3 Ways You May Be Ruining Your Knives

After months or years, those old knives just don't keep their edge as well, but there are factors that speed up the dulling process that you may inadvertently be causing. To keep you knives sharper longer, check out these "3 Ways You May Be Ruining Your Knives" below!

1. You store your knives unsheathed in the utensil drawer.
There are a few reasons this is bad: first of all, it's dangerous to have a knife loose in the drawer. Secondly, an unsheathed knife rubs against other things, which causes it to get dull very quickly. The best way to store your knives is on a magnetic knife strip or in a knife block. 

If you're really short on space and need to store those knives in a drawer, just slip them into a blade guard first! You can get a set of four on Amazon for about $10.

2. You put your knife in the dishwasher. 
Knives should never go in the dishwasher. Dishwasher detergent is very abrasive, and along with the banging around that happens during a wash cycle, will take the sharp edge right off your knife. (Plus, it's not safe for the person unloading the dishwasher!) 

Always wash knives by hand in the sink with dish soap and water. Keep the blade facing away from you and the knife low in the sink. Also, don't leave your knife to air dry. Instead, take a tea towel and, holding the knife with the blade facing away from you, dry the knife in short vertical motions perpendicular to the edge. Running a tea towel horizontally along the blade is very dangerous, and a sure-fire way to cut yourself. (Don't worry — I did this for a long time, too!) 

3. You slide your knife, blade down, across the cutting board to clear away what you just chopped. 

Oh man. I am still trying to break this habit! Do you do this? After you've got a pile of chopped veggies, you scrape your nice, sharp knife — blade down — right across the cutting board to clear some space. Of course when you actually think about it (as I did) that's a terrible way to treat the blade! 

An easy solution: just flip the knife over before you slide! That way the flat spine side does the clearing, and you don't ruin your blade.

Original Article Here: http://bit.ly/10l49PS

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Delicious Cookie Recipe

Brighten up the middle of the week with some cookies! This is a great recipe for a tasty treat for you, or a wonderful surprise for friends and family! You can find more great recipes at The Kitchn.

M&M'S® Cookiesmakes about 36 cookies

1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup M&M'S® Milk Chocolate Candies

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a mixing bowl, mix sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs until well blended. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Drop dough by rounded tablespoons onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart. Press 3 or 4 additional M&M'S® Milk Chocolate Candies into each cookie. (Or, if you like, create a smiley-face or your child's initials using M&M'S® MINIS Chocolate Candies.)

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until light brown. Cool slightly and remove to wire rack. Enjoy!

(Images: Leela Cyd Ross)

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What Will Apartment Life Look Like In The Future?

Image courtesy of apartmentguide.com

Do you ever wonder how the apartment world may or may not change as we move into the future? This topic is definitely on the brains of many developers and leaders. Earlier this year at the No Place Like Home Conference in Anaheim, Calif., more than 230 leaders in urban development discussed what the future might hold for apartments and multi-unit housing. 

An excerpt from an apartmentguide.com article reaveals insight into what at least one expert predicts the future may hold for apartments: 



Joel Kotkin, author of The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050, believes that “the suburb of the future may well resemble more of a self-sufficient village than a prototypical suburb of the 1950s.”

So what would a self-sufficient apartment village look like?

Are suburbs the cities of the future? 
A suburb will “increasingly not be limited to being a ‘bedroom’ community, since many will work at home or commute to employment in another suburb,” Kotkin added. “Its population will be far more diverse, by age and ethnicity, than its historic predecessor.”

In a keynote address during the PCBC homebuilding trade show, urbanist Richard Florida said “we have to get over this nonsensical verbiage of cities or suburbs; it’s cities and suburbs.” He also reminded his audience that “what people prefer is all the same: a safe, secure, crime-free environment; lots of economic opportunity; openness to all people; and quality of place.”

This all seems to boil down to the premise that future housing options will be more inclusive, all-encompassing, compact and efficient. The new apartment village will be more self-sufficient and able to fit the needs of many types of apartment dwellers. 

Click here to read more of the article and learn about what the future might hold for apartment parking options, green living and more. 

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Foods to Avoid for a Good Night's Sleep

Do sleeping problems have you up all night? It could be the food you're eating in the hours before bed. Below are 8 different culprits keeping you up! You can learn more here.

Dark Chocolate
Nibbling on a piece of dark chocolate might cure a late-night sugar craving, but that sweet satisfaction might be short-lived. Certain dark chocolates, such as Hershey’s Bliss Dark Chocolate, have as much as 25 to 38 percent of the amount of caffeine found in a standard cup of coffee. That’s enough to keep a few people up tossing and turning.
All chocolate – even milk chocolate – contains caffeine, but an easy rule of thumb to follow is: The darker the chocolate, the more caffeine it contains. So if you can’t give up the craving, reach for chocolate with a lower percentage of cocoa.

