Kitchen Basics: Types of Oils

Oils are used for basting, marinades, frying and dressings. They are made from vegetables, fruits, seeds or nuts and are much more healthy than animal fats. With all the choices on the shelves, it’s really hard to know which oil to pick for whatever you’re cooking. This is a basic list of the oils you’ll typically find in the grocery store and what types of recipies you may want to try them in!

Olive Oil
The KING of oils (in this humble Italians opinion). It’s the most healthy as it is high in mono unsaturated fat which has been shown to help reduce the risk of heart disease. It’s all I use in my home. Full of a mild, fruity flavor, it’s traditionally used in Mediterranean dishes, but it’s use is becoming much more wide spread. “Virgin” olive oil simply has a lower acidity level and is less refined. Olive Oils smokes around 350°. Cooking it too hot will oxidize it, which will destroy its health benefits.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
The flavor is fruity and peppery and is from the first cold pressing of the olives.

Sunflower Oil
This is a very light and neutral flavor, some people call it tasteless. If you want to add some flavor to it, use 1 part sunflower oil and 1 part olive oil. It’s low in saturated fat and high in vitamin E. More snack companies are starting to use it for chips, etc. At home, use it to fry, cook and in salad dressings. Smoke point is 475°.

Vegetable Oil
Probably the most common oil used in America, it’s actually a combination of oils made from corn, soybean, sunflower and palm.

Canola Oil
This was being talked about as one of the more healthy oils a few years ago because of its low saturated fat and high mono unsaturated fat. It’s commonly used for frying, but only at medium heat- up to about 450°.

Corn Oil
Mostly used in homes for frying, you should only use to fry at medium temperatures. It’s low on both saturated and mono unsaturated fats. The smoke point is about 450°.

Peanut Oil
This oil is pretty rarely used, but is GREAT for high temperature frying, which is why you see it most often at Thanksgiving when folks are frying turkey. Its smoke point is 448°.

Flax Oil
VERY rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are also found in fish. Flax oil is associated with fighting cancer, controlling glucose levels and lowering cholesterol. It’s best used in vinaigrettes or for drizzling over a finished meal. Flax oil goes bad quickly, and should be used within 3 months of opening.

Coconut Oil
Coconut oil has been described as the new wonder oil because it is believed to help with weight loss by boosting the metabolism. It’s also associated with diets intended to maintain heart health. What’s great about it is that it does not oxidize at high heat (which is the process that destroys the health benefits). Smoke point is 350°.

Hemp Oil
Hemp oil is by far one of the best oils for you. It’s just now starting to come to the market, and is meeting all the typical crap that any hemp product meets. Instead of preaching to you myself about it (because people who really believe that any kind of hemp usage will make you high won’t listen to a regular joe like me), check out this great article by Dr. Andrew Weil.

Storing and Discarding Oil
The shelf life for most oils is 6-8 months after opening. The higer in mono saturated fat the oil is, the longer the shelf life, so refined olive oil can last a few years! Be sure to store at a cool room temperature, best place is your pantry. Light, heat and oxygen is the enemy of oil!

Don’t EVER pour cooking oil down your sink!! After fats from food have been introduced to the oil, it can solidify (which of course it doesn’t do when stored in a bottle). If you pour oil down your drain, eventually enough will have congealed to block your pipes- besides that, it will seriously start to stink! The best thing you can do is pour your used oil into a leak-proof container (a coffee can is GREAT!) and stick it in your freezer. Keep adding to it until the container is full, and then throw away with the rest of your garbage.

Tessie’s Kitchen Basics: Seasoning a Cast Iron Pan

261-l8sq3 My kitchen is driving me nuts. I don’t have a lot of space in there and storage space is at a real premium. I’d love to have a hanging rack for my pots and pans, but there’s no way I could have one of those in the space we’re in now. So instead, I have a cabinet stacked full with different pots and pans. The clutter is driving me crazy! Can’t there just be ONE PAN that can do everything?!

YES!

