I can't decide on a kitchen tip today. Nothing in my photo folder seems ingenious enough to have a whole post dedicated to it. So, here are some random kitchen tips for this week! :)

If you can do basic sewing, homemade potholders are easy to make. My mom came up with the idea of using a few layers of fabric from an old sweatshirt for the filling/padding in the potholders. We've been making them that way now for many years. If you have inexpensive (or hand-me-down) fabric for the outside, "upcycle" an old sweatshirt and you've got the materials needed for potholders! :)

I love that the kitchen sink in this rental has a sprayer! Some of my favorite uses for it:

1. Spraying hot water into the sink to make extra-bubbly dish water without using extra dish soap

2. Rinsing dry beans or lentils before cooking them in my crock pot

3. Rinsing wire cooling racks after washing

4. Rinsing/cleaning the sink after tooth-brushing time :)

5. Spraying out my plastic dish-washing brush when stuff gets stuck in it

Empty chocolate syrup bottle? I rinsed it with a little hot water and added it to my morning coffee. :) We don't usually buy chocolate syrup though. It tastes too "fake" to me. :)

When baking multiple things in the oven at the same time, stagger the sheets or pans and rotate half way through baking (switch the bottom one to the top and vice versa). Always leave at least an inch of space between the oven walls and the pans (and other pans!) so the air can circulate, and your food will cook more evenly.

And lastly (off-topic), can you find Ruth (3) in this picture? She disappeared one day and I had to check every room a couple times before I finally found her in here! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, we need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Using frozen food (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
2. Adding milk and cheese to soups (The Local Cook)
3. Soft and fresh cookies tip (Living So Abundantly)
4. Powdered egg replacer (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
5. Keep things from boiling/running over (Cheryl at The Bz House That Love Built)
6. Manicotti, noodles, and frozen banana bread tips (The Bz House That Love Built)
7. Homemade chicken stock tips (Jessica at Delicious Obsessions)
8. Using spaghetti as a cake tester (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
9. Rotating food storage (Anna at Kolfinna's Korner)

My friend Lindsey sent me these homemade cookie jar mixes after the birth of Moshe almost 2 (!) years ago. What a beautiful and yummy treat! :) These were some of the oldest photos in my folder of things to blog about. "Better late than never!" is my mantra. ;)

I love bean soups and hopefully some day will find the time to experiment with making some pretty soup-in-a-jar mixes!  Not only are jar mixes fun to make, they're a practical gift and fun to use! I mean, dinner is always more fun when it starts out looking beautiful and involves something already mixed for me. ;)

When making mixes in jars, sometimes the mix doesn't quite reach the top. You'll want to keep those pretty layers in the jar, but many recipes need to use exact measurements and you can't just throw in something extra to fill the jar. ;)

Lindsey gave me this tip for keeping mixes in place and pretty:

Place a layer of plastic wrap over the top of the ingredients in the jar, and then use cotton balls to fill in the space between the ingredients and the lid of the jar. Your ingredients will stay in place and you'll have that perfect-looking gift to give! :)

Here are the two recipes Lindsey used to make cookie mixes for us. Both recipes are from the book "Gifts in a Jar".

Tip: You can find quite a few cookie recipes that would adapt to being made into a jar mix. Just look for recipes with only a couple "wet" ingredients like eggs, butter, or vanilla. That means you'll be able to pre-mix most of the recipe! :) Muffins, cakes, waffles, and corn bread are all good mix-in-a-jar candidates. ;)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1/4 C. sugar
1/4 C. brown sugar
1 C. chocolate chips
1/2 C. brown sugar
1/4 C. sugar
1 C. all-purpose flour

Layer all the ingredients in the order given into a wide-mouth 1-quart canning jar. Pack each layer in place before adding the next ingredient.

Tag to attach to jar of cookie mix:
 
Chocolate Chip Cookies

Makes 3 to 4 dozen cookies

1 jar Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix
3/4 C. butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375*. In a large bowl, cream the butter, eggs and vanilla. Add the Chocolate Chip Cookie mix and stir until the mixture is well blended. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

Trail Cookie Mix

1/2 C. brown sugar
1/2 C. sugar
3/4 C. wheat germ
1/3 C. quick oats
1 C. raisins
1/3 C. flaked coconut
1/2 C. chopped pecans
3/4 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder

Layer the ingredients in the order given into a wide-mouth 1-quart canning jar. Pack each layer in place before adding the next ingredient.

