Gas grills can provide even cooking temperatures under the lid, fast preheating and ruckus-free ignition.

Cleaning them is also easy. Vegetables, fish or roast are among the foods you can cook using gas grills.

What You’ll Need

• Food
• Grill utensils
• Full propane tank
• Grill’s owner’s manual
• Grill recipes (optional)
• Gas grill

How to Cook on a Gas Grill

1. The first thing to do is to hook up the gas. Make sure that there is gas in the propane tank. There are some tanks which have gauges at the top showing the amount of gas left by weight. For other tanks, you need to lift and listen to the sound of the swishing liquid in the tank or the weight to determine whether the tank is empty.
2. Before attaching to the grill, be sure that the tank valve is closed and the valves of all the burners are off.
3. In attaching the regulator to the tank valve, follow the directions in the user’s manual. Generally, the process only entails screwing the tank and the grill together by hand; however, it may vary by model. It is not advisable to use a wrench because it may cause a leak and damage the regulator.
4. Make sure that there’s no leak by applying a solution made of soap and water to the connections of the valve. Turn the tank valve counterclockwise to open then observe if there are bubbles on the connections. During a leak test, never ever attempt to light the grill.
5. If you suspect that there is a leak, do not use the grill. Just turn off the gas and get in touch with the service center of the manufacturer.
6. If the connections passed the leak test, it is time to preheat the gas grill. Follow the directions in the manual in lighting the grill. If your grill has a built-in ignition system or a start knob, never use a match.
7. To preheat the cooking surface, turn the burners to a high setting then close the lid for about 10 minutes.
8. If the grill has its own thermometer, verify if the temperature of the grill is about 500 degrees.
9. When the grill is ready, you can start cooking the food. For the burner you will be using, set it to low setting and the other burners should be set to medium.
10. After placing the meat over the grill with low heat, the lid should be closed. The meat will be indirectly cooked this way. The meat is not touched by the meat but it is still cooked from a distance by the heat coming from the other burners. You will get a steak which is moist in the inside and seared on the outside when cooking in this manner.
11. If you have a grill recipe, follow the cooking instructions. Cooking times may vary basing on the cut of the meat, style of grill and grill temperature. But generally, it will take 4 minutes per side to cook a medium-sized 1-inch-thick steak. You can find out what works best on your grill by experimenting.
12. In turning the meat, it is better to use a tong instead of a fork in order to prevent the meat’s natural juices from leaking out. The grill lid should be closed while cooking so that the food will be cooked at a level temperature.
13. Hot dogs and hamburgers can be cooked over direct or indirect heat. For fattier meats, avoid cooking over direct heat since they may cause a flicker.
14. After cooking, the grill should be cleaned. Close the lid then set all the burners to high. Any particles on the grill will be burned down to charcoal just like the way you clean a regular oven in your household.
15. Observe the grill. When smoking stops, that means cleaning is done. Close the gas valve then turn off all the burners. Allow the grill to cool.
16. Wipe off the dust particles of charcoal using a dry cloth and a grill-cleaning brush.

Tips & Warnings

• Oftentimes, chicken wings cooked on the grill will take a long time. Boil the chicken for a few minutes before placing it on the grill in order to save on gas and to avoid serving undercooked meat which can be dangerous. For foods having the tendency to fall apart as they cook on the grill, such as vegetables and fish, using foil pans will be a good idea.
• Turn off the gas line right away if you ever smell gas around your grill. Open the lid and douse any flames around or on the grill. If the smell persists, call the fire department. Water should never be used to extinguish a flame on a gas grill. Simply wait for the flames to die down and turn off all the burners.
• Cooked food should never be placed on the same plate where the raw food was held. It may cause cross contamination and food poisoning could be the result.

Filet mignon is a French term. “Filet” means thick slice while “mignon” means dainty. This cut is found on the back rib cage of the animal and is commonly known as short loin. Since this part of the animal does not usually bear weight, the meat is especially tender because the connective tissues are not hardened by physical activity.

Using a fork, you can literally cut a prime filet mignon. When dining out, this cut of beef can be fairly expensive. But if you purchase whole tenderloin and prepare your filet mignon at home, you can enjoy this delicious steak at a much lower price. In the market, you can find filet mignon slices which are usually 2 inches in diameter and 1-2 inches thick. Oftentimes, it is served with sauce because the flavor is proportionately lessened even if the cut is very tender.

