Want To Cook And Don't Know How?! Start Now

To make an improvement to pasta sauce, save some of the pasta's cooking water. Take about a quarter cup of the water and set aside. When you are getting ready to mix the pasta and sauce together, pour in some of the water. The water contains starch from the pasta, and will make your sauce nice and creamy.

Instead of chopping them on a cutting board, a better way to cut herbs is to hold them in a bunch and cut them with sharp scissors. This works especially well for dill and parsley. The herbs can be fluffier, lighter, and drier than if you just chopped them.

Good cutting utensils are imperative to own for maximizing functionality in the kitchen. Besides letting you work faster, a sharp knife is actually less likely to cause injury. More accidental cuts occur when using a dull knife, instead of a good sharp one.

If you want to start cooking more, go to the bookstore or library and get a cookbook of simple and basic recipes that appeal to you. Try a few recipes, and be patient with yourself as you are mastering this new skill.

Have you ever felt sorry for throwing away moldy fruits? Can you cut out the rotten areas or moldy areas and still eat the fruit? Never try to salvage fruit that is past its prime. Fruit with any mold on it must be discarded because it contains unhealthy organisms.

After you cook a meal, immediately wash all dishes used during preparation. To make it easy, just have one sink filled with soapy water and fill the other side with rinse water. Utensils and mixing bowls are easy to rinse off right after being used and will be nice and clean for the next ingredient in your meal.

The simplest way to prepare a pumpkin for cooking is to half it by cutting the pumpkin in half. Put both sides of the pumpkin face down on a baking sheet. Sprinkle some water onto the baking sheets, and proceed to bake the pumpkin at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes.

Prepare components of a dish the evening before in order to save some prep time the next day. Save time by doing things ahead of time when possible. Chopping onions or putting together a casserole ahead of time is a great idea.

To give your food vitality, prepare meals using fresh ingredients instead of frozen or dried ingredients whenever possible. Fresh ingredients can really enhance the flavor of your meal, as well as be more economical to prepare.

If you do any lengthy cooking process like boiling, many of the nutrients will be cooked out. To keep the nutrients in tact, consider steaming or sauteing your food, or even serving them raw.

Always check to see if your utensils are clean if you are about to cook. If your utensils still have food in them, it can ruin what you are trying to cook. This can cost you a lot because it might cause bacteria to spread.

We will often make a mistake of using too much salt without taking a bite of your food, but it is not too late! Adding two or three peeled, raw potatoes to your sauce, and letting them cook with the sauce for around fifteen minutes, will help. These chopped-up potatoes will soak up all the extra salt. If your sauce or dish has a tomato base, you can also add additional tomatoes. This usually reduces the level of sale if you cook the added tomatoes to tenderness.

An efficient stackable cooling rack can be a real asset in the kitchen. When you make large batches of cookies, making enough area to cool them can quickly overrun your kitchen and beyond. The use of stackable cooling racks is an efficient way to utilize your kitchen space. Allowing your cookies to cool down on this vertical space gives you more room to do your work that needs to be done.

When preparing your ingredient list for meals, take care to look at the nutritional content in labels. There are ingredients that may be unhealthy. You need to know how much sugars and sodium are in the ingredients because they can cause health problems if you consume too much of them.

Make a flavored butter to add a new twist to staples like dinner rolls or ears of corn. Allow your butter to become soft by sitting at room temperature or placing in the microwave for a couple seconds. For extra flavoring, you will need to mix in herbs, sauces or spices. Give barbecue sauce a try, or mix in peppers, honey or lemon juice.

Are you ready now to put the tips that were discussed within this article to practical use? Use what you have read above to start creating wonderful dishes today. No matter the reasons why you want to cook, you should take great pleasure in creating a meal that you have made on your own. There is no denying that skill is required in order to be a good cook. However, once you taste the delicious meal, you will know it was worth all the efforts!

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How To Rotate Your Food Stock

As promised, this article is all about stock rotation strategies. Combined with a good item organization, rotation is the key to keeping your stockpile fresh and nutritious. And it`s actually quite easy, once you know the simplest rotation methods people have been using for years now. Here they are:

Food Rotation In Your Fridge

Rotation Strategy: Rotate your food from back to front

This is the classic rotation strategy that all supermarkets and stores use. This principle is called First In First Out (FIFO).

Here`s how it goes: whatever you`ve just bought you`ll place in the back of the fridge, while moving the older items up front. This way, you`ll eat all the food you store before it reaches its expiration date (and thus avoid wasting money on stuff that goes bad before you get to eat it).

You can use this strategy to rotate food in your freezer as well.

Food Rotation In Your Pantry

Rotation Strategy #1: Rotate your food from left to right

If you don`t have much storage space, this one is perfect for you. It goes very well with narrow shelves, where the classic back to front rotation system doesn`t work.

Here`s what you need to do: whenever you need something from your stock, you take the first item on the right. When you restock, you place the new item on the left and push the other ones to the right.

This is a simple and natural strategy and it guarantees you won`t make any mistakes. It`s easy to remember: just take the items on the right every time you go into the pantry.

Rotation Strategy #2: Rotate your food from back to front (FIFO)

This is pretty much the same as described above, for the refrigerated items rotation. Whenever you restock, put the fresh food in the back and push the older ones in the front.

If you find it a bit difficult to move all your items from back to front, you can easily build yourself a slanted rotation stack that allows cans to roll to the front by themselves. All you have to do is roll down the newly purchased items down the shelves and they will automatically push the older ones up front. It`s really easy and it won`t cost you anymore than $85.

Rotation Strategy #3: Buy One, Store One

This strategy is extremely simple, but you should know it will take a bit longer to build your stockpile. Basically, every time you go tp the store to buy something, you get two pieces of the same item. One goes in your meal and one goes to your stock.

This way, you`ll get something like this:

Shopping spree 1: Wheat 1 + Wheat 2

Eat: Wheat 1

Store: Wheat 2

Shopping spree 2: Can 1 + Can 2

Eat: Can 1

Store: Can 2

Shopping Spree 3: Oil 1 + Oil 2

Eat: Oil 1

Store: Oil 2

Stockpile after Shopping Spree 3: Wheat + Can + Oil

When you`ve got enough stored items, you don`t need to buy 2 items of the same kind anymore. You just start eating from your stock and buy whatever needs to be replaced. Easy and affordable!

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