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To heat or be heated until the liquid inside reaches a temperature at which it bubbles.

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A boil-water alert affecting people in Livonia and parts of Farmington Hills was lifted Wednesday morning after tests confirmed there was no bacterial contamination in the system.

The alert was issued Saturday after a DTE power failure at a water pumping facility that serves the area. In the school system, the advisory was coupled with a 90-degree day on Monday, and Livonia Public Schools requested that parents send their students to class with bottled water.

None of that is necessary any longer.

Not that the water was ever actually contaminated - testing never showed it, according to a release from the city. The advisory was issued out of an "extreme caution," the city's Public Works department said Wednesday in a statement.

Livonia has about 94,000 residents, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau estimates

Read or Share this story: http://detne.ws/2snD43E

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A boil-water alert affecting people in Livonia and parts of Farmington Hills was lifted Wednesday morning after tests confirmed there was no bacterial contamination in the system. The alert was issued Saturday after a DTE power failure at a water pumping facility that serves the area.

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A sauce made from milkand a white roux.

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Classic Smooth and Silky Béchamel (White Sauce) Recipe

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Béchamel is one of the mother sauces in classic French cooking, and one of the most important sauces to learn for all sorts of dishes, French and otherwise. It's a key ingredient in soufflé, a classic Bolognese lasagna, and even old-school mac and cheese. And it's incredibly easy to make.

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To beat or stir (a substance, especially cream or eggs) with a light, rapid movement.

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This stainless-steel Threshold Large Whisk is a handy tool for mixing up eggs, pancake batter and much more easily. This whisk consists of a long, narrow handle with a series of wire loops joined at the end.

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An even mixture of fat (butter) and flour, used as a thickening agent.

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Roux () is flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooked to the desired level of brownness.

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the chemical breakdown of a substance by bacteria, yeasts, or other microorganisms, typically involving effervescence and the giving off of heat.

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Use of anaerobic cell respiration in yeasts to produce ethanol and carbon dioxide in baking

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To fry something lightly in a little hot fat.

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How can you use a few basic ingredients to make dinner-fast? In a word: sauté. This versatile cooking technique can be used to create a wide variety of sensational dishes. Find out what one pan and a few items can do to transform meal preparation from time-consuming to simple.

The Everyd ay Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking
Learn the foundational culinary skills you need to turn out delicious and impressive meals in this highly useful course.

In all of cookery, there are only four cooking techniques: dry-heat cooking with fat, dry-heat cooking without fat, moist-heat cooking, and combination cooking. Dry-heat cooking with fat embraces sautéing and stir-frying. The significance of using oil, or fat, instead of water in this technique is that oil allows the use of very high temperatures, which allow your food to brown very effectively. Browned food not only looks great, but it also has great flavor. Steak, chicken, and fish are tender proteins that respond well to dry-heat cooking with fat.

Which Foods Are Appropriate for Sautéing?

Because sautéing is a high-heat cooking technique, you have to be careful what you cook using this method. There's nothing about highheat that will make food become more tender, so anything that is already tender-such as a chicken breast, steak, or piece of fish-would be appropriate for sautéing. If you tried to sauté something that is tough, such as a beef shank, it would brown, but it would not become tender.

Browning Reactions

Browning is a high-heat cooking technique that reaches temperatures above 300 degrees. In those temperature ranges, some browning reactions take place. For example, caramelization, in which sugars begin to brown, happens at about 300 to 310 degrees. In addition, the Maillard reaction takes place between proteins and carbohydrates, and while it begins at about 250 degrees, it is in full form at above 300 degrees. The Maillard reaction not only offers the brown color that develops, but it also results in hundreds of flavor and aroma compounds. In general, browning translates into flavor

Sauté Tools

A sautoir is a type of sauté pan that has straight sides while a sauteuse is a type of sauté pan that has curved sides. The straight sides of a sautoir are great for creating a sauce with a lot of liquid while the curved sides of a sauteuse are great for flipping food in a pan because the curved sides help the food jump back on itself.

The process of making chicken marsala utilizes sautéing, which is a type of dry-heat cooking with fat. Start by seasoning both sides of some chicken breasts with a little bit of salt and pepper.

