Cooking Exceptionally With Gin Lee

Skillet lemon cake with lemon cream cheese frosting This is a simple country-style lemon-flavored cake that's baked in a cast-iron skillet. The cake can be left plain, glazed with lemon sugar syrup, sprinkled with sugar-free or traditional powdered sugar, or served with whipped cream. The choices are endless. Today, I chose to create a lemon cream cheese frosting to enhance the lemony flavor of the cake. This cake is delightfully delicious, and it's super moist. The secret ingredient, or not so much a secret, is that I add one small box of lemon pudding mix to my cake batter. The pudding is added to the dry batter, and then mixed in with the rest of the cake ingredients. Ingredients: 2 eggs 1-1/3 cups of Splenda or sugar 6 tablespoons of canola oil 1/2 cup of milk 1 (3.4 ounce) box of lemon pudding mix 2 cups of self-rising flour 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract 2 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice (1 lemon squeezed) Zest from a lemon (For more lemon flavor, add more...

  Food With a Spooky History: What Halloween and Funeral Foods Reveal (Note : "This article contains content that may not be suitable for younger audiences.”) A cake made with urine and fed to a dog. Bread baked with charms that hinted at marriage, poverty, or death. Food with a spooky history can carry stories far stranger than its ingredients. Some tales come from records of real customs or events. Others grew through folklore, rumor, or later retellings. Separating the two helps us see what people feared, hoped for, and did together. These stories lead from Salem’s witchcraft crisis to Halloween games and funeral tables. Along the way, they show how ordinary food could hold deep meaning, even when its supposed powers were only a matter of belief. Food With a Spooky History: Salem’s Witch Cake How a cake entered a witchcraft accusation On February 25, 1692, Salem Village residents Tituba and John Indian made a “witch cake” from rye meal and the urine of girls said to be afflicte...

  How to Be a Smart Prepper in the Kitchen and Keep Meals Safe During Disruptions A power outage can turn a well-stocked kitchen into a food-safety problem within hours. Learning how to be a smart prepper in the kitchen helps your household stay fed, hydrated, and safe during storms, illness, supply delays, or sudden money stress. Good preparation uses normal groceries, sound storage, and cooking skills you can practice now. It does not require a basement packed with food that nobody eats. A useful kitchen emergency plan matches your household, rotates supplies, protects water and food, and includes safe ways to cook without power. Build a Food Reserve That Fits Your Household A practical food reserve begins with your real needs. Count household members, available storage space, medical diets, allergies, and the types of disruptions most likely in your area. A short outage calls for a different plan than a storm that blocks roads for several days. Calculate Your Household Food Need...

Old Dried Beans? Use Baking Soda to Help Soften Them You’ve soaked dried beans, simmered them for hours, and they’re still firm. Before tossing the pot, check the beans: old dried beans may still be usable, and baking soda can help soften them. But the result depends on how the beans were stored, what kind you’re cooking, and how hard your water is. A small amount of baking soda may speed softening, but it can also affect flavor and texture. Use it with care, inspect the beans first, and cook them thoroughly. Age alone doesn’t mean a bag belongs in the trash. Why Old Dried Beans Can Stay Hard Age can affect how beans cook Dried beans can become harder to cook as they sit in storage. Researchers call this the “hard-to-cook” phenomenon: under some conditions, beans take much longer to soften, even after soaking. It can happen with older beans, but age alone doesn’t guarantee a problem. Heat and humidity can speed quality loss. A bag stored for years in a warm, damp cupboard may cook less...

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Cheeseburger in 2026? Compare Your Burger With Past Years A homemade cheeseburger costs about $3.20 in ingredients in 2026, based on a standard 4-ounce beef patty and retail grocery prices. A restaurant may spend about $5.00 to $5.50 to produce a similar burger after adding labor, packaging, utilities, waste, and overhead. The customer may pay $7 to $12 for the burger alone, or $10 to $16 as part of a meal. The phrase “cost to make” can describe three different numbers: ingredient cost, full restaurant production cost, or the final menu price. This comparison uses a consistent homemade burger basket, then adds a separate restaurant cost model. The 2026 figures are estimates because August 2026 does not provide a completed annual average. The true cost of making a cheeseburger depends on the expenses included A cheeseburger is a useful inflation case study because it combines farm goods, factory-made food, labor, transport, energy, and rent. Beef follows ...

The Unsung Hero of Comfort Food: Mastering Classic Spaghetti Carbonara Forget the cream, the peas, the chicken – we're diving headfirst into the soul-stirring, deceptively simple world of authentic Spaghetti Carbonara. This isn't just pasta; it's a creamy, dreamy, peppery hug in a bowl, a testament to how a few humble ingredients, treated with respect, can create pure magic. Ready to unlock the secrets to this Roman masterpiece? The Sacred Trinity: Guanciale, Eggs, and Pecorino Romano Let's get one thing straight from the get-go: true Carbonara is built on a foundation of three non-negotiable pillars. Mess with these, and you’re venturing into territory that, while perhaps tasty, is no longer Carbonara. First up is guanciale. This is cured pork jowl, and it’s the undisputed king of Carbonara. Its fat renders down into a rich, intensely savory liquid that forms the base of our sauce. Forget pancetta, and definitely forget bacon. Guanciale has a unique, slightly gamey fla...

  Ready, Set, Spook! Gin Lee's Top 5 Favorite Halloween Costumes for 2026 Can you believe it’s already 2026? Time really does fly when you’re busy scrolling through costume catalogs and debating whether to go as a classic horror icon or a contemporary pop culture phenomenon. If you are still scratching your head wondering what to wear this October 31st, don’t worry because Gin Lee at “ Cooking Exceptionally With Gin Lee ” has got you covered. Halloween is more than just a holiday; it’s a creative outlet, a chance to connect with friends, and let’s be honest, a great excuse to eat candy. But choosing the perfect outfit can sometimes feel like a mission in itself. To help you save time (and stress), we’ve analyzed the latest trends, search data, and pop culture moments to bring you the definitive list of the Top 5 Halloween Costumes for 2026. From high-octane animated musicals to nostalgic throwbacks, here is everything you need to know to nail your look this year. 1. K-Pop Demon Hun...