Usually, I serve up a bit more meat and potatoes with my blogs, but this one is a little different. It’s short, sweet, and to the point. I’m serving up some tricks taught to me by a few friends of mine recently that made me go “Oh, wow! Why didn’t I think of that?”
Is it an egg slicer or a cheese slicer - you decide. :) Perfectly sliced smoked gouda courtesy of an egg slicer. Yes, really.
Guacamole is the pits.
Here’s how to keep your guacamole green. I swear, this will work. It seems unbelievable, but it’s a personally tried and true technique -so simple, it will rock your socks off.
I’m sure you know that if you add a bit of acid to your homemade guacamole (tomatoes, tomato juice, lemon juice, or lime juice) it helps keep the avocados in it from oxidizing (or turning brown) – for a while, anyway. But did you know that if you take a pit from one of the avocados and place it in the guacamole when you are ready to serve it, it helps preserve its gorgeous green color even longer? It’s true!
Recently, I made guacamole and had extra on hand. I don’t believe in using artificial preservatives whenever I make something from scratch. I already had an avocado pit in the serving bowl, but I figured I’d keep the pit with it when I transferred the leftover guacamole into a plastic storage container. After 1 day in the refrigerator, my guacamole was still perfectly green. (I do add fresh lemon juice to my guacamole when I make it, which also helps preserve the color, but it never did the job like a pit!)
Slicers aren’t just for eggs anymore.
I hate cutting cheese. (No, I’m not referring to that. I mean taking a knife and seriously slicing some cheese.) And even when I do, my slices are uneven, not uniform and not so pretty to place on a tray or on crackers.
Ok, so here’s where you say to me, “You know, you can buy pre-sliced cheese now….duh!”
Yes, that’s true. But you can not buy all cheeses pre-sliced, and I do like to serve a variety of cheeses, some not typically found in your average grocery store.
So what’s a girl or guy to do? Get out your egg slicer. You know, one of these. Take your cheese (it can not be too soft like cream cheese, nor as hard as a brick like some Parmesan wedges), place it on the slicer, and press down with the wire side of the slicer. Voila! You now have uniform slices of cheese. Obviously, you can’t place a super huge chunk of cheese on this gadget or it won’t work. You may have to cut it down to a more manageable size first. But, your slices will look gorgeous for presentation when you’re all done.
Improving on the Seasons.
Ever make Good Seasons salad dressing? I don’t make it very often, but sometimes I’ll give it a spin. We all know how water and oil don’t mix. If you follow the directions on the package for preparation and use oil and water, and you mix it, you will then encounter separation. There’s a simple way to avoid this.
Substitute the same amount of fresh lemon juice for the water in the instructions. You won’t sacrifice flavor, and the dressing will remain emulsified much longer!
(Thank you to Paula Brighton for sharing the guacamole trick! Who knew?)
RSS Feed
