For some reason, my meatloaf never comes out the same way as my mom’s used to and no matter how hard I try, and how many times she has shown me how to make her vanilla pound cake, it comes out like just a dry pound of cake! I think it is just a rule, by law your food will never be as good as the way you had it growing up. But wouldn’t it be wonderful to open up your fridge and see your favorite classic meals, just like mom used to make?

When I was a kid, my aunt used to make me spaghetti and I loved it. I mean, every time I went to visit my aunt (which was several times a week) I asked her to make me spaghetti. I asked her recently what it was that made it so delicious and if she could give me the recipe for the sauce.

Here it is, she said…

1 Box of Spaghetti

1 can of Tomato Sauce

What? No slow simmering of tomato, onion, herbs and no careful planning of the day to lovingly stir sauce and no bringing it slowly to her lips to taste her famous sauce? Really? A $.49 can of pureed tomato? It must be that law at work again, because I can’t ever think of making spaghetti with a can of sauce now and I thought it was so delicious when I was a kid.

But I loved it. I loved it because she made it for me. Now that I cook for myself and my family I know that I can get a HomeStyle Meatloaf from MagicKitchen.com with all of the traditional sides and no one will ever know that I didn’t make it myself! Except for my family, of course but they don’t seem to mind because they love it so much.

Mariel, MagicKitchen.com blogger

Guest post by Dain Turner

Ask anyone what food beer goes good with and 99% of the time you’ll get pizza as the answer, but there are really a lot of other foods that go well with beer, depending on what type of beer you’re drinking.

There are so many different type of beer classified by taste, texture, aroma, brewing process, etc., that it would literally take up a book. But since this is a blog post, we’re going to keep it simple and use the all familiar EBU and IBU values. (?!?) Ok, so maybe they’re not familiar at all, but basically it’s a scale that rates the bitterness of beers.

So, why does beer go so well with pizza? It’s the tomato sauce on the pizza that compliments the bitterness of the beer and actually enhances the flavor, and vise versa. However, the beer you ‘re slugging down with the pizza would probably not go well with foods with a deeper taste. Yes, I know we were going to keep it simple and just talk about bitterness, but this will be easier with pictures. Everything’s easier with pictures.

If you follow this easy guide, you can’t go wrong.

MagicKitchen.com Flatbread (Pizza)	Light beer (meaning less bitter or sweet): Pizza(DUH)Hamburgers (drooling DUH)Dishes with curry., like curry chickenSpicy foods. Think Mexican dishes, Thai dishes, etc.
Braised Beef Top Blade in Beer & Wine Sauce	Dark (heavy beer): StewBeef dishesBarbeque
MagicKitchen.com Pan-seared Prawns	Stout (dry): ShrimpOystersLobster

At the end of the day, I think most beer drinkers would be happy just drinking beer, but if you want to do it right, just follow the guide and you might not even fall off your bar stool.

The Ultimate Hangover Breakfast – With civilization came the wisdom and ability to take normal food stuffs such as; wheat, rice, and barley then turn them into something that will chemically alter a persons perception of the world.

Now it’s one thing to drink in college and pop up the next day for class or part time work, however adult life isn’t always as easy. I’m going to give you some tips to help you go out for the office birthday at the club then be fine come Thursday mornings meeting.

First and foremost preventative measures will help to prevent those terrible, mind numbing, don’t turn on the lights yet hangovers. Often times dehydration is a big issue in the anatomy of a hangover. If you make sure to drink a glass of water to every five beers, or two shots of spirits and harder liquor you can ease most effects you’ll end up feeling the next morning.

Before going to sleep, or err.. should I say passing out depending on how hard you party, make sure you have a dollar water gallon container and chug as much as you can. The sooner you imbibe water after alcohol the sooner the chemical support can occur.

Alright the worst has happened; you wake up to the sound of your alarm clock, but this morning it sounds like the screaming of women and children and slaughter of pigs. Your head is pounding, your mouth tastes like batteries, you still have yesterdays clothes on with a stain down the front of your chest, and the sight of morning sunlight feels like getting eye surgery done with a fork.

You don’t understand why this is happening and your iPhone has about 40 texts about how you were “Nearly a god king among men” from around 5 hours ago. We’ve all been there right? Now for the hard part you still need to get to work within 50 minutes, what can you eat for breakfast to help from dying all day in the office? Have no fear, if you didn’t drink the water the night before the first thing is drink about 5 glasses of water.

