Tag Archives: Food
5 Useful Tips For Smoking BBQ
It is critical to select the best wood for smoking. Avoid chemically treated wood in favor of cured hardwoods; picking the best smoking woods for your next BBQ will significantly impact the color of your meat. If you’re unsure what wood to use, experiment with different types. Here are some tips you need to consider when buying smoking wood:
Avoiding Chemically-Treated Wood
Chemically treated wood can impart a bad flavor to meat, so you should avoid it if you plan on smoking food. Chemically treated wood can also contain toxins that can make your food unsafe to consume. Fortunately, you can use tree branches instead, as long as they do not have mold or pest infestation.
Smoke from wood is composed of trace amounts of syringol and guaiacol. These compounds are emitted into the air after the wood has been exposed to heat. The composition of the smoke is affected by the type of wood, humidity, and amount of oxygen available.
Generally, wood should be seasoned for at least a year before smoking. Fresh green wood is not suitable for smoking. Some hardware stores carry woods such as hickory and mesquite, while others offer expanded barbecue supplies. You can also buy wood from an online supplier.
Cured Hardwoods
The flavor of barbecue can vary greatly depending on the wood used. While there is some overlap between hardwood and softwood, there is also a difference in the amount of flavor each imparts. Hardwood has a higher percentage of guaiacol, a compound that gives a smoky flavor. Softwood lignin contains only guaiacol, while hardwood lignin contains both guaiacol and syringol.
Hardwoods have more compact cell structures than softwood. This means there is less room for air or organic matter to escape from the wood during combustion. In addition, hardwoods release more carbonyl compounds, which give food a natural caramelized flavor. Most hardwood used for cooking has been dried and cured either in a shed or outdoors. Some wood is even stored in heated kilns, though pitmasters prefer air-dried wood with less than 25 percent moisture.
Hickory
When smoking meats, hickory adds a distinctive dark color and strong flavor. Its smoke is often associated with the richness of bacon. Hickory is one of the most popular woods used for barbecue in the Midwest and South. It comes in several forms and the best wood to use depends on the smoker and the type of meat you’re smoking.
When smoking meat, you should choose seasoned wood. If the wood is not seasoned, it will require a lot of fire and generate undesirable flavor compounds. In addition, seasoned wood will add a deep, earthy flavor without overwhelming the meat’s natural flavor.
Orange Wood
Using orange wood is a great way to add a slightly sweet, smoky flavor to your barbecue. It can be used alone or mixed with other types of wood. Its sweet flavor can help balance out other woods that are more pungent. However, you should always dry the wood before using it to smoke your meat.
Orangewood is available in a variety of shapes and sizes. The most common shapes are chunks and chips, ideal for electric and propane smokers. You can also purchase orange wood pellets for pellet smokers. However, if you’re looking to smoke delicate foods, consider using planks of orange wood instead.
Adding Wood Chunks
Adding wood chunks to your barbecue is an excellent way to enhance the smoky flavor of your food. First, however, it is important to choose the right type of wood. While wood chips or pellets work well for short cooks, chunks the size of a golf ball or slightly larger will produce a consistent smoke over longer cooking times. Also, never use wood that smells bad, as it will not burn away and impart a bad flavor to your food. Also, avoid burning any moldy wood, as it is not safe to smoke.
The Best Street Food Around the World
Street food is the heart of intercontinental cuisine. These food items are the ones which save us at 1 a.m. when all the restaurants or bars are shutting their doors. Even if restaurants pick up the same recipes, street food taste better! As you hold a paper plate and eat without worrying about stains while the winds caress your face, it’s just another feeling! If you want to taste some heavenly food items, here are the countries you need to visit to try their specialities, found in all the corners of the streets.
Arepas, Colombia
Arepas are round corn cakes which are most popular in Colombia. This food item is much thicker that tortillas, and are normally eaten grilled. They are either topped or stuffed with cheese, and eaten normally as breakfast. The region where this food item is most popular is in Bogotá. They can even be topped with butter, eggs, condensed milk or chorizo. Sold in the streets of Colombia, Arepas is better served with a mug of hot chocolate.
