Kitchen Tips

Kitchen Tips
by Jennifer Carlisle

My Favorite Tips For The Kitchen

• Freeze grapes for wine. This is a great tip because it is cheap and easy.  I like to wash up some grapes, stick them in the freezer, and use them in my wine. Using the frozen grapes helps to keep your wine chilled like an ice cube would but without watering it down or adding any different flavors. Plus when you have finished your drink you will have a delicious wine soaked grape to eat. I like to use these grapes in white wines, blush wines, champagne, and both red and white sangrias. 
• Freeze Flat Soda for drinks.  This is a new tip of mine and when it came to me I couldn't believe it took me this long to figure out what to do with flat soda- now I don't have to feel bad about dumping or drinking flat soda. Have you ever bought a 2 liter bottle of soda and it didn't get used up before it went flat? This happens to us especially after parties. Or you open a can of soda, don't finish it, and it sits in the fridge over night and has lost its carbonation by the next morning. Well instead of dumping it down the drain try pouring the leftovers into an ice cube tray and freezing them, then when you want to drink another carbonated soda you can chill it with your frozen soda cubes. That way you don't have to waste the flat soda, you can keep your new drink cold, and it won't become watered down.
• Toast Leftover Bread To Make Breadcrumbs. I've toasted bread many times to make bread crumbs. I've also thrown away a lot of heels from loaves of bread...you know the ends of the bread that you skip across every time you reach into the bag to grab another slice of bread? Yea, I used to throw those ends away when we were done eating all of the slices, or they would get used up for French Toast. Now I like to take those ends, toast them, then send them through a blender or food processor, then take those crumbs and put them in a container and freeze them for whenever I need bread crumbs. You could leave them out in an air tight container in your pantry, but I prefer the freezer. If you'd like you can add your own seasonings or extra ingredients to the bread crumbs. I like to add Italian seasonings or grated parmesan cheese... it's really good with meatballs.
• Refill Your Foam Soap Dispenser For Less $$. Foam hand soap dispensers are nice, but they can be a little pricey. And after I tell you about this tip you will think even the regular gel hand soap dispensers are pricey too. You can refill your foaming hand soap dispenser for less than a quarter! Simply take your empty soap dispenser and fill it with 1 oz of your favorite soap. You can use a regular gel handsoap, dish soap, body wash, shampoo... if you really want to be frugal save those soap samples from your stay at a hotel and pour them into the empty hand soap dispenser- either way use 1 oz of your favorite soap. Then fill the rest of your bottle with water, but make sure to leave room for the pump. Twist pump on tight and shake the bottle to mix well. Your foaming hand soap is ready to use and you just saved a lot of money. 

I hope you enjoyed these tips! I know I have some more so I will be trying to think of them and I will share them at another time. Sometimes these things become so natural and are something you just always know to do, but really they are different than the way others do them. If you have any tips you'd like to share about ways to save money or time around the house feel free to leave a comment. 

Thanks for reading! 

-Chef Jen