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20 Ways to Add Personality and Punch to Your Cooking!
By
Joi Sigers
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Let's get right to it!
1. Add Sour Cream to your mashed potatoes.
2. After icing your cinnamon rolls, dust the tops lightly
with cinnamon.
3. Always use special napkins - use seasonally-appropriate
patterns and colors. If your family has a favorite sports
team, serve their colors on the days they're playing. If
you are NASCAR fans, by all means, go with your driver's
colors on race day!
4. Never underestimate the elegance of candles. They set
the mood and add mood to your setting.
5. Use freshly-grated Parmesan and leave the cans on the
shelves.
6. Serve only coffee that has been freshly-ground and
freshly-brewed. Top this coffee off with a dollop of
whipped topping, and if you're really feeling "high
brow", fresh shavings from a block of chocolate.
7. Use REAL crumbled bacon on top of your salads and baked
potatoes. Leave the plastic containers of wanna-be bacon
bits on the shelves beside the Parmesan.
8. Speaking of salads, add crumbled feta cheese to your
tossed salads. You'll never want salads without it again!
9. Never, ever, under any circumstances - make salsa
without fresh cilantro. If your store is out, drive to the
next store. If, three stores later, you still haven't
found any cilantro, skip the idea of salsa all together!
Yes, it's that important.
10. Add zip to your loaf of French Bread. Spray, or brush,
the top of the loaf with olive oil. Then sprinkle on dried
red pepper flakes and dried onion flakes. Bake as usual.
11. Get a rounded ice-cream scoop of ice cream, roll in
crushed nuts and serve on top of a plate that's been
swirled with caramel or chocolate syrup. Then squeeze more
over the top.
12. Do the same as above, but use coconut in place of the
crushed nuts. This time, place the balls of
coconut-covered ice cream on top of slices of pound cake.
Now, pour some pineapple bits, juice and all, on top of
the servings.
13. Serving Italian food? Softly play Italian music in the
background.
14. Invest in several sets of dishes, as many as your
budget will allow. Match the "mood" of your meal
you're serving with the "mood" of the dishes
you'll be serving it on. For example, if you're serving
seafood, either a "Lighthouse" dish pattern, or
blue dishes would be perfect. Asian food is great on black
or floral dishes. Hamburgers? Red, white and blue!
15. When making grilled cheese sandwiches, use a thin
layer of cream cheese alongside your typical slice of
cheddar. Serve with a knock-out salad or your favorite
soup.
16. Set aside a Saturday for Candy making. Try out fudge,
taffy and even molded candies. If you have someone in the
kitchen with you, it's even funner. If not, at least you
don't have to share your spoils!
17. Make a tradition out of trying a new, challenging
bread recipe on the first Sunday of every month (or any
day of your choice, of course!) Start out with the basic
loaf, then move on to Sourdough, Wheat, Irish Bread,
French Bread, Twisted Loaves, etc.
18. Place sprigs of parsley on special dishes. Your family
will appreciate the extra-special thought and it looks
really pretty!
19. Buy thick "Texas Toast" for making French
Toast. Prior to dipping into the egg bath, cut a slit in
each of the bread's corners, fill each with 1 Tablespoon
of softened cream cheese. Prepare as you normally would.
Serve with syrup, a dusting of powdered sugar and a few
fresh, plump strawberries. Delicious!!!
20. When serving Refried Beans, warm a small amount of
Sour Cream until it has the consistency of whipping cream.
Top each serving of beans with a teaspoon of the sour
cream and top with chives or diced green onions.
Remember: Cooking is an art, so get creative and have fun
with it!
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