison of different starches from the website YUMMY.

Cornstarch

Cornstarch of cornflour is a fine, powdery starch that’s made from corn. It is a pure starch thickener, so compared to flour, a smaller quantity is needed to thicken the same amount of liquid. It is fast-acting too, thickening a sauce almost immediately when added to nearly boiling liquid. Asian-style dishes often use cornstarch, as sauces thickened with this starch remain clear and shiny. It is also used as a coating for fried chicken, pork, and fish.

Rice Flour

Rice flour is a type of flour derived from finely milled white or brown rice. It is gluten-free, thus it is often used as a substitute for wheat flour. Aside from being the main ingredient in noodles and native sweets, rice flour is also used for coating meats before frying.

Tapioca Starch

Extracted from the cassava root, tapioca starch is one of the purest forms of starch. It is gluten-free and is a popular thickening agent for sauces and dessert fillings. Like other root starches, it gelatinizes at relatively lower temperatures and produces sauces that are clear, shiny, and silky. It also has a less forward flavor once cooked. In Thai cuisine, water chestnuts are dredged in tapioca starch to make the classic dessert of red rubies with coconut milk. It can also be used as a coating for fried meat.

Potato Starch

Potato starch is a very refined root starch extracted from potatoes. Since it contains minimal protein or fat, sauces thickened with this starch are more translucent and glossy, with a silkier mouthfeel and a neutral flavor. It is also a good thickener for custards, puddings, and pie fillings. It is an ideal thickening agent for dishes or sauces that will be refrigerated or frozen, since it prevents liquids from separating, unlike sauces made with cornstarch.

Sweet Potato Flour

Sweet potato flour is a gluten-free root starch produced from white sweet potatoes or kamote. It is dull white in color with a stiff and somewhat coarse texture. It is commonly used as a coating for fried meats and poultry and also as a starch for gluten-free baked goods such as breads, cookies, muffins, and pancakes. It may also be used to thicken sauces and gravies.

• Before working with peppers, coat your hands with just a bit of olive oil.  This will protect your skin, and then you can just wash your glove off afterwards
• The seeds and vein contain most of the heat in a pepper
• Most of the seeds will be near the stem
• Green jalapeños will turn red if left on the vine
• Green bell peppers are just unripe red bell peppers
• Hatch chilies have the best flavor out of many similar peppers
• A pepper gets “hotter” if it is stressed during growth
• A dried pepper should still be slightly pliable
• When cutting a bell pepper, use the outsides and keep the core intact.  It will stay fresh for 3 days longer.

Most food is flash frozen at the peak of ripeness.

Berries – These have a very short season, so frozen is the best way to get ripe strawberries, blueberries, raspberries 10 months out of the year.  Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator.

Spinach – Greens freeze very well.  You can thaw these in the fridge overnight, or place them in a bowl of water for 30 minutes.  Leaf for leaf, frozen spinach costs quite a bit less than fresh as well.

Tomatoes – These don’t freeze well so should be canned, or bought canned or sun dried and placed in oil.

Vegetables – Frozen peas are much better frozen than canned.  They are frozen at the peak of ripeness.  The canning process can tend to make them mushy.  Thaw them overnight in the fridge in a bowl of water.

Lemon juice – Don’t buy that plastic lemon shaped container, or even the green bottles of juice.  Squeeze lemons yourself and then freeze in water bottles.  Thaw in the refrigerator.  There may be some separation of the juice and the pulp, so shake before using it.

Grapes – These don’t freeze or can well.  Raisins can be rehydrated overnight in water.

Broccoli – This does not freeze well.  It becomes mushy.  It is marginally OK to use in a stir fry, but fresh is so much better.

Salmon – Of course it is better fresh, but it is also very expensive.  Canned salmon is not THAT bad, and is about a fifth of the price of fresh.  If budget is no matter, go fresh.  For most of us canned salmon is good enough for most of what we do.

Thanks to Living HomeGrown for some tips and feedback on using my steam juicer.

I’ve used my steam juicer for my soft fruits such as grapes, raspberries, etc. We last a huge branch of our lime tree last night, so today will be trying this on citrus (yet untested) and I am not sure how well it will work. I know the zest juice will be viable, but am not sure about the lime juice itself.

