If you find a great buy on your favorite aged cheese, you can freeze it for a few months without affecting its flavor or texture. Be sure to wrap the cheese carefully and allow it to thaw in the refrigerator for 24 hours before trying to slice or shred it.
To caramelize roasted veggies, heat your oven up as hot as it will get, and then place an empty roasting sheet inside for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, toss the veggies with olive oil and seasonings. Place them on the heated pan and the high temperature will caramelize the vegetable sugars quickly.
Do not just stick to iceberg lettuce when considering making a fresh salad. You can find a multitude of greens that have increased health benefits over the old stand-by lettuce. Try varieties such as butter, romaine, and red. Also try some fresh herbs and spices for a greater amount of flavor.
If you are deep frying, make sure to use tongs to add the food to the hot oil. If you submerge the food below the surface of the oil with the tongs for about five seconds before you "drop" it in, the outside of whatever you are deep frying is sealed. This prevents it from sticking to other food in the oil.
Use leftover meats for sandwiches. Turkey, slow-roasted beef, braised pork shoulder roast and even chicken make great sandwich meat that can be used for meals throughout the week. You may even want to cook just for having lunch-meat that is far tastier than the kind you buy in the stores on hand.
To add a little interest to your pies, try a twist on the typical graham cracker crust. Substitute shortbread cookies for graham crackers for a more decadent and complex flavor. Just prepare as you would a graham cracker crust. Put the shortbread cookies in a food processor with butter and use with your favorite pie recipe.
Someone can juice fruits and vegetables if they want to be sneaky when adding nutrients to their children's foods. The juice can be poured in with other juices or it can be added to soups. Someone could also turn the juice into homemade pop cycles which will be hard for kids to resist.
If you have made your gravy and skimmed the grease and it is still greasy at the end you can take a few sprinkles of baking powder to the top of it and then skim it off. The baking powder will make the grease disappear and you will have awesome gravy.
Great cooks aren't born, they're made! Learning about effective cooking tips and techniques can be invaluable, whether you're newly starting or have been cooking for years, plus you can save a good deal of frustration in the kitchen. So put on your chef's hat, get your heating pads ready and go create a meal worthy of...you!