Every person has memories of growing up. Some of the memories are good, some are bad, still others may be sad. The lucky person is able to hang onto the happy ones, forgive the bad ones and learn from the sad ones and more forward. My family memories include trips we took as a family, holiday celebrations, and day to day events that I tend to repeat with my children. I realized recently that many of my memories are connected to food. I think the main reason for this is that my mother loved to cook. This is a passion that she passed on to me and that I have passed on to one of my son’s.

My mother prepared mainly comfort foods. These were the foods that my father preferred. Her specialties were pot roast, baked chicken, wonderful gravy and chocolate fudge. After many years of trying I have finally mastered making gravy that is as smooth and rich as my mother’s. I have not been able to duplicate the chocolate fudge. No matter how many times I try her recipe it seems that the texture is never right. Her chocolate fudge recipe includes boiling the ingredients and then beating the fudge by hand until it thickens. I have watched her do this hundreds of times, yet I cannot master the timing. If you cook the chocolate fudge too long it gets dry and hard. If you do not beat it long enough it is too soft to cut. I have tried beating the fudge with a metal spoon, like my mother always did. I have tried wooden spoons, as well as electric mixers, and still most of the time the chocolate fudge has a grainy texture.

When my son was learning about cooking he suggested we try a different fudge recipe. He found one that had marshmallow cream as an ingredient. He followed all the instructions on the recipe and produced a creamy good tasting fudge that had a perfect consistency. When I tried to make the recipe my chocolate fudge was dry and a light color. I had my ingredients too hot. I think I have a mental block when it comes to making fudge. I am so sure that it will not turn out, that it doesn’t.

My son and my mother have pointed out to me that there are so many good fudge shops that I should just buy the fudge. I mentioned this to my husband and he told me that he does not like fudge. It has not bothered him that I cannot make it because he would not eat it anyway. He told me to stick to making my mother’s pot roast recipe.
When I tried to make the recipe my chocolate fudge

The chocolate fondue fountain is a great party item that has been used by caterers and event planners for years. Many people rent this decadent item for their special occasions. Now the chocolate fondue fountain can be purchased through the Internet and in retail stores. This item is a chocolate lover’s dream come true.

I first saw the chocolate fondue fountain at a bridal show I attended before my wedding. Of all of the products, cakes and decorations displayed during this event nothing stood out in my mind more prevalent than the chocolate fondue fountain. Not even the wedding gowns had such an impact.

The reason for the interest in the product was my underlying love for chocolate. This decadent treat is closely tied to romantic images. Consider Valentine’s Day without a box of confections. It just isn’t the same. There is great reason that an item like a chocolate fondue fountain is perfect for a wedding reception.

We crave the confection for good reason. The effects of this candy on our brains functions like falling in love. The taste of chocolate releases the same chemicals in the brain that are released when we are swooning in romance. There is little wonder that the chocolate fondue fountain became the subject of interest during this bridal expo.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to rent the chocolate fountain machine for the reception and I was even more pleased with the response from friends and families. The chocolate fondue fountain was the center of attention throughout the reception. Many guests gathered around the charming display. It got more attention than the wedding cake.

Fortunately, you can purchase the item for use in your own home for any occasion that you want to make extra special. The chocolate fondue fountain found in most retail stores as well as online is smaller than its professional grade counterpart. However, the presentation is basically the same.

The chocolate fondue fountain is a great addition to any special event. Children love the item so it suits birthday parties and holiday gathers very well. The machine is relatively inexpensive. In fact, I bought one for less than the price of renting the professional grade chocolate fondue fountain.

This special item is sure to be the center of attention during your next get-together with friend and family. The arrangement is lovely and you have endless options when it comes to choosing foods for dipping. The chocolate fondue fountain is a must for anyone who hosts parties.

The chocolate fondue fountain is a great addition to any special event

Chocolate covered strawberries

I only have a few weaknesses when it comes to food. I’m addicted to chocolate. And I think that nothing tastes better than a fresh strawberry that almost melts in my mouth. Of course, that leads to my all-time favorite indulgence – chocolate covered strawberries. In my opinion, they can be a tiny piece of heaven. My wedding cake was four tiers of varying flavors and chocolate covered strawberries wrapping themselves down the sides of the cake. Some of the guests were lucky enough to get a piece of cake that had at least one of the chocolate covered strawberries, but I claimed some of my own before the caterers cut the cake for distribution. Maybe that was a bit selfish of me, but I paid for the cake and the extra cost for the chocolate covered strawberries, so I wanted to be sure to enjoy them.

