Hacks that’ll make your life easier in the kitchen
August 27th, 2015
When life gives you lemons, come up with a kitchen hack that will go viral over the internet!
Some people enjoy their time in the kitchen and others not so much. We hope these kitchen hacks (all tried and tested by Appliance Online employees) make life a lot easier and more enjoyable in the kitchen for those who do not, and maybe produce a good tip or two for those who do.
Our top 10 picks:
Rotten tomatoes and bananas, oh my!
Image courtesy of Paul at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
And no, we don’t mean the movie review website. There is seriously nothing worse than having to constantly buy tomatoes and bananas because they go off faster than you can use them. It’s also not nice having to waste food.
So what if I told you that you could prolong the life of your red and yellow friends? Yes, seriously!
For tomatoes – store them stem down. Yep, that’s it. You should also store them at room temperature, rather than in the fridge.
For bananas – separate the bananas, and wrap cling film around each stem. And if that isn’t easy enough for you, you can keep them in the bunch and wrap them all together. So simple!
But what if they’re too ripe?
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Ok, so now we know how to keep our fruit (and yes, a tomato is a fruit) from rotting, is there any way to speed the ripening process up?
Yes, yes there is. Place your piece of fruit in a paper bag and let the ripening process begin!
When fruit is ready to ripen they release ethylene gas, which is a chemical that cause fruit cells to make all the necessary changes involved with ripening.
And if you really want to speed the process up place an apple in the bag as apples release a lot of ethylene gas. Aww, they grow up so fast.
We love summer, but we don’t love hot sandwiches. Yuck!
Image courtesy of mrpuen at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
For inexpensive lunch box ice packs that will help keep your food fresh and cool during the hot summer months, but won’t break the bank, try soaking kitchen sponges in water, sealing them in Ziploc bags, and freezing them. Genius!
Lettuce is better without the brown icky parts
Image courtesy of artemisphoto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
To keep lettuce fresher for longer, wrap it in paper towels before storing them in the fridge. The paper towels will draw the moisture from the lettuce, keeping it crisper and more enjoyable to eat.
Slippery chopping boards are not so fun, or safe for that matter!
Image courtesy of fantasista at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Another great use for paper towels is to stop your chopping boards from slipping from under you when you’re chopping and slicing. Simply dampen the towel and place it under your board.
Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble
image courtesy of yuppiechef.com
We may all like Macbeth, but we definitely don’t like it when our pots over-boil. It’s annoying, as well as dangerous.
So to stop this from happening, place a wooden spoon in the middle of the pot longways. The spoon will destabilise the bubbles.
Save time cutting your cherry tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes add colour and flavour to salads and sides, but how annoying is it to individually cut them? Very! With this hack, cutting them can now be a lot easier, yay!
Use two plastic lids (the same size) sandwich a handful of cherry tomatoes between the lids, then press down with one hand, and then slide a sharp knife between the lids with the other. So convenient!
Stale bread that’s hard enough to use as a bat
Image courtesy of Apolonia at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Day-old bread is never as nice to eat as freshly-bought or baked bread, but why throw it out when you can bring it back to life?
Run the tap and douse the bread (crust side) in cold water (yes you heard correctly) then wrap it up tightly in foil, and then place it into the oven before switching it on.
Once it’s in the oven, turn the dial to 150 degrees Celsius and let the bread heat up slowly for about 15mins.
Once that’s done, you can either eat the bread that way or remove the foil and cook it further to get it crispy. So smart!
How would you like your eggs? Without the shell please
Image courtesy of jiggoja at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Trying to pick out eggshells can be time-consuming, and you definitely don’t want your family or guests to get a crunchy surprise in their piece of cake. So here’s an easy solution:
WET your fingers before going in to pick out the tricky sucker. You’ll be astonished how easy it is to pull them out. So simple, yet so effective!
It’s the end of the blog (and day) and it’s time to relax with a nice chilled glass of wine!
Image courtesy of Graeme Weatherston at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
No one likes to drink warm or non-chilled white wine. So when you get caught out and forget to chill your wine, soak a tea towel in water, then wrap it around your bottle, and then place it in the freezer for a few minutes.
You can also use frozen grapes in your wine glass to keep it chilled without watering it down. Cheers to that!
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