Cooking Tips 104

Tender Meat
A good way to ensure that your meat stays tender is to marinate it in something acidic. Depending on the flavors of the recipe you're using, this could include worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, or even orange juice. A little olive oil never goes amiss either. Just be creative!

Sanitary Surfaces
When preparing vegetables and meat for the same meal, an important thing to keep in mind is the order of that preparation. Any surface (counter top, cutting board, plate, container ect...) or utensil (knives and other implements) used for raw meat should not be used for raw vegetables or other produce immediately afterwards without properly washing said surfaces and utensils. This will prevent the spread of harmful bacteria. The easiest approach is to prepare all the vegetables first (as long as the recipe allows it) and then move onto the meat, so everything only has to be washed once.

Cooking Tips 102

Moist chicken
If you want your chicken to stay nice and moist while grilling, marinate it in yogurt. This technique is often used in the Middle East and India, and adding spices like garlic, cumin and black pepper to the marinade will emulate the flavors of these areas.

Adding eggs
If any recipe requires that raw eggs be added to a hot mixture, wait until the mixture cools unless the recipe says otherwise. Raw eggs + hot mixture will actually end up cooking the eggs and the whole recipe could be ruined.

Chopping peppers
If you are preparing peppers for crudite or some other form of cooking, be sure to remove the seeds before serving or adding them. If any of your guests are not particularly fond of spicy food, this will take away much of the heat of the peppers.