Cooking Tips – Jobs I hate to do
You know there are certain things when it comes to cooking that are on my list of not too fun things to do so I try to avoid them when possible or find faster and easier ways to do them. Here’s a few things you may not like doing either and ways to do them which may be easier.
Chopping pickles for egg salad, tuna, potato salad etc.
I normally would just cut a pickle or two with my knife because the amount of time it takes to drag out a chopper then rinse it, let it dry and have to put it away seems like over kill to me for 1 little pickle but here is an even easier way.
Get out a bunch of pickles, chop them with a chopper, place in a jar or container and cover with a little juice. Then when you need a spoon full or two just scoop them out of the jar, pressing the spoon against the side of the jar to remove the juice. You have chopped pickles handy all the time.
Cracker Crumbs
For ages I have tossed crackers in a bag and crushed them with a rolling pin. I would usually end up with the bag getting a hole in it and having a big mess. (Believe it or not at the moment I don’t own a food processor or chopper)
Instead try placing your crackers in a wide mouth mug or small bowl. Use a narrower tumbler that fits in the first mug to crush your crackers or cereal for crumbs.
You could also do a large amount in a food processor all at once. Store in a large airtight container with a scoop and you have them handy and ready when you need them. This is especially good for graham cracker crumbs if you make a lot of pie crusts or to use in your recipes for other things.
Cutting Meat
I used a knife for years to cube up all kinds of my meat until I discovered kitchen shears or even a nice pair of strong scissors. I now cut my meat with them and it takes up half the time and I don’t have a cutting board to clean afterwards. Also if you are cutting up something like steak into cubes have it slightly frozen. It cuts easier.
Jill
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From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
Traditional Method For Making Sauerkraut: {Plus Tips}
The making of sauerkraut is a method of preserving good cabbage and the resulting “fermented” vegetable is not only a good source of some important food values, but has a fine distinctive flavor. Certain varieties of cabbages, such as the hard heads, are especially good for this purpose. Following are the directions…
How To Make Homemade [...]
- Also See These Tips:
- Common Causes Of Poor Quality Pickles: {Tip Sheet}
- 20 Canning Tips – Timeless Wisdom Collection
- Pickles And Relishes: Points On Pickling
Continue reading Traditional Method For Making Sauerkraut: {Plus Tips} …
From TipNut.com.
Common Causes Of Poor Quality Pickles: {Tip Sheet}
If you plan on doing any cucumber pickling this year, here’s a tip sheet of common pickle problems and why they happen. I’ve also included a recipe for homemade pickling spice blend at the bottom.
Shriveled Pickles
Shriveling may result from using too strong a vinegar, sugar, or salt solution at the start of the pickling process. [...]
- Also See These Tips:
- Pickles And Relishes: Points On Pickling
- Herb Cookery: Vintage Tip Sheet
- Spice & Herb Blends: {Recipe Cheat Sheat}
Continue reading Common Causes Of Poor Quality Pickles: {Tip Sheet} …
From TipNut.com.
Freezer and Fridge Tips
Actually using the food you buy is to me one of the best and most over looked ways of saving money on groceries. Here are just a couple of tips from our Grocery Shopping on a Budget e book. The title is a little deceiving because we not only have tons of tips and how to’s on saving at the store but also where to get the best buys, changing you and your family’s mind set, planning menus, coupon and warehouse shopping, organizing your kitchen and it’s food…… etc. so here are a few tips from it to give you some ideas that hopefully you can use.
~ Store your leftovers in clear containers when you can, especially those you want eaten quickly. For some reason families tend to eat what they see more then what they can’t see. That is why they suggest if you want your family to eat more fruit to set a bowl of it on the table so they can see it.
Most husbands and kids are a little lazy when it comes to food. They don’t like to have to forage for it which is probably why for centuries it has been the women who go out and gather. They will eat it faster if they don’t have to hunt for it.
~ Use a plastic basket or container in your fridge to store all of your condiments that you use often together. Things like ketchup, mustard and mayo. You then just slide out the basket and take everything at one time to put on the table or counter. You could do this with pickles, olives, relish or with your salad dressings even sandwich fixings anything you usually use together.
~ Keep a container in your fridge to place extra condiments you get from fast food places. Then they are always ready and handy to toss in for lunches or picnics.
~ Use square containers instead of round ones in your fridge and freezer to save more room. Also if you use plastic bags, flatten them as much as possible to lay in your freezer for more space.
