Kitchen Things I Can't Believe I Didn't Know About

[lindag]

I love these wax paper sheets that I use to keep my counters and range top clean although this doesn't look the the brand I have that I got at Costco.

Handy  for setting down an sticky spoon or knife or drippy lid.

Also good for separating sliced meat and burger patties, etc.

 

Cheap and disposable.

 

image from Amazon.

 

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by lindag
spelling (log)

[Deephaven]

On 4/26/2023 at 8:36 PM, haresfur said:

One of the best things about my canning funnel is that the bottom is designed to fit into mason jars to just the right fill depth so you know when to stop. Brilliant little detail.

Another great use is for saving your frying oil.  I keep mine in a 2qt canning jar.  Canning funnel fits on top and I have a little strainer that I cut the handle off that fits right in it.  Can strain the used oil easily while hot.  If using it for something like in the wing thread, I line it with cheesecloth as well to grab basically all the contaminants and then can re-use it to fry them.  Also use it for canning

[Maison Rustique]

On 4/27/2023 at 1:23 PM, Tropicalsenior said:

My most exciting kitchen gadget in the last few years has been this handy little pair of pliers. In fact, I have a pair of them. I bought them in a little Chinese restaurant supply store and they called them microwave grabbers.

The closest thing that I could find to them on the Internet were these from Walmart.

They are not only great for grabbing things out of the microwave, but also for reaching down into the instant pot and for those pesky muffin pans that have no edge to grab. They have saved me from a lot of burns.

 

 

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

[Tropicalsenior]

On 8/2/2023 at 1:16 PM, lindag said:

Also good for separating sliced meat and burger patties, etc

I use a lot of different sizes of cupcake liners. I use the big ones to put in between two tortillas to roll them thinner, or to separate them before I put them on the griddle. I bake meat buns in them.

I measure all my spices at one time into a cupcake liner and then throw it away, no little bowl to wash. Our little Chinese supermarket has all sizes from the great big ones to the little bitty two tablespoon size. They are cheap and I find a new use for them all the time.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[Maison Rustique]

59 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I use a lot of different sizes of cupcake liners. I use the big ones to put in between two tortillas to roll them thinner, or to separate them before I put them on the griddle. I bake meat buns in them.

I measure all my spices at one time into a cupcake liner and then throw it away, no little bowl to wash. Our little Chinese supermarket has all sizes from the great big ones to the little bitty two tablespoon size. They are cheap and I find a new use for them all the time.

 

I wish I'd thought of that before I gave away tons of cupcake liners!

 

 

[lindag]

1 hour ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I use a lot of different sizes of cupcake liners. I use the big ones to put in between two tortillas to roll them thinner, or to separate them before I put them on the griddle. I bake meat buns in them.

I measure all my spices at one time into a cupcake liner and then throw it away, no little bowl to wash. Our little Chinese supermarket has all sizes from the great big ones to the little bitty two tablespoon size. They are cheap and I find a new use for them all the time.

I love the look of those meat buns!  I believe you've posted about them before but if you did I missed your recipe.  Can you tell me more?

[Deephaven]

On 8/3/2023 at 9:04 AM, Maison Rustique said:

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

The short rosle tongs are strong enough to lift most of the pans those will and are otherwise super useful in the kitchen.  Sheet pans, lids, pretty mu.ch all my aluminum they are fine for.  I won't lift the copper though

[Tropicalsenior]

On 8/3/2023 at 9:09 AM, lindag said:

Can you tell me more?

I have indeed posted a lot of these. Some in the Dinner thread and some in The Bread Topic. The most recent was this one. I believe that the ones in this post are Char Siu Bao. The recipe for Char Siu is here.

 I don't cook dinner on Sundays so on Sunday morning I make some type of meat bun to snack on the rest of the day. I've made everything from Asian style to buns from Finland to ones just made up on the fly. If you have any good ideas for fillings, let me know.

 

I can't for the life of me get the link for the bread topic to work. But if you want to see them they are on the second to last page of the bread topic.

Edited August 5, 2023 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[TdeV]

@lindag, this would be @Tropicalsenior's link to her Sunday meat buns from the bread topic.