Tag to attach to jar of cookie mix:
 
Trail Cookies

Makes 3 to 4 dozen

1 jar Trail Cookie Mix
1/2 C, butter or  margarine, softened
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350*. In a large bowl, cream the butter, eggs and vanilla. Add the Trail Cookie Mix and stir until the mixture is well blended. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, we need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Homemade stuffing tips (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. 6 ways to use broccoli stems (Katy at Purposely Frugal)
3. Liquid amounts when pressure cooking (The Local Cook)
4. Using old bananas for baking (Cheryl at The Bz House That Love Built)
5. Less dish washing (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
6. Free bulk goods storage (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
7. Kitchen sanitation tips (Anna at Kolfinna's Korner)
8. All-purpose kitchen spray (Newlyweds Blog)
9. Homemade yogurt tips (Lea at Nourishing Treasures)
10. How to open persnickety pomegranates (Jessica at Delicious Obsessions)
11. Make ahead foods for a feast (Living So Abundantly)

Even though I'm picky about which foods I like from a slow cooker, I really do love the crock pot I have and use it at least once a week (for beans).

I wash the crock pot with hot soapy water and a plastic brush. When I'm finished scrubbing and washing, it looks like this. All shiny and clean, right?

Wrong. When it dries, it looks cloudy and doesn't feel smooth on the cloudy parts. (I find this especially after cooking beef stew or beans.)

I've tried re-washing with the hottest water possible, and scrubbing lots with my plastic brush. It still looks cloudy when it dries.

Not only that, but the cloudy parts have a smell, like herbs (from my roast beef) and beans. The smell is all right if I'm only going to cook beef or beans in it. I've told myself that it's basically clean despite looking cloudy!

But last week I wanted to cook apples in my crock pot, and I didn't want the apples to smell like beef or beans. My solution for getting the smell off of my crock pot?

With a wet washcloth, gently rub the spots with baking soda (I used about 1/4 cup). It washed away the smell and the "clouds"!

...and my apples didn't taste like beans. :)

See also: Heather's tip about removing stains from her white crock pot!

Because I never get around to doing a separate post about this stuff, here is some off-topic cuteness from my kitchen helpers:

I asked Eliyahu (5) to fill the pepper grinder for me. Moshe (1) "helped" him and they were so cute together as they intently worked on the special task! And yes, Eliyahu does have more than 1 shirt; that one happens to be his favorite right now and he tries to wear it as often as possible! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Freezing homemade stock (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
2. Pressure cooker info (The Local Cook)
3. Stocking up on Thanksgiving specials (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
4. Recipe book tips (Christy at One Little Word She Knew)
5. Tip for using whole cloves (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
6. Making sweet potato puree (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
7.
8.

I didn't know it was possible to ruin mashed potatoes. I watched my mom make from-scratch mashed potatoes for years, and have made them myself many times, with great success. But, tonight my mashed potatoes turned out wrong. They were smooth and creamy, but gummy -- almost the consistency of play dough. Very strange! I'm pretty sure I know what I did wrong, though. I used the hand mixer and mashed the hot potatoes with some butter added... and then poured in a little cold milk. Voila! Gummy potato play dough!

The good news? My roast beef turned out perfect, I felt *so accomplished* that dinner was started (in the crock pot) at 6 AM (yes, we're very early risers! :P), and it made the house smell good all day. The scary part is that I had over 4 pounds of chuck roast in the crock pot (for just our family!) and our leftovers were less than 1 cup of meat! I guess we'll be having beef vegetable soup heavy-on-the-vegetables next week. ;)

Potatoes can do funny things when put in the blender, too. I never knew this until a couple weeks ago when I was making blended potato soup for dinner after Joshua's wisdom tooth extractions. Ahh, the science of food! Apparently I had/have a lot to learn about potato starch! ;) Note: Don't try to mash potatoes using a blender or food processor, as it will make them gummy due to the blade breaking down the starch... ;)

How my mom makes her amazing mashed potatoes:

Peel potatoes and cut into halves or fourths. Put them in a BIG pot (bigger than you think you need!), cover with water, and add some salt (like when cooking pasta or beans!).

Tip: To keep potatoes from boiling over when cooking, put a streak of butter around the pot on the inside, at the top. I've found this works, unless I've really over-filled my pot.

With the lid on, bring potatoes to a boil and then simmer until tender. Drain water from pan.

