Kitchen Tips

For Quick and Easy Hard Cooked Eggs in Recipes without Peeling Them ~ Spray a frying pan with cooking spray.  Break as many eggs into the pan as your recipe calls for in the form of hard cooked.  Cook until the eggs are set.  Add about 1/4 cup of water and cover.  Cook until eggs are just cooked through.  Chop the eggs for in recipes calling for hard cooked eggs. 

 

A Tip from a Pampered Chef Consultant ~ Use baking soda to absorb any grease or oil that you're unable to remove from a pizza stone, cookie sheet or bar pan.  Put the baking soda in a shaker and keep it by the sink. When cleaning, wet the stone, then sprinkle with baking soda and use a hard scraper to clean it off.  It works really well.

 

Quick Cleanup ~ Especially for a big meal, fill the kitchen sink half full of hot soapy water as you cook, placing the dirty dishes in the sink to soak.  Loosen the dried food on your dishes and pots and clean up as you go, to save time and energy. 

 

Avocado Tip ~ If only using half of an avocado, leave the pit in the half you are not going to use, wrap it in plastic, and store in the refrigerator. The pit will help slow down the discoloration.  If the cut edge does become discolored, it can be cut off and the fruit underneath will be usable.

Baking Tips from http://www.recipetips.com/kitchen-tips/t--633/kitchen-tips.asp

• When baking cakes or bars, place them on the middle rack in the oven.
• When baking cookies, place them on the top rack of the oven. If baking two sheets of cookies at one time, place them on different racks at different angles to allow proper air circulation. Switch racks about half way through the cooking time.
• Cookies will burn less easily if they are baked on a light silver cookie sheet rather than a dark colored sheet.
• If the outer edges of the cookies are getting browned and the center is not completely cooked, reduce the temperature 15 to 25 degrees. Your cooking time will increase slightly. Increasing the baking temperature would only brown the outer edges faster and the center of the cookie would still be underbaked.
• Allow cookie sheets to cool in between batches to kept cookie dough from melting and becoming too thin at the edges.
• Test doneness of bars, cakes, muffins, and quick breads by inserting a toothpick in the center of each. If they are done, the toothpick should come out clean or only have a couple of crumbs on it.
• If you have difficulty removing muffins or cakes from the pans, place the hot pan on a wet towel and then remove from the pan.
• To help phyllo dough cups keep their cup shape when baking, place approximately two tablespoons of baking stones or beans on a piece of aluminum foil, pull up the corners of the foil and twist together to form a small pouch. After placing the phyllo dough in the muffin cups, place a stone pouch in the middle of each one and then bake the dough. When done baking, remove the stone pouches and store to reuse.
• To eliminate messy hands when greasing a baking pan, use a small plastic bag to cover your hand. Place your hand in the bag and scoop out a portion of the shortening with the covered hand and spread the grease on the pan. When finished remove the bag and throw it away. Your hands should be free of any shortening.
• For golden brown, flaky pie crust, use a lightweight aluminum pie tin like the old fashioned type.
• When making candy that is cooked to a high temperature, be sure you have a surface that can take the heat without causing damage when it is poured out of the pan. A large cookie sheet lined with aluminum foil works well. Once the candy has cooled, the foil can be removed.
• To foil line a baking pan or sheet, turn the pan upside down and mold the aluminum foil to the bottom of the pan. After the foil is molded to the pan's shape, slip it off and turn the pan over. The molded foil should slip right into the pan and fit perfectly.