Archive Category: 'Food Tips'

• Cooking With Tomatoes: Kitchen Q&A: This week’s Kitchen Questions & Answers is all about tomatoes: Do you know how to substitute tomato sauce for tomato paste? Or vice versa? Or how to easily skin a tomato? These questions and more are answered below… Tomatoes: Kitchen Q&A What’s the difference between grape and cherry tomatoes? While both are tiny tomatoes perfect for salads [...]
• Garlic: {Kitchen Q&A}: This week’s Kitchen Questions & Answers is all about garlic: Do you know the difference between garlic powder and garlic salt or how to quickly peel a lot of garlic cloves quickly? Would you like to learn how to make your own garlic salt? Or how about a handy kitchen tip for removing garlic smell [...]
• Olive Oil: {Kitchen Q&A}: This week’s Kitchen Questions & Answers is all about olive oil — Do you know the shelf life of olive oil? Or how to tell if it’s rancid? Can you use olive oil in baking or do you know what the different types of olive oil are? These questions and more are answered below. Olive Oil: [...]
• Chocolate Covered Pretzels: {Recipe & Tips}: Chocolate covered pretzels are a great idea for a homemade Valentine’s Day gift package and they’re so quick and easy to make. Prepare them ahead of time and package right before gift giving for best results. How To Make Chocolate Covered Pretzels Ingredients: 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips 2 tsp shortening 24 – 28 pretzels (about 3″ in size) Sprinkles [...]
• How To Make Chocolate Covered Strawberries: {Recipes & Tips}: Here’s a handy recipe guide showing you how to make four different types of chocolate covered strawberries: Chocolate Dipped; White Chocolate Dipped; Double Chocolate Dipped and Chocolate Tuxedo Strawberries. These are so easy to make yet are such an impressive (and romantic) treat. Don’t miss the big list of tips shared at the bottom (underneath [...]
• Cooking With Potatoes: Tip Sheet: This week’s Kitchen Q&A answers questions that are all about potatoes. Do you know how to speed up the cooking time for a baked potato? Or how to keep mashed potatoes warm while the rest of dinner is still cooking? What about the best type of potato to use for potato salad recipes? These questions [...]
• Free Gifts In A Jar Recipes + More: Gifts in a jar typically include all the ingredients to make or bake something that are stored in jars (like mason jars or jam jars, etc.) and presented as gifts. They can be cookie mixes, cake mixes, bath & beauty ingredients (like bath salts and foot soaks), hearty soup mixes, bread, buns, pastry ingredients, seasoning mixes, [...]
• How To Make Caramelized Onions: Recipe & Tips: Caramelized onions are a delicious way to add flavor to meats, breads, omelets, pastas, potatoes, rice–whatever you like–and they’re so easy to make too! How To Make Caramelized Onions Ingredients: 1/4 cup unsalted butter 6 large onions 2 tsp brown or white sugar (optional) salt (to taste) pepper (to taste) Directions: Peel and slice onions into rings about 1/4″ thick. Melt butter in a large [...]
• How To Soften Butter: Quick Tips: You decide to squeeze in some baking when you realize: uh-oh, the butter is rock hard. Time is short and you don’t have enough of it to wait for the butter to soften. Here are a few quick ways to soften that butter up so you can get back to baking: Grate the butter into a [...]
• Can You Freeze Cheese? Yes!: Hard and semi-hard cheeses such as cheddar, mozzarella and swiss can be frozen with good results once thawed but softer cheeses such as cottage cheese and ricotta will have trouble with the cream separating and changes in texture. If you’re using the cheese in baking or dishes like casseroles, the changes won’t be that noticeable. Tips [...]
• Can You Freeze Milk? Yes!: One way to save money on groceries is by stocking up on deals which is easy enough to do for dry goods and meat, but what about fresh dairy products like milk? The shelf life is not very long and there’s only so much milk you can drink before it expires. Here’s a tip: You [...]
• How To Roast Potatoes: Recipes & Tips: I have two different methods for roasting potatoes, one is quick & easy while the other has a few more steps involved (good for larger pieces of potatoes). Both give good results! Oven Roasting Potatoes: Easy Method Preheat oven to 400°F. Peel medium sized potatoes and cut into quarters then halve each piece again…you want small and uniform [...]