Make sure that you use a sauté pan that is on the larger side because if the pan is too small, then the chicken will not brown-instead, it will just simmer in its own liquid. Alternatively, if the pan is too large, then there will be portions of the pan that will not have food, and because there is nothing to absorb the excess heat, the oil is going to burn in those areas where there is no food. Because sautéing is a high-heat technique, you want to begin with plenty of heat in the thermal mass of the pan. Therefore, start with the burner of the stove turned up all the way. Then, add any oil that has a high smoke point, such as canola oil, which is able to tolerate the high heat involved in sautéing.

Because sautéing is a high-heat technique, you want to begin with plenty of heat in the thermal mass of the pan. Therefore, start with the burner of the stove turned up all the way. Then, add any oil that has a high smoke point, such as canola oil, which is able to tolerate the high heat involved in sautéing.

Once the oil begins to creep around the pan and you notice the first few wisps of smoke, the oil has reached its smoke point, so you want to add the chicken to the pan to bring the temperature down. When you put the chicken in the pan, make sure to put it in away from you so that you don't burn yourself. If you ignore the first few wisps of smoke, the smoke point will quickly turn into the flash point.

When you put the chicken in the pan, make sure to put it in away from you so that you don't burn yourself. If you ignore the first few wisps of smoke, the smoke point will quickly turn into the flash point.

When you notice that some browning is beginning to take place, turn the temperature down just a little bit. As a general rule, cook chicken for eight minutes per inch of thickness, but regulate the heat so that the chicken doesn't brown too much too early in the process.

Once the sizzling in the pan starts to subside, you need to determine when it is appropriate to turn the chicken over so that the other side can cook. You want the browning on the first side to have progressed to the point where the fat has rendered out of the skin. Look for a nice golden color and then turn it over and cook it on the second side. When you stop hearing the sizzling once you have turned the chicken over, the chicken should be done cooking. The chicken should have a golden color on both sides, and the skin should be crispy.

Let the chicken rest in a warm spot while you make the sauce that will accompany the chicken. Allowing the chicken to rest for a little while will result in a juicier piece of meat because as the chicken cooked, pressure built up inside of the meat, and if you were to cut into it too quickly, that pressure would allow all the juices to flow out. As the chicken rests, the temperature and pressure begin to subside, and the juices remain where they should be.

Some of the liquid that is left in the pan after the chicken is done cooking is the fat, in the form of oil, that you started with, and some of it is the juices that came out of the chicken as it cooked. In order to separate the fat from the liquid so that you are left with just the chicken essence, put the pan back on the stove over heat and boil the liquid until it is dry.

What's left will cling to the pan, and at that point, you can pour the excess fat out of the pan. Depending on how much moisture is in the liquid, this may take a minute or two, but don't let the liquid get so dark that it burns and becomes bitter. The brown residue that is found on the bottom of the pan after you pour most of the fat out is called fond and will become the basis of the sauce that will accompany the chicken.

To start, put the pan back on the heat and add some minced shallots and sliced mushrooms to it. When the fond seems like it is getting too dark, deglaze the pan by introducing a little bit of white wine, such as sauvignon blanc. Then, add some marsala, which is a sweet wine. The addition of the wine will bring the temperature of the pan down.

Use some tongs to scrape the residue off the bottom of the pan. This should taste rich, savory, and a little acidic because of the wine. Let the liquid in the pan simmer, reducing it until it is nearly dry-what the French would call à sec. If you decide you want a larger amount of sauce, you can also introduce some chicken stock, which reinforces the flavor of chicken as it reduces.

While the liquid simmers, add a bay leaf and a branch of thyme, just to make the flavor more complex.

As soon as the pan is almost dry, add some cream to it. You need enough sauce for all of the chicken breasts you cooked, but don't be too generous because if you add too much cream, it will water down the flavor of the sauce. As this liquid reduces even further, it will start to thicken.

Once the sauce is done, you can turn down the heat and place the chicken into the pan with the sauce-just to warm it up very briefly. The sauce should be fairly assertive because it has to flavor the entire dish, so it may need to be more assertive than you would expect it to taste on its own. You want the sauce to coat the back of a spoon while still being a liquid- which is referred to in French as nappé. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, swirling each in.

