Fancy Baking Hack : Use a Vegetable Peeler

Use a vegetable peeler to make a pretty and fancy toppings using a simple kitchen tool. Use chocolate curls and shavings to decorate cakes and other baked goods or to garnish mugs of hot chocolate.

Slightly soften a 3 to 4-inch chunk of chocolate in the microwave on medium (50% power). Using a vegetable peeler, scrape the blade lengthwise across the softened chocolate to create pretty, delicate curls.

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How Long Can You Freeze Food Before It Goes Bad?

We all freeze food! Let’s face it …With the New Year upon us, everyone is looking for ways to stay healthier, drop a few pounds and that usually starts in the kitchen.

We all look for great strategies to eat smarter and make our prep easier.  One of the easiest ways to shed a few calories is to start cooking from home again.  And..that means shopping the sales and freezing food or coming up with great freezer meal dishes.

So how long can you actually keep your foods in the freezer for?

If you search the internet you will find a long list of helpful infographics that are to point you in the right direction about how long you can actually use that food that’s frozen.

Some charts say you can freeze chicken for up to nine months. Others say twelve. Some charts say that cheese will last for six months and others say four.

Those guidelines are helpful but are they accurate?

Not really…

If you look at the USDA, those guidelines aren’t actually referring to safety at all.  Because food frozen is safe to eat provided it was safe to eat at the exact time it was frozen.

“Because freezing keeps food safe almost indefinitely, recommended storage times are for quality only,” says the USDA. “Food stored constantly at 0 degrees Fahrenheit will always be safe. Only the quality suffers with lengthy freezer storage.” 

The charts may be helpful .. but they are only actually suggesting the optimum freezing times for the best quality .. not necessarily for safety.

For example, a frozen banana will be safe to eat in your freezer until the end of times.  It may only actually taste good and remain it’s delicious white color for three months, but in terms of safety – have at it!

The USDA explains why freezing is a safe method of storage “Freezing keeps food safe by slowing the movement of molecules, causing microbes to enter a dormant stage. Freezing preserves food for extended periods because it prevents the growth of microorganisms that cause both food spoilage and foodborne illness.” Freezing also inactivates any bacteria, yeasts and molds that may be found in your food. (Just remember that once you thaw your food, these microbes can become active again.)

Below are the USDA’s freezer guidelines and below that is an additional guide from FreezerLabels.net that includes more ingredients ― remember, these charts are both guidelines for qualit

y only, not safety. If you’re looking for a food that’s not listed on any of the charts below, the USDA offers some tips that’ll help you determine a food’s quality:

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Cooking spray for grate cheese

If you’ve ever had to grate a semi-soft cheese, you know it can be difficult to clean the grater afterward, and you know you lose a lot of cheese because it breaks up when you’re trying to press it through the grater. Use cooking spray to stop cheese from sticking to a grater and make the grating and the cleanup easier!

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Two color swirl icing!

Use 2 bags of different icing with one tip to make swirl icing! Fill two small disposable piping bags with different colored or flavored frosting. Use scissors to snip holes in the bottoms of both bags. Insert both bags into a large (16”) disposable piping bag fitted with a decorative tip, making sure the two bags are aligned by squeezing and twisting the large bag.

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Fluffier whipped cream!

Light and airy as a cloud, there’s nothing quite like a spoonful of freshly whipped cream. Get fluffier whipped cream when you chill the beater and bowl beforehand. Because you’re relying on the fat in the cream, you need to ensure it stays in a solid, albeit microscopically solid, state. Chilling your bowl, cream, and beaters beforehand means things will stay colder longer during the whipping process. Colder cream = loftier peaks. Using a lower speed to begin your whipping will also be helpful. The cream won’t warm too quickly and you’ll build up smaller bubbles, for a more stable foam.

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Forgot to soak the beans?

We’ve all been there. You go to start a recipe for your favorite chili or bean soup or from-scratch hummus and then it hits you: you forgot to soak the beans! Of course you can reach for canned beans at this point, but if freshly cooked beans are what you really want, then this tip is for you! Cut the soaking time for dried beans by microwaving them for 15 minutes.

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The best way to store salad greens!

Buying a big bag of salad greens or lettuces is a great, economical way to get your veggie servings, but we’ve all dealt with the frustrations of opening the bag a few days later and seeing sad, wilted or even slimy leaves inside. What’s the best way to store salad greens so that they last the longest? Transfer bagged lettuce to a lidded container and place a paper towel over the top to keep leaves crisp longer.

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