Food Hacks - innovative cooking/kitchen tricks

[trishka]

Those are great, trishka!

I always do the buttermilk sub with milk and vinegar, for muffins or cakes when needed.

I made the coloured sugars last Easter for cookies - and still have lots of each colour left - lol, a little goes a long way!

I'd love to try make the sweetened condensed milk - bookmarked this page - and her blog, too - will go through other recipes when I can.
Thanks for the link!

You're welcome. I believe you were the one to help me out with the buttermilk substitute one time. Probably the best tip I've learned in a while. I usually avoided recipes that involved buttermilk but now I won't shy away. I'm going to check out the blogs and websites the tips came from because I'm sure they have some good things on there.

[trishka]

Recently came across a great tip in a magazine, but to keep your oil bottles clean, wrap a piece of paper towel around the neck and secure with an elastic. It soaks up any drippings from when you pour.

[Grey]

To open a stubborn jar, wrap an elastic around the lid.

[Silk]

It was getting to be a drag pitting olives so I Googled it and found this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJms-9ZwoLM

It really works and is so easy (and you don't really have to pound - pressing hard does it for me). Saves me having to pay $3/kg more for the pitted ones, which I was thinking about doing Oh, and apparently it works for cherries too - for those who eat cherries. I don't except on the rare occasion - unless they're 'enrobed in chocolate' or come in a cocktail

Silk

[Zonny]

This isn't really a hack, but I bought a couple of plastic oil sprayers at Superstore a couple years ago, use one for olive oil and one for regular cooking oil. Sometimes you want just a spritz of oil on your thing you're cooking, they work great; you pump them up with air and it sprays out like an aerosol.

Another nifty thing I got in a Kraft email: make yourself a club sandwich, chicken, bacon, mayo, cheese. Brush salad dressing on the outside of the sandwich (I didn't have any so mixed up some balsamic vinegar, olive oil, s/p, oregano). And grill it in...a waffle iron! I tried this the other day, worked great and looked nifty! DS was a bit reluctant to try it at first when I described it, and I couldn't understand why. Turns out he thought it was not bread but actual waffles to put your sandwich fillings into.

[Natalka]

Zonny, that's a cool idea. Do you have a regular waffle iron? I only have a Belgian one (and, duh, have only used it once...)

[Natalka]

[Zonny]

Zonny, that's a cool idea. Do you have a regular waffle iron? I only have a Belgian one (and, duh, have only used it once...)

I have a Cuisinart Griddler which you can use as a griddle or a grill. The plates are reversible. Then I bought waffle plates for it. Sometimes i make waffles - SO easy, I never buy Eggos anymore, just make a batch of waffles and freeze them, they reheat in the toaster just fine. Other times I look for other things to put in it I've put in shredded potatoes and make kind of hash brown patties that worked great, I've cooked boneless chicken in it (that wasn't fabulous, but OK). Over Thanksgiving I might try making some kind of sweet potato patties in it.

Editing to add a pic of my waffled sandwich!

[KelJo]

I like making BLT'S , so use this trick cooking it in the oven..keeps the bacon in place on the sandwich, etc

[KelJo]

[KelJo]

[Natalka]

^ Those are SO FAB!
Tried making candy apples once (they are my FAVE), but the coating was thick and goopy... way too much to bite through!

This time of year, I buy the caramel Happy apples at the grocery store, but I prefer the candy ones.

[KelJo]

these are cute

[ninna]

bump. I love this thread. It's given my so many great ideas so I am bumping it to stop it from getting buried!

[KelJo]

^^ good idea
made these recently for a dinner party with turtle ice cream and it went over really well....fill with ice cream, chocolate pieces, fruit, caramel/chocolate sauce or chocolate cream cheese (yum yum, have to try that one) ..lots of ideas...great if they are a little warm too