We all strive to improve our efficiency and frugality in the kitchen for obvious reasons; time and money are valuable! Both attributes can be learned over time, yet often a helpful tip at just the right moment can be more useful than months -or even years- of experience.
Here are twenty kitchen hacks, shortcuts and secrets. They will save you money, time, and wits.
Gleaned from many years in the professional cooking industry and passed along from fellow chefs and home cooks alike, they are 100% applicable for everyday cooks. Put a few of them to good use and help simplify your cooking and baking.
Everyone wants the produce they select to be the finest available and conditioned to the perfect texture and flavour. We strive to fulfil that desire for top produce on our shelves every day.
A few tips can help you avoid many chemicals, non-biodegradable plastic tools, and energy-sucking appliances—and it’s easier than you might think. Here are ideas, tricks, and recipes to help your family begin a greener cleaning routine.
Regular dust busting and de-greasing are important to any well-maintained home. But it’s also critical to keep your home as eco-friendly as possible. With hundreds of brands and products in the supermarket and big box stores, it may feel like an impossible task to navigate.
Why is having a greener cleaning routine important? Chemical and toxins found in cleaning supplies have been linked to cancer, asthma, reproductive and developmental toxicity, allergies and irritation, and accidental burns and poisonings. A home that’s free of these chemicals in one more step you can take to keeping your family safe.
Kokedama is a style of Japanese bonsai, where a plant’s root system is simply wrapped in sphagnum moss and bound with string, transforming it into a sculptural art form. Loosely translated, ‘koke’ means moss and ‘dama’ means ball. The original Japanese form of kokedama had miniature sculptured bonsai trees displayed on handmade pottery or pieces of driftwood. They encapsulate the Japanese aesthetic of Wabi-sabi, which can be explained as an appreciation of the imperfections of nature and the transience of natural beauty. Characteristics of Wabi-sabi include simplicity, warmth, earthy, irregular, rough, natural, acceptance and observation. Kokedama are created as a reflection of the Wabi-sabi principles.
Kokedama has since been adapted from its traditional bonsai to offer a new string garden approach, allowing one to use many different types of plants. String gardens take this tradition a step further by suspending these little green orbs in the air. They’re a great way to bring the outdoors to your home and are easy to care for. Plant choices can vary from orchids, grasses, ferns, houseplants, citrus trees, herbs, annuals, perennials or even bulbs. Kokadama can hang indoors and out, be placed in a bowl, or displayed on some other decorative object. Group together your Kokedama creations for an even more dramatic display.
The refrigerator is a great invention that has hugely increased the time we can keep out food without it spoiling. However, whilst it is an essential tool to store food safely for some foods, others do not respond well to lower temperatures and can lose much of their flavor and even spoil quicker when stored in the fridge.