From our kitchen

Southern Living, Spring 2001 by Hurst, Andria Scott

Through the years our Foods staff has shared hundreds of kitchen tips and discoveries. This issue provides a perfect time to review some of our top tidbits for entertaining, cooking, food handling, and kitchen tips.

Entertaining

* When you need a wonderful centerpiece for a dinner party, head to your grocer's produce section. Select colorful squash, baby pumpkins, shiny apples, or a citrus collection. Group them in assorted small baskets, or arrange them on a runner down the center of the table. When the party's over, use the centerpiece for next week's side dishes.

* Forget ironing a tablecloth. Spread white butcher paper over the table, arm guests with crayons, and encourage them to doodle throughout the meal.

For a reusable tablecloth, buy some cheap canvas fabric, and allow guests to autograph it with paint pens.

* Use Oriental take-out cartons for eating in.

(You can find a variety of colors and sizes at paper and party stores.) Bring individual servings in cartons to the table, and place them on charger plates. * For a hurry-up dessert, puree fresh berries or peaches in a blender with an equal amount of whipping cream or plain yogurt, and serve as a sauce over pound cake or ice cream.

* The easiest recipes to double or triple are casseroles, sauces, cookies, muffins, soups, vegetables, and beverages. However, don't automatically double or triple the salt, pepper, herbs, and spices; taste and adjust seasonings carefully.

* Ice will be clearer if you boil the water first, and then allow it to cool before you freeze it.

Cooking

* For savory pies and tarts, sprinkle Parmesan cheese or fresh cracked black pepper on your unbaked pastry. Lightly pass the rolling pin over it a few times.

Place the pastry in a pieplate, and proceed as normal. This adds a subtle flavor surprise.

* Lightly sprinkle beef and chicken strips with 1 or 2 tablespoons of cornstarch before stir-frying them. It helps the meat to brown beautifully and quickly. The velvety texture of the completed recipe is a bonus.

* Cookie dough makes a great piecrust-and there's no rolling necessary. Simply press dough into pan, and refrigerate it before baking.

* Potatoes that are cooked with the peel on and then cut hold their shape better and retain more nutrients than those that are peeled and cut before cooking.

* Perk up the flavor of winter tomatoes with a sprinkle of fresh lemon juice, and serve them at room temperature.

* Never add dry cornstarch to a hot mixture because it will become lumpy. Simply dilute the cornstarch in twice as much cold liquid, and stir until smooth.

Then whisk gently into the hot mixture.

Food Handling

* Keep a supply of disposable gloves in the kitchen to handle gooey meat loaf ingredients and cookie dough. When the deed is done, peel off the gloves into the garbage.

* To perk up tired cauliflower and shriveled green beans, drop the vegetable into a bowl of water with a few ice cubes. Thirty minutes will do the trick for most sliced or chopped produce, but overnight is best for sturdier broccoli and cauliflower cut into large pieces.

* When you need only a small amount of grated onion for a recipe, squeeze a piece of onion through your garlic press.

* Don't throw away outdated yeast. It won't rise to lofty heights, but it will add flavor to pancake and waffle batter, muffin mixes, and biscuit dough.

* Chop peppers, onions, and garlic, and freeze them separately in heavyduty zip-top plastic bags or other small containers. They will be ready to cook in any recipe.

* Place peeled slices of fresh ginger in a jar, cover with a dry fortified wine such as sherry or Madeira, and refrigerate up to six months. Use this ginger-flavored wine in salad dressings or stir-fry recipes, and replace the used portion with additional wine to keep ginger immersed.

Kitchen Tips

* For a tasty variation, cook rice in a flavorful liquid, such as chicken broth, beef broth, or fruit juice.

*If you accidentally grease more muffin cups than you need, fill the empty cups with water to keep the grease from baking on the cups.

* To quickly separate eggs, break them into a small funnel. The whites will slip through, and the yolks won't.

* Keep finger sandwiches from drying out by placing them in a container lined with a damp towel and wax paper. Separate sandwich layers with wax paper, and cover with another layer of wax paper and a damp towel; refrigerate.

* When food boils over in the oven, sprinkle the burned surface with salt. This will stop smoke and odor from forming and make the spot easier to clean. Rubbing damp salt on dishes in which food has been baked will help remove brown spots.

* To loosen bacon slices before cooking them, roll the package of bacon into a tube before opening.

This will relax the slices and keep them from sticking together.

Andria Scott Hurst