Top Ten Cooking Tips

During the month of October, I will be participating in the Write 31 Days hosted by Crystal Stine. My category is Food, Health & Wellness and my theme is "Into The Kitchen". 




Cooking is neither brain science or rocket surgery, you just get into the kitchen and do it, right? Well, sort of. It does help to have a few tips from someone who has been there and done that. Following up with kitchen tips from yesterday, here are my top ten cooking tips.

1. Making the perfect boiled egg is simple and everyone has their own tried and true method. My mom taught me to do it this way. Place eggs in cold water in a covered pot. Heat on high until the water begins to boil. Leaving the pot on the burner, turn the heat off and time for 15 minutes. See "A Good Egg" for more information.
   
   
2. Peeling boiled eggs can be a painful process. Try this method and be on your way to easy peeling. After your eggs are cooked. Drain and rinse with cold water and let them sit a few minutes. Then, holding the lid on, shake vigorously for a few seconds. The shells will now come off easily. Be sure to rinse the peeled eggs to remove any remaining shell particles.
   
   
3. Want to keep those pesky bugs from hatching out in your flour? Pop it in the freezer for a week to kill all the eggs and no more bugs.
   
   
4. Partner with Parchment. Using parchment paper to line baking sheets eliminates the need to grease or spray your pan and makes clean up a breeze. I also use it when making pizza to make transfer to the stone easier.
   
   
   
   
   
5. For better results when sautéing foods with a high water content such as onions and mushrooms, do not add salt until they have softened and started developing color. Otherwise the salt will draw out the liquid and they will just stew in their own juices.
   
   
6. When a recipe calls for crumbled bacon, dice your bacon before cooking to get small, consistently-sized pieces.
   
   
7. For better mashed potatoes, after draining potatoes, place them back into the hot pot on the burner for a few moments to evaporate any remaining liquid. Drying the potatoes results in better texture and the potato is more easily able to absorb the butter and cream.
   
   
8. When slicing  and dicing green peppers, turn the pepper flesh side up. It is much easier than slicing through the tough skin.
   
   
9. For tastier appetizers, you should allow time for foods such as cheese, olives, dips and other spreads to come up to room temperature. Take them out of the refrigerator 15-30 minutes before serving.
   
   
10. When using dried herbs, rubbing them between your fingers will break them into smaller pieces and release their essential oils, making them more aromatic and flavorful.  

Please share some of your favorite tips in the comments.


If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Top Ten Kitchen Tips

During the month of October, I will be participating in the Write 31 Days hosted by Crystal Stine. My category is Food, Health & Wellness and my theme is "Into The Kitchen". 



No matter how much time we spend in the kitchen it seems there is always something to learn. It is fun and rewarding to find new and better ways to do what we've been doing for years, so here are my top ten kitchen tips.

1. Starchy foods such as pasta and potatoes are notorious for boiling over. Placing a wooden  spoon across your pot will lessen the chances of a boil over.
   
   
2. While minced garlic is a wonderful addition to many dishes, it is sticky and little bits of dried garlic are difficult to wash off of your knife. Rinsing your knife immediately will prevent this from happening.
   
   
3. Measuring sticky ingredients such as syrup or molasses is easier if you measure your oil first. This will help the sticky stuff to just slide right out. Not using oil? You can also spray your cup or spoon with cooking spray.
   
   
4. Keep your cutting boards and mixing bowls from sliding around by placing a piece of rubbery shelf liner on the counter. In a pinch, use a dampened paper towel.
   
   
5. Remove garlic odors from your hands with stainless steel. Under cold running water, rub your hands around your sink if it is stainless, or carefully rinse your knife with your fingers (see #2). There are also stainless steel "soap bars" specially made for this purpose available on Amazon.
   
   
6. If you're like me and use rubber gloves for dishes (because not everything goes in the
   dishwasher), you want to keep them dry. I use large clips to secure them to the dishpan so when I fill the dishpan I do not fill my gloves, too.
   
   
   
   
   
7. To help keep your knives sharp,  don't put them in the dishwasher. A sharp knife is a safe knife. A dull knife requires you to put more pressure on what you are cutting and you would be more likely to lose control and cut yourself.
   
   
8. Baking soda is your friend in the kitchen. Keep a box dedicated to cleaning and use it to clean out your sink. Rinse well and your sink will sparkle.
   
   
9. Keep your drain clean and free flowing with baking soda and white vinegar. Shake a generous amount of baking soda down your drain followed by several cups of white vinegar. It will bubble and foam as it works. Wait about 15 minutes and rinse with hot water.
   
