Easy Appetizers - How to Make Sliders

Sliders are mini burgers and there are lots of different kinds you can make. You can make the mini burger buns using refrigerated buttermilk biscuit dough or something similar. Alternatively, you can slice up regular buns or bread. Some stores might sell the miniature burger buns.

If you want to make hot appetizer recipes, sliders are a great choice. Most people love beef and making these recipes means that you can serve up burgers without filling up your guests too much. One slider per person is sufficient as an appetizer.

Biscuit

Perhaps you want to make easy party appetizers, in which case you can make the patties the day before you need them and use store bought buns. Serve the patties with some ketchup and mustard and you can make them in minutes. If you want to make something a little more elaborate, you can make Asian style patties, lamb burgers with Greek cheese, bean or tofu sliders or something else.

This recipe is really versatile and you can serve the patties with any kind of condiments or dressings on the side. Serve them alone or with some salad on the side or some kind of vegetable side dish.

Recipe for Asian Style Sliders

These delicious Asian mini burgers taste so good. The buttermilk biscuit dough makes great burger buns and the beef is teamed with celery, mushrooms, garlic, onion, sesame oil and more, to give the burgers a real taste of Asia.

What you will need:

• 1 cup fresh bean sprouts
• 16 1/2 oz can refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
• 4 finely chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds
• 1/2 cup finely chopped celery
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1/2 cup finely chopped mushrooms
• 1 1/2 cups finely shredded Napa cabbage
• 1 tablespoon wasabi paste
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sesame oil
• 1 1/2 lbs ground beef

How to make them:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the beef, celery, sesame oil, soy sauce, mushrooms, bean sprouts, garlic, onions and pepper in a bowl and shape this mixture into eight patties. Each one should be 3 1/2 inches wide.

Heat all but one teaspoon of the oil in a nonstick skillet over a moderately high heat and cook the patties for five minutes per side. A meat thermometer inserted into the center will read 160 degrees F when they are done.

Separate the dough into eight biscuits. Put the sesame seeds in a shallow dish. Brush the remaining oil over one side of the biscuits and press the oiled side into the sesame seeds. Put them seed side up on an ungreased baking sheet and bake them, following the instructions on the can. Combine the wasabi and mayonnaise. Split the biscuits and spread a tablespoon of the wasabi mayonnaise on the split sides. Top the bottoms with the patties and cabbage, then add the biscuit tops and serve.

Easy Appetizers - How to Make Sliders

If you are planning a party, you will find that offering tasty and easy party appetizers will keep your guests happy and making easy cold appetizer recipe s instead of complicated ones will keep your pre-party stress to a minimum.

EasyAppetizerRecipes.net - You Make the Appetizers, We Help You Make Them Delicious

Kids' Favorite Foods

If you're a parent, you know that getting your finicky kid to eat is like trying to push a bolder up a mountain of molasses. It isn't easy. A kid's menu, at best consists of about five or six things that he or she will eat. So what's a parent to do? Well, at a recent survey taken in a small US town, about 100 kids gave the answer to their five favorite foods, not counting desserts. While this survey no way dictates that all kids will answer the same, this should give you a pretty decent idea of what you're kid will eat if you're having problems getting food in his or her mouth. So without further ado, our top five kids' goods.

Coming in at number 5 was no surprise. Spaghetti and Meatballs was the overall number 5 choice. Kids seemed to like this more out of the can than home made, however. And no fancy sauces like Marinara. Just plain out tomato or meat sauce was all they needed. Plus, no grated cheese on top. And not too many meatballs. Just 3 or 4 would be enough. Serving your kid a plate of spaghetti and meatballs would be more than enough to put a smile on his or her face.

Biscuit

In the number 4 slot was another food that was no surprise. Hamburger on a bun was a sure winner. Again, nothing fancy as far as condiments. No onions was big on the list of yucks. Kids absolutely hate onions and don't want them anywhere near their hamburger. Just some ketchup is all they require. And the buns have to be hamburger buns. No regular hard rolls and certainly NO seeds. Also, no whole wheat buns or rolls.

