Cooking Basics: Defrosting, Slicing & Healthy Substitutes

Essential cooking basics include safe defrosting methods for steak and chicken, along with precision slicing techniques. Discover healthy substitutes for common ingredients like cayenne powder or beer to enhance your home-cooked meals.

Mature Pancake Prickly Pear Cactus, Santa Monica Mountains

How to Cook Napolitos Cactus

Published Jul,08 2011 | By Ramona French

Opuntia cactus, native to Mexico but now grown in many warm climates, produces two kinds of food: the prickly pear, and nopales or nopalitos, cactus leaves. Nopal is a common ingredient in Mexican and Central American cuisine, and readily available in Hispanic grocery stores.

How to Cook Sago Pearls

Published Jul,08 2011 | By Ramona French

Sago pearls are made from the inner pith of the sago palm tree. The inner pith of the trunk is scraped out, pounded into fine particles and then soaked in water, which dissolves the starch from the fiber. The starchy water is strained through a sieve and dried.

Ramona French owned a massage school and taught massage for 28 years. In that time she wrote textbooks on Swedish, acupressure, deep tissue and lymph drainage massage. She is the author of "Introduction to Lymph Drainage Massage" and "Milady's Guide to Lymph Drainage Massage." Her book, "The Complete Guide to Lymph Drainage Massage," published by Milady, was released in October 2011.