Remove the guess-work

Rare, Medium or Well Done. I'm a medium rare gal. Can't stand overcooked meat. Cooking chicken used to scare me. (Did I cook it long enough to kill all that nasty Salmonella?) How do you know when it's done? Bread? It smells done, looks done...but is it? Internal temperatures were soooo tedious.

Then I met the OXO Thermometer. I was actually fortunate enough to find it on sale after Christmas when folks were done testing turkeys. There are options for all kinds of "meat"....turkey, chicken, lamb, veal, fish....and there is also a manual setting for things like bread. Or if you just want to be a renegade and take the chicken out of the oven before it's fully cooked. Let's say, for example, the recipe says "when the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees, baste it a final time and then put it back in the oven"....BINGO. This is the tool. It even gives you an alarm when it is 10 degrees away from the desired temperature.

You put the probe in the meat and the display sits on the counter or somewhere next to your stove and quietly does its monitoring while you busy yourself with other things. It's pretty easy to use, compact and versatile.

I've included a link so you can check it out. Let me know what you think!!!

http://www.oxo.com/OA_HTML/xxoxo_ibeCCtpOXOPrdDtl.jsp?a=b&item=79452

There's little better than butter

I've been a butter fan my whole life. In fact, I remember eating sticks of butter straight - no chaser- because it tasted so good...in my youth, of course!!!

During my first bout with Culinary School, I was introduced the the concept of "compound butter". That is, infusing butter with flavors to make it even better....if that were at all possible.

A few of my favorites are herbed butter (shown here) and honey butter. I just recently served them with fresh baked challah (a rich egg bread served by the Jewish people during several holidays and often on Fridays). Might I digress for a minute on the challah subject? Honestly, I think challah may well be the best kept secret of the Jewish people. That stuff is AMAZING!!! If you ever get a chance to try it, please DO....trust me, you will thank me. Well...maybe not....just one more thing to love and fantasize about!!!!

Here are a couple of recipes for compound butter. Feel free to come up with some of your own. And do let me know what you came up with!!! I like to serve the Herb Butter on top of a really good steak. Try adding blue cheese or another of your favorite soft cheeses.

Honey Butter

Ingredients

• 1 pound butter
• 1/4 cups honey
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

Let the butter sit until it reaches room temperature.

Place butter into the mixing bowl and beat at low speed with the paddle Add the honey, cinnamon, and vanilla extract and beat until well combined, about 3 minutes. Remove butter from bowl and spoon or scrape onto plastic wrap. Roll into a log and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Herb Butter

Ingredients

• 1 pound butter
• Up to 1 cup of fresh herbs, minced (I used thyme, oregano, chives and a little rosemary)
  

Directions

Let the butter sit until it reaches room temperature.

Place butter into the mixing bowl and beat at low speed with the paddle Add the herbs and beat until well combined, about 3 minutes. Remove butter from bowl and spoon or scrape onto plastic wrap. Roll into a log and refrigerate for 2 hours.