Tip Tuesday #14 {Use Ice Cubes to Get Crusty Bread}

Did you know that steam is actually what causes bread to have deliciously crusty crusts?  You can do it a few ways, but one of the best ways I've heard of is to stick a metal pan or rimmed cookie sheet into the oven as the oven is preheating.  Then when you stick the dough in to cook, throw a few ice cubes onto the hot pan and shut the door quickly.  The ice will melt and steam in the oven, leaving you with delicious, crusty bread.  Also, this way, you don't have to worry about burned with hot water or shattering glass bowls or any such dangerous nonsense.  Nice, eh?

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This lovely tip was brought to me (and, consequently, to you) in this post by the lovely Becky Pitcher, whose blog has lately become one of my favorites.

Tip Tuesday # 13 {Crack Your Eggs on a Flat Surface}

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Did you know that when you crack your eggs on a flat surface, such as a counter top, you are far less likely to lose little eggshell pieces all over your kitchen or into your food.  And now you know.  So unless you like little eggshell pieces on your muffins, please don't crack the eggs on the side of the bowl or on some other non-flat surface.

Tip Tuesday #10 {Too Much Salt? Add a Potato}

Did you know that if you add too much salt to something you can just add a whole uncooked potato?  The potato will absorb excess salt without adding a weird flavor.  When you're ready to serve it, just remove the potato and go.  This works particularly well with soups.  Cool, huh?

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But for other things that aren't as easy to add a potato to, say cookie dough or something, you can actually slice a raw potato very thinly and lay the slices over/among the cookie dough and let it sit for 15 minutes or so.  It may not get all the extra salt, but it should pick up some of it.  Discard your salty potato slices and bake those cookies.  Super cool.

Tip Tuesday #9 {Eggs: Scramble Fast, Cook Slowly}

There is an awesome web site out there called The Art of Manliness.  Just check it out and you'll see what I mean.  It's a site dedicated to everything manly and how to be an honorable, resourceful, boy-scout-values kind of a man--you know, a real man.  And there's one post about how to make amazing scrambled eggs.  My husband and I tried out the low and slow method, and they truly were amazing.

Image thanks to Art of Manliness

This method takes what seems like forever.  Be ye warned.  BUT...if you really want to make your breakfast special, it's worth the effort every once in a while.  You can refer to the original post for more details, but here are the two main takeaways:

1. Whip 'em.  Whip 'em good.  Whip them with a whisk or a mixer until they're nice and frothy on top.  A few bubbles isn't going to cut it.  You shouldn't be able to tell a difference between the yolks and the whites because they should all be evenly mixed.

2. Cook them slowly over LOW heat.  Low as in, like almost as low as your stove goes.  Okay, okay, if they are truly taking forever to cook, you can turn up the heat a teensy bit.  But seriously, the more slowly you cook them, the more they will retain all that fluffy air that you whipped in, resulting in gloriously fluffy scrambled eggs.

One more thing...my inner nerd requires me to apologize for the title of this post.  I am well aware that it should be "Scramble Quickly" instead of "Scramble Fast," but seriously, quickly just doesn't feel quick enough!  Okay, I digress.  

Happy cooking!

Tip Tuesday #8 {Microwave Your Corn, Husk & All}

This week's tip is brought to you by my fabulous  mother-in-law, who has been staying with me and taking care of my son while I recover from surgery.  She is amazing.  And she also knows how to make amazing corn on the cob--without all the fuss of husking it, getting all the silk out, boiling a pot of water, and timing everything just right.  How?  The microwave!

Image thanks to melskitchencafe.com

1. Place a damp paper towel on a plate, and then put your corn on the cob on top (husk, silk, and all!).  Microwave on high for 1-2 minutes per cob, turning them halfway through the cooking time.
2. When the husks feel hot, take them out and wrap them in a towel or aluminum foil.  Let them stand like that for about 5 minutes.
3. Pull off the husks and silk (which is actually a lot easier to do when they're hot than when they're cold), and you're ready to go!
4. Slather that corn on the cob with butter, salt, and pepper, and enjoy!  That was easy.

