| COOKING AND KITCHEN HINTS 3 July 2001 Don't wash strawberries until you're ready to use them. They keep better dry. If you add too much salt to a soup or stew, drop in a raw potato and boil for 5 minutes. When you remove the potato, the overt salty taste will be gone. A slice of bread can remove the scorched taste from rice. Place the bread on top of the rice and replace the pot lid and wait a few minutes. Remove the bread and the scorched taste should be gone. Sprinkle a little salt in your frying pan before cooking to keep the grease from splattering. You won't waste syrup or honey if you first dip your measuring cup in flour. Sticky mixtures will slide out easily and completely. Thicken gravy quickly by adding instant mashed potatos instead of flour to the water mixture. Cleaning behind your fridge will keep it running longer and more efficiently. Another fridge cleaning tip: Make sure the unit is level. An unlevel refrigerator works harder than it needs to and wastes energy. Remove odors from your fridge by placing a vanilla extract soaked cotton ball inside. Another popular method is to leave a cup of baking soda or a slice of lemon in the fridge at all times. Believe it or not, sour milk cleans copper. Pour the milk in a flat dish and soak the copper in it for an hour. Then, clean as usual. Another, less smelly way, is to rub your copper or brass with a lemon and salt mixture and dry with a soft cloth. Season an iron skillet by spreading a tablespoon of oil in the pan and bake at 350F for one hour. Place Bay Leaves in kitchen drawers and in flour/sugar containers to keep crawling insects away. Dry Mustard will remove onion odors from your hands or cutting board. Rub it in, then rinse off. Heating lemons before squeezing them will give you double the amount of juice. When you buy lemons, look for those that have the smoothest skin and no points on the ends. These will have better flavor and more juice. If you love fried fish but not the smell, soak your fish in lemon juice for about 20 minutes before frying. |