Last year I had the honor of working with Kraft Velveeta creating the winning recipe, Shrimp Stroganoff Casserole and this year I’m honored to say I’m a VELVEETA it Kitchenista!  Me and 4 other bloggers were asked to take part in a campaign to bring you Velveeta recipes and tips & advice to help make your dinner a success!

Each Kitchenista is designated a day of the week and theme. Mine is Wednesday for Waste Not Want Not and focuses on leftovers. From September 28, 2009, through October 30, 2009, you can check out VELVEETA Kitchenistas and meet the gals, check out their ideas and have the opportunity to enter a daily qualified sweepstakes for a chance to win a VELVEETA it! Prize package complete with a $25 grocery gift card, Cuisinart skillet, VELVEETA cookbook, loaf saver and product coupon.

Become a fan of the VELVEETA Facebook community for mealtime inspiration, including new recipes and variations of current favorites.  I’ll also be on the Velveeta page throughout my designated day to help you with any questions you might have or just chat with ya!

Be sure to check out some of my past favorites using Velveeta too!

• Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Rice Casserole
• Chicken Fajita Burrito Casserole
• Ultimate Party Cheese Dip
• Mexi-Meal Casserole

First and foremost, the winner of the chili twister is………….HOLLY!  Congrats Holly, I told my son to pick a number between 1 and 26….my son picked number 11 and that’s your comment #!  Contact me with your mailing address please.

Now for today’s tips!  Some may find this useful and some won’t.  It’s been handy for me a time or two.

4 cups will fit into:

• 8-inch round cake pan
• 9-inch round pie pan
• 9-inch pie pan
• 4 x 8 x 2 3/4-inch loaf pan (small)

5 cups will fit into:

• 7 x 11 x 1 3/4-inch pan
• 10-inch pie pan

6 cups will fit into:

• 8 x 8 x 2-inch square pan
• 5 x 9 x 3 1/4-inch loaf pan (large)

8 cups will fit into:

• 9 x 9 x 2 1/4-inch casserole
• 7 1/2 x 11 3/4 x 2-inch pan

12 cups will fit into:

• 8 1/2 x 13 1/2 x 2 1/2-inch glass dish
• 9 x 13 x 2-inch pan

Today’s tips will revolve around baking. I LOVE to bake but hate the clean up;)  BTW–I give tips every Tuesday!!

• If you like to use insulated baking sheets, don’t run out to the store to buy them; you can simulate them by stacking one regular cookie sheet over another. Be especially careful when you take them out of the oven; the top sheet should be removed first.
• Bread Baking – Brush melted butter over the tops of breads and biscuits as soon as they are removed from the oven. This will make the crust soft and full of flavor.
• Freeze stale bread and then make croutons. Toast the bread first until it is crispy. Brush the bread slices with melted butter and sprinkle on garlic or onion powder, or your favorite herb blend. Then cut the bread into small cubes for croutons.
• Use an ice cream scoop to drop cookie dough. Your cookies will be uniform size and will bake evenly. If the dough is sticky, dip the scoop into water between scoops.
• Remove baked brownies from the pan and frost them upside down. They will cut easily into squares.
• Almost any quick bread can also be used to make muffins. Instead of making the bread into loaves, just put the batter into muffin cups (spray first) and bake at a slightly higher (25?) temperature. You also need to bake them a shorter length of time than a loaf.
• Add a pinch of baking soda to your frosting and the frosting will stay moist and prevent cracking.
• Do you bake pies? Especially Meringue? To stop the meringue from shrinking away from the sides of the pies, be sure that when you put the meringue on top, you make sure it touches the pastry all around the edge. This way, it will bake onto the pastry and will not shrink!
• Baking Cakes? Do you have a recipe for cake flour, but you only have all purpose flour on hand? Take your all purpose flour and sift the flour about 5 times! There, now you have cake flour!

Finally, if you have leftover cookie dough be sure to enjoy eating every last bite of it!