EVERYONE needs a cast iron pan! I’m not even joking, they are one of the greatest inventions on the planet, and they’ve been around for a REEEALLY long time! I think that people avoid cast iron because all they know about it is that it must be taken care of. Well, that’s true, it must be cared for but it’s easy to do!! Something else a lot of folks don’t know is that a well cared for cast iron pan is just as “non stick” as anything coated in teflon. In fact, you can do just about anything with a cast iron pan, from frying chicken to baking a cake!! My personal two favorite uses? Making deep dish pizza and giant cookies.

The process of caring for your cast iron pan is called “seasoning” Without knowing what you must do to season a pan, it’s easy to imagine that it takes a lot of effort, but it doesn’t! Here’s how it works: On a microscopic level, cast iron is jagged and rough. Seasoning pretty much means that you are filling in those jagged spaces. Think of the graphic you’ve seen in every single hair conditioner commercial ever. It’s just like that. It’s simple to do, and worth your time because a seasoned cast iron pan makes THE TASTIEST food ever! Actually, MOST of the time you will spend while you season a pan will be waiting, so come up with something else to do, because this really won’t keep you busy! Here are the steps:

Rub the pan with a VERY THIN coating of oil. It’s recommended that you use vegetable oils or lard for this process. Most cooks avoid using mineral oil because it is petroleum based and no one wants their food cooked in a petroleum product. Not too many folks go for lard anymore either, so use canola oil or sunflower oil (Olive oil’s smoke point is TOO LOW- Don’t use it!). Don’t over-do with the oil. The trick is in several thin layers, not one nasty goopy one.

Place the pan upside down in your oven. It’s a great idea to place your pan on top of a piece of aluminum foil, just in case any oil drips. You now will heat the pan in a 300-500 degree oven for 30-60 minutes. PLEASE remember to hang out close to the kitchen- we are talking about a VERY hot oven here! Don’t take the dog for a long walk or anything! (500 degrees makes me nervous, I never go over 450)

Note: You will see people across the net recommending that you use your “self cleaning oven” setting to season your cast iron. PLEASE do NOT do this!! The “self cleaning” temperature on most ovens is around 550 degrees which is REEEEALLY hot, and besides that- the oven will LOCK. At that temperature, you may actually start a fire in your oven, and if you do, and the door is locked… well… that will cause some VERY tense moments in your kitchen. Don’t do it, and if you do, don’t say I didn’t warn you!

After the pan has baked, remove it from the oven and allow it to come back to room temperature. Do not plunge it into cold water, this can cause the pan to crack or break!

After the pan has completely cooled, repeat this process a few more times. That’s it! Honestly!

What you have done, is created a sealed surface on your pan, which means that not only will it be non-stick, it has also formed a seal between the iron and your food, so that means that water will not cause rust (which makes your food taste weird). After you have done this process, that’s really it. Each time you use the pan, you’ll be renewing that surface, so the more you use your cast iron pan, the more awesome it will be!!

Cleaning and maintaining the pan is just as easy!

When you’ve finished cooking, let the pan cool on its own. You never want to quickly and drastically change the temperature of a cast iron pan so again, don’t plunge it into cool water.

Hand wash the pan gently with dish soap and water. (NEVER put your cast iron in the dishwasher!) Rinse well and dry with a paper towel. An old school of thought is that dish soap is bad, but it’s not. You actually need to get rid of the very top layer of oil (the stuff you may have just your dinner cooked in) otherwise the oil will go rancid and make your food taste aweful. DO NOT SOAK a cast iron pan in water.

Place the pan on a heated stove for a minute to be sure the pan is completely dry.

Next, use a paper towel to apply a very thin layer of oil to the pan. Again, don’t over do with the oil (and use the same types as noted above). Let the oil sit in the heated pan for a few minutes to season.

Remove the pan from the heat, and wipe away excess oil. Allow the pan to cool before putting away.

Store your cast iron cookware with the lid off. You don’t want humidity trapped inside to create rust. A great tip that I use is to put a paper towel in the bottom of the pan if you don’t use it often. That way, and humidity is absorbed into the towel and evaporates without harming your pan.

