One of the things my hubby got during out last trip was two packs of Nori – one plain and one wasabi flavored. If you don’t know what nori is, it’s the rather fishy-smelling papery ingredient they use as sushi wrap. Nori, which by the way is dried edible seaweed, is actually used in Japanese cuisine not just as sushi wrap, but topping and condiment for noodles and various dishes.

Feeling rather adventurous with the kid’s palate, who by the way are still toddlers, my husband gave each a strip of nori (not the wasabi flavored of course!). We were expecting to see scrunched up faces and little tongues sticking out as they spit out the nori in disgust. Surprise! Both kids finished of their little strips in minutes and promptly held out their hands for more.

So what’s my point? The point is simply that it’s never too early to start training your kid’s palate so that they will be able to appreciate all kinds of food better as they grow. Not only will you be helping them in case they do end up as aspiring chefs when they grow up, but you’ll also have an easier time feeding them as they grow up because chances are they won’t be such picky eaters.

Oh, and here are links to some recipes that use nori as ingredient from celebrity chefs Dale Talde (Nori Seared Tuna Steak) and Janella Prucell (Brown Rice Tempeh Nori Rolls).

Image via RemixYourHealth

Noemi, of Recipe Finder, compiled some of the best and simple turkey dishes on her post “7 Ways to Prepare Turkey”. None of the preparation ideas she gives will mean a traditional Thanksgiving turkey, but at least they are much faster and easier to prepare than a whole turkey roast. So if you don’t mind having turkey burgers, fajitas, or casserole on Thanksgiving, then head on to the Recipe Finder blog for some great turkey ideas.

However, if you already have a whole thawed turkey right before you that you don’t want to go to waste, then you can try Chef Gordon Ramsay’s Roast Turkey and Stuffing in a Pan. The recipe is good for 10-12 persons which means you’ll have plenty of leftovers if you won’t being having guests over for dinner. Prep time is also just 2 hours, with cooking time about the same. And while 4 hours seems like a lot of time, anyone who’s had any experience roasting turkey will tell you that this is one of the fastest recipes you’ll ever find. So if you want to get your roast turkey in time for dinner, better get started or you’ll end up with one undercooked bird on your dinner table!

Image credits:
Turkey burger courtesy of Recipe Finder
Gordon Ramsay with turkey courtesy of The Independent

If you have a food blog, it definitely takes more than just pictures of your last gastronomy high for people to enjoy your blog. You have to provide descriptions of the pictures, mix your usual food photos with other food-related content like chef biographies, recipes, and restaurant features. In short, you can’t keep on serving just one dish, no matter how good that dish may be.

You also need to think about your food blog’s design. After all, no matter how delicious something is, if it looks like something straight from the sewers, then almost no one would want to touch it. The same is true with a cluttered and tacky looking blog. If you want people to take a second glance at your food blog, then you’d better spend some time on your “plating”.

Before the food gets served though, you need people to serve it too. Sure, tasting your own creations can be fun, but not having other people to share it too and ooh and ahh over the great tasting feasts is doing yourself a disservice. Again, the same is true with your blog. You need to have guests come over to enjoy your content, and hopefully rave over your content, maybe even spread the news by word of mouth. However, to get the first guests to come, you of course need to promote your blog.

You can do this by pestering your family and friends to keep on visiting your food blog, or do it the more professional way and pay for services of portals like Blog Search Engine. Blog Search Engine will review your food blog for you, link back to your blog, and make it searchable to their users, all for $14.99. You can also promote your blog even more aggressively with their upgraded packages and so increase your food blog’s visibility, thanks to their blog network.

In the end, if you treat your food blog like you would your food, you can guarantee that you’ll have people coming back for more.

Pumpkin in Up

When it comes to decorations, who else do we look to but the diva of homemaking – Martha Stewart. Check out her pumpkin head ideas, from fanged pumpkins to absolutely cute zombie pumpkins. No matter what kind of monster you fancy, Martha Stewart has a tip on how to carve those pumpkin heads for you. If you can get your hands on her book, Martha Stewart’s Handmade Holiday Crafts, then you’ll even have Halloween décor ideas, including vampire bat piñatas and simple bat silhouettes for your windows.

Trick Up the Treats

Instead of running out to buy tons of chocolate and candy bars, why not bake some special Halloween cookies? You don’t need to be a chef to turn out a batch of good sugar cookies. And with some decorating tips, you can even probably send kids away amused with Halloween Spook Cookies and grossed out by these Severed Finger Halloween Cookies (recipe made by Martha Stewart).

Halloween Dinner

Take Rachael Ray’s cue and turn a simple tomato soup in a spooked up version with cheese pumpkin or ghost on top. You will also find countless recipes in the internet to make your food as ghoulish and gross as possible for your Halloween dinner, but you can just go all out and opt for bizarre foods for the Halloween; if you can stomach it that is. Just watch an old episode of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and you’ll see that you don’t even need Halloween as an excuse to have something gooey and eeky on your plate. The good thing with eating bizarre foods for Halloween is that you don’t have to spend hours just trying to get your spaghetti to look like brains since the brains on the table will be the real thing!