~ If you have an extra freezer, keep a marker, tape or labels stored by it to use to mark things as you place them in the freezer. This would be a good place to keep your list of what you have in the freezer too if you use one.
This is just a fraction of what we have in the Grocery Shopping e book we have tried to cover not only every question asked on the subject but have even add some extra you may have not thought about.
Jill
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From Living On A Dime Blog » Living On A Dime Blog.
15 Uses for Incredibly Inexpensive White Vinegar
One of the best bargains in your local grocery store is plain old white vinegar. You can get a 32 ounce jug of it (half a gallon) for about $1.50 and it has a multitude of uses beyond the edible ones (like pickles and salad dressings). Here are fifteen uses for white vinegar, most of which I use myself.
Toilet cleaner Got a toilet bowl that’s difficult to clean? Before you go to bed, dump a cup of vinegar in the bowl, then close the lid. I usually spread the vinegar around the bowl a bit with a brush to coat the sides. In the morning, the whole bowl will be really easy to brush. I can’t remember the last time I bought actual toilet bowl cleaner.
Refrigerator cleaner I take a gallon of warm water in a bowl, add about two cups of vinegar, bust out a rag, and use that solution to clean the inside of the refrigerator. It does a great job of cleaning things up without much effort at all. If something’s really bad, I’ll put a tablespoon or so of pure vinegar right on it, let it sit for a bit, then give it a scrub.
Sunburn Is your skin a bit sunburnt? Just rub some vinegar on the affected area and it’ll feel much better really quickly. If it’s bad, you can reapply the vinegar a few times.
Kitchen drain odors If your kitchen drain has an odd smell, pour a cup of white vinegar down the drain, then don’t run any water for at least an hour. When you do run water, run quite a bit of it to flush out the drain. This usually takes care of any odors – if any still linger, repeat this a time or two.
Fabric softener Instead of using fabric softener, use about half a cup of white vinegar. It has largely the same effect without coating your clothes in chemicals and costs a lot less.
Rusty tools Just soak anything that’s rusty in vinegar overnight, then clean it thoroughly with a brush. The rust will wipe away nearly as well as it does with any expensive rust remover I’ve ever tried.
Vinyl flooring If you have a vinyl floor that needs cleaned, mop using equal amounts of water and vinegar. This works really well for getting up stains, especially if you go over it twice. Don’t do this with wood or wood laminate, however, because vinegar can react with the wood.
Window cleaning Forget Windex. Just put some vinegar in a spray bottle and get to work on any glass surfaces. It works really well and doesn’t seem to streak much at all.
Eyeglass cleaner If you use eyeglass cleaner, just take an empty container and fill it with vinegar. It cuts through grease on your lenses really well, leaving them looking great!
Microwave cleaning Put a cup of vinegar in the microwave, then run the microwave on high for three minutes. Let it sit undisturbed for half an hour, then remove the cup. The gunk in your microwave will be very easy to wipe down.
Carpet odors Did your dog do something funky on the carpet (or your toddler, for that matter – yes, I have used this tip to clean up some early potty training accidents)? Pour half a cup of vinegar on the spot that smells and just let it dry. This will kill off the odor and it’ll also make it easier to clean any stains.
Garbage disposal odors If your garbage disposal smells a bit odd, vinegar alone usually won’t do the trick because it doesn’t get into all of the cracks and crevasses in there. Instead, fill up an ice cube tray with vinegar and put it in the freezer until you have vinegar ice cubes. Toss those cubes into the disposal and run the disposal for five seconds or so (with water). Then let it sit for an hour or two, then run it again. This always works for us.
Air freshener Got that spray bottle of vinegar from the window cleaning? Spritz it in the air a few times to kill general odors. It smells vaguely vinegary for the first minute, then it just smells clean.
Nasty air Got a room that really reeks of smoke or paint fumes? Put a bowl of vinegar in there and just let it sit. If the room’s really bad, put out two or three bowls. The odor in the room will drastically improve in a few hours.
Whitening clothes Put a cup of white vinegar in a load of whites along with a quarter of a cup of baking soda. This will whiten your whites as effectively as bleach without the harshness.
These uses just scratch the surface. Whenever there’s a cleaning mission in my home, I usually tackle it with vinegar and baking soda as the first line of defense.
Do you have any great uses for vinegar? Share ‘em in the comments!
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From The Simple Dollar.
