Several years back, I attended a cooking class at The Viking Cooking School in Atlanta. I learned more in that one day than I did my entire first year of marriage! Now, we're in our eighth year of marriage and there are a few more tricks I've learned along the way. I am no Julia Child, but I'm learning and I thought I would share a few of my favorite kitchen tips with you today.
1. Mise en place which essentially means having all your ingredients and tools ready before you begin a recipe. I find this especially helpful when I'm baking or when I'm cooking with children.
This photo was taken when I was making my Monkey Bread. Of course, my oldest son wanted to help with this recipe so I prepared all the ingredients while he was playing and then called him over to help pour, mix and stir. Mise en place is a little work on the front end but I promise you it will make your cooking experience much easier in the long run. If you're baking, you reduce the risk of measuring incorrectly or starting a recipe only to discover half way through that you don't have any eggs.
2. Place a kitchen towel under your cutting board to keep the board from sliding and spinning around while your chopping.
3. Invest in a good quality, multipurpose knife and keep it sharp. I bought this Wustof Santoku knife after my cooking class at Viking seven years ago. I can honestly say that I use it every single day at almost every meal. I use it to slice English muffins, cut crusts of of PB & J and chop produce for dinner.
A lot of people think that using a large knife will increase their chances of cutting themselves but that could not be further from the truth. A larger knife, used on a proper size cutting board, will give you more control and is less likely to slip around like smaller knives.
4. Keep a "garbage bowl" close by to quickly toss your trash and scraps in while you cook. I'm pretty sure Rachel Ray made this tip famous but it's one that I use all the time. Although, I have two trash cans strategically located in my kitchen, having this little bowl (or even a plastic grocery sack) within arms reach saves time and makes clean up a lot faster.
5. These mini flour & sugar mason jars come in handy when I'm preparing a recipe that may call for a small amount of these kitchen staples that usually are sold by the pound! There's nothing worse than having to pull out a five pound bag of flour when you only need two measly tablespoons. I keep these little jars with my other common spices so they're always nearby.
So, there you go! A few basic kitchen tips from my sweet, southern kitchen. I know they're pretty elementary but perhaps there are a few new cooks out there that will find them useful or inspiring. Do you have any kitchen tips you'd like to share? Feel free to post your favorites in a comment below!
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