Thank you all for your kind words of congratulations following Moshe's birth! I still haven't typed the birth story but am hoping to do that this week, along with taking more pictures to share, rambling about mommy stuff, etc... :)

We've been doing lots of this:

...and loving EVERY minute of it!!

But, let's get down to business. After a couple weeks' vacation, I have a kitchen tip for you!

As I pulled this container of cooked pinto beans out of the freezer, I remembered to snap a picture of what I do to prevent freezer burn on anything in a container with air space:

Press plastic wrap against the food before freezing. This also works great on ice cream in a box, partially used, in a home where ice cream stays in the freezer long enough to get ice crystals on top. (This no longer happens in our house but before we had kids, it did!)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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1. Making heart-shaped omelets (Tara)
2. Using your food scale (Kim)
3. Dried beans in crock pot
4. Reverse-engineering processed foods (Katie)
5. Kitchen recycling tips (Kolfinna)
6.
7.
8.
9.

As I was baking molasses spice cookies yesterday, I thought of a couple butter tips to share! :)

I have two Rubbermaid butter dishes (so handy, with a lid that snaps tightly!) and I keep them both filled and not refrigerated, so that we never run out of soft butter to spread on bread, etc.

Ever open the butter dish to realise that it's almost empty, and the rest of the butter is in the fridge? This happened to me way too many times growing up, so I have always kept two butter dishes out in our home!

Having extra butter at room temperature is also handy for those last-minute cooking-baking frenzies. Without a microwave to soften butter, I've frequently raided one or both butter dishes for some soft butter for whatever baking project I hadn't planned ahead!

And finally, when I'm cutting a stick of butter for a recipe and there's, say, 3 tablespoons left over, rather than wrapping the little piece and putting it back in the fridge, I check to see if it can fit on a partly-empty butter dish. If so, I add it to the butter dish, and avoid all the random pieces in the fridge. :)

By the way, these cookies are so delicious! My mom has made molasses spice cookies with raisins for as long as I can remember, and they're one of my dad's favorites. Now, I make them especially for Joshua -- although we all really like them! :)

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! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Cold butter tips (Harper)
2. Removing baked-on grease (Annie)
3. Refried beans tip (Kolfinna)
4. Cleaning cookware (Kirstin)
5. Ground beef in bulk
6. Making powdered sugar (Cammie)
7. Bulk food storage tips
8.

Have you ever grabbed a carton of eggs from the fridge, and nearly dropped it because inside, it looked like this??

Well, that's what used to happen to me... until I started taking out eggs in a balancing pattern:

Just use from the middle first, and take out every other egg. Don't leave 3 or 4 or 5 eggs all at one end -- or someone might grab the empty end of the carton -- causing the heavy end to drop unexpectedly!

Am I the only one who has a method for taking eggs out of the carton? Tell me this isn't silliness, and that you, too, have had the "Oh no, I nearly dropped the eggs!" scare!

Originally posted in 2007

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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1. Double boiler substitute
2. Tips for eating plain yogurt with less sweetener (Katie)
3. Kombucha tip (Donna)
4. Entertaining children in the kitchen
5. Clean hands when breading/flouring (Jennifer)
6. Fast way to peel potatoes (Nancy)
7. Clean up as you go along (Mary Jo)
8. Snowflake food tips/ideas (Laura)
9. Carry-in dinner tips (Kolfinna)
10. No-mess chopping tip
11. Cream of tartar substitution (Kirstin)
12. Low-fat cooking tips (Harper)

This week's kitchen tip was passed to me from my friend Jamie, who gave us a dish of delicious creamy homemade macaroni and cheese topped with her homemade bread crumbs.

Here's her easy method for making homemade bread crumbs:

1. Save any stale or dry bread, crusts, or heels in a bag in the freezer.

2. When bread crumbs are needed, pull the bag of bread out of the freezer and use a food processor to crumble the bread.

3. Season the bread crumbs as desired. For topping her homemade macaroni and cheese, Jamie seasoned the bread crumbs with garlic powder, salt, pepper, and onion powder.

4. Store unused/unseasoned bread crumbs in the freezer until needed.

Do any of you have more bread crumb tips to share? I'd love to hear! :)

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! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Food storage tips (Katie)
2. Cooking chicken (Kolfinna)
3. Kitchen safety tips (Annie)
4. Vinyl gloves (Elaine)
5. Variety in meals (Cindy)
6. Breadcrumbs tips (Harper)
7. Freezing sweet potatoes (Mary Jo)

I've mentioned in the past that we don't generally do many freezer meals, since we think most foods taste best when prepared, baked, and served fresh! :)

However, there are a handful of things that, while not quite like fresh, are still pretty tasty after being frozen. :) And since I've been nesting lately (I prefer to call it "disaster readiness prep"!) I've been brainstorming meal ideas for the freezer. :)

Several people suggested making a double batch of whatever we're having for dinner, and freezing half. I've been able to do this several times during the past couple weeks, and it's worked great!

