Hostess Gifts for the Holidays

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Every hostess appreciates the guest who recognizes all of his/her efforts with a thoughtful hostess gift. At For Your Kitchen, we have a large variety of gifts already to pick up for Thanksgiving dinner, holiday parties and that special person you need something truly unique for.

These “You are Special” plates are so fun to have to celebrate special occasions. Our family always uses ours for birthdays, but they can be used for any day you want your loved ones to feel truly celebrated.

This delicious gourment Dark Chocolate, Sea Salt Caramel sauce from Stonewall Kitchen, complete with ice cream dish and spoon would be a fun surprise for those friends and loved ones with taste buds for the truly special.

Stonewall Kitchen Pancake and Waffle Mix with Butter Pecan Syrup would definitely start the day on a delicious note.

Stonewall Kitchen carries a variety of unique foods and sauces, this Red Pepper Jelly is a fun change from the classics. This darling spreading knife adds just the right touch.

Give the bread lover on your list this fun set of olive oil and spices as well as glass dipping bowels.

For that person who loves a fun twist on a classic.

Give a brownie in a cup (ramekin)! Delicious and fun way to eat your dessert.

This cute gift contains all you need to put together a perfect cheese platter appetizer.

All these and many more gifts are ready for pick up at For Your Kitchen. Get a jump on your holiday shopping and stop by today!

Dinner Rolls

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No Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without rolls, and in this dinner roll recipe we will give you a few tips and tricks to make sure your rolls come out fluffy and delicious.

Dinner Rolls
5 c Flour (give or take, see tip for adding flour below)
3 Tbs sugar
5 Tbs oil
1 pkg yeast (about 2 1/2 tsp)
1 c milk
1 tsp salt
1/2 c water

Combine milk, sugar and oil and heat in microwave until lukewarm. Dissolve yeast in water and let the mixture “proof” (see explanation below) for 10 minutes, add yeast mixture to milk mixture and mix. While mixing, add flour and salt a little at a time until dough is pulling away from sides of bowel, but is still sticky

Place dough in a bowel prepared with non-stick spray and cover with plastic wrap (also spray plastic wrap with non-stick spray). Let rise until double in bulk (about 1 hour). Roll dough out to 1/2 inch thick and cut into circles. Place rolls on pan sprayed with non-stick cooking spray and let rise 30 minutes.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and cook rolls 12-15 minutes, until roll is golden brown on top (and bottom).
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You can usually skip this step if using instant yeast, but I always proof my yeast. This is done to make sure that it is still “active”, which means that the dough will rise later on (without the dough rising, your rolls will be flat and dense…not very good). Place yeast in water (this recipe doesn’t call for sugar with it, but proofing is usually done with a pinch of sugar, you can add one if you want), for about 10 minutes the yeast will foam on the top of the water. If you don’t get foam on the top, your yeast has gone bad.

The splash guard is perfect for when you start adding your flour. It keeps it all in the bowel, which doesn’t always happen without it (we know this from experience…)

Tip for adding flour-You know the dough has enough flour when it starts to pull away from the side of the bowel but is still sticky. The last few cups of flour I add very slowly in case I need more or less than my recipe calls for.

Your end result will be warm, soft, golden brown dinner rolls. We always double our triple this recipe because they go so quickly!

The Holidays With Bosch

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Without a doubt, most of us do more cooking/baking around the holidays than any other time of the year. There are so many appliances out there to make your life easier when it comes to preparing your holiday meals, but which ones are worth the money you spend on them and won’t take up every last inch of your kitchen storage?

We feel that the Bosch Universal Mixer is one of those indispensable appliances. The beauty of the Bosch Mixer, is that it comes with so many attachments, you won’t have to buy scores of appliances that fill up your cupboards.

The Bosch Mixer is a must have for the cook who bakes, especially dough breads. The large bowel can hold up to 15 lbs of dough and is very easy to clean up (and clean up is our least favorite part of baking!). The bowel cover and splash ring make baking with flours or powdered sugars much easier to contain and help when working with large quantities of dough.

One of our favorite attachments is the Universal Slicer Shredder. This attachment makes slicing potatoes or vegetables so easy (which is always a bonus when putting together a big dinner for family or friends). With prep time cut down you have more time to put together those recipes saved for special occasions!

What “do it all” kitchen appliance would be complete without a blender? The Universal Plus Complete Blender Utilizes the 800 watt motor and is strong enough for your tough blending jobs from crushing ice to nuts. It’s also perfect this time of year for blending sauces and dressings.

The last attachment we will highlight is the food processor. Food processors come in so handy during the holidays and this one is especially nice attaching right to your Bosch Mixer.

Right now at For Your Kitchen, the Bosch Mixer is on sale for $399.99! Another option is our Bundle and Save promotion which includes a Bosch Mixer, Blender and Shredder/Slicer for $479.98.

We also carry parts for your Bosch mixer to keep it running smoothly for years to come. Feel free to call us and talk with our Bosch experts at 800-919-1175.

Pressure Cookers – Certainly one of my top ten kitchen accessories!

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Pressure Cookers – What's the big deal any way?

Pressure cooking is very fast (30-80% less cook time), less expensive to use (less energy usage), far less heat generated (great for summer), retains nutrients & flavors! Highlighted below are various benefits.

Fast – Cooking with pressure cookers takes an average of 1/3 the cooking time of conventional cooking methods.
Cooler – Great for cooking in the summer! Because pressure cookers contain the heat inside the pan they require less heat and less time to cook, these to factors lead to far less heat being generated than other ways of cooking!
Ecological – Save 70% of energy normally consumed during cooking. Pressure cookers pay for themselves over time in energy savings alone.
Healthy – Pressure Cookers redefines the term "fast food." Cook high-fiber, low-fat foods in record time. Preserve vitamins and essential nutrients.

We recommend Kuhn Rikon Pressure Cookers – Made in Switzerland, heavy gauge stainless steel construction with incorporated aluminum base (Better heat distribution – less sticking & better results), 5 separate safety features, so you know you and your family will be safe using this pressure cooker, & a 10 year warranty!

Electric pressure cookers have started to become popular as they add the convenience of turning themselves off (a timer). I still prefer the stove-top Model of pressure cookers as they are faster to pressure up and are a more durable product. I have purchased a small Induction burner (induction is incredibly fast and energy efficient – probably and article of it's own) which allows me to set a timer and use my stove-top pressure cookers just like you would an electric pressure cooker!

We also teach classes on pressure cooking – click here to check out our current line up of cooking classes!

It’s Starting to get hot – Keep your cool – We’ll help!

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It is starting to get hot outside. Cool down with your favorite flavor of snow-cone. We stock an assortment of popular flavors:

Tiger’s Blood
Orange Cream
Grape Pomeganate
Cream Soda
Root Beer
Watermelon
Grape
Cherry
Red Raspberry
Blue Raspberry
Lime
Tropical Punch
Pina Colada

Recieve 20% OFF now until 6/30/2013 by using promo code: snow613

It’s about bloggin time!!

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We now have a blog and hope to give you more timely, consistent and interactive information about our store, merchandise, classes, cooking tips, etc…

If you have information that you would like us to review in a blog post please let us know. we would like to hear from you. If you have a question that you think we may be able to answer let us give it a try.

Maybe you would like to see us carry new products….. We have recently added Paper Straws and Colored Bakers Twine to our selection because of so many customer requests. Please keep these product requests coming. Paper Straws - New Product @ For Your Kitchen