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Five Tips For Pretty Food Plating

YumSugar — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:15:59 -0700

Anyone who's ever watched Top Chef, flipped through a food magazine, or eaten at a fancy restaurant understands the importance of plating food. First impressions are important, and the way your meal is presented can determine whether it's considered mere grub or totally gourmet. But you don't have to be a pro to create a pretty plate. Here are five simple tips to making restaurant-worthy plates at home.

Use large plates. Crowded food looks messy, so give your dishes room to breath. Negative space on a plate looks elegant, and leaving room between each item gives the individual components more oomph.
Opt for neutral china. White, bone, and other neutral plates will complement pretty much any color of food, while busier patterns can sometimes clash.

For a few more suggestions,

A Spoon Saves the Day

partysugar — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:15:25 -0700

It's frustrating when a jar lid is exceptionally hard to remove. I always hear my father's voice say, "pretend you're on a desert island and that's all you have to eat." After a childhood of that, I've figured out a no-fail trick for opening difficult jars. The secret ingredient? A simple spoon. Here's what you do:

Hold the spoon in one hand and the jar firmly in the other.
Nestle the spoon in the crack between the lid and the glass. Push up and back. You want to break the seal.
Press up with the spoon to loosen the lid. If the seal does not break, rotate the jar and repeat, pressing up and back with the spoon until you hear a pop.
Let go of the spoon and twist the lid off. It will come of smoothly and easily.

How do you deal with frustrating lids? What's your trick to remove them?

Simple Tip: Pre-Sort Your Silverware

YumSugar — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:28:31 -0700

Here's a simple tip that will leave you saying, "Doh! Why didn't I think of that!"

For some reason, unloading the dishes is one of my least favorite chores. That's why I'm always looking for ways to make it go by faster. I'm sure some of you have thought of this idea before, but it just came to me the other day. Instead of spending time sorting your silverware when unloading, why not separate it when loading the dishwasher. All the spoons in one, all the forks in another and voila! When it's time to unload the dishes, all you have to do is grab each section at a time. No more annoying sorting for you!

Keep Your Avocados and Guac Fresh and Green

YumSugar — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 12:01:18 -0800

I love avocados, but they definitely have to be handled with care. You have to eat them when they're just ripe — when the skin gives slightly to the touch — and ideally, you shouldn't peel an avocado until right before you plan to eat it or it will turn brown and mushy.

But what if you want to cut open an avocado, slice some off, and store the rest overnight? Or, perhaps you've made a big batch of guacamole a few hours before a party, and you don't want it to turn brown? Simple: Just store the avocado or the guacamole with the pit. To store a sliced avocado, simply return the pit to its spot, re-cover the avocado with its skin, and wrap the fruit tightly with cling wrap. The same trick works for guac: Just nestle a few avocado pits into a bowl full of guacamole and store refrigerated under plastic wrap. Sure, it will still turn brown eventually, but saving the pit will extend the avocado's life tremendously.

Source

Simple Tip: How to Pop the Cork!

YumSugar — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:57:32 -0800

Whenever there's champagne at a party, I always end up being the cork-popper. It's a relatively new responsibility of mine; just a few years ago I couldn't handle it. I always assumed I'd break a window, or shoot someone's eye out. However, now that I have the hang of it, I actually enjoy it. There's something exciting about the pop! If you wish to learn how to do it, hopefully these tips will help out.

First of all, make sure the champagne is chilled. A chilled bottle is less likely to pop on its own, besides champagne tastes better cold.
Once you take the bottle out of the fridge, remove the foil wrapping to expose a wire cage-like covering. There should be a twisted bit of wire holding it in place. Find the wire and turn it — there's a little loop for you to hang on to — about six half-turns. When loose, remove the cage.

To find out what to do next,

Simple Tip: Build an Iced Cookie Drying Tier

YumSugar — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:18:39 -0800

If you're planning on making a lot of cookies this holiday season, but have a tiny amount of space for all your decorated lovelies to dry. You could either invest in a three-tier drying rack, or you could make your own out of paper cups, paper plates, and a little bit of icing.

Stack inverted cups on top of paper plates and create a four- or five-plate stack. Pipe a line of icing on the rims of the top and bottom of the cups in order for them to stick together. This example uses regular-sized cups, which will only allow for three tiers safely; however, if you use smaller dixie cups you'll be able to safely create stacks of four or five.

Also, don't use this for drying regular cookies, you'll still want the circulation that the wire racks provide. Instead, only use this tip for cookies you've just iced.

Do you have any tips on how to create extra counter space? Tell us in the comments below!

Simple Tip: Refreshing Day-Old Bread

YumSugar — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 09:00:16 -0700

Last night, I stopped off to buy a fresh baguette for dinner, only to get home and realize that the bread, having been baked that morning, wasn't exactly fresh anymore. If you've ever been stuck with a loaf of "fresh" bread, or if you want to get more mileage out of a baguette you bought the day before, try this simple trick.

