You love freshly grated cheese, what you don’t love is cleaning the grater after.
The next time you grate cheese, try rubbing a bit of vegetable oil on the grater before you start. This will help lubricate the surface for easier grating and easier clean up when you are done.
You have done all of the cleaning and rinsing on your clams but you still can’t get the little guys open. If your clams stay firmly clamped shut and you can’t get a knife inserted, throw them in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.
You don’t want them to freeze, but the cold temperature will make them easier to open.
You need to cut a recipe in half. Only problem is that it asks for 1 egg. How in the world are you supposed to cut an egg in half?
Typically recipes are written for use of Large eggs. A large egg typically has about 2 tablespoons of white and 1 tablespoon of yolk.
To cut the egg in “half”, break it into a bowl and mix it well so that the white and the yolk are combined well. Measure out 1 tablespoon and 2 teaspoons of the mixture and add to the recipe.
You can cover and refrigerate the remaining egg and use it in scrambled eggs or another recipe later.
You love red onions in salads, but sometimes the flavor just overwhelms the other flavors of the salad. You can tone down the onion flavor with just one more simple step before serving.
After you have cut up your onions, place them in a bowl and cover them with cold water for at least 15 minutes, but no more than a half an hour. Just pour off the liquid and add your onions to your salad.
The water will tone down the flavor of your onions so that they don’t overpower everything in your salad.
You freeze a lot of food, but sometimes what you are storing seeps into the plastic and discolors it. The next time you are ready to freeze, one simple step will help prevent this from happening.
As you are getting your containers ready for freezing, grab some cooking spray and spray the interior of each container. I will then take a paper towel and spread it around to make sure that all the nooks and crannies are covered.
Now all you have to do is pour in your sauces or whatever in, seal and store. Now when you pour it out your container will be easier to clean and hopefully stain free!
You picked up a couple of flats of strawberries that you need to prepare. Only problem is that if you use the egg slicer you are going to be sitting in the kitchen forever!
If you have a food processor with a slicing blade you can cut that time to minutes!
Clean and hull your strawberries as normal, and place them in a colander or on a towel to dry.
Set up your food processor with the slicing blade. Drop 3-5 strawberries into the chamber and gently press the plunger to activate.
All of your berries come out sliced the same thickness and ready for use in your recipe or for freezing.
When you are making cut out cookies, you have a hard time transferring them from where you rolled them to the cookie sheet with out them breaking apart or distorting.
An easy way to remedy this problem is to roll the dough directly onto the cookie sheet. After you cut out all of your shapes, simply lift up the dough from between the cookies and pop the pan into the oven.
You are running out of room for stuff in the kitchen. On a rainy day, you can have it all cleaned up and organized in no time.
First, remove everything from the drawers and place everything into 3 stacks. Always Used, Used Sometimes, and Never Used.
Take the never used stack and place everything into a storage bin and set aside for 6 months or a year. At the end of that time, anything that is left in it can be sold or given away.
I have another bin that I put my used sometimes things into. When I need it, I just open up the bin and grab it.
Everything that you use all the time, just place back into the drawers for easy access.
Sometimes you like to buy frozen bread dough from the grocery store, but it takes so long to thaw before you can use it. And if you forget to take it out in the morning, it will never be ready by dinner time. Here is a quick method for raising most frozen bread dough.
Grab a large crock pot. I have a 6 quart oblong that works great. If you have a smaller crock pot it might require a bit more time or you might have a slightly misshapen loaf.
If you are using a loaf pan, grease the loaf pan and place the frozen dough in the pan and place in the crock pot. Set to low and cover with the lid. Your dough should be doubled in bulk and ready for baking in about 2 hours. Just remove the pan from your crock pot and place in preheated oven and bake according to package directions.
If you are not using a bread pan or are making rolls, grease the interior of the crock pot well. Place some oil on your hands and generously grease the outside of your rolls or bread and place in the crockpot, leaving as much space between rolls as possible. Cover with the lid and set to low. Bread should be ready in about 2 hours, rolls should be ready in about an hour and a half. Gently remove from the crock pot and place in well greased pan and pop in the oven to finish off in the oven according to package directions.
If you want to bake rolls directly in the slow cooker, this can be done in about 2 hours also. Generously grease the inside of your slow cooker. Place enough rolls in the bottom of your slow cooker that they cover the bottom, leaving about 1″ of space between the rolls. Smaller crock pots can be as few as 4-5, larger crock pots can be as many as 10-12. Cover and turn the heat onto high and let cook about 2 hours.
The tops will not be brown like if you baked in the oven, so be careful not to over cook or the bottoms can become dry and crunchy.
You have heard of both parchment and wax paper, but you have no idea what the difference is.
Parchment paper is oven safe up to 420f. You can line cake pans, cookie sheets or whatever you want to bake with. It is a bit more expensive than waxed paper. Parchment paper can even be used to wrap and bake meats and vegetables, a process commonly called en papillote.
Wax paper must be totally covered with batter before baking. It has a much lower burning point, so if placed in the oven with out anything covering it, it can start to smoke and burn. Wax paper is typically used for lining cake pans only.
