Tips of the Day!

It’s almost fall break for me! I can’t wait to be able to take a break from working and walk around while the leaves are beginning to change colors. Definitely go outside and enjoy the warm weather a few more times before it really starts to get chilly. I decided that today’s blog post will be a list of small tips when working in the kitchen!

1.     If you’re cooking pasta, cook the pasta for about a minute less than expected (if cooking for 10 minutes, cook for about 9 minutes) if you’re going to continue to cook the pasta with sauce later on. If you’re done cooking the pasta, pour the pasta into a strainer and douse the pasta in cold water so that it’ll stop cooking

2.     Make cute bunny rabbit apples! Wash an apple and slice it into eight even pieces. In the middle of one of the pieces of apple, make a small knife mark and drag the knife lightly from the middle to one corner of the apple. Then put the tip of the knife to the middle again and drag the knife to the corner closest to the last corner you dragged the knife last. In that triangle you just lightly cut on the surface of the apple skin and use the knife to slowly peel the skin off there. Once you’ve done that, you have a simple apple bunny! It should look like this:

 

3.     If your fingers smell strongly of garlic, soak your fingers in lemon juice for a few minutes, then wash your hands. The smell of garlic should more-or-less go away

4.     No matter your temptation to turn up the heat on the stove to speed up the cooking process, you definitely should not. If you’re cooking a custard on the stove, if you turn the heat up too high, the mixture may cook the eggs by scrambling, or you may curdle the milk. This is one example, but there are multiple other instances when this could happen, so if it asks for low heat, be patient and keep it on low heat the whole time

5.     Always thoroughly read recipes through before starting; you may miss the slightest and/or most important detail (ingredients at room temperature, keep on low heat, prep item ahead of time, etc.)

6.     Don’t be afraid to taste-test your dishes as you make them, whether it a roux, stew, or even batter. If you taste early on, you’ll be able to avoid serving your dining guests a salt-filled cake

7.     When working with ground meat, do not over-mix or mash it up too much when working with it; that will make the final product very hard and chewy

8.     Remember: fooling around with measurements when cooking is welcome and awesome, but definitely NOT when baking. Baking is a science with chemical bonds and reactions; every measurement must be exact

9.     To get as much juice as possible from a lemon or lime, roll it hard under your palm for a few seconds before juicing

10.  Never be afraid to make mistakes in the kitchen. In order to get all of the delicious recipes you see here today, someone went through a lot of trial and error to get there. Behind every success is a hundred failures, and the more you fail, the more delicious the reward (literally!).

I hope you find these tips useful! Enjoy~ :)