You can easily make your own chocolate covered strawberries, though they never quite taste the same as if you’d order some gourmet ones. There are lots of companies, both on and off the internet, that sell them. It isn’t easy to choose and your mouth will water when you look at the pictures to compare your options. Most of the time, you’ll find that chocolate covered strawberries are not cheap. However, most of the time, they are more than worth the cost. My favorite site to order from is www.berrygourmet.com. They have the most delectable chocolate covered strawberries and other indulgences. I’ve sent some gourmet chocolates and goodies to friends and relatives almost all around the country. Everyone who has received them has loved it and never had any issues with how they arrived or how long it took to receive them. Sending someone chocolate covered strawberries, or anything chocolate, can make someone’s day.

What I wish that I had discovered before I had gotten married, is using chocolate covered strawberries as favors. I found, on the same site, chocolate covered strawberries decorated as if they were wearing tuxedos. I loved the idea of them. They can be put in a little box, or anything, to give to each guest. It would be a very unique and delicious favor that would be more appreciated than most of the traditional favors that most couple choose to give to their guests. I would recommend it to anyone who might love chocolate covered strawberries as much as I do, or just wants something unique and edible for their guests.

I’ve tried different recipes for making my own chocolate covered strawberries and usually the chocolate does turn out well. But, there is just something about ordering them that really makes them taste heavenly.

making my own chocolate covered strawberries

Herbal remedies are all the rage these days. People are bypassing the chemicals found in many prescription medications for natural cures. These cures may be in the form of an herb that can be used in either a pill or a lotion. Many foods also offer healing properties and if you add these foods to your diet you can help stave off some serious health problems. Cayenne pepper is one of these foods.

The art of herbal therapy has been used for centuries. Many commonly used herbs and spices have been used for years for their healing powers. Most ancient cultures have utilized natural remedies for centuries. The men and women that learned which plants and herbs were used for which ailments passed the knowledge down from one generation to the next. Most of what they learned was through trial and error. Unlike modern pharmaceutical research the healers in the past experimented on themselves as well as their patients. There are many natural remedies that are available on the market today, and some of them are as close as the spice rack.

One spice that we are hearing more about in regards to its healing abilities is cayenne pepper. This spice is proven to help people with heart conditions as well as high blood pressure. I always have cayenne pepper in the spice rack to use in chili as well as other southwest recipes. I was very surprised to hear a radio show with a physician stating that using cayenne pepper can prevent heart disease as well as reverse damage done to the heart by a heart attack. My understanding in listening to the radio show is that the cayenne pepper is taken in pill form. The physician stated that including the spice in your diet also has the same benefits, however you would need to ingest larger quantities than people usually include in their recipes.

I found this information very interesting and began doing some research into other commonly used herbs and spices that are being used in modern medicine. My research has opened my eyes to many things. The use of alternative medicine is greatly discouraged in our country. We are forced to pay high premiums for medical insurance that does not cover alternative forms of medicines even if there is research to prove that they are effective. Homeopathic medicine is looked upon as unreliable and something that only uneducated people would use, even though it has been around longer than the modern medical solutions.

My husband and I have decided that we are going to turn to our spice rack more often than our medicine cabinet to cure common ailments. For the health of our hearts we are going to include more cayenne pepper in our diets. It is a great spice that perks up most recipes. A little goes a long ways so it needs to be used sparingly; otherwise instead of helping your heart you are going to cause heart burn

more cayenne pepper in our diets

Vegetable Oils

With more and more focus being put on health and nutrition, it would seem that vegetable oils are getting a bad rap. People used this oil for a long time because they assumed anything with the world vegetable in it would be healthy. Sadly, this is simply not true. Anything can be bad for you once it has been processed. There are many who have used vegetable oils for a very long time who are now looking for something else to use. Now that children are becoming dangerously overweight, this is something that all families have to think about when preparing meals and eating out.

The truth is that vegetable oils are not good for you. You can have them in very small doses, but you  should avoid it when frying foods and baking. You have to find healthier oils that do not have a lot of trans fats in them. Trans fats have recently been named as being very bad for you, and you have to find something that helps you avoid them. Many are recommending olive, peanut, or canola oil. You have to remember though, that these oils are healthier than vegetable oils, but they still are dense in calories.

If you have vegetable oils in your cupboards, you may want to chuck them. The next time you shop, look for a healthier oil. Though olive oil is far superior to vegetable oils, the cost and the taste often turn people off. If you don’t want to pay for good olive oil, you can save money by reaching for canola oil. You will find that canola is great tasting, and is also what many restaurants use in place of vegetable oils to offer healthier foods. You may not even be able to taste the difference.

