Traditional Kitchens Make Cooking Fun!

By Matthew Kerridge

The traditional kitchen is popular because it is designed to help simplify the chore of food preparation so that cooking can be more fun. The kitchen tends to be a gathering place in a home. Furniture accommodations such as bar-stool seating that literally gives you a lift and countertops that can double as a snack bar all help make the kitchen an enjoyable place to share a repast.

Good kitchen lighting is very important. Traditionally, extra lighting is used over sinks and work areas so that you can see exactly what you are cooking. It is a good idea to have lighting added under the wall cabinets to reduce shadows on the countertops. Sometimes a reading lamp is added for reading recipes. A natural lighting source from a window is an important feature that makes a small kitchen feel more spacious.

Well designed traditional kitchens have pantry storage systems that are ultimately practical. How many times have you searched in vain for a missing ingredient, only to discover too late that it was hidden behind something else all along? Incidents like that can sap the fun out of whipping up your favourite dessert. A good storage system will keep that from happening and help you to find what you want, when you need it.

Running an environmentally sound kitchen means taking proper care of equipment and utensils. Knife blocks fit right in with traditional decor and are the safest way to store culinary knives. Most pots and pans should be kept in cabinets which protect them from dust but yet allow enough circulation of air that they do not rust. Utensils that are both stylishly designed and used frequently can be kept in countertop receptacles or hung from hooks.

Food preparation areas need special attention because these are the areas that keep your food sanitary. Sinks can be either single or double basin, but they should be large enough to be able you wash and rinse your largest pot. It is also important that the drain be easy to clean. If it is equipped with a garbage disposal, it is important to not allow dried food particles to build up. Cutting boards need to be kept clean and sanitized regularly.

Countertops are some of the most noticeable and most frequently used parts of traditional kitchens. To make a kitchen environmentally friendly, the countertops must be durable and easy to clean. A nonporous surface will minimize the places where bacteria can grow and help keep the kitchen environment ecologically sound. Surfaces made from tile, concrete, stone, and plastic laminates or resins are especially good for this.

When it comes to cooking, many energy-saving options are available. An efficient ventilation system will be able to disperse odours while containing heating or cooling costs. Some traditional kitchens are set up to use dual fuels, both gas and electric. Microwave ovens and countertop appliances such as crock pots and toasters can also reduce the amount of energy required to cook a meal. Some ovens use convection air flow to cook more efficiently. A properly insulated oven will heat the food but keep the kitchen cool.

About the Author:

Matthew Kerridge is an expert in home improvement. If you want more information regarding traditional kitchens or are looking for a reputable kitchen company please visit http://www.wrenkitchens.com

Is Your Drinking Water Clean? No It Isn't.

By Peter Abertoning

An extremely important factor for your health is you diet, and this includes what you drink. A vital factor in your health is the cleanliness of the water you drink, and most Americans aren't drinking clean drinking water if it comes from the tap.

Clean drinking water is essential for good health. Right now you may be reading about the Cholera epidemic in Zimbabwe. Cholera and many other diseases can be spread by contaminated drinking water, and it's essential that we drink the purest water to protect our health.

We're lucky in the US, we don't have to combat cholera. But Cholera isn't the only contaminant that can be found in our water, there are hundreds or even thousands of contaminants that are routinely in our water, and no effort is made to remove them.

Consider this. I'm sure you know how serious it is to get lead into our bodies. None other than the EPA has stated that lead in drinking water is the number one environmental health threat to our childrens health. Low levels of lead can cause serious problems for children including learning difficulties and behavioral problems and more.

That's lead. In our drinking water. How could there possibly be lead in our water when we're supposed to have world leading clean water supplies?

Lead contaminating our water is an ongoing problem. Lead comes from many sources, but the most common sources are from our pipes. It is estimated that around 98% of households have lead in their pipes. That comes from lead lined pipes or soldered joints in our pipes which contain lead. Most lead in our drinking water actually enters our water somewhere in the house.

The EPA says that there is no level of lead in water that is safe, especially to children.

And lead is just the start of the contaminants that we find in our drinking water that means that clean drinking water is just a dream.

So what is there that you can do to protect yourself and your family from drinking contaminated water? How do you make sure you're drinking clean water? How about bottled water?

And none other than the FDA has said "Companies that market bottled water as being safer than tap water are defrauding the American public." The reason is that the government doesn't set any standards for bottled water, so there is no requirement that bottled water be any better than tap water. Some bottled water is tap water put into a bottle, at a staggering price. Bottled water is a con.

And bottled water is an environmental disaster, with countless plastic bottles manufactured to go into landfill.