Steak
Beyond raising cholesterol and increasing obesity risk, fatty foods that are high in protein, like steak, digest slowly and may disrupt our Circadian rhythm if eaten close to bedtime. What’s more, high-fat, high-protein diets have also been linked to sleep apnea, which can leave you tired and irritable throughout the next day.

Alcohol
The nightcap. It’s supposed to help you unwind and get some rest after a long day. However, time after time, studies have shown that while alcohol can help you fall asleep faster, it negatively affects your sleep cycle by reducing the amount of SWS and REM sleep – both of which are responsible for helping to repair and restore the mind and body – you receive per night.

Spicy food
Spicy food may not give you nightmares, but it sure can disrupt a good night’s sleep. Lying down after eating a heavy, spice-laden meal can result in heartburn and a restless night. Studies have found that eating spicy food prior to bedtime not only reduces the overall amount of sleep a person gets, but also raise core body temperature, which has been linked to poor sleep quality.

Decaf coffee
If you’re jonesing for an after-dinner cup of coffee, reaching for decaf instead of regular may not prevent the late-night jitters. Contrary to popular belief, decaffeinated coffee contains enough caffeine to disrupt sleep, particularly for those who are caffeine sensitive.

Broccoli or cauliflower
Being healthy by eating your veggies has a time and place, but it’s not before bed. Some roughage like broccoli and cauliflower contain tryptophan, which actually helps the body produce serotonin and regulates sleep. However, eaten too close to bedtime, vegetables with high amounts of slow-to-digest fiber can keep your body working well into the night while you’re trying to get some shuteye.

French fries
Some of us may dream about fried food, but high-fat foods like French fries can keep you from doing just that. Indulging in one or two fries before bed may not be enough to keep you awake, but eating an entire serving may push your digestive system into overdrive not to mention give you a bad case of heartburn -- both of which are enough to prevent a good night of dreaming.

Chili

Hot sauce. Beans. Beef. Oh, my! Chili is a five-alarm recipe for sleep disaster if you eat it close to bedtime. Hot sauce-induced heartburn and a disgruntled tummy thanks to the beans and beef will keep you from getting all of those precious 40 winks.

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Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale

If you're a fan of ginger ale, then this article is for you! Make your own tasty soda with whatever ingredients tickle your fancy. Check out the tips and recipes in "Soda Recipe: Homemade Ginger Ale" below!

I have been so very excited to share my new homebrewing book, True Brews, with you this week. Yesterday we gave you a little peek into the book, and today here's one more tidbit to spark your homebrewing daydreams! I have many favorites from the book — the Peach Iced Tea Kombucha, the Mocha Stout, the Chai-Spiced Mead — but this ginger ale is The One. It's like all your wildest ginger ale dreams come true: snappy and fresh, sweet and a little spicy, and perfect for these early summer days. Even better, you can start a batch tonight and be sipping your first glass of homebrewed soda by tomorrow.

This ginger ale is a great place to start if you've never brewed anything before. All you need is a recycled plastic soda bottle. Just fill it with the sweet gingery soda base, add a pinch of yeast, and screw on the cap. Check the bottle every so often — when it's rock-solid to the touch with almost no give, stick it in the fridge for a few hours. Once chilled, you're ready to rock and roll.

I love using champagne yeast to brew sodas because I feel that it has a cleaner taste and makes a fizzier soda. You can pick up little packets of this yeast at homebrewing supply stores and some Whole Foods stores, or you can order them online from places like Norther Brewer. You only need a pinch to make your soda, so wrap up the leftover yeast and store it in the fridge until the next soda-making urge strikes. 

→ Find It! Champagne Yeast from Northern Brewer

But if you're eager to make soda and can't get your hands on champagne yeast right away, you can also use regular active-dry yeast — the same used for bread baking. You might find that your soda has a bit of a yeasty aftertaste with this baker's yeast, but it does a fine job in a pinch!

Ready to get your soda on? Here you go!

→ True Brews is out now! Find Emma's book at your local library, independent bookstore, or Amazon: True Brews: How to Craft Fermented Cider, Beer, Wine, Sake, Soda, Mead, Kefir, and Kombucha at Home by Emma Christensen

→ Read more about True Brews at Emma's personal blog: emmaelizabethchristensen. blogspot.com

Ginger Ale

Makes about 8 cups 
(enough to fill a 2-liter plastic soda bottle)

2-inch piece fresh gingerroot

1 cup water, plus more to fill the bottles

9 tablespoons / 4 ounces white granulated sugar, plus more if needed 

1/8 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons), plus more if needed

1/8 teaspoon dry champagne yeast

Peel and finely grate the ginger (I use a Microplane). You should have about 2 tablespoons of grated gingerroot.

