*images via Houzz
Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kitchen. Show all posts
Kitchen Crush: Atlanta, GA
*images via Houzz
What's Cookin' this Weekend?
I plan on getting some cooking hours under my belt this weekend and I'm looking forward to sharing some recipes with you next week.
In the meantime, I've been thinking about some essentials that my kitchen is missing and while I try to keep kitchen gadgets to a minimum, I think these items would last me a lifetime.
What are your plans for the weekend?
Kitchen Tips
Well, the cooking and baking season is among us! I love fall and all the yummy goodness it brings to our tables. I've been working on organizing my kitchen and getting rid of things that I just don't use. A simple kitchen is an efficient kitchen.
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!
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!
