Archive Category: 'Food Tips'

• 10 ReaLemon Juice Household Hacks Plus Bonus Recipe: Garden Grit Hand Cleaner: Splash some ReaLemon in your hands and scrub in hot soap and water. Gets the grime off lickety-split. Laundry Booster: Toss in a half cup of ReaLemon (plus laundry detergent) when washing whites. Also a good stain pretreater (for whites), just spritz on some ReaLemon and soak before washing. You could also [...]
• How To Tap Maple Trees And Make Maple Syrup: Today’s feature is a pdf report from the University of Maine How To Tap Maple Trees And Make Maple Syrup (pdf): A tree should be at least 10 inches in diameter, measured at 4 1/2 feet above the ground, before tapping. Trees between 10 and 20 inches in diameter should have no more than one tap [...]
• Quick Tip: Easy Jello Mold Release: Two easy ways to get a Jello mold to release itself cleanly from the mold: Cover the open side of the mold with a plate and then flip. Let it sit at room temperature until the Jello drops out itself (about 45 to 60 minutes before serving). Just cover with plastic wrap and re-chill if you [...]
• How To Choose A Good Watermelon: Picking a perfect watermelon to buy can be a little tricky. It may look fine to the untrained eye, but get it home and it’s tasteless or worse yet–has a rancid bite to it. Here are a few things to look for when choosing a good watermelon: Look for the tell-tale “ripe spot”. It will be on [...]
• How To Crack A Coconut: Today’s feature is from Adventures in Thai Cooking & Travel with a page full of instructions for How To Crack a Coconut and more: Quick version: Hold coconut over a bowl in one hand such that the “midriff” rests in the middle of your palm, with the tip on one end and the eyes on the [...]
• How To Use A Coffee Press Pot: Today’s feature is from Coffee Geek with loads of info on How to Use a Press Pot: The ubiquitous press pot. It’s everywhere. It’s seemingly easy to use, right? Well, yes, but a little understanding of the device, how it works, and maybe a bit about the history of the product will get you using yours [...]
• Rendering Fat For Cooking Use: If you make it a habit to trim the fat from your meats before cooking, don’t throw away the fat–you can render it to use in cooking. This process will give you homemade lard. Cheap & easy to do! For large amounts of lard making, check with meat and butcher shops where you can buy [...]
• How To Freeze Rhubarb {Plus Recipe}: To Freeze Rhubarb: Choose early spring rhubarb of good color. Wash and cut stalks in 1 inch pieces. Boil for one minute then cool quickly in ice water. Drain. For every 4 lbs rhubarb, mix in 1 lb. sugar. Pack into plastic containers and freeze. Use for pies and sauces. Rhubarb Crumble Crust Recipe Ingredients: 3 cups diced rhubarb 3/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup [...]
• Fancy Sandwiches & Garnish Ideas: Garnishes to Add Color to Fancy Sandwiches Red: Beets, cherries, cranberries, jelly, pimento, radishes, strawberries, tomatoes Green: Asparagus, celery, gherkins, green peppers, lettuce, olives, parsley, pepper grass, pickles, watercress. Yellow: Cheese, egg yolk, grated lemon rind, pears. Orange: Apricot, grated orange rind, peaches, pimento cheese Black: Prunes, pickled walnuts, ripe olives White: Cottage cheese, cream cheese, cucumbers, white cabbage Brown: Dates, figs, [...]
• Tea Tips & Tea Essence Recipes: To Make A Good Cup Of Tea: Use a teapot of china, pottery or heat resistant glass. Wash with soap and hot water and rinse well after each using. Heat the teapot just before making tea by filling it with hot water. Let it stand until thoroughly heated, then empty it. Measure tea into the pot, allowing 1 [...]
• Uses for Citrus Peels Plus Candied Lemon Peel Recipe: Instead of tossing out the peels from citrus fruits: Wash them, dry off the water and then store in their own freezer bags (ie. baggy for orange peels, another for lemon peels, etc.) and freeze. When you have a recipe that calls for lemon zest, just take a peel out of the freezer, let it thaw [...]
• How To Tell If An Egg Is Fresh: If you have an egg or two sitting in the refrigerator for awhile and you’re not too sure if they’re still fresh enough to eat, here are a few easy ways to help you determine freshness… How To Tell If An Egg Is Fresh If an egg is held in the palm and shaken gently and a [...]
