Did You Know?

I have collected some cooking and cleaning facts/tips from reading cooking blogs and cookbooks. I hope these are useful, and feel free to share your own. You're smart (after all, you're reading this blog) and I just love hearing from you. I have loved "meeting" some of you through your comments, and hope to "chat" with more of you!

I've mentioned this before, but it's a fact that bears repeating:
- Try to leave your crockpot alone. If you lift the lid to take a peek, it adds 20 minutes of cooking time to your meal. I am so guilty of this, but now that I know that it actually adds this much time, I hope I will be able to restrain myself.

- "But I don't have any buttermilk!!!" Do you ever start a recipe to find there is an ingredient you don't have? GASP!! Buttermilk always gets me. I NEVER have buttermilk. Thankfully, buttermilk has an easy substitution- Simply add 1 Tbsp. vinegar and enough milk to make 1 cup. Let it sit for 5 minutes and it can be used in place of buttermilk.
This is a great site that lists all kinds of substitutions.

- Did you know you can make your own laundry detergent? And when you do, it comes out to cost 1 penny/load of laundry. NO, not a typo, 1 cent. This woman is serious about her money-saving, and she is always sharing some good tips.

- Here's a problem I know I have had. I have plenty of food in the house, but no idea what to cook for dinner. Help is on the way!! On a great recipe site, called Allrecipes, you can search by ingredients. Plug in some ingredients that you have or want to cook with- you can also plug in ingredients you don't want- and they will bring up recipes with those specific ingredients in it. I have used this feature before, and it is great!!

Check back tomorrow for iCook's First Giveaway winners and thanks to all who took the time to participate!