Unless a recipe specifically calls for a red onion, I only cook with sweet onions - Wala Walas, Mayans, Vidalias. Taste is great and they won’t make you cry when you cut them! More expensive than yellow onions, but worth it.
If I don’t have a particular herb or spice on hand for a recipe, or if I do not like that particular herb/spice it calls for, I leave it out. You can never go wrong with your basic flavors - onion, garlic, salt, pepper.
If you’re running late and you have nothing thawed for dinner, don’t panic. Place frozen meat in a ziptop bag and place in a sink full of hot water. Turn every so often to thaw all sides and freshen with hotter water if needed. A bag of 2-4 chicken breasts will be thawed in 20 minutes or less. In the mean time, chop/prep everything else for dinner.
I find recipes that call for 1/4 - 1.5 cups of buttermilk but I can’t buy buttermilk in a container smaller than a quart! So I “make” my own. For every 1 cup of buttermilk needed, put 1 tsp of white vinegar in 1 cup of regular milk. Mix and let sit at least 5 minutes. Although this will not achieve the thickness of buttermilk, it will achieve the taste.
Only poultry and ground meats need to be cooked all the way through. Beef, lamb and pork do not.
Save leftover veggies in a bag or container in the freezer. When you have enough, make veggie soup with your homemade chicken stock!
Have a pan with cooked on, black stuff in the bottom? Don’t waste energy scrubbing it! Pour 1 inch of water into the pan or pot and put it back on the stove to boil. Bring it to a boil to loosen up the cooked on gunk and then use a wooden spoon or spatula to scrape or push up the rest while it boils. Dump water and gunk down the drain, and clean as usual. :o)
Use kitchen shears to trim fat off of raw meat. Much easier than using a knife.