The third most popular meal on the menu was the hot dog. It was interesting to see that the hot dog was more popular than the hamburger, but not by much. As for how they liked their hot dog, that varied quite a bit. Some kids liked them just with mustard. Others preferred mustard and sauerkraut. And then there was that group of kids who enjoyed their hot dogs with ketchup. Nobody seemed to like relish or anything fancy on their hot dog and NO cheese dogs. That was another big yuck.

Just missing the number top spot and coming in at number 2 was fried chicken. Parents, don't bother making this at home. Overwhelmingly, kids voted on Colonel Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken and white meat only. And don't forget the biscuit that comes with it. They said without the biscuit it isn't as good. Makes you wonder if they loved the biscuit more than the chicken. Oh and the extra crispy gets a big thumbs up.

Finally, coming in at number 1 was macaroni and cheese. Again, don't try making this at home. This has to be, almost unanimously, Kraft Mac And Cheese. And of course no mac and cheese dish is complete without pouring ketchup all over it. By the time they are done with the ketchup you can just about see the mac and cheese.

And there you have it. The top 5 favorite foods of children. So if you're having trouble getting your kid to eat, you might want to start with these. If you need other favorites outside the top 5, at number 6 was pizza and at number 7 was peanut butter and jelly. Rounding out the top 10 was bologna at 8, salami and cheese at 9 and grilled cheese at 10.

Kids' Favorite Foods

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Food

Woodworking 101 - How to Properly Edge-Glue Boards Into Panels

There are several steps to consider in the process of edge-gluing lumber including (1) lumber selection, (2) cutting to rough length, (3) ripping, (4) jointing, (5) grain matching, (6) biscuit joining, (7) gluing, (8) clamping and (9) thickness sanding. Just how you go about these steps depends on the condition of the lumber, the capacity of your machinery and the final size of the glue-up.

LUMBER SELECTION:

Biscuit

If at all possible, try to have all boards in the glue-up out of the same tree. If that is not possible, select lumber that is of similar color and grain pattern. To my mind, the ideal glue-up looks like one, extremely wide board with the glue joints barely visible to the naked eye. Since this only an ideal, I always try to get as close to it as possible.

Another, less-important goal would be to have all boards in the glue-up of the same approximate width. I am not suggesting ripping the wider boards down to match the narrowest board as this would be a terrible waste of expensive lumber. I do suggest, however, ripping extremely wide boards in two to minimize the possibility of curling due to changes in humidity after delivery.

Straight or ribbon grain makes the best homogeneous final appearance while wavy or swirly grain makes for an interesting but more difficult glue-up. Swirly grain will require orientation of the individual boards to minimize the number of places that the grain line suddenly stops at the glue line rather than appearing to continue into another swirl in the adjacent board. This orientation is highly subjective.

CROSS-CUTTING TO ROUGH LENGTH

I always rough-cut my lumber into lengths an inch longer than the length of the final product. This allows the entire glue-up to be neatly trimmed to size after the glue is dry. It also makes the ripping and jointing process a lot easier as I will explain below. The same is true for the width of the glue up: Make sure it is about an inch wider than the final product after trimming.

RIPPING

Kiln or air-dried lumber often decides to bow into a curve as it dries and this must be corrected before a glue-up can be accomplished. If my finished glue-up is only 3 feet long and it is coming out of a 14-foot bowed board, it will be far easier and economical to get the curve out of the 3-foot pieces than it would to remove the curve from the entire 14-foot board before cross cutting. This is one reason that you should always do your rough cross-cutting before ripping and jointing. Another reason is that a 14-foot, 2" thick x 12" wide board is pretty difficult to control on a jointer or table saw.

If there is a bow in one or more of your rough-cut pieces, those pieces should first have the curved edges ripped off on the table saw. The concave side of the board should always be towards the fence. Measure from the fence out to the outside of the end of the board that is nearest the fence and set the fence to cut this width. Once you have trimmed off the convex side of the board, flip it over side-to-side and find the point where the outer edge of the board is closest to the fence (somewhere near the middle) and rip the board to that width. When all boards have been ripped straight, take them to the jointer.

