Baking Chocolate
We've been on a hunt for high quality chocolate that doesn't cost and arm and a leg. We use lots so we want a source that sells pounds at reduced rates. I recently bought the Ghiradelli below from Amazon (ironically, it's currently available in the health and beauty section--go figure). It's small round pieces that melt easily. It comes in bittersweet, semisweet and unsweeted. I used the bittersweet and it worked well. It has a strong, intense chocolate flavor with a bit of a almond or coconut taste that's not overpowering. Great for baking.
I also bought some bittersweet and semisweet from Trader Joes. It comes in an 18 oz bar, I believe. I was expecting it to be mediocre at best (I think I paid $6 or $7 for the bar). But it was actually quite good. It's got notches in it so its easy to chop with the chocolate fork.
Chick peas
Tired of hard chick peas? Cook them with a bit of baking soda. It works miracles. In fact, I was skeptical of this approach but I cooked my dried chick peas for 4 hours and they still had this bite to them. I looked back at the recipe and saw that it called for baking soda which I hadn't done. I added the baking soda and within 20 minutes the chick peas were almost velvety smooth.
Eggs
Have extra large eggs and the recipe calls for large? Or large eggs and you need medium? Don't worry about the differences in size up until you need more than three eggs. Then you have to figure out quantities. Think that a large egg is 1/4 cup. Then start measuring!
Squeezing and Peeling citrus
This may sound obvious but for people like me who often miss the obvious, I'm passing on this tip. Get the peel you need for the recipe before you squeeze! If you don't remember and you realize you've got to get some peel off that squeezed half of citrus, you can do it, but it won't work very well (unless you've got one of those microplanes!) Other squeezing tips--cold citrus? Microwave for 15 seconds or so, roll on the counter and you'll get lots more juice. 1/2 a good lemon will give you about 1 1/2 T juice. Light citrus is going to have less juice so try to find the heavier fruit. Finally, if you often find yourself without fresh juice when a recipe calls for it, freeze it. Just squeeze some juice into ice cube trays, freeze and bag. (Measure the ice cube cup first so you'll know just how much juice each cube contains).
