Question. Which oven rack do you normally use when baking meats or what have you. Never sure if

• Question. Which oven rack do you normally use when baking meats or what have you. Never sure if - PAMT
  • You want it surrounded by heat, sm - jj
  • Middle here, too, for everything so you don't scorch the bottom or - dry things out too close to the heat. nm
  • I use middle rack unless large cut that needs more room. - nm

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I believe I'll pass on all of them.

Meat consumption usually means beef, pork, or chicken. Mutton and venison are common also. My favorite Indian restaurant avoids both beef and pork for religious reasons, but sometimes offers goat as an alternative to chicken. In the past few years, rising food prices and concerns about the environment are leading people to try new and different sources of meat. Here are five you may have never thought about.

1. Raccoon

Raccoon meat is cheap if you know of a local trapper. In Kansas City, raccoons go for $3-7 dollars each, and a whole animal will feed five adults. Preparing raccoon meat isn’t easy or quick. Frozen meat must be thawed, then parboiled, then stewed. The cooking time is measured in hours, but those who have tried it love the taste. That is, if you can get past thinking of raccoons as vermin, roadkill, or cute little masked bandits. You’ll find one reminder: trappers remove the head and three paws, but leave one paw behind to prove the animal is not a dog or cat.

2. Camel

Camel meat is quite common in the Middle East, and is reportedly quite tasty. Australians are now encouraged to try camel meat as the continent’s million-plus wild camel population is growing out of control. Camels are destroying the delicate ecosystem of the desert, and they burp huge amounts of greenhouse gasses into the air. You can find camel recipes if you look, but beware that some recipes are more serious than others.

3. Squirrel

Eating squirrel is nothing new in America. Just a few years ago, advice came from the University of Kentucky that people should not eat squirrel brains because they may contain a variant of Mad Cow Disease. The rest of the squirrel is fine, if a little stringy. Now squirrel meat is being promoted in Britain due to an overpopulation of gray squirrels. The American invaders are edging out the native red squirrels. Brits who resisted squirrel meat for centuries are now patting themselves on the back as they eat gray squirrel and do their part for the balance of nature. You’ll find plenty of recipes for squirrel online.

4. Yattle

Yattle is the name given to a crossbreed of yaks and cattle. Yak meat has less fat than beef, because yak fat is near the skin, where it helps keep the cold-climate animal warm, whereas beef cattle distribute their fat throughout the meat. First-generation yattle are the result of mating between a yak and a cow or bull. Male yattle are sterile, but females can breed with bulls, resulting in a 25% yak ancestry for second-generation yattle. Yaks, and yattle, consume less food than cattle, and produce valuable fiber to make sweaters. Yattle meat is supposedly indistinguishable from yak meat.

5. Kangaroo

Kangaroos are both plentiful and meaty, with a low percentage of fat compared to beef. They are also less damaging to the environment than cattle. However, kangaroo meat is slow to catch on in Australia. After all, most nations don’t eat their national symbol! Some European countries consume more kangaroo meat per capita than Australia, possibly because of Mad Cow Disease fears. Environmental groups encourage people to eat kangaroo because the animals do not burp or fart and therefore do not add greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere -strangely the opposite reason people are encouraged to eat camel meat. Kangaroo meat is used in sausages, stews, steaks, burgers, and sandwiches.

Do any of you give baked goods during the holidays?  What are some of your favorites?  I get tired of making the same ole bread, cookies, and chocolate covered pretzels every year.

I will say that last year I put peanut butter between 2 Ritz crackers and then covered them in baking chocolate (white and semi-sweet) and they turned out really well.  I put sprinkles on the white ones (they showed up better than on the semi-sweet ones).

when I wasn't paying attention.  He even put in parsnips - my favorite part. 

Good hubby.

Sunday we had dinner at 5ish, when it was time for bed at 10 and I shut all the lights off, I noticed some extra lighting on the stove...it was telling me the temperature I had set it to and that it was still on!...and it's a gas oven too!  I think I've done this about 5 times this year now.  Wicked, wicked not so s

Dried cherry tomatoes  http://www.cookthink.com/recipe/14018/Oven-Dried_Cherry_Tomatoes

Dried roma tomatoes http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/684/Oven-Dried-Tomatoes106460.shtml

from time to time would baste with sauce.  I had the oven low and cooked them slowly and they were wonderful.  My family just loved them when I invited them over for dinner.  You made me hungry for them.  It has been a long time since I made them.  Mine were not fancy, just good!!!   Good luck!

How long do you bake the muffins and at what oven temp?  These sound wonderful & so much easier than making pumpkin bread.   Thanks!