If all of the water evaporates, you can damage your juicer, so a trick that I use is to put two pennies in the bottom of the pan. They will start to rattle when the water gets low and steam forms underneath the pennies.

In these dog days of summer here in Phoenix, where the temperature frequently peeks over the high side of 120º it is important to stay hydrated.  Dietary Water is more beneficial than just drinking tap water, as it gives your body nutrients that tap water does not offer.  Here are some choices that you can eat, or put into a blender.

• Watermelon
• Cucumber
• Mint
• Cantaloupe
• each
• Pineapple
• Honeydew
• Plums
• Orange
• Lemon
• Lime
• Berries
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Mint leaves, by themselves, offer little water, but help flavor the above items when blended as a beverage
• Gatorade – While not exactly natural, Gatorade helps your body retain its electrolytes.  Just don’t drink more than a couple, or it will put your whole body chemistry off balance.

It is also helpful to use EVOO rather than butter through these hot months.

You can also create a cooling device that will help lower your temperature for about thirty minutes.

1. Take a sock and fill it with dry rice, lentils or dried beans.
2. Sew up the open end and put it into the freezer.
3. On the nights where it is too hot to fall asleep, put this cool sock under your neck or along side of your Adam’s apple to help your body cool down.

• Temperature
  • Low heat: 225°F to 249° F – (107°C to 120°C)
    – Boiling, simmering, poaching
    – Unrefined canola oil
  • Medium low heat: 250°F to 324°F – (121°C to 162°C)
    – Slow cooking, stews, stocks, reductions
    – Unrefined corn oil
  • Medium heat: 325°F to 374° – (162°C to 190°C)
    – Gentle cooking temperature, also for finishing food started at high heat
    – Extra virgin olive oil and butter – Low temperature frying
  • Medium high heat: 375° to 449°F – (190°C to 232°C)
    – Pan fry and quicker general cooking of foods
    – Refined canola oil – High temperature frying
  • High heat: 450°to 650°F – (232°C to 343°C)
    – Saute, sear, Wok stir fry
    – Refined sunflower and peanut oil – Very high temperature quick frying
• Braise
• Sauteé
• Sear

Good Housekeeping has quite a comprehensive dictionary of cooking terminology.

TERMINOLOGY

• TEMPER – If you combing your egss and hot liquid all at once, you will cook some of your eggs, resulting in lumps. To temper your eggs and liquid together means that you take just a little tiny bit of your hot liquid and whisk it into your eggs, then a bit more, then a bit more. Once they are combined, about 50/50 you can mix the entire thing together.
• CLARIFIED BUTTER – Melt butter slowly, and the milk solids will settle on the bottom. Pour off the clear oil, leaving (and discarding) the milk solids.
• ZEST – Use a microplane and shave off the colored part of an orange, lime or lemon. Try not to get the pith.
• MICROPLANE – Essentially the same as a file, but this is for food. You SHAVE off tiny pieces of citrus, nutmeg, etc and use it as part of your flavoring.
• PITH – The white part of citrus that is just under the colored skin. Usually very bitter.

Purchasing Your Avocado

• When selecting an avocado, if you are planning on eating it right away, get one from which the stem falls off easily, but is still somewhat green underneath.  If the underneath has turned brown they are overripe.  If the stem does not come off, it is good to sit on your counter for a few days until it ripens.
• If you can only find an unripe avocado you can have it ripe by tomorrow if you place it in a bag with a banana and let is rest for 24 hours.  The gas produced by bananas ripen produce.  Because of this, don’t store bananas with your fruit if you don’t want them ripened.

Peeling, Slicing and Dicing Your Avocado

• Halve the avocado. You may have seen people hack the seed with their knife. Be very careful if you do this, because it is very easy to get your finger too.
• I prefer to slightly squeeze the avocado, and the seed will nearly pop out.
• You can score the avocado right in the skin, then just scoop it out with a spoon. Here is a video by Expert Village.
• If you are making a lot of guacamole, after you halve the avocado, press it through a bread drying rack that has metal struts going both directions creating a grid. Just press the avocado through this into a bowl.
• You can also scrape an avocado against the side of a glass. Here is a video by Crazy Russian Hacker.

Misc Avocado Information

• I am from Ohio. Back east avocados are called mangoes. Bell peppers are also called mangoes. Here in Arizona mangoes are called mangoes, avocados and called avocados and bell peppers are called bell peppers.