Want to win a $25 gift certificate to Zingerman’s?
I’ve decided to celebrate the New Year with a contest to thank you all for taking the time to read Savory Simple. As I’ve mentioned before, Zingerman’s is one of my favorite online gourmet shops. They have an amazing selection of oils, vinegars, cheese, baked goods, and pretty much any treat a foodie like me desires.
The entry rules are simple. Leave a comment here telling me your best kitchen tip! It can be anything related to cooking, kitchen cleaning, products… whatever you think others might find useful. And make sure to submit the comment with your name and real email address (it will be hidden) so I know where to send the prize!
To stay informed of future contests, become a fan of Savory Simple on Facebook.
A winner will be selected at random. The contest will remain open until Friday. Good luck!
Update: The contest is now over. Congratulations, Jessica!
If you need to decorate something quickly with icing or the like and don’t have a piping bag, take a ziploc, cut a small corner off of the bag, and put in your icing. Zip the bag shut and squeeze. Also works as a funnel.
Amy
I will follow up on Amy’s suggestion and share that I use the cut-off ziplock bag to also fill Deviled Eggs. (learned from Cook’s Illustrated) Makes the process much easier!
sometimes when my hands are feeling rough, i wash them with some kosher salt. it helps remove any onion or garlic smell, as well as exfoliates, leaving my hands feeling very smooth. i aslo use lemon juice to help eliminate odors too.
for any burns, i dab a bit of toothpaste on the wound to keep it cool.
Hmmm, the tip that I use most is probably how to cut onions: slice ends off, slice down the middle, make 1/2 slices lengthwise and then slice width-wise. Diced! (Hopefully that makes sense!)
My tip isn’t really a cooking tip I suppose but I find that it saves tons of space and time in the kitchen when I take out all my ingredients before I start and put them away as I go. It saves time with clean up and mess.
My desert styling tip: take leaves from outside, wash under water, dry and paint with melted chocolate. Let dry and peal leaf off. Then you have chocolate leaves!
Even though my prep counter is butcher block, I use a small cutting board on top when preparing recipes. This makes cleanup a breeze.
My quick kitchen tip is during the holidays when I am running in different directions but still want to bake something for Christmas I experimented this year with using a boxed gingerbread mix and adding dried chopped fruits that I had marinated in Grand Marnier to the batter. It was easy and delicious and best of all quick!
To stop tears while slicing onion: place one of the rings around your ear. It really works! But then you need to use Lan’s tip to get rid of the smell around your ear :-)
If you want to avoid the crying eyes when cutting an onion do one of the following:
1) Cut out the core of the onion where the root comes out. This is the section that has the most tear inducing properties.
2) Soak the onion in water before cutting-water will dilute the sulphuric compounds.
3) Or else: freeze the onion before cutting.
Although the other reader’s suggestion on cutting an onion easily I have used many times, when I’m not worried about the tears or cutting around the core.
Another way to remove smells of garlic and onion from your hands is to rub your hands on your stainless steel sink. Smell is gone instantly!
When making hard boiled eggs, crack the egg at the point of the egg and peel off shell and membrane. Cracking at the top and not the sides will allow for easier removal.
so frequently recipes that are supposed to be lemony just call for the juice and not the zest, use the zest too! it adds amazing brightness to a dish.
oh, and a microplane for said zesting (and for fresh nutmeg…a must have) is a girls best friend!
and speaking of nutmeg: it adds a little something extra special to cream sauces and bechemels!
Keep your milk all the way in the back of your refrigerator in the coldest, darkest corner and it will last longer by several days. Milk kept in the door of your refrigerator swings out into the warmer air and gets more exposure to light, and I’ve definitely noticed it shortens the life of my milk. Some weeks I barely open my refrigerator at all and I can get milk to stay good a week past its expiration date! LOL
almost always it is best to use fresh herbs instead of dried ones!! i am hard pressed to find a situation in which this isnt true. and get them to lsat longer in the fridge by keeping them dry. often times they will be damp when i bring them home from stores spraying their produce
apple sauce and lowfat yogurt make good substitutes in various baked goods for oil when trying to cut calories!
Have a fabulously sharp knife and use it for everything! The bigger the knife the better is my motto. :)