Bring the water to a boil in a small saucepan on the stove top or in the microwave. Remove from the heat. Add the sugar and salt and stir to dissolve. Add the ginger and let stand until cool. Stir in the lemon juice.

Pour the ginger water into a clean 2-liter bottle using a funnel. Do not strain out the ginger. Top off the bottle with water, leaving at least 1 inch of headspace. Give it a taste and add more lemon juice or sugar if desired. The extra sugar will dissolve on its own.

Add the yeast. Screw on the cap and shake the bottle to dissolve and distribute the yeast. Let the bottle sit at room temperature out of direct sunlight until carbonated, typically 12 to 48 hours, depending on the temperature of the room. Check the bottle periodically; when it feels rock solid with very little give, it’s ready.

Refrigerate overnight or for up to 2 weeks. Open very slowly over a sink to release the pressure gradually and avoid bubble-ups. Pour the soda through a small fine-mesh strainer to catch the ginger as you pour.

Recipe Notes

• Bottling in Glass Bottles: Sodas can also be bottled in glass or swing-top bottles, but it's more difficult to tell when the sodas have fully carbonated. Therefore, with every batch you bottle, also fill one small plastic soda bottle to use as an indicator for when the sodas have finished carbonating. Refrigerate all of the bottles as soon as the plastic bottle is carbonated; never leave the glass bottles at room temperature once carbonated.
• Sugar-Free Soda: Use 1 tablespoon of white granulated sugar per 8 cups of soda to carbonate, but beyond that, you can sweeten to taste with another sweetener of your choosing. The sugar will be almost entirely consumed during fermentation.
• Alcohol in Homebrewed Sodas: As long as yeast is being used to carbonate beverages, alcohol will be made as a by-product. However, the short fermentation time limits the amount of alcohol produced in sodas, and it typically comes out to less than 1 percent.
• How to Avoid Gushing, Exploding, Overcarbonated Sodas: Sodas can overcarbonate very easily. This can cause geysers when you first open them or bursting bottles if left unrefrigerated for too long. Refrigeration suspends fermentation (and therefore carbonation), but it will start again when the bottles are removed from refrigeration.
  
  It's best to bottle sodas in used (cleaned!) plastic soda bottles since it's easy to gauge carbonation just by pressing the side. Always open sodas over a sink or outside, and unscrew the cap extremely slowly to allow pressure to release gradually.

(Images: Paige Green for Ten Speed Press/True Brews)

Original Article Here: http://bit.ly/16P2gjE

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Five Make-Ahead Lunch Ideas to Minimize Your Morning Madness

Wake up. Shower. Get dressed. Get moving! If your morning are a hectic blur of hustling to get out the door then we've got something for you. Shave some minutes off your morning routine with "Five Make-Ahead Lunch Ideas to Minimize Your Morning Madness" to make your food grab-and-go!

• Hard boil eggs – Eggs are mega nourishing, indeed one of the best sources of protein out there. And when hard boiled, they’re fabulously portable and stay fresh in the fridge for up to a week. Take them as is with just a pinch of salt for flavor, or chop them for an egg salad sandwich, slice them over a green salad, or make a pair of simple deviled eggs, always a winner with adults and children.
  
• Cook a pot of beans – Whether made in a slow cooker or on the stovetop, cooking a pot of your favorite beans can supply your lunches with quality ingredient all week long. Fold white beans into tuna fish for a hearty sandwich, add chickpeas to green salads for added sustenance, or top warm black beans with shredded cheddar and stow in a thermos. Include a side of tortilla chips to those cheesy black beans for added kid appeal.
  
• Whirl up a yummy dip – A homemade ranch dip or green goddess dressing to serve alongside lunch box vegetables will up the likelihood that they’ll get eaten. Once your dip is made, divvy it up into small, leak-proof containers and store in the fridge to pop it into lunches as needed. Wondering if those containers are indeed leak-proof? Fill them with water, shake vigorously, and see what happens.
  
• Bake a batch of granola bars – Putting a little homemade love into lunch makes them a whole lot more fun to crack into once noon rolls around. Experiment with making granola bars or energy bars and store in a cookie tin. You can also wrap the bars individually in parchment paper or wax paper bags for grab-and-go convenience.
  
