Anee Stanford <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi All-
>
> I want to see if any of you have some cooking tips/recipees for
> me.  Now I have cooked quite a bit before and look foward to
> doing some cooking for myself in college.  I don;t care to eat
> out every single night and I want to invite my friends who live
> there over, they already said they would invite me over and I
> said I would have them over so that is already a given.
>
>  My bigest problem is...well...like the time I made chickeen
> fingers and gravey...that should have taken about 30 miutes but
> it took me over a hour! I either spill someting and then have
> to cleen it up and get more of it measured out or I don't know
> just a hundred things like that are always happening when I
> cook.  I am shue that you all are very experienced with these
> problems.  Pluss alot of times I am very low on stamina in the
> evenings and can't stand to be taking 45 minutes to prepar a
> meal.
>
>  I tend to like one dish meals...like dump every thing in one
> pot...cook and serve...and cutting stuff is really difficult (I
> try to buy prescliced but they have yet to invent presliced
> onions).  Basicaly take the total prep time and dubble or
> tripple it for me.
>
> I would be intrested in any cooking tips or quick resipees,
> gadgets that you have come accross that work well for
> you...ect.  What have your experiences been?
>
> Yours,
>
> Anee Stanford
> Webmaster of CPIC
> http://www.geocities.com/aneecp/CPIC.html
>
Whilst at school I did a course called "Survival Cookery", it has
stood me in good stead ever since. I shall impart the advice I
received on cracking eggs (I love 'em sunny side up with the yolk
intact):-

If you have really fresh eggs there is a thin membrane on the
inside of the shell. This allows you to drop the egg from about
12 inches into a porcelain or pyrex bowl dropping it laterally
(not end on end). Once you get the hang of judging the height the
egg will split in half, yolk flows out without breaking, and you
can pick the shell out in one go thanks to that membrane.

Warning. Once the eggs are older than about 7-10 days that
membrane starts to break down and you'll be picking bits of shell
out of the goo for the next half hour!!!

I'm into "do it yourself" disability aids as well (my favourite
"button hook" is fashioned from a wire coat-hanger) and on this
Survival Cookery course there was a lethal contraption for
holding a potato as you peel it, two blocks of wood in an L-shape
that you put against the edge of the worktop, the vertical plane
you wedged against the work top with your hip or one hand, and
the horizontal plane had three 6 inch nails sticking upright onto
which you impaled the luckless potato (or your hand if you pushed
the potato on too hard!!!).

With regard to onions, over here (UK), all the Supermarkets sell
frozen sliced onions. (But then this is all from a man who
doesn't really know his onions as far as proper cooking is
concerned).

Cheers,

--
Deri James