Pierogi, Poland
Pierogi can be found all over Eastern Europe, but the best place it can be eaten is Krakow. This city has an entire festival dedicated to this dish- dumpling. These dumplings are made of flour, salt, water and egg. These dumplings can be filled with cheese, meat or potatoes. They are then boiled, and fried in butter. You can appreciate the sight of yummy dumplings at Magical Vegas Casino by playing Win Sum Dim Sum slots online! This 9 paylines slot game shows different types of dumplings as symbols and will definitely make your mouth water. Foodies will simply adore Magical Vegas Casino as it features an amazing Food and Fruit themed slots category!
Halo-halo, Philippines
Halo-halo means ‘mix-mix’! This multi-coloured sundae is the perfect reliever on a hot Philippine summer day. This food item normally consists of evaporated and shaved ice. And, to make it even better, different flavours like kidney beans, coconut, jackfruit, sugar palm fruit, garbanzo beans, crushed rice, ice-cream, flan or sweet potato, can be added! Despite that this dish seem out-of-this-world, it is quite famous in different Asian cities.
Bunny Chow, Africa
Don’t freak out, bunny lovers! This south African speciality is absolutely rabbit-free! This dish is made with portions bread loafs which are filled with thick curries. It is true that this food item was first made in India, but it has now become Durban’s most popular street food. Chicken or mutton are mixed with spices, and then added to the bread loaves.
Bánh mì, Vietnam
In Vietnam, the term of bread is Bánh mì. But this word also brings the mouthwatering sight of a sandwich which is richly filled. This French product is the best thing which still lives in the streets of Saigon. A standard Bánh mì is filled with different items like pork, cut colds, meatballs, carrots, cucumber and mayonnaise. Most popular in the west, it is the perfect lunch!
Textbooks, Computers, and a Tea Pot: Essential Gear of the Successful College Student
You’re going to college soon – you need to start making a checklist. Aside from the usual costs like tuition and food, you’re going to need a few other supplies. Before you say goodbye to mom and dad for the semester, here’s what to stock up on.
A Good Laptop
A good laptop is absolutely essential for today’s college student. In fact, it’s probably the most important thing you can take with you. Don’t leave home without something at least as good as a mid-tier product either. No Acers. Can’t use ‘em. OK, you could use them, but don’t. Get yourself a Macbook Air, at least. Or, get yourself the top-tier Dell model. Lenovo are also a good choice as long as you’re going for the top-tier – again. Yes, they’re a bit pricey, but you’ll thank yourself three years from now when your laptop isn’t falling apart and the software still runs smoothly.
P2P File Sharing Software
It seems like every college kid these days is doing some kind of P2P file sharing. And, while you should not be breaking the law by downloading and sharing copyright-protected content without the authorization of the copyright holders, there is a legit use for file sharing software that’s wickedly underutilized: sharing original creations you make in college and sharing your study papers with classmates.
Simple P2P software, like the bittorrent client from www.Vuze.com, is really all you need to connect directly with other classmates to share pretty much anything you’ve done in class – from study notes to past homework assignments as study aides.
Free Word Processing Tools
Who wants to pay for Microsoft Word when OpenOffice suite is free? Better yet, LibreOffice. It’s got all of the tools you could ever want from the paid programs at a price you can’t argue with – even with the student discount offered from the competitor.
Used Books
No one likes paying retail for books. So, before you go off to college, verify your class schedule and then pick up some used textbooks from someplace like AbeBooks, Amazon.com’s used textbook section, or Half.com.
A Teapot
A teapot. Yes, a teapot. You need to eat, right? Between 4 hour study sessions, a teapot can heat up the boiling water you need for Ramen – every college student’s staple food.
Food Rations
You can’t live on college food and Ramen Noodle alone. They may be high in calories, but they’re really low in nutrition. It’s weird, but while students are getting your learn on, they’re also wrecking their health.
Your number one priority in college is to get a good education. To do that, you need to be healthy. You must get in all of your required fruits and vegetables, lots of good quality meat, and of course, fiber. Food rations can help you do that – nuts and seeds, dried beef jerky (not the kind with preservatives and artificial flavors. It’s actually really easy to make at home with a cheap food dehydrator and some beef and salt), and dried fruit like apricots, plums, and raisins.
Audrey Brown is a college dorm guru. As a resident director for many years, she loves blogging about the ins and outs of creating a great college dorm experience from decor and organization tricks to gadgets and study habits.
5 Ways Students Can Save Money
With in-state tuition for public universities approaching $10,000 these days, and other costs like housing and books escalating in lockstep, it has never been more important for students to save money while at school.