Tip: You can save a dish by using the pan's lid, slightly ajar, to drain the water. But, USE POTHOLDERS and be careful doing this! :) My mom's great at it, but I usually just grab a colander to drain the potatoes and then return them to the pan.

Return pan and potatoes to the stove. Add butter and milk and heat on low until milk is hot. Remove from heat, mash as desired, and add salt and pepper to taste.

My mom's other standby mashed potatoes: Parsley Potatoes!

My favorite mashed potato casserole: Gourmet Potatoes!

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Tip for greasing pans (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. Olive Oil Tasting 101 (The Local Cook)
3. Keeping lettuce fresh and crisp (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
4. Tips for making a self-basting turkey (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
5. What to do with empty butter wrappers (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
6. Keeping hot dogs warm (Kolfinna's Korner)
7. Labeling spices (Living So Abundantly)

I'm only slightly amused that I planned to write a post with tips for using the garbage disposal right before I completely clogged ours! So much for all my fabulous garbage disposal success stories, right? :) Well, I hopefully my tips will still be helpful despite my sink being clogged last week. ;)

I love having a garbage disposal. It makes it so easy to scrape plates after meals (we do clean our plates, but there are often things like fruit peelings or seeds). I also like using the disposal-side of the sink for food prep. I can let peelings or egg shells drop into the sink as I work.

Our current garbage disposal works really well, and over the past year of living here, I've gradually tried putting more and more things down it. In fact, there's probably not much that I haven't been able to feed into it, although I haven't tried avocado pits or watermelon rinds or corn cobs.

That said, it has still gotten clogged a few times for me. I know, what can I expect when I put in potato peelings, onion skin, lettuce trimmings, carrot peelings, banana peels, and everything else? Probably not the greatest idea ever. ;)

If you're "adventurous" in the kitchen like I am, or just have a garbage disposal that likes to clog, here are my tips for getting it unclogged!

If the clog is in the garbage disposal unit (blade area):

1.  Unplug the unit (or turn off the breaker for power to it).

2. Use a flashlight to look down the drain. Sometimes you can see what's in there that shouldn't be.

3. Use a large tweezers -- or do what I do, which is use my hand (but remember the unit is unplugged!!!!) -- and carefully reach inside and pull out whatever shouldn't be in there. I've had baby spoons fall down there, and I've had to pull out mostly-pulverized banana peels. :|

Bonus tip: If your garbage disposal suddenly turns itself off, look on the unit for a little button that says "reset" and press it to turn it back on. Mine shut down one time and I wondered if I had broken it or something until I discovered that button! :)

If the clog is in the drain pipe, the garbage disposal blades will run, but the water won't drain out of your sink:

1. Try not to get it clogged in the first place. Put things down slowly, while running cold water. Putting too much in too quickly will clog it up fast. And really, banana peels don't do very well in the garbage disposal. ;) Don't assume that just because "it went down last time!" you can put whatever you want in the garbage disposal and it'll just go through.

2. If the garbage disposal gets clogged, keep running cold water and turn the disposal off and then back on to see if it will push the clog through. This works for small clogs.

3. A plunger works great for unclogging the garbage disposal. Plug the other side of the sink (if you have a double-basin sink), and the use the plunger on the disposal side. This has saved my sink from several pretty good clogs. If plunging on the clogged side isn't working, you can also try filling the other side of the sink with water and the plunging it through to help loosen things.

4. Drano (or Liquid-Plumr) really does work. Last week, I really, really clogged the garbage disposal. I tried plunging and nothing was moving. I mean NOTHING. Thankfully, the other side of the sink was still moving fine. I wanted to unscrew the pipe and clean it out, but Joshua got nervous when I started talking about messing with the plumbing, and got some Liquid-Plumr Gel at Costco. I was very skeptical. I mean, if my strong arm muscles and the plunger hadn't worked (and I'd tried several times over the course of several days...), I doubted that Liquid-Plumr would work. But, in less than 24 hours, it had completely cleared the clog! Tip: Scoop all of the standing water out of the sink, so the Drano can go in full-strength. (I know homeowners who don't like to use Drano, but for renters like us, it's an easy fix for slow-moving drains or clogs.)

5. If you don't want to use Drano (or don't think it will work), look under the sink and find the spot in the pipes where you believe the clog is located. If you have plastic pipes, you should be able to unscrew them and unclog the area. I found directions for doing this at lowes.com. (Be sure to scoop as much water as possible out of the sink before taking apart pipes, and have a big bucket ready to catch everything below!)

