1. Have a lid that's glued to the jar? Forget those silly house-shaped grips that your realtor unloaded on you. Use a clean latex dish-washing glove. Seriously, there hasn't been a single lid that I couldn't loosen using one of these.
2. Need to halve or chop fresh cranberries? Those little suckers are round, and rounds things roll. To keep them under your knife, cover your chopping board with a damp paper towel. Yes, you could use a food processor to chop cranberries, but really, what's easier to wash afterwards, a knife or a plastic bowl and fussy little whirly blades?
3. Egg slicers work on mushrooms and strawberries.
4. If you bake frequently, buy a good scale. I cannot emphasize this enough. It's SO much easier, and neater, to weigh out the flour instead of dipping, sifting, etc. My cookies never came out the same way twice until I bought my scale.
5. If you love warm, soft cookies, make a double batch, scoop portions onto a baking sheet and put it in the freezer. When the dough is frozen, store in air tight plastic bags. They can go straight from the freezer to the oven. Then freshly baked cookies can be yours whenever the craving hits you.
6. If you need to chop canned whole tomatoes, use long bladed scissors, like Fiskars, to snip them to pieces right in the can.
7. If you are melting chocolate and it seizes up (gets lumpy), that means water or steam got into it. Stir in a teaspoon of flavorless vegetable oil at a time until it's smooth again.
8. When you shell fresh shrimp for a recipe, toss the shells into a saucepan and simmer them for stock. Keep the stock in the freezer for the next time you make a seafood chowder or risotto.
9. When making rolled cookies, dust your board with sugar instead of flour for extra decadent sweetness.
10. If you spill a large amount of oil on the counter or floor, mop up excess with paper towels, then sprinkle scouring powder, like Ajax or Bon Ami, over the spill. The dry powder soaks up the remaining grease completely.
No comments:
Post a Comment