If you are concerned about using vegetable oils, you should ask when you order food in any restaurant. Though there are many that are now using healthier oils, there are some that are not. You want to ask what types of oils they use, and if they say that they use vegetable oils, you should ask if they have anything else that they can use to prepare your meal. Remember that having it once in a while won’t hurt you too much, but you should not make it a habit. You can still have oils in your foods, just remember to choose the right ones to keep your family healthy.

what types of vegetable oils to use

My mother was a very good cook. She did not make fancy meals, but everything she made was flavorful and made with high quality ingredients. We lived on a dairy farm so there were always fresh dairy products and meats. We also had huge vegetable gardens, a strawberry patch and apple orchard. My mother would can and freeze all the fresh fruits and vegetables. I was in college before I ate store bought bread. I am from German heritage so it is surprising that my passion is Italian cooking.

I began helping my mother prepare food when I was five years old. I always loved watching her in the kitchen. My father is a meat and potatoes man. He never liked sauces of any kind. When I went off to college I shared a house with six other college students. Two of the other women were from Italian heritage. They taught me about the wonders of Italian cooking. When we all moved in together we agreed that on Sunday evenings we would have a house meal. We would change off cooking the meal. This would be our chance to catch up on what everyone did over the weekend and what everyone had going for the coming week. The rules for the meals were that everyone would sit at the table together, no one would take phone calls, and the food had to be home made, no ordering pizza.

These Sunday evening dinners are my favorite memory from college. We would spend a couple of hours eating and drinking wine and sharing stories of our lives. Also having authentic Italian cooking was an added bonus. The two Italian girls were quite competitive when it came to putting together a meal. The result or this was that the rest of us were treated to outstanding dishes. One of the girls offered to teach me some of the techniques and recipes of Italian cooking. The thing that I like best about this cooking is that the ingredients are always fresh and simple. It is combining quality ingredients and cooking them properly that create the wonderful tastes.

It has been many years since I was in college. I have married and have raised three children. I have kept the tradition of Sunday dinners. No matter what else was going on in everyone’s life, they were expected to be at the dinner table on Sunday evenings. We spent the time catching up with each other and sharing our plans for the up coming week. The same rules applied, no phone calls and the meals had to be homemade. The kids and my husband help with the preparations. It is everyone’s favorite when they know that I am doing Italian cooking.
my passion is Italian cooking

Nothing cooks a meal better than a quality char broil gas grill. We look forward to using ours as much as possible. There was a time when nothing but charcoal grills would do for us but after experiencing the convenience and quality of a char broil gas grill, we won’t settle for anything else.

Avid charcoal users are a little tough to convince. There is nothing like the flavor you get when you use the old fashioned grilling approach. However, there is no better flavor than the taste that you get from a char broil gas grill. We actually had a taste test to prove this. The taste test led us to purchase a charbroil gas grill of our own.

My brother and I are fierce competitors in just about every respect. When he started bragging about his new char broil gas grill, I challenged him to a cook-off; my charcoal griller against his fancy new machine. I figured that I was going to win this competition hands down just because I practiced on my grill each and every weekend.

We all know that most of the talent in cooking lies in the appliance that you use to heat the food. In my estimation, nothing could beat charcoal. The taste just can’t be replicated. I didn’t realize at the time that the taste could be beat, though. The char broil gas grill really taught me a lesson.

One of the aspects of the challenge was to consider how convenient the outdoor cooking appliances were to use. I knew that the char broil gas grill would beat my old charcoal grill without a problem. I spent a lot of time and a lot of energy trying to get the coals to heat.

I was to determined to beat the charbroil gas grill that I actually used too much lighter fluid to get things burning faster. Being a seasoned griller, I should have known better. The fumes from the fluid were atrocious and you could detect some of the residue on the food.

My brother’s outdoor cooking appliance was heated and ready to go almost instantly. I just hoped that the food would win the crowd over. The food did win everyone’s approval, even mine. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the food cooked on my charcoal griller. My brother’s char broil gas grill won the cook-off.

This all actually turned out pretty good for me. Now I don’t have to fuss with charcoal anymore. I can simply turn on my char broil gas grill and get cooking.

I can simply turn on my char broil gas grill and get cooking

My husband is an avid hunter and fisherman. He enjoys a wide range of hunting and fishing. We live on a lake so we have fresh fish often. We also train hunting dogs, so we go out bird hunting for both upland game as well as water fowl. This means that our freezer is usually filled with a wide assortment of wide game to prepare. Three years ago a friend of ours began raising buffalo. He asked us if we would be interested in purchasing a half of buffalo when they butchered the meat. We told him that we would think about it and get back to him, because we did not know a great deal about buffalo meat. He told us that we could share the half with someone else if we were concerned about the amount of meat.

We did some research on buffalo meat and found that it is very lean and is lower in cholesterol that beef. The meat also is easier for the body to digest and is lower in calories than beef. We called my brother in law and he agreed that they would be interested in trying a quarter of the buffalo. They have a teenage son, so they go through a great deal of meat. Our friend that was raising the buffalo told us that he would call us at butchering time so we could contact the locker to let them know how we wanted the buffalo meat wrapped.

