Amazing Cooking Tips to Make Life Easier — Hacks #22

Intro

I am not the “Queen of Hacks” despite writing these articles.

My current abode is in a country with limited English-speaking television, and I’m not a fan of our streaming services. Hence, when not reading or writing, my entertainment options are limited.

I stumbled upon a “Life Hacks” program on one channel. Watching it was a sad commentary on the desperate state of viewing choices. But because I learned clever tips, I continued to watch the show.

I’m the ilk of reader/writer who needs to learn something new or write informatively. So, wearing “my sharing/teaching hat,” I queried: Why not share these tidbits and write a piece about hacks? Voila, the first article, with subsequent ones following. It’s now become a series, a mini-one at least.

Cooking Hacks are Plentiful

Because cooking hacks tend to be the most popular, this is the second devoted exclusively to baking, cooking, and kitchen tasks, following up on Hacks #14.

Happy reading…and cooking! As always, I love hearing your tips and comments.

✅ Prevent brown sugar hardening with marshmallows

Place a few marshmallows in a container of brown sugar and tightly seal it. This softens the sugar in a day, however, you can keep the marshmallows in the jar for a few weeks.

This is a new hack for me. If you don’t have marshmallows, a partial slice of bread works. Whether it softens up already-hardened chunks of sugar, though, I’m unsure. My approach was to immediately add bread upon opening a new box and transferring it to a glass jar.

✅ Warm knives to easily slice dessert

Dip the blade of a sharp knife in hot water to heat it. Wipe the knife with a dry towel and cut your cake, cheesecake, bars, or other dessert into nice tidy slices.

Repeat each time for appealing slices with a clean edge. This eliminates the gunky knife!

✅ Keep your lunch cool

If there’s insufficient space for a frozen gel pack in your or the kids’ lunch, freeze ice in a prescription pill bottle. As small as they are, heck, use two.

I thought this to be ingenious.

✅ Rid the garlic smell on your hands

If you’re a garlic lover, the after-effect smell on your hands for the rest of the day may not be your ideal scent of choice. Numerous hacks exist to eliminate the odor, but this is claimed to be the easiest.

Rub your hands on your sink faucet or anything stainless steel.

I absolutely shall try this on my next cooking foray (which could be “In The Year 2525…if man is still alive”). I wonder if it also works for onion, which is far more odious to me.

✅ Freeze gingerroot

For someone who cooks but once a month or so, I love this idea because I invariably have extra gingerroot that ends up shriveled, dying, and tossed out.

When finished grating fresh ginger for that special dish, freeze the leftover root in a plastic container or resealable bag. No more withering ginger, plus it’s available for the next recipe.

✅ Use a rolling pin to crush hard spices

Grinding spices is challenging without a mortar and pestle. And, frankly, I never used it much, evidence of my largely absentee presence in that room where meals are prepared. I do find the name quaint, however, envisioning “real chefs” wearing big white hats in “real kitchens” mortaring and pestling away.

Using a rolling pin instead sounds far easier to me. Try it!

Place chopped-up spices in a sandwich bag or wrapped in saran or cling film. On a hard surface, crush them by rolling. Alternatively, bash away to relieve stress and have more fun.

✅ Juice lemons with a skewer

My lemon juicing methods never utilized a skewer. But why not experiment, especially if it’s easy and works well? Try out this hack without cutting the lemon.

Take a skewer, chopstick, knitting needle, or similar tool of your choice, and poke a hole through the non-stem end of a lemon. Squeeze for a stream of lemon juice.

It’s supposedly simple and sounds less messy.

✅ Roast veggies in a preheating oven

Who doesn’t love roasted veggies? I think they’re the best best! Never did I think of doing this, however.

Place a filled sheet pan in the oven while it’s preheating. The veggies will roast more evenly. How clever and simpler than timing when the oven is fully heated.

Disclaimer: I don’t know if these final tips will be widely appreciated or not.

Perhaps in the culinary world or when entertaining, you talented cooks engage in delightful preparatory steps to enliven your displayed wares or enhance your guests’ dining experience.

✅ Use a straw to easily remove cherry pits

Cherries are small, and removing their pits can be tedious. If you’re a thoughtful host/ess who excises them, this is clever.

Use a straw to easily remove a pit. Hold the cherry with one hand and slide the straw directly through the cherry with your other hand. The pit will pop straight out.

✅ Pit cherries with a chopstick

Pitting cherries must be a “thing.” This tip mentioned the difficulty of the endeavor without a pitter, a tool the existence of which I was unaware. Oh well…

Put a cherry on top of an empty beer bottle (for the non-alcohol imbibers a soda or water bottle should work). Then, use a chopstick or reusable straw to propel the pit into the bottle. A stainless steel straw would be ideal.

Sounds easy enough. If ever I feel inclined to pit cherries, this is the method I shall try.

✅ Hull a strawberry with a straw

For you strawberry hullers, this is another use for drinking straws.

Insert one into the tip of the berry, pushing it through to the other end to remove the stem.

This is handy when making a fresh strawberry pie or other recipe with fresh strawberries.

References:

1. “Hack My Life” television program

2. https://www.tasteofhome.com/collection/best-kitchen-hacks/