· When cooking oatmeal, coat the kettle with nonstick cooking spray. It keeps the oatmeal from boiling over and sticking to the kettle.
· Before party guest arrive, scoop ice cream into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners and refreeze. You won’t have to fuss later when serving cake.
· Pour cool broth from meat or poultry into a glass jar with a secure lid; refrigerate upside down. The fat will harden and remain in the jar when you pour out the liquid to use in recipes.
· To keep marshmallows from turning hard, store them in the freezer. When thawed, they’re like fresh.
· To thinly slice meat, first partially freeze meat. Then use a sharp knife to cut across the grain.
· When selecting fresh pork, look for bright pink color and choose meat that has a high proportion of meat to fat. Avoid fresh pork that appears grace in color.
· When preparing pasta salads always remember to rinse the cooked pasta under cool running water to prevent it from becoming gummy. But for hot pastas that are served with sauces, then sauce will cling better if you don’t rinse the cooked pasta.
· If dried bean soup recipe calls for tomato, lemon juice, or vinegar, add it after the beans are tender. Otherwise, acid in those ingredients will delay softening of the beans.
· Keep a quart size freezer container handy for leftover vegetables. Add them layer by layer and store in the freezer until ready to make homemade vegetable soup. Its amazing how quickly
these “useless” bits will add up to make a delicious soup.
· Goof-Proof Gelatin, when layer gelatin, refrigerate each layer until the gelatin is set, but no firm, before adding the next layer. An easy way to add the next flavor of gelatin without disturbing the previous layer is to gently spoon rather than pour, each layer onto the previous layer of gelatin.
· How to Caramelize Onions
Slice root and top off onion; cut in half. Peel and slice. Use a large heavy skillet so the onions are not crowded. Heat oil in the pan over medium heat; add the onions and stir to coat.
Cook onions, stirring occasionally from the bottom every 5 minutes. Once onions begin to brown, reduce heat. Continue cooking 20-30 minutes, stirring every 2-5 minutes until onions are golden brown, adding more oil if needed.
When onions reach their desired color, remove from heat to stop cooking. Sprinkle onions with salt, pepper and sugar to enhance flavors if desired.
· Make extra caramelized onions to keep on hand in the fridge for 3 to 4 weeks or freezer up to 3 months to dress up soups, salads, sandwiches and dips in a flash.
· Proofing Yeast: To make sure active dry yeast (not quick rise yeast) is alive and active, you may first want to proof it.
Here’s how:
Dissolve one package of yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in ¼ cup warm water (110-115 degrees) Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes. If the mixture foams up, the yeast mixture can be used because it’s active. If it doesn’t foam, the yeast should be discarded, and you’ll need to proof another package.
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