I have two glass 8x8-inch dishes that work great for a single meal size. I couldn't bring myself to purchase the cheap foil pans (especially bad for tomato-based meals!) so I've been using the "mold technique":

1. Line the glass dish with wax paper and plastic wrap. (You could also use foil, like Amy does, although I prefer to avoid foil since it can stick and tears easily.)

2. Layer the casserole inside.

3. Cover with more plastic wrap and/or a lid, and freeze until solid.

4. After frozen, remove casserole from dish and wrappings, and seal.

I use the Food Saver to seal the frozen meal, since those bags are heavy and seriously prevent frostbite. If I'm going to the effort to freeze meals, I want them to taste as good as possible! ;)

You could also use heavy plastic freezer bags and remove most of the air with a straw, but I find that nothing compares to the heavy Food Saver bags and they just don't let air back in like freezer Ziplocks do. :) We have the FoodSaver Vac 750 model which has had lots of use in the 8+ years since we bought it, and it still works great!

Another advantage of using square or rectangular dishes of the same size is that the casseroles stack very tightly in the freezer.

My current freezer situation: Frozen casseroles, beef (cooked) and chicken (cooked), homemade cream of chicken soups (in bags at left), fish (raw and smoked), and vegetables. :)

Later this week I'll share my menu plans and which meals I decided to freeze, already completely made. :)

But for now -- does anyone have other great freezer tips to share? What are your favorite frozen homemade meals -- ones that taste just like fresh? :)

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! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Stretching maple syrup (Mary Ann)
2. Freezer inventory (Amy)
3. Liver and meatballs (Carey)
4. Cooking potatoes (Erika)
5. Reviving frozen cookies
6. Freezer meal tips (Rachel)
7. Pre-cooked frozen veggies (Alea)
8. Easy cappuccino tip (Kolfinna)
9. Healthier baking tips (Rachel)
10. Holiday/big meal prep tips (Lora)

We love burritos!

For delicious meatless burritos, I make my beans and rice as described here, splash some Tapatio hot sauce inside, wrap in a flour tortilla and serve with sour cream. Easy, affordable, and delicious! :)

This is how I warm the flour tortillas, when we all want to fill our own at the meal.

When serving burritos for a crowd, I gather all the ingredients (warm or cold) and start assembling the burritos. Yehoshua was my helper a few weeks ago when we made burritos to take to church for the meal.

These are cooked pinto beans, mozzarella cheese, cooked basmati rice, and cheddar cheese.

When we finished, we had two full 9x13's of burritos. I covered the tops with foil and refrigerated. When we were ready to warm them, I baked them covered at 325 degrees for almost an hour. I like to serve them with sour cream and Tapatio (of course!). :) So easy!

We also love breakfast burritos and burritos with taco fillings (meat, beans, sour cream, cheese, lettuce, tomato, salsa).

Before our new baby arrives, I plan to make up several kinds of burritos, wrap each one individually in foil, and place in a bag in the freezer (labeled!). I haven't tried warming the frozen burritos yet, but a friend said her frozen ones (wrapped in foil) take about 30 minutes at 350 degrees, resting directly on the oven rack. Sounds easy!

Do any of you have burrito tips to add to my post? I'd love to hear! :)

Bethany has a photo tutorial on how she folds her burritos. I do it similarly, though I put a bit more filling inside than she shows, and don't wrap the sides in nearly so far.

Bethany wraps hers in freezer paper and reheats in the microwave. :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Homemade stock tips (Rachel)
2. Non-stick baking tip (Annie)
3. Frozen meat tip (Carey)
4. Entertaining tip (Becky)
5.
6.

After we got our stainless steel cookware, I wrote a post with tips for cooking with stainless steel. One thing I hadn't yet figured out was scrambled eggs in stainless steel without any sticking.

Someone helpfully suggested pre-heating the (empty) stainless steel skillet, then adding oil, and right after, pouring in the eggs.

I've been doing this steadily for the past dozen or so times I've made scrambled eggs, and it works! :) I have been amazed. Seriously, one day I just wiped the skillet out with a paper towel and used it for something else without washing. After making scrambled eggs!!

I heat the skillet on medium-medium high for a few minutes (until I hold my hand over the skillet and feel a good amount of heat). Then I add just a little oil (I have oil in a spray bottle), enough to cover the bottom and sides, and turn the skillet around to coat. I pour in the eggs and as they cook, I stir as normal.

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Getting honey out of measuring spoons
2. Rolling out pie crust (Sara)
3. Preheating quickly (Lenetta)
4. Cleaning counters (Mary Jo)
5. Cheesecake tips (Jo)
6. Towels (Mamie)
7. Organizing chest freezer (Susan)
8.
9.