• How To Make French Toast: Recipe & Tips: French toast is a favorite breakfast or brunch dish and it’s so easy to make. The breads you can use are endless (french bread, sourdough bread, Texas toast, etc.) and you can get as creative as you like with toppings. Here is a basic recipe for french toast along with some cooking tips and topping [...]
• Things To Do With Bread: Unless you consistently use that last slice of bread in every loaf before it goes stale, there are times when you’re looking for ideas that will use up bread before it goes to waste. Here are a few ideas that can easily be implemented for future use or for tonight’s dinner. Things To Do With Bread Buttered [...]
• How To Dry Bananas (Banana Chips): Just like dried apples are tasty in homemade granola, so are dried banana chips. They’re also an excellent (and healthy) snack all on their own. Here’s an easy way to make them using your oven (for drying them in a dehydrator, follow the manufacturer’s instructions): How To Dry Bananas Slice bananas approximately 1/4″ thick Preheat oven to 150°F Lay [...]
• How To Dry Apples (Apple Chips): It’s easy to make your own dried apple chips and pieces, they can be added to cereals, homemade granola, baked goods (such as muffins and cakes), yogurt or they’re tasty as a treat all by themselves. I’ve laid out the steps to oven drying the apple slices but you could use a dehydrator too–just use [...]
• How To Cook Lots Of Hard Boiled Eggs At Once: Here’s a tip sent in by Barb for making big batches of hard boiled eggs at once. Actually, they’re not boiled at all so maybe “hard-cooked” eggs is a more appropriate title . Here’s Barb’s tip: Here’s a way to cook lots of hard boiled eggs without having to work with big pots of boiling [...]
• How To Dry Figs: If you’re lucky enough to have a fig tree or if you’ve come across a good deal on fresh figs at the local market, here’s an easy way to preserve them by drying. Dried figs are a very healthy snack and they can be added to baked goods (such as cookies, muffins and cakes), in [...]
• Home Canning: Signs of Spoilage: Canning produce from the garden is an excellent way to preserve food and save money on groceries, but you do have to take care and watch for signs of spoilage or contamination before eating the food you canned. Here’s a handy list of spoilage signs to watch for. Canning: Signs of Spoilage Jar seals have bulging lids [...]
• 10 Ways To Soften Hard Brown Sugar: It happens to the best of us: rock hard brown sugar. How to soften it? Ten easy tips below: Place the brown sugar in an airtight container with a slice of fresh bread placed on top. Seal and leave overnight. It should be soft and fresh again in the morning, if not just let it sit [...]
• How To Freeze Vegetables: Garden-good vegetables all year round–so wonderfully tasty, and so easy to freeze! Save money on groceries by stocking up now on fresh produce–the quality and prices can’t be beat when vegetables are in season (better yet if you grow your own!). You can freeze perfectly most vegetables which you’d cook before serving. Salad vegetables lose crispness [...]
• Home Canning: Definitions Guide: Acid Foods: Fruits, tomatoes, rhubarb and pimientos are acid foods. Botulinus: Bacteria found in the soil have been known to cause toxin to form in carelessly canned foods. No danger when clean, sound, unblemished fresh produce is selected, prepared and canned according instructions. Low acid foods should be boil 15 minutes before tasting. The 15 minute [...]
• Fancy & Garnished Ice Cubes: How To: Garnished & Colored Ice Cubes Maraschino cherries, one to each cube, are very appropriate for garnishing. They can be frozen in plain or appropriately tinted cubes. Lemon juice and lemon slices are also desirable additions. When fruits are to be frozen in the cubes, fill the tray one-third full with water, then partially freeze. Add the fruit [...]
• Watermelon Carving Tips: Today’s feature is from the National Watermelon Promotion Board with these Easy Watermelon Carving Tips: Carvings & Fun Ideas Following These Tips Will Make Carving Easier, Safer and Give You More Professional Results The tips include: Have the watermelon at room temperature before you start carving since the cuts will be easier to make. Refrigerate after carving is [...]
• How To Freeze Fruit: Buying fruits in bulk when they are in season and then freezing them is a great way to save money on groceries (when they’re at their lowest price), this also lets you enjoy your favorite fruits year round. Freezing fruits is a method of food preservation that is much quicker than canning and no fancy [...]