Protein synthesizes with alcohol in both the bloodstream and liver so if you have that “I woke up drunk” hangover a good move is making eggs.

Some scrambled eggs with cheese are quick and easy with either a stove or microwave to let you spend time on showering and preparing for a day of finding out “What exactly did I do last night?”

Brett, MagicKitchen.com blogger

Ok, so you want to have a little wine with your meal. Great, because you don’t have to be Italian, or even speak with a French accent to do that, heck, you don’t even need to be European. No, I’m not calling you a peon. Just follow me here.

The rule of thumb is red wine with red meat, and white wine with white meat. That rule doesn’t always hold true, but most of the time, it does.

Chicken Marsala goes great with a Chardonnay

But what are some nice wines you can enjoy with the perfect meal? All right, let’s say you having Chicken Marsala with some fresh roasted asparagus. A perfect matching wine would be a nice Chardonnay. Now I know that the marsala is a red wine sauce and you may be thinking that perhaps that might clash with the white wine. Not at all really, remember the chicken? It’s considered a white meat, of sorts. Chicken has light and dark meat. Dark meat is not to be confused with red meat. Now that we have that out of the way, you could also try it with Chablis, but just keep in mind that Chablis wine is drier than Chardonnay. It’s all in the taste of the individual. If you’re a wine novice, just stick with the Chardonnay.

Now, this next part might make you want to crack me over the head with your chilled salad fork, but guess what? You could also have a Pinot noir with your Chicken Marsala. Yes, yes I know what I said about white meat, red meat and the matching wine, but sometimes it’s not just about the meat, but what you do with it. Because the marsala is a red wine sauce, made with Marsala wine (a red wine), you can enjoy a nice Pinot noir with this meal without breaking any epicurean protocol.  Now put down the meat cleaver, you’re scaring me.

Let’s look at another example. Say you’re serving pasta with a nice pesto paste. Now, pesto is typically made using basil, garlic, olive oil, pine nuts, grated hard cheese and salt. So, what is the perfect wine to go with that? Try a Carricante and savor a little taste of Sicily while you’re at it. The Carricante can range from $13 to $35 bucks a bottle, but hey, you’re having pasta with a pesto paste. I mean, how much does that cost? A little basil and pine nuts, heck, you may as well splurge on the wine, because that snappish, yet dazzling citrus flavor of the Carricante cuts right through the olive oil, and garlic, making each bite of your meal a completely new experience.

Listen folks, we could go on all day about pairing wines with every dish known to man, but I think you’re getting the general idea here. Now it’s time to venture out over the abyss and try a few things on your own. Bon appetit!

Dain, MagicKitchen.com Blogger

Seniors are spending more time on the Internet. In fact, use of the Internet has changed the way they gather information and communicate with friends and family. Here’s an example of a couple of seniors exploring their new laptop:

Funny, right? OK, hilarious actually. But one thing seniors don’t do online as much as their younger counterparts is shop. They fear that their identities will be stolen, or that someone will get their banking information and take all their money, or that they won’t get what they want and won’t be able to return it.

Another worry is that they will order something and the person will take their money and then not send the product. All valid fears! But I’m here to explain why the fears are unsubstantiated for the most part. “For the most part” is stated because online transactions, like face-to-face ones, are sometimes made with unsavory people. But there are checks and balances in place to help the consumer.

For seniors who are housebound, shopping online can be a boon. And for seniors in rural communities, the internet can open up a shopping experience that a trip to the nearest city may not rival. For instance, you won’t find MagicKitchen.com gourmet meal delivery in any store.

Here are a few dos and don’ts and some general advice for shopping online.

