Must-Have Kitchen Tricks and Tips

I was just told about a great blog and am completely in love. It's called SimpleMom.net and this lady is right up my ally. I fully credit her and her readers for the following kitchen tips and tricks. I'm going to print them out and tape them to the inside of one of my kitchen cabinets. These tips are ones that I don't want to forget and HAVE to share with my "people." I'm categorizing everything from her post so it's not just lumped together. (Gotta organize where I can...what? Don't look at me like that!)

Baking:

• To make buttermilk, add 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice per 1 cup of regular milk.
• To make self-rising flour, mix together 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, an 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda.
• Before putting sticky ingredients in a measuring cup, give it a quick rinse with hot water. The ingredient will then slide right out.
• If your brown sugar is hard, try microwaving it for 10 seconds to soften. Or better yet, if you have a few hours, put a piece of bread in the bag and it will be just like new.
• To wake up to a loaf of fresh baked bread, put the mix in your bread maker before you go to bed and set the timer for the appropriate number of hours.
• Coat blueberries (or any other berries) lightly with flour before baking them in muffins or cakes. This helps prevents them from staining the surrounding dough and will help keep them suspended in the batter rather than just sinking to the bottom.

Cooking:

• Here is the best recipe ever for roasted chicken. I’m shocked with how easy it is. You can eat it as the main feature of your meal, or as I mentioned earlier, you can dice it, fill ziploc baggies with one cup of chicken, and freeze it for future meals like casseroles, enchiladas, etc. You can then use the juice for homemade chicken stock.
• Speaking of which, here is a fabulous recipe for homemade cream of chicken soup, which is used in tons of recipes. It’s very easy and much lower in sodium than the canned variety.
• If you accidentally put too much salt in a recipe, sometimes putting a slice of raw, peeled potato will soak up excess salt.
• For most recipes, it doesn’t take much more work to double it. Then you can freeze a second portion, and when you’re busier than normal, you can reheat it and have a homemade meal.

Food Prep:

• To hull a strawberry while still leaving most of the fruit, push a drinking straw through the bottom of the berry and push it through the top. Apple corers also work.
• Pre-package dry ingredients for recipe mixes that you use often. Put in ziplocks and label with instructions including what additional ingredients to add. This makes morning pancakes and waffles quick and easy without buying the overpriced, overprocessed, store-bought mixes.
• To minimize the tears when chopping onions, put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes before chopping. Don’t forget about them, though!
• To get the onion smell off of your hands, I rinse them with a bit of lemon juice after chopping the onion. It doesn’t even have to be fresh lemon juice. The store-bottled stuff works too.
• When you’re forming hamburger patties, rinse your hands with cold water, but do not dry them. The cold water prevents the fat in the burgers from sticking to your hands. Be sure and thoroughly wash with warm soapy when you’re finished.
• Here is how to cook beans: Soak beans over night (1 lb beans in 6 cups water). The next morning rinse beans and add to 8 cups of boiling water. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 1 to 3 hours depending on the beans. Don’t ever boil your beans you just want them to simmer. Once beans are cooked they should be soft. Put about 2 cups in a bag which is about the amount in a can. Then you can pull them out and throw them in your soups or add them to salads.
• Overnight beans: Put dry beans in your crockpot on low all night with enough water to cover them. They’ll be soft by morning.
• Keep a garbage bowl on your counter for your food scraps while you’re cooking. It’s amazing how much more efficient this is than going back and forth to the trash can, and it’s such a simple idea.
• To get the most juice out of a lemon or lime, zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds or so, let it sit for a minute, and then roll it around on the counter a few times.

Food Storage:

• Store onions and potatoes separately. They both make each other go bad faster.
• Separate your bananas as soon as you return from the store. They’ll stay fresh longer.
• Put a piece of bread in your cookie jar. It keeps homemade cookies fresh and soft for days!
• Store nuts in the freezer and they will last much longer.

Reheating:

• When reheating bread goods (such as muffins, pancakes, and the like), put a cup of water in the microwave with it. It adds moisture to the air and keeps the bread soft.
• To peel a whole garlic clove, place the flat side of a knife on top of the clove and give it a good whack. The skin should fall right off.
• Get the smell of garlic or onions off your hands by “washing” them with water and baking soda. The odor slides right off when you rinse. I’ve also heard you can rub them on a stainless steel spoon under running water, but I haven’t tried it yet.
• To double the amount of your butter used for spreading, simply whip it with a small amount of warm water until it’s light and fluffy. This isn’t ideal for baking recipes that need a specific fat amount, but it’s great for spreading on your bread or corn-on-the-cob. Just keep it in the refrigerator, and it should stay light.