Be a Whiz in the Kitchen

The February edition of Twin Cities Metro Magazing has a really cool feature article on how to do everything...almost. I found eight great tips in the "be a whiz in the kitchen" section that I think everyone should know. Here they are:

1. To get the most juice from a lemon, microwave it for 15 seconds. (Rachel Ray taught me this and it works with oranges and limes as well.)

2. To avoid curly bacon, dip it in cold water before cooking.

3. To chill wine quickly, put the bottle in a bucket with ice, water and a handful of salt.

4. To keep potatoes from sprouting, put an apple in the bag with them

5. To avoid tears that come with cutting an onion, stick it in the freezer for 20 minutes before chopping. (I'm very excited to try this because chopping onions is my weakness, I always cry.)

6. To reduce the toots, add a pinch of baking soda to beans while cooking.

7. To turn milk into buttermilk, stir 1 tablespoon vinegar into 1 cup of milk.

8. To remove garlic smell from your fingers, dip a stainless steel knife or spoon into lemon juice and rub it between your fingers for 60 seconds.

Try them out!

Snack Time: Pickles

The other night I was watching "The best thing I ever ate" a show on the Food Network channel where chefs visit their favorite spot of something very delicious they once had to eat. This episode was all about Snacks. Ted Allen discussed his favorite snack is one of McClure's Pickles. This was the exact moment when I realized that it is okay to snack on pickles, which I occasionally do. So for everyone that thinks that is weird…it’s not. It also gave me the urge to try one of McClure’s pickles.

Two brothers, one in New York and the other in Detroit had the idea to start a pickle company with their great grandmother’s recipe and help from their grandfather. They use local products and each jar is hand packed. They sell garlic dill and spicy pickles as well as a relish. You can order cases from their website, but they are ridiculously expensive. They are also sold in various retail locations and Surdyk’s in Minneapolis is one of them. So I will be making my way there to get myself a jar or I will just have to wait until I am in New York this summer.

They also have some recipes for cooking with pickles. All can be found on their website. www.mcclurespickles.com

Chicken...ugh

So I went to my parent’s house for dinner…meaning I was likely going to make it, and what did they take out to thaw?? Chicken….woo hoo. We are always eating chicken. Between some Asian, Italian or BBQ version the Winslow family eats a lot of Chicken!

I remembered that there was an article in my Food Network Magazine about different variations of chicken wings and while these were chicken strips I figured we would survive. By default we had to make the Caribbean Chicken since we had all but one of the ingredients. The others either required breading (my brother’s allergic to wheat) or our pantry was lacking a serious amount of the recipe. So in an attempt to stray away from one of our typical family meals my mom and I began pulling out everything we needed.

I read further into the recipe and soon discovered that the poultry needed to marinade for four to six hours. Since it was around eight o’clock, I threw the chicken in the fridge until the oven pre-heated. Four hours…10 minutes…whatever. Needless to say the chicken was different. It was edible, with leftovers. Fortunately we had beans and rice on the side so no one went hungry. It was a change but nothing I need to make again or share. Perhaps sticking with the same old recipe isn’t that bad. Lesson learned.