So clearly drinking bottled water isn't the answer to clean water. So what do you do if the prospect of drinking lead or any one of the other contaminants like drugs, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, chlorine or more repulses you? You use a high quality water filter. The best water filters will remove just about all contaminants from the water you drink. The best filters will filter 99.99% of chlorine for instance.

How do you know that? Because it's perfectly possible to test this and independent tests can show the efficacy of different water filters and ensure that if they claim certain results these can actually be achieved. The very best drinking water filters should filter out over 97% or 98% of just about everything nasty, including some contaminants that you've probably never even heard of.

Here's an example. Did you know there was bromochloroacentontrile in your tap water? Never heard of it? What in the world is it? How dangerous is it? It doesn't matter if you use the best water filter you know that over 97% of it is gone.

So if this article is beginning to open your eyes to the risks of drinking unfiltered tap water and bottled water you aren't alone. You have a right to be drinking clean water but you aren't. The way to make sure you are is to get the best drinking water filters it's possible to get and use it to make sure you're drinking clean drinking water.

And you'd be forgiven for assuming that the best drinking water filter was the most expensive, but it's not. Find out more about drinking water filters at my website.

About the Author:

Want to find the best water filters Visit Peter's Website Best Drinking Water Filters and learn more about water filtration

Wanted - Home Cooks Searching for the Best Stainless Roasting Pan for Creating Their Holiday Meal

By Bethany Boylan

Do you enjoy visions of your family sitting down to a delicious holiday meal? Do you also have nightmares of a burnt turkey as the centerpiece to your meal? To help avoid a disastrous holiday meal, you should choose the best turkey roasting pan. I recommend a stainless roasting pan. If you have the wrong roaster, you could end up with unevenly cooked meat, a pan so heavy you strain yourself lifting it out of the oven, and burnt gravy.

First, the size of the roasting pan matters. Ideally, your pan should fit in your oven and still leave 2 inches for air to circulate between it and the sides of the oven. In addition, you don't want a pan so large that the juices from your average roast will have too much room to spread and will burn.

Secondly, the kind of metal in your pan matters. Two factors are the weight of the pan and how evenly is conducts heat. A good heat conductor is aluminum. However, ingredients with strong acids such as tomatoes and lemons can react badly with aluminum. This can add a sour taste to your recipes. Stoneware may not be your best choice because it can be fragile or heavy. Stainless steel is a great choice because it is relatively light, non-reactive, and sturdy. However, it is not the best conductor of heat. The best choice is a a roasting pan made up of different layers of stainless steel and aluminum and possibly copper.

Be sure to check that your stainless roaster can stand up to high temperatures from the burners on your stove and also the near-broiling temperatures required inside your oven. With roasting meat comes the desire to make gravy, and it is easiest to place your roaster on the stove top and go. In addition, you may need to brown the meat on the stove top before placing it in the over. Warping or buckling are symptoms of an inferior roasting pan placed on a stove top. In addition, these pans can heat differently in different areas of the pan and cause burning of your gravy.

Another factor to consider is how your pan is made. A rectangular shape with sides that are rounded is best. The round corners make for easier cleaning. In addition, the height of the pan matters. You want sides that allow good air circulation but also have enough height so that juices don't spill when you are taking your roast out of the oven. A great height for the sides of the pan is between 2.5 and 3 inches. Also, know that the kind of handles on your roaster are important. More inexpensive pans have handles that fold down and are very hard to hold with potholders. Some handles stick straight out from the sides of the pan and waste space in your oven. Therefore, you should look for strong, riveted handles that come straight up from the pan.

Look for extras to go with your pan such as a rack. Heavy meat forks are also indispensable at the moment you must transfer that large, heavy bird or roast to your serving platter.

About the Author:

Learn more about stainless roasting pans. Stop by Bethany Payne's page where you can find out all about turkey roasting pans and get recommendations.

Banana Bread Recipe: Create A Family Tradition

By Ben Cook

The first thing you want to do when you are ready to start baking banana bread is to look for a basic recipe. It is a good idea to purchase an introductory cookbook, if you do not already have one. Find one that has simple, no frills recipes, as well as instructions on how to simple things properly, such as folding eggs. You are going to start with a basic recipe. But then you are going to add your own flair to it and make it your unique banana bread recipe.

All banana bread recipes are going to be pretty much the same at the core. They can vary in quantities of each ingredient, but they all basically contain flour, butter, baking soda, salt, sugar (sometimes brown), eggs and bananas. I tend to like my baked goods moist, so I will pick a variation that calls for more eggs, for example.

