Tips

Cooking Tips

Eggs, Cheese, Pasta and Casserole

• To prevent eggs from curdling when they are to be added to hot liquid, add a bit of the hot liquid to the eggs first and letting the temperature equalize. Then they can be added to the remaining liquid with no worries.
• Adding vegetable oil to pasta cooking water before you add the pasta will cut down on sticking.
• When preparing your favorite casserole, double the batch and freeze one for a busy day.
• Egg yolks can be kept for several days in the refrigerator if they are covered with vegetable oil.
• If a casserole dish is lined with several layers of foil and then filled and frozen the casserole can be lifted out when solid and wrapped for freezing without losing the use of the casserole dish. It will fit right back into the dish when it's time to bake it. This also makes for easier stacking of casseroles in the freezer.
• A dull warm knife is best for slicing cheese.
• Use a fry basket in the pot when cooking pasta. The pasta can be lifted out all at once and rinsed in the same basket.
• Stir eggs while they are boiling to keep the yolks centered. This makes the deviled eggs prettier.
• Storing cheese in a tightly covered container with a few sugar cubes will retard mold.
• Hardened cheese can be softened by soaking in buttermilk.
• If grater is brushed with oil before you grate cheese clean up will be a snap.
• Adding vinegar to the water used to cook hard boiled eggs will keep them from "running" if a shell is cracked.
• Mark hard boiled eggs before they are stored so you won't have to guess the raw egs from the cooked ones. This can be done with a crayon or by adding food coloring to the cooking water.
• Run cooked spaghetti under HOT water to prevent stickiness.

Soups

• To prevent curdling of the milk or cream in soup add the soup to the milk rather than vice versa. Or add a bit of flour to the milk and beat well before combining.
• Always start cooking bones and meat in cold, salted water.
• The easiest way to skim off fat from soup is to chill until the fat hardens on top of the liquid. If time will not permit this, wrap ice in paper toweling and skim over the top.
• An excellent thickener for soups is a little oatmeal. It will add flavor and richness to almost any soup.

Salads

• To remove the core from a head of lettuce, hit the core end sharply against the counter top or side of the sink. Then the core will twist out easily.
• Put salad greens or coleslaw in a metal bowl and place in the freezer for a few minutes.
• Rubbing waxed paper over the inside and outside of a wooden salad bowl will prevent if from becoming sticky.
• If you cut the root end off the onion last you'll shed less tears.
• To prevent soggy salads, place an inverted saucer in teh bottom of the salad bowl. The excess dressing will drain under the saucer and keep the greens crisp.
• Lettuce and celery will crisp up faster if you add a few raw slices of potato to the cold water you use to soak them.

Meat, Fish and Poultry

• Baking fish on a bed of celery and onions will add to the taste as well as keep the fish from sticking.
• Coating will adhere to chicken better if it has been chilled for an hour before cooking
• Sprinkle salt in the frying pan before adding meat and there will be less grease splattered.
• For a juicer burger rub both sides with cold water before grilling.
• Always roast poultry breast side down so the white meat will not dry out. Turn the bird for the last portion of cooking so that it will brown well.
• Unwaxed dental floss is good for trussing poultry because it will not burn.
• Meatloaf won't crack when baking if it's rubbed with cold water before going in the oven.
• Adding cold water to the bottom of the broiling pan before cooking meat helps absorb smoke and grease and makes clean up easier.
• To speed up hamburger cooking, poke a hole in their centers when shaping. This causes the center to cook quickly and the holes are gone wen the hamburgers are finished cooking.
• A large roast can be carved more easily after it stands for about 30 minutes.
• Meat or chicken may be floured easily by placing in a bag with flour and shaking well.
• Add a little lemon juice to water while boiling to make fish firm and white.
• To avoid odors while cooking fish, cover with browned butter and lemon juice.

Miscellaneous 

• When food is too salty add a cut raw potato, then discard the potato once it is boiled.
• If the dish is too sweet, add salt. On a main dish you can add a  teaspoon of vinegar
• If the food is too sharp, a teaspoon of sugar will soften the taste.
• To get corn silk off of corn on the cob, brush downward with a paper towel.
• To cut a pie into five equal pieces, first cut a Y in the pie and then two large pieces can be cut in half.
• If gravy is too greasy, a bit of baking soda can be added without affecting the taste of the gravy.
• Rub shortening around the top of the pot to prevent boil overs.
• If the television is in use, it makes a nice warm spot for dough to rise.
• Place a folded, damp towel under the bowl and it won't slip and slide while mixing.
• Cookies will stay moist in the jar if a slice of bread is placed in the jar.
• Dipping the cookie cutter in slightly warm salad oil will give you a much cleaner cut.

Conversions

• Check here to check out this website for easy conversions!!!