Then, remove the bay leaf and thyme. Finally, put the chicken-along with some sauce-on a plate and put a little bit of chopped parsley on top to add some color to this dish.

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The Everyd ay Gourmet: Rediscovering the Lost Art of Cooking Learn the foundational culinary skills you need to turn out delicious and impressive meals in this highly useful course. In all of cookery, there are only four cooking techniques: dry-heat cooking with fat, dry-heat cooking without fat, moist-heat cooking, and combination cooking.

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To work something into dough. Kneading helps the bread expand and spread out.

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Baking Bread 101: How to Knead Bread Dough to Perfection

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Kneading bread dough can be one of the most enjoyable steps of bread baking. Follow these instructions to learn how to use your hands when kneading dough.

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A cooking technique in which a bread or dough product is partially baked and then rapidly frozen for storage.

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Gourmet Take and Bake Pizza : Marina Del Rey, CA : Patty's Gourmet Pizza

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Individually hand crafted, Patty's award winning par-baked pizza crusts have a unique artisan appearance.

We ensure that our par-baked crusts are perfect every time by utilizing only the highest quality all natural American sourced ingredients. Patty's pizza is free of colorings, flavorings, additives and preservatives. Patty's par-baked pizza crusts are sure to save you time and labor by offering freezer to oven ease. Our crusts are produced in a variety of recipes and thicknesses.
Flat breads, full and half sheet pans are available. Patty's can produce custom sizes to fit proprietary specifications. All of our gourmet par baked pizza crusts can be topped with our freshly made signature pizza sauce and custom 4-cheese blend.
Most Popular Flavors: Classic, Wheat with a touch of honey and Herb (rosemary, dill and basil)

*Proprietary recipes upon request.

INGREDIENTS:

Classic: Unbleached Flour, Water, Sugar, Eggs, Salt, Yeast, Canola Oil and Olive Oil

Wheat with a touch of honey: Unbleached Flour, Whole Wheat Flour, Water, Yeast, Honey, Salt, Canola Oil and Olive Oil

Herb: Unbleached Flour, Water, Sugar, Eggs, Salt, Yeast, Canola Oil, Olive Oil, Rosemary, Dill and Basil

Custom sizes are available with many of our dough formulation! *Extra Proof (XP) is an extended proofing process resulting in a thicker, light crispy crust.
Gluten free pizza crusts

Expanding upon our tradition of artisanal products, Patty's Pizza offers exceptional tasting, gluten-free pizza crusts. Our delicious, crispy gluten-free pizza crusts are free of dairy, soy, peanuts and tree nuts. We believe that a restricted diet should not mean a restricted food experience!

INGREDIENTS:

GF Vegan Crust: Water, Rice Flour, Modified Rice Starch, Potato Starch, Olive Oil, Evaporated Cane Sugar, Tapioca Flour, Potato Flour, Fresh Yeast, Salt, Xanthan Gum and Calcium Sulfate

BAKING INSTRUCTIONS:

All baking times and temperatures are approximate. For best results pre-heat oven. If bubbling occurs, puncture with fork.

STANDARD OVEN, CONVECTION, OR DECK OVEN

Bake at 475 - 500 degrees

Slide pizza onto oven rack, pizza stone or a lightly oiled sheet pan (adjust oven rack to middle shelf for standard oven)

Bake for approximately 5 - 8 minutes, rotate pizza half way thru cooking time if baking uneven

CONVEYOR OVEN

Bake at 450 - 500 degrees

Slide pizza directly on conveyor belt for optimum baking

Bake for approximately 4 - 8 minutes depending on the size of the conveyor

Patty's par baked pizza crusts bake extremely quickly in TurboChef and Merrychef ovens.
STORAGE SUGGESTIONS:

Shelf Life Refrigerated: 3 days

Shelf Life Frozen: 6 months

Keep par-baked products frozen or refrigerated until ready to bake

Do not refreeze thawed product

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Par Baked Pizza Crusts : Patty's Gourmet Take & Bake Pizza

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Individually hand crafted, Patty's award winning par-baked pizza crusts have a unique artisan appearance. We ensure that our par-baked crusts are perfect every time by utilizing only the highest quality all natural American sourced ingredients. Patty's pizza is free of colorings, flavorings, additives and preservatives.

