Ninja Cooking Skills

[Hinotori]

When cutting up your butchered meat, freeze it for an hour or so (depending on thickness) before you go to slice it into steaks. It's much easier to cut when stiff but not fully frozen.

Always work with sharp knives. Less pressure and brute force is needed so you're much less likely to cut yourself.

 

[lcertuche]

@Hinotori that is spot on advice about slightly freezing the meat and having a sharp knife. I always have my steel next to me if I'm cutting anything. The older you get the harder it is on the joints but a sharp knife helps.

 

[Britesea]

If your baking powder has been in the cabinet for a while, check it before you use it in your cakes or quick breads to make sure it is still good: put a small amount in a cup and add hot water to it; if it foams up, it's still good.

You can make fresh baking powder by mixing 2parts Cream of Tartar to 1part of Baking Soda. The beauty of this is that both of these ingredients have an extremely long shelf life (more like a half-life, lol) as opposed to Baking Powder which has a shelf life of about a year.

 

[MoonShadows]

Are these ninja tips...I am so much not a ninja...don't even know what a ninja is....

Cook on the weekends when you tend to have more time and refrigerate or freeze. Then at the end of a long work weekday, dinner just needs to be heated up.
We make 2x what we need for a meal (or 6x when making meatballs and sauce) and freeze it. An easy defrost and heat up, and dinner is ready.

I'd be lost without my George Forman grill. I have one of the old ones. The cooking finish is not as good as it used to be; I just use a little cooking spray. I looked at the new ones, but they are making them so cheap. Great grill to cook a fast meal on.

 

[Mini Horses]

Moon -- yep, those grills are nice. I have 2 of the small ones (mine & what was mom's). They work nicely for two or three small items. Benefit if only one or two there to eat.....many of us fit that.

My cook big batch, freeze meal size, is a huge help. Not only fast when time is limited but, we will eat better. It helps us to have a "meal" not just a "grab it" snack. Reminds me, I need to make a pot of chili!

Grated butter tip -- once grated, put it back in freezer to keep that in the grated format or it will quickly be melted. It does help greatly to mix in BUT to keep the product well mixed thru out the dry mix. Better results for crisp pie crust & flaky biscuits.

Have an old bread machine around? Begin to use it again. Easy to measure the few items needed. Hot & tasty with little effort. Only a few cents a loaf if you mix own ingredients. AND you can make small cakes in it.

 

[MoonShadows]

We drag out our bread machine it seems once a year...use it for a week or two...then it sits there and gathers dust until we put it away....Then, we drag it out again a year later...don't know why that is since I love the homemade bread it turns out.

 

[Mini Horses]

Make some for the chickens! they love bread and it's cheap.

Uhhh, slice some warm and smother with butter first...not for them. Of course, that's NOT on your diet plan. Sorry.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I make bread a lot, but I didn't like the way my bread machine bread turned out so I make it by hand/with my kitchenaid mixer. I make WAY too much bread! I like baking a lot more than I like cooking meals. I slice it and freeze it for toast.

 

[SustainableAg]

One of my kitchen hacks is using ice cube trays. I will freeze citrus zest to use in baked goods, pesto, homemade butter when I only have a small quantity, and lemon wedges to add to my water.

If you set homemade cookie dough in the freezer or fridge for a few minutes before baking, the batter won't spread as thin in the oven. This will make for thicker, moister cookies. Of course, this depends on your recipe as well.

 

[SustainableAg]

If you are making a large batch of cookies (I've done this successfully with chocolate chip), spread the batter evenly on the sheet pan and bake. Once cooled, you can then cut them like you would a sheet cake, instead of waiting between batches to make several dozen cookies. Great for a crowd!