Food Storage Tips

• Use paper cups as handy containers for your "drippings" in the refrigerator as they take up little room and can be thrown away when empty.
• To prevent your salt shaker from clogging up, keep a few grains of rice inside the shaker.
• Cheese will not dry out if it's wrapped in a cloth dampened with vinegar.
• Steak, roast or poultry bones can be frozen until needed for soup stock.
• Instant soup stock will always be on hand if you save the pan juice from cooking meats. Pour liquids into ice cube trays and freeze. Place solid cubes in freezer bags or foil.
• Lettuce won't "rust" in the refrigerator if it's wrapped in paper toweling.

Cleaning Tips

•  Baked on food - fill container with water, get a Bounce paper softener and the static from the Bounce towel will cause the baked on food to adhere to it. Soak overnight. Also; you can use 2 Efferdent tablets , soak overnight!
• Grease Stains - Coca Cola , it will also remove grease stains from the driveway overnight. We know it will take corrosion from car batteries!
• You can clean darkened aluminum pans easily by boiling in them two teaspoons of cream of tarter mixed in a quart of water. Ten minutes will do it.
• To remove wax - Take a paper towel and iron it over the wax stain, it will absorb into the towel.
• Wine stains, pour on the Morton salt and watch it absorb into the salt.

Household Tips

• To remove burned on starch from your iron, sprinkle salt on a sheet of waxed paper and slide iron back and forth several times. Then polish until roughness or stain is removed.
• To pick up slivers of glass, it helps to use a dampened paper towel.
• If zippers stick, just run some bar soap over the zipper and the zipper will work fine.
• Most of the time VERY hot water will revive your flowers.
• To get a dull finish on a new pan it can be baked empty in a 350 degree oven.
• Dripping faucets can be quieted by tying a string to it that reaches into the sink. The water will side down the string quietly.
• Try loosening rusty screws by putting a drop or two of ammonia on it.
• Keeping a piece of charcoal in the tool drawer will keep the moisture out preventing rust.
• Rusty bolts can usually be loosened by pouring club soda on them
• To keep FRESH FLOWERS longer Add a little Clorox , or 2 Bayer aspirin , or just use 7-up instead of water.
• Remove labels off glassware etc. rub with Peanut butter!
• Kool aid to clean dishwasher pipes. Just put in the detergent section and run a cycle, it will also clean a toilet.

Children Tips

• To remove your child's crayon marks from linoleum or tile, use silver polish.
• White tennis shoes will last longer if sprayed heavily with starch when you first get them.
• Stains on clothes - Colgate toothpaste
• Crayon on the wall - Colgate toothpaste and brush it!
• Grass stains - Karo Syrup
• To keep goggles and glasses from fogging, coat with Colgate toothpaste
• When the doll clothes are hard to put on, sprinkle with corn starch and watch them slide on
• Peanut butter will remove ink from the face of dolls
• Pam will also remove paint, and grease from your hands
• Sticking bicycle chain - Pam no-stick cooking spray
• Peanut butter - will get scratches out of CD's! Wipe off with a coffee filter paper

Shopping Tips

• When you go to buy bread in the grocery store, have you ever wondered which is the freshest, so you 'squeeze' for freshness or softness? Did you know that bread is delivered fresh to the stores five days a week? Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Each day has a different color twist tie.
  They are:
  
  Monday = Blue,
  Tuesday = Green,
  Thursday = Red
  Friday = White
  Saturday = Yellow.
  
  So if today was Thursday, you would want red twist tie; not white which is Fridays (almost a week old)! The colors go alphabetically by color Blue- Green - Red - White - Yellow, Monday through Saturday. Very easy to remember. I thought this was interesting. I looked in the grocery store and the bread wrappers DO have different twist ties, and even the ones with the plastic clips have different colors. You learn something new everyday! Enjoy fresh bread when you buy bread with the right color on the day you are shopping.

Pet Tips

• Fleas in your carpet? 20 Mule Team Borax- sprinkle and let stand for 24 hours. Maybe this will work if you get them back again.

Health and Beauty Tips

• Heavy dandruff - pour on the vinegar 
• Fungus on toenails or fingernails - Vicks vapor rub
• Arthritis? WD-40 Spray and rub in, kill insect stings too
• Bee stings - meat tenderizer
• Chigger bite - Preparation H
• Puffy eyes - Preparation H
• Paper cut - crazy glue or chap stick (glue is used instead of sutures at most hospitals)
• Stinky feet - Jello !
• Athletes feet - cornstarch
• Budweiser beer conditions the hair
• Pam cooking spray will dry finger nail polish
• Cool whip will condition your hair in 15 minutes
• Mayonnaise will KILL LICE, it will also condition your hair
• Elmer's Glue - paint on your face, allow it to dry, peel off and see the dead skin and blackheads if any.
• Shiny Hair - use brewed Lipton Tea
• Sunburn - empty a large jar of Nestea into your bath water
• Minor burn - Colgate or Crest toothpaste
• Burn your tongue? Put sugar on it!