What You’ll Need

• 4-5 small white mushrooms or 1-2 large portabella (sliced)
• Filet mignon (one 6oz filet per person)
• 2 tablespoons oil (peanut oil works best)
• Bacon strips
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 2 crushed garlic cloves
• salt and pepper, to taste

How to Cook a Filet Mignon Steak

1. Buy the meat. You can choose filet mignons which are smaller than the steaks that you would buy normally because there is very little amount of fat to be trimmed. The size of the cuts should be 2-3 inches in diameter and 1-2 inches thick. When choosing a slice, select the one with lighter color because that means it has more marbling. The steak will turn out more tender when it has more marbling.
2. Get the filet mignon ready for cooking. Let the meat reach room temperature first. To add flavor and prevent the filet mignon from drying out, you use a layer of bacon to wrap the meat.
3. Cook the mushrooms. Over medium high heat, heat the pan and put the butter together with the mushrooms. Sauté and stir often for about 4-5 minutes. Place the cooked mushrooms in a bowl then cook the filet mignon.

You will need:

• • Boiling water canner. This is a pot that is big enough to cover canning jars with water. This is used to can fruits that are highly acidic.
  • Canning salt. Table salt and any other substitute cannot be used.
  • Glass canning jars. Use real canning jars and not manufactured or recycled jars.
  • Jar lifter
  • Home-canning reference (e.g. Ball Blue Book of Preserving)
  • Hot soapy water
  • Lids and bands
  • Pressure canner. The pressure canner comes with a lid that can be locked to encourage very high temperatures. A pressure canner is usually used to can vegetables that have low acidic levels and require high temperatures to destroy bacteria.

• • Rubber spatula
  • Timer
  

Step 1: Clean the jars, lids and bands with the use of hot soapy water. Rinse well and let dry using a clean kitchen towel.

Step 2: Place the jars in a deep pot that can contain the whole length of the jars. Keep the jars hot by simmering, not boiling, them to prevent from breaking when the hot food is finally added into them later. Keep them hot until the time they will be used.

Step 3: Get a saucepan and fill it with water. Place the lids in and make sure they are submerged in the water. Like the jars, keep them hot until you need to use them.

Step 4: Prepare your produce. Peel or remove the pit or seeds. Some fruits have to be pretreated with a mixture of lemon juice and water to keep them from darkening. Peaches and plums must be dipped very quickly in boiling water to loosen the skin.

Step 5: Wash vegetables. Remove skin, seeds, and cut up. Rinse the vegetables again and boil briefly within one to five minutes then pour hot boiling water and one half teaspoon of canning salt. Be sure to make the headspace correct.

Step 6: Canned fruits usually require sugar. Syrup can be light or heavy depending on your recipe. Combining sugar and water will start making the syrup. Boil over medium heat and stir. Boil for 10 minutes and keep the syrup until it is ready to be used.

Step 7: Remove the jars from the pot using a jar lifter while emptying the hot water. You may use a cold-pack or hot-pack method from this point onwards. Cold-packing is when you place the fruit in the hot jars; add in the syrup with the right amount of headspace. Hot-packing is when you heat the fruit in the syrup first then spoon into the jars; ladle more syrup in as before and leaving the right amount of headspace. A jar funnel can help you ladle in the fruit and syrup.

Step 8: The headspace left for most fruits and soft spreads must be ¼ of the jar. Sauces, salsas and the like must be ½.

Step 9: Slide around the inside of the jar to release trapped air with the use of a rubber spatula. Wipe the top of the jar using paper towels. Place the top, screw the band in. Make sure you don’t over-tighten the jar.

Step 10: Place the full jars in the canner using a rack. Make sure that water in the canner comes up to the jars by 1 to 2 inches.

Step 11: Put the lid on the canner and process as indicated in the recipe. Make sure that all bacteria and molds are diminished. Let the canner cool slightly after. Remove the jars and put on a kitchen towel. Leave the jars for 24 hours. After that, you can check if the seal has been successful. If sealing did not come out successful, re-process or refrigerate and use the processed goods within 2 days.

When the chicken is not barbecued properly, it ends up still pinkish in the center but burnt on the outside. It doesn’t only affect the taste, it also becomes unhealthy.

Now here’s the deal on how to BBQ chicken the way you’ll enjoy it.

