Tips & Tricks

Let’s face it: Not all of us are born with natural talent in the kitchen. My mom is a fantastic baker, but I had to work hard to learn how to do things as easily as she does.

Thankfully, there’s a wealth of information available from other chefs and home cooks that we can learn from! I’ve devoted a lot of my time to learning more from other people who love to spend time in the kitchen, and now, I want to share more of that knowledge with you.

My articles about Kitchen Tips & Tricks can all be found below. I’ve divided the most useful articles into helpful sections so that you can learn more in the kitchen without having to search through hundreds of articles!

Q & A

Many new cooks have a lot of the same questions:

These questions and many more are probably asked by someone every single day, but finding good answers to them can be difficult.

It’s hard to know how to do these things until you have a lot of experience in the kitchen, so I’ve put my experiences into writing so we can all learn a little bit more about these common issues. Within the Q&A articles on my blog, I hope to share with you a lot of useful information about common kitchen problems.

(And no, you probably shouldn’t microwave that styrofoam!)

How To

Learning how to cook is all about learning how to do common cooking techniques, such as thickening sauces. It can be daunting to take on new dishes, but tutorials in my how to section will help you learn how to successfully try some new techniques.

I can even tell you how to thicken your chili like a competition master!

Whether you want to try reheating a testy food like pulled pork or make your store bought frosting taste homemade, you can learn how with my tutorials. If there’s ever another technique you want to learn how to do, feel free to common on any of my existing articles! I’ll be happy to share my knowledge.

Frozen Foods

As soon as I realize that I’ve made too much of a particular meal or bought too much at the store, my immediate thought is always “Can I freeze this?”

Through much trial and error, I’ve learned a lot about different foods that can be frozen and the best way to freeze them. From baked beans to sour cream, freezing foods has become like second nature to me.

Not only is freezing foods a great way to make sure to waste less, but it’s also a great way to save money! Buying in bulk is a great way to save money, but it’s only possible whenever you will be eating it immediately or are able to store it for a long time. Freezing foods that can be bought in bulk can save you a lot of money.

How Long Is It Good For?

There’s nothing worse than being unsure if your fresh salmon has gone bad or not. There are so many different foods to learn about that it can be difficult to learn the tell tale signs that each of them has expired.

This section of my blog focuses on how to identify if a food has gone bad or not. It also shares important information about how long you can expect certain foods to last.

What Goes With What?

To become a master chef, you have to learn about pairings! Pairing the right tastes together is the best way to ensure that a dish impresses your guests, and this section will start that knowledge journey.

Do you have a food you are looking to make a great pairing for? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll do my best to figure it out for you!

Food Substitutes

Sometimes, we run out of an important ingredient from our pantry. It’s not always possible to run to the store and replace that ingredient immediately, so finding food substitutes becomes a key part of cooking!

Substitution is a regular part of cooking. Many spices have similar flavor profiles, and that means that you can use one in place of the other while making very few changes to the rest of the recipe.

Whether you don’t like the taste of goat cheese or you haven’t been able to find any tomato paste in your cupboard, my food substitute articles will help you out.

Round Ups

It’s not just cooking that I love to do: I also love reading about food, wine, and more! In this section of my blog, you’ll find round ups of my favorite food related items and blogs. Trust me; you won’t want to miss out on these!

Some of my favorite of the current roundups include:

Ingredients

An important part of cooking is learning about ingredients that show up in your recipes. Often, cooking becomes a mindless process of simply adding ingredients. If you want to become a great home chef, however, you should learn more about the foods you are using!

My Ingredients articles will teach you more about the food you use, such as the difference between corn flour and cornstarch! Other articles such as my Roti and Naan comparison will help you learn about the differences between potentially unfamiliar ingredients.

Another thing I like to do is let people know what some foods taste like! It can be scary to eat unfamiliar foods such as octopus or asparagus, so I hope that my articles will help you see what to expect.

Appliances

Sometimes, kitchen appliances just don’t work how we want them to. From completely breaking down to simply becoming clogged, it can be difficult to figure out what the problem is.

Whether you aren’t sure what temperature to set your griddle to or you aren’t sure how to unclog a dishwasher, my articles will help you get through the biggest of kitchen disasters.