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A pastry blender is a kitchen tool used to mix a hard fat into flour in order to make pastries. The tool is usually made of narrow metal strips or wires attached to a handle, and is used by pressing down on the items to be mixed.

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A pastry brush, also known as a basting brush, is a cooking utensil used to spread butter, oil or glaze on food.

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The biscuit method is a method for making quick breads such as scones and biscuits.The biscuit method is one of the only mixing methods that does not require you to have all of your ingredients at room temperature. Your fats and liquids should be cold for the biscuit method.

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Working solid shortening into dry ingredients with two knives or a pastry blender until well mixed.

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Sour cream is a leavening agent which means it helps baked goods rise.

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A crumbly topping or filling made from fat, flour, sugar, often cinnamon.

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Lightly mixing liquid ingredients into dry ingredients, creating a product with a slightly course but tender texture.

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Mixing a lighter substance into a heavier one, like batter, using a large bowl and a rubber spatula.

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A white crystalline, acidic powder used to help byproduct the baking soda.

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Cookies made by shaping dough by hand into small balls, logs, and other shapes.

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Learn the secrets to baking cutout cookies with neat edges, that won't spread as they bake! You'll fall in love with baking and decorating cutout cookies.
**This post originally appeared on my old blog, YinMom YangMom, and has now been updated with the above video, as well as brand-new, pretty pics! Everything else is exactly the same as it's ever been.**
With less than a few weeks left 'til the most cookie-centric holiday on the calendar, I'm sure all my baking peeps are knee-deep in flour, sugar, and butter right about now! So I'm spilling my best cookie baking secrets to you all, in the spirit of giving...

Almost every baking blog I visit has a post or a FAQ devoted to the subject, "How do you bake cookies that don't spread all over the place in the oven, hold their pretty shape, and have nice, neat edges???" It was not too long ago that I was myself searching for the answer to this age-old cookier question. And when I want something, I do not rest until I've nailed it! After much research, and much experimentation, I've decided to put everything I've learned on this subject into one comprehensive post.

I do realize that after reading this post, there is a very good chance that your cookies will now be as pretty, if not even PRETTIER, than mine. But I have learned SO much from the many talented baker/bloggers out there, and they've given so generously! It's because of them that I've been able to build this hobby that I'm so fulfilled by! It simply would not be fair for me to keep this stuff to myself. It's too good! And what's the point of a site like this anyway, if not to inspire???

So, let's dive in!

I developed this cut-out cookie recipe myself, but based it on a few of my favorite cookie bloggers' recipes.

LilaLoa: End-All for Chocolate Cookies
Sweetopia: Gingerbread Cookies
Bake at 350: Biscoff Cutouts (which I sometimes sub peanut or sunflower seed butter for the Biscoff- either way, hello, YUM!)
In Katrina's Kitchen: Best Sugar Cookie Recipe
The Sweet Adventures of SugarBelle: Basic Sugar Cookie Recipe

The changes/tweaks/modifications I've made to their formulas produce cookies that are kinda soft, but a little crunchier around the edges, with a mouthfeel somewhere between a sugar cookie and a shortbread. Scroll all the way to the bottom of this post, for my basic vanilla recipe.

But first, some of my best tips:

1. Don't Bother Softening the Butter: I like to use cold, cubed butter when I make the dough. Two reasons: 1) I'm lazy, and impatient, and I don't always plan ahead. I don't want to wait for the extra step of softening the butter. When that cookie baking urge strikes, I just want to go for it! 2) It also saves the step of chilling the dough before baking, which is another trick a lot of bakers use to help their cookies keep their shape. If you work quickly, the butter is still pretty cold when it goes into the oven, so the dough holds its shape better and doesn't get all melty and slide all over the baking sheet.

