Get Organized: Water Bottle and Travel Cup Holder

Please ignore the chipped paint.  The person who owned the house before us did a very poor job painting.

I'm sure many of you can relate to the frustration of opening a cabinet only to have a water bottle or travel cup fall out, maybe even on your head.  It was a near daily experience for us, not to mention the fact I had the 8 year old's water bottles in one cabinet, ours in another, and our travel cups in yet a third.  

Fine Mesh Sieve Substitute

I've mentioned before that I am a home cook who doesn't have a lot of the fancy gadgets and toys that a lot of home cooks these days have.  I'm generally okay with making do with what I have.  However occasionally not having a particular tool is frustrating.

How to Season a Wooden Cutting Board

My in-laws gave me a nice new 19x13 inch wooden cutting board for Christmas.  I'd been wanting a larger one for quite a while, and I'm partial to wooden cutting boards.  But did you know that wooden cutting boards need to be seasoned before use and roughly every month or so of regular use after that?  Wood dries out and needs a good coat of oil periodically.

Measurements Equivalents

Have you ever looked at a recipe and thought what on earth is 6 tablespoons? or how many ounces are in a cup? or what do they mean by a "pinch?"

Wonder no more.  Here's a handy-dandy guide for some common measurement equivalents.

Measurement Equivalents

1 pinch or dash equals 1/8 teaspoon (or less)
3 teaspoons (tsp) equals 1 tablespoon (tbsp)
2 tablespoons equals one fluid ounce
4 tablespoons equals 1/4 cup
1 cup equals 8 fluid ounces
2 cups equals 1 pint
2 pints equals 1 quart
4 quarts equals 1 gallon

8 dry quarts equals 1 peck
4 dry pecks equals 1 bushel

approximately 4 cups equals one liter

The above graphic is a handy-dandy printable for you so you can print it out and keep it in a safe place in your kitchen.  Just right click and save to your computer.

Re-imagined Spice Rack

Today's post was supposed to be the final in my "Making the Best of Things" series, but it didn't get written before tonight (Tuesday, October 9).  Currently my desk is in complete disarray and my keyboard has shorted out because the roof leaked directly over my desk and computer on Saturday night while we slept.  It continued to rain most of Sunday and Monday, thus the roof continued to leak.  For the last couple days I've been working only the bare minimum at the every edge of my desk on an older keyboard we had in the basement, hoping my nice cordless one will dry out and continue to be usable.

Today has been horribly busy and now at almost 9:00p.m., I have a headache and am headed to bed as soon as I schedule this post to go live in the morning.  It's one I wrote several weeks ago to go up later in the month.  I will finish out the "Making the Best of Things" series next week.

Must Have Kitchen Utensils

What are the items you reach for time and time again in your kitchen?  We all have our own "must haves."  Here are mine.

A good sharp knife.  A cheap orange handled one from the grocery store is my favorite.  It feels good in my hand, is large enough for most of my chopping needs and I keep it good and sharp.  This particular knife also has a plastic sheath, which makes it nice for camping.  I don't have to worry about anyone sticking their hand in the utensil box and getting cut. 

A wooden cutting board.  Glass cutting boards dull knives quickly and I'm just not crazy about plastic.  Wooden cutting boards should not be soaked in water.  Also every few years, you should really sand them down and give them a good rub with mineral oil.  But they will last forever.  The one above was a wedding gift 20 years ago.

A cheese grater.  I really prefer a rotary type grater, but a box grater works well for cheddar and mozzarella.  Shredding my own cheese is much more preferable to buying pre-shedded, even though it is a lot of work.

A couple nice mixing bowls.  I like the Pyrex kind and have two sets, but some prefer the stainless steel.  Plastic is okay too.  Just remember that eggs and cream don't beat into meringue and whipped cream well in plastic bowls.  They retain too much fat and other food residue.

Whisks.  I actually have three - big, medium and small sized - and use them constantly.  A little one is great for beating a couple eggs or making an emulsion.  A medium one works well for my white sauce and a large one comes in great when I'm making a pan full of gravy.

Silicone spatulas and spoonulas.  A couple years ago, my now 7 year old chewed the end off my plastic spatula.  The only thing I could find to replace it with was a silicone one and I LOVE it.  The spoonula is great for stirring things around in a nonstick frying pan and the spatula works wonders to get the last bit of batter of the sides of the bowl.

Measuring spoons and cups.  I don't measure everything and then I don't measure it exactly all the time.  But when I do, it's nice to have reliable tools to do the job. The cups on the top are dry measures.  The glass cup on the bottom is a 2 cup liquid measure.

Potato Masher.  Mine does double and triple duty.  It makes guacamole, mashes beans for bean burritos, smashes potatoes for Crash Hot Potatoes, and of course, mashes potatoes better than any hand mixer ever hoped.

Recipe Holder Trick

Now that I'm over 40, my eyesight is going very quickly.  Bifocals are in my future once I screw up the courage (and find the money) to go to the eye doctor.  Laying a recipe on the counter just wasn't cutting it any more.  Not to mention, a recipe on the counter is in danger of getting wet, splattered on, and in general, in the way.

How to Improve Your Knife Skills

One of the things that made me a lazy cook is that my knife skills were pathetic. I still don't have the knife skills of a Top Chef, but I can dice an onion now.  Three years ago, I'd read a recipe and immediately gloss over ingredients like "1 small onion, diced" or "1 green pepper, chopped."  I figured I could make the recipe without those things and did.  And most of the time, they were edible, but did not have the depth of flavors that they could have had it I had included the vegetable items that needed chopped, diced, or otherwise cut.  It's not that I was afraid to use a knife.  I just didn't enjoy it.  It was too much work.