Helpful little tips

When making a salad use a wood, ceramic or china bowl. Never use metal as things will get yucky from the acid in the dressing.

NEVER use a metal knife to cut lettuce for a salad...it turns brown. Tear it up. Tell them its RUSTIC lol or invest in a plastic knife made just for lettuce.

NEVER store your tomatoes or mangos in the fridge. They do not belong there. Have you ever bought a mango and it was brown inside? they put them in the walk-in and they got cold. a big NO NO

Don't throw away your bread ends or your slices if they get hard. toss them in the freezer. When you need bread crumbs grind em up. you can toss in a pan with a little butter to brown them and top off that mac n cheese. Or use your old bread to make Bread pudding. You can make bread pudding with just about anything OLD. Bread, donuts, french  bread...anything. Probably even an old shoe lol

Left over onion and you won't use before it will go bad. dice it up and toss it in a baggie and the freezer. You can use them in anything you are cooking.

Red and Green peppers on sale? Buy em up...slice them up put in baggie in freezer. Great for soups casseroles, eggs etc.

Cheese on sale? If you are going to cook with it, you can freeze it. Do NOT think you are gonna freeze it and eat it on a sandwich cuz you are not. The texture changes but it will still melt.

Left over Chicken stock. Pour it in ice cube trays freeze and toss in a baggie. I should get a kick back from the baggie people lol

Putting away HOT food. Martha Stewart says just cool for a bit before placing in fridge. DO NOT seal the lid on the container leave it sit loose or not at all. when cooled then you can cover

Extracts...ever open a bottle that was empty and you knew you didn't put it away like that? The heat here will cause them to evaporate. I was told by someone who owned a spice store to keep them in the fridge.

Well I hope some of these little tips were helpful.
Enjoy!

Vegan Chocolate cake

This is a cake my Mom made when we were kids....before it was cool to be Vegan...hell it was before there was a vegan lol This is one of those make ahead kinda things. It actually is better the next day

Pre-heat to 350

13x9x2 Pan do not grease. This is the only vessel you will need.

3 Cups all purpose Flour (You can use cake flour or sift, I sift) I also used Unbleached
2 Cups Sugar
1 Teaspoon salt
2 Teaspoons Baking Soda
1/2 Cup of Unsweetened Cocoa powder
3/4 Cup Vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons white Vinegar (I'm sure cider vinegar would work)
2 Teaspoons pure vanilla
2 Cups of Water

Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 13 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three wells. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with fork.  Make sure you mix it really well.             
Bake at 350 degrees  for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. 
You may frost this if you want but trust...it doesn't need it. 
Let COOL completely before serving.   
ENJOY!            

Cinnamon Palmiers

Someday I will get a camera so my pics don't look so yucky.

These are Cinnamon Palmiers

Here is how to make them

You will need:

Preheat oven to 400

1 box Pepperidge Farm puff pastry. (in frozen section)

2 Tablespoons of melted butter

Cinnamon

Granulated Sugar

Sugar in the RAW, Turbinado or sanding sugar

Thaw pastry out for about 40 minutes at room temp.

When thawed unfold and place on a lightly floured board. Roll out just a little to smooth out creases. Keep the shape uniform.

Cover liberally with RAW (or one of the others) sugar, run your rolling pin over it to press the sugar into the pastry. carefully turn pastry over. Brush with some of the melted butter. Now sprinkle evenly with granulated sugar. Make sure you use enough, they need the sweet. (you can use truvia or splenda I'm sure) then Cover evenly with a good amount of cinnamon.

When this is done start at the end closest to you and tighty roll up to the middle. Now roll the other side towards you to the middle. Slice into 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Lay them down so you can see the swirl.

Bake for approx 15 min until evenly golden brown. Let cool before eating.

Now get your coffee or hot tea and ENJOY!

Leftover Roast

I love Roast! I always used to cook them in the oven but, a few years ago I started doing them on the stove-top. I always cook mine with veggies, potatoes, celery, onions and carrots. I made one the other day and it was fabulous. I used red wine. Well, Now it is time to turn it into something else. Here is what I did..
I Sliced it in thick slices, then shredded it all up. I chopped up all of the onions, celery. potaotes and carrots that were left. There wasn't a lot of veggies left so I smalled diced half a whit onion and two small potaotes. I had thick juice left so I put it in a frying pan. It was about 3/4-1 cup. I added the raw onions and potaotes to it and simmered them until they were soft. I tossed in a can of ORTEGA diced green chili, cooked it for a couple minutes then added all the shredded beef and veggies that were cooked with it. I added a little fresh ground pepper but NO salt. I tossed in some salsa (picante) and some diced pickled Jalepenos. Covered it and let it simmer on low so all of the flavors could meld together. After about 20 minutes I uncovered it and let it cook somemore so the liquid would cook off a bit. Now to make the burritos.
I use Flour tortillas and some grated cheese. I place the cheese on the tort then the hot meat so it kind of melts the cheese. Roll up your burrito and enjoy!