Your Kitchen or Cooking Tips?

What general kitchen or cooking tips can you share?

Cooking is something I love to do, but that's recent for me. My tips are sure to sound remedial to many of you!!!

• Use kitchen sheers -- those are great for trimming meat, cutting meat (especially chicken -- makes it take 1/4 the time as a sharp knife would!)
• Do not disconnect the measuring spoons and small cups from their ring. That's a recipe for them getting lost in my house!
• Frozen veggies can be your friend! They're already sliced / diced / chopped and from what I understand, they actually are frozen quickly, but what you buy "fresh" in a grocery store may have been in transit for weeks.
• Cooking spray is a must have!
• Lots of your favorite mixes, boxes and cans have recipes on the lable, but SO much more on the brand website. You can put them to great use!

What are some of your "kitchen basics"???

Great tips Jill! Here's a few more off the top of my head:

• If you're only cooking for 1 or 2: pretty much anything that is usually oven-baked can be cooked in a toaster oven, assuming that it fits. Just subtract 25-50 degrees from the cooking temperature and check on it a little earlier than you would if using the oven.
• Allrecipes.com + Chef Tap app = awesome combination for finding new recipes and storing the ones you like.
• Quality cookware is a good investment, especially considering you use it almost every day! Cheap nonstick pots & pans often wear out relatively quickly and have been accused of releasing chemicals into food, but a good stainless steel pot/pan will last a loooooooong time and you don't have to worry about eating teflon! /soapbox off
  
  
  

Sugar, where did you get the Chef Tap app? I looked on my iPhone and didn't find it.

Also, I like what you are saying about good cookware. All I have now is Tefal, but I am going to be upgrading... We've been thinking about getting a large bird (African Grey Parrot) for a few years now, and I know from reading about birds, that non-stick cookware can kill them, so sure makes me think about what it can do to US!

I got Chef Tap from Amazon...I have it on my Kindle Fire. I guess they don't have an Apple version...bummer!

My parents gave us a set of Kitchen Craft stainless "waterless" cookware as a wedding gift, and I LOVE it, but in all honesty I like my less-expensive "regular" stainless pots almost as well. Good point about birds being sensitive to non-stick cookware; I know as long as I have a choice I won't be using non-stick again!!

My cookware is TitanWare. I got it a couple of years ago when a distributor was demonstrating it at Sam's Club. I love it and take extra good care of it. No metal utensils!http://www.titanwareusa.com/

Maybe I can get Chef Tap on my android phone or tablet! I will look

I love to cook and got tired of buying new pots and pans every couple of years. So I finally bit the bullet and bought a really nice set. Mine are made by Allclad, it's the LTD edition. They are aluminium and are black on the outside and shiney on the inside. They came with a lifetime warranty. If ever anything happens (a loose handle, etc.) you just send it back and they will either fix or replace it. I spent a bundle on this set but here it is, thirty years later, still looks brand new. They have stay cool handles so even though they are metal, they don't get hot. I figure in the long run I'll actually save money by not having to buy pots every couple of years. Buying this was a stretch for me because I am the world's cheapest person. I always scrimp on everything. But this is one time I paid the extra nickel to go first class and boy am I glad I did. LOL

best tip I can think of offhand is if you like to cook invest in a good stainless steel fry/saute pan. With stainless you need to remember to pre-heat it or it will stick. If you'll pre-heat it, then spray a little olive oil in it gosh it's just like cooking on teflon. Remember when you saute meat or? when you go to turn it and it seems stuck, just wait a little longer the pan will turn loose of it when it's seared and ready to be turned. Next pan you definitely need is cast iron, a well seasoned cast iron skillet is irreplaceable.

I made some banana bread yesterday and I tip I was given and use is to freeze your overripe bananas. When you get ready to use them in a receipe, just thaw them for a few minutes, snip off the top, and squeeze the banana into the batter. Works like a charm and they are already mashed!

The bad news, is I didn't have enough butter on hand for the receipe so thought I'd substitute cooking oil. Edible, but not nearly as good as using butter.

Marsha - better substitution is applesauce. 1/4 cup applesauce for 1/4 cup butter. No texture difference and cannot tell a taste difference.

Larry and I bought our first stainless steel cookware in 1988 when we first moved in together after marriage. We still have all the original pieces (Duncan Hines - purchased in Germany at the PX) and it is one investment that I've always appreciated. 2 of our 3 daughters are now living on their own and asked what the best purchase for a new home was - and both Larry and I chimed "stainless steel cookware"!!! We've since bought and used many gadgets (some we DO like - the George Foreman grill gets used almost daily right now). I also love a Wok and try to purchase commercial grade bake ware, corning ware or pyrex bake ware. I do have cast iron, but keeping it seasoned, even when I used it a lot long ago, was difficult for me... When I was working on several horse farms, we often kept those enamel covered coffee pots on the back burner of the stove or over the cook fire ... AWESOME if you liked coffee!

If you have room in you freezer - you can chop, slice and dice your own fruits and veggies and quick freeze them on cookie sheets before transferring them to ziplock bags. Much cheaper than purchasing ready frozen.

Who here has tried a bottle garden in a kitchen window or a straw bale garden for growing veggies, fruits & herbs? This year will be my first. I usually have a brown thumb - will see how this goes...

Organize your pantry for first in first out. If the date is near expiration find something to cook with it. Groceries are expensive. I am phasing out all the white rice, packaged food, foods with horrible ingredients and preservatives etc. and replacing it with healthier items. If it is near expiration date it will be cooked or tossed. If I don't approve of some of the ingredients in it the next time I purchase similar item will be a better version or not at all!

I keep a permanent marker in my kitchen catch-all drawer. As I unpack my groceries, I mark the expiration date on everything with big numbers: on the top of cans, box tops, wherever I can easily see them. Doesn't take long, really. This way, when I look in my pantry I can see what is going to expire soon and plan on using whatever that is. My pantry has pull out drawers so I can see everything at a glance. Works really, really well. I haven't thrown out any expired food since I started doing this.

You all have shared great ideas and tips!

The other day, I saw a neat way (youtube video) about how to make a round hard fried egg, like for an egg mcmuffin... You use washed veggie or whatever cans that you have opened on both ends. Spray it with pam, as well as the frying pan. I thought it looks great, but I have not tried it yet. Once I do, I will pass it along if it works like I hope. I love egg mcmuffins