JOINTING

The jointing process should now be fairly easy in that the boards have been ripped straight. Take shallow depth cuts to minimize the possibility of tear-out. In loose-grained lumber with a lot of swirls on the face side, tear-out is sometimes unavoidable. If this happens, try running the board over the jointer head in the opposite direction. If the tear-outs persist, you will have no other option than to rip the tear-outs away on the table saw. You will then have a sawn edge in your glue-up. If you have a clean-cutting table saw blade like a recently sharpened Forrest Woodworker II, this should not be much of a problem, especially if you plan on using a biscuit joiner to secure your glue-up. You probably won't be able to tell which glue lines are jointed and which are ripped in the final product.

GRAIN MATCHING

Lay out all the boards on your work bench and arrange them for best appearance. Obviously, if one side of the final product will show more than the other in a piece of furniture, then you will want to have the best-looking sides all on that side of the glue-up. Examples of this would be table tops and cabinet doors. You also must orient the boards so that the glue-lines are not accentuated, as discussed in the paragraph on lumber selection above.

BISCUIT JOINING

Whenever possible, make sure that you biscuit-join your glue-ups. I say, "Whenever possible" because you will not be able to use a biscuit joiner on very thin lumber. On the other hand, very thin lumber (3/8", for instance) does not usually have enough strength to pop open a joint. So, with very thin lumber, you will simply be using glue without biscuits. With regard to lumber ¾" or thicker, I have seen a number of table tops, cabinet doors and cabinet casings open up along a glue line after delivery. At this point, repairs are difficult or impossible so the extra step of biscuit joining is well worth the minor time and expense. Look on it as major headache insurance! If you don't yet own a biscuit joiner, there are a number of great machines out there including Porter Cable, Lamello and Freud. There are also two good alternatives to using a biscuit jointer: Those are the Festool Domino floating tenon joiner and the Freud Doweling Joiner. Different methods, same result.

When you have your boards laid out the way you want them in the glue-up, make sure all the ends are flush and the edge joints are touching. Double-check to make sure the glue-up will be about an inch wider than the final product after trimming. With a builder's square or a straightedge mark a pencil line in 4" in from each end of the rough glue-up across the grain, crossing all glue lines but not continuing over the side edges of the glue-up. Make a similar pencil line across the grain at the mid-point of the boards. Make additional pencil lines half-way between the other pencil lines until all pencil lines are about 6" apart.

Mark the boards on one end "A","B","C" or "1","2","3", etc. so that you can put them back together in the same order when it is time to glue them up. Put the boards aside and nail, screw or clamp a stop board (scrap) to the bench top, left to right in front of you and about a foot in from the edge of the bench. As you are applying pressure with the biscuit jointer, while making mortises for the biscuits, this stop board will keep the board you are mortising from moving away from you. Make a mortise wherever a pencil line touches a board edge on every board.

GLUE-UP AND CLAMPING

There are two ways to clamp up a glue-up: horizontally on the bench top and vertically with the first board mortised-edge-up in a woodworking vise on the end or side of the bench. In the case of horizontal glue up, place pipe or bar clamps about 2 feet apart on the bench top with the clamp handles hanging slightly over the edge of the bench. Pre-adjust the clamps to an inch larger opening than they will be when tightened. Place the first board on edge on top of and across the clamps with the mortises facing up. Do the same with all the boards, in order. Make sure you have sufficient biscuits for the job ready.

A small dispensing glue bottle with sufficient glue for the job should be within easy reach. The type of glue is important: If the glue dries too quickly you will have big problems and if the glue dries too slowly, you will be losing valuable production time. I like to use Franklin Titebond Glue indoors or Franklin Titebond II for outdoor applications. These are "aliphatic resin" type glues that can be easily cleaned up with water. Ether formula gives a very strong joint and has a reasonable, 45-minute clamping time. Both of these glues are widely available in hardware stores, home improvement centers and woodworking stores.

