kitchen life

Here’s a little spot just for all the odd tips n tricks that work for me in the land of pots n pans and dinnerware. Some of the tips came from my mama, some from other peoples’ mamas and some just came from this mama….and others, well who knows- ?!

Random food tips:

the best thing to use to get an eggshell out of an freshly cracked egg it to use the empty eggshell as a scoop

keep a chopstick in you flour/other dry goods to level off measuring cups -no extra dish to wash-YAY!

use baskets under the sink to separate cleaning products into categories.

keep a Parmesan cheese style container filled with flour- great for dusting pans after greasing

a handful of shredded carrots will add nutrition and take away the acidity of tomato sauce

I keep all my sugar, flours and other dry goods in clear labeled containers- it’s easy to glance and see about how much I have- BEFORE I start a recipe and realize that I’m out of something.

I have separate “staple” areas in my cabinets-one for Latin foods, one for Italian, and another for Asian. With this pantry, you can whip up an assortment of international dishes.

a. Latin staples:

diced green chiles

taco shells/seasoning

salsa

refried beans

sazon seasoning packets

Spanish style tomato sauce

flour tortillas (freeze em)

b. Italian staples

assorted pastas: lasagna, ziti, macaroni ans spaghetti

black/green olives

“emergency” sauce- (hubby usually wants homemade, though)

cans of tomato paste,  diced tomatoes

Italian seasoning (garlic,too)

good olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Asian staples:

nori (for when we catch tuna)

soy sauce

sesame seeds

sesame oil

ginger

tamari

ponzu sauce

ume plum balls,  ume plum vinegar

rice-sushi and “regular”

wasabi

rice vinegar

I am sure I may have forgotten something- so I will be adding to the above lists I’m sure. (It IS 6:30am right now…)

Those are just the beginning.