I’m here with a quick and easy tip that I know most of you may already know, but for those who don’t, this could change the way you prep your avocados – in my mind, for the better!

To remove the pit, first cut the avocado in half around the pit, twisting so you have two halves. One will be pit free, but the other you’ll need to remove the pit. Using your chef’s knife, carefully holding the avocado in one hand, quickly drive the base of the chef’s knife into the pit, as shown above. Make sure your hand/fingers are behind the avocado, so you don’t drive the knife into any extremities! Then, still holding the avocado, twist it one way, the knife the other. The pit should pop right out.

To remove the pit from the knife (more…)

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Quick tip by Courtney

It’s one of those tips that it seems everyone knows, until you hear from that one person who doesn’t. And to them it’s mind-blowing, earth-shattering… okay, maybe not. But it’s super-neat and cool! Or, maybe just really handy.

So with that in mind, I share the flavor-enhancer-in-an-ice-cube-tray trick. When you have bits of liquid or semi-liquid things left over (or if you just want to perfectly portion a huge batch of something), pour into an ice cube tray and freeze. Each cube usually yields 1 to 2 tablespoons of whatever. You could do this with stocks for those recipes that call for 1 tablespoon here or there, leftover wine, citrus juices, or, as I’ve done here, my pesto. These are perfect for a serving of pasta or tossing into a baked egg. (more…)

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Prep for Later Use, Quick tip by Courtney

For quite some time I had heard of the method to roast peppers, but I didn’t think it could be nearly as easy as it sounds. Char it over a flame (or under a broiler) on all sides, remove and place into a ziploc bag for about 10 minutes, then you’ll magically be able to peel it with no problems.

Guess what? It really is that easy! Once I tried it, it was an epiphany for me. No more expensive jars of roasted peppers when I could do it myself. I’m partial to throwing it on my gas grill instead of using the oven. Sometimes this leads to me forgetting I have something going on the grill, though; last week it stayed on there for about an hour (now that was charred). Not so easy to peel at that point. Moral of the story – don’t forget about your pepper!

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Cooking outdoors, Dairy free, Gluten free, Quick tip, Vegan, Vegetarian by Courtney

If you want to make things really easy on yourself, prep your ginger in advance. When you get home from the store, use a spoon to scrape the skin off of the ginger. This removes only the peel, without wasting the meat of the root (note: it works best with really fresh ginger; if your ginger is a bit older, you might still need to break out the paring knife). Then, pop the root into a freezer bag, label it “ginger” (because you’ll get it confused with horseradish later on), and stick it in the freezer. Now when your recipe calls for grated ginger, bust out the microplane, grab your ginger from the freezer, and zest away. Soooo much easier than mincing by hand with a knife!

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Prep for Later Use by Courtney