Run about a 1/8"-thick glue line down the center of the edge of the first board, making sure that the glue drops into every biscuit mortise along the way. Then apply short glue lines on both sides of every mortise. This should result in sufficient glue so that it appears squeezed out of both sides of every glue joint after clamping. Insert a biscuit into each mortise. With 2" lumber, you may need an extra glue line for the full length of the joint. There is no such thing as too much glue because you can wipe up the excess with a wet rag. There is, however such a thing as not enough glue and you will recognize that condition when you see that glue is not being squeezed out of the full length of both sides of the glue joint. That is called "starving the joint" and starved joints often open up later. Glue is cheap! Don't skimp on it!

Lay down the first board with the letter or number up and the mortised edge away from you. Apply glue in the same manner to each succeeding board wherever there are mortises and place biscuits in the far edge of each board, except, of course the last board.

The board ends should be flush and the left clamp should be about 6" in from the end. The right clamp should be about 1-foot six inches in from the right end. This is because you will be placing alternately spaced clamps on the top side of the glue-up so that there is a clamp (top or bottom) about every foot. The top, right clamp will be in about 6" from the right end.

Once you have all of this in place, start tightening the clamp handles. Clamp all the bottom clamps finger tight, then the top clamps finger tight. Then, go down the row of clamps tightening them fully, bottom, top, bottom, top, etc. With a wet rag, wipe off most of the excess glue. Turn over the entire glue-up and wipe the other side. Look at your watch or clock and add 45 minutes to the time. This will be the minimum clamping time, any time after which you may remove the glue-up from the clamps. Mark this time on the glue-up with a felt pen. If you have multiple glue-ups, you can stand this glue-up against a wall to get it out of the way while it dries.

If you have been paying attention to the above, then you can figure out how to do a vertical glue-up in a vise which is suitable for smaller glue-ups and is easier to manage. The difference is that when it comes time to apply the glue, you will clamp the first board at its center in the vise with the mortises facing up. Apply the glue and biscuits. Apply glue to the mating edge of the second board and place it in correct orientation on top of the first board, and so on. Place the first clamp 6" in from the end, in front, the second clamp a foot away from the first clamp, in back and so on.

Once your glue-up is out of the clamps, it is ready to be thickness sanded either in a drum sander or wide-belt sander. If you don't have either of these machines, don't worry. Most professional furniture-manufacturing shops in your area will be happy to thickness sand your glue-ups for an hourly rate. You might want to consider buying your own drum sander or wide-belt sander, if you can justify the expense.

It is best to know the maximum width capacity of the sanding machine you will be using: 48"-wide glue-ups will not pass through a 36"-wide sander. If you know that you will have this limitation in advance, simply make two, 24" glue-ups and glue those together with biscuits after the thickness sanding is complete. The glue line won't be perfectly even and so it will have to be sanded true with a random orbit sander. Your glue-up should be sanded to at least 150 grit. 220 grit is even better. Trim the glue-up on the table saw to its final dimensions, rout the edges, if appropriate, and then random orbit sand the final piece to 220 or 320 grit before finishing.

For some woodworkers, gluing up lumber may not be the most interesting part of the craft. It is one of the most important, however, because a glue-up done incorrectly can be a recipe for disaster. Furthermore, the way you orient the boards in the glue-up will have a lasting and irreversible effect of the beauty of the finished project.

Bob Gillespie

Woodworker

©2010 Robert M. Gillespie, Jr.

Woodworking 101 - How to Properly Edge-Glue Boards Into Panels

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Best Sugar Cookie Recipe?

There is nothing like a great sugar cookie recipe. Don't buy the roll of Pillsbury Dough, you can make a superb cookie that will remind you of the days when Grandma made them.

Grandma used to sit by the fire and drink her tea and Grandpa used to sip his coffee made from his French Press, before it was trendy. I loved seeing them sit there enjoying the day. When we walked in the house there were smells coming from the kitchen you just couldn't imagine. The sweet smell of warm sugar cookies invaded your senses. You knew today was going to be a treat.

Cookie

It was a tradition that we enjoyed every year. The kitchen was filled with flour storms and the counters were sticky from Buttercream frosting. We had tin cookie cutters spread all over the table. I liked the boot best, my sister liked the angel.

