Cookery tips and techniques

Lately I have been experiencing to teach myself on how to cook meals on a lower budget.  Basically it's cheaper to purchase meat packs from your local supermarket and add meal packets (sauce) and/or vegetables. Also those pasta packs where you just add milk and water are great value for the family.  I had use these for a long time on days I have a busy schedule.  Add meat and/or vegetables can make the pasta meal more tasty.

Someone in a goggle group forward some cruisine tips and techniques which I thought it was worthwhile sharing on my blog. 

Peel the rind off citrus before juicing, or using the fruit and, store in the fridge to use in a plastic bag, or it even freezes well.

Perfect cuts:
Use an electric knife to slice through cinnamon roll dough rather then a serrated knife or dental floss.
the electric knife doesn't smash or tear the dough.

Coffee Treats:
When you have leftover whipped cream, place it in a pastry bag with a star tip and pipe it onto parchment paper on a baking sheet and freeze.  When frozen, transfer them into freezer bags and they are ready to top hot drinks, or desserts as needed.

Hollowing Tomatoes:
Use a small 1/4 tsp metal measuring spoon.
First remove stem, then cut into the tomato with the edge of the spoon.
Scoop out seeds with the bowl of the spoon.

Grate Butter
When making scones or biscuits, grate butter on the large hole side of a cheese greater instead of cutting
it with a knife. Makes the whole process easier and less messy. You will find that scones will come out better too.
Hold the butter by the wrapper and to prevent it from melting from the warmth of your hands.

Instant soft butter:
To soften butter quickly, place it in a resealable plastic bag, and use a rolling pin to beat and flatten the butter.  It softens very quickly then.

Sticky Situation:
Bottles with sticky contents, corn syrup, honey, maple syrup, etc: can be a hassle to keep reopening.
So, before using the bottle for the first time, wipe the thread with a light coating of cooking oil.
The lid will never stick and won't be difficult to open again.

Easy Chile Seeding:
To seed jalapenos without gloves, cut off both ends of the chile.
Stand it on a cutting board and slice down it's sides, removing the flesh around the core.
Discard the core with the seeds.

Chocolate Grating:
When you need just a bit of chocolate for sauces, ganache or a quick topping, try using a graters large holes.
Hold the chocolate by the wrapper to keep from melting.
To store, seal the grated chocolate in a plastic bag and keep in a cool dark place. Not fridge or freezer.

Roll out the Salad
Salad dressing is not much good when tossed with a bowl full of wet geens.
Here's a solution when doing small amounts and you don't want to use the salad spinner for just two small salads.
Wash greens, and lay them on a clean towel and roll them up like jelly roll fashion, then unroll and make a salad with dry lettuce.  If you do a larger amount, to keep stored in the fridge, the towel will absorb water and then slowly feed it back to the leaves, keeping them fresh for up to a week.
The result is crisp, clean and dry salad that will not have rust spots.

Buying and selling assets

Over two decades ago I learnt about buying and selling items at school.  I knew some point in my life as an adult I will experience buying and selling a car and/or a house.  But this year it seems it was both the car and a house.  My new car is now 9 months old and going very well still. 

On the other hand selling the house is abit more of a challenge.  We first purchased this house privately from a relative 11 years and now we decide to sell for personal reasons.  It's our first time to sell a house.  We are going through a real estate agent. And what a headache is!  The hardest part is to always keep the house respectable for protential buyers. 

In September we had the house on the market. In the first week it was supposely been sold to a young couple.  But afte the building inspection was completed, this couple had a change of heart in buying. It shattered my dreams as I had planned to move by now. Afterwards we had another person interested in buying but they had issues of getting finance.

After the building inspection was done we had to make some changes.  Also the market value was reduced as some people thought the price tag was abit too high for this general area of buying.

Sometimes I can't make plans to do things as I never know when the real estate agent will phone to say a protential buyer is coming over.  This week alone we had four protentials. Might have found a buyer as they are interested in our house.  We should know by Monday if we got lucky with this sale.

Here's a fact sheet to share for anyone who plans on buying their house for the first time.    http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumerprotection/PDF/Real_Estate_industry/Publications/Industry_Publication/Buying_home_through_agent_2011_WEB.pdf