Author: Carma Spence

Carma Spence has been experimenting in the kitchen since she was four years old and loves trying out new recipe ideas. She is the author of Bonkers for Bundt Cakes and Your Perfect Pie, as well as author and contributor to several more non-food-related books. With Carma's Cookery, she is taking her passion for empowering people and blending it with her passion for cooking, gift-giving and entertaining.

Healthy Living

5 Guidelines For Cooking Healthy Meals For Your Family

Post author By Carma Spence
Post date October 3, 2007

Francois Carstens via freeimages.com

Guest Writer: Susanne Myers

Cooking healthy for your family is important for everyone. Not only will you be eating healthy meals, but your children will learn a lot from eating healthy. They will get to experience healthy foods that they may have not even tried before, or wanted to. They will learn how to cook healthy meals so that they can pass down this tradition to their own children in the future. They will also come to enjoy healthy meals better than junk or foods that are bad for them.

Cooking healthy meals for your family will give everyone the energy they need for a full day, give them better concentration and focus, and help them do well in life. This will not deprive your family in any way. You will all be getting the proper nutrients you need without completely passing on all treats. Eating healthy is important for your health – not just now, but for the future as well. Studies have shown that eating healthy can help to reduce the risks of various ailments, heart disease, stroke, and many cancers. You can help your family lead a healthier life by cooking healthy meals.

Tags cooking tips, healthy meals

Food Fiction & Essays

Cooking Is More Than Just About Eating

Post author By Carma Spence
Post date September 26, 2007

Jose Assenco via freeimages.com

Guest Writer: Mike Selvon

Cooking is something that ties people together around the world. It is something we are familiar with. Not everyone has to cook for themselves but they have seen it done.

It is universal and connects us in a way that goes beyond age, gender, creed, or race. Traditions are made through the use of food. Celebrations call for special dishes especially prepared for that occasion. A birthday cake, a stuffed turkey or even a ham can all be foods that bring people together.

It does not have to be complicated. There are free recipes everywhere from the grocery store to the internet. Most dishes are not hard to make nor do they require ingredients not found in most grocery stores.

It all begins with a few basic items that every kitchen should have. Cooking utensils make the top of the list. There is no cooking performed without some basic tools.

Tags cooking tips

Taste Tests

Product Review: Banquet Dessert Bakes, Coconut Creme Pie

Post author By Carma Spence
Post date September 19, 2007

Product image from Banquet Dessert Bakes

Banquet Dessert Bakes is a line of simple, make it yourself with a few extra ingredients dessert mixes. I recently tried their Coconut Creme Pie. Here are my observations:

Prep Time
It took very little time to prepare the dessert. I probably completed the whole process, including cleaning up in about 15 to 20 minutes.

Crust
All you had to do to create the crust was add water. However, what resulted was a chewy crust that stuck to the pie tin and made it very difficult to serve decent looking pie slices. It tasted fine, but I would recommed either experimenting with adding less water than the box suggests or just using a ready-made crust.

Filling
Now, to be upfront, I love coconut. I want my coconut-flavored foods to be rich in coconut flavor, which is why I ended up using coconut powder in the coconut cream pie I developed. To my surprise, Banquet’s coconut creme filling did not disappoint. It had a rich, creamy and very coconutty flavor, with little bits of coconut mixed in.

The box recommends that you refrigerate 30 minutes before serving. I would recommend that you give it closer to an hour to allow the filling to fully set.

Overall
I’ve give this dessert 4 out of 5 stars. It tasted great, but the crust needs work.

Tags coconut, Pie, Product Review

Creative Cookery Well Stocked Pantry

Experimenting with Goat’s Milk

Post author By Carma Spence
Post date September 12, 2007

Photo: Maryhere via MorgueFile.com

I was discussing dairy products with my mother the other day, when she said she prefers to use goat’s milk over cow’s milk. She said it is better for you and that it is easier to digest for those of us who are lactose intolerant.

So, when I was grocery shopping the other day, I bought a quart of goat’s milk. It tastes quite different from cow’s milk. For one, it has a tartness to it that I recognize from eating goat’s cheese. Also, and this may sound strange, but it kind of reminds me of the smell of human milk.

Anyway, I can attest that goat’s milk was easier for me to digest, but I think as a beverage it would be an acquired taste. I did like it with my breakfast cereal, though. The tartness offset the sweetness of the Honey Nut Cheerios I was mixing in with my Fiber One. 😉

Tags Experimentation, goat milk, non-dairy

Cooking Techniques

Cutting Layers of a Cake

Post author By Carma Spence
Post date September 5, 2007

Antonio Oquias via Photoxpress.com

Most of the time, when you find advice on cutting a layer cake horizontally to increase the number of layers, you’ll be told that you need a long serrated knife. And, it is always good to have one around. However, I’ve found that it is really hard to get a nice even slice through the cake that way.

