Wonder why I say 'healthy recipes' and then tell you to add a stick of butter?
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, March 27, 2012,
In :
Cooking Tips
My kitchen tip for today is creating flavor cubes that allow me to very quickly whip up recipes that use cream of mushroom soup. Not only is is WAY less expensive than using canned soups, but it's a big space saver as well. Twelve "soup starter cubes" take up very little space in the freezer!
I've seen lots of homemade versions of cream-of soup recipes, but this one is unique, as it's a do-ahead of all the spices and flavorings, and you just add the butter+flour+milk into the recipe as you...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, March 13, 2012,
In :
Cooking Tips
My Grandma taught me how to grease a pan. You can learn a lot of amazing kitchen tips from the generation that lived through the great depression. I think of her whenever I unwrap a stick of butter. She would scrape all that extra butter off, OR...
fold it (butter side in) and stash it in the freezer. I have started stashing mine in a zipper bag. The next time you need to grease a pan...
grab a butter paper and unfold it. Voila! An instant perfectly sized pan-greaser! The frozen b... Continue reading ...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, January 31, 2012,
In :
Cooking Tips
I found this little kitchen tip 'jewel' on Pinterest today: Apartment Therapy's post on How to Clean Burnt Pans With Vinegar and Baking Soda. I was so excited to try this! Providentially, while I was pinning this tip, my son was upstairs burning the grits. Breakfast was saved by the 'burnt beans' kitchen tip. But the bottom of the pot was rather encrusted. Indeed, rather more burnt than the frying pan of my apartment dwelling friend. My 'normal' is to put the stinky pot outside, and sav...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Monday, January 9, 2012,
In :
Cooking Tips
 A while back, I posted a kitchen tip on freezing bacon flat on a cookie sheet. This weekend, my man and I were making breakfast together, and he had a great idea for freezing bacon in a much smaller space. So I took a few snapshots for you. This is for everyone who has a side-by-side freezer, or (like me) keeps their freezer too full to slide in a cookie sheet.
I first learned the value of individually freezing bacon when we were newlyweds. I'd used part of a pack of bacon, and tossed th...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, June 21, 2011,
In :
Cooking Tips
 I made this lovely banana pudding for an event, and I didn't want to mess up the whipped cream with plastic wrap. What to do? Mom used to use toothpicks, but those just poke holes right through the plastic wrap.
But wait! I remembered these little flag picks that I found last year at the 90% off Hobby Lobby sale...they'll work perfectly to hold the plastic wrap off of the whipped cream!
I've also used the cute little beach umbrellas with great success.
And instead of plastic wrap, I've beco...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, January 25, 2011,
In :
Cooking Tips
 I love, love, love using glass jars to store leftovers, and the plastic lids are so much easier for leftovers and freezing than the standard ring lids. However, I do not love trying to clean sharpie marker off the lids of the jars.
So, I bought a China Marker, which is a waxy pencil that marks on the surface, but wipes clean with a bit of oil or dish soap. Craft stores, and hardware stores carry china markers. I found a two pack in the area where sharpie markers and drawing pencils are s... Continue reading ...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, December 28, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
 Here are a few more freezing tips for all of those holiday leftovers!
Problem 1: I don't like to reheat things in plastic...and the large glass jars split when I freeze in them.
I have in the last couple of years nearly phased out plastic storage containers in favor of quart and pint jars. I love them for leftovers, but I've had a number of problems with them cracking in the freezer. I finally figured out why. The larger quart jars, even those with wide mouths narrow in at the top, creatin...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, August 31, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
 Bacon is one of those foods that I just can't imagine living without. Whether your preference is for thick cut, pepper crusted, turkey, beef, or pork; bacon=love. It is so versatile...I use it on everything from pizza to soup to our standard Saturday morning brrunch-a-thon.
The kind I usually buy comes in large, 3 lb. packages. As much as I enjoy bacon, I cannot use 3 pounds before it starts to go bad. Once, when I was but a blushing bride, I tossed a package in the freezer. But I wasn'...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, June 29, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Wednesday, May 26, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
The alternate title for this kitchen tip is "The World's Largest Salad Spinner."
In the summertime, I'm all about salads. I love them year round, but there is something so refreshing about cold, crisp lettuce in the heat of summer. I'll often make one dish meals centered around a huge bowl of salad, and just top it with chicken of the grilled, teriyaki, blackened or fried variety. All that to say, I got real tired of washing lettuce every night. And my family also got real tired of me m... Continue reading ...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Thursday, May 20, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
Just so you know...these are NOT black beans. Ahhh, the smell of burnt on beans that permeates my whole house; it is so, so stinky. I'm the worlds worst at getting sidetracked and letting the water cook out of beans. Bad, naughty housewife. After all that soaking time, and tender loving care I put into my beans, I used to just have to throw the whole pot out and order a pizza. Luckily, my Mother in Law has passed along a great remedy for burned beans that saves the day. 1. Remove them from... Continue reading ...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, April 27, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
This is a great cream of mushroom soup recipe! I've been looking for a quick and easy replacement for canned mushroom soup concentrate that I could sub in some of our family favorite recipes.
I scanned several homemade versions, including canned, and even attempts at freezing (which is my preference) but there are several issues with preserving homemade cream of soups. You can't can them or freeze them because the thickeners break down. So I devised this method, which really worked out gr...
Continue reading ...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Tuesday, April 13, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
I love this spice grinder kitchen trick. Stop me if you've heard this one. First, you'll need an Osterizer Blendor or Blender. Potay-toe-Potah-toe. Next, you'll need a homemade spice blend in a standard glass canning jar. Why, you ask, would you need to or want to blend up a spice mix? Well, I'm glad you asked. There is a very good reason. Ground spice mixes give you maximum flavor instantly, and stay homogenous (mixed in perfect proportions). Way back when I was looking for the perfect Ho... Continue reading ...
Posted by Gwendelynn Brown on Friday, April 9, 2010,
In :
Cooking Tips
One of the reasons that I put of any kind of breadmaking for years and years and years was a strong aversion to scraping dough and flour off of the countertop with my fingernails. Then, about 5 years ago, I discovered that a trick from a pumpkin roll recipe worked just as well for kneading and rolling out bread, cookies, etc. This is how it works:
- Lay a tea towel out on the countertop.
2. Sprinkle your tea towel with flour if the recipe says to flour your surface.
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3. Knead, roll, ... Continue reading ...
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