Easier Than I Thought

Need to eliminate the evidence of last night's dinner on a tablecloth without using CSI-strength chemicals. It's simple with a lemon and a handful of salt. (Warning: Don't try this with a sensitive fabric, as you might ruin it.) Anyway, first scrape off the foodstuff from the cloth. Next, turn the cloth OVER and squeeze and rub the juice from half a lemon on the BACKSIDE of the offending stain. (This way you're not rubbing it IN!) Now rinse the spot with cool water. If the pesky stain persists, rub a little salt on the stain, and then repeat the lemon juice process. You can see the whole process here on video from Chow.com.

Tags: quick, easy, techniques

A Cookin' Teens Original
© Rising Moon Media, 2009

After sledding or shoveling or dragging yourself home from school through the snow there's one thing that hits the spot perfectly - hot cocoa. Think twice before you reach for that mysterious mix of faux cocoa ingredients in the envelope. You can whip up the real thing in seconds flat. It's not only simple to make, it's good for you, what with the calcium and protein in the milk and the antioxidants in the cocoa. (But don't let that stop you from drinking it!) Here's what you need:

Ingredients

1/2 cup of real cocoa powder (sometimes called baking cocoa)
1/3 cup of sugar (we used turbinado, but white sugar will do)
2 tablespoons of HOT water from the tap
3 cups of milk (we used skim but any will do)

To Prepare

Put the milk in a saucepan and turn heat to medium. In a little bowl, combine the cocoa powder and sugar, and add the hot water (you want the water to be hot so it will melt the sugar). Whisk together until smooth. When the milk is hot to the touch (but not scalding), pour in the cocoa mixture and whisk together. Pour into two mugs and serve.

If you want to jack up the fun factor and decrease the healthy factor, add a few miniature marshmallows and a squirt of whipped cream. Then go shovel some more snow and work off those extra calories...

Enjoy!

Tags: quick, easy

Hankering for some real blue cheese dressing? There's no need to buy that white goop in the bottle when you can put together your own in seconds flat. This version, a CT original, happens to be a slimmer, trimmer version of its fatty cousin. It tastes terrific with a bunch of green leafy stuff, like baby spinach or green leaf lettuce or arugula, and some chopped slices of something citrusy, like clemintines or tangerines or grapefruit.

One fun and very convenient ingredient in here is powdered buttermilk, which you can get in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. It saves you from buying a whole quart of the stuff if you're not going to use the whole thing, and it keeps in the fridge for ages. If you don't have buttermilk (either wet or powdered) no worries. You can still whip up this yummy dressing. It just won't have that extra tang.

Ingredients and Preparation

1 1/2 cups plain, lowfat yogurt
1 teaspoon buttermilk powder
1 teaspoon mayonnaise
1 1/2 ounces of crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola cheese
the juice from half of a lemon (real juice, not the bottled stuff)
a dash of salt
a dash of black pepper

Serve over salad and mix. Makes enough for four side salads.

Tags: quick, easy, recipe

You get home from school – famished as usual – and rifle through the cabinets searching for something sweet. But then you come across something salty. And crispy. And that age-old debate begins: Sweet? Salty? Sweet? Salty? While you’re pondering, preheat the oven to 450 degrees. You can have your salt and sweet it too.

This snack not only fulfills your cravings, it gives your body something substantial to work with while you’re doing your homework or getting ready for gymnastics practice. If you’re going to make one or two of these little bites for yourself, you might as well make a whole batch because once that bacon smell is in the house everybody will come looking for the source.

Ingredients

10 slices of bacon, cut in half cross-wise to yield 20 pieces
20 cubes of pineapple, either fresh or from a can (If you use canned pineapple, make sure it’s unsweetened.)
If you don't have pineapple, or you're in the mood for really sweet, substitute 20 dried dates for the pineapple.

To Prepare

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

Wrap a half slice of bacon around each cube of fruit, tucking the ends of the bacon underneath the fruit.

Arrange the wrapped fruit bacon-ends-down on an aluminum-foil-covered baking sheet that has raised edges.

Bake for about 7 minutes, then take out the sheet and turn over the little bacon bites and return to the oven. Cook about 7 minutes more or until the bacon is crispy.

Enjoy!

Tags: quick, easy, snack, recipe