A hack, in today’s parlance, is something that makes life easier, whether a shortcut or a new idea. Here are a couple of my favorite kitchen hacks.
Odors: Hate the lingering smell of onions and garlic on your hands after some food prep? You can buy one of those fancy pieces of stainless steel shaped like a bar of soap. A couple of rubs and the pungent bulb smell is gone. There are two reasons I see to not do this:
1) It adds to the clutter you must keep on or near your sink.
2) It costs money you could use to feed a child in a third world country for a week.
But I am seriously against leaving the smell on my hands. (About 11 years old, I pulled a giant garlic [weed] out of the garden, and the smell on my hands made me so sick I called Mommy at work for help.)
If you have a stainless steel sink, blessed be, just rub your hands across the divider or any convenient area. No stainless steel? Stroke the spout or spigot or any metal part (This works for me in our bathroom, too, where the finish is antique copper.) Go ahead. Sniff. Odor gone!
Veggies: Are vegetables spoiling in your crisper, even when you think you haven’t left them too long? If they’re wet when you remove them from the plastic bag, you just found your problem. Before storing, especially if you’ve just washed the celery or lettuce, wrap a few inches of paper towel around the base to keep them dryer. When you use some of the vegetable, do not rewrap in the wet toweling. Get a dry one. (You can compost the wet one, or use it to wipe up the counter top.)
This is imperative for cut bell pepper. I was taught this by someone I thought didn’t know what she was talking about. I love being wrong when that means I’ve just learned something. You don’t have to wrap the entire bell, just lay paper over the cut edges. (You’ll notice when they go bad, the cut edges have gone to mush. That is what you aim to prevent.)
Leave some of your favorite tips or kitchen hacks in the comments below. Pretty please?