Learning to Cook Lesson Six, I Braised My Pot Roast

In this cooking lesson, I learned about the danger zone when bacteria becomes a health hazard for eating food. Once again, we flavored water, but this time I did a bit more. I learned how to save my flavored liquid as stock for cooking soups and sauces. What a money saver. Love it.
I made a couple of soups, and I learned that not everything has to be fresh off the vine to be considered good cooking. I used can tomatoes, for example, and the recipe turned out awesome. Makes my mouth water with expectation even as I write about it. Good recipe, yes. But, learning by seeing it done really gives me a sense of confidence. I can do this. I can learn how to cook, and I am. I thought I could learn how to cook with the proper instruction, but to be honest, I wasn't absolutely sure that my food would actually turn out better. Mmm mmm good.

One of my favorite meals is stew. I have a good recipe, but now my own recipe turns out much much tastier, just because I now know how to make it better. Yummy for my tummy!

Another recipe I made in this lesson is pot roast (also called braised roast). Braising using a combination of both moist and dry heat. So when I sear my roast and then put it in my slow cooker with some stock, I am braising it. Now, I love pot roast. I make it all the time, especially now that I have the slow cooker that son Steven gifted me with. It turned out dEeeelicious! 

One of the things I wanted to know [for sure] was when cutting something, do you move the knife? Or do you move the food so it passes under the knife and is cut.

Another tip I learned is that oil in the pan is hot when it glides over the surface of the pan really fast. A slow movement means that the oil is still cold or room temperature. Hot oil moves quickly over the surface of the hot pan.

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