While it is easy to just use credit to charge all these expenses, the bill will come due someday soon, so you owe it to your future self to not cripple yourself with an unmanageable debt load. As such, here are five ways students can save money so that they can give themselves a brighter financial future, as well as more disposable income for the important things in life.
Like beer.
And video games.
1) Take on roommates
While you might crave privacy after 18 years of living at home with your parents, the unfortunate reality is that college is more expensive than it ever has been. The good news is that you get to choose who you are sharing a living space with, making for a living atmosphere that will be much more lively than if you were to go it alone. This will divide your house or apartment rent to a level that will allow you to enjoy a diet that consists of more than ramen and water.
2) Cook meals with friends
When you share a house with friends, another opportunity to save your precious cash presents itself. Instead of cooking meals individually, you can take turns making meals for each other. This will require coordination when it comes to shopping at your local supermarket, but once you settle into a groove, you will be spending less per person, eating better than you would individually, and the kitchen will be less crowded. So much win!
3) Order as much as you can online
The internet age has made our lives so much easier, with no better example than online shopping. Why burn gas and time running all over town to buy the things you need for school and life when you could just click a few buttons and wait for it all to come to you?
If you want to save money on school supplies, this is the perfect way to do things in 2015, as many coupon sites allow you to spend even less than the already reasonable prices listed, and with many deals waiving shipping charges, you can spend the time you just saved playing Call Of Dut- … er, I mean, studying for that stats term paper coming up. Yeah, that’s right.
4) Have house parties instead of going out to the bars
With prices for booze escalating with every passing year, going out to the bars is a fun pastime that composes an ever-larger chunk of student budgets. While heading out to a venue out on the town is always a great time, the whole point of drinking is to have a killer time with your buds.
Why can’t you do that at home at least some of the time? Buy a 30 pack of PBR or Natty Ice, organize a playlist of awesome tunes from your totally legal song collection, and enjoy the fact that you can socialize without having to pay a $10 cover charge for the privilege.
5) Buy used textbooks
These days, it’s estimated that students in some faculties will have to shell out more than $1,000 for books per semester. This is truly insane, and while books have new editions every six months or so, they often change so little that students can buy them off each other for much less than what it cost new.
Tips For Cheap European Travel
GET A EURAIL PASS
A Eurail pass can help you save a lot of money especially if you are travelling across vast countries. Europe boasts of some of the best railways and speed trains across the globe. However, if you buy a single ticket for every time you travel from one point to the next, it may be too expensive. According to sites like this, Eurail passes are a fantastic way to save money when travelling across several countries in Europe. All you need to do is plan your itinerary carefully, to avoid ending in one place twice and book in advance.
EAT LIKE A LOCAL
Have you ever wondered how chameleons survive in the wild? Well, they change their color to match with the environment. This concept should help you as you travel on the cheap in Europe. Avoid the touristy high-end restaurants, cater for yourself in markets, and eat in places where you see most locals, chances are, the food is great and affordable. Eating local dishes also gets a taste of authentic dishes as well as great services. You can also shop for snacks in local department stores and have picnics in any of the numerous parks across UK.
BOOK A LARGE VILLA WHEN TRAVELLING IN A GROUP
Group travelling is always fun and apart from offering safety in numbers in a strange country; it is also a fun way to save money on travel in Europe. Accommodation can really clear your travel budget, and fast, however when travelling as a group, you can enjoy all the comforts of a villa like this and split the cost. Villas are a smart way to save money for groups as they often have more rooms, kitchens to prepare your own meals and offer privacy. Some villas also allow parties on the premises, so you can always party with your friends as you explore Europe.
TRAVEL SECOND CLASS IN TRAINS
Travelling first class is tempting, with all the comforts, but it could end up leaving a huge hole in your pockets. However, travelling second class can cost about 50% off compared to first class but it will still get you to your destination same as the first class. The differences in comfort are always minimal yet the difference in cost is vast, so save money and travel second class.
TRAVEL OFF SEASON
Travelling across Europe when everybody else is on the move can really end up being costly, travel agencies, airlines and hotels are looking up to recover from the low seasons. However, in the low seasons (usually in the winter) you can travel in Europe on the cheap, you can save on flights, hotels, restaurants and avoid long queues in major attractions. During the low seasons, the attractions have fewer tourists and you can be able to visit more attractions than when they are overcrowded. Major cities in Europe such as Paris and London are always fabulous to explore any time of the year, hence travelling during low seasons does not mean missing anything, but it saves you a lot of money.
