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Location: Georgia, on the Florida line, right above Tallahassee
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Quote:
Originally Posted by akm4
I am hosting a cooking demo tomorrow for a young couple just learning to cook. I have a plan for the evening, but would love to include your best recipes, tips, or even your funny stories of recipes-gone-wrong
Thanks!
If you put an egg on a pat of butter in the microwave for a few minutes, (as my mom's ~1980's microwave cookbook said do) it turns the egg into a flying yellow rocket.
After reading and posting in the Food Forum for years, I thought it would be good for all of us to post some of our tips to make cooking/roasting/baking easier. These are a couple of things that I do---
Parchment paper on a cookie or baking sheet. Food won't stick and there isn't any cleanup.
I always put a pan of hot water on the bottom rack in the oven when making pasta & cheese dishes. The pasta pan goes on the top rack as the hot water steams from the bottom. Cheese and pasta does not stick to the pan.
After boiling Lasagna noodles, layer the noodles on wax paper or foil. Pasta does not stick together. I don't care for no-boil noodles, they seem to soak up too much of the sauce. IMO
I cook a lot with the crock pot & always use Reynolds crock pot liners--just wipe out the pot after cooking.
A general tip is to cook as much as you can over the weekend, then freeze/refrigerate for easier meals later in the week and in the future. I cannot tell you how much time and sanity this has saved me to to just have to re-heat a homemade meal, then make a salad.
I also prepare my "roasting" vegetables on Sundays by chopping them to be ready for the pan -- slice Brussels in half, chop my broccoli florets down to bite size, etc. Store in bags with desired seasoning/marinade, and you're in business to just dump on to the pan whenever you're ready to roast. I don't do this for all vegetables -- mushrooms do not last like this, and tomatoes (which I know is a fruit, but...) get mealy and ick after a couple of days sliced in the fridge.
Rachael Ray can grate on me, but her "garbage bowl" idea is a good one -- I have a large bowl that I use for trash while prepping food.
Keep a towel on your shoulder while cooking -- assuming you're not handling raw meat, this can be a time saver when a simple hand wipe or drying is needed.
I cook chicken breast in the crock pot, shred it with the kitchen aid mixer, and then freeze it in meal-sized portions. You can make a lot of quick dinners with a bag of shredded chicken.
Right off the bat I can only think of a few things: 1-when potatoes start to long old, instead of throwing them out, par boil, grate and place in serving size containers for hash browns. There will be a little liquid which I drain out using paper towels. Then they are ready for frying.
We try to make enough for left overs almost every meal, especially with only 2 of us in the house. That way the second time around it only takes a couple minutes to get dinner ready or we use the left overs for lunch.
When I bake or make chex cereal mix I make several packages and freeze. That way I can always jut pull some out and have it for entertaining, the same with cheese balls.
I'll second the parchment paper for baking cookies. You can prepare a number of sheets and just slide done cookies off to finish. Then reload a new sheet by sliding it onto the cookie sheet.
Hadn't thought of M/W'ing the garlic. I generally wrap in a small piece of foil (with oil) and set on burner. Will have to try!
I use silicon baking sheets for cookies, nachos, and pizza, or anything that is going to melt cheese onto the cookie sheet. Nothing sticks to them, they wash right off, and they are reusable.
For garlic, cut the end off, smash them with the flat of the knife and the skin will come right off. You are going to chop the garlic, anyway, so smashing it doesn't hurt.
I don't cook for Easter. What do you cook? Ham? Stuffed eggs? Cake with green coconut topping making a nest for jelly beans?
Baked goods here are usually gluten-free. If I make something with wheat flour, it goes into a glass pan.. All gluten free is cooked in a silicon pan, so the gluten free people know not to eat anything that is in a glass pan. I don't have to label or warn.
If I'm doing baked potatoes, I put a couple extra in the oven and use those to make potato salad the next day.
Chicken, wings, meat - everything gets cleaned to the point I can use it immediately then frozen in two-portion sizes. Chicken trimmings, wing tips make great stock in the crock pot with veggie trimmings. One mess, two-three weeks of less work.
I cut 4 inch circles of pie crust or short bread and freeze them. One pear or apple peeled, cored, sliced paper thin will cover three circles, add a bit of cinnamon sugar. Off to the toaster oven we go. The kitchen smells like baking, desert is warm and one goes into SO's lunch.
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Tips For Easier Cookng
