Do you have a secret trick?

YoungBlueEyes

My lettuce is doing good so far in it’s water bowl 🙂

I can’t find it now but someone said about rice - rinse off the starch then add water up to your first knuckle, bring to the boil, turn off and leave it ‘til it’s fluffy (?) That’s from memory. Anyway I’m trying it now so I’ll report back. 

If it works for me, it can truly be classed as foolproof! 

herebeme

My jars of pesto always used to go mouldy before I remembered to use them up, but I was told to smooth out the top of the pesto left in the jar and then add olive oil to generously cover it. Works very well, and if you ever need a teaspoon of basil flavour oil you can just lift it off, and then top it up again. 

Dishwasher tabs are better than regular laundry detergent for hand washing microfibre cleaning cloths.  

If someone’s been sick and a room smells bad, put ground coffee into bowls and leave out - they will suck up the smell. This also works in smelly fridges. Economy brand ground coffee works fine for this.
A few slices of lemon in a bowl of water heated in the microwave helps dried on food loosen from the microwave walls when cleaning it, and makes it smell nice too.

The inside of cooked and cooled jacket potatoes are the best thing for making fish cakes or similar things that require potato as a binding agent. They have much less water than boiled potatoes so hold shape better. 

If you have fussy eaters you could try to pad mince (meat or Quorn) with cooked green lentils - but use a food processor or blender to blitz them first. Then they melt into the sauce. Works on all the kids I’ve tried it with. 

snowbird20

Brie said:

Best line I ever heard was "always close the cutlery drawer before you slice the bread".  It is very helpful as it's a way to prevent breadcrumbs getting into the drawer meaning you need to clean it out often.  But I think of it too every time I look to see what's the most efficient way of doing things.  It's why I put garbage in the bin as I'm prepping dinner whereas the OH leaves what is referred to as debris everywhere.  He seems to think I find it endearing.  I don't!!

could you compromise on him using the 'Rachael Ray' method?  RR puts a mixing bowl on the counter where she's working and throws all of her debris in there and it's supereasy to clean up after.  I mean, it's not THAT hard.  (i did not add in the 'man' factor on that judgement, tho.    )

YoungBlueEyes

Ok, rice didn’t work. But while it (wasn’t) cooking I found the post that mentioned it. @shandyclover said it was only for basmati rice and I was doing normal brown rice 😒 It was bring it to the boil and switch off, leave it with the lid on for 12 mins and it’ll be perfect. It took an extra 5 mins or so but it kinda worked - needed very little draining. So I’ll do it again for the longer time and with a little less water. 

Another thing I do - when making chicken curry (or chicken anything for that matter) add a good spoon of peanut butter. Makes it a little creamier and sweeter 🙂

YoungBlueEyes

For removing smells in a room - cut some potatoes in half. Sit them in bowls cut side up and put them in the four corners of the room. They’ll attract whatever the smell is. A painter and decorator taught me that. Works well, but I’ve not tried it in a fridge. 

MSE_Laura_F

I'm learning so much from this thread.

I never buy bags of ice for summer gatherings. Instead I use my three existing ice trays and, in the lead-up to having people over, I empty the ice into sandwich bags which I leave in the freezer and fill the trays again until I have a drawerful of ice. 

Crushed ice can be made by sealing one of the sandwich bags, lying it on a chopping board and whacking a few times with something solid.

Longwalker

YoungBlueEyes said:

Ok, rice didn’t work. But while it (wasn’t) cooking I found the post that mentioned it. @shandyclover said it was only for basmati rice and I was doing normal brown rice 😒 It was bring it to the boil and switch off, leave it with the lid on for 12 mins and it’ll be perfect. It took an extra 5 mins or so but it kinda worked - needed very little draining. So I’ll do it again for the longer time and with a little less water. 

Another thing I do - when making chicken curry (or chicken anything for that matter) add a good spoon of peanut butter. Makes it a little creamier and sweeter 🙂

Brown rice, like brown pasta, takes a lot longer to cook

I always used to use the absorption method, until I read up about the arsenic levels increasing so now I use the big saucepan of water method

My fool proof way - for all rice - big pan of salted water. Cook till al dente, drain and rinse in cold water till its cold. Leave to drain completely in a sieve. When required, microwave , remembering to stir to make. sure its all hot. 

Hot fluffy rice every time 

YoungBlueEyes

Ohh I didn’t know brown rice/pasta takes longer to cook. We don’t eat white rice/pasta/bread. 

YoungBlueEyes

Talking of cooking then cooling and reheating, I remember watching something that said it was better for you to eat pre-cooked reheated pasta. Something to do with how the gut deals with gluten. Dr Michael Mosley iirc…. 

-taff

As long as you  refridgerate or freeze it...There's an IFL Science report about a student dying after eating it but then. he had left it out for five days...