Hello friends! I have an assortment of kitchen tips to share with you all, the formatting may be wierd but this is me trying to keep it organized. Discuss, share your own tips, and keep poasting to help make Hexbear healthy and strong.
- Coconut Oil Cubes
Most ice cube trays have slots that measure around one tablespoon in volume. Since coconut oil is profoundly annoying to measure I will melt it down and pour into an ice cube tray and store the cubes in a container in the fridge. You can do half tablespoon or teaspoon sized portions too but that calls for actually measuring.
- Keep Frozen Bottles of Water Around
I keep about a dozen bottles of water in my freezer since it makes the appliance more efficient and helps keep things colder, longer when the power goes out. They used to be refilled 1 or 2 liter sized soda bottles but Ive since switched to those half liter bottles of drinking water for utilities sake. They make decent impromptu ice packs too.
- Frozen Water Bottle Iced Coffee Trick
When I want iced coffee I'll pour it hot into a very large cup (I use a protein shaker bottle thing) and then place one of my many frozen water bottles inside of that and place it in the freezer. This cools previously hot coffee down to at least room temperature in 3-5 minutes without watering it down.
- Soy Curl Laundry Bag Trick
Soy Curls have a wierd aftertaste if you don't squeeze them out after hydrating but I don't like doing that barehanded or wasting cheese cloth so I rehydrate them in a small mesh laundry bag after sifting out the dust in a colander. This way I can just pull the bag out and squeeze when its done. I wash the bag after every use with the rest of the laundry but will give it a rinse before using in order to take care of any lint. Pic related, its the kind of bag I'm talking about.
- Buy Big Size, Use From Little Container
Buying seasonings in bulk and then decanting into spice bottles saves a lot of money and reduces waste. Use a wide-mouth funnel for this. Same goes for soy sauce, I have one of those resturant-style pour bottles and I refill it from half-gallon jugs, the difference in price by volume is astronomical.
- Miscellaneous Other Tips
I keep a hot sauce bottle filled with water next to my stove. Its really good for dispensing a splash of water when doing that in-pan steaming thing or deglazing.
Having multiple sets of measuring spoons is really useful, helps avoid "cross contaminating" spices or measuring powders after liquids. Its also nice if youre being lazy about doing the dishes.
Baking powder expires and it expires for real.
If anyone else does pourover coffee, you can sub some of the hot water (I do like ~50%) with ice by weight in your vessel to make a ice coffee. I'll add more ice when I pour it into a glass to serve.