Silly kitchen tricks

[Sniper-T]

Little things you learnt by trying something different. and what possessed you to do it in the first place; if you remember.

I try to eat as healthy as possible. Minimum fat, minimum grease. I stirfry, not deep fry. I poach, not fry... etc.

But, there are things that need to be fried. bacon, hamburger etc.

when you fry them up, it is easy enough to save the grease by pouring it off, but there is always that coating on everything, and the extra left in the pan after you have poured off as much as you can.

Bacon is easy, you can lay it on paper towels and pat it dry with others; but what if you are making a GIANT batch of chili... or spaghetti sauce?? it isn't feasible to dump 3/4 of a canning pot onto paper towels.

Here's what I do. drain off as much as possible, block up one side of the pot, and shovel as much to that side as possible. then I use my turkey baster to get rid of whatever I can.

no biggie right? well that's just the leadup!

Then I take some paper towels and crumple them up loosely and add them to the pot and continue stirring. They will attract all the grease that is left. Replace and repeat as necessary to remove as much as you want.For everyday meals, some is ok... but for LTS, the less the better. And this will rid your meat of 99.9% of all fat, if you so wish.

The best part... the paper towels are re-usable when you're done! No, not like that!

Take them and fold them into 1/4's and put them into ziplock bags, and toss em in the freezer. I found out the hard way that both my dog and cat love them... so that led me to think... BAIT! when I am trapping, or just out shooting coyotes, hang a couple in the trees above the traps or shooting lane, and let the wind to it's thing. critters can't resist the smell. It also works for skunks and racoons.... as well as most members of the weasel family.

Oh, and I found this out by accident.. I was whiping a spill on my stove with one hand, and a couple towels slipped into my canner pot of ground moose from the other. I pulled them out easily enough, but then noticed that they were yellow with grease. Once I did my final draining I tried it again, and was VERY impressed with the results.

whatcha'll got??

[ravensgrove]

Or...you could buy grassfed meat which has next to no fat. or raise it, like we do All kidding aside this was a great exercise in mental olympics. What you demonstrate is flexibility and adaptability which are certainly key SHTF necessities. GOOD ON YOU!

Here's my latest and greatest...in Team Apocolypse we have a couple of beer brewers...they always give me the spent grain for my hogs. One day they also gave me a pail of "trub". This is the yeasty, watery goo that is also a byproduct of brewing. I thought to myself....."hmmm, why couldn't that make bread?" So I got to playing around, and by loaf 3 had made fantastic pumpkin beer bread. Made a sandwich with turkey and cranberry sauce and cream cheese, and it was like Thanksgiving dinner all in one bite...and the beer! It turns out more like Irish soda bread, dense and yummy.
Tomorrow, I'm going to try making pretzels out of the trub from an orange honey lager. Waste not want not and all that jazz.

[JustAPrepper]

I lay a damp paper towel or wash cloth under plastic cutting boards...keeps them from sliding across the counter while slicing and dicing.

I oven fry all our bacon to about half done, wrap and freeze. I buy it in bulk when I find it on sale and can get 6-8 pounds done in a couple of hours. I pour all the drippings in to jars and keep in the fridge for eggs, greens, refried beans, etc. When we need bacon we pull out a few pieces, wrap in paper towels and nuke for about a minute. Super time saver for weekend breakfasts and I'm only a minute away from needing a few slices of bacon for recipes or salad toppings.

I use a grapefruit spoon to scoop out seeds from cukes, zukes, yellow squash, etc.

I use my pastry cutter (looks like this American Metalcraft PB-44 | Hand Held Pastry Blender) to chop eggs for egg salad or potato salad

I use my egg slicer (Paderno World Cuisine 42588-01 | Egg Slicer, Stainless Steel, 5 Inches) to slice strawberries for the dehydrater

I just came across this not too long ago...take the pitcher off your blender and remove the blade. Insert the blade in to a mason jar and screw on. Place on blender. It's a good way to blend/chop small amounts of things and you can seal with mason lids.