DO:

• Shop with companies you know, or with big well-known companies like Amazon.com. Almost anyone can establish a website. Contact information (mailing address, telephone number, etc.) should be clearly posted on the site. If you’re not familiar with a merchant, do some research or ask to be mailed a product catalogue. A good idea is to type a question into a Google search box like, “X company- review”. If a lot of bad stories come up, avoid them.
• Before you buy, look at the company’s refund and return policies. These should be posted on its website.
• Calculate and add up all costs. For example, check whether shipping and handling charges seem reasonable, and whether taxes will apply. You will be able to go through the checkout and determine these costs without checking out and actually making the purchase. If a company doesn’t show you shipping costs before asking you for your credit card, don’t buy from them.
• Keep a record. Make sure you print and keep a copy of your purchase order and confirmation number.
• Be creative when you choose a password, and keep it private. Don’t use something that’s easy to figure out, like your birthday, telephone number or street address. Using numbers for letters is a good idea. For instance, make the password your old job. For instance, if you worked for Bell Telephone, your password might be 3e117e1ep50ne. That sort of looks like Bell Telephone, but it’s very secure. Keep your passwords somewhere separate from your computer.
• Make sure that the merchant you’re dealing with can provide a secure transaction. Before you enter your credit card number or other sensitive data, look for a website address that starts with https:// (the “s” indicates a secure connection), and a closed padlock or unbroken key icon on your screen. If you don’t see them, or if you see an open padlock or broken key icon, your transaction is not being transmitted securely.

DON’T:

• Don’t conduct transactions on public computers or terminals, which could have keystroke loggers or other malware on them.
• Don’t buy from spammers. If you get an email inviting you to buy something like “Discounted Rolex Watches,” you should think two things: 1) spam and 2) possible scam. Most spammers are just looking to make a quick buck. Some will steal your credit card or financial information and use it fraudulently. If you do purchase from spammers, there’s a good chance you’ll never get what you ordered. It is a risky deal. Also, it just motivates them to continue to spam you, along with everyone else.
• Avoid typing in credit card information without seeing “https” in the URL address bar and a closed padlock somewhere on the screen.
• Don’t pay online with a debit card or use a check; use a credit card instead for more protection against liability in the case of fraud.
• Beware of offers that are too good to be true, which often end up being scams.
• Don’t enter your credit card number or other sensitive data, before ensuring that the website address starts with https:// (the “s” indicates a secure connection), and a closed padlock or unbroken key icon on your screen. If you don’t see them, or if you see an open padlock or broken key icon, your transaction is not being transmitted securely.

Advice for shopping online:

Most of your online shopping is secure, and your payments are backed up by your credit card company. They are on the lookout for suspicious activity on your card. If you have a paypal account, or you buy from Amazon (or MagicKitchen.com), you are also backed up by procedures in place. So enjoy yourself! Shopping never felt so good!

Melody, MagicKitchen.com blogger

OK, you’ve heard of the Turducken, a chicken stuffed in a duck stuffed in a turkey. Delicious, right? How about a cherpumple? It’s  a three layer cake with three pies baked inside. Check out the how-to video here:

That started me thinking, what other composite names could I make, based on our menu? This is what I came up with:

Ok, first, we already have some stuffed items, so let’s start there:

Chicken Da Vinci is a chicken breast stuffed with Gruyere cheese and spinach in puff pastry, or en croûte.

A Chigruspin! or Gruspinchik.

Of course our Shrimp Burrito could be the  Burrimp.

Ok last try at dishes already on the menu. One of my faves, a boneless chicken leg stuffed with crouton, apple and almond stuffing. Here goes… An Almapleken.

If we took the Short Rib Roast, butterflied it, and stuffed it with Apple-Sage Stuffing mixed with Broccoli & Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce, then warmed it through, it would be both delicious and a Brocsturib. Which sounds like something out of the Flintsones. Ok, I’ll leave the renaming of dishes to the experts. It’s harder than it looks!

If that’s not enough, World Wide Words.org has this on the subject:

“This method of cooking is actually quite ancient, with recipes from medieval times that were often much more complicated still. The technical term for the process is engastration, from Greek words meaning “in the belly”. A well-known English example of the nineteenth century was Pandora’s Cushion, a boned goose stuffed with a boned chicken, which was stuffed with a boned pheasant, itself stuffed with a boned quail.

If the turducken were not enough, a news article from 1997 said that a store in Louisiana was experimenting with a pigturducken, though nothing has been heard of it since. And a rumour has reached me via the Internet that South Africans have gone one better, producing an osturducken, in which the whole concoction is stuffed inside an ostrich. However, this may possibly be an urban legend, because the only reports come from somebody who has heard of it from somebody else.”

Melody, MagicKitchen.com blogger