Heat your oven to 250 or 300 degrees, and splash some water on top of the bread — not too much that it's soaked, but just enough that it's slightly damp on top. Then, pop the moistened bread in the oven for no more than five minutes. When you take it out, the bread will feel warm and fresh, with a crispy outside and a soft middle.

Got your own tips for dealing with old bread? Share them in the comments below.

Source

Simple Tip: Use Two Cookie Sheets

YumSugar — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 15:18:31 -0700

How many baking sheets/cookie pans do you have? If you answered one, then you may want to make your life easier by investing in a second one. When making cookies, a quick time-saving tip is to use two pans. While the first pan is in the oven, you can place the dough on the second pan. When the first pan comes out of the oven, pop the second pan in! While the second pan is baking, allow the first pan to cool — run it under cold water if necessary — and then portion out the cookies. Keep this up until you're finished! This way there's always something in the oven and your total baking time decreases!

Ridiculously Simple Tip: No More Drippy Cones

YumSugar — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:01:31 -0700

Here's a ridiculously simple tip that will definitely make you go, 'DOH!

One of the problems with ice cream cones, especially homemade ones, is that after a few minutes, the ice cream starts to leak out of the bottom. When that happens you have to tip the bottom of the cone and try to suck the melting ice cream out, or you double-up on napkins. It's never very elegant and you often look ridiculous. However, what if I told you that there was a great way to prevent all of this. Think about it, there's a hole on the bottom of the cone, so what if you plugged it? That's right all you have to do is plug it so that the ice cream can't escape. A simple marshmallow or malt ball on the inside of the cone works well — it doesn't really matter as long as it's edible, plugs the hole and pairs well with your ice cream!

Simple Tip: No Slide Serving Sauces

YumSugar — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 15:38:39 -0700

Have you ever served a tray of appetizers accompanied with a bowl of sauce? When passing the tray around, the bowl can often slide around and may even tip over, resulting in a party-foul mess. Luckily there's an easy trick to help prevent this, one that is as simple as a drop of honey. That's right, just a dab of honey placed on the bottom of the bowl will help prevent the dishes from sliding. The honey acts as a glue and voila! no spilled sauces!

Simple Tip: Easily Peel Peaches

YumSugar — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:43:38 -0700

If you're planning on cooking with peaches (like I did with the peach puzzle), you'll want to peel them first. Cooking causes the skin to become rough and the texture could be unappetizing in pies, etc. However peeling peaches seems like an messy task. Ripe peaches are soft and delicate and prone to bruising. Luckily there's an easy way to get around it.

Bring a pot of water to boil (enough to submerge the peach fully - see note).
Using a slotted spoon, dip peach for 30-45 seconds.
Transfer immediately to a waiting ice water bath (again, enough to submerge peach fully).
You should now be able to easily pull the skin off with your hands. Some people prefer to use a paring knife, but I prefer hands. You can also give it a quick rub with a dishtowel or paper towel. If the skin does not come off easily, repeat the process.

Note: The picture shown does not have enough water and resulted in having to continuously rotate the peach.

This method also works well for nectarines, plums and tomatoes.

Simple Tip: Easy Way To Dry Wine Glasses

YumSugar — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:58:31 -0700

Drying wine glasses can sometimes be a pain. Towels can leave awful streaks and lint, and sitting them on the counter causes condensation spots to form, and besides the lip is making a perfect seal with the counter meaning there's no air coming in to help out. Just imagine, if only there was a way to get air flowing into the glass... Turns out there is and it's one of those "'Doh! Why didn't I think of that?" tricks. To dry your wine glasses, just set down two chopsticks parallel on top of a dishtowel and place the glass on top! Square shaped chopsticks work best, but as long as you set them far enough apart, the round ones work too.

Got a wine glass drying tip for us? Share it below!

Simple Tip: No More Watery Iced Coffee

YumSugar — Wed, 30 May 2007 14:54:31 -0700

With summer on its way I thought I'd share with you one of my most simple tips. If you love a glass of iced coffee, but hate when it gets all watery, then do yourself a favor and make coffee ice cubes. By making coffee ice cubes you'll ensure your iced coffee won't get diluted and you'll have a good use for this morning's leftover coffee. Just use a clean ice tray, fill with coffee and freeze. Once frozen, remove cubes from the ice trays and put into a large ziploc style freezerbag (this helps protect it from that nasty freezer smell/taste). Use them instead of regular ice cubes and ta da! No more watery iced coffee for you!

Simple Tip: Make Your Egg Slicer a Multi-Tasker

YumSugar — Fri, 11 May 2007 10:01:10 -0700

Here's a tip I picked up a long time ago - you've probably already seen it, but I thought I'd pass it along just in case. If you happen to have an egg slicer in your mix of kitchen contraptions, you can now move it from uni-tasker to multi-tasker. Not only are egg slicers perfect for creating uniform strips of egg, but they work well on mushrooms and strawberries too. Now you can have sliced strawberries for your spinach and strawberry salad in no time.