15 Great Kitchen Tips

I love a great tip when it comes to home care, decorating, or the kitchen and am always on the look out for new ones to try.

Whether that be a great tip for preserving flowers, ideas for younger skin, or fat burning breakfast foods, if I try a tip and like it, you can be sure I will share it.

Here are fifteen of the latest I've found. They are sure to be positive additions to your cooking repertoires!

1. If you happen to over-salt a pot of soup, just drop in a peeled potato. The potato will absorb the excess sodium.
2. When storing empty airtight containers, throw in a pinch of salt to keep them from smelling badly.
3. If you are making gravy and accidentally burn it, just pour it into a clean pan and continue cooking it. Add sugar a little at a time, tasting as you go to avoid over-sugaring it. The sugar will cancel out the burned taste.
4. Before you chop chili peppers, rub a little vegetable oil into your hands and your skin won’t absorb the spicy chili oil.
5. If you aren’t sure how fresh your eggs are, place them in about four inches of water. Eggs that stay on the bottom are fresh. If only one end tips up, the egg is less fresh and should be used soon. If it floats, it’s past the fresh stage.
6. After boiling pasta or potatoes, cool the water and use it to water your house plants. The water contains nutrients that your plants will love.
7. When defrosting meat from the freezer, pour some vinegar over it. Not only does it tenderize the meat; it will also bring down the freezing temperature of the meat and cause it to thaw quicker.
8. When you nick your finger while cutting veggies, wait until the bleeding stops and paint on a layer of clear nail polish. It will keep juices out of the wound and won’t fall off into the spaghetti sauce like a bandage
9. When making a soup, sauce, or casserole that ends up too fatty or greasy, drop in an ice cube. The ice will attract the fat, which you can then scoop out.
10. A dampened paper towel or terry cloth brushed downward on a cob of corn will remove every strand of corn silk.
11. Keep dental floss in the kitchen. It's a great tool. Unflavored dental floss is often better than a knife to cleanly cut all kinds of soft foods, soft cheese, rolled dough, layered cake and cheesecake. 
12. Drain deep fried foods on brown paper grocery bags as opposed to paper towels to retain crispness.
13. One way to preserve the flavor of fresh herbs is to make herb butter. Let the butter soften, then add finely chopped herbs in any combination, about 2 to 4 tablespoons per stick of butter. The butter freezes well, and you can serve it spread on French bread or with seafood or chicken.
14. When separating eggs, break them into a funnel. The whites will go through leaving the yolk intact in the funnel.
15. When searing meat, cook the meat and wait until it releases easily from the pan before turning it. The meat will release once a nice crust has formed. Don’t tug: If there is any resistance and the meat sticks to the pan, let it cook for an additional minute before checking again.

Nothing like a little kitchen magic!