 

 

Edited August 5, 2023 by TdeV
Clarity (log)

[jedovaty]

Some people who know me in real life have called me "smart".  I beg to differ, in support, here's exhibit A, which purpose I just figured out due to a completely random mistake this past weekend after 20+ years cursing the blasted (and now formerly useless) side of the box grater for scraping my hands to no end and failing to properly process lemon zest, ginger, and garlic. 🤦‍♂️

Edited August 8, 2023 by jedovaty (log)

[chromedome]

1 hour ago, jedovaty said:

Some people who know me in real life have called me "smart".  I beg to differ, in support, here's exhibit A, which purpose I just figured out due to a completely random mistake this past weekend after 20+ years cursing the blasted (and now formerly useless) side of the box grater for scraping my hands to no end and failing to properly process lemon zest, ginger, and garlic. 🤦‍♂️

I use it for one type of potato pancake, shown to me by the German mother of a close friend. Turns the potatoes into - basically - mush, as opposed to shreds.

[jedovaty]

1 hour ago, chromedome said:

I use it for one type of potato pancake, shown to me by the German mother of a close friend. Turns the potatoes into - basically - mush, as opposed to shreds.

She must've had some mighty powerful arms, yikes!

[chromedome]

It's not as bad as you'd think, unless you're prepping them for a large family. It does take a bit of time, admittedly, and there's no small degree of risk to one's knuckles, but as these things go it's not excessive.

[lindag]

Something I just learned yesterday.

Heating milk for a Tom & Jerry I was frustrated with the skin on the mllk.

Turns out there's an easy fix!

Thanks to Google...it seems if you stir a bit of sugar (it doesn't tale much, I used about a ¼ tsp.) into the milk first until it's mixed in.  No skin!

[Shelby]

23 minutes ago, lindag said:

Tom & Jerry

Had to google this.  Sounds really good!

[Dr. Teeth]

On 4/26/2023 at 1:16 PM, lindag said:

My big find was big elastic bands to hold trash bas in place:

here. (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

(Link is now fixed)

You have changed my life

[Laurentius]

On 8/3/2023 at 6:04 AM, Maison Rustique said:

this handy little pair of pliers.

 

Salvador Dali designed pliers?  The originals must be worth a fortune!

[liuzhou]

On 8/3/2023 at 9:04 PM, Maison Rustique said:

My most exciting kitchen gadget in the last few years has been this handy little pair of pliers. In fact, I have a pair of them. I bought them in a little Chinese restaurant supply store and they called them microwave grabbers.

 

I have those too. Very useful for all kind of tasks. They're very common here.

[Tropicalsenior]

These are the ones that I have. I have two pair and I couldn't live without them. They have saved me from a lot of burns getting awkward shaped things out of the oven and things out of the instant pot.

Edited January 13 by Tropicalsenior (log)

[liuzhou]

28 minutes ago, Tropicalsenior said:

I have two pair

 

They are usually sold in sets of two here.

[lindag]

I have a lot of countertop kitchen appliances and my cleaning woman comes in she has to move them all to wipe the counters (she's very thorough).  I just found these and these which will be helpful for both of us.

Also, these freeze dried herbs eG-friendly Amazon.com link)are really worth buying.

[ElsieD]

I use some of that brand's product also.  It's very good.

[Kim Shook]

On 3/6/2024 at 1:17 PM, lindag said:

I have a lot of countertop kitchen appliances and my cleaning woman comes in she has to move them all to wipe the counters (she's very thorough).  I just found these and these which will be helpful for both of us.

Also, these freeze dried herbs eG-friendly Amazon.com link)are really worth buying.

Please let us know how well the sliders work.  

[lindag]

@Kim Shook

Will do.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

10 hours ago, lindag said:

I have a lot of countertop kitchen appliances and my cleaning woman comes in she has to move them all to wipe the counters (she's very thorough).  I just found these and these which will be helpful for both of us.

Also, these freeze dried herbs are really worth buying.

 

Last year I got this slider for my heavier KitchenAid (and yes, I have two KitchenAids)...

(eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

 

They really work well.