Let’s face it, everybody eats food. Whether you want to or not, most of us spend a lot of our lives in the kitchen cooking up our next meal. Preparing and mixing ingredients make for a delicious meal but can take a lot of time. With that being said, these 10 kitchen hacks are convenient yet simple, making you wish you knew about them sooner!
1. Properly Measure Pasta Servings
Pasta is a quick and easy meal but it’s easy to prepare too much, setting yourself up to eat leftover spaghetti all week. A simple solution to portioning out the sizes correctly is to use the hole in your pasta fork. The hole represents one serving of spaghetti noodles, all you need to do if fill it (picture below) and start cooking!
2. Keep Cookies Fresh
Are you tired of your cookies losing the soft, chewy texture only a day after baking them? Combat this by putting a slice of white bread in the storage container with the cookies. White bread will give off moisture that the cookies will absorb, keeping them soft and fresh! You can do this with almost any bread but white bread will not transfer other flavors to the cookies.
3. Shred Chicken
Shredded chicken adds a great flavor texture to dishes such as enchiladas and soups. However, the process of shredding chicken can be tedious, messy, and take more time than you would like. One hack to save time is to put the chicken in a stand mixer and let it tear apart the freshly cooked chicken for you!
4. How To Peel A Tomato
Peeling the skin off a tomato can be a difficult task for a beginner chef to do. Tomatoes are a delicate vegetable and if you peel it the wrong way, you can crush it. An alternative method is to blanch and shock the tomato. Put the tomatoes in boiling pot of water for 1-2 minutes then immediately soak them in ice water.
Once they cool you can simply peel them with your fingers, no knife required!
5. Cut Herbs
Mincing herbs such as cilantro and parsley can bring out the flavor of your dish. Finely chopping these herbs can be a bit of a challenge sometimes. With the wrong knife and too much pressure, these can bruise easily, ruining the ingredient. Using a pizza cutter to slice your herbs up creates a more even cut and limits the amount of bruising since the pressure it more spread out.
6. Reheating Pizza
Some will make the argument that cold pizza is just as good, if not better, than fresh pizza. If you prefer leftover pizza to have the same crispiness as it was when you first bit into it, this is the hack for you. Using an ice cube and a pan, you can reheat your pizza and give it some crunch!
7. Removing Egg Shells
Not every crack is perfect and sometimes egg shells can get in the yolk. While we can’t help you prevent this disaster we can help you get the shell out easier. With water, your finger will glide right through allowing you to pick up the pieces. This eliminates the “jelly” effect of the shell moving away from you in the yolk.
8. Cooking Spray On Cheese Graters
Freshly grated cheese can turn a good meal into a great one. With that being said, cheese residue will often be left behind on the grater, which can be a pain to clean up. One solution is to apply cooking spray to the grater, this makes slicing easier and prevents cheese from sticking, making it easy to clean!
9. Prevent Pasta From Boiling Over
Cooking pasta is an easy dish to make, bring water to a boiling point, add the pasta, and let it sit. Unfortunately, the water sometimes boils over making a mess on your stove top. Prevent this by placing a wooden spoon across the pot. The bubbles will dissolve once they touch the spoon, stopping this mess from occurring!
10. Scoop Batter
Baked goods like pancakes, waffles, and cupcakes require you to scoop batter onto a pan or baking sheet. If you’re using a spoon or ladle you may be getting uneven portions. With an ice cream scoop, you can now make even portions for even baking. This also prevents messes from occurring as the transfer from bowl to pan will be more secure!
Now that you know these awesome kitchen hacks your cooking life will be as easy as ever! If you have your own kitchen hacks, tell us by tagging us on Instagram @HomeByGeneva!
