Quick Tip #9 ~ Prep Ingredients for Unskilled Cooks

When baking or cooking with children or the elderly it is helpful to prepare as much as possible before hand.  It saves time, frustration on everyone's part and is less mess.  Depending on the project at hand and the experience you want to give quite a bit can be prepared ahead.  Here is an example from a recent experience with Elizabeth's elderly grandmother.

We wanted to let her enjoy baking her father's soft sugar cookies.  She can not follow a recipe any longer and it is very hard for her to even follow verbal

Quick Tip #8 - Use Paprika to Darken Beef Broth

If you are making something such as beef stew and your broth looks pale and watery, sprinkle on a bit of Paprika.  The flavor is mild enough that a little of it will not affect the taste of your dish, but it will improve the color and rich appearance of your broth.

Quick Tip #7 - Cool Pasta Quickly

For recipes calling for cold pasta, it is important to cool the pasta as quickly as possible after cooking to avoid it becoming mushy.  I strain it through a colander as usual, then run cold water from the tap over it.  I have also sometimes tossed it with a few ice cubes while running cold water over it if I am in a real hurry to cool it.

Quick Tip #6 - Alphabetize Spices

Once you begin to do a lot of cooking, you will acquire quite a collection of spices.  To enable you to locate them quickly, alphabetize them.  This way you will not have to look through them all to find the garlic, for example.  If you, like me, still find that you have too many to sort through, divide the Baking and Cooking spices into two different areas.  That way you will approximately halve the number you are dealing with.

Quick Tip #5 - Dish Soap in Hand Dispenser

Keep dish soap in a hand dispenser on your kitchen sink.  It is easy to pump soap out of for cleaning up dishes and for teaching children how much to use - for example, 1 pump, 2 pumps, etc.  Dish soap is also much better than hand soap at getting heavy grease off your hands while cooking. And it looks much better than the plain old plastic bottle anyway!

Quick Tip #4 - Candle to Cancel Burnt Smell

If you burn something and the stench is filling your house, grab some unscented candles (I am assuming scented would work, but some in my family have allergies to the scent, so I do not use them), light them, and set them around.  I do not know how it works, but it somehow absorbs the burnt odor.  Last time it was burnt pasta (As in a good 1/8 inch of hardened blackness).  I have never smelt anything so awful, but the candles worked like a charm.

Quick Tip #3 - Reheat Plain Pasta

This is a simple method to reheat plain pasta (that has not been mixed with sauce or toppings).  Bring a pot of water to a full rolling boil.  Pour in the leftover pasta and stir.  When the water comes back to a full boil, drain through a colander and serve.  Your pasta should taste as fresh as when it was first served and should be thoroughly heated.  It helps if you used a couple tablespoons of oil in the water when you originally boil the pasta because this keeps it from sticking together when it is reheated.

Quick Tip #2 - Keep the Kettle Boiling for Soup & Stew

When making soups and stews, keep the teakettle full and boiling on another burner.  Then as you add each step of ingredients, you can cover them with boiling water rather than cold.  This way your soup or stew will return to boiling faster.

Quick Tip #1 - Keep Pasta from Boiling Over

If your Pasta or Noodles are boiling over, take the lid off and blow on the foam/bubbles.  This will pop the bubbles and lower the level of the boiling water in order to give you time to lower the heat or take the pan off the burner without making a huge mess.