Cooking can either be simply a means of feeding yourself or it can be a fantastic and fun creative process that will provide you with fabulous meals! Read on to discover some great ideas on how to make cooking an easier and more pleasurable experience for you before your next meal!
Being organized is a key step when planning to prepare a meal for family or friends. Ensure that you aren’t missing important ingredients before you start cooking. It is not too much to get your meals ready the day before. Make sure you have the necessary utensils. Did you think of everything? With the right groundwork, you can enter your kitchen confidently and get right to work whipping up a fantastic meal.
Here’s a trick you can use to save your sauce fast! Mix one tablespoon of starch from corn and two tablespoons of water together in a bowl. Add this mix to the sauce little by little until it becomes thicker. Make sure you combine them gradually and consistently so as to prevent the sauce from thickening too much.
Rub your hands against your sink after cooking with garlic. Garlic can be an undesirable smell to have cling to you. It might sound a bit odd, but next time you are cooking with it, rub your hands against your sink. If your sink is stainless steel, it should remove the smell.
If you are following a recipe, make sure that you do not follow this religiously, as you should always add a personal spice to your meal. Instead of following a pizza recipe to the tee, add some red pepper to inject a punch into your dish to make it unique and individualized.
To reduce the fat and calories in a recipe that calls for a lot of mayonnaise, simply replace half the mayonnaise with sour cream. Since mayonnaise serves primarily a textural purpose in many of these recipes, replacing it with similarly textured sour cream gives you the same texture with a lighter, healthier taste.
When you are going to the store, do not always have a large shopping list which can restrain you to just getting certain items. See what you like and what you are in the mood for and purchase based on that. This will give you the spontaneity to cook whatever you choose.
If you want to optimize the amount of juice that you get from a lime, put it in the microwave for 10 seconds. This will allow the liquid to flow easily when you cut the lime, so that you can add this to your favorite meals. Use this trick anytime you serve a lemon or lime.
Trying to cook with little children running around under your feet? Give them something to do. Any small and simple task will make them feel like they are helping with the meal, and it will keep them out of trouble for a little while as you try to finish up the dish that you are working so hard on.
When storing items in your kitchen, you will want to make sure that they are stored in containers that are airtight and closed tightly for two reasons. While most foods will go stale having constant exposure to air, another big fear is that the product will be taken over by bugs.
You need to remember to poke holes in a pie crust before you put it into the oven. A pie crust made from scratch can be very delicious, but if tiny holes are not poked with a fork, it will cause the crust to bubble in places which can make it difficult to fill with yummy ingredients.
Rather than using a traditional store bought dressing when making a salad, try making your own vinaigrette. A vinaigrette that is homemade will contain less ingredients than store bought ones and have no preservatives. This makes the vinaigrette more natural and better tasting. Simply shake the ingredients in a sealed container and enjoy.
If you want a creative and efficient way to store your sauces, pour them in ice cube trays and leave them to freeze. That way you can choose how many cubes you need to make the right amount of a particular sauce, dinner or soup, plus they can be easily reheated.
In order to save time when you are cooking, you can create beforehand your own blend of spices for different dishes. There are different spice combos for Asian, Italian, Mexican, or Indian cuisines. An easy “American” blend would be combining cinnamon and sugar for a quick cinnamon toast as a nice morning or evening treat.
Have you ever looked for a specific recipe only to come up short? This is why it’s a good thing to have a recipe box or book to hold all those valuable, family favorites. You can categorize them by appetizer, pasta, soups, meats, casseroles, etc. The categories are endless and should be done in a way you will easily be able to find them. You don’t want to lose Grandma’s famous chocolate chip recipe, right?
One way to ensure that you are cooking in a nutritional manner is to make sure that you do not over cook your vegetables. This is important because overcooking can actually draw the nutrients out of your vegetables and also cause them to lose taste. Try steaming your veggies instead of boiling.
We all need to eat so we might as well make the process of preparing food something we love. Hopefully you have found some fresh ideas in this article on improving your life in the kitchen! It can be a great way to enjoy a major part of our lives so take what you have learned here and apply it to your next meal and bon appetit!
