Tammy's Recipes

I have just started to be obedient and preheat my oven when I bake a cake because I noticed tne cake was perfecly cooked...but what ever else, brzead or food I never preheat...

This is a great idea, I am always looking for ways to save money.
Thanks!

I love to read everyone's tips for the kitchen. It's fun to aquire new knowledge that will help make my life more frugal/simple/easy, etc.

I never preheat unless it is to get the pizza stone piping hot for pizzas i just watch and adjust cooking times accordingly. I have been doing this for years and so has my mom and we have never had a problem with it.

I was thinking the same thing yesterday. I usually bake on Mondays so when my bread needs to rise I stick it in the oven to rise. My oven beeps when it reaches the temp so I know when to take the bread out. I put the on the top of the stove to finish rising and start bake the rest.

Timing your oven's preheat time is a great idea! Did you know that if you're making something that takes a long time, like a casserole you'd cook for an hour, you don't even have to preheat?
I'm going to time my oven today!

That is a great idea, but my problem is that my oven takes forever. I find that, especially when making pizza, I have to start the preheat a good amount before I start the prep. The crust takes only 15ish minutes to make, but if I wait to preheat my oven until I start the prep, my crust rises too much while we wait for the oven to preheat.

I will have to time it though... it would help to know exactly how early to start it up! :)

Thanks for the tip!

I hope I'm doing this right. Where's Mr. Linky this week, LOL?
My post is about measuring flour:
http://sortafrugal.blogspot.com/2008/03/kitchen-tip-tuesday.html

where did the links go?

http://burganfamily.blogspot.com/2008/03/whole-chicken-vs-boneless-skinless.html

Yeah, I hardly ever preheat unless I want to warm up the kitchen so my dough will rise. In the winter our house is kept at around 60 degrees and sometimes it gets below that so it's really hard to find a warm place for my dough. I'll usually turn my oven on to "warm" or at 200F and leave the door ajar. I put my bowl at the edge of the stove near the open door. It seems to do the trick. :)

I will time my oven in the summer when I definitely want to minimize the amount of heat in the house and unnecessary use of the oven. :) Great tip!!

-Beulah

My first time posting a tip. Thanks for hosting this...there's lots of great tips here! Also, I made your Banana Bread today. Oh my goodness it is SOOO Delish! I can't wait for the kids to get home from school to have some.
~Julie
http://bignlittlesmom.wordpress.com

Thanks so much for doing the link for me, Tammy!

My house is cool also. I just turn the oven light on and put my bread in to rise. It works perfectly and my bread rises nicely.

I just leave it in a bit longer.

~Jules--who needs to sign in again.

I'm renting, and have been using a Jennair range. I thought that this would be a wonderful experience, which it has not. I've had a repairman in twice so far.
The last time the guy was very helpful. He said that the newer ovens have the sensor measuring the oven cavity temperature, where the older ovens (with the thermostat on the oven wall) measured the temperature of the oven walls. Therefore their temp might take longer to register, but it is a more true temp. (Since when we open the oven to put something in, the cavity temp will drop much faster than an oven that has heated long enough to heat the walls.) He used a thermometer to show that the cavity temp dropped 160 degrees when he opened the door, turned around to grab a pan, and then shut it. (Most of us ladies are a bit faster, but our kids are often slower!)

The upshot is, he said newer stoves need 20 minutes to fully preheat the oven.

Also, if you're interested:
Jennair is now being made by White/Westinghouse and should be a better stove in a year or two. Apparently Maytag relied on their older technology a bit too long, and fell behind.
He also solved my washing machine trouble. I have been plagued with my machine going off balance, and was
dreaming of an upright. He said that they go off balance even easier when mixing loads. The solution is to use all jeans, or all towels, or all shirts. They spin so much faster than the older machines that they need to be loaded differently.
So my question is, how does a family of 3 use these huge machines they are selling?? They must have a lot more clothes than my family, if they are filling them up on the weekends!

Sorry if this is too long. Sometimes it's just good to talk about laundry!
Deb

I'm new to Kitchen Tip Tuesdays and missed linking my tip! It can be found here: http://pragmaticcompendium.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/bake-ahead-egg-muffins/

Hopefully I'll make it next week. GREAT Blog!

Your pre-heating tip of not turning on oven until you are ready to put food inside is a great tip that conserves energy, time, and money.

Thanks!