Maybe it’s because I use too many strokes with the knife. The Food Network says that the fewer strokes you use, the smoother your layers will be. And suggests using toothpicks to help guide your cutting. Bon Apetit even suggests using a ruler as your guide!

However, I found a bit of advice that has worked like a charm and doesn’t require an elaborate set up of toothpicks. All you do is get some dental floss — yep, I said dental floss — and use it to slice through the cake. I recommend using one of the unflavored varieties, preferably unwaxed, so that you don’t add in extra, unwanted flavors to your cake.

How To Use Dental Floss to Slice a Cake Layer

Usually, I’ll create a guideline with a knife, maybe even start the cutting a bit in a few places. Then I’ll cut off a piece of dental floss that is long enough to wrap around the edge of the cake layer and a bit more to hold on to. I wrap the floss around the cake, making sure it fits nicely into the guide grooves I created, cross the ends and slowly pull it through. It’s kind of like you’re tying a knot and pulling it tight. This pulls the dental floss through the cake, cutting it into two layers.

Then all you have to do is separate the layers so you can add the filling. But that’s another post.

Want to see this idea in action? You can watch a demo of this technqiue on YouTube courtesy of Food & Wine.

Tags cake, Desserts, techniques

Recipes

Recipe Sites: Good Resources for Recipes

Post author By Carma Spence
Post date July 24, 2007

Need a recipe quickly? Don’t have time to turn page after page of all those beautiful cookbooks you’ve collected? Then recipe sites are your friend. Recipe sites are great for two reasons:

They help you find that specific recipe you’re looking for more quickly than thumbing through your cookbooks.
They are great resources for researching the development of your own recipes.

Below you’ll find links to recipe sites I’ve found useful.

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[three_fourth_last] www.taste.com.au

I’ve found a lot of delicious pumpkin recipes on this website from Down Under. The site is nicely designed with clean graphics, professional photography, and bright colors. In addition to recipes, it has news, health information, how-to instructions, and more. [/three_fourth_last]

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[three_fourth_last] allrecipes.com
I’m not a fan of the user interface of this site, but they do have a lot of recipes and I’ve used them quite often when research recipes. [/three_fourth_last]

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[three_fourth_last] foodnetwork.com/recipes
If you like what the Food Network has to offer, then you’ll love their recipe site. This is another great resource for recipe research. [/three_fourth_last]

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[three_fourth_last] epicurious.com
If you’re looking for fancier recipes, Epicurious has your back. They are relatively easy to navagate and provide a wealth of recipes that you’d be proud to serve company. [/three_fourth_last]

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[three_fourth_last] bettycrocker.com
Sometimes you don’t want to make something from scratch. Betty Crocker provides recipes that include Betty Crock products. They are usually simple and easy to make, as well. [/three_fourth_last]

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[three_fourth_last] food.com
This site has a lot of advertising, but it also has a lot of recipes, as well as round-up recipe posts that can be fun to peruse. [/three_fourth_last]

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[three_fourth_last] eatingwell.com
This recipe site is dedicated to healthy recipes that taste great. I often look here when I want to see how to create a recipe that is a healthy alternative to a traditional recipe. [/three_fourth_last]

There are plenty more recipe sites to be found, but these are my go-to resources. I hope you find them useful, as well.

And, of course, you can always peruse my growing database of recipes!

Food Fiction & Essays

Remembrances of Roscos

Post author By Carma Spence
Post date July 18, 2007

C. Bluesman via PhotoXpress.com

Abuela was the consummate cook, the perfect grandmother from a Norman Rockwell painting. My early holiday memories are filled with the smells and tastes that came from her kitchen. Pumpkin pies, homemade pizza, enchiladas and a score of Christmas cookies. I especially remember the delicate, flaky donut-shaped roscos — cookies made chiefly from three ingredients: white wine, melted butter and flour. A teaspoon of anise seeds cooked in the melting butter and then discarded, as well as a final dusting of cinnamon sugar after the cookies baked, were the only other flavorings.

One year, I ate so many, sneaking out of my bed at night to grab just a few more, that I earned the nickname “bottomless stomach.” I remember countless nights sitting at her kitchen table sharing holiday thoughts, a cup of tea with sugar and real cream and a couple of roscos before bed. Each flaky morsel, dunked into the tea and quickly removed, melted in my mouth like snowflakes in a California valley.

Today, whenever I take out the cookie sheets or baking pans and create my own warm smells of home, I can’t help but feel like I’m channeling Abuela’s spirit.

NOTE: This short essay was first published in the October 2004 edition of The Nature of Writing News, an online newsletter.

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