- Household Tips:
cookware by boiling, 2 tablespoons of baking soda, 1/2 cup vinegar,
and 1 cup of water for ten minutes. Before using the pan again,
season it with salad oil.
Burnt food can be removed from a glass baking
dish by spraying it with oven cleaner and letting it soak for
30 minutes. The burnt-on residue will be easier to wipe off.
Whenever you empty a jar of dill pickles,
use the left-over juice to clean the copper bottoms of your pans.
Just pour the juice in a large bowl, set the pan in the juice
for about 15 minutes. Comes out looking like new.
To restore color and shine to an aluminum pan, boil some apple peels
in it for a few minutes, then rinse and dry.
Instead of using expensive silver cleaners, put a dab of toothpaste
on a clean rag and rub it on your precious possession. After you've
rubbed it in, just clean it with another clean rag.
Your silver will look like new.
To clean copper bottoms on pots and pans, simply open a can of tomato
soup paste, rub it on and scrub then rinse. If you do this weekly,
your pots and pans stay shiny clean. This is a very inexpensive
way to clean copper and brass items!
Stains and sediment in cut glass or hobnob bowls or vases respond
to olive oil. Pour some in and let stand until the stains or
sediment disappear.
Clean eyeglasses; Wipe each lens with a drop of vinegar.
When preparing lunches for your children (or anyone), try "drinkable" ice packs: Fill a 12-ounce plastic bottle about halfway with drinking water and freeze it
overnight, tilting the bottle so the water will freeze at an angle (if you freeze it straight up, the expanded water will make the bottle bulge). Next morning pack the lunch, add more drinking water to the bottle, and stick it in the lunch box to keep the food cool and be melted enough to drink by lunchtime.
- Make Your Own Spice:
1 tsp. Ground cinnamon
1 tsp. Ground cloves
1 tsp. Fennel seed
1 tsp. Star anise
1 tsp. Szechwan peppercorns
ITALIAN HERB SEASONING
1 tsp. Oregano
1 tsp. Marjoram
1 tsp. Thyme
1 tsp. Basil
1 tsp. Rosemary
1 tsp. Sage
CINNAMON SUGAR
7/8 cup Granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. Ground cinnamon
TAMARIND PASTE
1 tsp. Dates
1 tsp. Prunes
1 tsp. Dried apricots
1 tsp. Lemon juice
CHILI POWDER
3 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. ground cumin
2 Tbsp. oregano
1 tsp. red or cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
- Deep-Frying:
the food quickly while cooking it. That temperature is almost
always between 350F and 375F degrees. To be sure the oil is
right use a frying thermometer.
Use canola oil for frying. It is low in saturated fat, has a
high burning point, and does not detract from the flavor of
the food you are frying.
Avoid crowding food that is deep-fat-fried. The food must be
surrounded by bubbling oil, and you must keep the temperature
from falling too much. If you add too much food to a small
amount of oil, the temperature will plummet, and the food will
wind up greasy and soggy.
Never fill the pot more than halfway with oil; this will
prevent bubbling over when the food is added.
Dry food well with paper towels before adding to the pot;
it helps reduce splattering.
