photo credit: inuyaki.com

As you already read in my log, I am using a pressure cooker on regular basis, for cooking quick meals on a busy day.  I will share a few of my favorite pressure cooker recipes.  Here is one for Spareribs with Barbecue Sauce.  My family likes this dish served with boiled chunky potatoes, seasoned with sauteed onion, salt and pepper to taste.

Spareribs with Barbecue Sauce

Ingredients:

• 3 lbs pork country boneless spareribs
• Salt and pepper
• Paprika
• 1 tablespoon shortening
• 1 large onion, sliced
• ½ cup catchup
• 2 tablespoons White Vinegar
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
• 1/8 tsp. chili powder
• 1/4 tsp. celery seeds
• 1/2 cup water

Directions:

1. Cut ribs into serving pieces.  Season the meat with salt, pepper, and paprika.
2. Heat Cooker and add shortening.  Brown ribs on both sides.
3. Add onions, and saute until golden.  Remove all contents from the Cooker and set aside.
4. Place the basket inside the Cooker, and fill up with the meat and onions.
5. Combine catchup, vinegar, Worcestershire Sauce, chili powder, celery seed, and water. Pour over meat in Cooker.
6. Close cover securely and lock it in place.
7. Bring it to pressure.
8. Cook for 15 minutes, with pressure escaping through the vent, evenly.
9. Let pressure drop of its own accord.

Once all the pressure is released and the steam stops coming out of the vent, unlock the handle, uncover the cooker, and your spareribs dinner is ready to serve.

As I mentioned in my home page, I enjoy good humor, and will try to post a “family friendly” joke/humor/words of wisdom of the month.

January – words of wisdom:

Remember:  You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing.

The single most convenient, time and energy saving piece of cookware in my kitchen is my pressure cooker.  Most of my meals are ready in 15 minutes, which is at least a third of the time it would take to prepare them the usual way.  Presto Pressure Cooker was my first pot I ever bought, and used it for over 20 years.  During this time I only had to replace the gasket, and the pressure regulator (which I misplaced).  Last year I finally let it retire, and replaced it with Splendid 2 in 1 Pressure Cooker by Fagor.

The Splendid 2 in 1 Pressure Cooker was a great buy, because it consists of a 6 quarts pressure cooker, which also fits inside a 4 quarts pot for easy storage.  It has tempered glass lid, which turns either unit into a saucepan.  It also has a stainless steel steamer basket with trivet.  But my favorite feature on this unit is the safety lock handle, the support grip, and the operating valve, which replaced the noisy, rattling pressure regulator on my old unit.

Some people are unnecessarily intimidated by pressure cookers, but these really are very safe and user friendly now, more than ever before.  I personally never experienced any negative incidents with my pressure cookers, but of course I do follow the manufacturer’s handling instructions, which is a must.

My pressure cooker includes a very nice 50 recipe cook book.  These are my favorite pressure cooker recipes, which I have used for years:  Beef Stew, Beef/Veal Goulash, Italian Sausage with Kraut, and Barbecue Pork Spareribs.  I will share these recipes with you in my future posts.

photo credit: ky_olsen

Recently I came across a very interesting article in Reader’s Digest. It stated that the death rate from heart disease and stroke, in the United States, significantly decreased within the last 50 years, however the cardiovascular diseases are still hunting us, and are on an increase due to obesity and diabetes. The article was quite lengthy, so I decided to share with you, at least, the list of the suggested ways to reduce heart disease and stroke:

1. Ride your bike 20 minutes a day.
2. Eat a piece of dark chocolate several times a week.
3. Have a beer once a day.
4. Take a B vitamin complex every morning.
5. Tape-record yourself at night.
6. Go to bed an hour earlier tonight.
7. Eat fish at least once a week.
8. Eat a high-fiber breakfast cereal at least four times a week.
9. Sprinkle one ounce of ground flaxseed on your cereal or yogurt every day.
10. Make fresh salad dressing with one tablespoon of flaxseed oil.
11. Drink at least two cups of tea a day.
12. Stir a handful of hazelnuts into a vegetable-and-chicken stir-fry.
13. Include beans or peas in four of your dishes every week.
14. Have sex tonight.
15. Take a baby aspirin every day.
16. Eat 15 cherries a day.
17. Eat one cup of beans per day.
18. Eat an orange every day.
19. Skip the soda and have orange juice instead.
20. Drink an 8-ounce glass of water every two hours.
21. Cook with ginger or turmeric twice a week.
22. Go to the loo whenever you feel the urge.
23. Ask for next Monday and Friday off.
24. Drive with the windows closed and the air conditioning on.
25. Keep a bottle of multivitamins on your kitchen counter and add one to your breakfast.
26. Call a friend and arrange dinner.
27. Pay attention to the basics.
28. Along with exercising every day, take a supplement containing the amino-acid L-arginine and the antioxidant vitamins C and E.
29. If you find you’re having trouble getting out of bed in the morning, call your doctor to get tested for depression.
30. Go to the pound this weekend and adopt a dog.

I enjoy baking cakes, and stacking them up into multi-layer tortes.  However, layering cakes evenly could to be quite challenging.  Once again, I was on a lookout for a gadget which would come to my rescue, and I found the “Cake Leveler”.  It precisely levels and tortes cakes up to 10 inches wide, and adjusts up to 2 inches high (contains 10 notches).

It is quite simple, but works like magic.  It is a “must have” for every cake decorator.  The easy-to-adjust wire, which is stretched between two, notched for adjustment, legs of the holder, cuts perfect layers, while reducing crumbs.

Operating instructions:

1. Measure the height you need on the leveler (start from bottom of the legs upward).
2. Position ends of the cutting wire into notches at desired height.
3. With legs standing on work surface, cut into crusted edge, using an easy sewing motion.
4. Proceed by gently gliding through the cake.
5. Repeat above steps until you have reached your desired number of layers.

Now you have perfectly layered cake, ready for frosting, stacking up layers, and decorating.

I really enjoy being challenged by trying new recipes.  I volunteered to bake birthday cakes for my co-workers, as long as they come up with their favorite recipe.  It is a great way for me to test a new recipe, and it makes us all very anxious to sample the final product.

I will include these recipes in my future posts, and hope you will find them exciting and delicious.

Letter writing used to be the most popular, and least expensive, way of communicating with family and friends living abroad. Today, it is email, SKYPE, and phone (be it a land line or cell phone).

Our busy life style and poor economy compel us to search for convenience at lowest cost.  As a result of my search for cheaper ways to make phone calls abroad, I found a nice web site for Comfi Communications Fidelity, and am saving a lot of money on phone card purchases, which I use to make phone calls from US to many different countries.

There are several things you need to consider, before deciding on the most suitable phone card for you:

1. Select the country you wish to make your calls to
2. Select land line or cell phone (calls to cell phones are much more expensive)
3. Select only cards which do not have any connection or maintenance fees
4. Select cards which have 1 minute, rather than 3 minutes, rounding time
5. Select cards which do not have “Service Taxes and Surcharges”, which could save you as much as 15%
6. Select a card which has the lowest charge per minute. This is the card for you.

You need to follow these steps every time you change your variable, such as a country name, land line or cell phone.  Sometimes I find one card suitable for all my needs, but at other times I need to buy a couple of different ones to accomplish the same thing.  Also, once your account is set up, you will receive email updates on specials, which will save you a couple of dollars on a new purchase or refill.

Purchasing phone cards online is very convenient, because you get all your dialing instruction ASAP, thus no more misplaced or lost cards, and it is available immediately.  An automatic refill is offered, but I prefer to comparison shop every time, since the card I purchase today might not be the best one the next time around.