Mom’s APPLE PIE

1-1/2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2-teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
Cold water
4 apples or 1 quart sliced apples
4 tablespoons sugar
1-tablespoon butter

Sift flour, baking powder and salt;
add shortening and rub in very lightly;
add just enough cold water to hold dough together.
Roll half out on floured board, line bottom of pie plate;
fill in apples, which have been washed, pared and cut into thin slices;
sprinkle with sugar and dot with small pieces of butter;
flavor with cinnamon or nutmeg;
wet edges of crust with cold water;
roll out remainder of pastry;
cover pie, pressing edges tightly together.
Trim off extra paste.
Prick top of crust with fork or knife and bake in moderate oven 30 minutes.
Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve hot.

By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Chin]Andrew Chin

There are some basic cooking tips that anyone could learn and use to help out in the kitchen. With todays’ busy lifestyles becoming more prevalent, learning and using these basic cooking tips will save you time and headache.

The following fifteen is just a tiny handful of the many basic cooking tips that you could integrate into your everyday life to save time and money.

• Bacon: Reduce shrinkage by running cold water over it before frying.

• Beans: Stop gas attacks by adding a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda in a big pot of beans while they are soaking.

• Boiled Eggs: Add some vinegar or a little salt to the boiling water when boiling eggs. This basic cooking tips will keep the egg in the shell if it cracks.

• Ripening Fruits and Vegetables: Put your unripe fruit and vegetables in a brown paper bag and place the bag in a dark cupboard for few day. Using this basic cooking tips is an excellent way to save money on fruits and vegetables that has to be ripened.

• Salads: Cut your iceberg lettuce into wedges instead of tearing salad greens to save some time making a salad.

• Spaghetti Sauce: Add a small pinch of bicarbonate of soda to your spaghetti sauce to lower the acid taste from the tomatoes.

• Corn: Place the corn directly into boiling water, and do not add salt. Do not boil corn for more than three minutes. Overcooking reduces the taste level.

• Frozen Vegetables: When they are stuck together, simply run boiling water over them.

• Grating Cheese: Freeze for twenty five minutes before grating. It will shred so much easier.

• Pancakes: Use a small amount of sugar in the batter and they will brown more quickly.

• Pie Pastry: Substitute one teaspoon of vinegar for one teaspoon of the cold water called for in the recipe and the pastry will be much flakier.

• Quick Sauces: Use condensed cream soups such as cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of tomato, cream of celery, to make fast and easy sauces.

• Quick Tenderizer: Use vinegar as a meat tenderizer. Add a tablespoon to water when boiling meat or ribs for stews. This basic cooking tips will help tenderizer even the toughest meat.

• Wilted vegetables: Soak wilted veggies in two cups water, one tablespoon vinegar to help bring them back to life.

• Wooden Skewers: Soak all your wooden skewers in cold water for twenty minutes to prevent them from burning.

Inspiration could be considered to be one of the key ingredients to writing. Only if one is inspired, can one get to writing on any subject especially like cooking.

Use some of these basic cooking tips to make your life in the kitchen more enjoyable.

Andrew Chin is a recognized authority on the subject of [http://www.cookingsmarter.com]Cooking. His website [http://www.cookingsmarter.com]Cooking Smarter provides a wealth of information on everything you will need to know about [http://www.cookingsmarter.com/tips]Cooking Tips.

My name is Chef Ray and along with Chef Daisy (my daughter and real chef) we are your hosts.

What is The Weekend Chef?

The Weekend Chef has been around for a few years now. It started out as a site to exchange recipes between some friends. Earlier this year we were able to purchase a couple of greate databases as well as about 150 cookbooks in pdf format. At that point it was time for a major overhaul of the site since we would need to do extensive rewriting of the site anyway.

We decided to keep the recipe exchange idea but to expand on it. By going to a membership driven site we would be able to continue to expand the offerings by using the money from the membership to purchase softare, data, and information that may not be available elsewere on the web. What you see today is the beginning of that process.

We are proud to over one of the largest databases of recipes on the web. We now have over 300,000 food recipes and over 9,000 drink recipes available. No other site that we have found so far has that wide of a selection for it’s members. In addition, we have over 150 pdf cookbooks and a member recipe exchange. We think it is a great start.

2008 is fast approaching and I wanted to take a few minutes to let you know my resolutions for The Weekend Chef for 2008!

During 2008 I resolve to grow The Weekend Chef as follows:

* 400,000 Recipes available to our fellow Weekend Chefs. My ultimate goal is 1 Million Recipes.
* Grow our membership to 10,000 Weekend Chefs.
* Increase our offerings to include more software that you can use in menu planning and cooking.
* Write a new Weekend Chef’s Guide to Dutch Oven Cooking. If you haven’t done so, check out the current Weekend Chef’s Guides.
* To create a webring of sister sites that include Dieting, Beer and Wine Making and Vegetarian Cooking.

Well there you go, it’s offical, my goals for 2008. If you have anything you would like from this site please let us know. In the meantime thank you for being part of the Weekend Chefs and enjoy what we have to offer.

Please look around our free area. We publish articles every week and new recipes montly.