Hints & Tips
sicretti della cucina

Bananas

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Beef - grounded

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

Bread

Store at room temperature. Storing in the refrigerator promotes staling.  Use the date as a guide or use within 3 to 7 days.

Freezing not more than six months.

Over wrap well to prevent drying out; thaw at room temperature

Eggs - scrambled

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

Fruit Flys - Goodbye fruit flys.

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Garlic - How do you get rid of the smell?

Cooking with garlic can leave an offensive smell on your hands. A good way to eliminate this problem is to wear disposable rubber gloves. Remember that washing your hands in cold water removes the smell, whereas hot water tends to seal it in!

Garlic - Would you like stronger or lighter garlic taste?

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Gardening tricks - Stop the weeds.

Start putting it in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants overlapping as you go cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

Gardening tricks - Keep the squirrels away.

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper.The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.

Ground Beef

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

 
Lemon - What's in a lemon?

One lemon makes about 3 tablespoons of juice and 1 teaspoon of zest. courtesy bamapie.com

Measuring cup - Non-stick method?

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Peppers

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Pizza

Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy.. No soggy micro pizza.

Potato tips (oven baked - quick and delicious)

Boil for 10 minutes in salted water and then put in oven 375 degrees for quick oven baked potatoes.

Potato tips - Less oil absorption?

Boil the potato befor frying. This will seal the potato and will stop it from absorbing oil.

 
Tomato tips - How do you get rid of the acidity?

Due to the high level of acidity the best method to neutralize is to add a table spoon of sugar for a serving of four.

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