Spaghetti and Meatballs - A Very Simple Guide

Tytus helps me make spaghetti and meatballs for supper. You'll probably be surprised at how easy it is. We have had many compliments over our meatballs BUT it's about as simple as it gets. And watch for the secret ingredients with a tip for parents.

 
Also some bonus family footage of Tytus new birthday gift. It was delivered while we were cooking...so then Tytus bailed on me! HAHAHA

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Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls are the greatest snacks, desserts, and breakfast food! In this video, I make them from scratch using my own technique and the recipe for bread dough. https://www.tyronebcookin.com/2009/05/easy-bread-dough.html 

If you would rather not make the dough, buy pizza dough balls from your local grocer.

I do not use a sweetened dough for Cinnamon Rolls because there is enough added sweetness in the filling and glaze.

My cameraman is Tytus today!

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Peanut Brittle! (and the secret to not breaking your teeth!)

 

We're making peanut brittle with the boys. Steph goes through the steps. The addition of the baking soda at the end creates air bubbles in the brittle. This maintains the crackly goodness of the brittle BUT keeps you from breaking your TEETH! It's DELICIOUS!

  

Do you need recommendations for your kitchen? Here are my top picks... Kitchen Best Buys http://bit.ly/KitchenBestBuys

Mexican Chocolate Caramel Cookies!

 

These Mexican Chocolate Carmel Cookies are made with the caramel candy we made in our last video! Stephanie found an awesome "from scratch" cookie recipe that she modified to make it her own!

Here is the link to the cookie recipe we modified. 

https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/jumbo-chocolate-cookies/

Thank you! #TastesBetterFromScratch

The changes are simple. When you watch the video you will see HOW and then WHEN to add them in.

• Replace the chocolate chips with 2 discs of Mexican Chocolate chopped up. 
• Add a tablespoon of instant espresso powder to your cookie dough.
• Add your caramel candy into the middle of the cookie dough. Watch our caramel candy video. If you're still not convinced to try it yourself then those little square plastic-wrapped caramels from the store will do.

Two things you need to remember to have the most success with this recipe:

1. Chill your cookie dough 2 to 3 hours before using.
2. After rounding your caramel candy into balls, chill for at least an hour. You can do this anytime and then wait till your cookie dough is chilled.

This will also help your cookie have the best structure with no caramel "blow-outs". But even if you do have some, it still tastes great!

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Caramel Candy!

Stephanie and the boys take on making caramel candies. Tytus and Ezra clearly have fun BUT I am sure the end result is the motivation for helping out!

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Turkey! Injected and Smoked

We did an injected and smoked turkey for Thanksgiving! Short video. A few tips and thought process on how I do it. Hope you continue to find things to be thankful for each day! ❤️ Take advantage of the categories and lists that I have assembled and reviewed for top recommendations in the kitchen. Kitchen Best Buys http://bit.ly/KitchenBestBuys

The Perfect Cheesecake!

 

 
Looking for the perfect cheesecake recipe? This is a classic New York style cheesecake with a cookie crust and high sides. We also add some leftover "Halloween" candy! It is dense, rich, and light at the same time. But we can't take credit for the recipe we just bumbled through it for some excellent results! 

Simply Recipes - The Perfect Cheesecake | I got to say, it is for my tastes, I love it! (and our whole family as well)  https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_cheesecake/ 

If you need help picking great tools for your kitchen, see my reviews for top picks! 

Kitchen Best Buys https://bit.ly/KitchenBestBuys

GRILLING! Metal skewers for the WIN!

PRO TIP wood skewers ALWAYS burn. I don't care if you soak them all day. 

Use metal skewers even when cooking sausage, hot dogs, chicken satay, vegetables, fruit...because the metal heats up and cooks it inside as well. Which also reduces the time it takes to cook.

Tytus and I are just "chillin' and relaxin'" throwing some food on the grill for Sunday supper. I am teaching him why I do things the way I do them and enjoy spending time with my son. He loves cooking as well as the filming aspect of making these videos.

Take advantage of the categories and lists that I have assembled and reviewed for top recommendations in My Kitchen Best Buys.