Grandma had a special way with those cookies and she handed down the recipe to me. I was to teach my kids how to make these wonderful holiday sweets. It wouldn't be Christmas time without this recipe of Yummy cookies.
I am publishing it because I want you to enjoy the best sugar cookie recipe ever.

Grandma's Favorite Sugar Cookie

1 cup white sugar

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter

2 eggs beaten

1 tsp cream of tarter

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

4 cups flour

½ cup corn oil

Cream the sugars and butter together. Mix the beaten eggs, vanilla and corn oil, in. Add the dry ingredients .Mix all the ingredients well and chill overnight.
Bake at 375 F for 8-10 minutes....DO NOT OVERCOOK.

We used to make the funniest colors to decorate the cookies, most of them looked inedible. They tasted heavenly, though. We figured if we made them look gross enough, the adults would leave them alone. We were wrong. Everyone knew they were Grandma's famous sugar cookies from her handed down recipe book. This page was splattered with all sorts of colors. I have that book now. I love making these cookies with my kids.

Grandma's Favorite Frosting (don't forget the food coloring)

2 cups of powdered sugar

½ cup butter melted

1 ½ T Milk

1 tsp vanilla

Cream sugar, butter and vanilla. Add a small amount of milk (1 to 2 tablespoons). Beat until fluffy. If frosting is too sweet add a little more milk.

Try it this season. Enjoy your family and brew some wonderful tea or coffee and relax. Take the time to make memories with your family or neighbors or friends.

Best Sugar Cookie Recipe?

Linda Cramer is the Owner of Oregon Gourmet Foods and Gifts. She is also the co-owner of The Baby Gift Basket Company. http://www.oregongourmetfoods.com http://www.babygiftbasketco.com

Easy Cookie Recipes With Few Ingredients

Cookie hunger can strike at any time. This is an easy cookie recipe that requires few ingredients - three ingredients, to be precise. Its simplicity and the fact that it only takes a few minutes to cook means that you never again have to be short of cookies for more than a few minutes.

Many cookie recipes require odd ingredients - or, at least, ones that you won't necessarily have in the house. This one has only three: egg, peanut butter and sugar. You don't even need flour, which means that it's perfect for coeliacs and those with gluten intolerance. This is truly the easiest cookie recipe out there. If you're pushed for time, or entertaining at short notice and need to impress without going out to the shops first, this is one to go for.

Cookie

All you need to do is mix one cup of peanut butter and one cup of sugar together with one egg. Then spoon lumps of the mixture onto a baking sheet that has been lightly greased. Cook for 10 minutes at 350 degrees (make sure you preheat the oven).

Voila: easy cookies with only three ingredients.

You can mix it up a bit if you want. These are pretty sugary and sweet, and so you can try cutting down on the sugar. Instead, try grating some chocolate into the mixture - peanut butter and chocolate is always a winning combination. White sugar will give you a different taste to brown sugar. Also, you'll find it makes a difference if you use unsalted butter. Enjoy!

Easy Cookie Recipes With Few Ingredients

Easy cookie recipes with few ingredients offers more simple and fast recipes.

See this page for a gluten-free peanut cookie recipe.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Cookie Bouquets

We've all seen them. Clusters of big, gourmet cookies, individually wrapped in shiny, colored cellophane, with bows and ribbons. They come in many styles and with different treats, toys or gift items attached to or inside a basket or vase of some sort. They make a terrific and edible gift idea. After all, who doesn't love cookies? Sadly, they can be very expensive gifts, especially when considering that cookies don't cost a whole lot to bake.

Here's how to make your own cookie bouquets at home without spending a fortune!

