Age has a way of letting you collect many wonderful hints to use at any given moment. These hints can be applied to a variety of different areas of our lives. I am looking forward to collecting many more of these hints as I go from mid to late middle age (autumn season of my life) to being among the older and aged (winter season of my life).
I would like to start sharing some of these helpful hints with all of the younger ages (spring and summer seasons). Sharing with people, which do NOT already think that they know-it-all could prove very beneficial to these youngsters.
Some of the hints were handed down by word of mouth, some I found in cookbooks and magazines and in more recent years, on the computer and through e-mails. These hints are for the KITCHEN. There will be hints for cooking, hints for cleaning up, hints to not have to clean up, dessert hints, fruit hints, and annoying fruit fly hints.
For dry fluffy rice, every time, make sure and put a slice of dry bread on top of the cooked rice and cover.
To keep muffins from burning around the edges, fill one of the middle sections (cups) with water instead of batter.
When boiling potatoes, put a little butter in the water to keep it from boiling over.
To keep a double pie from running over, stick two or three pieces of macaroni in the center of the top crust. The juice bubbles up through these macaroni.
Before melting chocolate, run the inside of the pan it is to be melted in, with butter. The chocolate will not stick to the pan.
To warm up cold biscuits, muffins, or rolls, dampen a paper towel and wrap the biscuits, muffins, or rolls. Then, place the wrapped bread either on a tin into a warm oven for a few minutes, or on a microwavable plate and into the microwave for a few seconds.
When cream will not whip, add the white of an egg. Let the cream and egg thoroughly chill and then it try again.
To keep warming milk (from cows, soy, rice, etc) form scorching so quickly, rinse the pan with water, before heating the milk in a saucepan.
Sprinkle a little flour in the pan before frying eggs. This will prevent the eggs from popping.
To get Brazil nuts to come out whole, freeze them for a couple of hours before cracking them.
For crispy pie crust made with pure vegetable shortening, substitute one or two Tablespoons of apple cider vinegar for = the water. Doing this will moisten the dough mix.
To eliminate the mess with ground cranberries, wash, sort, drain well and FREEZE them before grinding them.
Rubbing salt into your wet fingertips will remove the odor of onions. After rinsing off the salt, repeat if necessary.
Peel a banana from the bottom and you will not have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it.
Pull your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold. (I personally am NOT into aluminum foil-look up "dangers in aluminum").
Peppers with three bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with four bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
To make really rich scrambled eggs or omelets, add in a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream and then beat them.
For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Then, melt Andes mints in a double broiler and pour it over the warm brownies. Let it all set for a wonderful minty frosting.
Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic. Add garlic at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste.
Before you pour a sticky substance into a measuring cup (like peanut butter), fill the cup with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but do NOT dry the measuring cup. Immediately, add your ingredient and watch how easily the peanut butter (or whatever) slides out.
Say goodbye to those pesky fruit flies by taking a small glass, fill it half way with Apple Cider Vinegar and two drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!
To prevent ice cream cone drips, stuff the bottom of the cone with a miniature marshmallow.
Use a meat baster to "squeeze" your pancake batter onto the hot griddle and you will get perfectly shaped pancakes every time.
To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with potatoes.
Prevent eggshells from cracking; add a pinch of salt to the water before hard-boiling.
To easily remove burnt on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover the bottom of the pan, and bring it to boil on the stove top.
Spray your plastic ware with nonstick cooking pan spray before pouring in tomato-based sauces and there won't be any stains.
If you accidentally over-salt a dish, while it is still cooking, drop in a peeled potato and it will absorb the excess salt for an instant "fix me up".
Place an apple in hardened brown sugar to soften it.
When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn's natural sweetness.
To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh, but if it rises to the surface, throw it away.
You can have even more fun in the KITCHEN, now that you have some extra hints to make it all easier! Happy working in the KITCHEN!
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