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Tasty, Time-Saving Kitchen Tips from LV’s Home Chefs

ham2We asked some of La Verne’s best home cooks to share their favorite kitchen tips with La Verne Online. Here are their Top 10 most ingenious solutions:

If you plan to boil several eggs and store them in the refrigerator for later use, add a few drops of food coloring when the eggs start to boil, so you can tell them apart from the uncooked ones. – Laurie Tettleton

To keep mealy moths out of your grain products, put whole bay leaves in each container. Also place them at the back of the shelf. Moths hate the smell of bay leaves. — Jodie Haley

Never salt meat before cooking. It will draw out all the juices and toughen it. — Mario Mirbaha, owner of the Pizza Barn

To keep your fruits and vegetables from browning, use enough water to cover the vegetables along with the juice of one lemon or lime. Rubbing cut services with lemon juice also prevents browning. Cover your fruits and vegetables with plastic to lock out air getting to the flesh, which causes browning. – Linda Logan

As a stand-in for buttermilk, place two tablespoons of lemon juice in a glass measure, then add enough low-fat milk to equal 1 cup.  — Cheryl MacDonald

To remove fat from soups or gravies, take the outside leaves from a Romaine lettuce which you would normally throw away and wipe them over the soup or gravy.   The fat adheres to the leaf beautifully. – Joannn Lammens

Just in time for Easter. It may sound a little strange, but it works. To bake a moist ham, pour a can of Coke into the baking pan, cover with aluminum foil and bake.  Remove the foil 30 minutes before the end of cooking time.   The drippings combined with Coke provide a delicious brown base for gravy. – Colleen Bennett

Use a small funnel to easily and quickly separate an egg. The egg white will slip through, while the yolk will stay in the funnel. Cheaper than Egg Beaters. – Kathy McClellan

When you have cooking odors you would like to get rid of, boil a few cinnamon sticks in water for a few minutes.– Kristen McClellan

For quick frosting on a cake or pan of brownies, sprinkle a 12-oz. bag of chocolate chips on top while the cake is still warm. Let it sit for a few minutes, the chips will be soft enough to spread. Try using mint chocolate chips, too! — Randi Marshall