Get ready for nut season: If nuts are heated before they are cracked, theyll come out of the shell almost whole. Pecans should be heated in hot water a few hours before cracking.
Harder-shelled nuts (Brazil nuts and hazel nuts), may be heated in the oven. If left in the oven a little longer, they take on a toasted flavor. Finally, if the shelled hazel nuts are put back in the oven for a few minutes, the brown paper-thin jackets peel right off.
Mix honey instead of sugar into your
whipped cream. Honey gives the cream body and enables you to keep it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
For fluffy cooked rice: Turn the rice into a colander, pour a little hot water over the rice to wash off the surplus starch. Cover the colander with a clean white cloth and place it over a deep pan of boiling water. Steam until the rice is dry and fluffy.
To keep frozen desserts from freezing too hard, once they have reached the desired consistency, set the tray on top of another tray filled with ice cubes.
To prevent the juice from fruit soaking under the crust in fruit pies, brush the bottom crust with an egg white before putting fruit into it.
When only a small amount of lemon juice is needed, roll the lemon to loosen the juice. Then piece lemon with an ice pick near one end, and drain out only the amount of juice needed. The lemon is then left intact for other purposes!
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