Three Things I've Learned

[lillibet]

This strikes me as a good meme--if anyone feels like picking it up, I think it could be very interesting. The idea is to post three things that you've learned that might seem obvious in retrospect, but are clever and generally useful:

- Microwaving ice cream for 10-20 seconds makes it much easier to serve.

- When re-heating mashed potatoes, adding a little more cream/milk makes them much nicer.

- When putting away leftovers, particularly noodles or rice, transferring them from the little box they came in to a plastic container (for example, the one the soup came in) keeps them from drying out in the fridge.

Comments

[gilana]

- When browning meat, don't overcrowd the pan. It won't actually speed things up.

- No, really, preheat the oven.

- Add salt to your pasta water. It makes the end product taste much better. (In fact, I'm tempted to just say "add salt" in general, but that might be a bit much.)

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

yeah, the "preheat" thing occurred to me only recently - when my cookie-cutter cut sugar cookies melted into mushy blobs in an oven not properly preheated

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

a little bit of sour cream in the mashed makes them even lovelier!

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

-plastic disposible grocery bags make excellent packing material. We've been wrapping our xmas ornaments in them for years now, but also used them a lot in shipping... of course now we almost never have any, b/c of reusable bags, but still helpful.

-in Som. you don't have to put your paper-recycling in paper bags to put out. YOu can get some of those blue recycling waste-paper can from staples, then just put them out full of paper, w/o having to repackage.

-the most effective, satisfying, and empowering way to change one's interactions with someone is to change oneself.

[dpolicar]

- When making a roux-based sauce, it works better to gradually thin the roux with the liquid than to try to thicken the liquid with the roux.

- When learning or improving a skill, it's best to concentrate on one aspect at a time... let accuracy suffer when you're working on speed, and let speed suffer when you're working on accuracy.

- Fresh herbs go in last.

[trowa-barton.livejournal.com]

Add milk for a fluffier omlette.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

- Eggs make the fastest "real food".

- If you really want to boil the pasta water quickly (because you're on a deadline), boil 1 litre of it in the microwave.

- Weigh dry ingredients in baking. Don't make bread recipes that don't list weights the ingredients.

- Oil the mixing bowl when making bread. It's not to make the bread better. It's to make your boyfriend not threaten to dump you because of how long it takes to clean the bowl.