When cooking with cherries, sometimes it’s just fine to leave the pits in, but sometimes not! A cherry pitter is a wonderful thing, but what do you use if you don’t have one? No cherry pitter? No problem! Use an empty bottle and a hard straw or chopstick to remove pits from cherries and olives.
Archive for category: DYB Tips
Christmas pudding and ice cream? The Christmas pudding is blazing on the table, the mince pies are fresh out of the oven, but your ice cream is harder than a South Pole iceberg. The solution is to heat a knife under hot water and slice across the ice cream in a cross-hatch pattern. Then warm […]
Soak bitter greens, like arugula or kale, in a bowl of ice water in the fridge for about an hour to cut their bitterness. Run the leaves through your salad spinner several times with a paper towel to get them nice and dry and crisp.
Keep wooden cutting boards looking new. Scrub a wooden cutting board with coarse salt and massage with half a lemon to clean away food particles and food smells. Rub the board with food-grade mineral oil (find it at a hardware store) to condition the wood once a month.
Foam milk without a frother! So maybe you don’t have a fancy espresso machine with attached milk steamer. We can tell you how to get frothy, creamy, delicious milk foam on the cheap! All you need is a small jar with a lid. Fill the jar with a little milk (no more than halfway) and […]
Avoid plastic wrap disasters! Had enough of wrangling plastic wrap? Store the roll in the fridge to store leftovers with less of a hassle. Chilling the wrap makes it easier to transport it from the roll to your bowl.
Making the best ceviche is simple: Use freshly squeezed lime juice and glistening fresh fish.
A necessary part to any gas grill is the grease drip cup. A drip cup usually is located beneath the grease tray on a gas grill, and it functions as a device to catch excess grease drippings while you cook. Without one, the surface of your patio or deck becomes stained and an attraction to […]
To cook a perfect steak, always start by cooking it on its side, where there is a rim of fat on its narrow edge. I render it down so there’s good, flavorful fat in the pan for the rest of the cooking. Choose a steak with a layer of fat on one side, such as […]
Spent a super fun day with your children in the snow and made a wonderful snowman for the other day to find that it melted? Avoid that by following a few simple rules. Firstly, build your fabulous snowy friend in a shady part of the garden, so he doesn’t melt as soon as the sun […]
Prevent onions from making you weep! To stop onion-induced tears, freeze the onion before chopping. (Note: This trick only works if you’re planning to cook the onions later—otherwise, after the onion thaws out, the raw pieces will be a bit soggy!) Or if you want to look absolutely crazy when your housemate walks in, put […]
Homemade vinaigrettes have fewer ingredients and taste better than bottled ones. No need to whisk them: Just put all the ingredients in a sealed container and shake.
For rich, creamy dressings made healthy, substitute half the mayo with Greek-style yogurt.
Avoid evil glass cutting boards! And they’re all evil. Glass cutting boards send shivers down your spine when you use them. They dull your knives. They’re slippery. And they’re hard to use. Use wood, bamboo or plastic instead.
What do you do with all the cheese rinds that are left? Don’t throw away cheese rinds. Re purpose them by tossing them into soup and stews to add flavor. Less waste and more flavor!
Soften a stick of butter quickly with a heated glass. Pour boiling water into a glass to heat it up. Then, dump out the water and place it over the stick of butter. The butter will be softened within minutes without it completely melting.
Do you plan to have a family barbecue today? Clean the grill quickly with this trick! If your grill’s got a little gunk on it and you can’t find the grill brush, crinkle up a big sheet of foil then rub it along the grates before lighting the grill.
Remember, y’all, it’s all about the prep. Take away the stress by doing the prep the night or day before. You’ll look like a star.
Prolong the life of greens by wrapping them loosely in a damp paper towel and placing in a resealable plastic bag. That local arugula will last about four days longer.
Use 2 bags of different icing with one tip to make swirl icing! Fill two small disposable piping bags with different colored or flavored frosting. Use scissors to snip holes in the bottoms of both bags. Insert both bags into a large (16”) disposable piping bag fitted with a decorative tip, making sure the two […]
Master the quick-pickle! Whisk a little salt and sugar into some white vinegar. Pour over thinly sliced raw vegetables. Wait 20 minutes. Eat.
Deal with hard-to-open jars. To open a stuck jar lid, wrap the lid with a rubber band and give it another try. The band will provide extra traction. If that’s still not enough (or your hands hurt too much), cover the rubberbanded top with a dishtowel, and try again.
Clear a slow drain. When you notice your drain is starting to clog, a 1/2 cup of baking soda down it, followed by a 1/2 cup of vinegar. Cover with a wet cloth to contain the science fair-like effects. Wait five minutes and then flush with hot water.
When making dough, freeze the butter and grate it into the dry ingredients. You’ll handle the cold dough less, resulting in more tender and flaky piecrusts, biscuits, or scones.