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| Cooking Tips |
| Dried Beans |
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An alternative to the long soaking of dried beans is to add 2-3 cups of water for every cup of beans. Place the beans and water into a very large pot. Bring this to a boil, let it continue to boil for 2 minutes. Take it off the heat, cover and let it stand for 1-2 hours. |
Sun dried tomatoes come in a couple of forms. You can buy sun dried tomatoes in a jar, packed in oil. These can be found in the specialty foods section of your supermarket or in a delicatessen.
The other way to purchase sun dried tomatoes is to buy them dried in the produce section of the supermarket. To prepare them, simply place however many tomatoes you need into a bowl and pour boiling water over them and let them sit for 10 minutes to soften.
Sun dried tomatoes make wonderful additions to pasta, pizza and salads.
Use kitchen scissors to cut them once they are softened.
TO MAKE YOUR OWN SUN DRIED TOMATOES IN OIL
Method: Place about 15 sun dried tomatoes in a bowl of lukewarm water and let them sit for 15 minutes or until they are soft. Drain them and place them on a paper towel, to dry.
In a small mason jar, spice jar or any kind of jar with a tight fitting lid, place half of the tomatoes, pour 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil over top. Place the remaining tomatoes, followed by enough olive oil to reach the top of the jar. If you want you can also add some seasonings to the jar, like a couple of cloves of garlic, bay leaves, peppercorns, nuts, or hot peppers.
Let the tomatoes sit for 24 hours before serving.
If you really enjoy doing this type of thing, you can decorate your jars and give this as a gift to fellow food connoisseurs.
An easy test if you don't think your baking powder is still active.
Combine 1 tsp. of baking powder with 1/3 cup hot water. If it bubbles a lot then it is fine.
Dip frozen bananas in melted chocolate. Place them on waxed paper and let them harden. Eat right away or transfer to a plastic bag and refrigerate
| Beets |
If you are boiling fresh beets and you want to retain the bright color of the beets, add 2 tbs. of lemon juice or vinegar to the water.
Rub a little olive oil, vegetable oil, butter or bacon fat on the potato before you put it in the oven to be baked. You will get a cripier potato.
Use leftover baked potaotes to make hashbrowns. Try storing potatoes in a clean pair of pantyhose. Put the potatoes into the legs and hang them from a hook in a cool dark place. This allows the potaotes to get the ventialtion they require for proper storage. Dry onions can be stored like this as well. Always cut out the green spots found on potatoes. These spots are solanine, which are a poison that develops in potatoes that have had prolonged exposure to light. Crust Crisis
When you are stuck for a crust when making cheesecake, try using breakfast cereal. I discovered that bran cereal works better when combined with a graham cereal. You just combine the two, add 1/4 cup sugar and melted margarine.
When You Only Need a Little
A lot of times you may only need a little of something like tomato juice or tomato sauce for a recipe. Use what you need, then pour the rest into a clean ice cube tray. Freeze it then when it is frozen place the tomato cubes
in freezer bags until you need just a little.
Better Batter
1. When you are putting breadcrumbs on something such as meat, first dredge in flour, followed by egg,
finnishing up with your breadcrumbs.
2. For a lighter coating, add 1/2 tsp. baking powder per !/2 cup of flour.