2. Leave Out the Leavening: Now, you may notice that my recipe contains no leavening of any kind. If you think about the purpose of baking powder in a recipe, it's to help things puff up and spread out (hello!?), and be light and fluffy. Light and fluffy is great in a muffin or a pancake, but we are talking cookies, here, people. They are meant to have a little bite to them. Perhaps they are a little bit heavier, but in this instance, you kinda want that. Odds are, you are either shipping your cookies or delivering them by car, and if they are too light and delicate, they're more likely to break. So, this is going to give you a more durable cookie, and I promise you, they are still every bit as delicious.

3. The Magic Ingredient: This is the biggest key to the whole business, and maybe the only thing that you won't find on any other blog out there (that I've seen, anyway). THE CORNSTARCH. It's pure witchcraft. I discovered it totally by accident, when searching for a way to make my gluten-free cookies less grainy and sandy textured. I had read that cornstarch can give shortbread a "meltaway" texture, and I thought I'd give it a go in my GF flour mix. It really does help, incidentally, but I also noticed that it made the dough SUCH a pleasure to work with! It is NOT sticky at all, nor is it crumbly. It just stays right where you want it. And those edges! I about died...! SO clean and perfect! Now I use it in every kind of batch, in every flavor. I just can't live without it. Try it, you'll see! Just sub out a little of the flour for cornstarch, in any recipe. It's like magic!

4. Make Parchment Your Bestie: Also, definitely try rolling your dough between two layers of parchment paper. It is absolutely no-muss no-fuss! Between the silky, UNcrumbly texture of this dough, and the parchment thing, I barely even need to wipe my countertops after making these cookies! **No bench flour!** (Which, by the way, can also make a tougher, less tender cookie.) I also line my baking sheets with it, and besides keeping things from sticking, it keeps the pans cleaner too! My cookies bake on parchment, and then I lay them on the same sheets to dry after decorating, so each sheet gets double duty. Here are the baking sheets I use, and here is where I order my parchment.

5. Crank Up the Oven Temperature: Finally, you may notice that I recommend baking the cookies at a higher temperature, for a shorter time. This allows the cookie to "set up" more quickly, and hold it's shape during baking, so again, less melty-slidey.

I hope these tips and tricks inspire you to get out your mixer and create some beautiful holiday cookies. Honestly, there was a time when I felt daunted by the idea, but thanks to a lot of inspiration from the talented ladies I mentioned above, and now that I've worked out my recipe and this system, it's totally painless!

Do you like to bake and decorate cookies at this time of year? What is your favorite kind to make? Have you struggled with too-spread-out cookies and sloppy edges? Do you have any sanity-saving tricks to make it easier? Please share!

Vanilla Cutout Cookies that Don't Spread

Learn the secrets to baking cutout cookies with neat edges, that won't spread as they bake! You'll fall in love with baking and decorating cutout cookies.

Yield: about 30 cookies, depending upon the size of your cutter

Ingredients:

Directions:

I also have a chocolate cutout cookie recipe, that's every bit as good as this one, if not even better! And a gingerbread one! Now be sure to grab my favorite royal icing recipe - it's the perfect way to decorate your cutout cookies.

For even more great cookie recipes, be sure to follow my " Cookie Recipes Galore " Pinterest Board!

This post contains affiliate sales links.

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Vanilla Cutout Cookies that Don't Spread

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Learn the secrets to baking cutout cookies with neat edges, that won't spread as they bake! You'll fall in love with baking and decorating cutout cookies. **This post originally appeared on my old blog, YinMom YangMom, and has now been updated with the above video, as well as brand-new, pretty pics!

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Cookies that are easy to transfer from the mixing bowl to the baking sheet with a simple scoop and drop.

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A sweetened baked good that is made from dough, is typically denser than cake, and is cut into rectangular or square shape.

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A scooping utensil that is used for scooping things like batter and ice cream. They can come in different sizes.

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A chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars that gives browned food its distinctive flavor.

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Why the Maillard Reaction Makes Everything Delicious

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The oxidation of sugar, a process used extensively in cooking for the resulting nutty flavor and brown color.

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Mixing sugar and shortening together creamed at a medium speed until soft and light.

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How to beat together butter and sugar for a light, fluffy cake.