Czech Foods Recipes

Throughout the chaos of baking, salad preparation, or any kind of preparation with produce, it will not be surprising to realize kitchen counters can become quite messy. This unfortunate realization hits even harder when one such as myself has white laminated countertops in the kitchen. In my case, that is a dangerous combination whenever I prepare berries, gelatins, or even make the kids a pitcher of kool –aid as was the case last weekend assembling a fruit salad for my youngest son’s birthday party. Simply attacking the countertops with hot dish detergent water on a washcloth will not be enough to successfully remove the stains. There are several alternatives to restoring a white counter that has become stained from berries or any other strong dyed food. 1.        Mr. Clean Magic Eraser – This has to be one of the best things to hit households since sliced bread. After they dye has contaminated the surface, do you best to dab the moist stain with folded over paper towel, being caref

It’s a nice Saturday or Sunday late afternoon and you have grand visions of cooking up a nice thin Schnitzel, Swiss Steak, or even a stuffed Chicken breast or Kiev. All common themes here involve pounding the living daylights out of the meat. There is just one problem after you bring the meat home from the supermarket; you don’t possess a meat mallet. Uh oh, now what?? Don’t give in to despair and order a pizza just yet, there are several alternatives to tenderizing meat without a meat mallet. Here are my top five substitutions for meat mallets: 1.        Rolling Pin – This is my standby meat mallet. I often will use this to pound out chicken breasts, pork tenderloin, and round steak. Simply place the meat between two pieces of wax paper and place on the counter. Give the meat a good working over until desired thickness. Despite the use of wax paper, remember to give the rolling pin a good sterile cleaning afterwards as the wax paper eventually rips and will contaminate the pin upon c

      I am a weekend shopper at the local Costco warehouse store. Most of the time, my weekly visits do not even involve grocery shopping, but purely a chance to walk the aisles scouring any great bargains. This is also a great way to stumble across about a dozen “sample” tables for my Saturday afternoon snack. The trip is not complete without a quick stop to the food court. Aside from great pizza and hot dogs, the premiere concession is the frozen Costco yogurt.   The choices are simple: chocolate, vanilla or swirl.   We just about always order the swirl soft serve yogurt. The frozen treat only sets one back $1.43 (w/tax) for a twelve ounce portion. The beauty of this concession is the lack of fat and low calories. This large cup totals in at 390 calories but this can easily be split with another willing participant to curb calories down to just below 200 per person. I know that number is still high amongst us calorie counters, but a far stretch below those desserts served at the burg

Happy May everyone. Hopefully a new month will usher in warmer weather as the Chicago April has run on the cold rainy side. Yesteray and today was sunny and in the high fifties so that is a good start. Anyhow I flipped through the recipe files and wanted to share a muffin recipe as the cool mornings still have my mind on toting a muffin and java for the ride into work. Yes as the post title implies, this is a pumpkin muffin recipe. Who say’s pumpkins are only appropriate for autumn? I find these little breakfast treats to be tasty and filling with the added benefit of pecans. Pumpkin Pecan Muffins ½ cup margarine, slightly softened ¾ cup brown sugar, firmly packed ¼ cup molasses 1 egg, beaten 1 cup solid pack pumpkin (not pie filling) 1 ¾ cup sifted all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda ¼ cup finely chopped pecans Method 1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 2. Grease eighteen muffin cups. 3. Beat margarine, sugar, and molasses until well blended. 4. Beat in egg and pumpkin. 5. In a separ