We had no idea what size the steaks would be so we asked to have them individually wrapped. We asked for roasts the size to feed four people and the burger to be wrapped in one pound packages. When we went to pick up the meat we each received forty five pounds of burger and a wide variety of steaks. The steaks were tenderized at the locker because the buffalo meat has a tendency to be tougher than beef due to the massive shoulders of the buffalo.

The first night we brought the buffalo meat home we grilled two t-bone steaks. They were absolutely wonderful. The flavor was great and with the tenderizing the meat was so tender that it could be cut with a butter knife. We immediately decided to place our order for the next year so that we could have a steady supply of the buffalo meat. The burger is very lean and tasty. There is no wide game taste to the meat that the venison and antelope has. Buffalo meat has added a great and healthy taste to our menu.

Buffalo meat has added a great and healthy taste to our menu

Potato salad is one of my favorite side dishes.  It’s one of those dishes that will always remind me of summer, picnics, potluck dinners and the Fourth of July.  It’s easy to make, easy to transport, and most people like it, so you can’t really go wrong serving it.
Probably the best thing about potato salad is the tremendous versatility to the dish.  Potatoes mix well with a whole variety of different flavors, and there are hundreds of different potato salad recipes out there to try.  Once you find a basic recipe that works for you, its easy to modify it here and there to even better suit your tastes.

The only common denominator to potato salad recipes is some kind of fat or oil base.  Basically, you can separate potato salads into two general categories; potato salads made with mayonnaise, and potato salads made with some kind of vegetable oil.  Most potato salad recipes also use mustard, some amount of assorted vegetables, and various seasonings.

Mayonnaise based potato salad seems to be the most popular today, and is usually the kind people immediately think of.  While its very tasty, it does involve a fairly large amount of mayonnaise, which is of course high in saturated fat and cholesterol.  When I was growing up, these kinds of concerns didn’t really seem to bother anyone, and I remember my grandparents practically shoving the stuff down my throat.  And strangely, they lived into their late 90’s even though they routinely ate large quantities of high fat food.  I guess they just don’t make genes like they used to.

My grandparents aside, most people today are becoming more and more health conscious, and oil based potato salads are making a big come back.  I say come back, because the very first potato salad recipes were all made with olive oil.  Of course, this was probably just because there was no mayonnaise back then, and not because people of the early 19th century were health conscious.  That said, potato salad made with olive oil is in my opinion no less delicious than its mayonnaise based counterpart.  It’s different, and may take some getting used to, but with the right seasoning can be every bit as good.

Seasoning is key, not matter what kind of base you use for your potato salad.  What kinds of seasoning you use is of course entirely up to you.  If you can handle a little spice, I highly recommend using cayenne pepper, or chili powder to give it a little flair.  If you are like me and are especially fond of spicy food you can even add some actual chili peppers, chopped up, to give it an extra kick.  Just be sure to ware anyone else that maybe eating your potato salad!

what kind of base you use for your potato salad

My mom is a very open person, and always willing to share. Not only is she generous with her advice, but she will teach you anything that she knows. She is always willing to explain sewing, cooking, or advanced mathematics. There is one thing, however, that she guards jealously. It is her greatest secret, and one that she has sworn she will carry to the grave. It is her chocolate cake recipe. We have been trying to get it from her for years, and have so far been unsuccessful.

This isn’t some normal chocolate mix cake recipe. This is seriously gourmet. It isn’t an easy chocolate cake recipe, either. Chocolate cake is usually pretty easy to make, but hers takes all day and all night. She is literally in there for 16 hours at a time, slaving away on the perfect chocolate cake. But it is perfect. It is priceless. It is the most delicious thing that I have ever tasted. I would do anything to get that chocolate cake recipe.

The thing is, my mom isn’t all that into chocolate in general. She never makes chocolate brownies. She won’t even order a chocolate brownie when she goes out. But that chocolate cake recipe is her favorite thing in the world. She cooks it every holiday, and every holiday we ask for more. No one ever gets sick of it. Even my cousins, strict vegetarians who will only eat vegan chocolate cake recipes normally, will make an exception for her delicious chocolate cake. It really is that good.

The really sad thing is that, since I first tasted that chocolate cake recipe, I can’t eat any other kind of chocolate desert. Even the best German chocolate cake recipe leaves me flat. Part of it is that my mom baked it. She spends so much time on it, and clearly wants us to like it so much, that it is hard to resist. I don’t know if I would like it quite as much if it weren’t she that made it, but nonetheless I would love it still. She has, after all, won several cooking contests with her chocolate cake recipe. She has only entered a handful of times, but every time she has entered the same recipe, and every time she has won. I have tried sneaking into the kitchen, but it was no use. She simply refused to go on cooking until I left. I hope she will share the recipe with us one day.

my mom’s chocolate cake recipe