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.

All you need to make an easy Thanksgiving centerpiece is just a few autumnal elements that suggest an abundant harvest.

Here’s a list of just some of the items that are often used to make Thanksgiving table decorations.

Basket – perhaps a cornucopia basket.
Cake Stand
Compote
Jug or pitcher
Vase
Seasonal flowers – the red, yellow, and orange, hues of dahlias, chrysanthemums, or roses, work really well.
Mini pumpkins –  a larger pumpkin can make an unusual vase.
Gourds
Apples
Pears
Grapes – both red and green would be a good choice.
Pomegranates
Acorns
Wheat
Nuts – maybe chestnuts, hazelnuts, or walnuts.
Candles
Autumn foliage – perhaps oak leaves, or berry branches, or other Fall branches with their autumn fruits (like quince) or russet colored leaves.

PS. Your farmers’ market or grocery store is a great place to find affordable, seasonal flowers, fruit, and vegetables.  Also, this year, why not get the kids involved in making their own special Thanksgiving centerpieces.

Some cooks like to roast their pumpkin seeds in the oven, and some like to toast them in a skillet (frying pan).  Here are two simple recipes that tell you how:

Ingredients
Pumpkin seeds
A little olive oil
Coarse salt

Method
1.  Put the pumpkin seeds into a colander, and rinse under cold running water.

2.  Drain, and then dry the seeds well on paper towel.

3.  Lightly oil a cookie sheet.

4.  Spread out the pumpkin seeds in a single layer on the cookie sheet.

5.  Sprinkle with salt.

6.  Toss to lightly coat with the oil and the salt.

7.  Turning occasionally bake in the oven at 350 degrees, until the seeds are puffed and browned.

………………………………………………………………

Ingredients
Pumpkin seeds
A little olive oil, or vegetable oil
Coarse salt
Pepper

Method
1.  Heat a little oil in a skillet (frying pan)

2.  Add the pumpkin seeds.

3.  Turning frequently cook until brown – this doesn’t take very long.

4.  When done remove from the heat and drain the seeds on paper towel.

5.  Place the pumpkin seeds in a small bowl, season with salt and  pepper, and toss until lightly coated.

We hope you try, and enjoy, these easy pepitas recipes.  Happy Halloween!

But these spooky cutters are not just great for making cookies, they’re also ghoulishly good for cutting sandwiches into fun shapes.

This simple Halloween treat for kids is really easy to achieve, and it’s sure to be a hit with your children too!

Here’s some quick finger food ideas:

• Tea sandwiches – English cucumber sandwiches, or cream cheese and smoked salmon sandwiches, are always a favorite.

• Canapés – crackers, or small pieces of buttered bread or toast cut in to shapes, and topped with foods like blue cheese blended with butter, make great snacks for parties.

• Cheese straws

• Breadsticks

• Olives – why not serve different kinds of olives in a pretty glass bowl.

• Fruit platters – seedless grapes, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, mandarins, and cherries, all work really well.

• Cruditiés with a homemade or store bought dip – sticks of carrot, celery, and cucumber, plus cherry tomatoes, and cauliflower florets, served with a sour cream and chive dip, would be a good choice.

• Tortilla chips

• Crusty baguettes – sliced on an angle and buttered

• Crackers

• Paté

• Salad – lettuce, cherry tomatoes, English cucumber – peeled and thinly sliced, scallions (green onions or spring onions), plus small chunks of red, yellow and green pepper, make a tasty selection.

• Cheese board – cheddar, brie, gorgonzola and  blue stilton,  are just a few of the fine cheeses you could pick.

• Radishes arranged on a bed of sea salt, and served with slices of buttered baguette.

• Nuts – shelled walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, and cashews work well.

• Figs – stemmed and quartered.

• Individually wrapped candy or chocolates – these are always a hit with party guests.

• Meat platters – slices of roast beef and ham are sure to please.

• Pickles

Melon on toothpicks
To make you will need
1 cantaloupe melon
1 charantais melon, or a melon or watermelon of your choice
Melon baller
Toothpicks (cocktail sticks)

How to
First cut the melons in half, and discard the seeds.  Then, using a melon baller, scoop out as much of the flesh as you reasonably can.  Now simply thread one or two melon balls onto a toothpick – repeat until you have as many appetizers as you need.  Serve chilled.

Here’s a couple of variations on this easy party food idea
*  Halve a cantaloupe melon, and scoop out the seeds.  Next cut each half into 6 wedges.  Remove the peel.  Then cut the melon wedges into bite-size chunks.  Now, wrap a thin strip of Parma ham around each melon chunk, and secure with a toothpick.

*  Halve a charantais melon.  Then remove the pips and fibers.  Now cut the melon into slices.  Remove the skin, then cut the flesh of the melon into bite-size cubes.  Next wrap each melon cube in smoked salmon and pierce with a toothpick.

Incidentally, sprigs of mint, lemon wedges, arugula (rocket) leaves, or black olives, make a nice decoration for a melon ball, a melon chunk and Parma ham, or a charantais melon cube wrapped in smoked salmon, platter.

Cooks tip
You can often find charantais melons in supermarkets or at farmers’ markets.  Charantais melons are small melons, with a pale green to cream skin.  They have deep orange colored flesh.  And they’re just perfect for making easy hors d’oeuvres.

After gathering your bunch of nature’s winter finery, fill a glass vase two-thirds full with tap water – a glass vase that’s wider at the base than at the top, and about 5 inches or so high, is a good kind to use.  Then – cutting the end off of each stem as you go – arrange your stems of greenery, blooms, and berries one by one in your vase.

And there you have it – a Christmas centerpiece that’s easy to make and inexpensive too!

Incidentally, depending on the region in which you live – and of course the weather – you may have some forsythia flowering in your garden.  If so the branches of the forsythia shrub, with their pretty yellow flowers, are just perfect for this kind of Christmas table arrangement.

Happy Christmas!

The moon glows eerily bright
As witches on broomsticks begin their flight
Down In the streets roam the green eyed cats
While low in the sky fly the scary bats
Ghosts walk free in the cold night air
Go out tonight if you dare.

Happy Halloween!

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!