But as I mentioned above, we didn't end up needing to take apart any pipes. Another resource to try is a plumbing snake, which we used one time at our house in Ohio (before I got banned from using the garbage disposal after plugging up the pipes for the 3rd time...). ;)

To help maintain clean drains and pipes naturally:

Remove hair from drains (if you can see it/reach it).

Sprinkle baking soda in drains and then pour in some vinegar.

Flush drains with boiling water.

Doing that usually keeps our bathroom drains running great! :)

Our bath tubs in the last 2 rental places have had the push-down, push-up plugs and I finally figured out how to clean them: Unscrew the plug until it comes off (it takes a lot of unscrewing), and then you can reach the drain to pull out any hair. I have long hair so hair in the shower drains is something I have to keep on top of! :)

Do you have any drain or clog tips to add? I'd love to hear them! (Unfortunately I don't think this is the last time I will ever clog a drain...) :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Tip for rolling out pie crust (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. Tips for homemade breadcrumbs (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
3. 5 tips for substituting sweeteners (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
4. Baking tip and garbage disposal tip (Rachel at Trial and Error Home Ec)
5. Single-serving freezer soups (Anna at The Joyful Wife)
6. Clean and re-use cheesecloth (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
7. Chicken parmesan breading tips (Robin at Happily Home After)
8. Tips for spices (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
9. Bread machine stand (Living So Abundantly)
10. Saving money on milk (Katy at Purposely Frugal)
11. Freezing smoothies (Michele at Simply Scaife Family Farm)
12. Substitute for double boiler (Amy at Amy's Finer Things)
13. Homemade bread tips (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
14. Cake tip and cooked corn tip (Kolfinna's Korner)
15. Salad in a jar tip (Newlyweds Blog)

When I shared photos of my wheat and rye bread, several of you asked about slicing bread. I don't have any magical tips, but I'm happy to share what works for me! :)

Knives: Bread knife or electric knife?

I like to use an electric knife for slicing. It makes thinner slices and is faster when there's 2-3 or more loaves to slice all at once. My electric knife was a wedding shower gift, and bread is the main thing I use it for. Growing up, my mom made 8-10 loaves of bread at a time and used and electric knife to slice them all before they went in the freezer.

If I  have only one loaf I am usually too lazy to pull out the electric knife and I use my bread knife. Any large, thin, serrated knife works well for bread.

Position the loaf

I also turn the loaf on it's side to slice, since the knife seems to go through the side easier than through the (soft) top of the loaf.

Tip for fewer crumbs when slicing

Slicing fresh-from-the-oven bread (after it's cooled slightly) can yield some crumbs due to the more dry crust, so if I don't need the bread right away, I like to put it in a bag for a little while and then slice when the crust has softened somewhat. Depending on the type of bread, this could make a big difference. (I notice especially with Italian-type breads!)

Does anyone else have any bread-slicing tips to share?? :)

My favorite homemade bread recipe can be found here! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. 5 tips for baking with apples (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. Easy pumpkin puree tips (Jill at The Prairie Homestead)
3. Pyrex heating pad substitute/tip (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
4. Blueprint for an easy brunch (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
5. Squash in a slow cooker (The Local Cook)
6. Tips for making your own convenience foods (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
7. Tip for cooking noodles (Cheryl at The Bz House That Love Built)
8. Tips for leftover mashed potatoes (Donna at Moms Frugal)
9. Cutting bread (Rachel at Trial and Error Home Ec)
10. Cleaning crumbs from waffle iron (Alea at Premeditated Leftovers)
11. Cooking day tips (Living So Abundantly)

When we made cut-out cookies during the Feast of Tabernacles this year, all my cookies were sticking inside the cookie cutters. I could gently push them through without harming the shapes, but it was taking a lot of time to cut out the cookies that way. Then, I remembered what my mom taught me when cutting out cookies:

In a small pile of flour, dip the cookie cutter before each cut. (It's almost like inking a stamp before stamping.) The cookie cutter doesn't stick, and it's much faster!

I also have a tip about melting or softening butter. I think I got in the habit of doing this when we didn't have a microwave. If your oven is in use, you can easily soften or melt butter in a glass or metal bowl by setting it near/over the steam escape vent for the oven.

