Like many people I have quite a few plastic containers that I use in the kitchen. Mostly they serve as food storage containers, but we also grab them sometimes as a mixing bowl or food prep bowl. They’re generally  handy and inexpensive. But they have their limitations. For one thing, you can’t use them to heat your food in. You can’t freeze them too often without them become damaged. And over a short period of time they start to show their age, looking stained and scraped. So switching over to something like this Glasslock Large Rectangular Glass Food Storage Set is a great idea.

Not only can you heat your food in these durable lidded glass storage containers, but you can easily use them to store food in your fridge or freezer too. They stack very neatly giving you more room on your shelves and they clean up as good as new in your dishwasher. These great containers are air-tight and liquid-tight, keeping your food fresher longer and helping you prevent spills and messy clean-up issues. A big step up from plastic storage containers for me.

I always like learning a bit about the different descriptions and nuances of common cooking expressions.

These are just a few of the practical definitions I came across about some of the common terms and cooking methods you’ll find in recipe books.

Stirring – Moving the spoon or knife round and round, in ever widening circles, until ingredients are thoroughly blended.

Beating- Cutting down with a spoon or other utensil from the top to bottom of a mixture and then bringing the utensil up to the surface, then passing over and down again turning the mixture over and over with the objective being to combine air with the mixture making it light.

Cutting and Folding- Usually applies to the process of incorporating beaten egg whites or cream into another mixture without destroying the bubbles that have already been formed. Generally done by using a spoon or knife to cut down to the bottom of the dish, turn, bring to the top and then fold over the mixture brought to the surface, repeating the process until ingredients are completely blended.

Au Gratin – To serve a dish covered with cracker or bread crumbs, buttered and browned in the oven. An example would be to mix 1 cup crumbs with 1/3 cup melted butter, spread over a hot dish (usually a cooked dish mixed with sauce) and then set it in the oven long enough to brown the crumbs.

Boning – Removing all bones from fish or fowl, leaving only flesh. In boning a fowl, the flesh is removed from the bones in one piece.

Tossing- Moving small articles around in the frying pan in which there is melted butter or seasonings so that the articles may be uniformly covered by the butter or seasoning. This can be done by gently shaking the pan as if popping corn or by quickly turning the articles over with a utensil.

On Carving Meat

To carve meat properly, you’ll need a carving board, thin sharp knives and a fork for holding the meat. To be appetizing, be sure to cut the meat across the grain in thin, even slices. Here are some tricks for cutting specific kinds of meat.

Fillet of Beef- Begin at the thick end and cut the fillet into thick slices. Cut transversely or directly across.

Round Steak- Cut in narrow strips across the grain, from the outer edge of fat to opposite side.

Leg of Lamb – Let the leg rest on the platter with the outer side upward and the small round bone to your left. Press the carving fork down into the meat at the 1^st joint, above the end of the round bone on the left. Then, starting at the top of the central portion of the roast, cut in slices don to the bone until the large bone is reached – then proceed to run the knife to run it along the bone, loosening the slices.

Roasted Turkey or Chicken- Place the turkey or chicken with the drumsticks to carver’s right. Insert the carving fork at the highest point of breastbone. First cut the leg and second joint furthest from you, then the wing in the same way, moving onto the leg and wing on the other side. Proceed to cut thin slices lengthwise the breast, one side at a time.

Baked Fish- From a whole fish, the head is removed first. Then run the knife through the flesh along the backbone cutting as close as possible. Cut the half turned towards you, or the top half, in thick slices and then turn the dish around and cut the other side.