Cooking Tips: Getting in Touch with Our Inner Chefs

The inner chef in me longs to be released. Unfortunately, she hasn't found the right door yet. At this point my inner chef is more interested in a personal chef. Publishing recipes and finding fun and useful cooking tips, however, is something we both enjoy.

I recently gave my aunt a copy of our cook book, Come and Dine. She quickly thumbed her way through it and read out loud some of her favorite recipes. Apparently, she had no problem connecting with her inner chef.

My daughter is another one who has found her way into the kitchen. Mind you, I never handed down any cooking skills, but her inner chef magically appeared when she moved out on her own. But her kitchen expertise didn't include the vital mom cooking tips, like don't leave the top of an opened can straight up and attached. Seriously, you could cut yourself on that. Please, young chefs, use the can opener all the way around, snap the top off and discard.

Here are a few more words of cooking wisdom. All collected from mom, Omas (Grandmothers), their sisters, my aunts and other family members.

Don't leave sharps knives loose in the drawer. Banging knives around will most likely dull them faster and you don't want to grab the wrong end of the sharp knife when you reach in without looking. Of course, I understand, that my neglected inner chef might be the only one who has ever done this, but I'm still thinking it's good advice.

Furthermore, have you ever broken a glass? Do you wrap it in newspaper before you throw it away? It's probably a good idea.

One more scary kitchen tip before we get to the fun stuff is don't keep the pesticides (bug killers, roach and rat poisons) near your food or store it next to your olive oil (personal opinion). Underneath the kitchen sink might not be a good place either. Besides, it's cheaper and easier to use a mixture of red pepper and sage to rid your kitchen and pantry of pests like ants. Am I getting too motherly? Well, here's the fun stuff then.

Do you know how to clean your cheese grater? Use a raw potato. It will pop every little piece of stubborn cheese out of the holes. And speaking of potatoes (not the ones you just grated), if you place them in salt water for fifteen minutes, or so, before baking they bake much faster and yummier.

Also, don't peel your potatoes before boiling. Bring water to its boiling point and then add your potatoes. It actually reduces cooking time and helps the maintain Vitamin C content.

A raw potato can also be placed in salt water with your uncooked duck eggs. The potato will rise when the duck egg is properly salted. A very nice side dish with white rice. Half an egg for you is plenty. By the way, eggs with a smooth, shiny shell means they are old. Fresh eggs have kind of a chalky rough shell. And have you ever buttered your thumbs and then peeled a hard-boiled egg? Me either. Oma says it makes the peeling easier.

Peeling a banana is always a simple task. The proper way to peel it is from the bottom, not where the stem is. Banana peels, the white meat of it, can be used to soothe a child's upset tummy. It's what my grandma gave to her children while laboring in a POW camp in World War II. Bananas can also lower the risk of high blood pressure due to its high content of potassium.

Other fruit that's good medicine is the Tamarind, even the leaves help with intestinal and skin infections. It's amazing what these women learned when there was no doctor or conventional medicine available. Even limes were used to get rid of a throbbing headache. Make sure you cut the lime in half and rub it on your forehead.

Fruit juices like orange juice can thin out a little bit of peanut butter and make the peanut butter much easier to spread on bread-quite tasty too. Lemons stored in a sealed jar of water will give you twice the amount of juice. Or simply microwave a lemon for 15 seconds and you'll get the same results.

Something my daughter has used on a sunburn is cold water vinegar. It brings her instant relief. Use cotton balls for that extra gentle touch. (This must be the inner chef connecting with our inner doctor skills.) Vinegar combined with salt will remove those stubborn tea stains from your china too.

Well, we've covered the tip of the iceberg here, unless we discuss the benefits of iceberg lettuce-another time perhaps? In any case, find your inner chef, stay safe and have fun in the kitchen.