With the holiday season around the corner, baking will be overtaking the kitchen.  A couple of thing you can do to make the clean up a breeze are:

• Use those nonstick liners for your baking sheets!  Most of them are reuseable but because I’m lazy, I just use them and toss them.  It saves me some time from having to wash those pans that I’ll making those cookies on!
• You’ve seen Rachael Ray’s garbage bowl, right?  Well, I do use that but I add a grocery bag or two inside the bowl, so when I’m done, I can just tie the bag up and throw it away. 

Here are a few tips that will make things better or easier. These have been passed down through generations so you know they work;)

Bacon - Minimize bacon shrinkage by running bacon under water before frying.

Beans – A tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda in a large pot of beans while soaking them, the ‘flatulence’ caused by the beans is kept to a minimum.

Boiling eggs - Add a little salt or vinegar to your boiling water when cooking eggs; a cracked egg will stay in its shell this way.

Boiling Over - Rub butter or margarine on the rim of a pot in which you cook rice or macaroni and it won’t boil over.

Cakes - A cake will keep longer if you place half an apple in the cake tin when storing.

Chocolate cake – Make a better chocolate cake by adding a teaspoon of vinegar to your cake mix.

Corn - Don’t boil corn for more than 3 minutes. Place the corn directly into boiling water, and do not add salt. You will find the flavor is much better than cooking for 10 minutes or more. Corn will never get soft, no matter how long you cook it-it will only lose its taste.

Descaling fish – Soak fish in salt water before descaling and the scales will come off easier.

Frozen Vegetables - A quick way to separate frozen vegetables is to pour boiling water over them through a colander and then add them to your casserole or pot to finish cooking.

Grating Cheese - To easily shred cheese, let sit in freezer for 30 minutes.

Icing Tips - Add a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to your icing and the icing will stay moist and prevent cracking.

Jelly Mold - To easily remove a jelly from the mold, lightly brush mold with oil before pouring in the mixture.

Meatballs - When making a lot of meatballs a fast and simple method is to shape the meat mixture into a log and cut off slices. The slices roll easily into balls.

Pancakes – Adding a little sugar to the batter of pancakes and waffles will make them brown more quickly.

Pie pastry - For flakier pastry, substitute 1 teaspoon vinegar for 1 teaspoon of the cold water called for in the recipe.

Ripening Fruits and Vegetables – A lots of fruit and veg found in supermarkets today look ripe, but are hard as a rock. Put them in a brown paper bag and hide the bag away in a dark cupboard for a day or two. Use This is great tip for items such as avocados, bananas, kiwi fruit, peaches, nectarines, and many more.

Salads – Serve iceberg lettuce wedges instead of torn salad greens to save time making a salad.

Spaghetti Sauce – Put a pinch of bicarbonate of soda in spaghetti sauce to remove the acid taste from the tomatoes.

Speedy Sauce – Instant sauces can be easily created by heating a can of undiluted condensed cream soup (i.e. cream of tomato cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, cream of celery, etc.).

Soups – To remove some of the fat in soups by add a lettuce leaf to the pot. Remove the leaf after fat removal. Place a raw potato in salty soup. The potato will absorb the extra salt.

Tenderize meat – One to two table spoons of vinegar with your meat help tenderize it while you are cooking.

Vanilla – Make your own vanilla concentrate by placing 2 split and chopped vanilla pods in 1 liter of vodka or bourbon. Shaking the bottle once a day, let sit for 2-3 months, or until desired color.

Vinegar used as a meat tenderizer - Add a tablespoon to water when boiling ribs or meat for stews, and even the toughest meat will be so tender you can cut with fork or will fall off the bone.

Vegetable colour – Add vinegar to the water when boiling vegetables to retain color.

Wilted vegetables - Perk up wilted vegetables. Soak in 2 cups water, 1 tablespoon vinegar.

Wooden Skewers – When using wooden skewers for kebabs, soak in cold water for 10-30 minutes to prevent them from burning.