I figured this would be a good place to put cooking posts that aren't specific recipes.  Such as:

If you like to cook with ginger and soy sauce, but find hacking up or grating ginger a nuisance - take a whole good-sized fresh ginger root, slice, and put it in the food processor with just enough tamari to make a paste.  Store in a jar in the fridge.  Then when you want a bit of ginger & soy for a stir fry, soup, or crockpot dish, all you need is a spoon!

Love, Columbine 

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Great thread idea, Columbine!

Whenever my mom bakes things like cookies or brownies, she puts a slice or two of bread in the Tupperware she stores them in.  The bread gets stale but the cookies stay nice and moist!

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God's favorite joke since 1984.

"If you don't think, you shouldn't talk!" - The March Hare, Alice In Wonderland

you can do the same thing with brown sugar - a slice of bread keeps it from clumping and drying out.

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Her Most Serene Highness Lady Chrystle the Discombobulated of Wallop upon Deane

Toa Wahine with a pen!

Hey, I just noticed that an acorn squash cut in half is shaped like two leaves of a shamrock!  Get two of them the same size, roast & serve in a round cake pan for an easy festive dish...

Love, Columbine (opening the oven way too often for dinner to be ready any time soon, but oh the yummy smell!) 

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Some rice in the salt shaker does the same as the bread, keeps the salt from clumping up.

In honour of the holiday, a few drops of green food colouring in eggs, milk or even cake mix can make ordinary food festive! (thinking of my green cupcakes downstairs that are ready to go to work with me....)

 

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Janet - Compulsive Poster

And if you've got kids who should stay away from artificial colors - clover is not only a nice color, but completely edible, and an utterly hilarious cupcake decoration (conducive to loud mooing) if you're 5 years old.

And wood sorrel has an even nicer shape, and hikers often put one of the little "hearts" under their tongues to fend off thirst until they find some more water! 

Mooooooo, Columbine
 

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I've never seen clover with flowers on them, or is that a whole different plant?

That's wood sorrel or "sour clover" - it's got the heart-shaped leaves that make it look like the cardboard-cutout shamrocks you see in store windows.  I don't really think it's technically a "clover," though.

Here's a red and a white clover flower .  Both smell really nice!  I don't think the wood sorrel flower has a smell.

Love, Columbine 

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I love clover! We'd pull out the flower bits and suck on them. The pink and purple ones are much better.

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Janet - Compulsive Poster

I'm not sure why but when I'm cooking pork, a little bit of sweet relish in the pan or baking dish brings our the flavor of the pork.  It also helps keep it moist.

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~Kes

Desperate times call for desperate measures
Open your mind to all life's little pleasures
The hole in this world could be healed if by chance
everyone just stood up, took their pants off and danced

~Bruce Guthro

My microwave is allergic to olive oil!  Not dishes containing olive oil, but if I put a container - any container - of fridge-thickened olive oil into the microwave, it fritzes out.  Does this happen to anybody else???

Love, Columbine 

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That's odd, Col.  I can't say what's normal for a microwave though.  I don't have one.  It's amazing how amazed people are when they see my kitchen and there's no microwave there.  I'll probably get one soon though.  Actually, I want a convection/microwave oven but that's only because I want a convection oven and the microwave part comes with it.

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There's a rope around my neck
and there's a trigger in your gun.
Jesus, say something.
I am someone, I am someone
I am someone.

On the radio this morning they were talking about how cooking cabbage makes the whole house stink.   Someone called in and said that if you add about a tablespoon of oil to the cabbage it won't make the house smell bad.  I don't care for cabbage myself, so I couldn't tell you if it works or not, but it seemed worth passing along here.

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God's favorite joke since 1984.

"If you don't think, you shouldn't talk!" - The March Hare, Alice In Wonderland

I like the smell of cabbage, so long as it's not scorched - then it's TOXIC.  Same with cauliflower or broccoli - any of those Brassica types smell horrid when overcooked.  That's why you put the cheese on top of the broccoli if you put broccoli on your pizza.  (Or glop extra ricotta on top, if you're a hedonist.)

Fun Cabbage Fact - if you want to make stuffed cabbage leaves, just cut out the bottom of the midrib of the big leaves and chuck 'em in the freezer.  Cook your rice/lentils/sausage whatever you're going to fill them with.  Thaw them out, roll 'em up, pour on the sauce (or cream of mushroom soup), and bake 'em!

Love, Columbine 

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I saw this brilliant recipe for a stuffed head of cabbage - the cabbage remains intact and you stuff the leaves with a ground beef/vegetable mix.  I haven't tried it (mostly because my husband hates cabbage) but it looks really cool.

 

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There's a rope around my neck
and there's a trigger in your gun.
Jesus, say something.
I am someone, I am someone
I am someone.