100 Greatest Cooking Tips of all time

The Cooking Network got cooking tips from all of their great chefs and got a list of  the 100 Greatest Cooking Tips.  I bet most of them you never knew. All of them are fantastic so I encourage you to read the list but I pulled out some of my favorite ones.

• When making mashed potatoes, after you drain the potatoes, return them to the hot pan, cover tightly and let steam for 5 minutes. This allows the potatoes to dry out so they’ll mash to a beautiful texture and soak up the butter and cream more easily.
• Always measure what you’re baking. No shortcuts in pastry: It’s a science.
• Serving cake:
  1. Serve at room temperature.
  2. Don’t “pre-slice” cake more than 20 minutes in advance. It dries out too quickly.
  3. You don’t have to eat the fondant. It’s really pretty, but if you don’t want a mouthful of pure sugar, peel it off.
  4. The best cake comes from Baltimore. Just sayin’.
• To optimize the juice you get from a lemon or lime, roll it hard under your palm for a minute before juicing. (Or — never say I told you this — microwave it for 10 to 15 seconds.)
• Clean as you go. (Dorky, but I swear it really helps.)
• Cook with other people who want to learn or who know how to cook.
• Don’t dress the salad when having a big party. Leave it on the side and let the people do it themselves. I’ve had too many soggy salads because of this.
• Caramelize onions very quickly by cooking them in a dry nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat. They will caramelize beautifully in a lot less time than with traditional methods.
• Always start with a smokin’ hot pan!
• When baking cookies, be sure your dough is thoroughly chilled when it goes on your baking pan. This will allow the leavening ingredients to work before the butter flattens out and your cookies lose their textural distinctions.
• My general advice to home cooks is that if you think you have added enough salt, double it.

Old Fashioned Pancakes

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 egg
1 1/4 cups milk
cooking spray

Directions

1. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Whisk in melted butter, egg, and milk until combined. Let batter rest for 5 minutes.
3. Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking spray. Pour batter into the hot skillet, about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on the sides and center of each pancake. Flip and cook until golden, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Recipe

Salsa

Ingredients

4 large tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 tomatillo, diced (optional)
salt to taste
1 jalapeno pepper, minced

Directions

In a medium-size mixing bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, cilantro, garlic, lime juice, tomatillo, and salt to taste. Mix well. Add 1/2 of the jalapeno pepper, and taste. If you desire your salsa with more of a kick, add the remaining 1/2 jalapeno. If you are satisfied with the salsa’s heat, do not add the remaining jalapeno pepper. Cover the salsa, and chill until ready to serve.

Recipe

Pizza Dough or Cheesy Bread Sticks

This recipe is from an online cooking blogger (she’s even made her own online cook book) she’s an amazing cook and this pizza dough is great.  There is directions to make cheesy bread sticks with it as well. Which I think I will have to make sometime soon. Here is Lauren’s Blog with some amazing recipes.

Ingredients
1 cup warm water
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
1 tablespoon honey {or sugar}
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive or canola oil
3 cups bread flour

Directions

For the pizza dough–In a large mixing bowl, preferably that of a stand mixer, stir yeast and honey into warm water. Sit for 5-10 minutes or until bubbles form and mixture starts to foam. This tells you that the yeast is alive and kicking. Pour in salt, oil and half the flour and mix. Once that flour is incorporated, start adding flour in bit by bit until you get the pizza dough to the consistency you want: slightly tacky, but when you touch it it doesn’t stick to your hands. Once you reach this stage, knead for 6 minutes. Turn a timer on and walk away! Resist the temptation to stop earlier than 6 minutes! That seems to be the magical number. The dough should be smooth and easy to work with. And the bowl should be clean! {*This is the point when you could freeze your dough!! Divide into portions, place into freezer bags, seal removing all air and freeze. To use, remove from freezer and let sit out to get to room temperature and double in size; 6-8 hours. Then use as you’d like.} Lightly grease the bowl & the dough so it doesn’t dry out, cover with plastic wrap and let it rise 1-2 hours. That’s it! Use as desired.

For the Cheesy Garlic Bread Sticks- Preheat oven to 500 degrees with pizza stone inside. {If you don’t have a pizza stone, use an upside down cookie sheet…a tip I got from Natalie!}
Mix butter and garlic in a small bowl and set aside.
Spread pizza dough out into a 12-inch circle on parchment paper. {This makes it easier to transfer to the pizza stone.}
Spread the butter and garlic mixture over dough and top with parmesan and mozzarella cheeses. Top with a light sprinkling of salt and pepper, if desired. {That step is totally optional!}

Julia Child Cooking Tips

My favorite cook is Julia Child and here are some of her awesome cooking tips. You just might have a laugh…

And I truly believe this first quote