OXO vs Zoodler | Veggie Noodles

Tytus and I review the OXO julienne peeler and the Zoodler. Do you remember the veggie noodle craze and why it's STILL making a lot of great dishes? Stick around after the review to see 2 quick dishes you can make to take advantage of these kitchen tools. AND speaking of kitchen tools... 

Take advantage of the categories and lists that I have assembled (below) for top recommendations in the kitchen. Each with my own personal comments. 

 

My Kitchen Best Buys

http://bit.ly/KitchenBestBuys

*Credit to Tytus my main cameraman today!

Southern Greens in 10 Minutes

Greens are delicious! Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, beet greens...And even swiss chard. In this video, I prepare Swiss chard like a southern green. How do you do that? With pork fat!

This is a quick technique I use to produce some delicious greens in a short amount of time. I use leftover grease from quality hickory smoked bacon, red pepper flake, and fresh garlic. That's about it except for seasoning with salt. Enjoy!

Check out my Kitchen Best Buys! I have been working a lot on this lately! These are some of my top picks of things I use in the kitchen. If you look closely enough in my videos you can see that I use the products I endorse. If you have some suggestions on things you would like to see or items I should review leave it in the comments. THANK YOU for visiting our website and watching our videos!

Season and Smash Grilled Chicken Technique

We're not going to keep you here long. Our video is about 8 minutes. In it, you'll find instructions for enhancing and tenderizing solid cuts of meat. It's a simple technique used best on chicken.

 It will speed up your cooking time when you take it to the grill.

• The pieces are thinner, cooking faster
• Being uniform in thickness they can be flipped at the same time
• They will all be done close to the same time.

AND there may be a few extra tips for grilling vegetables thrown in for added value, for fun.

Let us know how we are doing. Tytus is getting better at filming and our next buy will be a microphone to make the audio better. 

What else? Give us some constructive criticism.

• Do you like the banner on our Youtube page? 
• Did you like the older one with the family better?
• How is the video?
• Do you know how to subscribe to our channel?
• Should we make an instructional video on subscribing?
• What DO or DON'T you like?

There you have a few starter questions to help you think about what we can work on.

Parents Date Night - Restaurant Tips

As parents we want a nice quiet date night at the restaurant, child free! And yes, that does mean free from others kids as well. So the number one tip would be to sit away from families! BUT if by chance I can not arrange seating that is away from a rambunctious family of loud, crazy kids...then YES I will show grace and maybe even entertain them with a few funny faces or high fives if the situation calls for it. As a parent I understand kids are not programmable robots and pick the worst times to have the worst behavior and sometimes spiral to a meltdown because of exhaustion!

That being said, here are a few good tips I thought I would share that my wife and I practice:

• Leave the house early if possible. Between 4 and 5pm. If you have small kids then you are used to eating early anyways. 
• This allows you to be going the opposite way of work traffic, easy flow.
• There is usually not a waiting list at the restaurant already.
• You have the pick of seats before it gets busy.
• Make things easy on yourself and plan to use valet parking if available. A lot of malls or restaurant/shopping areas now have free valet. Just remember to put a good tip in the valets hand(when picking up the vehicle). Yes, budget it into your "going out'" or entertainment money. Do I do this a lot? No, but if its available and it makes life easier for one glorious night out...yes, do it!
• No matter what kind of seating you like remember tables next to serving/wait stations, the bathrooms, kitchen service doors, front/lobby door, and at the end of the bar are terrible choices. Most of these tables will have heavy traffic, drafts, smells, noise...et cetera.
• If you do eat later, or if the restaurant is already busy, REMEMBER most tables and booths that are around the bar area, but are separated from the rest of the restaurants tables/booths are almost ALWAYS first come first serve. Those are NOT the "seating" people are on the waiting list for...My wife and I usually walk right in and find a nice booth I like that is empty and slide right into it. Server usually shows up in minutes.
• As a last or first resort, (depends on your feelings of being seen sitting at a bar by your local church denomination) you can sit at the bar and eat dinner. Its only the two of you and you can sit and talk even closer than you could at a table or booth. Not to mention you can usually get your food faster and you always have someone within ten feet to service your every request.

These are just a few helpful suggestions that come to mind...What tips do you have that you can add to this list?

A Note About Nonstick!

