Cooking Chronicles Blog
Here at Cooking Chronicles, our mission is to provide our community with creative videos and relatable cooking stories to hopefully spark an interest in cooking. While our videos are meant to be funny and enjoyable, our blogs are the best spot to truly grasp an understanding of our recipes and what makes them so special. Click below for our full list of our blog posts.
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Cooking Tips
So you just started cooking and you have no idea where to start. Or, you know the basics and can follow a recipe and create some Pinterest-worthy meals. Or maybe you are a professional home cook and know what to do in any scenario. No matter where you are, here are some helpful hints that can help your next cooking endeavor go smoothly.
Wash your hands before and during the cooking process. This may feel obvious but especially washing your hands in between steps and after handling raw meat is a vital and important step to limit cross contamination.
Speaking of cross contamination, cutting raw meat on wooden cutting boards can be super dangerous! The raw meat juices will seep into the wood and harmful bacteria and germs will stay in the wood and will cross to any vegetables or other ingredients that you choose to prepare on the cutting board.
Make sure that you read the recipe all the way through if you are following one. Reading the recipe completely before you begin cooking can help you make sure that you have all the ingredients that you need and it can also help you with the timing. Sometimes cooking multiple things at once can get confusing and stressful.
Taste as you are seasoning and as you cook. Sometimes the recipe that you will be following may ask for a spice that you don’t like or not enough of something that you really like. While following is the recipe is important… it is ok to add different seasoning to taste. You should love what you cook and be proud of it! As you cook the flavors will meld and change so tasting as you go is very important.
Finally, trust yourself and don’t be afraid to try new things! Cooking should be fun and should be a time to experiment and learn more about what you like and don’t like. The worst thing that could happen is you make something that you aren’t a fan of and then you try again later!
Grocery shopping and meal planning
It’s a Sunday afternoon and you’ve decided to go grocery shopping and meal plan for the week. “This is the week I’m going to get ahead,” you tell yourself. But where do you start? How does one go about meal planning? How do you budget your grocery bill? Have no fear!
The first thing you want to do is to figure out what your total budget is going to be for your grocery trip. Look online for coupons and any deals that your grocery store of choice will have. Some good stores to look at are Aldi and Trader Joe’s as both of these are relatively cheap and have good quality ingredients and even some ready made meals. It’s also good to check online and compare prices to make sure that you are getting the best deal.
Another tip is to buy in bulk. Buy dry goods in large amounts like rice, pasta, and chips. Usually buying in bulk is cheaper and when you buy things that don’t go bad quickly, you can end up saving money. Save fresh produce for your weekly buys so they don’t go bad and you end up wasting money. Always check what you have in the fridge and pantry before you go shopping so you don’t end up with doubles!
Finally, when making your meals ahead, make things that you will be excited to eat. Chicken and rice is only good for so long. Get creative! Look online for yummy and quick meal prep ideas. Meal prepping and shopping on a budget doesn’t have to be scary! Plan it out and be smart and it can end up saving you tons of time and money.
WITH CC THE PAN
HOW TO
BAKE A RED VELVET CAKE
by Keoni Chaney | Cooking Chronicles | Feb. 28, 2024
About
“C.C. the Pan”
C.C. is Cooking Chronicle’s Helping Pan, where they make cooking and baking look simple with a handful of steps. Always enthusiastic when making food, C.C. hopes to help people feel like they are having fun in the kitchen again.
If you’ve been looking for How to Bake a Red Velvet Cake, we had the help of our friend, “C.C. the Pan,” to provide a simple step-by-step instructional video on how to bake one based on my grandmother’s recipe. No, it is not the EXACT recipe of hers, since she requested it to be altered to keep her secret process. However, the recipe provided still delivers are very decent cake. I would recommend playing around with the ratios of the ingredients to better suit your tastes.
Check out the short animation for details on ingredients and instructions, if you have not already. This blog is to provide some Tips & Hints to make sure your Red Velvet Cake comes out as the best!
Additional Instructions
- Make sure to follow C.C.’s instructions one step at a time. Do not rush the process.
- When beating and mixing, make sure to do it thoroughly and until there are little-to-no lumps in the mix. *Recommended: Hand-Mixer
- I recommend freezing it overnight but make sure to let it cool first.
- Nuts or No Nuts? You can decide and choose what nuts to add.
