Better Home Cooking Basics: #70 Neutralize Too Acidic Soups & Sauces with Baking Soda.

There’s a few things I learned about cooking with wine. The first is you have to have some in order to cook with it. If you have no wine you can’t cook with it. The second is vinegar is not the same as wine. It’s much MUCH more acidic. When you cook wine (or vinegar) it concentrates the flavor so you better like the flavor to begin with.

Why am I rambling about all this? To get to my tip of course so you can learn through my crazy mistake & miraculous quick fix. On Sunday I decided I was going to make this sauce. Four cups of red wine makes up most of the liquid of the sauce. I didn’t have any red wine on hand but I did have some red wine vinegar & some beef stock. (Remember: vinegar & wine are not the same.)

Better Home Cooking Basics: #64 Store Asparagus Like a Bouquet of Flowers in the Fridge.

Lately, I’ve been giving tips on how to store your produce & I’m keeping with the theme this week because after all you can’t cook with produce gone bad. It’s supposedly asparagus season (read: it should be on sale). So in hopes to make your asparagus & dollars last longer I give you this tip today: store you asparagus like a bouquet in the fridge.

If you do plan to store your asparagus for a few days after you get it home, trim a small amount from the bottoms of the stalks with a sharp knife & place them in a tall glass/container/jar with a little water in the bottom. Cover the top loosely with a plastic bag, & store in the refrigerator. This will keep the stalks firm and crisp until you are ready to cook them. (I stored mine for a day without the plastic & it still kept them fresh.)

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Better Home Cooking Basics: #62 Choose Pineapples that Smell Sweet & Have Firm Green Leaves

I love pineapples. Recently I’ve been juicing them. I love it by itself or mixed with other fruits & veggies. I like it in fruity salsas & on the grill too.  Before I juice or chop the pineapple I have to pick the best one I can find at the super market. My go-to tip is to smell it before I buy it. If the pineapple smells sweet it’s most likely because it is. Pineapples that smell sweet are the ones that I take home with me. I also check for bright green, firm leaves which are a telltale sign that the pineapple is fresh.

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Better Home Cooking Basice: #57 Zest, then Juice or Freeze Citrus.

I zest citrus almost daily. By zesting citrus it packs a lot of flavor into dishes without adding extra liquid when it isn’t needed. First & foremost if you are using the zest of citrus (limes, lemons, oranges, etc) you should zest the fruit while it’s whole - it's much easier this way. But then what? Well you can either cut it in half & juice it or if you’re not going to use it right away you can freeze it. I wouldn’t leave it in the freezer for more than a week. When you’re ready to use it take it out of the freezer & pop it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to let it thaw & you can use the juice then. If you don't freeze it the citrus fruit becomes a shriveled tough raisin that is virtually un-juiceable (read: a waste!).

Say good bye to shriveled pre-zested citrus at your house & hello to a freezer full of juicy possibilities.
Get more of my better home cooking basics here. 

Better Home Cooking Basics: #51 Choose Citrus Fruit that is Bright , Smooth & Shiny in Texture & Feels Heavy.

The other day I was using a microplane to zest the limes that I was substituting for lemons to make chimichurri sauce. After collecting all the zest I needed, I cut the limes in half to juice them. Two out of the three were juicy & provided lots of juice for my sauce. However, the third one was dry & pulpy with virtually  no juice to offer. That stuck with me & I headed to google to figure out how I could prevent this dehydrated citrus fiasco in the future. What I found seems like it should be common sense but it wasn’t to me (at first) so I’m sharing it with you.

When shopping for citrus here are the three things you want to look for:
Is it bright in color? If it’s a lemon is it bright like the sun? if it’s  lime is it really green?
Is the texture smooth & shiny?  If not throw it back & look for a one that is.
Is it heavy? Bigger is not always better but heavier is. The heavier the piece of citrus fruit the more juice it’s bound to have in side.

Do you have any tips for selecting the best fruits & veggies? Please share in the comments below!