Creating a Basic Oatmeal Breakfast Cake (Choose Your Own Flavor)

This weekend has been kinda slow. Usually, whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing, when things are slow I think about food. I had decided sometime earlier in the week that I wanted to make some kind of breakfast cake with oatmeal and wheat flour this weekend. Oatmeal is one of those ingredients that I would love to incorporate more often. It’s a heart healthy grain and the extra fiber is very healthy for your body. Rick and I both could use the benefits of fiber, but it’s hard to make Rick eat crunchy granola stuff, so cake is the way to go. Since he’s never tasted this recipe, it was a perfect time to implement the wheat flour since if I put it in one of his favorite recipes, he might notice it.

My goal was to create a cake similar in texture to a bran muffin, moist yet just slightly grainy. I planned to avoid any icing or glaze and wanted the cake itself to have a light flavor that wasn’t too sweet. I wasn’t sure what the flavor would be, but I was thinking a kind of mapley-fall flavor maybe with apples. When I opened my pantry to get out the ingredients, I saw a box of Peaches n Cream oatmeal and decided to make the cake out of that instead of just using regular instant oatmeal.

Why not? Hehehe So this is a recipe I literally made up minutes ago. You can (and as it turns our, maybe should) use 1 cup of oatmeal instead of packaged/flavored oatmeail.

Basic Oatmeal Breakfast Cake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
•1 cup instant oatmeal (or 2 pkg Peaches n Cream Instant Oatmeal)
•1 cup milk
•¼ cup butter
•1 ½ cup brown sugar
•2 eggs
•2 tsp imitation vanilla
•1 ½ tbs yogurt
•1-2 tbs applesauce
•1 1/3 – 1 1/2 cups wheat flour
•1 tsp baking powder
•1 tsp baking soda
•Pinch salt
(add ins- this is where you’ll get your flavor!)
•Blueberries, raisins, chocolate chips, chopped nuts, canned pumpkin, banana, coconut, more applesauce… whatever!

Pour 2 packages of Peaches n Cream oatmeal (or one cup instant oatmeal) into a bowl with 1 cup of milk. Microwave for about 1 -1:20 warming the oatmeal. Let sit for at least 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to cool well.

Combine egg, vanilla, applesauce and yogurt and mix well. After the oatmeal has cooled, add to the egg and sugar mixture.

Add the dry ingredients, mixing in the flour 1/3 cup at a time . Add in any optional ingredients.

Lightly grease an 8×8 pan and pour batter in. Bake for 24-28 minutes until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean.

There it is! A good breakfast cake is that easy. The next time I make this, I won’t try to be clever with packaged oatmeal simply because there wasn’t much of a flavor contribution with it. I’ll use regular oatmeal and use the addins to create the flavor. If it just so happens that you only have packaged oatmeal in your house, now you know you can bake with it! There are a lot of ways to alter this recipe for your needs. Admittedly, this cake is plane. It’s got a great texture, but the few blueberries I added weren’t enough. The packaged oatmeals flavor wasn’t as strong as I’d have liked so next time I’m going to get the flavor from something else, like banana or maybe canned pumpkin! You can see that it’s the basic cake that’s the point here. Make it into whatever you want for your own healthy breakfast! Every home has favorite flavors. I know that if I make this with pumpkin, Rick would go crazy.

I decided not to make an icing for it, but I think it could be improved by one, especially if you planned to serve this chilled. I also think that this is a perfect recipe to bounce off of if you would like to make a lower fat version using some of the tips here. If you did that, you could get rid of at least a half cup of sugar and just rely on the fruit you add. This could be a delicious oatmeal applesauce cake! I really feel like I succeeded in my goals this afternoon. The cake a created was delicious and maybe more importantly, flexible! It’s got a beautiful moist texture and lightly sweet creamy flavor because of the imitation vanilla.

I’d love to hear your ideas for icing or glazing this cake! I think it all really depends on whether or not you’re serving this warm or chilled. I think it’d be awesome with some toothpick holes in the top and a little maple syrup drizzled over. If it was chilled, I could totally see it with a cream cheese or powdered sugar type glaze. What do you guys think? Anyone want to try it out and see what they create?

