Helpful Cooking Tips

Like many people I learned to cook from my mom and my grandmother and my aunts. I also learned things for the internet and the food network and from lots of my friends who are also great cooks. Here are a few I find helpful no matter what you are cooking, because I have found that food taste better when your not stressed out.

1. Make menus. I do this two ways if it is a special meal I take a page of paper and fold it in half length wise. On the left hand side I write the dishes I will make. Then I read through the dishes and on the right hand side write the ingredients I will need to buy so I have a shopping list. I also use this for weekly menus and just list all the days of the week on the left hand side. I further split that up for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner for each day. This keeps me organized and I can take half an hour to plan my meals each week and shopping takes hardly any time. For crazy weeks where I use a menu mailer from savingdinner.com
2. Prep on shopping day. When you get home from the store wash your veggies and I also take some time to chop up things to have them handy for snacks and quick meals. It is like having a salad bar in your fridge.
3. Be your own prep chef. Before you start to cook the meal get everything chopped up to the size you want and pulled out of the fridge and pantry. That way no last min panic trying to find something.
4. Have a trash bowl or two. Thanks Rachel Ray! I keep one for compost and one for actual trash
5. Clean while you cook. Ok so I have not mastered this yet but hey I’m getting better. I like to have a large bowl of hot soapy water in my sink (I don’t have a double basin) so when I’m cooking I can put the dirty dishes right into the wash bowl making clean up much easier.
6. Spice it up. using herbs (the leaf part of a plant) and spices (the other parts of a plant) are great for cooking. I use to confuse myself on which ones I had already used until I read in I think a romance novel of all places the tip to march your spices across the counter. the ones you have not used on one side of your mixing bowl or dish and the ones you have used on the other side.