Tip Tuesday #7 {Freeze Your Fresh Herbs}

Did you know that you don't have to let all those fresh herbs go bad?  For instance, when you buy fresh cilantro and only use 1/4 of it, freeze the rest and use it later!  Will it come out the same?  Well...not quite.  The texture will be forever lost, but if you're using it in a soup or casserole or other cooked something, the taste is all that matters anyway, and the taste will be preserved.  Here's how you do it:

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Take the herbs and shake them vigorously in a bowl of cold water to make sure they're totally clean.  Pat them with a paper towel, then go through and remove all the wilted ones.  You only want to save the best.  If you throw out a bunch, don't panic.  At least you're not throwing ALL of them out, right?  Okay, now prepare the herb as you would for a recipe (chopping roughly, etc.)  Grab an ice cube tray and fill each one with the leaves, pressing them down lightly.  Next, fill up the ice cube tray with cold water, making sure that the leaves are submerged as much as possible.  Freeze them, then pop them out and put them in a ziploc bag.  When you need to use it, just pop it into whatever you're cooking.  The little bit of water won't hurt, and the flavor will be just as amazing as ever.  

Tip Tuesday #6 {Re-Steam Your Leftover Rice}

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Have you ever noticed that leftover rice is only good for one thing?  Fried rice.  Any other way, leftover rice tastes dry and gross--hardly even worth saving sometimes.  But not anymore!  My friend, Melissa, shared this tip with me, and it makes all the difference.  When re-heating your rice, just add a tablespoon or two of water.  As the rice heats up, the water will turn to steam, causing the rice to "re-steam" and gain back lost moisture.  The result?  Delicious, freshly-cooked-tasting rice.  Now that sounds good.

Tip Tuesday #5 {Bake Your Hard-Boiled Eggs}

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Did you know that you can bake eggs and that they come out just like hard-boiled eggs?  Neither did I!  I didn't, that is, until my brother-in-law informed me of this last week.  Just stick the eggs in a preheated oven and bake them at 325 for 30 minutes.  You can either rest them on the oven rack or put the eggs in muffin tins to keep them from rolling around.  As soon as you take them out of the oven, plunge them in ice water to prevent them from overcooking.  Baked eggs tend to be creamier, less smelly, and generally don't get that gross green color you sometimes get with hard-boiled eggs.  And they're easier to peel!  And honestly, doesn't this sound a lot less technical than most of the boiling methods?  Give it a shot.

Tip Tuesday #4 {What to Do When You Forgot the Yeast}

Image thanks to Our Best Bites

Last week I decided to make some delicious homemade bread.  I made the dough, kneaded it, put it in the oven to rise...and came back an hour later to find that the dough hadn't risen at all.  I had forgotten the yeast!  So I did a little investigating (because there is almost nothing I hate more than wasting food) and found that you can add it later and that it actually improves the flavor of your dough slightly by increasing the time the flavors meld together.  Cool, huh?  All you have to do to fix it is dissolve the yeast in just a tablespoon or two of warm water.  When it's all dissolved, knead it right into the dough.  If it's too wet, add a bit more flour to even it out.  Voila!  Perfect dough!  Isn't that awesome?  Three cheers for salvaging almost ruined bread!

Tip Tuesday #3 {Spray Your Cupcake Liners}

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 Cupcake liners.  They are amazing and wonderful and beautiful.  They make a cupcake look amazing and keep little fingers clean(er) when kids are eating them.  But if you take a second to spray the cupcake liners with non-stick cooking spray before you fill the them with batter, the liners will peel right off without taking part of the cupcakes with them.  The result?  Fewer crumbs (and mess) and more cupcake deliciousness in your mouth.  And who doesn't love more cupcake?

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Tip Tuesday #2 {Wash the Dough Bowl with Cold Water}

Today's tip is one that seems obvious once you hear it, but it was like a revelation to me.  After you've just made a delicious dough, it's tempting to fill the bowl up with hot water and get scrubbing.  But the hot water can actually cook the dough (expecially whole grain doughs) onto the bowl, making it nearly impossible to get off.  So what's the solution?  Wash it out first in cold (soak it with cold water if needed), to get off any remaining dough bits.  When it looks pretty clean, then bring on the hot water and get that thing sanitized.  Cool, right?  Give it a shot next time you make dough.

Cold water.  Hot water.  Clean bowl.

Tip Tuesday #1 {Foil Your Celery}

I decided to start a new series.  I give you...

...where I give a random tip of the week.  It might be about cooking or baking or grocery shopping or storing food--you get the idea.  So I'm starting this week off with a tip that I learned from the good old family cookbook.

Today's tip: foil your celery.

That's right, by simply wrapping your celery in aluminum foil, it will stay crisp and fresh for a few weeks--rather than getting limp and disgusting after a few days.  Shout hooray!  Now you don't have to feel guilty for buying a whole thing of celery when you only know what you'll do with one stalk.  Why?  Because it will still be good a couple of weeks later when you pull out another recipe calling for celery, which means...no more rotten celery!  And that's something to cheer about.

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