Have you looked at your pots, pans, and metal trays?  Do you sometimes see a light brown film that starts sticking to your pans?  It starts getting hard to scrub off and you wonder just what it is...it's probably your non-stick spray!


It leaves a residue, a film, that usually cooks on to the pan like a thin rubber film.I know you are probably like most people and don't read the 'Care Instructions' for the kitchenware that you buy so I will let you in on a little secret...you don't need nonstick spray on a nonstick pan!  Get it?

If you want a little butter, extra virgin olive oil, lard or type of oil for a little flavor (like sesame) in your pan then do it.  Or if instructions direct that you MUST do this, then do it if you feel it is necessary.  But nonstick kitchenware is already 'nonstick' you don't need to put spray on it!

Nonstick spray was originally designed for using on kitchenware that everything stuck to, in other words everything that wasn't nonstick.  Try it out...my pancakes came out flawless on my nonstick griddle without any kind of oil, butter, or spray and they browned nicely on each side.  THEN out came the butter and Maple syrup!

If you look for the 'Care Instructions' for a nonstick pan, chances are it will tell you "Do not use nonstick spray on this pan".  It does seem like a bit of common sense doesn't it?

Leadership Appreciation Dinner

First I must confess...I need to get better at remembering to take pictures, or at least acquire some that others took so I can show you examples of the menu's or food I post here.  I don't always do that, or have the pictures to do it!

Our church usually has an appreciation dinner for the different leaders of this and that like sunday school, children's church, small groups...things of that nature.  I cooked the main food for it the weekend of November the 13th.

It was heavy hor' dourves this time.  Estimated about 70 people. Menu as follows:

Quick @ Home Fraps/Smoothies (blender needed)

Fraps:
The Basics- Use cold coffee, put 10 regular ice cubes into the blender, pour milk & cold coffee in to just below the top of the highest ice cube (adjust the ratio for your tastes), at this point I use caramel, chocolate, or some other flavored syrup to both flavor & sweeten pulse blend & listen for no more ice cubes bouncing around (time in between pulses allows 4 remaining chunks to sink back down), at the end give it about a 3 to 5 second 'on' blend...if it's too liquidy use less 'liquids' next time. But if you don't get enough liquids in the blender it's harder to get ice cubes blended. These make about 12 oz glasses of Frap.

Or find big cans of Cafe D'Vitta at Sam's or Costco (they have caramel, chocolate,...flavors) same directions as coffee drink except add 1 scoop (scoop that comes with it) and then add milk, blend (only use mix, ice, and milk. no reason to add flavors or coffee, unless of course, you want to). They are great 4lb canisters of the mix.  By the time you figure out how many Fraps this $10 canister of powder mix makes, it is WELL WORTH IT!

Additional things I do: Add more caramel sauce to it, Mexican or regular chocolate sauce, a few coffee beans to the blender for speckled look, add peanut butter, find the Dulce De Leche sauce in 'select' grocery stores...yum.

In my professional 'making and drinking' opinion, powders work better than flavored syrups to thicken Fraps and improve taste...Using powdered creamer IS NOT A GOOD IDEA, you will soon become tired of the 'taste' that comes from powdered creamer, try using some powdered milk.



Smoothies:
For quick smoothies use the same amount of ice cubes and 8 to 12 ounces of flavored yogurt.  Use vanilla or plain yogurt and add fresh fruits for a more customized taste.

Steal lots of BIG STRAWS - (McD's or Coffee Shop straws) haven't found that they sell the big ones in any stores yet so I just get a few each time I am at Starb*cks, Pete's, or McD's

This is not definitive...just a quick guide for my friends who asked. If you have a coffee shop friend get him to let you 'have' big buckets of Big Train powder mix.

My Top 5 Eating Out Tips (@Home & Vacation)

Lets talk a bit about accommodations while on vacation, then we will get right back to the food!  If you are wavering between paying for a vacation rental or hotel, I suggest a rental.  I have found from online research that nice rentals from beach-side homes to inner city condominiums are usually cheaper or at least comparable to hotel/motel/resort accommodations.  And usually come with some of the same extras: pool, free WiFi, cable or satellite, free movie channels, local calls...You get the point.