Beyond that, you want to make sure that you use the highest quality ingredients, such as organic unrefined sugar and real butter as opposed to margarine. Having bananas at just the right level of ripeness is one of the keys to a great banana bread. This is may be the only time that you want your bananas to have a completely brown peel.

Go ahead and try out the recipe in its basic form so you know what the consistency and the flavor are supposed to be like. Now comes the fun part. You get to experiment. The key to experimentation is to think about what you would like to add, what you think would taste good in the banana bread, and then find another recipe that has that ingredient to get an idea of how to much add.

For example, I like to add chocolate chips to whatever I can. So, I look for a quick bread recipe that calls for chocolate chips. First, make sure that the recipe is meant to make the same amount of bread as your banana bread recipe. Then you can use the same amount of chips for your bread. If the recipe you find makes half as much bread as yours, simply double the amount of chips.

You might be thinking that chocolate chips sound great, but you need to have walnuts with those chips. Sounds good to me! But you will need to put in a little less of the chips to accommodate the nuts you are adding. A mistake that many people make is to change the recipe so there is no longer the same proportion of add-ins to batter. This will alter the consistency of your bread, and often not to your liking.

Now, you are getting used to the experimenting and you are thinking that walnuts are not enough; there should be pecans as well. Again, just change the amounts so that if you were using a full cup of walnuts before, use a half cup each of walnuts and pecans. Or, you can really go crazy and add almonds as well. All you have to do is change the amount to a third cup of each and you are good to go.

After you play around with your banana bread recipe a bit, you will find a variation that your family will not let you change. Pretty soon, the recipe is referred to as Emilys banana bread. It is the birth of a new family tradition.

About the Author:

Ben Cook tells you how to make banana bread in your home kitchen and gives you lots of simple and quick banana bread recipes on his low sugar banana bread recipe website.

Different Makes Of Weber Grills To Use For A Barbeque

By Chris Channing

The man behind the Weber grill has made an empire of grills, of which have impacted the very way we hold a barbeque. There are many different types of technology and grill types to purchase today, all of which can provide a much different experience when grilling meat and vegetables.

Weber charcoal grills have a lot of history behind them. George Stephen created the revolutionary design of the classic charcoal grill, sometimes named "Sputnik" for its odd shape. Charcoal is the preferred method of grilling for competitions, as it allows for a unique char taste that is favorable in barbeque. Charcoal cooks with both infrared and convection heating technologies.

When you don't have the space to put a large grill, an electric Weber grill is the next best option. An electric grill is actually a great purchase for apartment owners, who want the grilled taste of hamburgers, chicken, and steaks but don't have the space to put a real grill. Electric grills are also very cost effective, so they are great presents for college students or prospective students.

If you like convenience, you may wish to purchase a propane-powered grill. Propane is a rather cheap gas to obtain, so it's also one of the cheaper options in grilling. Propane grills are popular because it doesn't take much skill to grill over a propane flame. Of course, the major drawback is that you also won't be able to get the smoke and char flavor that other grills get when you use charcoal and wood for fuel.

You can take convenience a step further by obtaining a natural gas grill. These types of grills are perfect if you are too old or perpetually sick to lug around a tank of propane all the time. These grills aren't mobile, however, since it requires a hookup to your natural gas line. Your local gas company should be able to do this for you, but it is going to be a permanent option so you should be sure of where you want to put the grill.

Hybrid grills exist if you want more than one way to grill your meat and veggies. A combination of charcoal or wood grills and gas grills allows you to always have at least one method of cooking your meal, even if you don't always have a stock of wood, charcoal, or gas on hand. They also allow for cooking two separate items at once, which is key for making large meals.

In Conclusion

Even with the basic types of grills discussed, there are plenty of variations and models to choose from. Your average Weber grill is going to be hard to beat in terms of quality, so consider starting with Weber products when you compare and contrast.

About the Author:

Learn more on weber gas grills.

Pink Home Accessories A Great Way to Show Your Personality

By Jack Tyrrell

Pink has often times been referred to as a color that defines if someone is a boy or a girl, pink home accessories are growing increasingly popular over the years. The accessories are needed in every home and they add a little bit more personality to any home situation.

There are pink carpets, pink chairs, and everything pink. If you truly love the color then your best bet would be show people how much you do. Pink is actually changing its whole meaning and many men are even beginning to show an interest in this color.

Every time that a woman gives birth to a girl she assumes that everything in the girl's room should come in pink. She'll purchase pink cribs, pink chairs, pink everything to decorate her precious daughters room in. There are actually a plethora of pink home accessories for children that are available. But, now many retailers have come to the acknowledgment that just because little girls grow up does not change their love for the color pink.

