Selected Kitchen Hacks VII 🌞

How to Soften Brown Sugar

Midway through the banana bread recipe, you realize that your brown sugar is one rock-hard mass. Read on to find out how to salvage your block.

The tip: Place the block of sugar in a bowl, sprinkle with a teaspoon of water, cover with a damp paper towel, and microwave in 30-second intervals (checking between each) until soft. It may take several minutes.

To keep a new package fresh, place the entire bag of brown sugar in an airtight container or resealable freezer bag, and store at room temperature.

https://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/kitchen-tips-technique


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Cook Meatballs on a Cooling Rack

Love this Italian staple but hate the grease and overcooked bottoms? Try cooking your meatballs on a metal mesh cooling rack that suspends them above the pan, allowing the grease to drip off and allowing a nice toasted edge all around the meatball. This is also great for cooking meatballs in sauce for Swedish meatballs or grape jelly meatball appetizers.


Chill Wine With Salt Water

Salt water holds its cool more readily even than iced water. If you don’t have access to a bucket of ice, add some salt to water to create a saline solution instead and submerge the bottle in the water for a half an hour to chill it slightly.


Place Onions in Fridge for No-Tears Slicing

If you want to be able to slice or dice onions without the strong scent making your eyes water, try chilling them for a few hours before peeling and slicing. While you shouldn’t keep onions in the fridge permanently, a short time can lower the temperature and make them easier to work with tear-free.


Dice Eggs with a Cooling Rack

For diced hard boiled eggs, use a mesh cooling rack as an easy kitchen hack for perfect cubes everytime. Just place the pelled egg on the counter and press down with the rack, cubing the eggs in the process. This also works for soft fruits and veggies like tomatoes or bananas.


Freeze Soup Base in Plastic Bags

Make a simple soup starter by boiling carrots, onions, mushrooms, broth and other ingredients and then freeze small packets in plastic freezer bags. This allows you to make soups that taste like they’ve been simmering for hours in only a few minutes. Bring the base and additional water to a boil, then add rice or noodles for perfect soup every time.


Add an Egg Wash to Store-Bought Baked Goods

If you want a handmade taste without all the fuss, try adding an egg wash to any store-bought baked goods, including rolls, bread or croissants. Not only will the egg give a nice glaze and crunch to the outside, but you can also use the glaze to add things like herbs or grated cheese for a much more flavorful baked item.


Make Your Own Flavored Oils

Store-bought olive oils are great gifts, but you can add a homemade touch by making your own flavored oils with these food hacks. Pour a light cooking oil like olive oil into a pan, add dry herbs or spices to enhance the flavor and gently heat the mixture. Once the flavors are infused, strain the oil and decant into attractive glass bottles.



Add an Island or Cart to Your Kitchen

If you have a small kitchen, storage space can often be at a premium. Even if you lack cabinet or shelf space, a small kitchen cart can work great as an island or for extra storage against the wall that can be moved to where you need it. Use the shelves below for storing pots, pans or dishware, while the top doubles as extra prep space during cooking.


Dispose of Unnecessary Packaging

If you’re keeping products like coffee, pasta, rice and flour in their original packaging, you might find that they're taking up a lot of space in the kitchen. An easy hack is to dispose of unnecessary packaging and decant ingredients into attractive containers. This tip adds a shot of style to the room too.

A stylish set of containers is another great option if you’re thinking of beautiful food hacks. It’s a smart idea for family members with smaller spaces or who prefer a minimalist aesthetic. With a vast range of kitchen containers on the market, you can find something that perfectly matches your home.


Add Stacking Risers for More Cupboard Space

Cupboards often have a lot of unused area near the top, especially for cabinets that tend to house smaller or shorter items. Maximize your space with the great kitchen hack of using a small riser or stackable shelves inside larger cabinets.

This is also great for dishes, since you can stack plates on multiple platforms and pull out the one you want much more easily. It also works perfectly for small containers like baking supplies and spices. For a great DIY home décor project, install narrow shelves around the perimeter of the cabinet for a spice rack.