Cookie

What You Will Need:

* Chopsticks or Wooden Skewers - Make sure they are heat-proof. If you're baking smaller cookies, then Popsicle sticks would also work.
* Cookies - Find a delicious cookie recipe that makes larger size cookies, your favorite or your gift recipients favorite will do fine.
* Container - This needs to be a sturdy container that is a bit bottom heavy, especially if you plan to include more than a few big cookies. You can try putting some pebbles in the bottom to make sure the container won't tip over, if needed. Some ideas for containers include: a coffee mug, a metal or plastic pail, a basket, a vase, a planter, cookie jar or glass jar, glass bottle, a toy or wood box of some sort, teapot, porcelain or pottery serving ware.
* Cellophane - The shiny, colored kind looks best, but the colored plastic wrap you get at your local supermarket would work too.
* Ribbon - The curly kind works well for this. Any colors you like.
* Decorations - Anything goes! What's appropriate to the occasion and what does the gift recipient like? Some ideas include: stuffed animals, small toys, candy, balloons, fake or real flowers, stickers or whatever you find at the local craft store.
* Block of Styrofoam or florists foam - You know that stereo you bought last December? You probably kept the box, just search your garage for some spare, clean, Styrofoam.
* Something to cover up the Styrofoam or florist's foam - You can use a big ribbon, some moss, plastic grass, tissue paper crumpled up or whatever else you have handy.

Instructions:

1. When you place the cookie dough on the cookie sheet, press the dough down a bit to flatten it so that it doesn't spread too much while baking and so that the stick can be inserted properly. Before you bake the cookies, you must insert the chopstick or wooden skewer into one side of each cookie. Push it in almost the length of the cookie without going out the other end. This is an important step, as if your cookie is too big and your stick is not sturdy enough, it simply won't hold it and the cookie may fall apart when you pick it up. When baking big cookies, you probably won't be able to fit more than 3 cookies with their sticks to a sheet.

2. After baking the cookies with their sticks, cool the cookies thoroughly, then wrap each one with the colored cellophane. A different color for each cookie would be ok, or all the same color appropriate to the occasion. Tie each one with some curly ribbon at the base where the stick comes out of the cookie. Tie it very tightly so the cookies will stay fresh on the stick. You can adorn each cookie with additional, larger ribbons or bows at this point. When using curly ribbon, don't forget to curl it!

3. Now cut your Styrofoam or florist's foam to the size of the top of the container you chose. Then fit the foam in so it is nice and tight and near the top of the container. Remember, you can place something heavier in the bottom of the container so that it does not tip over. Small pebbles work well for this. Remember that the sticks will poke through the foam and into the bottom of the container.

4. Here comes the fun part, let's assemble the cookie bouquet! Take each of your cookies and stick them through the foam so they go all the way through the foam and further, near to the bottom of the container. You can assemble the cookies in any manner you like, but most cookie bouquets have one cookie at the center that is taller than the other cookies, so keep that in mind. Decorate with additional ribbons, toys, candy, flowers, gifts etc. Each item can be attached with additional ribbon to the container or the sticks of the cookies or even with a glue gun (if appropriate).

5. Give your gift and watch the smiles! Make sure to give the bouquet as soon as possible after you have assembled it, you don't want the cookies to go stale!

Tips:

Make sure you bake enough cookies for your container, if baking small cookies, you may run out if you are filling a large container. Always bake more than enough. Surely your extras won't go to waste.

Bake both large and small cookies and use them both in the bouquet for a nice varied look like a more traditional flower bouquet.

More Ideas:

Some cookie bouquets use cutout cookies, these can be fun to make and decorate. Use your favorite sugar cookie cutout recipe and cut into shapes appropriate for the occasion. For cutout cookies to work, you may want to double your sugar cookie recipe as the cookies need to be nice and thick for the stick to go through them. For this type of cookie, wooden skewers will work best, chopsticks may be too thick. Then decorate the cookies with frosting. No need for colored cellophane with these cookies, use regular plastic wrap or clear cellophane so that the beauty of your hand decorated cookies shines through.

Remember, your cookie bouquet doesn't need to look professional, it's the homemade touch that makes it a truly special gift.

How to Make Your Own Homemade Cookie Bouquets

Ricky Alberta is the editor of Cookie-Recipes.net, the premiere website for cookie recipes of all kinds including chocolate chip, sugar, peanut butter and Christmas cookie recipes, cookie baking tips, a cookie blog and message boards.