Sweet Kitchen Tips 7

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Need to measure a solid fat like lard or shortening for that pie?  But, you hate cleaning the measuring cup afterwards?  Here is something that may help you with that.  Line the measuring cup with plastic wrap before adding the fat.  Push the fat into the cup with a spatula or wooden spoon to be sure the cup is completely full. Then when you are ready, all you have to do is simply pull the hanging wrapping and the cup stays clean.  You can even go one step further and chill the fat in the plastic wrap before cutting it into the flour for the pie dough.

And if you are using butter…

… you know that using your fingertips to cut the butter into the flour can heat it and melt it pretty quick. The food processor is the best method to avoid this, but if you don’t have one, or you don’t want to use it, try this: Rub a frozen stick of butter against the large holes of a regular box grater over the flour.  Then use a pastry blender to work the butter into the flour.  You want to make it even easier? Press the cold butter through a potato ricer.

Leftover Chicken Quesadillas with Cool Cilantro dipping crema

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I make quesadillas when I have tons of left over in the refrigerator that I need to get rid off.  Those are the best quesadillas.  The ones made with the leftovers.  Trust me.

I have no idea why it works, it just does.

But these ones came out so yummy, I had to share.  You could go out and get the ingredients that I used, but again, you can also be adventurous and take some of what I did and make it your own with your own leftovers tonight.

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Sweet Thirty-Seven

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Sometimes all those rants, and long baking days, reading and re-reading of recipes, the constant washing of bowl after bowl do pay off.

This past Monday while waiting for the traffic light to change on my comute to work, I was reading my email on my phone (oh, you do it too) and came across this: 

Hi Monica,

We just posted an article, “77 Mouth-Watering Baking Blogs You Need to Bookmark”  I thought I’d bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting.

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