Cooking Tips

BROILING
Add one cup of water to the bottom portion of the broiling pan before
putting it in the oven. The water will absorb the smoke and grease
and make the food more tender.

CABBAGE ROLLS
Here are a few tips to soften cabbage leaves for making cabbage
rolls. Put the head of cabbage in the freezer any where from one hour
to two days then defrost. Cut out the core and rinse. The leaves will be
soft enough to remove, fill and roll. The "old fashion method works
great also. Just cut out the core and place the cabbage in a large
pot of boiling water. Then with a long fork, turn the cabbage and
remove the leaves. Rinse, fill and roll!

CAKES
If you run out of flour or just want your chocolate cake to not have that
"white dust" on it, use cocoa to dust the bottom of your cake pan.
To test the doneness of your cake, use a raw piece of spaghetti.
If a cake sticks to the pan after baking, simply set the pan over a pot
of boiling water for a minute or two. It will pop out of the pan nice and
neat!

CRISPER CELERY
Wrap celery in aluminum foil when storing in your fridge. It will keep
weeks longer!

CILANTRO
Get yourself a bunch of fresh cilantro, wash and trim of the stems.
Dry on paper towels then put in individual freezer snack bags.
Freeze. When you need some fresh cilantro for salsa, soup or dips,
just get a pack from the freezer, crush or chop and add to your recipe. Fresh cilantro! Wa-La!

CROUTONS
To make delicious warm toasty croutons, cut up leftover bread into
cubes. Fry them in olive oil and spices. My trick is to use olive oil
cooking spray to cut down on the calories. Then I add garlic powder
(not garlic salt!), a little season-all, parsley, and a tad of parmesan
cheese. Just fry until brown. These tasty morsels freeze well too!

FRENCH FRIES
To make better French fries just soak fresh-cut potatoes in water for
five minutes, drain and pat dry before cooking to remove the excess
starch that causes them to clump together (and from keeping them
from sticking to the pan while cooking). For extra crispy fries just dust
them lightly with flour before you fry. (restaurants use this great tip!)

FRESH EGGS
To test to see if an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted
water. If it sinks, it's fresh. If it floats, throw it away!!