Quick and Easy Pasta
When living a busy life, it can seem impossible to make time to create special meals that you enjoy. Having a go-to meal that you can create in a short amount of time is key to maintaining a joy for cooking. Cooking doesn’t have to involve a long, drawn-out process to make a delicious meal. Here at Cooking Chronicles, we acknowledge that many people seek inspiration for not only gourmet meals, but also fast and cheaper meals to get them through the week. For this week’s featured recipe, Sarah has prepared her signature pasta recipe. Involving many ingredients that can be found already in your kitchen, very little preparation is needed for this meal. The key ingredients for this specific recipe are pasta, heavy cream, olive oil, tomato paste, garlic, onions, seasoning (salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning), and protein of your choice.
With any delicious pasta, the secret is in the sauce. The first step in replicating this recipe is to add olive oil to your pan and cook any type of protein if you plan on adding protein to your meal. Your next step is to add garlic and onions and sauté them together to get the rich flavor that you are looking for. With the garlic and onions still in the pan, your next step is to add tomato paste and mix it together with the other ingredients. Once this is complete you should mix in heavy cream to complete your sauce. With the sauce now completed, you can feel free to add any seasoning that you want to spice up your pasta. Lastly, mix the sauce together with the pasta of your choice and enjoy!
For more inspiration on this tasty meal visit our other Social Media platforms where you can see more of this recipe and our other yummy recipes. While this recipe is what we recommend, don’t be afraid to try out your own ideas in the kitchen as well. Cooking should be fun and enjoyable, and if you are spending your time creating it, then feel free to add ingredients that interest you more! Please read the rest of our blog posts for more inspiration and please reach out if you have any other recipes that you want us to feature on our blogs!
In-N-Out Copycat Fries
In-N-Out Burger has become one of the top fast food choices in California, and has become so popular that people that live nowhere near the West Coast have heard of it and want to try it. Those that have eaten at this restaurant know that they have a multitude of options that are not listed on their official menu, but are instead included on their secret menu. One of the fan favorites on the secret menu is the “Animal Fries”. Loaded with their signature In-N-Out sauce, grilled onions, and cheese, the Animal Fries provide a much better option than just normal fries. As we live far from In-N-Out, we have tried our best to replicate this popular recipe for this week’s recipe of the week. Made by Mackenzie, this meal turned out to be a huge success. With very few ingredients, this recipe can be easily copied and completed in a very short amount of time, making it the perfect snack if you are wanting to quickly put something together.
The hardest part of recreating this recipe was perfecting the sauce to replicate the sauce that they lather over the fries. With 1/2 cup of mayo, 2 tbsp of ketchup, 1/2 tbsp white vinegar, 2 tbsp sweet relish, and 1 tbsp of sugar you are able to almost identically match the taste and color of their original sauce. Once your sauce has been mixed, you are able to begin the cooking process. To start, cook your onions over medium-low heat with butter and neutral oil. Slowly increase the temperature as needed as the onions begin to brown. As you caramelize the onions, slowly add brown sugar and stir as you go (for more tips on caramelizing tune in to our recent podcast over cooking methods). The caramelization will be the longest step, so it is wise to finish the other steps of this recipe while your onions are cooking. Once you have cooked the fries of your choice, add either cheddar or American cheese over the top of your fries and put them back in the oven for roughly 4 minutes. Once this is finished, feel free to mix together everything you have made and enjoy!
Asian-Inspired Cucumber Salad
Side dishes can be just as important as your main entree, and for this week‘s meal of the week we are showcasing a cucumber salad that can be made in no time. If you are looking for a super easy way to spice up an Asian-oriented meal, then this salad is perfect for you. Made with many ingredients that can be found already in your pantry, this meal is perfect if you are short on time. As we typically showcase full entree‘s for our recipe of the week, we also encourage you to try to pair this recipe with some of our other recipe‘s that can be found on our blogs and on our Instagram. For our cucumber salad, we estimate that the time it takes to fully prepare this dish is about 20 minutes, which gives plenty of time for you to pair other recipes with this salad for a better eating experience. For this recipe, all you need are mini cucumbers, toasted sesame oil, rice vinegar, garlic, ginger, and soy sauce. To begin, cut up your cucumbers into thin slices. Once this step is finished, you can transition into creating your sauce. By mixing the above ingredients together and stirring for 5 minutes, you should get a smooth and dark sauce. Feel free to add the sauce onto the cucumbers and mix together to make sure that each cucumber gets enough flavoring. We recommend that you let the sauce sit on the cucumbers for about an hour to fully enhance the taste. Made by Sarah, this recipe is delicious and is perfect for when you are busy and need to find a quick way to fulfill your appetite. Please check out our website where you can be updated on all of our new content and recipes that we have planned throughout the week.