The Kitchen Whisperer

Archive for the ‘Tuesday’s Tip’ Category

Love to bake cakes, muffins and cupcakes but hate it when you add fruit or chocolate chips to the batter only to have them fall to the bottom of the dessert? Find out on today’s Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer the bakery secret to prevent it from falling!

So you picked the perfect basket of blueberries or bought the most amazing chocolate chips. Your stomach is grumbling at the thought of those luscious items in your best cake or muffin. You whip up the batter (while sneaking a few tastes for yourself). You add in those luscious berries or sinful chocolate chips being ever-so-careful not to crush them or break them. You hold your breath as you put the pan into the oven and then you sit there, staring at the oven door silently willing time go faster just so you can eat the end result. You pull it out of the oven and the smell just consumes you but you wait till they cool as you know better. Finally, it’s time to cut it and <insert failure sound> all of those gorgeous berries you cradled so lovingly, all of those sinful chips all fell to the bottom of the dessert leaving you with nothing more than a layer of disappointment.

Has this happened to you? Yeah, me too. Sucks, huh? Oh sure I’ll still eat the dessert but to be honest, the flavor isn’t quite the same. You get too much of fruit or chocolate (though let’s be real, is there ever a thing of too much chocolate?) in one bite and none in the other. The ratio of cake/muffin to mix-in is way off. Plus to be honest, if it’s muffin or cake you’ll end up with a soggy bottom from the fruit. And let’s be real here, no one wants a soggy bottom! But today I have a super simple trick to help you fix this and prevent it in the future!
No more falling mix-ins with this tip!

On today’s Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer, learn some of the basics when it comes to cooking rice on the stove top and some common cooking mistakes.

Nowadays there’s a piece of specialized kitchen equipment for every food you want to make. We have grills, fryers, steamers, rice cookers and so forth but do we really need a gadget for every single thing? Probably not. Sure it would be nice but not everyone has a 10,000 sqft house with unlimited cabinet space or closets. Today let’s take a step back and go old school like our parents did and actually make rice in a pot on the stove. Yes the stove. No microwaves, no steamers, no pressure cookers. Just a pot and lid.

What prompted this was a question I posted on Facebook asking you guys what’s one food/recipe you struggle with making. Mine is just simple skillet boneless chicken. It’s more often a miss than a hit with me but I’ll get it right and get it consistent. Well one of the comments that many of you made was about rice. Just simple rice on the stove.

So with rice the rule of thumb is usually a 2:1 ratio of water to dried rice. I say usually as that ratio depends on the type of rice AND the length of the grain that you’re cooking. It can be rather confusing. Too much water and your rice is gummy, not enough and it’s hard and crunchy. Hopefully this post will help take some of the guessing out of it for you.

Try cooking rice in the pot for a great flavor!

When a recipe calls for softened butter and you forgot to set it out earlier don’t microwave it. Instead, reach for your rolling pin! Find out more on today’s Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer!

Ah butter, such a glorious thing.l. Julia Child had butter in her veins I swear. The woman revolutionized French cooking for Americans with her book “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and believe butter did make everything better, The woman was right and a genius. Her book is one book that every kitchen should have. Some of her recipes called for softened butter which, in her time, meant taking the butter out of the fridge and letting it rest on the counter for a few hours.

However as the years went by and the microwave came into existence we skipped the part of letting it come to room temperature naturally and figured we could just zap it to save time. Stop doing this. Seriously, stop. I won’t even get into the chemical breakdown that is happening to your butter as you do this – you’re actually changing the structural elements of butter. Hey I get it, we’re busy and sometimes we just forget. So from now on, step away from the microwave and reach for some plastic wrap and a wooden rolling pin.

Ah the rolling pin…it created millions of pies as a child and was also used as a weapon when Mama was mad. LOL She’d pick that thing up, wave it around her head like a mad woman and tell us to get out of her kitchen or we were going to get our butts beat. Though she only ever did this when we were sneaking tastes of her raw cookie dough or frosting. lol
Rollings pins are used for more than just making pies

Spicy foods range from mild to chemical warfare hot. When your mouth is on fire, reach for these items to help cool off that “OMG I’m gonna die!” sensation! Find out more on today’s Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer!

Growing up I was lucky I could handle the spice level of ketchup. Yeah I know, I was a wuss. You see Mom never made spicy foods; it just wasn’t in her wheelhouse. Mexican foods weren’t around. I think our first exposure to Mexican cuisine was when the first Chi-Chi’s opened in Pittsburgh. I honestly think that was the first time I ever had chips and salsa. OMG, where had this been my whole life? So imagine my surprise when I took the first bite of chip with salsa only to feel like my mouth was going to melt off of my face (yeah I was a wuss then). The waiter gave me milk which helped to calm the heat though it didn’t stop me from shoveling it in my face.

Throughout the years my love of spice definitely bloomed as well did my tolerance for heat. It wasn’t until my most recent trip to Mexico where I tried some of the hottest salsas and sauces I swear to known to man kind did I know about the tricks to help tame the heat quickly. And also why those tricks worked while plain ice water doesn’t.

Normally when we eat something super spicy, like that 47-alarm chili, we tend to reach for something ice cold to help put out that first. It could be beer, water, wine or soda but folks, you’re reaching for the wrong stuff. When it comes to taming the heat quickly you want to reach for 2 things – carbs and dairy or nut protein.
How hot do you like it?

This week on Tuesday’s Tip with The Kitchen Whisperer I’m letting the TKW Family share their best kitchen wisdom to help us all become better cooks and bakers.

Kitchen wisdom. Those family secrets, tips, and tricks that have been passed down through generations is what we’re talking about today. Maybe grandma said “keep the bacon grease in a jar in your fridge for amazing fried potatoes” or maybe you found a killer trick on how to slice cherry tomatoes on Pinterest. Somehow, some way folks came to know of these great tips and today they are sharing their kitchen wisdom with the world.

I posted on Facebook about a week ago asking for folks to share their best kitchen wisdom. I love doing posts like these as it honestly helps me become a better chef. I’m humble enough to admit that I don’t know everything and take the approach that there is always, ALWAYS something to learn albeit in the kitchen or in life.

The response was overwhelming and I absolutely LOVED reading your responses. Some stuff I knew but there were somethings where I was like “Really? Oh cool!”. But what I loved more than anything was the interaction between the TKW Family members. It’s so awesome to see friendships bloom off of a single post. It warms my heart that the TKW Family is so loving and truly treats each other as a family member.
Have a tip to share? Comment in the post!