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Kitchen Tip Tuesdays: Leftovers, kitchen tools, and why my fridge is dark
Today, I have a few miscellaneous kitchen tips -- none of which I feel are worthy of having a post dedicated solely to them, but possibly helpful nonetheless! :)
First, leftovers. When I'm clearing the table after dinner, I pile up everything that goes into the fridge and wait until everything's ready before I open the door. This saves energy and seems to be more efficient, too.
Also by the fridge (in my case, on top of the fridge, out of reach of little hands!), I have a marker (or pen) and masking tape. Label containers of leftovers with the date so you know for sure when something needs to be used or when something is unsafe to consume any longer! :)
When I was at my mom's this spring, one of the things I noticed her doing was making a running list of what leftovers were waiting in her (always packed) fridge. Her list looked like this:
Sunday:
meatloaf
mashed potatoes
green beans
Monday:
Chop Suey
Tuesday:
Oriental Chicken Salad
pizza
...and so forth. A each day passed, she added the day to the list and listed the leftovers that had been added to the fridge. When something was eaten, she crossed it off the list.
It was an easy way for a big, busy family to keep track of the leftovers and quickly see what needed to be located and used! :)
We eat cooked vegetables often, and I sometimes have small amounts left. Put the vegetables in a tub, store in the freezer, and keep adding when you have bits of corn, green beans, peas, etc. leftover. Then make some Beef Vegetable Soup and toss in the extra veggies! :)
By the way, on the topic of not wasting leftovers, Kristen at The Frugal Girl has a Food Waste Fridays carnival each week to help encourage everyone not to waste food! :)
My essential kitchen tools: Masking tape and marker (perfect for containers in the fridge or freezer), screw driver (for pan handles or appliances), box cutter, and scissors.
And finally: In the past year or so, I noticed that when I had the fridge door open and the light(s) inside were on, the light bulbs got very hot, very quickly. I'm not sure if it's just the bulbs in my fridge that get almost hot enough to burn my hand, or what -- but I decided to gently unscrew the light bulbs just enough that they wouldn't turn on any more. I hated the idea of closing the fridge door with two hot light bulbs inside every time I had the door open for 15 seconds or longer!
I can't say that this has made any perceivable difference in our electric bill, but it just seems better to me. When I asked Joshua recently if he had noticed that the fridge lights had been off for quite a while, he said the fridge is "kinda dark" for his preferences, but he hasn't asked me to turn them back on. :)
What do you think? Does it matter if the light bulbs in the fridge are used, or not? :)
To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:
Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, we need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)
Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!
1. Cheaper white sauce tip (Rachel at Trial and Error Home Ec)
2. Easiest way to preserve fresh herbs (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
3. Kitchen sink drain catcher basket (Living So Abundantly)
4. Tips on reusing empty cereal bags (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
5. Tip for keeping a crispy coating on fish or chicken (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
6. Getting rid of strong smells on cutting boards (Purposely Frugal)
7. Freezer cooking after bedtime or at nap time (Gretchen at Extraordinary Ordinary Life)
8. Ways to use a make-your-own pastry bag (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
9. Bread crumb tips (Katie at Gluten-Free Food Storage)
10. How to fix lumpy gravy (Mindy at The Purposed Heart)
11. Jelly-making tip (Donna at Moms Frugal)
12. Easily prevent flour and sugar spills (Christine at iDreamofClean)
13. Making superfine/caster sugar (Alea at Premeditated Leftovers)
14. Corn grits instead of cornmeal for fried green tomatoes (Stephanie at Proactive Bridesmaid)
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Comments
white sauce
http://trialanderrorhomeec.blogspot.com/2011/08/ktt-white-sauce-tip.html
How to make cheap white sauce.
-Rachel
Fridge light
If you can see whats in there without the light, then leave them off. We bought one of those french door models 4 years ago. One day I opened the door to the smell of burnt plastic and the whole fridge was warm. The food was ruined. The cause was the lighting mechanism with 2 light bulbs had malfunctioned and was staying on constantly. It was only after the repair that I realized, like you, how hot those bulbs got quickly. I have only one screwed in now and after seeing your post I think I'm going to try using none.