Salsa – $1.97 and Two Cent Apples
Last week I posted my taco seasoning recipe, so now for salsa. It’s funny, when I bought a jar of salsa, it didn’t fit into my $1 per pound produce rule, as I got 24 ounces for $1.98, GV brand. Now I make 32 ounces for $1.97.
I was using the lacto-fermented recipe from Nourishing Traditions,
Salsa has proven to be a better solution to getting some lacto-fermented veggies into my husband than pickles. Although he likes the pickles, unless I put them on his plate, he doesn’t think to eat them. Since I’m obsessed with salsa, I just put it on his food when I put it on my food.
To keep the lacto-fermented benefits, I add it to the food when it’s on the plate ready to be served, not when it’s cooking on the stove. I add it to eggs, tacos, quesadillas and taco mac. By adding it to our eggs in the morning we are getting a lacto-fermented condiment every day, which I am thrilled about.
1 lb tomatoes – $1.19
2 small onions – $0.13
2 jalapeno peppers* – $0.25
3 cloves garlic* – $0.20
1/2 tablespoon cilantro* – $0.06
1 teaspoon oregano – $0.04
2 tablespoons lemon juice – $0.06
1 tablespoon sea salt – $0.02
4 tablespoons whey (or additional tablespoon of salt) – $0.02
1/4 cup water – $0
I don’t bother peeling or deseeding my tomatoes, but you can.
Chop the veggies, then put all ingredients into the blender, a few at a time if necessary. Put in jars, covered and let sit at room temperature for two days. I had divide mine into two jars, since I was using old salsa jars. Then move it to the refrigerator.
*The garlic and cilantro are optional. I put in half the amount most recipes call for because I like the flavor of both, but I don’t want them to be overpowering. You can add more jalapenos, but I add less because the hotter it is, the less I use. By keeping it mild, I can pour it on my food.
If you don’t want it lacto-fermented, reduce the salt to a teaspoon, add more water, and refrigerate immediately.
Two Cent Apples
I’m not sure if this is regional, but my Walmart has apples on sale for $0.06 per pound. It was not an error. I checked with the produce guy. We bought over 21 pounds for $1.30. My husband put a limit on how many we should get, but I thought this was an amazing deal. I’m processing them into applesauce so I can freeze it. I’m going to have a busy crock pot!
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Pickles – $1.01
My husband is the person in our family whose health I am most concerned about. He is twenty-nine, so he’s not exactly getting old, but he’s older than the rest of us. Also, he has lived his whole life on processed foods. My family ate processed grains, pasta and cereal, but not much else processed except sausage and lunch meat. His family had processed everything. His body is the most damaged.
He’s on board with the diet reform we’ve been going through. He likes my cooking and has no problem as I figure out the healthier versions of our favorite meals. My soaking grains doesn’t change much for him, and he prefers the higher proportions of meat I serve. Cutting out sugar has been hard for him, so I’ve put extra effort into making him stevia sweets, homemade soda and milkshakes.
Most recently, I’ve been adding lacto-fermented produce into our diets. This has been a health goal, as adding lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables is a huge benefit in digestion. A comprehensive article on the full health benefits can be found on the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website.
My husband doesn’t really get the lacto-fermenting fruits and vegetables. He’s been good about everything else, and has become an advocate for some of the health issues that I am passionate about. But sometimes I think I might take on too much too fast and it gets overwhelming for him. So, how do we find a compromise?
Pickles!
I don’t like store-bought pickles, but my husband does. So, I’m making him lacto-fermented pickles, which are the original way pickles were made. He loves pickles and agreed to try them. He knows from experience that my home made version of anything is better than the store-bought. It’s really not a compromise at all.
Pickles are super easy. The recipe I stole can be found here or in the book Nourishing Traditions
2 tablespoons whey – $0.02
1 1/2 teaspoons salt – $0.01
1 tablespoon dill – $0.10
1 1/2 teaspoons mustard seed – $0.10
I don’t know the prices of the dill and mustard seed, as these were given to us as a wedding present as part of a spice rack, but I’m guessing $0.10 each. Also, if you don’t have whey, you can double the salt instead.
I added enough water to fill the jar to 1/2 inch away from the top. I covered tightly, then shook vigorously. I let it sit on the counter at room temperature for three days. After the three days, it needs to be refrigerated or transferred into cold storage. The pickles were perfect, and Dan loves them. I am looking forward to some fun variations, like adding garlic, red pepper flakes, or even stevia for sweet pickles.
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From Under $1000 Per Month.