Tips & Hints from a Country Cook
If you want baked apples that won't develop wrinkled skins, make a few short slits here and there in the apples before you set them in the oven, or use a potato peeler to pare a narrow band around the center of the apples.
Baking powder is usually good for about a year. To test to see if it's still active, add 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder to 1 tablespoon of water. If it bubbles, it's still good. If it doesn't bubble, throw it out and buy a new can. Same thing goes for baking soda, but instead of the water, use vinegar. If it doesn't bubble, it's not good anymore.
To make your biscuits split open neatly for buttering (after baking), roll out the dough about 1/4" thick, then fold it over onto the other half, then cut into biscuits and then bake.
When picking out cucumbers, choose the smaller, thinner, greener ones. Larger ones tend to be pulpy and full of large seeds and are tough.
Grapes are delicious when served slightly frozen. Put a bunch of seedless grapes in the freezer for about 45 minutes, then serve. Kids seem to love these.
A gorgeous substitute for icing on a dark cake is the place a lace paper doily over the top of a slightly warm cake. Sprinkle finely sifted confectioners' (powdered) sugar liberally over the doily, being care to cover mainly the little openings. Then carefully lift off the doily. NOTE: Saves calories, too!
If you're making a desert that calls for ladyfingers to stand upright around a glass bowl, butter the ladyfingers VERY lightly on one side, and press the buttered side against the glass. Then fill the bowl with the dessert filling called for.
Marshmallows are easier to cut if you freeze them.
For light, tender pancakes, biscuits and muffins, the rule is the same. Stir the batter only until the ingredients are evenly mixed, no more.
Red peppers are green peppers that have ripened
To deodorize your refrigerator, put a drop or two of vanilla on a piece of folded paper towel or a bit of botton and set it inside.
To clean your garbage disposal, run your old ice from your icemaker through it. Will also sharpen the blades. To sweeten and deodorize it, cut up an orange or lemon and run it through the garbage disposal.
Kate