Get more of my better home cooking basics here.

Better Home Cooking Basics: #50 For Thicker, Chewier Cookies, Chill the Dough First.

Have you ever made a really thick & seemingly gooey cookie dough only to get thing crisp cookies no matter how giant of a glob of dough that went into the oven? My guess is the dough went straight from the bowl to the baking sheet to the oven.  Next time, try chilling your dough in between the bowl & baking sheet steps.

I do this when I bake  chocolate chip cookies & these gingerbread cookies & the result is thicker, chewier cookies.

I'm not a chemist but in my opinion this give the butter in the dough time to firm up. Usually you add room temperature ingredients to your mix, usually that means butter. This room temperature element helps the ingredients incorporate evenly. But now you have really soft butter & if you put that in the oven it'll just spread & spread & a thin, pancake-y cookie will result. So stick the dough in the fridge (or faster in the freezer) before diving it out into cookies to be put in the oven. If you're using cookie cutters, roll the dough out first before chilling it.

Let me know if that improves your cookies!

Get more of my better home cooking basics here. 

Better Home Cooking Basics: #48 Make your Lettuce Last Longer in a Container with a Paper Towel.

Every week I buy a large container of organic baby lettuces. On a good week I’ll finish the whole package spread out between meals. On a bad week I’ll scrunch up my nose & throw away my greens (& hard earned cash with it) because the tender baby lettuce leaves have wilted & worse have become mushy & have started to ooze some weird liquid that forms a nice sludge at the bottom of the container.

Better Home Cooking Basics: #45 Speed Up Prep Time & Reduce Mess with a Food Scoop or a Dough Scraper.

After you’ve chopped your onions & minced your garlic how do you get it into your skillet or pot that you’ll be cooking it in? Do you carefully scoop & balance it on your knife & then slowly walk it over to your stove while maybe sacrificing some to the floor & by some I mean most & now you have to clean the floor? Do you bring your entire cutting board to the pot & scrape all of your hard prep work into said pot or skillet (if you’re lucky enough to keep the balance of it with one hand while you scrape with the other?

I can be a bit of a spaz & would love to say I never spill anything - but that couldn’t be further from the truth. A handful of years ago I bought a stainless steel food scoop like this one while I was down visiting Charleston. I wish I could tell you the name of the store or even the brand of mine but I can’t. Yes most people probably pick up something more sentimental when on vacation - but me - I opt for practical kitchen gadgets.

Turns out this little "souvenir" is my favorite & most used gadget in the kitchen. I use it daily. It’s the perfect way to caddy food from your cutting board to your pot without spilling it everywhere - no balancing act required. It's a great way to be more efficient with your time in the kitchen (read: spend less time cleaning the mess of your floor.)

I like the one I use (see the photo below) because it has sides to it so none of the food can escape that way. This one & this one are great alternatives with sides.

You can also use a pastry/dough scraper like this one. It won’t have sides so more balance is required but you can scoop larger amounts for transporting around your kitchen.

What's your favorite kitchen gadget? I would love to know! Please comment below.

Get more of my better home cooking basics here. 

Better Home Cooking Basics: #36 Wait Until the Last Minute Before Serving to Add Fresh Herbs.

If you're a good boy or girl scout & are preparing dishes ahead of time that call for fresh herbs, leave them out until you're ready to serve. Then chop or tear the herbs & add them to your dish. This way the flavors will be the freshest & the fragile herb leaves won't blacken or wilt.

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Better Home Cooking Basics: #17 Cut Fresh Mozzarella with a Serrated Bread Knife

Fresh mozzarella used to be a treat that we would get a couple times a year. We would pile in the car (a giant suburban) & drive down to Arthur Avenue in the Bronx & bring home what seemed like piles & piles of cheese that was usually gone in the blink of an eye. This was usually around the holidays or when my parents got the itch to visit our "Little Italy" in the Bronx.

