Did your new fridge come with an icemaker? Don’t throw those old ice cube trays away yet – they’ll come in very handy for preserving unused foods, storing ingredients or making special treats! It’s a great way to control portions when preparing dishes, too (the average ice cube yields about 2 tablespoons).

Continue Reading 8 Ways to Use Old Ice Cube Trays

If you want to keep bananas from ripening too quickly, seal them in plastic bag and store them in the fridge. This will turn the skin brown, but the fruit itself will remain unchanged. Recipe tip: 1 lb. bananas = 1-1/3 cup mashed.

Want to make banana bread or banana pudding, but the bananas you have are too green? To speed ripening, put the bananas in a paper bag. Adding an apple also helps. Recipe tip: 1 lb. bananas = 1-1/3 cup mashed.

In my opinion, one of the best things about cold-weather cooking is baking! My husband and I are both chocolate lovers, and brownies top the list of our favorite desserts. Nothing beats the smell of brownies baking in a warm kitchen on a chilly evening. We both love the crispy, chewy brownie edges, and with the Edge Brownie Pan, we don’t need to take turns over who gets an edge piece, because every piece is an edge piece! The pan also does a great job of cooking the brownies evenly, so we don’t wind up with gooey, undercooked pieces. I’ve also made bar chocolate chip cookies in it with great results. And while I never tried making lasagna in it, a co-worker of mine did, and she said the pan was perfect for creating neat, well-cooked slices of lasagna that don’t easily fall apart.

Let’s face it…not all of us are pros at planning ahead! But if you make sure your fridge, freezer and pantry are always stocked with these items, you’ll always be ready to prepare a meal or snack in a hurry without having to stop at the store on the way home from work! Be sure to add these items to your shopping list as your stock runs low.
Continue Reading Stock your Pantry for Quick & Easy Meals Anytime

My late grandmother, bless her, was a terrible cook. Maybe it’s because she first began keeping house during the Great Depression, but her meals tended to be bland, under-seasoned and overdone.

She did have three notable exceptions: potato salad, which my family has been vainly trying to replicate for decades (she never wrote it down); gravies of any kind, which made sense, seeing that she used every last drop of moisture from her roasts in order to make them (you needed that mouthwatering-gravy to choke the dried meat down); and piecrusts.

The irony is that piecrusts can be tricky even for very good cooks, like my mother. But Grandma had it nailed. I remember one grocery shopping excursion in my childhood where Mom, surreptitiously selecting a refrigerated dough, jumped guiltily when she heard Grandma’s scornful voice just behind her: “Make your own!”

Pie is a popular dessert at this time of year (or any time of year!), and there as many different types of piecrusts as there are pie recipes. Here are some of my grandmother’s tips for turning out a basic crust, ideal for pumpkin, apple, pecan, mince and other favorite, holiday pies.

1. All the ingredients should be very cold before mixing them – the colder the better. This includes the flour, liquids and fat (butter, margarine, lard, shortening, etc.). The flour will absorb fat that’s over-warm, resulting in a tough crust. Afraid it will be too difficult to mix? My grandmother used to freeze the butter, then shred it into the flour using a cheese grater.
2. For a tender crust, use only enough liquid to moisten the dry ingredients, adding it very gradually.
3. Overworking the dough toughens it, so handle it as little as possible. Use your hands or a pastry blender to mix it.
4. To ensure even browning, use glass or dull metal pie pans (shiny metal keep the crust from browning properly). Don’t grease the pan. If you use a glass pie plate, reduce the oven temperature 25 degrees lower than temperature called for in the recipe.
5. Keep the crust from getting soggy by sprinkling it with a little sugar and flour before adding the filling. After the pie is through baking, set it on a wire rack to cool so the air can circulate underneath the pan, keeping the steam inside the crust from making the pie soggy.

“I keep my spices in little plastic baskets in cabinets above my stove sorted by type – one basket for baking, one for herbs, one for ethnic spice blends, etc. This way when I’m cooking, I can just reach up and bring down the basket and I have everything I need without having to hunt through a spice rack.” -Julie

Special thanks to all our readers who submitted their favorite kitchen tips. Check out all the meals in the original Got a clever kitchen tip? post.

Save those pumpkin seeds when you’re carving your jack-o-lantern! Besides being super-tasty, they’re also nutritious, and a great source of magnesium, protein, iron, zinc and amino and they’re rich in fiber and B vitamins.

Here are two takes on traditional toasted pumpkin seeds – one sweet, one savory.

Candied Pumpkin Seeds
Southwestern Pumpkin Seeds