Eyelash Curler Tips: Avoid “The Chop”

Eyelash curlers are weird little things, but lots of girls swear by them. You can even get a diploma in eyelash perming! Many friends have recommended them to me because I have really puny eyelashes and it’s hard to find a way to make them even slightly noticeable. I finally bought one a couple of months ago at a fellow NSW’s urging. I wasn’t really impressed because I couldn’t get a curl. I put it aside after about 6 uses and kind of just forgot about it. Then I get an email from one of my best girlfriends that she’d had some kind of mishap with her curler. It turns out that something had misaligned when she clamped down on her lashes and a chunk of her lashes were chopped off.

Yikes! Of course, lashes grow back quickly, so that’s good news. The bad news is that with very little effort, we found many complaints about her Revlon curler. I decided this was a perfect opportunity to warn you about the potential “chop” and to share some tips with you to help you avoid this kind of major bummer.

There are three different kinds of eyelash curlers. There are plastic and metal curlers and there are heated curlers. The most familiar type of eyelash curler is metal and has scissor-like handles. Some have plastic or padded handles. The heated type is said to produce a better curl (but there’s a work around- keep reading). I remember watching my aunt curl her lashes when I was little, and I think I remember hers having a sort of foam rubber pad. Most these days have something that resembles a rubber bumper, and you usually get an extra set with each curler. Usually the upper part of the curler is just a metal/plastic bar. They kind of look like torture devices laying around on your counter. Now, I’m not saying that these tips will keep you from having some kind of mishap, all I can promise is that by choosing a high quality curler and knowing how to take care of it, the likelihood of having an accident goes down significantly.

My first recommendation about curlers is to go with metal. Many of the complaints online regard plastic curlers snapping after too much use. Most of the complaints about plastic were actually with regard to plastic handles or pads on curlers. Consumers reported that the plastic handles could slip off the curler, causing the user to lose their grip and possibly injure their eye. I recommend the type that you can slip your fingers in, to help you keep a firm and steady grip.

The next tip also comes with a warning. If you don’t want to go to the trouble or expense of buying a heated curler (or if the idea of a heated curler just scares you a little!), you can use your hair dryer to get a stronger curl. Just set your hair dryer on low and aim it at your curler for no more than 5 seconds. Tap the curler on your hand to be sure it’s not too hot before applying to your lashes.

It’s a great tip. But here’s the warning. The heat from your hair dryer will contribute to the wear on the rubber bumper/pad. It will speed up the drying of the rubber, so if you choose to heat your curler, make sure to frequently check to be sure that the bumper isn’t cracking or getting brittle and flakey. If the integrity of your pad is going, change it immediately.

Making sure that you replace your bumper/pad every 6 months at the most will help to be sure that nothing goes wrong with your curling experience. You also should be sure that your curler stays clean.

The proper way to curl your lashes is before you apply mascara. If you curl after you put mascara on, you may find that you lose some lashes. When you squish the makeup around your lashes and then open the curler, your lashes can stick and pull right out. To avoid this, be sure that both your lashes and your curler are clean and dry. It’s hard to really clean all the makeup off your lashes, even with the best makeup remover and that means that your curler will get dirty, even if you don’t mean it to, so be sure that at least once per week you use soap and warm water to clean the tool. Before you curl, be sure your lashes are completely dry, and free of makeup remover. Makeup remover will make your lashes oily. That means you could lose your grip easier and your curl won’t be as strong.

Before you curl every day, clamp the curler closed a couple of times and check to be sure that the edges are lined up properly, and that the top edge is landing squarely in the middle of the rubber bumper. As you can see from these pictures, the Revlon curler shown is missing the bumper all together, and there is metal on metal contact (that’s what caused “The Chop”) Lots of things can cause a misalignment including traveling or dropping. If you find that your curler is bent or has big spaces at the edges (like the black Revlon one does in these photos), it’s probably time to get rid of it. If you’ve got a brand new curler and have the issue with space at the edges, return the curler to the store and buy one that costs a few more bucks.

