Cooking by the Numbers

There's an awesome kitchen cheat sheet set to download! It's an excellent resource to keep handy when you're measuring and cooking. Yes, it's in "British" measurement, but so are many recipes! The printable version is available here. I had a picture up before, but it turned my blog all ka-flooey. So we'll stick with just sharing the link. Go get it! Print it! Hang it up in your kitchen!

Coffee-Cup Spice

I love how a little spice makes a cup of coffee that much sweeter and mellower, but without the "fake" flavor of artifically-flavored coffee blends or creamers. Those always have a strange chemical taste, I think. So I mix up my own "coffee-cup spice." Cinnamon by itself is delicious in coffee. Just sprinkle some on top of the coffee grounds before brewing (about 1/4 to 1/2 tsp for a 10-cup pot of coffee). I put together a spice blend, cinnamon-based, that is great in coffee or as a spice for coffee cake or muffins. To use it in baking, add up the amounts of spice you'd usually use in the recipe and use the same measurement of this spice blend.

I store it in an old jar from any one of the spices used in the blend. If you do this, don't even wash the jar first; whatever's left in the jar will just mix in.

Depending on the size of your jar, you can adjust the quantity of each, as long as you keep in mind that some are measured in TBL and some in tsp.

TBL:  cinnamon
tsp:  nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, ginger

Place in the jar, cover tightly and shake until well blended.

How Hot is Hot?

If you've ever found a recipe on a European, Canadian or Australian website, or in a very old cookbook, you'll notice some differences in temperature notation.  So how hot IS a hot oven, anyway--and what's "gas mark 3?"

Thanks to Online Conversion for this very useful info!

The Cleaner Picker-Upper

Today I figured out a way to drain ground beef without making a huge mess and accidentally pouring grease down the sink (a BIG no-no if you don't want your drainpipes clogged).

My dirty-dish pile included a small skillet that someone had used to fry an egg for breakfast.  I lined it with 3 or 4 paper towels, then placed a colander inside.

Then I poured the cooked ground beef out of the big skillet and into the colander.

All the grease drained onto the towels below.

Sorry for that last shot--I know it's gross, but I wanted to show that there were NO spills.  I just carried the skillet with the towels right to the trash and dumped them in.  No mess and nothing down the drain.