The different variety to the color pink that there are is amazing as well. Just think you can't start decorating your home with a pink shag rug in order to compliment a certain room in your home.

There are even different shades of pink that you can have the accessories come in. Some of the most popular shades of pink are metallics and the ever so soft baby pink color. The baby pink color has a white shade to it so it inadvertently appears softer to anyone that is gazing upon it.

Pink home accessories will bring out just about any room. The color is soft on the eyes and many people like looking at it to tell you the truth. Some of the biggest buyers of pink home accessories are women, but this does not mean that men can not commence in buying the accessories also.

A lot of men will buy the accessories to decorate a special woman in their lives rooms. You can use the often times referred to as girly color pink to make a private home office for the woman that you love or a simple room that she can use to go to relax in.

The color pink has a lot of different meanings to different people. People already know that the color red is often used to show someone that you love them. The color pink is also a color that a lot people use to show that they do care about someone. Normally you give something that is the color pink away to someone that you generally care about.

But, remember when giving roses that they do have a tendency to welter away and die. If you want to give someone that you care about something that is pink and shows that you care, give them pink home accessories for their living space. The accessories will prove to be worth the investment and they last longer.

The color pink, is a great color to have in your home. It shows that your fun, adventurous and have your own particular sense of style investing in pink home accessories will prove to be a great investment for you in your home situation.

About the Author:

Jack writes how accessorise your kitchen with pink cookware and what makes a stylish pink bathroom

Invest in Quality Knives for Better Food Preparation

By Moses Harun

Now in it's second century, Farberware offers a number of kitchen gadgets and accessories running the gamut from small appliances to barware to food storage containers. One of this company's notable product lines is its cutlery collections, which consist of five series. As seen on its website, these five include the Farberware Millennium, the Stainless Soft Grip, the Farberware Classic Series, the Farberware Professional and the Farberware kitchen knife sets, all of which feature non-slip handles.

Product Features

The Millennium series is made with stainless steel handles and fine-edged blades that are dishwasher-safe, which means they are more user-friendly than the majority of high-end kitchen blades. The Stainless Soft Grip series includes the same features as the Millennium series aside from the fact that hand washing is recommended. The Professional Series can boast about the same features as the other series as well as the fact that professional series handles use three rivets to add durability and strength.

The Classic Series and the Ultraedge Pro Series of the Farberware kitchen knife set reportedly call for no blade sharpening because of their high-carbon stainless steel blades, which have become admittedly the most popular blades for cutlery recently. With their non-slip handles constructed from polypropylene, and Faberware makes a great product. All you need to remember, though, is which Faberware knife set calls for hand washing rather than dishwasher cleaning.

Advantages

Well, if you are the kind who doesn't clean knives as you cook, but prefer to throw your cutlery into your dishwasher, the Farberware Millenium knives are just the thing for you. Even with the Millenium knives, you will want to realize that even the highest quality steel will rust after years of contact with the detergents employed by your dishwasher.

Also, some of the Farberware knives are formed from high-carbon stainless steel, a material proven to be highly-resistant to discoloration and rust. Even though this kind of metal is not as straightforward to sharpen as the more pedestrial stainless steel edges, the supposed "no need for sharpening" feature means you shouldn't have to worry about it.

The Cuisinart blades are normally forged, not cold rolled, which makes for better balanced blades that are light in your hands but heavy on whatever you're cutting. But naturally, these abilities are seen in many forged knives, so that's hardly anything to have a party about.

What's more, if you are a person who would prefer to enjoy coordinated utensils but loses them more than usual, you may be happy to note that the pieces of any Faberware knife set could be bought at any better retailer around the country. After all, Farberware is nearly everywhere!

Disadvantages

The relatively narrow handles of nearly all pieces in a Faberware knife set can create a problem for people with large hands. While the blades work satisfactorily normally, getting a good grip on the handles can be difficult, especially when your hands are wet.

An unfortunate aspect of the "no need for sharpening" feature, this might be relevant only to successive uses, because you still will have to sharpen the knives right out of the store. When you've sharpened them, you can merely do the maintenance to make the knives as sharp as possible. (Apparently, the "no need for sharpening" assertion is just a marketing gimmick)

The final judgment concerning a Faberware kitchen knife set: It's an average product which might be acquired for an average price. For more demanding kitchen jobs, you might as well part with more money to purchase the proper kind of knives. For daily tasks in your home, a Farberware kitchen knife will serve just fine.

About the Author:

Moses Harun owns & operates a site that assists consumers in making better decision when shopping for knives. One of the highest rated knives reviewed on his site are Farberware Kitchen Knife Sets.