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Simple Tip
Thanksgiving Tip: Refill Your Ice Trays
Before a party or a big feast like Thanksgiving, there are a couple of minor — yet impactful — things I always make sure to do. One is to empty the dishwasher; another is to refill my ice trays completely with fresh water. There's nothing more annoying than reaching for ice to go with water, punch, or cocktails, only to find that there's one cube left.
Simple Tip: Heat Leftover Pasta Over the Stove
For the majority of my life, I heated up leftover pasta in the microwave. The result is hot, slightly crusty, not-as-good-as-the-night-it-was-made pasta. Recently, I started practicing a new technique that I think is much better.
How to Quickly Clean a Whisk
For years I hated when a recipe required whisking. Not because it hurt my wrist, but because cleaning the whisk was such a pain. Until one day, while doing the dishes, I had a light bulb moment.
Carrying Food From Kitchen to Kitchen? Label Everything
When preparing for my birthday dinner last week, I started cooking the food on Thursday, but planned to transport it to my grandfather's house (the site of the party) on Friday. To ensure that I wouldn't forget a crucial ingredient, I labeled everything I needed to take with a purple Post-it. Sure, it was a little obsessive compulsive, but when I opened my crowded fridge, it was easy for me to see what items were supposed to be packed.
Simple Tip: Transport Baked Goods in Bakery Boxes
Unless you make and transport cupcakes on a very regular basis, you probably have no need for a bulky plastic cupcake carrier. However, on those occasions when cupcakes have to be carried from your kitchen to another location, do what I do and pick up a baking box. A local bakery, or even the baking section of your grocery store, has a large supply of these boxes in a variety of sizes.
Go Green! Fashion Your Own Chip Clips
Ever since Party suggested using wine bottles as darling water holders, I've been wanting to share an eco-friendly tip of my own. If you're like me, you've got a surplus of plastic clamped clothes hangers sitting in your closet. I often return hangers to the dry cleaners, as a way to recycle them — but I save the ones with clamps, and turn them into chip clips.
Simple Tip: Keep a Ruler in Your Kitchen
When improvising in the kitchen, I like to "eyeball" measurements, as Rachael Ray would say. But if there's one scenario when I like to be exact, it's baking. While I'm rolling out dough for anything from tarts to pizza to shortcakes, I prefer to be precise, because variations in size can have a significant impact on baking time.
Simple Tip: Keep Reusable Totes in Your Trunk
From drinking less bottled water to making more educated seafood choices, I've been all about adopting a greener lifestyle. But simple as it sounds, the one thing I could never quite nail down was bringing reusable totebags to the grocery store.
Every Sunday, without fail, I'd pull into my local Trader Joe's, and catch the "Don't forget to bring your reusable bags!"
Simple Tip: Smash Olives to Remove the Pit
Last Sunday I was making dinner with my friend Sonia. While she deveined shrimp, I prepared the salad. "What are you doing?"
Simple Tip: Chill Kitchen Tools Before Whipping Cream
While whipping cream for strawberry shortcake the other day, I was reminded of a helpful prep tip that I always employ: stay cool. Using refrigerated cream helps produce stiff peaks, but it's important to chill your mixing bowl and beaters — and even keep the kitchen frigid, if possible. When cream is whipped at a lower temperature, fat globules stick together to support the foam created by whipping in a large amount of tiny air bubbles.
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