My Five Favorite Kitchen Tricks

by Jen L.

A good kitchen trick is worth its weight in gold.  Some of my favorites are things I've picked up from friends or family members, others are stuff I've pinned onto my "Stuff I Wish I'd Thought Of" board on Pinterest.  Regardless of where they came from, here are my five favorite time-and-sanity-savers for the kitchen.

1.  Ice Cream Scoop For Batter.  I think everyone pretty much knows about this one, but in case you don't, a traditional ice cream scoop holds the perfect amount of cake batter to fill a standard-size muffin cup 2/3 of the way full.  Your muffins and cupcakes will all be uniform in size and shape and you won't have those pesky batter drippings all over your counter.

2.  Muffin Tin As Taco Shell Holder.  How brilliant is this?

If you use heat-and-serve taco shells, you can just toss them in the oven like this.  If you fry your own like we do at our house, you can slip them into the overturned muffin tin for easy transporting to the table! Also works great for re-heating them in the oven.

3.  Melon Baller as Cake Pop Scoop.  Y'all.  SO much easier than wadding up crumbled cake mixed with frosting by hand.  Mix your cake pop base like you usually would, then scoop it out with a melon baller. I go ahead and spear mine onto the stick, then dunk it in the chocolate. Much less messy, much more uniform shape.

4.  Wooden Spoon Over Boiling Pot.  Does your pasta pot boil over every single time?  Mine does.  Know what will keep it from doing that?  Put a wooden spoon across the top like this:

Works like a charm.

5.  Toothbrush Holder as Straw Holder.  So this really doesn't happen in the kitchen, but I use a travel toothbrush holder to carry bendable straws for my preschooler.  It keeps them clean in my bag and keeps him from stabbing himself up the nose with a regular straw when we're out and about.

What are your favorite kitchen tricks?  Tell me so I can use them!

(Photos from:  Organize With Sandy, A Small Snippet, Chica And Jo)

Comments

[Em]

I almost bought a melon baller for cake pops... until I saw the cookie scoop. It has one of those things like an ice creem scoop that scrapes the dough out. I have used it multiple times for cake pops and cookies and it is one of my most favorite kitchen tools now.

[H]

I wish I had a brilliant idea to share but I don't. Thank you for these, though, I love them!