I've lived in the other "Little Italy" in Manhattan & now Hoboken & have since been spoiled by fresh mozzarella that seems to be homemade & better in each deli I walk into. Hoboken is basically a square mile of cheese & I'm not complaining. You don't have to live in Hoboken or a "Little Italy" these days since most grocery stores carry their own fresh mozzarella.

So now how to cut it. It's soft, kind of wobbly & challenging to get a knife in it & come out with a  straight line. That is unless you use a serrated bread knife. It seems to grab hold of the slippery cheese & cut right through.  If you don't have a bread knife you can try the trick that my husband swears by: stick the cheese in the freezer for about 10 minutes & it becomes firm enough to cut with a sharp knife.

Check out more better home cooking basic tips here. 

Better Home Cooking Basics: #16 Swap Out Mayo & Sour Cream with Greek Yogurt

If you’ve made any of the recipes on this blog you’ll notice I’m a fan of using Greek yogurt.  It’s thick & tangy like sour cream but it's also packed with protein & I just feel better about eating it.  If you’re making a dip (think of that packet of french onion soup mix you mix) with sour cream  swap it out with Greek yogurt. You won’t be able to tell the difference & you might even feel a little lighter on your feet.

If you’re making tuna for lunch swap out the mayo with some Greek yogurt. Same reward here.

Check out more better home cooking basic tips here. 

Better Home Cooking Basics: #7 Dress Your Salad from the Outside

Whether you've made salad dressing from scratch or you just unscrewed the cap & are ready to dress you salad - dress your salad from the outside.  Don't dump the dressing all in the middle & wonder why you have salad dressing soup. Instead, start light. Drizzle a ring of dressing around the outside perimeter of your salad where it touches the bowl & then toss inward using your hands, tongs, a fork & spoon - whatever you've got.  Your salad will be more evenly dressed & you might even use less dressing, but only because you wanted to.

Check out more better home cooking basic tips here.

Better Home Cooking Basics: #5 Use Fresh (Not Jarred) Garlic

Have you ever seen garlic in a jar? I honestly didn't until post-college. I saw it popping up in my super market & in the fridges of people I knew. So I jumped on the band wagon & tried it. For the longest time jarred garlic is what I used to cook with until it wasn't. One day I didn't have jarred garlic so I resorted to the good old fashioned head of garlic I had sitting on the counter. Albeit it wasn't pre-diced & it took a minute or two to peel & chop but the taste was like nothing jarred garlic could deliver.  Sure the jarred stuff smells delicious & the aromatics will fill the room but the taste just isn't there for me. As a garlic lover the taste needs to be there.  Do we have a jar of garlic in our fridge - sure we do. Do we use it? Nope.

The moral of this tip is fresh is best - if you can & it's available leave the jarred stuff on the shelf & grab a the head of garlic when you're cooking.

Want more of my better home cooking basics? You can check them out here.

Better Home Cooking Basics: #4 Take Time to Prep Your Ingredients

The French (& the culinary world) refer to my 4th tip as mise en place which translates to "putting in place." When you first read a recipe or even when you're making something from memory take the time to prep all your ingredients ahead of time. Pretend you're on a cooking show or taking photos for a blog (whatever gets your through) & you need all of your ingredients ready to use before you even turn the stove on.

Chop your veggies. Measure out flour. Zest & juice your citrus. Crack your eggs.

I like to separate mine into small ramekins to organize them. Even if I'm creating an herb mixture I like to add them in a small bowl first & then to add them to what I'm cooking. This also serves as a good checks & balance system especially when following a new recipe then you can cross check to see if you're missing anything.

Check out more of my better home cooking basics here.

PS: Happy Birthday to my Dad! I love you!

Better Home Cooking Basics: #3 Never Store Fresh Tomatoes in the Fridge

If you keep your fresh tomatoes in the fridge they won't taste any different but they will definitely have a different texture- a mealy one. Keep your fresh tomatoes out on the counter in a pretty bowl or one of these ceramic farms market baskets & show them off while keeping their texture firm yet juicy.

Get more of my better home cooking basics here.