Today I’ve got some random food tips. I couldn’t figure out how to stretch any of these into a full blog post on their own, so I’m just throwing them all together. If you’ve got any other good ones, let’s hear them down in the comments.
- Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
- Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold. (I’m passing this one along even though I haven’t tested it. Seems reasonable, though.)
- Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. (This one doesn’t make any sense to me. Anyone else heard this? Got an explanation for it?)
- Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic, and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic. Same with pepper.
- Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza.
- To reheat biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
- For deviled eggs without the cleanup, put cooked egg yolks in a zip-top bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly. Cut the tip off the bag, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done.
- If you’re in a hurry and buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount.
- When you start your garden, after working the nutrients into the soil, put layers of wet newspaper around the plants, overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic. They will not get through wet newspapers.
- To find a local source for grass-fed meat and dairy products, check out EatWild.com.
- And for local sourcees of produce, as well as more meat producers, check LocalHarvest.org.
