There is More Than One Way to Flip Garlic Toast

There is always more than one way to do something. My husband and I have a running joke that garlic toast tastes different if you flip it with a fork instead of a flipper (we could debate whether it is called a flipper, a turner or a spatula. but that could take all day. Call it what you want. It’s a device that flips pancakes, burgers, or in this case, garlic toast).  Years ago, before we had kids, I was making garlic toast one night. You know, the kind that comes in a box in the freezer section. I must have asked my husband to flip them. While he was flipping them with a fork, I came into the kitchen and immediately said, “Why are you using a fork?”. He looked at me like I was crazy and said, “Because you told me to flip them. Do they taste different because I flipped them with a fork?” I responded,  “Of course they don’t taste different, that’s just not how I do it.”

It almost pains me to say this, but my way is not the only way to do something. I like to be in control. Maybe some of you can relate to that. I have realized it is important to be open minded when someone has a different way of doing things. Other people’s ideas have been especially helpful to me when it comes to cooking and baking.

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I like pie crusts made a certain way

Every year, in the fall, I help out with a bake sale fundraiser for work.  I make a lot of pies for this bake sale. Usually I enlist the help of my mom.  At work I am known as the pie lady, and I often have people asking me to reserve a pie or two for them.  I have always made pie crusts with a pastry blender. That is how my mom taught me, but I know you can make pie crusts in a food processor. In fact, I have this cookbook. It has a ton of pie crust recipes that all give instructions on how to make the crust in a food processor. I just need to try it out. It could be better to make pie crusts that way. Stay tuned for a future post about how it goes.

My kids have their own way of doing things

When my kids help me in the kitchen it’s important for me to remember that their way of doing things is not wrong. It’s okay to let them experiment and see what works and what doesn’t. That is how they learn. It’s also okay to let them make mistakes.  I need to heed my own advice from one of my recent blog post, You can not be afraid of making mistakes, everyone makes them. You also can not be afraid to try new things for fear of failure. If I let fear keep me from trying new things, I never would have started this blog.

Taste of Home cooking school’s way of doing things

A couple of years ago I went to a Taste of Home cooking school event. My great friend Paige and I went together, and we had a blast. Going into this cooking school, I was a bit full of myself and thought, “Could they really teach me a bunch of things I don’t already know?” The answer is yes. I learned all kinds of tips.

Tips I learned at the Taste of Home cooking school:

• When you are spraying a cookie sheet, or any pan, with cooking spray, hold the pan over your dishwasher door while you spray it. Obviously, make sure it is a dirty dishwasher. This way, you won’t get cooking spray all over your counter and it will wash off of your dishwasher when you run it the next time.  Seriously, genius. When I was doing it my way, I was totally getting cooking spray all over my counter top. Dare I say it, someone else’s way was better than mine. Who knew there was more than one way to spray a cookie sheet?
• Spray your measuring spoon with cooking spray before measuring out anything sticky, such as maple syrup, honey, or corn syrup. It just slides right off the spoon. It baffles me that I never thought of this before.
• When cutting a bell pepper, cut off the bottom first. Then, with the cut part flat on the cutting board, slice off each side of the pepper. This way all of the seeds and the stem will come off in one piece. I used to cut out the stem first, cut it in half and have to dump the seeds out. The seeds would always get stuck and it would be a mess.
• They taught us how to chop an onion as well. I would try to type up an explanation, but Taste of Home explains it better than I could here.