From time to time, I either figure something out or I see it and incorporate it into my life. You can bet that 90% of the time, it's the latter.
Here are a few things that fall into that category.
Before-
After-
You can buy a stacking rack (under $5) that will keep your cookie sheets standing at attention. Previously, even though I had a couple of dividers in this area, they weren't sufficient in keeping things upright. The weight of everything would knock them over. But it's all good now.
Spring Tension Rod- $3. This has nothing to do with hanging a curtain. If your storage area is deep enough you can keep your pan lids with out of the way but with easy access.
Shredded Chicken- put away your forks. You'll love this one! When you have a need for shredded chicken, put the cooked chicken breasts into your stand mixing bowl.
Put it on speed two and give it about 30 seconds and you will have perfectly shredded chicken. It's amazing. And fast.
Do you always use up the entire bag of frozen veggies? We don't. Therefore, when I open a new bag, I always have half the bag to store for next time. Instead of using a twist-tie, I cut the bag open with a deep enough remnant left over to tie up my leftovers. When I'm ready to use up the bag, I slip the tie off, rather than untying it.
Never-ending buttermilk! This is a quart-sized jar. Start with purchased buttermilk and fill the jar about 1/4 of the way. Then add regular milk to the buttermilk to fill up the jar. Any milk with some percentage of fat should work. We usually buy 1%, and it works fine, but I don't know if it would work if you are a non-fat milk user.
On the day that you fill up your jar, top it with a coffee filter (I keep my filters in my craft room, for crafts!) and secure it to the jar with a rubber band (my mother says "elastic"), just to keep out any dust particles that might be floating around. Now let it sit on the counter for a day. After 24 hours, take off the filter, attach the regular lid, give it a shake and refrigerate. Use it like you would any regular buttermilk and when you're back down to 1/4 of a jar, repeat with filling it with milk, using your filter and leaving it out again, and continuing on like that for infinity. My mother, who drinks buttermilk like a beverage, says this tastes better than regular buttermilk as it is less bitter. I wouldn't know- I don't drink the stuff, but it makes killer pancakes!
When you roll out cookie dough, do you ever have some uneven spots of dough where some areas are thicker or thinner than others? Well, with this tip you will have a perfectly rolled thickness of dough without having to buy these fancy "rubber bands" they sell for your rolling pin (photo snatched from Amazon- I don't own this).
Don't buy those, buy paint sticks. I paid
14¢ each for these, (oops- I just checked my receipt- they were 28¢ each!) but I'll bet you can get them free if you smile sweetly at the kid at the hardware store. You'll need two of them. That's a lot cheaper than $7 for the same idea.
Imagine there is cookie dough beneath the rolling pin. You'll have perfectly rolled dough for your cookie cutter.
I hope you found some ideas here that you can use in your kitchen!