   
10. Sterilize your kitchen sponges in the microwave. Rinse well and squeeze out the excess liquid. Place on microwave safe plate and microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Please share some of your favorite tips in the comments.


If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Write 31 Days: Into the Kitchen

Hi, and welcome to Roses to Rainbows. If you're new around here, come in and make yourself at home. 

If you are a regular, then you know that I enjoy participating in blogging challenges. In fact, I have done two already this year. The 20 days of Chill in January and the 10 days of Heat on August, both hosted by P. J. at A lil' Hoohaa.  

During the month of October I plan to tackle the Write 31 Days challenge hosted by Crystal Stine. This is different from the previous challenges in that you choose a topic and pick a category that fits your topic. You then write on your chosen topic each day of the month. 

All the other blogging/writing challenges have provided a daily prompt and each participant wrote on the same topic, albeit with vastly different stories. This will truly be a challenge for me given the random nature of my  blog. 

While I have chosen the category of Food, Health & Wellness, I will not focus on any one food type, but will post a collection of recipes, articles, tips and other tidbits.

Please join me during the month of October as I take Roses to Rainbows into the kitchen. 


Click the links below for new content each day.

Day 2: Top Ten Kitchen Tips
Day 3: Top Ten Cooking Tips
Day 4: Which Oil Should I Use?
Day 5: Who Ever Has Enough Kitchen Gadgets?
Day 6: Why Ghee is Good
Day 7: Awesome Fried Clams
Day 9: Are They Yams or Sweet Potatoes
Day 10: Let's Talk Onions
Day 11: Everything Is Coming Up Pumpkins
Day 12: Botanically Speaking...What Are You Eating?
Day 13: Make Your Own Yellow Rice
Day 14: Yes, you can make your own pizza!
Day 16: Easy Red Beans and Rice
Day 17: Mayonnaise Rolls to the Rescue
Day 18: How to Save a Buck or Two
Day 19: What I Learned from TV
Day 20: The Humble Potato
Day 21: Know Your Sausage
Day 23: Into The Kitchen: Grilling Tips
Day 24: Rice: Brown, White or Other?
Day 25: An Unlikely Combination
Day 26: Fixing Up Your Quick-Fix Meals
Day 27: A Well Stocked Pantry Saves Time And Money
Day 28: Pantry Soup
Day 30: The Secret is in the Seasoning: Herbs and Spices
Day 31: Vacuum Sealing: The Basics



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Blogging: Q & A

Just last week I celebrated my eighth year as blogging at Roses to Rainbows without much fanfare. Just a short post to acknowledge the journey. I have touched on some of these points from time to time in other posts, but I thought I'd hit all the bases with a little Q & A which is solely reflective of my thoughts and experience over the years.

So what exactly is blogging? Blogs began back in the late 1990s as a weblog or an online journal, and over time the weblog evolved into the blog, or blogging, and one who writes a blog is a blogger. 

Why do people blog?  Some do it to keep up with friends and family, some promote their hobbies, some are writers and this is a place to perfect their craft and others blog just to entertain their audience. Many businesses with a web presence also have blogs.

Can you become rich and famous?  Some bloggers get recognized for their content and go on to write books. I've watched bloggers go from small sites to national recognition, magazines and TV shows.

Is this the norm?  Nope. It is the few of the few. So why do the rest of us do it? As self expression, a creative outlet, or as some people state, "I can't not write".

Who is reading? "Better to write for yourself and have no public than to write for the public and have no self." I often wonder what Cyril Connolly was thinking when he said those words? Born in the early 1900s, he was a widely published British author, so apparently he was not lacking a public for whom to write. People from all walks of life read blogs for different reasons - entertainment, information, or a sense of community among the author and other readers.

Isn't blogging dead/dying?  No, there are a lot of active, successful blogs out there. Yes, social media such as Facebook, Instagram and others have changed things, but bloggers still offer content in a format that social media does not.

For whom are you writing?  For anyone who takes the time out of their busy lives to read my posts. For anyone who reads my words and smiles. For anyone who happens by on their way to somewhere else.  I am writing for you!

What is your goal?  My goal is to make people think, make them smile, encourage them, motivate them, to serve up entrees of information and anecdotes tossed with a mixture of fact and fiction, with sides of pictures and poetic ponderings. I would also like to establish a community of individuals sharing their thoughts and experiences.

Should I leave a comment? Absolutely! This not only helps build the community I mentioned, but also encourages the author and is greatly appreciated. Please and thank you in advance!

To other writers and bloggers, what keeps you writing?




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Welcome to Autumn, 2017

I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house. So I have spent almost all the daylight 

hours in the open air. - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Pretty Dogwood berries in the late afternoon sunlight.

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