Kitchen Tips and Tricks

As women, wives and moms we always look for ways to fix something rather than throwing them away or wasting the hard earned money spent on them. I am sure the women came up with lots of such tricks from the time God created them.  I strongly believe that Woman was created to help her mate Adam and be a companion for him for life. 

Genesis 2: 18-24

18The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 19Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.  20So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.  

23The man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”

24For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

How thoughtful and beautiful the whole process would have been. That was just a precept to understand how God created woman and for what purpose! We were thoughtfully and beautifully created to make our man’s everyday life easy!! If every woman understands this truth, I am sure many conflicts in family life can be solved as long as the man of the house understands his responsibly. Since this leads to a completely different topic, I will save them for another post.

Now off we go to the Kitchen Tips! These are tried and tested methods in my own kitchen!  I would like to update this list as and when I discover more secrets :D 

So read on these How To’s and master them friends!!

1.    To keep ants at bay: Putting 3-4 cloves in sugar container will keep the ants at bay. You can also sprinkle some turmeric powder in the corners of walls or wherever you find ants to chase them away. Read it somewhere but I don’t remember the sources.

2.  To remove bitterness of Karela: slit them at the middle and apply a mixture of salt, wheat flour and curd all round. Keep aside for ½ hour and then cook.

3.  To keep cockroaches at bay: Put some boric powder in kitchen corners and other places. Cockroaches will leave your house

4. To keep the dough from sticking: dust the dough with some flour and sprinkle a spoon of oil over it and knead.   If the dough sticks to the rolling pin, place it in freezer for a few minutes.

5.  To soften the hard lemon or lime: put it in warm water for 5-10 minutes or microwave them for 1 minute to make it easier to squeeze.  You can also store them in airtight containers to keep them fresh for longer periods.

6.  To keep the noodles/pasta separated: After boiling the noodles, drain all the hot water and add cold water and a spoon of oil, rinse and drain.

7.  Place a raw peeled potato in the dish to absorb the excess salt

8.  When mixing cake batter, icings or whipping any liquid, keep a folded cloth under the vessel. This will help you get a better grip of the vessel since it will not slip over the work surface.

9.  You can eliminate tedious cleaning of the shelves of your kitchen cabinets if you line them with old newspapers or old glossy calendars which is my favourite. Just discard and replace with fresh ones.

10. When adding flour to any liquid to thicken it, first mix the flour in a little liquid to  make a smooth paste and then add it to the rest of the liquid and stir well. This will  prevent lumps from forming.

11.  How to clean fruits, vegetables and greens effectively:  I put them in water and add 1-  2 table spoon of salt and white vinegar and rinse them under running water after 30    minutes.