The EASIEST WAY to PRESERVE HERBS
Good morning, Tammy!
I've been using sharpies and tape as well, but I hadn't done it for the freezer as much. I use it on my buckets for food storage in the basement. So thanks for the tip!
I hadn't thought about the light bulb...Hmmmmm...
I am sharing what I think is the EASIEST way to preserve herbs. Nice and fast and effective.
http://wholenewmom.com/recipes/the-easiest-way-to-preserve-herbs/
Hope it helps you and your readers get the job done faster. :-).
Blessings,
Adrienne
Great idea
I definitely open my fridge more times than needed. I have a space like yours next to my fridge, so I am going to try this!
This week I am posting about a very inexpensive drain catcher basket that has worked so much better for me in my kitchen, and I also believe holds less bacteria and germs(because you can clearly see what is in the basket). Unfortunately, I wasn't the best about keeping my old one clean, because I couldn't see the bottom part of it.
http://livingsoabundantly.blogspot.com/2011/08/kitchen-sink-drain-catcher-basket.html
Fridge
I don't think it matters. I think it's just something we are all used to. I've never even checked to see if mine get hot......now I will have to. :-)
Isn't it awesome how we get such great tips from our mothers? :-) I'm continually doing stuff that my mom does.
Here is my submission this week : Tips on re-using empty cereal bags.
http://www.stacymakescents.com/save-it-cereal-bags
Thanks Tammy!
~Stacy from Stacy Makes Cents
I did notice that you have 2
I did notice that you have 2 bulbs. You can try using one for awhile and see if that helps too. Also try to get lower watts. That helps too. I am not sure if you can use the energy saving bulbs in fridges or not.
Teresa
I love your vegetable idea.
Thanks, Tammy. I hate throwing food away. I do a lot of similar things that you suggest, but I never knew what to do with all of those little bits of veggies. Last night, I passed around a carrot to each person to finish them off from our roast, knowing they would just rot in the refrigerator if we didn't eat them. I hadn't thought of freezing them for a soup. Great idea! I will definitely do that next time.
BTW, I checked my light bulb. It is rather covered in the front, so I never noticed it before. It felt cold to the touch, but was definitely giving out heat. I don't know if my kitchen is bright enough to do without it, but I try to make sure nothing is resting against it.
I would like to share a kitchen tip about how to keep the crumb coating on your meat crispy. I hope it is helpful.
http://www.feelgoodaboutdinner.com/2011/08/crispy-crumb-coating.html
Smelly Cutting Boards
Thanks for the great tips!!
Here's my tip about getting rid of strong smells on cutting boards:
http://purposelyfrugal.com/2011/08/02/do-you-have-a-smelly-cutting-board/
Freezer Cooking after Bedtime
I try to have a "Leftover Buffet" once a week to use up all the leftovers. I've never thought about the light bulb. I may have to now though.
My tip is how to do freezer cooking after bedtime or at naptime. I also have an 8-week menu to print.
http://extraordinaryordinarylife.blogspot.com/2011/08/freezer-cooking-after-bedtime-or-at.html
-Gretchen @ Extraordinary Ordinary Life
Great idea!
Such a good idea. I am notorious for throwing away stuff because I am always afraid it is bad. I will have to use your marker and tape idea!!!
My tip this week is ways to use a Make-Your-Own Pastry Bag
http://georgiascookiejar.blogspot.com/2011/08/disposable-pipping-bag.html
Leftovers
Your tips were worthy of posting - - I love the leftover idea! I try really hard to use up LOs, but sometimes I miss things and then when I find that I wasted them, I feel terrible. I am going to start implementing your mom's idea ASAP!
The only tip I can think of to share right now is this . . . when I come home from the grocery store, I make 2 lists and tape them to the refrigerator: Fruits and Veggies. I list the fresh Fs & Vs that I have just purchased and I cross them off the list when I use them.
