First things first!

What are the rules in your house about the using the kitchen? Ask the adult in charge if you are allowed to use the stove when no one is home and if you are allowed to use sharp knives or electrical appliances. . If you are not allowed to use these things, then donûtÇ. this is VERY IMPORTANT. You wouldnût want to get into trouble and lose your cooking privileges. As you get older and get more kitchen experience, you will be able to do more and more by yourself. There are a lot of recipes that you can cook even if you are not yet allowed to do too much in the kitchen without adult supervision. Ask if you are allowed to cook with an older brother or sister or with a baby-sitter. Every house has different rules so be sure to check out the rules in your house.

Now ...let's talk Utensils or Cooking Tools

Here are some of the most useful utensils for cooking. You may not have the exact same things, so improvise.

Saucepan: the saucepan should always have plenty of extra room so liquids wonût boil over the sides.

Bowl: the bowl should be big enough to combine lots of different ingredients.

Blender or Food Processor: a blender or food processor is terrific for some of the Kids Gourmet recipes. However, you can always do the work by hand.

Other basics: a wooden spoon, a whisk, knives (only with permission or supervision), and a spatula.

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Cooking Terms

Beat: when you mix rapidly, smoothing out batter and adding air by lifting batter up and over with each stroke. You can use an electric mixer, a wooden spoon, or a wire whisk to beat batter.

Combine: to combine ingredients, either mix or toss so that the ingredients are evenly distributed. use a wooden spoon (or two spoons to toss).

Cream: mix with a wooden spoon pressing ingredients against the side of the bowl until the mixture turns creamy. Usually you sill be creaming together margarine and sugar.

Fold: when you fold in an ingredient, you are trying to mix a light ingredient like whipped cream throughout a heavier batter without losing the fluffiness. To do this you very gently turn the ingredients over from the bottom to the top, but do not stir. Use a wooden spoon

Mix: when you mix ingredients together, you are often combining together dry ingredients like flour and sugar, creamy ingredients like margarine creamed with sugar, and liquid ingredients like water or milk. The goal is to have everything mixed evenly so there are no clumps of just one ingredient. Use a wooden spoon.

Stir: stirring is what you do when you mix liquids or melted ingredients. Often you stir to keep things from burning on the stove. Use a large spoon.

Whip: to whip, you need to beat the ingredients very rapidly with a wire whisk or an electric mixer. Your goal is to add air to the ingredients so they are very fluffy and sometimes form peaks like whipped cream or egg whites.

Whisk: to whisk it to beat ingredients together until they are well blended and smooth, but not as fluffy as when you whip them. Use a wire whisk or a fork to do this.

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Cutting it up in the Kitchen
Please Read the Safety Section

Chop: to chop ingredients is to cut something into small, but not mushy pieces. To do this you can use a food processor or a blender. Make sure you have permission to use these appliances and utensils.

Cut: when cutting, you are breaking something into small pieces. Sometimes they will be cut into matchstick-sized pieces called "julienne" or chunks, or thick slices.

Dice: dicing is cutting something into tiny square pieces, like little pieces of ham or cheese in a chef a salad. This is usually done with a sharp knife. Itûs almost like chopping, except the pieces are a little neater and sometimes smaller.

Grate: when you rub a solid food, like cheese or a potato, against a metal grater, you get thin shreds of cheese or potato. Some metal graters have different sizes for the openings, so you can get very fine pieces, or thicker shreds.

Mince: when you mince, you chop into very fine or small pieces, such as mincing garlic. This can be done with a garlic mincer.

Puree: when you puree something, you actually take solids such as tomatoes or cooked potatoes, and you blend them so well in a food processor, blender, or food mill that they turn into a heavy liquid-like consistency or like baby food.

Slice: when you cut into thick pieces or strips, you are slicing. Using a sharp knife is actually safer than using a dull knife, if you handle the knife correctly (see kitchen safety).

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Using the Stove
Please Read the Safety Section

Boil: when something is boiling,there are bubbles are rising rapidly to the surface. Make sure you use a Saucepan that is large enough to prevent ingredients from boiling over onto the stove.

Brown: when you cook in a small amount of oil in order to give food some color, it is called "browning". The goal of browning is usually not to cook completely through.

Fry: to cook in a fry pan or skillet with quite a lot of oil or shortening, until the food is heavily browned and cooked completely through.

Saut--: to cook quickly and lightly in as little oil as possible in a fry pan or skillet. Oftentimes, you saut-- thin slices of chicken, fish meat or sliced vegetables to soften them.

Simmer: when you cook something that is just below the boiling point on top of the stove so that bubbles rise very slowly to the top, you are simmering it. Oftentimes, soups are simmered so that the flavors blend slowly together, as the ingredients cook.

Stir-fry: If frying is the heaviest and greasiest, than stir-frying is the lightest, with saut--ing in the middle. To stir-fry, you quickly cook vegetables or thinly sliced meat on a hot skillet or wok (if you have one) with a very tiny amount of oil. The goal is to cook so quickly and stir constantly so that the foods like vegetables keep their bright colors, crispness, and shape.

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Measuring up

Knowing how to measure ingredients and change from tablespoons to cups can be very helpful when cooking. Here are some handy measures and conversion tables to help you.

Equivalent yields:

1 lemon = 3 tablespoons lemon juice
4 ounces firm cheese (cheddar or Swiss) = 1 cup shredded cheese
3 ounces hard cheese (Parmesan) = 1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter or margarine = 1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons
1 square baking chocolate (semi-sweet or unsweetened) = 1 ounce
4 ounces almonds or walnut meats = 1 cup chopped nuts

Weights & measures

Liquid measure equivalents:

3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
2 tablespoons = 1 fluid ounce
4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup
5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon = 1/3 cup
8 tablespoons = 1/2 cup = 4 fluid ounces
2 cups = 16 fluid ounces = 1 pint
4 cups = 2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon 16 ounces = 1 pound

Abbreviation Chart:

ounces = oz.
pounds = lbs.
teaspoons = tsp
tablespoons = tbl
fluid ounces = fl. oz.
cups = c
pints = pt
quart = qt
gallons = gal.
Fahrenheit temp. = F

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