Cooking, Baking and Kitchen Tips

If you want to remove fat from soup or stew but can't wait for it to chill and congeal, drag a slice of bread across the surface of the broth to soak up as much grease as possible.

Quickly use that frozen juice concentrate by mashing it with a potato masher while frozen, or place can with the lid removed in microwave for 1 minute.

Double the amount of favorite casserole recipes you cook. Place half in a freezer container for dinner on a busy day.

An egg slicer works great for slicing fresh mushrooms. Makes even slices in a jiffy.

Before party guests arrive, scoop ice cream into muffin tins lined with cupcake liners and refreeze. You won't have to fuss later when serving cake.

Use an ice cream scoop to easily fill muffin tins with the batter.

Transfer jelly to a small plastic squeeze bottle. Less mess and no sticky jars or spoons! This also works well for homemade salad dressings.

Use a cooking spray or oil the measuring cup next time you need to measure honey. No more messy process of scraping the cup, as the honey slides out easily.

To quickly and easily cut rolled, chilled cookie dough use an electric knife. It slices perfect cookies!

No time to roll and cut biscuits? Just drop the dough from a tablespoon onto lightly greased baking sheets.

For quick and easy ravioli, fill Wonton wrappers with any filling you fancy. Moisten edges with egg wash to seal and poach in boiling water.

To save time when making meatloaf, use bottled marinara sauce instead of tomato sauce or ketchup - the herbs and spices are built right in so everything goes together faster.

If you cut bagels in half before freezing they will defrost a lot faster, and you can toast them without waiting!

Cut up those canned tomatoes quickly by snipping them right in the can with kitchen shears. (I also do this for any canned fruit or vegetable that I want smaller in my recipes)

For the best for Whipping Cream.

Chill the bowl and beaters, and make sure the cream is nice and cool. Gives it more of a volume to it.