What You’ll Need:

• Brush (for the sauce)
• Chicken pieces
• Gas grill or charcoal grill
• Marinade
• Meat thermometer
• Oven
• Rub or seasonings
• Sauce
• Side dishes
  

Procedure:

Step 1: Pick the chicken type you want to barbecue. Some prefer the legs and thighs. Others like the skinless and boneless chicken breasts. If you like t barbecue more than one chicken part, you will have to adjust the cooking times. White meat such as the wings and breasts cook faster than dark meat like legs and thighs.

Step 2: Pick the grill you will use. This relies on how you want to cook your barbecue. This also depends on the neighborhood you’re in and your lifestyle. If you are a beginner at grilling, you can stick to the gas type, although this might be hard to use during the holidays.

Step 3: Marinate the chicken. Marinating the chicken will allow the flavor to sink in making it taste great after it’s grilled. You can choose a marinade flavor you prefer. Variations go from lemon pepper to teriyaki. If you marinate chicken in the fridge, make sure you don’t leave it there for over 48 hours. At room temperature, leave it for an hour.

Step 4: Remove the chicken from the marinade then you can rub the seasonings in. the seasoning will depend on the type of flavor you want the BBQ chicken to have.

Step 5: Pre-cook the chicken by pre-baking. You can bake it at 360 degrees on your oven until partially cooked. This will seal in flavors and will make sure that the chicken is cooked before it goes to the grill. Boiling is done by others. However, boiling takes the flavor away and makes it taste bland.

Step 6: Get your grill ready while the chicken is baking. If you are using the charcoal grill, start the coals and let them burn until a white coating of ash appears on the coals. If gas grill, preheat it to medium heat (360 degrees). Spray the grate also.

Step 7: Place the seasoned chicken on the rack. Cover with the grill lid. Allow to cook for at least half an hour. Check and turn the pieces every 5 minutes to make sure you cook it evenly. You can also rotate the pieces to balance the cool and hot spots on the grill.

Step 8: Glaze the BBQ again with the seasoning 10 minutes before taking chicken out of the grill.

Step 9: After grilling, you can check the chicken pieces with a meat thermometer. Never touch the bone when you insert the thermometer. The meat must have 175 degrees internal temperature.

Step 10: Now your BBQ chicken is ready! Serve and enjoy with delicious side dishes like baked beans, coleslaw, pasta salad or potato salads, and biscuits.

Preparing chicken BBQ should not be a tedious task. These easy steps will make sure you end up with perfectly barbecued chicken everyone will love!

Ingredients and Tools

• Knife or fork
• Microwave
• Olive oil
• Potato (medium-sized); Russet potatoes are the best kind for baking
• Potato scrubber or a stiff bristled brush
• Salt
• Sour cream, cheese, bacon bits (optional)
• Water

Step 1: Soak the potato in cold water for a few minutes to allow the surface dirt to loosen. Brush the surface to get rid of the ingrained dirt and the potato skin. Finally, rinse the potato under running water and leave them to dry on paper towels.

Step 2: Poke holes into the potato when the potato is dry. Five or six strokes with the use of a fork will do the trick. You may also slice an X across the potato. This needs to be done because baking is supposed to expand the potato. Any air trapped inside the potato will cause your potato to not explode.

Step 3: Wash your hands meticulously. Rub olive oil onto the potato with the use of your hands. Sprinke some salt afterwards. Rubbing the salt onto the potato is also acceptable.

Step 4: Place paper towels or parchment papers on top of the plate of the microwave. Then put the potato on top of the paper towels.

Step 5: Close the microwave oven.

Step 6: Baking large potatoes requires setting the microwave on ‘high’ for 5 minutes. Medium should also be baked on ‘high’ but only for 4 minutes while small potatoes on ‘high’ for 3 minutes. If you have an 800 Watt microwave, multiply the numbers by 1.5.

Step 7: Microwave ovens have turntables to cook the potato evenly. If you own a microwave that does not have this, you can divide the baking time into 3 equal measures of time and for every unit, turn of the microwave and turn the potato over. Doing this 2 times will give you a perfectly-baked potato.

Step 8: When the microwave stops baking, don’t take the potato out yet. Let it sit for 3 more minutes to allow hot steam to bake the potato fully.

Step 9: When you own a microwave that has a “Bake Potato” option, it is best to use it.

Step 10: Carefully take out the potato and be reminded that it is hot. Slice it open. Add sour cream, cheese, and crispy bacon chips; however you want to enjoy it.

