Weekly Cooking (and related issues) Thread

[Jamestown1630]

We’ve had requests for a thread on ‘kitchen problems’, so I thought we’d do it this week.

* I cleaned out my refrigerator a few days ago, and was reminded of something I used to do and must start to do again. No matter how careful you are, there are always drips and leaks, or mess from a forgotten, rotten vegetable, staining up your refrigerator – especially the little shelves on the door. A good idea is to cut craft paper – or a brown paper bag – to fit those spaces, and then just change the paper out a few times per year, when you do a complete cleaning of the fridge. The few minutes of work this takes will save you a lot more time later.

* I keep the cans that vegetables, tomato sauce, etc. come in – I rip off the labels, run them through the dishwasher, and use them to deal with the leftover fats and juices from cooking that I don’t want to put through the drain/garbage disposal (the dregs from a beef roast have seemed in my experience to be especially bad for the disposal system). I freeze these, and then they go easily into the trash the morning of trash pickup. If your neighborhood recycles, and you don’t want to dispose of the cans along with garbage, you can just pop the frozen stuff out.

* Sponges in the kitchen are great collectors of bacteria, but you can kill it by routinely microwaving your sponges in a MW-safe bowl or dish, for a couple of minutes. Make sure they contain no metal, and are WET when you do this; and be careful when you take them out, because they’ll be very hot.

* We never seem to have enough space in our freezer, and I’ve started taking prepared frozen foods out of the big boxes that they come in – the boxes take up much more space than the contents, and the contents are usually wrapped anyway. Cut out the part of the box that has the instructions and save it someplace convenient – you’ll only have to do this once for each item. If you have a vacuum packer (a great investment, by the way) use it to re-pack items that you will store long-term; otherwise, things can just be put into a plastic ‘baggie’ for protection.

* If you make a lot of soups, and your own stocks, another great space-saver is Helen Witty’s Chicken Extract – a way of reducing stock to where you can freeze a tablespoon in each section of an ice-cube tray, and then pop the cubes into a bag or container. Generally, you will reconstitute one of these cubes per cup of water, to make stock. You will appreciate the added space in the deep freeze, and the convenience of having the cubes of stock on hand. Here are the directions for this – it’s long and drawn-out process, but depending on your frequency of use, you only have to do it a couple or three times per year:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1990-04-19/features/9001030683_1_chicken-broth-pot

* Save all the little plastic ‘twisty-ties’ from bread and other items, and keep them in the ‘everything-drawer’; you’ll always find a use for them.

* Invest in something like a Swiffer Wet Mop, or some other very easy to grab-and-use floor cleaning implement, and run it quickly over your kitchen floor EVERY NIGHT! This will save you a lot of work when you go to do your general kitchen cleaning (especially if you have a very ‘Exuberant’ cook in your family – like my hubby ;-)

* Finally: when you are cooking, clean everything *as you use it* - that way you don’t wind up with a depressing sinkful of stuff that has to be dealt with all at once, when you’re done. Cooking is much more pleasurable then.

-JT

[Faith65]

Thanks!

[Faith65]

Thank you.

[V K Lee]

Hope it works for you as well as it did for lazy ol’ me. My sister was just as amazed as I when she used it.

[Covenantor]

Baked on food on Pyrex glass dishes. LOL! Grams would say, You been frisky all day sonny boy, get frisky with these.”

[MosesKnows]

that each week we will buy a fresh bag, and throw out last weeks

You don't have a problem. Whether stored on the counter or frozen, which is better, they'll be fine. However, do not store in the refrigerator.

[Jamestown1630]

LOL! Not every new thing is an improvement ;-)

[Jamestown1630]

Can you use Krud Kutter on the inside of the oven?

[Jamestown1630]

My brother built one of those, an absolutely beautiful thing. Then CAD came along, and I don’t think he’s ever used it for anything since. They’re nice for crafty things, too.

[miss marmelstein]

Absolutely!

And it may be a no-brainer but Bartender’s Friend for fixing those nasty scrape marks in a porcelain sink.

[Jamestown1630]

I love that stuff for cleaning the stainless steel kitchen sink.

