Wednesday Fun: This is NOT the Swedish Chef You're Thinking Of

I...um...well. How to intro this one?

This link is from our beloved Kashka_z.

And it has bacon.

...and a man smearing butter on a pan with his feet.

...while speaking Swenglish?

Go watch it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3d-qENAaNbM

Wednesday Fun #74 - Tricks of the Trade

Brown sugar here is CRAZY expensive. So, imagine my surprise when I ordered some brown sugar from the commissary in Japan only to find it packaged in wax paper and a cardboard box! (C&H brand). I mean, shouldn't it always be put in an airtight package to prevent it from turning into a block?!? Sheesh!

When it did turn into a hard block, I placed the brown sugar in a Ziploc along with an unpeeled, but scored in 2-3 places, apple for two days. Voila! Soft brown sugar again.

I remember learning this trick in 7th grade Home Ec (The class was actually called "Foods" and was a requirement for everyone. I still have the cook book.)

Anyway, this got me to thinking, what other tricks have you used in the kitchen to possibly save some food item, clean baked on grease, whatever? Feel free to post them as a response or in a seperate post with the tag "Tips and Hints".

Because it's not all fabulous successes...

I just felt the need to vent to my Recipeeples. Ever have one of those days where nothing goes right in the kitchen because you're either not paying attention or just having a stupid day?

Tonight I thawed some frozen pumpkin puree to make this year's very last pie. It seemed a bit off, but I'd already blended the eggs and cream by that point, so I figured I had little to lose. Sure enough, the puree texture had gone grainy, and I don't have very high hopes for the pie.

Then I made a butternut squash curry for lunches for the week. The recipe called for one medium squash, about 4 lbs. (Where do these people get their squash?!? That's a big butternut in my world!) So I halved the recipe. Except then peeling and chopping up the squash and potatoes took so long that I forgot I was halving the recipe and put the full amount of liquid in. And then realized I didn't actually have curry powder, so I had to make my own version up (coriander, cumin, turmeric, chili pepper, garlic, ginger? uh...damn).

And I scratched under my eye after dicing a jalepeno.