Cut Your Pizza With Kitchen Scissors

If you don’t have a pizza cutter on hand, slicing into a pizza can be challenging. Instead, use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut your thin crust easily into pieces. Since this will leave behind a fair amount of grease and cheese, make sure to thoroughly clean them before and after use.


Use Cold Tea for Sparkling Glass

A great alternative to Windex is leftover cold tea. It will make your surfaces and windows shine without marks or residue. Just mix tea with water in a spray bottle for easy application and a great kitchen hack for cleaning.


Keep Coffee Grounds in Your Fridge

Used coffee grounds can be a great alternative to baking soda to eliminate odors in your fridge. Just collect them in an open mason jar and place them near the back of the fridge, swapping them out every couple of weeks to freshen them up.


https://www.classpop.com/magazine/food-hacks

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Shop at restaurant supply stores.

If you are cooking at home you may think that restaurants supply stores are just for professional chefs, but there is nothing stopping you from buying their wares. They don’t just sell highly specialized cooking supplies—they sell lots of ordinary things too like pots, pans, tongs, utensils, and more. You will be surprised how much money you can save shopping from these stores, and you will get much higher quality stuff for your kitchen!


https://www.diyncrafts.com/7615/lifehacks/45-amazing-kitchen-life-hacks-absolutely-genius

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Double that batch of rice (or quinoa, or bulgar, or…)

Having cooked grains in your fridge means that fried rice, pilafs, rice bowls and robust salads are just minutes away.


Make sure your work area is well lit.

Look, the 40-watt lightbulb in your oven hood isn't going to cut it. Get a cheap clamp light from a hardware store so you can see what you’re doing.


Buy a new kitchen sponge.

Existential question time. If your sponge is filthy and smells, how can you expect it get your dishes clean?


Dry your salad greens using a kitchen towel.

Salad spinners? So bulky and annoying. Instead, pile your just-washed greens into a clean dish towel, gather it by the ends, and swing that sucker around until your salad is dry (or your arm is tired).


Buy a new Y peeler.

Like anecdotes about high school football games, peelers get dull, especially after a couple years.
(Ed. note bought a Y peeler awhile ago never looked back!)


Find the biggest mixing bowl you can and buy it.

You cannot toss a salad or mix cookies or make meatballs in a tiny cereal bowl. All you can do is make a bigger mess.


Avoid evil glass cutting boards.

And they’re all evil. Glass cutting boards send shivers down your spine when you use them. They dull your knives. They’re slippery. And they’re hard to use. Use wood, bamboo or plastic instead.


Buy two loaves of that awesome bread and freeze one.

Bread keeps really well in the freezer. And there are always plenty of uses for it. Just remember: Air is the enemy! Wrap that loaf in foil (sliced or unsliced) and put it in a freezer bag before stashing.


Stop crowding your pans.

Food that's crowded into a cast-iron skillet or sheet tray gets steamed—and soggy—instead of crisp.


When a recipe calls for chocolate chips, break out a bar of chocolate instead.

Chopping your own chips creates pockets of melty chocolate throughout your cookies—some small, some large, all delicious.


Store salad greens in a resealable plastic bag with a paper towel.

The towel is there to absorb moisture, which keeps your greens crisper, longer.


Bake pies in glass pie pans.

It heats more evenly than tin, and when your pie is perfectly golden-brown everywhere, you’ll know it.


Oil, salt, roast—in that order.

When roasting vegetables, toss them in oil, then season them with salt and pepper and toss again. This way, the seasoning actually sticks to your food.


Buy a better ice cube tray.

The ice cubes that come out of the dispenser in your fridge? They’re watering down your cocktails. Cubes made in silicone ice trays are denser and keep your Bourbon cold for hours (or, you know, however long it lasts).


Taste—and season—at every stage of cooking.

Because if you wait until the end, it’s probably too late.




https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/best-cooking-advice-ever-article


Enjoy! Happy Cooking everyone!!