• Make a mess of crudité – Taking a few minutes to wash and trim a generous supply of carrots, cucumbers, jicama and other vegetables to have at your fingertips means the vegetable part of the lunch box equation is less likely to get overlooked. Cover them with a moist towel in a sealed container in the refrigerator so they stay crispy and fresh. 

Check out Katie's book & website: 

Our review: Best Lunch Box Ever by Katie Sullivan Morford

On Amazon: Best Lunch Box Ever

Katie's website: Mom's Kitchen Handbook

(Image: Jennifer Martiné)

Original Article Here: http://www.thekitchn.com/five-make-ahead-lunch-ideas-to-minimize-your-morning-madness-193708

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How To Grill Perfect Steak

Ask twenty cooks how to best grill steak, and you might just get twenty different answers. There's lots of techniques, tips, and tricks, but check out "How To Grill Perfect Steak" below for a new take. What do you think? Is this method the best?

How To Grill Perfect Steak

Makes 1 steak, serves 2. Adapted from Serious Barbecue. 

What You Need

Ingredients
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 bunch fresh thyme, sage, rosemary or a combination
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper (optional)
One 1 1/2- to 1 3/4-inch-thick rib eye, T-bone or Porterhouse steak, removed from the refrigerator at least 1 hour before cooking

Finishing dressing:
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
Salt and pepper to taste

Equipment
Kitchen twine
Wooden spoon or dowel (optional)
Gas or charcoal grill
Tongs
Cutting board

Instructions

1. Prepare the dry seasoning blend, herb brush and melted butter: Mix the salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper in a small bowl. Use a piece of kitchen twine to tie the herbs together in a tight bundle. (For a longer brush, tie the herbs onto the end of a wooden spoon or dowel.) Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the optional red pepper flake and a few herbs snapped off from the herb brush.
   
   If you haven't already done so, take the steak out of the fridge and let it warm to room temperature on the counter. Ideally, let the steak warm for an hour before grilling. This helps it cook more evenly on the grill.


2. Heat the grill: Heat a charcoal or gas grill to high. You'll know the temperature is right when the coals are ashed over (if using a charcoal grill) and you can only hold your hand over the grill for 4 to 6 seconds before it feels too hot.


3. Season the steak: Sprinkle the dry seasoning blend generously over both sides of the steak, letting plenty of the seasoning fall on the surrounding cutting board or butcher paper. You'll use it on the edges of the steak.


4. Season the edges of the steak: Dip the sides of the steak into the excess seasoning.


5. Dampen your hand: Wet your hand with a little water.


6. Create a seasoning "paste": Pat your dampened hand over both sides of the steak. This turns the dry seasonings into more of a paste that lays flat on the meat.


7. Oil the steak: Dip the herb brush into the butter and lightly brush both sides of the steak.


8. Put the steak on the grill: Place the steak on the grate, close the lid, and do not move the steak until it is well marked and has a light char, about 3 minutes.


9. Flip the steak: Use the tongs to flip the steak.


10. Baste with butter: Dip the herb brush in the butter and brush over the hot surface of the steak.


11. Brown the other side of the steak: Close the lid and do not move the steak until the second side is well marked and has a light char. Flip and baste the second side with butter.


12. Continue cooking, flipping and basting with butter: Continue to cook with the lid down as much as possible. Flip frequently, basting the hot surface with butter every time you flip. If you have a flare-up, move the steak to another part of the grill or to the edge of the grill where it is cooler.


13. Cook to desired doneness: Use the touch test or an instant read thermometer to determine when your steak is cooked to your liking (125°F for rare, 130-135°F for medium-rare, 140°F for medium). Remove steak from the grill and place in a small baking dish.


14. Make the finishing dressing: Drizzle the olive oil on a cutting board. Add the lemon zest and a little salt and pepper.


15. Add herbs from the herb brush: Chop up some herbs from the end of the herb brush and mix them into the dressing.


16. Slice the steak: Place the steak on top of the dressing and pour some of the juices over the meat. Cut to separate the meat from the bone and slice the meat on a diagonal into 1/4-inch slices.


17. Dress the steak: Dredge the pieces in the dressing to coat them and top with the remaining juices.


18. Season the steak: Taste and sprinkle with additional salt and pepper if needed.

Recipe Notes

• You can use vegetable oil in place of the butter, but your steak won't be quite as browned and delicious.
• This recipe easily multiplies if you are cooking more than one steak. When scaling up, use 4 tablespoons of butter for every two steaks.

Learn more about grilling from Adam Perry Lang

→ Get his latest book: Serious Barbecue: Smoke, Char, Baste & Brush Your Way to Great Outdoor Cooking
→ Check out his website
→ Follow him on Twitter

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(Images: Leela Cyd Ross)

Original Article Here: http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-grill-steak-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-193246

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