This is perfect if you're baking cookies or a cake and need some softened butter for the frosting later! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Using fewer dishes when cooking (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. Busy schedule meal planning (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
3. 6 tips for eating healthy on a budget (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
4. Emulsifying vinaigrette dressing with a whisk (Robin at Happily Home After)
5. Tip for baked pasta dishes (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
6. Storage for silicone baking mats (Living So Abundantly)
7. Impromptu "wire rack" for cooling bread (Katrina at The Quirky Quaker)
8. Tip for freezing bananas (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
9. Tips for making homemade broth (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
10. Tips for using store-bought whole wheat flour (Donna at Moms Frugal)
11. Tip for baking with bananas (The Gentle Mom)

Right after my post about beef stew meat, one of our local grocery stores had a sale on chuck roast and chuck steak. I asked Joshua to pick up 4 packages on his way home from work. He came home with 8! So, four are in our freezer. ;)

When I was opening the package of steak to make beef pepper steak for dinner, I remembered a tip my mom taught me for purchasing buy-1-get-1-free packages of meat.

Since meat is sold by the pound, the packages all have varying prices. The store will always give you the cheaper package for free, so try to purchase pairs of packages as close in price as possible.

For example, if you pick up a package that is $8.00 and one that is $6.00, you will get $6.00 off your total. But if you pick up a package that is $7.90 to go along with your $8.00 package, you will get $7.90 off your total, and your meat will be as close to "50% off" as possible! :)

I've used this tip a lot over the years. A dollar or two here and there may not sound like a lot, but it's always worth the extra minute or two it might take to find packages similar in weight/price when there's a buy-1-get-1-free sale! :)

Here is the yummy beef pepepr steak I made for dinner. I served it with brown rice, but really, I think it tastes best with white rice... :)

It had probably been years since I've made (or eaten) my mom's beef pepper steak recipe, and wow! Every bite was sooooo good! The children told me it was one of their favorite meals ever.

And here's the little sweetie who wanted her picture taken after I took the pictures of my plate:

Ruth, with flour on her forehead! We had spent the day making cut-out cookies. Actually, that project took two days. The first day, I made a bunch of cookie dough and we baked a few sheets of cookies. The next day, we cut and baked more cookies. With all my helpers, it was quite the project! I ended up freezing at least half of the dough after the second day, because I just wasn't up for another day of baking cookies. ;)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Tip for cutting quesadillas (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. Buttering your griddle (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
3. Keep ice from watering down your drinks (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
4. Top 5 tips for making bread from scratch (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
5. Cream cheese flavorings (Christy at One Little Word She Knew)
6. Tips for flax seed, wheat germ, and more (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
7. Disappearing onion tip -- great taste, no texture (Living So Abundantly)
8. Kids' kitchen tip (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
9. Other uses for tea-making gadgets (Donna at Moms Frugal)
10. Tips for making gluten-free pancakes from scratch (Kristy at Little Natural Cottage)

Pizza dough is very forgiving.  I don't think I've ever had it not turn out okay!

I even started pizza dough one day and then realized I was out of yeast. I didn't have an alternate dinner plan, so I made the pizza anyway and just pressed the crust really thin. It still turned out quite good! Thin, yes, but good. (Now, I even have an "official" unleavened pizza crust recipe.)

Tip: If you ever find yourself with pizza dough and no yeast, press or roll the dough very thin before adding toppings and baking. Okay, I am probably the only person who runs out of yeast and still makes pizza for dinner... ;)

I use my bread machine's dough cycle to knead the dough for me. Tip: If you don't have time for the whole dough cycle to complete, you can stop the machine after the kneading is finished and transfer the pizza dough right to the pans.

I usually have 500 things going on at once around here, and so while I try to watch the dough near the end of kneading and see if it needs more flour added, sometimes I forget. And the dough ends up a bit sticky.

Sticky dough still makes great pizza crust. In fact, it's easier to just press onto the pans that way (instead of rolling with a rolling pin, like a stiff dough would require).

Tips for dealing with sticky pizza dough:

Use clean hands to butter or grease your pizza pan(s). Then with your oily hands, lift or pour the dough out of the bread machine pan (or stand mixer bowl) onto the pan(s) and press to the sides. Put more oil or butter on your hands if needed while pressing.

Another way to deal with sticky dough can be to wet your hands with water. I know, it sounds like the wrong thing, but it works! If you're pressing out the dough and your hands are sticking to it -- wet your palms with some water to finish.

Why I like to use butter to grease our pizza pans:

I love using butter to grease pizza pans because it's a little salty (we buy salted butter). That salty butter flavor makes the crust soooo good! Sometimes I skip adding any oil to my pizza dough, but I liberally butter the pan. Just don't liberally butter the pan if you're using a perforated pizza pan. Instead of crisping up the crust, that butter will all drip through and start a grease fire in the bottom of your oven. (Yep, I learned that first hand!)