Quality over look is important with eyelash curlers. If you are shopping by brand name, I recommend you check reviews before you buy. Amanda’s curler, a black Revlon curler had many complaints online. All the complaints were the same, with girls chopping of sections of lashes with their product. There have been a few different kinds of curlers recalled in the last couple of years, but the Revlon product does not seem to have been corrected yet. My curler is a Maybelline product, but I didn’t use it long enough to know how good it was. What I can tell you is that it looks like it’s aligned better than the Revlon curler, though it’s only been used a few times so I don’t know how it would be in the long term. The Maybelline curler seems to also be put together a little bit tighter, and the edges slide slightly more freely.

If you can get a chance to handle a curler before you buy it, please do. Look it over closely, and go ahead and spend a few extra dollars on it. It’s worth the extra cash because you’ll be using this tool around your eyes!

Household Uses for Butter (the end of “The Butter Trilogy”)

ok. I’ve almost finished talking about butter. LOL! I seriously don’t think about it as often as it must seem! I figured that since we’d talked so much about it, I should just make a “butter trilogy”. Today’s article is very Non-Stepfordian… I’m going to talk about butter’s household uses.

I’m no Paula Deen, believe me. LOVE the woman. Absolutely LOVE her cooking, but it’s all so rich! Not that I dislike that, but I guess butter is just an ingredient I prefer to use with a bit more moderation! Like I mentioned before, I tend to go through way more of it during the holiday season. Of course, I go through way more of EVERYTHING that time of year… When I really want something to be over the top, I always use butter to impress. These quick little tips are great to bust out any time there is a need. Your girlfriends will be amazed at how easily housecleaning seems to come to you! :D

Some other random household items I’ve talked about before have dozens of uses. Butter’s list is shorter, but pretty diverse.

Remove sap from skin after a nice walk in the woods by rubbing butter over the sticky mess. You can now wash with soap and water and come out non-sticky on the other end!

Get rid of fishy smell on your hands easily by applying butter to hands and then washing with warm soapy water.

If you work on your feet, you’ll love this tip to relieve aching feet. Just massage them with butter and wrap in a hot damp towel. Relax for 10 minutes. Your feet will feel revitalized and your skin will feel smooth!

If you’re planning a move, you can help your cat adjust to his new home with butter. Cats LOVE butter, so to help him keep coming home to the right place, and to help him develop a warm, “homey” feeling, put a little butter on the top of one of his front paws. They just love the flavor, so they’ll keep coming back for more and they will build strong feelings of comfort in the area he enjoys it.

Slice sticky foods easily by using your fingers to rub a thin layer of butter on each side of a knife. Now cutting sticky foods like dates or marshmallows is simple because the butter acts as a lubricant.

Speaking of lubricant, if you need some emergency shaving cream because you’ve run out, try using butter on your wet skin. This provides a smooth, close shave.

Do the kids love to draw? ON EVERYTHING? One thing you may be able to painlessly rescue are dolls like Barbie and certain action figures. Rubbing butter on an ink stain on certain plastics will remove the ink. Test on a small patch if you’re worried. This technique is NOT to be used on porcelain dolls!

Keep pots from boiling over by adding a tablespoon of butter to the water as it warms up.

Next time you want to keep leftover onion fresh as long as possible, rub butter on the cut surface before wrapping and storing in the fridge.

You can keep mold off cheese with butter. This is an awesome tip because often it’s cheaper to buy a block of cheese and grate it on your own, but it can be difficult to keep some hard cheeses. If you give any semi hard cheese a light coat of butter on the cut edge before you wrap it and put it away, it will keep it fresh and free of mold.

****************
I love to use crap in ways it was never intended to be used. I really liked MacGyver. Besides, you know me, I like to squeeze every penny out of every item that goes through my hands… Some call it anal retentive… I call it a wise use of my time ;)

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  • Tessie Gilmour

  • Welcome! If you are passionate about green living, interested in cooking or just looking for general household tips, you're in the right place!
    While we are here together, we might as well team up and do some good! Check out the "Charity" links at the top of the page to find out how Not Stepford Wives is giving back, and how you can help by SHOPPING!!
    As for me, I'm completely devoted to my husband. I'm a die-hard, card-carrying member of Red Sox Nation, and a rock-chick to the core.