If you missed it, here’s Part 1 on how to save a few bucks in the kitchen. These are just some small tips and ideas that I use to stretch a few bucks when I buy and prepare meals and food for my family.

Add something cheap. I don’t mean cheap in quality, but something that’s just usually inexpensive. When we make homemade burritos, I used to have to use two pounds of ground beef to get a decent sized burrito for each of us, but I hated using so much meat for one meal. Now I use one of my …read more

Everyone has tips and ideas that they like to share on how to save money around the house. One of my favorite places to see if I can save a few bucks is in the kitchen. There are the old standbys, like using coupons or reusing disposable containers, and I’ve got a few that I’ve done for a few years that I’ve found help us out when times are lean.

Invest in a kitchen scale. We buy our ground beef and ground turkey in bulk, in packages of five or so pounds each. A kitchen scale lets me get exactly …read more

Enter the America’s Test Kitchen $10,000 Sweepstakes. You have a chance to win $5000 worth of recommended kitchen appliances AND $5000 in cash.
Some of the recommended kitchen appliances prizes are :
Boning Knife Victorinox Forscher Fibrox 6-Inch Boning Knife
Meat Cleaver Global® 6-Inch Meat Cleaver
Mandoline OXO® Good Grips V-Blade Mandoline Slicer
Oyster Knife OXO® Good Grips Oyster Knife
Carving Board Williams-Sonoma Medium Reversible Carving Board
Cutting Board Totally Bamboo® Congo
Electric Knife Sharpener Chef’s Choice Professional Sharpening Station 130
Dutch Oven Le Creuset 7 1/4-Quart Round French Oven
Large Saucepan All-Clad Stainless 4-Quart Saucepan
Small Saucepan Calphalon Contemporary Nonstick Short & Saucy 2 1/2 Quart Shallow Saucepan with Cover
Rimmed …read more

I use chopsticks a lot with my Asian food. Either in restaurants or at home. My husband actually got me gold-pleated chopsticks from Korea which I haven’t used and probably never will. It’ll be just for display. IN any case, I love buying different chopsticks to use or for display in my china cabinet. I have an Oriental theme going on in my kitchen so it makes sense, plus I’m Asian as well .
These pencil chopsticks from MoMA aren’t actually pencils. they’re just designed to look that way. The chopsticks are made of ramin wood. A set of 8 …read more

I’m Asian. I was brought up in the Philippines eating lots and lots of Asian food. Some food that smelled normal to me are revolting according to my English Hubby. I suppose I can’t fault him for that not having been exposed to these kinds of different smells. He hates the smell of frying dried fish.

In order for me to still enjoy the food from my homeland, I find ways to eliminate kitchen smells. One of the most effective ways of doing this is by simmering a teaspoon of vanilla essence on a cup of water in a small saucepan.
Works …read more

It’s 9pm here – and I’m waiting for dinner.
See, the thing is that I am usually the cook here. But tonight, Paul decided he would cook. Recently Paul has been watching The Food Network and has decided that Gordon Ramsay is his role model for all things kitchen-related. Earlier today he brought home two cookbooks by Ramsay and had to make three trips to different grocery stores before he found all the necessary ingredients for his three course masterpiece.
Cooking for me is about function. I don’t particularly like it…but I do it because we’re trying to save money and have …read more

Southern cuisine queen Paula Deen was on the Today Show earlier this week, live from International Home & Housewares show in Chicago.
Paula talks about changing the look of your kitchen by changing what you put in it, instead of doing a whole makeover. This year’s trend, she says, is all about color and that red is currently the #1 choice for colored pots and pans.
She also mentions some fun kid-sized tools, specifically for gardening, and of course she’s found some fun stuff for the 8 dogs in her life, too!
I especially like the new foil bags the Paula talks …read more

This was another one of those reports that I read and just say, “Um, duh?” but evidently it’s been scientifically proven that microwaving your kitchen sponge can kill germs and potentially harmful bacteria.
“Basically, what we find is that we could knock out most bacteria in two minutes,” says researcher Gabriel Bitton, professor of environmental engineering at the University of Florida, in a news release. “People often put their sponges and scrubbers in the dishwasher, but if they really want to decontaminate them and not just clean them, they should use the microwave.”
Have you ever microwaved your sponge or dishcloth? …read more