Kitchen Tips
Now that Cakes is playing independently a little more, I am trying to play a little larger role in our kitchen. I’ve been making soup. If you’re looking for a good soup recipe book, my in-laws gave us this excellent one for Christmas. I made BP the bouillabaisse and it was very good, if I do say so. Another great find: you can buy fish stock at St. Lawrence Market.Speaking of food, I recently learned you shouldn’t put tomatoes in the fridge. It changes their flavour. Does everyone know this?
Our coffee maker died on Christmas day and we replaced it with one that has a carafe instead of the type that sits on a burner. What a great improvement! You can nurse a pot of coffee for hours and it stays hot and doesn’t get bitter.
A good BBQ tip we learned recently is to oil the items going on the grill, not the grill itself. Another tip: shut the lid, sip on your wine and leave the food the fuck alone. If you’re looking for a good grilling cookbook, Weber’s Real Grilling is excellent (another smart gift from the in-laws).
Now, do you have any culinary tips for me?
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There are days when I miss having a job to go to. Today-while Cakes and BP are at a drop-in and I’m sitting here in my pyjamas, sipping coffee, listening to freezing rain bouncing off the windows, reading an Ondaatje novel-is definitely not one of them.
Labels: flotsam and jetsam
posted by metro mama @ 9:50 AM
23 Comments:
No cooking tips from me. I get all mine from you.
Hell yeah to the job. I have this weird nostalgia for it and if you asked me any day I would tell you I would love to work but if I actually had to get up and out the door its no deal.
I need a new coffee maker, perhaps I will check out the ones with a carafe...I wouldn't mind a perculator though. My all time best tip is this: to get the grit out of fruits/veggies/herbs such as cilantro, strawberries, asparagus, spinach, etc. fill a clean kitchen sink with cool water add a some salt (any salt will do perhaps 2 tsp-2tbsp) and soak briefly then rinse. Grit gone! Did you know that one?
Oh, that sounds like just the way to pass today. Not slogging through sand-like drifts of snow to daycare, then running through it some more to work. Blech.
i totally wanted a snow day today...would have been nice to stay in today...instead i was at work at 8:15. yikes.
You don't want any cooking tips from me...
My morning was pretty much exactly like Kittenpie's and it was NO FUN. I envy your Snow Day.
uhhhhh, I would offer you a maccaroni and cheese recipe, but I kind of borrowed the one I know. I hate cooking.
Your day sounds divine. I didn't know that about tomatos ... but then again I am an AWFUL cook!
I've been wanting to make my winter white bean turkey soup.
Your day sounds like the most dreamy perfecto day Ever! Trades?
What sort of kitchen tips do you want? I've got some good / easy recipes for toddler food, or for adult food. Love to cook!
As for jobs? I miss the paycheque, but don't miss much else. Okay, not true, but on days like today, I'm mighty glad I'm on maternity leave!
i can make a very good and simple homemade pesto. but i bet you can, too.
your place sounds really lovely.
omg, i can't wait to read ondaatje's newest; he's my fave.
as for the kitchen tips, do just enough baking to impress your friends ;)
Husband taught me about tomatoes and refrigerators - bad combo. Now, onions and refrigerators - good combo; they won't make you tear up if you keep them in the fridge.
I didn't know that about tomatoes. Wow.
I have no tips for you sorry. I'm not a very good cook.
I know if you're cutting up onions and you place a piece of bread in your mouth with a little bit sticking out you won't cry as the bread absorbs whatever it is from the onions that make you cry. Although from reading HBM's comment I didn't know if you put them in the fridge then you won't cry.
I learned all I know about fruit and vegetabes when I worked at a fruit market in my teens, but the best lesson was I learned how to mop a floor. Sometimes, the grunt work of early employment really does come in handy!
Tomatoes in the fridge not only changes the flavour but the texture as well. Ever had a mushy tomato that has a funny texture? It's been in the fridge. While agree that onions in the fridge are easy on the eyes, they're not so good for the other food in your fridge, they can make other fruits and vegies age prematurely. Also don't store your onions and your potatoes together. The onions give off a gas that make your potatoes go bad.
Instead of using lemon juice on apples to keep them from browning try pineapple juice your apples won't taste like lemons.
If you love to make soup invest in a crockpot it's a soup makers dream come true.
I love my Bodom coffee pot.
Sick of the weather yet?
I have to confess: I have never made soup from scratch. Think can+milk or can+water.
Soooo pathetic.
looks like a great book, I might have to check it out.
I love making homemade soups, especially this time of year.
Donna Hay is one of my favourites, her new Entertaining cook book is really good and everything is really simple to make.
If comfort food is what you're craving, Jamie Oliver's books are all pretty good (except his latest, not overly impressed)
and Martha Every Day food is also pretty user friendly.
I have a huge collection of speciality cook books, but if you are just getting comfortable in the kitchen these three are really helpful...
happy cooking!
Culinary tips? Yup. The Yellow Pages Cookbook.
i hadn't heard that about tomotoes...good tip.
Here's a tip (you may or may not know) As far as fruits go, they put of a hormone that communicate with other fruits, and so if one fruit is over-ripe, it will put off that hormone and make the other fruit ripen quicker...
SO throw away your rotten fruit, because it will make your other fruit get rotten faster.
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
First- thanks for the tip on the tomatoes- I never knew!!
I made a split pea soup in my slow cooker yesterday. Today's lunch should be great!
Anyway- tip? Since you're into soup, if you over salt your soup, throw in a peeled potato. It'll soak up the salt.
I loove soup. But I never make it because it seems kind of daunting. I'll have to try again.
I don't have any cooking tips for you, because I'm still learning, but here's a baking tip (post baking actually):
Put a piece of bread into the container that holds your just baked cookies. The bread will keep them soft for days.
I am loving all these kitchen tips! I'd like Urban Mummy's recipes for toddler food, too. So far I'm just taking whatever we're eating and chopping it up in the food processor.
Here's a cooking tip-a few tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley will make jarred spaghetti sauce taste more like homemade!
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