no recipes, just kitchen type tips

Well sadly the picture I took of my favorite kitchen tip, disappeared. I don't know where it went. I'm using a new camera, but I'm pretty sure I didn't intentionally delete it. And it was a pretty cool picture, too. It involved fruit flies, those pesky little stowaways on the tasty fruit you bring home. They were dead, too. That leads me to my first tip:

• to lure them to their death (I want to believe that it is a painless and quiet death), add several drops of dish washing liquid to a glass of cider vinegar. I did this last weekend because I thought I had a couple flying around. Turned out it was 8!

Nobody likes to wash dishes. No matter how much we like to cook, the cleanup is the pits. If you live in household where the division of labor is "you cook, I'll clean up," you are very fortunate. In my house if goes more along the lines "you cook, I'll eat." I don't mean to be harshing my Joshy, he does do the dinner dishes (into the dishwasher) and he makes me wonderful cocktails. Except on date night when I make the cocktails, cook the dinner (including appetizers and dessert), and clean it all up. I've gotta rethink this whole date night concept. Anyway this leads me to my second tip:

• apply a good hand cream or lotion to your hands and then don a pair of rubber gloves. The result is mini spa treatment for your hands. The gloves allow you to use hotter water, which leads to cleaner dishes, and the heat and the lotion leads to softer hands. No dishpan hands for me.

I get frustrated when a recipe calls for 1/4 c or 1/2 c of fresh juice. How does one know when they have juiced enough lemons or limes or whatnot? Tip 3:

• use a permanent marker to mark the correct levels on a juicer. I prefer this glass jar with a juicer lid for 2 reasons--I can put my back into juicing the fruit and I can use a good ol' fashioned measuring cup full of water to mark the desired amount.

You can see that I have marks at the 1/4 c level and the 1/2 c level.

I'm to my next tip. I like to use plastic cutting boards. Mostly because they go in the dishwasher and I'm sure that they will get thoroughly clean that way. I don't, however, have super countertops--they're just run of the mill formica. Thus my boards tend to slide around. So, are you ready for this, tip 4:

• I use jar opening grippy thing under my cutting boards. I used to use grippy shelf paper, but the jar things I keep in the drawer above the cabinet with the cutting boards an under the counter top closest to the garbage disposal. (My counter nearest my stove which would allow me to "chop and drop" isn't large enough for a "garbage bowel. I didn't get to design my own kitchen.)

This isn't to say that I don't cut myself. This time it was with my very sharp chefs knife. The good news is that, although I was mincing the mint for that tomato and ricotta spread (see previous post) for a break night treat after book study, I was able to find the fingernail and fish it out.

Okay, this is my final tip. It allows you to remove brownies/bars/or other dense baked desserts for easier cutting and....are you ready for this...you don't have to wash the pan!

• line your baking pan with aluminum foil! You can just lift the entire dessert, in one peice, cleanly out of the pan, and then cut onto a cutting board.

The dessert in the picture is a pan of key lime squares. You'll have to wait for the recipe, because this a "tip only" post. And I'll be making them next week for my family in SC and I can blog about it then. Along with mac and cheese. MMMM. I wonder what I have for lunch?