• How To Remove Corn From The Cob: Have a shoe horn tucked away in your kitchen gadget bag of tricks? First shuck the corn then use the wide part of a shoe horn to remove kernels from the cob pushing from the top down. If you don’t have a clean, not used for footwear shoe horn on hand, Martha Stewart has perfected the [...]
• How Much Meat In A Half Pig?: Today’s feature blog post (with apologies to Tipnut’s vegan readers) is from Sugar Mountain Farm, What is a Half Pig Share: Short answer: About 23 pork chops from a half pig, 2 roasts, 1 fresh ham, 8 lbs of fresh bacon slab, 3 lbs of spare ribs, 9 lbs of ground pork, etc totaling about 75 lbs [...]
• How To Roast Garlic & Recipe Tips: Roasting garlic is quite easy to do and it’s so delicious when slathered on french bread, mixed with cooked vegetables and pasta or added to any number of dishes. This is a great way to enhance every day meals, you can even mix it with ground meats or rub over roasts. Very delicious! Tip: Prepare a few bulbs [...]
• Superbowl Dip Recipes & Snack Ideas: Superbowl Dip Recipes Here are a few tasty dips you may want to try, what’s a Superbowl party without plenty of dip? Caution: cholesterol counts will likely skyrocket! Sun-Dried Tomato Dip 3 (8 oz) packages cream cheese 1 cup finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes 3/4 cup plain yogurt 3 TBS chopped fresh chives 3 tsp Tabasco sauce Directions: Mix all ingredients until well blended. [...]
• Edible Dip Container Ideas & Spinach Dip Recipe: Bell Peppers: Red, Green and Yellow. Wash and prepare peppers as you would if you were stuffing them. Cut out the top and remove seeds from inside. Fill with your favorite dip, cover with top until ready to serve. Broccoli: Cut the stem evenly with the bottom so broccoli will sit flat and sturdy. Wash broccoli [...]
• How To Make A Gourmet Cookie Bouquet: Gourmet Cookie Bouquets are such a treat to receive–but they can get pretty expensive to buy. Here’s a sugar cookie recipe plus instructions for putting together a cookie bouquet–they make great gifts and it’s fun to make your own! Soft Sugar Cookies Recipe 4 cups flour 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 cup butter* (room temperature) 3/4 cup sour cream 2 tsp [...]
• Tip: Freeze Bananas (Plus Banana Bread Recipe): Can you freeze bananas? You bet! Once a fresh banana is too ripe to eat don’t throw it out, you can freeze it in a number of ways: How To Freeze Bananas Peel the banana and place it whole in a freezer bag Leave the peel on and freeze in a freezer bag Mash a ripe banana and place [...]
• How To Skin Tomatoes: Some recipes call for first removing the skin from tomatoes. Sounds a bit messy and may be intimidating for the less experienced cook, but the process is really quite simple. Skinning tomatoes is common for sauce recipes and the reason you want to peel the skin off a tomato first is to avoid having strings [...]
• Ice Cube Ideas for Punch & Recipes: Here’s a great tip when preparing your favorite punch recipe: Prepare punch as recipe instructs, then ladle the liquid into each section of a muffin tin. Freeze, then add to rest of punch just before serving. The thick round ice blocks won’t melt as quickly since they’re larger than regular ice cubes, plus the added benefit of [...]
• Freezing Bell Peppers: If you have part of a bell pepper left over from a recipe and no other immediate use for it, just slice it into strips or dice (whichever you prefer), seal in a freezer bag and freeze. You can also freeze whole bell peppers: Simply wash well, slice off the top and remove seeds and membrane. I [...]
• Easy Frozen Yogurt: Tips: Did you know that you can freeze yogurt? Buy whatever’s on sale, mix it up well to distribute the fruit (or add your own if you like–1 cup mashed or chopped fruit per quart yogurt), then freeze and serve as a frozen treat. This is pretty much the only way I’ll eat yogurt. You can also [...]
• Quick Tip: Make Ahead Fresh Herbs & Butter: Here’s a tip for leftover fresh herbs: Make herb butter and freeze for use later. Herbed butter is lovely on breads, pastas, potatoes, vegetables, you name it. Directions: Chop the herbs fine & mix well into butter (first let soften at room temperature). Chill for a few hours then slice the butter into pats or shape into balls (melon [...]
• How to Dry Herbs With a Microwave: Cooking with fresh herbs is nice, but most times we grow or buy more than we can use. Drying the extra is a great way to save money as well as ensure that we always have good quality cooking herbs on hand. Here’s a quick & easy method to drying them in the microwave if you [...]