INGREDIENTS

Dry Ingredients

• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup Hershey’s cocoa
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 ½ cups brown sugar
• 2 ¾ cups sifted all purpose flour

Wet Ingredients

• 1 cup softened butter
• 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups boiling water
• 4 eggs

Icing

• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/2 cup or a stick of unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 cups powdered icing sugar

Cake procedure:

Step 1: Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius)

Step 2: Grease two nine-inch round layer pans and set aside.

Step 3: Combine the cup of Hershey’s cocoa and 2 cups boiling water until smooth and let it cool.

Step 4: Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a plastic bowl.

Step 5: Slowly cream the butter. When the butter is softened and starts to cream add sugar gradually and keep creaming the butter until it appears light and fluffy.

Step 6: Add eggs one at a time when the butter is done and mix slowly. Then add vanilla.

Step 7: Add fourths of the cocoa mixture to the butter. Then add the dry ingredients mixture. Keep adding in alternates until the last mixture, which should be the dry ingredients.

Step 8: Place the batter in the pans to half or less the depth of the pan.

Step 9: Bake in 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 to 30 minutes and check if fully baked. You can do this with a toothpick stuck into the center of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cakes are already baked.

Step 10: Remove the pans out of the oven and let them cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack.

Icing Procedure

Step 1: Place the sugar in the bowl first and add the other ingredients gradually.

Step 2: Slow mixer speed will keep the sugar in the bowl. Make the speed go faster gradually.

Step 3: If the frosting appears too thick, you can gradually add milk to make it thinner. Thick frosting is difficult to apply on the cake.

Step 4: Top the cake with your icing with a spatula. You can also pipe it on directly.

What is Sourdough Bread?

Sourdough is an ingredient that is from lactobacillus bacteria. It is prepared with the combination of wild yeast, flour, and water. Sourdough serves as a leavening agent prepared and used for many decades by cooks and bakers.

Sourdough bread uses a small amount of dough called a starter instead of raw, natural yeast. The starter consists of leavening agents and yeasts that will allow the bread to rise. A batch of bread uses a batch of starter. Some of the starter dough is set aside for use in other batches of the sourdough bread. The presence of sourdough breads in commercial bakeries and supermarkets have become rare because of the invention of prepared yeasts. Nevertheless, sourdough breads can be found in some specialty shops and health food shops. It has found a niche in home bread-making.

The following ingredients are needed in making sourdough breads:

• Warm water
• Yeast (the supermarket attendants can show you where to find yeasts perfect for sourdough bread)
• Flour (all-purpose flour is not a good choice, use unleavened high gluten flour instead)
• Salt

Sourdough bread is made within three phases:

PHASE 1: STARTER

The starter is a batch of dough used to make the bread rise. These steps show how to make a batch of starter:

Step 1: Mix a cup of warm water, ¼ teaspoon of yeast, and a cup of flour in a steel bowl.

Step 2: Stir the ingredients well and when properly mixed, cover the bowl with a square of cling wrap.

Step 3: Let the starter mixture sit for 4 to 6 hours in room temperature.

PHASE 2: SPONGE

The sponge is the sourdough bread component that will make up the body of the ingredient. These steps show how to make the sponge:

Step 1: Prepare 1 cup of sourdough starter, ¾ cup of warm water, and 2 cups flour.

Step 2: Stir all ingredients in a steel bowl.

Step 3: Cover the sponge mixture with the use of a square cling-wrap and let it stand in room temperature for 6 hours. You can even let it rise overnight if necessary.

Step 4: When the volume of the dough has expanded to thrice its original volume, this indicates that the bread sponge is ready.

PHASE 3: BREAD

Follow these steps on how to make sourdough bread:

Step 1: Mix 1 ½ cups of flour with 2 level teaspoonfuls of salt. The dry ingredients must be mixed thoroughly and with exact measures of distribution to make sure that salty bits of bread cannot     be formed during the baking process.

Step 2: Knead the flour with the sponge. Knowledge on how to knead dough is a must. Make sure that the consistency of kneading is even.

Step 3: Put the dough in loaf pans. Dusting the pans with flour will prevent the bread from sticking.

Step 4: Bake bread at an oven preheated to 350 degrees.

Sourdough bread tastes great with a cup of hot coffee and sweet treats. You can now enjoy the homey taste of fresh sourdough bread in the comforts of your home.