I'm sure this has been mentioned here in the past, but: To make stuffed-crust pizza, pull the pizza crust dough up and around a cheese stick. Mozzarella cheese sticks work best, but I used a cheddar/mozzarella mix today since that was all I had. :)

For more pizza tips, see this post! :)

This post was originally published in 2008, but I wanted to re-run this tip since stuffed crust pizza is so fun! :)

Yehoshua was my pizza helper! I broke the cheese sticks so they would form a better circle.

Eliyahu (2) and Yehoshua (4) both helped shred the cheese. I'm sure some chunks of cheese made it into their mouths while they were at it... :)

Yehoshua spread the pizza sauce for me. Here you can see that the cheese sticks have been covered with dough and pinched shut. :)

Then the pizza was ready to go in the oven! Yehoshua got out some frozen veggies and put them in a pan to warm up for along with our pizza.

Yehoshua washed a few dishes for me...

...while Eliyahu's Ferrari navigated around the frozen veggies he was snacking on.

Stuffed crust pizza: Simple but yummy.

Happy little helpers: Priceless!

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! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. 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. Easy peel hard boiled eggs (Laura)
2. Cookie press (Donna)
3. Repurposing kitchen containers (Katie)
4. Brie tip (Tara)
5. Using and caring for cast iron (Donielle)
6. Freezer tips (Christy)
7. Toasting nuts (Annie)
8. Swap baking (Laura)
9. Butter wrappers (Mamie)
10. Easy meal solution (Jo)
11. Multi use spray (Cheryl)
12. Water saving tips (Kolfinna)
13. Holiday baking tips (Becky)
14.

I frequently serve oven-roasted chicken for dinner during the cooler months of the year. Roasted chicken is one of Joshua's favorite meals, and it's SO EASY! :)

If you've shied away from roasting a whole chicken in the past, let me encourage you to try it at least once (especially if your husband/family loves tender cooked chicken)! :)

Cooking a whole chicken really is as easy as:

1. Open the package, remove giblets from the inside, and rinse the chicken under cold running water.

2. Sprinkle the outside of the chicken with seasonings.

3. Cover and bake chicken in the oven, or use your crock pot to cook it! (See my oven-roasted chicken recipe for times, temps, and baking details.)

4. Serve and enjoy!

I vary the side dishes when serving chicken, but usually include some sort of vegetable (green beans, peas, carrots, corn) and some kind of starch (potatoes, rice, egg noodles). For a real treat, we'll have mashed potatoes and freshly made chicken gravy... and sometimes I warm some homemade wheat bread to serve with butter. :)

The leftover chicken is very handy for soups, sandwiches, or just about any casserole calling for cooked chicken meat! :)

More reasons to love whole roasted chickens!

What we do with 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters...

Tips for making chicken broth

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! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. 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. Kitchen scissors (Donna)
2. Seasoning cast iron (Donielle)
3. Quick drying ziplocks (Laura)
4. Deviled egg tips (Katie)
5. Composting tip (Mamie)
6. Leftover pie tip (Julia)
7. Clean kitchens (Kolfinna)
8. Safe disinfectant for cutting boards (Jo)
9. Turkey broth from bones (Shaina)
10. Chicken stock (Lora)

After writing about my suribachi set/mortar and pestle, someone asked:

What is your opinion of tableware (plates, bowls, etc.) that is made in China? Do you think it's safe? The last time I looked at dishes, everything seemed to be made there, and I didn't know.

I have not done much research on dinnerware options (unlike our cookware!) simply because the need hasn't arisen. Before we were married, we were given a set of Corelle dishes (second-hand), and in the past year we have added to that set to accommodate more mouths eating at each meal. ;)

The Corelle website has this to say about their manufacturing:

All CORELLE® Vitrelle® glass dinnerware is manufactured in the USA at the same Corning, New York factory where it has been made since the line was launched in 1970. Hearthstone stoneware lines are sourced elsewhere.

In short, I believe this translates to most/all Corelle glass (not stoneware) plates and bowls being USA-manufactured.

We LOVE our Corelle dinnerware! We have this Winter Frost White Corelle set (pictured at top). Note that the stoneware mugs in that set are not made in the USA.

My top 5 things to love about Corelle:

1. The plates and bowls stack very compactly in my kitchen cupboard. In a small kitchen this is such a space-saver!!

2. The dishes are light and easy to handle.

3. The dishes don't break or chip easily. In the nearly 8 years of heavy use, I think we have broken 2 pieces.

4. For food photography purposes, I love the bright white Corelle plates! I know it isn't very artistic or unique, but I can almost always get a good clear shot of the food on the plate.

5. The Corelle dishes don't chip or crack like stoneware would, but yet are MUCH nicer than plastic. I also like to use a Corelle dinner plate as a "lid" on my scrambled egg pan in the mornings, which pre-heats the plate so I can serve my husband a hot plate of steaming food!

I honestly can't think of anything negative about the Corelle dinnerware, but that could be because I've not used any other options extensively...

Do any of you have dinnerware recommendations to share, particularly dinnerware made in the USA? :)