In Kitchen Tips and Tricks, I covered ways to save time and money when cooking. That post listed ways to maximize the life of foods and help save a meal that’s heading for disaster. In this post, Household Help, Food and Cooking Secrets, I offer more household help in the form of food and cooking secrets. Better ways to shop, smart ways to store and little secrets to stretch that grocery budget.
1. Peel a banana from the bottom instead of the top and you won’t have to pick the stringy things off of it. That’s how primates peel their bananas!
2. Banana Ripening: If you leave Bananas connected at the stem, they ripen faster than if you take them apart.
3. Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating raw.
4. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
5. Garlic: Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light garlic taste and if you want a strong taste, add it at the end.
6. Cheese: If you store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil, it will stay fresh much longer and not mold.
7. Reheating Pizza: Heat leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove. Use low-med heat until warm. This keeps the crust crispy unlike soggy pizza that results from microwave heating.
8. Easy Deviled Eggs: Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal and mash till they are all broken up. Then, add remainder of ingredients, reseal and keep mashing it up until mixed. Then, cut the bottom corner of the bag to make a tip and pipe mixture into the egg. Throw away bag for easy clean afterward.
9. Doubling the Frosting: When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with the mixer and it doubles in size. That way, you not only get to frost more of the cake {bang for the buck!}, but it also cuts down on the calories per serving.
10. Unclump Brown Sugar Fast: To keep brown sugar from clumping, we all know to put apple wedges or a bread crust in the bag with the sugar. But what if you need the sugar NOW and it’s clumped? Place the dried-out brown sugar in a microwave-safe bowl and top with a slice of fresh bread or a damp paper towel. Then, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and microwave it in 15-second intervals until the sugar is moist and easy to scoop.
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Do you have any more Food and Cooking Secrets to share?
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Sheila Foley says
05/27/2012 at 7:22 amwow…really great tips…thanks!
Tammi says
05/27/2012 at 9:03 amyou’re welcome Sheila, hope some of them help your days!
🙂
Monica says
05/27/2012 at 7:25 amTammi, I’ve been cooking for many years but hadn’t heard of many of these tips, namely #’s 1, 2, 3 ,4, 6, 7 and 9…{lol} these are great, thanks for sharing them. {I especially love # 9!}
Tammi says
05/27/2012 at 9:05 amOhhh, #9 I did last week, hubby thought I was nuts. But, after he seen it double, he was impressed. Made for a lighter frosting too, not so dense.
Karla Sceviour says
05/27/2012 at 10:15 amohh..love # 9..!!!
Chelsey says
05/27/2012 at 10:36 amI like that tip for doubling the frosting! I’ll have to try it out! I can’t stand store bought cakes because of the icing… Thanks for the pointers!
Tammi says
05/28/2012 at 5:22 pmThe stuff that says ‘cream cheese are my fave, it’s not as sweet as usual stor bought icing. Doubling it also helps too, why waste money, right?
brenda says
05/27/2012 at 2:25 pmExcellent tips; learning something new is wonderful
Tammi says
05/29/2012 at 9:49 pmIt certainly is brenda!!
😉
Soozle says
05/27/2012 at 5:00 pmGreat tips! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Sophia says
05/27/2012 at 11:25 pmGreat tips….I’ll definitely pay more attention to the bottom of peppers when I buy them next time!
Tammi says
05/28/2012 at 5:23 pmI’ll be watching too, funny I would have never thought it made a difference!
nicolthepickle says
05/28/2012 at 1:35 pmHa, that’s so interesting. I never knew either of the things about bananas.
Cheese never goes moldy here, but nice to know anyways.
Staci G. says
05/28/2012 at 1:46 pmGreat tips! Thanks for sharing.
Lana Thompson says
05/28/2012 at 7:57 pmGreat tips! Something I learned for berries, if you want to put off spoilage for just a little while longer, wash in some water with a bit of vinegar. The vinegar kills some of the bacteria and may prolong the life just a little bit. I do it with our strawberries. 🙂
Tammi says
05/29/2012 at 9:45 pmIs that so?!?
Thanks for the awesome tip, Lana!
I’ll remember that if I do another post after finding more hidden secrets!
🙂
A.Smith says
05/29/2012 at 12:54 amOh my gosh I had no idea about the banana from the bottom and the brown sugar – You rock!
Tammi says
05/29/2012 at 9:49 pmI KNOW the banana trick, but honestly, I keep forgetting!! lol
I grab it and out of habit, start peeling and have done a ‘DOH!’ every time. Habits are hard to break!
A.Smith says
05/29/2012 at 10:06 pmMore so for some of us because a mere 8 hours after I saw this post I peeled a banana the wrong way. Had the bunch been even a bit riper I would’ve made some banana bread just so I could see this tip in action but they’re under ripe so I’m resorting to a post-it note 😉
Jeannette Laframboise says
05/29/2012 at 11:28 amWhat a fantastic and helpful list! I thought I was pretty handy in the kitchen and knew many tips to make it easier but to be honest, I had not heard of any of the 10 tips you posted, not even one for goodness sake! What have I learned in my 46 years on the planet? Just goes to show you can learn something new every day…or even 10 new things a day! Thanks for the info! 🙂
Tammi says
05/29/2012 at 9:48 pmHa!! Glad to have shown you something today!
Hope you remember the tips when you need them, I did the brown sugar trick just yesterday again – works like a charm!!
🙂
Becky says
05/29/2012 at 5:47 pmCheese never lasts long enough in our household once its opened. lol
Love the banana tip about peeling from the bottom up!! Next time I’m going to try that.
Becky says
05/29/2012 at 5:48 pmCheese never lasts long enough to worry about it going stale or mouldy that is, we eat it like crazy.
Tammi says
05/29/2012 at 9:47 pmUsually that’s the same case here too Becky. But, sometimes I buy WAY too much and it does do moldy. Especially if I’m *trying* to watch the diet, then I tend to limit the cheese… ok, so that hardly happens – Ha! 😉
Happy Chinadoll says
05/30/2012 at 10:28 amWow! This is a great post. I want to try the cheese and banana idea.
Brandy says
07/03/2012 at 10:15 amI don’t have any secrets but these will certainly help me and be my new “secrets”! 😉
Erin McGrath says
03/22/2013 at 3:54 amI always wrap my cheese in Saran Wrap so I will have to try the tinfoil – thanks for the tip!
Judy C (Cowan) says
10/26/2013 at 10:30 pmSome great tips here and ones I hadn’t heard about before, like the peppers. Thanks for sharing!