Been using this one for about a year now. Did you know there's a reason for the different colored bread ties on store bought bread? Turns out they act as a visual aid for the stockers to pull and replace bread without having to look for the Best By date. The colors correspond to the bake date/delivery date and are alphabetical in order for easy memorization. Since I shop on Friday I always look for white ties hoping the bread was delivered that morning but double checking to make sure it's not a leftover from the previous week. If I can't find any white I look for red since it was probably baked and delivered the day before. I have this written down on the back of a business card I keep in my purse for handy reference.

Monday - Blue
Tuesday - Green
Thursday - Red
Friday - White
Saturday - Yellow

For those of us without chickens...how to determine the best price on eggs...

1. Find the price difference between the two sizes.
2. Divide the price of the smaller size eggs by 8.

If #2 is less than #1, the smaller eggs are the better buy.
If #2 is more than #1, you'll save money on the larger eggs.

I just came across this one and haven't tried it yet...For stuck/burnt on messes on pots or casserole dishes, fill with water and add a couple drops of fabric softener or a dryer sheet and let sit overnight. Supposedly the stuff wipes right off the next morning.

[ravensgrove]

Mason jar, on the blender is genius. I am stealing that.

[Evolver]

Best way to cook pan sized Trout in the back country. Season with your favo seasonings inside wrap in foil (No butter or oils needed), throw in coals for 13 min not 12 or 14 but 13mins, remove from coals, hold foil wrapped trout in a bandanna, open foil, grasp head and pull toward you. The meat will stay in the foil/bandanna and the head/spine/ribs will all just pull right out leaving only meat, bottom side fins and skin behind.

Dang I just got hungry for trout.

[bacpacker]

We use the dryer sheet thing. It does work very well.

[JustAPrepper]

We use the dryer sheet thing. It does work very well.

Cool!

[JustAPrepper]

Opened the freezer earlier today and was reminded of another thing I do...

I'm really funny when it comes to onions. I eat them raw in tuna fish and on hot dogs but not on hamburgers. I can't STAND them if they're too crunchy in things like spaghetti sauce or meatloaf or sloppy joes. About the only way I universally enjoy onions in a cooked dish is when they're carmelized so every year when Vidalia Onions go on sale in the Spring I buy about 20#'s worth. I'll spend a day or two dicing them all up and using two pans on the stove I carmelize them in olive oil with a little salt and pepper. I divide them up in baggies and put in the freezer, about a cup's worth equals roughly a regular size onion. This makes super fast work for me to throw together a meatloaf, sloppy joe's or any other "cooked" dish and I don't have to worry about my onions being too raw. Also, the oil coats the onions and prevents freezer burn.

I also do the same thing with red bell peppers but I roast those on the grill with a little olive oil, put in a bowl to steam, peel the skin off and pop in baggies. They last for years.

[bacpacker]

I like the idea for the onions and peppers. We usually get a lot of onions from our garden and start picking at the scallion stage and go all the way thru the larger bulbs. We always end up with more than we can eat before they start going bad. We dried a bunch this year. We will try cooking and freezing next year.

[Gunfixr]

My wife has problems with eating too much beef, especially greasy beef, at one time, it'll tear her up for a couple days. So, she's taken to experimenting with different "standbys".
She always makes her own spaghetti sauce, but will put ground turkey in it instead of ground beef. Or, ground Italian sausage and ground turkey, half and half.

The same thing with rice. Cook up some rice, add ground beef, or ground turkey, or Italian sausage. You can even cut up Kielbasa sausage, either regular or turkey. Season to taste and enjoy, You add vegetables if desired. It can be made days in a row, never the same twice, using staples either canned yourself, or put by.
Anybody here with kids where both parents work at least fulltime should be pretty creative at throwing together quick, easy meals.