I don't, however, grease the pan if I'm using my silicone baking mats. There's no need to grease them because nothing sticks, and I'm all about taking a shortcut like not greasing a pan if it still wipes clean afterwards! The silicone baking mats actually make very good breads/pizza crust, even if it's not buttery and salty.

Related posts:

Tips for perfect homemade pizza

I did a price breakdown of my homemade pizza recipe here... concluding that my 16-inch turkey pepperoni extra-cheese pizza costs just $3.25 in ingredients!

I've also shared my tips for making homemade pizza to serve to guests. I especially like serving pizza to families with children, since it's always a hit! :)

My pizza recipes (you'll notice my obsession with Papa Murphy's!)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Quick cooking method for steel cut oats (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
2. From-scratch pancake tips (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
3. Plastic wrap substitute (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
4. How to keep your honey jar lid from sticking (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
5. Knife/cutting practice for kids (Jenna at Blessed Roots)
6. Don't throw away your pumpkin seeds! (Purposely Frugal)
7. 5 essential ingredients for a frugal pantry (The Gentle Mom)
8. Uses for kitchen shears (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
9. Easy kitchen cleaning tips (Living So Abundantly)
10. Soup and stew tips (Donna at Moms Frugal)
11. Making jelly NOT messy (Doing My Best for Him)
12. How to freeze cherry tomatoes (Alea at Premeditated Leftovers)
13. Kitchen cleaning tip (Christine at iDreamofClean)
14. Tips for using stevia (Katie at Kitchen Stewardship)
15. Artisan bread tip (Jodi at LgFamilyFarm)

I love creating beautiful and delicious things in the kitchen. But, like a lot of things in life my life right now, getting beyond the basics has become more of a hobby than a daily event. Which is okay. :) Healthy-ish and homemade is certainly good enough (and dinner on time is an extra bonus!).

Dinner at our house is often very simple. (I know, I had everyone fooled!) This week, I'm going to be blogging a few of our favorite simple meals. Me?? Blogging?? Well, I am. For real (finally). :)

My tip for keeping dinner simple but balanced: Plan 3 things. It's just enough to call it "dinner". :) (I don't include dessert in the 3 things, and we usually only have dessert on the weekends.)

Some examples of how I use the "3 things" rule:

• Meat, bread or starch, and vegetables
• Main dish, vegetable, and fruit
• Soup, bread, and salad
• Sandwich, veggies, and fruit

My go-to easy meat dishes are grilled chicken or fish, grilled beef burgers or salmon burgers, and oven-roasted chicken.

For a starch, I like to make baked potato wedges (great with burgers!), rice (perfect with fish), pasta (with chicken especially) and bread (with soup).

I either cook frozen vegetables or roast some fresh ones in the oven. For fruit, it's whatever's been on sale, or bananas. :)

(See also: 6 Tips for Perfect Oven-Roasted Veggies!)

I love pasta and white sauce, but hadn't made it for quite a while. Last week, I cooked some pasta, made homemade alfredo sauce, steamed some broccoli, and warmed some leftover grilled chicken breast that I had previously frozen.

If I had mixed everything together, the family would have said "What? One thing for dinner and that's it?!" Instead, I served the foods separately, but everyone ended up with layered pasta, broccoli, chicken and sauce on their plates. Delicious! I even had some shredded (not grated) Parmesan cheese on hand from Costco, thanks to Jessica making me go buy some (see her chicken parmesan?!).

I had to take a picture of Ruth (3), so excited about the wagon-wheel shaped pasta! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Cutting dough (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. 7 baking tips and shortcuts (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
3. Maple icing and other ways to stretch your real maple syrup (Blessed Roots)
4. Identifying squash (The Local Cook)
5. Freezing leftover soup, adding spinach to soup, & more (Robin at Happily Home After)
6. Identifying cups in the kitchen (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
7. Year-round mint chocolate chips (Kolfinna's Korner)
8. Sweetening applesauce (Georgia's Cookie Jar)
9. Fridge baking soda tip (Living So Abundantly)
10. Ran-out-of-milk substitute (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
11. Fruit pizza tips (Cheryl at The Bz House the Love Built)
12. Must-have sweeteners for from-scratch baking (Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
13. Bread-baking tip (Donna at Moms Frugal)