Image Credit: MarthaStewart.com and TV.com

According to Radio Times, the controversial chef told them that “You can’t object [to eating puppies], unless you also object to the farming of pigs. It’s an artificial construct of our society, a cultural decision, to make pets out of dogs and meat out of pigs: both animals could be used the other way round.”

Being a newly-converted vegetarian, he also said though that his stand on “high-welfare organic puppy farms” is just a matter of principle, and that he wouldn’t really eat puppies in practice, at least not unless he’s starving. While the statement is likely just him trying to point out his new found love for animals and his stance on the undesirability of eating pork, they are not going down well at all, especially with the RSPCA, WSPA, and other animal welfare advocates.

An RSPCA spokesperson already told the Daily Mail that even if the chef’s “comments may seem sensible but are actually quite controversial – especially when dogs are our most popular and loved pet.”

WSPA, on the other hand, is clearly against the issue as they have been working on ending the dog meat trade in South Korea for more than a decade now. According to their website, “The commercial production of dog meat involves cruelty at every stage, from ‘dog farm’ or street capture through to transport and killing.” And as Dr Les Sims of the Hong Kong Government Agriculture Fisheries and Conservation Department has stated (via The Telegraph), “No country in the world has developed a humane way of raising and slaughtering dogs, and in our opinion, it cannot be done”.

Chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall may say that eating pigs is no different than eating puppies, but what do you say? Anyone care for a hot dog?

Image Credit: Gazzat and Fern Hill Farm

A lot of cooks would agree that the use of wine in some meals have added a certain spice in making them sought after. Such can be attributed towards the contributions of Chef John Ash, an internationally recognized chef, educator and author. His continued work and application of wine towards cuisine and his evident mastery for winery has been his obvious trademark that has brought him towards world wide prominence.

John is known to hold various classes and teaches culinary schools and institutions with regards to the tricks of the proper use of wine for culinary meals. Majority of his known reliability has been attributed towards the wine industry and such has been something that has continued to push him up towards fame and fortune.

He has published two books, namely American Game Cooking in 1991 and From the Earth to the Table: John Ash’s Wine Country Cuisine in 1996. The latter book was awarded the Julia Child Award for Best Cookbook in 1996 by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

Cooking in the eyes of Chef Jody would simply be like following instincts rather than the usual traditional cooking practices that people see on television or from reading the available cookbooks in stores today. It all boils down to following a cooking style which would carve out your name in the genre of food that a person would want to cook up.

This is the secret that Jody Adams shares as her ultimate success in cooking. With a wide array of recipes that includes starter meals, seasonal prepared meals and Italian tradition meals such as pasta until deserts, Chef Jody has a long list of recipes all based on her instincts and what she can do around the kitchen. People can do this as well if they know how to go around the kitchen of their homes as well.

Technorati Tags: chefs, jody adams, italian, deserts, seasonal

Ingredients:
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup milk
1/4 cup sugar
Two 12-ounce bags semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Dried apricots, for dipping
Gala apples, cored and sliced, for dipping
Pretzel rods, for dipping
Marshmallows, for dipping

Directions:
1. In a medium saucepan, combine the cocoa powder with 1/2 cup water and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 1 minute. Stir in the milk and sugar and bring to a simmer. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla and cook, stirring, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth, about 5 minutes.
2. Serve the fondue warm with the apricots, apples, pretzel rods and marshmallows for dipping.

There’s nothing like good old chocolate fondue to top off a romantic evening. Imagine having a very satisfying meal together. How much more romantic can you get than this – a cozy conversation while dipping fruits and marshmallows into a sumptuous chocolate fondue? You can’t get any better than that, really. The rest of the evening is up to you. Happy Valentines everyone!

Note: If you do not like the fruits mentioned above, you can always find some other fruits that you prefer. Try bananas or strawberries.

Chef coats, also known as chef jackets, are usually made of a thick material that provides good insulation (most commonly cotton) and are traditionally dyed white, which not only serves a practical purpose (makes stains easier to spot), but also maintains a clean, hygienic look if your chef jacket is always maintained in good condition. They’re usually double-breasted as well, and can be turned inside out to conceal a stain temporarily if the chef needs to make a presentation.

Chefs also need good chef aprons to perform their jobs well – like coats, chef aprons provide a combination of good looks and utility, though with the apron the accent is more on the utility part – a good chef apron would be easy to take off, and would usually feature pockets for holding utensils.

If you’re a woman, you should know that women’s chef jackets are slightly different than their male counterparts – a woman’s chef jacket is usually shaped slightly differently to accommodate for the different physique, and tend to come in slightly different color schemes as well.

Does every person who works in a kitchen really need a good assortment of chef jackets in their wardrobe though? It all boils down to several factors. First, what type of cooking do you do precisely? If it involves a lot of boiling and generally working with hot materials, well-made chef jackets can provide you with the extra protection you’ll need to feel comfortable. Additionally, if you want to make a good presentation, wearing something respectable will always be of benefit.

It’s not just about the coat though – chef aprons are just as important as the coats worn by chefs, as they provide additional protection and utility, while also being a traditional part of a chef’s attire. Chef aprons are more commonly worn by non-professional chefs as they’re easily available and very convenient.

Women need to take care of themselves just as well in the kitchen – good women’s chef jackets are widely available just as men’s, and offer the same utility and comfort that help ease the job’s stress.