Helpful Tips

Here are some helpful tips I have discovered over the years. Hope that you will find some of them useful.

If soup tastes very salty, a raw piece of potato placed in the pot will absorb the salt.

Baking powder will remove tea or coffee stains from china pots nor cups.

When rolling cookie dough, sprinkle board with powdered sugar instead of flour. Too much flour makes the dough heavy.

For extra juicy, extra nutritious hamburgers, add 1/4 cup evaporated milk per pound of meat before shaping.

When freezing cookies with a frosting or anything sticky, like cinnamon rolls, place them on a baking sheet or plate in the freezer for several hours - then wrap without worrying about them sticking together or to your freezer container or bag.

Anything that grows under the ground, start off in cold water - potatoes, beets, carrots, etc. Anything that grows above ground, start off in boiling water - English peas, greens, beans, etc.

To keep icings moist and to prevent cracking, add a pinch of baking soda to the icing.

Hard boiled eggs will peel easily if cracked and placed in cold water immediately after taking out of the hot water.

If you only want to use 1 or 2 pieces of bacon from a package, roll the remaining pieces individually into rolls and place in freezer until frozen. Then place in zip lock bag. You can then easily remove one or more pieces as you need them in the future.


If you want to cook bacon and have it stay flat and have little clean up try this method:  Line a baking sheet with foil and place bacon strips on the foil. Place the baking sheet in a COLD oven and turn heat to 350 degrees. After about 15 minutes, or slightly longer for crisper bacon, you will get perfect bacon with minimal mess.


Weights and Measurements:

3 teaspoons = 1 tablespoon
4 tablespoons = 1/4 cup
5 1/2 tablespoons = 1/3 cup
8 tablespoons = 1/2 cup
12 tablespoons = 3/4 cup
16 tablespoons = 1 cup

1 cup = 8 fluid ounce
1 cup = 1/2 pint
2 cups = 1 pint
4 cups = 1 quart

2 pints = 1 quart
4 quarts = 1 gallon



Check back as I will be adding more tips as they come to mind!