To stop it moving around too much, a good cooking tip is to use a folded damp dish towel underneath your mixing bowl.
Don’t rely on it totally – but it does help.

Incidentally, covering sandwiches with a clean damp (not soggy) tea towel will help them to stay fresh.  This tip is especially useful if you’re making sandwiches a little while in advance of a party, or perhaps for a small get together  for your family and/or friends.

To cream
When you’re making a cake and the recipe says ‘cream together’, this means to beat together the fat and the sugar, until the mixture is pale and light – like whipped cream.

Dredge
Dredging is to sprinkle lightly – typically with flour or sugar.

Fold in – cutting and folding
This is when you use a metal tablespoon to very lightly combine ingredients together – so that the mixture retains its lightness. How to fold in – simply cut through the mixture with the edge of the spoon and lightly lift the ingredients over each other – until they’re combined.

Garnish
This simply means to make a dish look nice by decorating it with something edible. Such as sprigs of parsley, watercress, or lemon slices.

Julienne
This is to cut vegetables, or meat, into thin shreds – about the size of a matchstick.

Sauté
Sautéing is to cook food in a shallow pan with fat or oil, over a high heat. The pan is ’shaken’ to make the food sauter, which is the French word meaning to jump or toss, – to keep it from sticking.

Simmer
Simmering is to keep a liquid just at, or just below, boiling point. How to simmer – bring the liquid to the boil, then adjust the heat so that the surface of the liquid is kept just moving, or ’shivering’. If you see continuous bubbles then the heat is too high.

Enjoy cooking!

Au gratin
This is simply food that is coated with a sauce, and sprinkled with breadcrumbs and sometimes grated cheese too.   Then browned in the oven or under the broiler.

Bake Blind
This is to bake a pastry crust without a filling.  The simplest way to do this is to line a flan pan with pastry, then to prick the base all over with a fork.  Brushing the pastry base and sides with a little beaten egg will help to keep it crisp.  Incidentally, a good tip is to put pastry dough in a plastic bag, then to chill it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes before rolling it out.

Baste
Basting means to spoon or ladle hot fat or/and meat juices over food while it’s cooking – so that it keeps moist.

Blanch
Blanching usually means to put food into cold water, bring it to the boil and then to drain off the water.  But it can also mean to plunge the food into boiling water – this method is sometimes used to prepare food for freezing.

Blend
Blending means to mix until smooth.  But it can also mean to mix together a powder with a little cold liquid.

Bouquet garni
Traditionally in muslin but nowadays usually with kitchen twine, a bouquet garni is a small bunch of herbs tied together.  Typically made with a sprig of parsley, a sprig of thyme and a bay leaf, a bouquet garni  is generally used to flavor soups and stews

Hope you find this short cooking term glossary helpful.  Happy cooking!

Plus if you’re using fancy baking cups, a good suggestion is to use inexpensive white paper liners for the outer (2nd) liner.

Happy Baking!

P.S  Hope you have a lucky St. Patrick’s Day on March 17.

They’re just perfect for Halloween parties, and they’re sure to be a hit with the kids too!

Instead of using a fork or a potato masher try using a hand mixer. Its quicker and easier and makes lovely creamy mash, especially if you add a little butter and a drop of milk.

Remember to use a large saucepan though and to start whisking on a fairly low speed otherwise the mash tends to splatter out of the pan.
Also not too over whisk, just whisk until the potatoes are soft and free from lumps.