Cooking

Brine chicken breast. I save brines from things like pickles and feta for this and choose whichever one best matches what I'm making. Feta + chipotle makes awesome burritos.

I always see recipes say to heat a pan until the oil shimmers but I've never been able to see the difference. Instead, I drop a couple pieces of diced onion into the pan and wait to hear a sizzle. This is extra helpful for someone with adhd like me who would absolutely start a fire if I didn't have a noise to remind me that I'm cooking.

Using just enough smoked tabasco sauce to not get the dish spicy or too spicy will add some smoky aftertaste to the flavor of the dish. Just as any other spices, it can be added towards the end

Use a piping bag to fill muffin tins/cupcakes. Saves so much mess and crumpled paper.

pay attention. stay with what you are cooking as you are cooking it. don't let yourself become distracted. taste as you go. take notes. use unsalted butter. know your equipment and its pros/cons. shop at different stores for the best ingredients. fresh herbs are waaay better if you can swing it.

If you're making rice without using a rice cooker, the amount of water you need is not quite a direct ratio like the package suggests. You need a 1:1 ratio of rice to water plus an additional quarter to half cup of water depending how firm you like your rice.

More of a baking tip, but if you want a chocolate cake to taste extra moist and chocolatey, add a cup of coffee to the batter. It should be thin and runny, it'll sort itself out in the bake.

I'm a big fan of frozen herbs, frozen cubes of garlic save a ton of time breaking open cloves, frozen basil still has that fresh taste and smell relative to dried.

If you make pizza in a home oven, baking steel is a game changer. It gets nice and hot and makes your crust crispy. Like a pizza stone but better.

If you have a blender, try making your own almond milk for a fraction of the cost. It's easy.

For easy to peel hard boiled eggs, cool them slowly and peel while still warm. More detailed instructions: when done boiling, set the pot, undrained, in the sink with a butter knife under one side to slightly tilt the pot. Run a very thin stream of cold water from the faucet into the pot and go do something else for 20 minutes or so. When the eggs are comfortably warm, roll them against the inside of the sink until the shell is well cracked and they should slip easily out of the shell. If you get a stubborn one, just dip it back into the pot and it should pop out easily. Thanks Grandma for teaching me this one!