Well, I prefer having the
Well, I prefer having the light bulb on in my fridge, but currently ours is not working. (Tried a new bulb and everything.) So this is a good reason to perhaps embrace that ours is not working! Always something good to be found :)
A kitchen tip I recently posted was about how to make homemade chocolate pudding from scratch: http://lifeblessons.blogspot.com/2011/07/perfect-summer-treat-homemade-chocolate.html
Best,
Carmen @ Life Blessons
Tip
Unwated bread + stale cereal= Bread crumbs (gluten free) http://www.glutenfreefoodstorage.net/2011/08/gluten-free-bread-crumbs.html
I love the leftover list idea! I am going to have to do that!!!
Also are you not heating up the fridge by having the lights on but you are saving the energy to have the light on as well...hope that made sense.
Katie
www.glutenfreefoodstorage.com
A Tip to Remedy Lumpy Gravy
Hi Tammy! I love all of your tips today. Especially the one about labeling leftovers. I am very bad at that and I really need to start doing this!
I would like to share a tip today about how to fix lumpy gravy. It is at the bottom of my roasted chicken post. Thanks so much for doing these Kitchen Tip Tuesdays. It seems like I get at least one new useful tip every week!
http://thepurposedheart.com/juicy-roasted-chicken-with-gravy/
Jelly-making tip
http://momsfrugal.blogspot.com/2011/08/kitchen-tip-cheating-on-your-jelly.html
Donna
Easily Prevent Flour and Sugar Spills
Love all the tips!!!
Here's mine: http://www.idreamofclean.net/2011/07/07/easily-prevent-flour-and-sugar-spills/
Thanks!
Christine @ iDreamofClean
we have an 18.? cubic foot
we have an 18.? cubic foot fridge/freezer, I believe it only has 1 bulb. I'm afraid without a light bulb, stuff in the back would be lost (longer than it does now) OR because we can't see in the back as easily, we'd have to keep the door open longer looking for stuff (which would let out more cold)
I've noticed the bulb gives off heat, gets warm, but I don't know anyone who has ever burned themselves on a little light bulb in their fridge...I'm not worried about it.
How to make Superfine/Caster Sugar
I keep tape and pen in my baggy drawer ( with a baby lock!). I use my kitchen scissors all.the.time. I think adding a box cutter and a screwdriver would be great additions to my kitchen tools because sometimes walking 20 feet to the garage is overwhelming with a toddler in tow. :)
My tip is for making Superfine/Caster Sugar: http://premeditatedleftovers.com/how-to-make-superfine-caster-sugar/ It is easy and much more frugal than buying it at the store.
Alea @ Premeditated Leftovers
Crisp Coating for Fried Green Tomatoes
http://proactivebridesmaid.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/pab-goes-to-wri-fried-green-tomatoes/
oops
added your link to my blog. sorry I neglected to earlier!
-Steph
a running menu!
I do the same thing as your mom, but with a twist!
I put a running list on the fridge of what leftovers are available inside, only I put the number of servings there are: Chicken Marsala ~ 2 Green beans ~ 3 and so forth. Then, for lunches (or for dinners the kids aren't crazy about ~ within reason), they can look at the "menu" and "order" something different with little to no work from me other than a quick re-heat. Leftovers are gladly eaten and there is minimal waste.
high efficency light blub?
Could you replace the bulb with a high efficency one they are not supposed to be hot to the touch?
Fridge
I find it hard to see if the bulb goes out, but it barely costs anything to have it on there.
Fridge lights
Recently our fridge had an issue that caused the lights to *not* go off when the door is shut. The only way to know this is going on is by finding the plastic light bulb cover melted and dripping down and all of your organic butter melted and your milk and kefir warm. So...after going with no lights in there for awhile, we decided we need at least one bulb. My kitchen has one small window and the fridge was a dark cave without any bulbs. I'm so glad to have it lit back up!
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