[miss marmelstein]

If you can get past the evil political content of The Guardian, their food section is fantastic. Hilarious comments allowed as well.

[V K Lee]

When mom passed, I was fortunate to get some of her Pyrex and 2 cast iron skillets. Use them often and then when Anchor Hocking introduced their glass pots was given two of them as a gift. Now, with a glass cook top, can no longer use the glass pots, (whose lids have been broken), in nothing but the microwave. WALMART to the rescue again. Purchased a silicon ‘lid’ which will form to fit the two sizes. Viola! Also found a ‘cover’ which will fit over a bowl, serving dish, or a plate (similar to what is seen on a hotel ‘serving trolley’ This eliminates food particles from splattering on the wave’s interior surface. It’s clear, looks like ‘plastic’ yet it has a quality which holds up to the power of the appliance.

Pyrex - the love of the 1950’s housewife! Women would covet them :-)To own them was the apex in many homes.

[pugmama]

I love the Guardian food section, but dislike the political aspects of that paper. I like the Yotam Ottolenghi recipes.
When I lived in northern CA, the San Francisco paper had a wonderful food section. There were many great writers/chefs. Over the years,the section became smaller and smaller. The writers/recipes disappeared.
Sign of the times.

[Covenantor]

Product label says use full strength on bbq, grills, ovens, hoods, and exhaust fans....among other things. Certainly safer than the caustic foams.

Reminds me, have clean my range hood.

[pops88]

I had Brown Sugar Bear on my Amazon wish list but just a week ago found one at Bed Bath and Beyond. It was on display at the check-out counter so I grabbed one. I think it was $3.99.

[Aliska]

I have a problem freezing bread so haven't been doing it. I bought one of these for my fridge and put lettuce and herbs in it, paper towels on bottom and covering on top. It keeps lettuce a really long time IF gotten in there clean, dry and fresh, herbs more than normal without special handling to freeze, etc. But I would wrap any bread or buns in some kind of plastic leaving as little air space as possible if putting in the container in the freezer.

When I clean the fridge, I wipe thoroughly with those Clorox bleach wipes, rinse and dry to avoid mold. If you keep a lot of cheeses on hand, a paper towel soaked in vinegar will keep mold away; keep it separate from the cheese with plastic. I can't speak for bags of opened grated cheese, those I need to use up fairly quickly after opened but I keep mine in the meat drawer.

They are a little nuisance having to life the 4 flaps, but they work better than any sealed contained I ever had. Am going to get more for my freezer when I get it more emptied out and try to clean it.

I had my fridge sparkling and got rid of lots of stuff, always wipe the bottoms of some jars when I clean B4 putting them back in. It had gotten pretty bad though. I wiped it all down with bleach wipes after washing. The fridge temp is much better. I bought a container to put my milk in and a thermometer hangs on it. It has been keeping a lot longer.

Finally I use cottage cheese and similar lids to set the opened cat food on and my coffee I make and reheat for 2 more days. Also put plastic pans for bigger stuff also pizza pan for big kettles of things like soup.

Paper is a good idea, too, didn't think of that but maybe it's just easier for me to wipe and dry with a paper towel, spot clean. My shelves are glass, and it's tricky business getting them out and back in. I set the big ones on 4 cottage cheese lids on the counter to clean, then flipped to the other side. Now that I know how they fit in, it is a little easier.

Items are from amazon. First there are all difference sizes, individual and sets to choose from.

For the milk and other dairy, sorry it's so small, the one I wanted to post is too big and made the page scroll:

/blah blah

[miss marmelstein]

I like Felicity Cloake at the Guardian. She’s sort of the Melissa Clarke of the NYTimes. Even their names remind me of each other! Both papers have excellent (if very reduced) food sections generally free from crap; although the Times still tries to get Trump into the recipes.

[miss marmelstein]

Ottolenghi rules the roost over at the Guardian along with that jerk Nigel Slater. To be totally cliche, he has TOO MANY INGREDIENTS,lol. Nigel needs to learn how to photograph his food which always looks like sick.

[piasa]

Those frozen cans of beef drippings are great wild bird food in the winter.

[piasa]

put a cut apple in the bread bag