Why does this come into play?  You can cook your dinners at the rental.  And by that I mean the evening meals (evening meals cost more at restaurants).  Also (non food related) if you have kids and/or babies you can put them to bed in a separate room!  With families it seems that hotels only REALLY provide a place to sleep, then you need to get out and about before someone gets hurt! ~ But let me get back to the eating part...

Basil Overload!

Here on my site and on Facebook, I posted my findings from my first 'Farm Fresh to You' home delivery organic food box.  Which was noted as having at least ten bunches of Basil in it!

Well of course even I couldn't use that much without getting sick of it!  So I cut the stems off and processed all the basil down with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a few heads of garlic.  Then I scooped the mixture into a Ziploc bag and cut the corner off.  I piped the whole bag into two ice cube trays and put them in the freezer for future use!

I would have made pesto but I don't like what the freezer does to cheese (Parmesan) and nuts (pine nuts, or in my case I like to use roasted sunflower kernels, their cheaper too!) which are both ingredients of pesto.

Later when you want to cook something with a little garlic and basil 'zip' you just throw in a cube or two while cooking or sauteing.  They also use this ice cube trick with stock (chicken, beef, pork...) too, so if you are only cooking in small amounts you can throw a few frozen 'stock' cubes into the pan or food to meltdown and help the flavor.

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Our goal is a weekly video post (or more) on simple "cookin" preparations for a variety of foods. We would love to hear from you! Email us at showtime@tyronebcookin.com

Pork Meatballs with Chorizo Seasoning

Anybody out there had Chorizo before?  Well for those of you who have and know what I am talking about, you can buy a packet of seasoning called Chorizo Seasoning/Spices.  Usually on the 'quick pick' rack of various seasonings not on the spice aisle in your grocery store, but on the international or ethnic aisle.  In the Hispanic/Spanish section - usually right next to the severely limited 'Asian' section - in one of those 99 cents bags.

So an idea came to me to use it with some ground pork for meatballs.  My wife is allergic to beef so I use different meats to create meatballs when we get the urge for a good meatball sandwich, with spaghetti, or some other kind of way.

Basically, for one pound of ground pork, I used 1 Tablespoon Chorizo Seasoning, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, salt & pepper, a few bread crumbs, and fennel seed I had toasted then ground.

(next time I would add a minced shallot!)

I cooked my meatballs on top of the stove browning them nicely then finishing them in a 350-degree oven.  Sauteing some thick sliced 'baby Bella' mushrooms and adding in a quick marinara (combined in a processor) with fire-roasted tomatoes, a little tomato paste, garlic, and roasted red bell peppers...Later adding only oregano, salt, and pepper.  Then add the meatballs back into the sauce.

We had the meatballs and sauce over farfalle (bowtie) pasta.  I served basil and sundried tomato dip (basil also courtesy of the box) made with cream cheese with the fresh carrots and broccoli from the 'Farm Fresh to You' box.

Did you know we have videos?

Please "LIKE" and SHARE our videos! (click on "thumbs up" under our videos)

Our goal is a weekly video post (or more) on simple "cookin" preparations for a variety of foods. We would love to hear from you! Email us at showtime@tyronebcookin.com

Smartpower Duet...not a good Idea!

Since I am just like many of you and feel the tight crunch of getting the most out of every penny I went to Costco to get some items for the kitchen.  While I was there I found this combi blender mini-processor unit by Cuisinart and I thought, "I'll buy this to get by for a while plus it makes sense since I have such a small kitchen right now...".

Nope, never got around to trying out the mini processor because I could never get the blender to even make a frozen coffee drink.  The glass pitcher is too wide with little to NO taper, and once it does QUICKLY narrow into a smaller bowl the blades seem to sit halfway in this small 'bowl' area that the oversize plastic piece screws on to the bottom.  The blades just kicked the ice around like it was a never-ending game of dice.  If you ask me, terrible design.

Do you have one of these, does it work well for you?  It seemed like a good idea and price at the time...I took it back and just used the money to buy my favorite blender, the food processor will have to wait!  (I gave away everything I had in 2007-again!- before I went back to West Africa to work in 2008)

Restocking the 'choice' appliances has not been cheap.  But I expected as much and have the patience to wait for a 'sale' or two.