Get Your Dry Ingredients Super Fine

Most macaron recipes will tell you to sift your dry ingredients so they get as fine as possible, which helps your macaron shells come out smooth instead of lumpy. To make sure things get super duper fine, you can even pulse them in a food processor.

Do the Figure 8 Test

One of the most sensitive parts of making macarons is not over-mixing the batter so you don’t accidentally end up with deflated cookies. But how can you tell if your batter is mixed enough to pipe? That’s where the figure eight test comes in. Try drawing a figure eight in your batter bowl with the batter flowing off of your spatula. If you can complete the entire eight, the batter has been mixed long enough. If not, keep mixing.

Tap Your Baking Sheet to Remove Air Bubbles

It may be a bit nerve-racking, but one of the last steps before you bake your macaron shells is to tap the baking sheet on a hard surface a few times. This flattens out the shells, removes air bubbles, and assures your macarons will come out shaped perfectly.

The post Making Macarons for the First Time? Follow These 3 Tips appeared first on thedancingcucumber.com.

It is very friendly for the home cooks, inexpensive, and widely available in supermarkets. This is the spaghetti squash. 

It is quite easy to grow spaghetti squash in a home environment, as it can be grown both in a planter and in the garden. This squash should be  planted in the spring and harvested in the fall.

Spaghetti squash is often eaten in its baked form. It is sometimes served after it has been heated in the microwave, boiled in water, or cooked by steaming.

The seeds of the spaghetti pumpkin are also edible after roasting.

To make a delicious spaghetti squash easily, just cut it in half, drain the seeds and cook it in the microwave for 10-15 minutes until its contents are soft and separate from the peel.

Mix the contents of the cooked squash with olive oil, fresh thyme, and oregano, and serve on cooked pasta with lots and lots of parmesan, as a side dish or even on fresh sourdough bread.

The post Get To Know The Spaghetti Squash appeared first on thedancingcucumber.com.

Salt

Salt is something that every food needs, but with potatoes, it’s a different story completely. Especially if you’re frying potatoes in any way, shape, or form, you need to be salting them well. A lot of people when they fry potatoes they don’t know that they need to salt them after they’ve come out of the oil, but if you don’t you’ll have a severely underseasoned dish.

Baked Potato

Although a baked potato seems like a really straightforward way to cook a potato, a lot of people don’t really know how to make it properly. When you’re done cooking a baked potato, the inside should almost be like mashed potatoes, which is the sign of a truly good baked potato. Luckily, it’s easy to do!

Just prick the potato all around it, rub some olive oil on it, season with salt and pepper, and then bake right on the rack at 350F for at least an hour, all the way up to 1 1/4 hours until the skin is super crispy and the inside is beyond soft.

The post Here’s How to Make Your Potatoes Taste Better appeared first on thedancingcucumber.com.

Get Your Dry Ingredients Super Fine

Most macaron recipes will tell you to sift your dry ingredients so they get as fine as possible, which helps your macaron shells come out smooth instead of lumpy. To make sure things get super duper fine, you can even pulse them in a food processor.

Do the Figure 8 Test

One of the most sensitive parts of making macarons is not over-mixing the batter so you don’t accidentally end up with deflated cookies. But how can you tell if your batter is mixed enough to pipe? That’s where the figure eight test comes in. Try drawing a figure eight in your batter bowl with the batter flowing off of your spatula. If you can complete the entire eight, the batter has been mixed long enough. If not, keep mixing.

Tap Your Baking Sheet to Remove Air Bubbles

It may be a bit nerve-racking, but one of the last steps before you bake your macaron shells is to tap the baking sheet on a hard surface a few times. This flattens out the shells, removes air bubbles, and assures your macarons will come out shaped perfectly.

The post Making Macarons for the First Time? Follow These 3 Tips appeared first on thedancingcucumber.com.

It is very friendly for the home cooks, inexpensive, and widely available in supermarkets. This is the spaghetti squash. 

It is quite easy to grow spaghetti squash in a home environment, as it can be grown both in a planter and in the garden. This squash should be  planted in the spring and harvested in the fall.

Spaghetti squash is often eaten in its baked form. It is sometimes served after it has been heated in the microwave, boiled in water, or cooked by steaming.

The seeds of the spaghetti pumpkin are also edible after roasting.

To make a delicious spaghetti squash easily, just cut it in half, drain the seeds and cook it in the microwave for 10-15 minutes until its contents are soft and separate from the peel.

Mix the contents of the cooked squash with olive oil, fresh thyme, and oregano, and serve on cooked pasta with lots and lots of parmesan, as a side dish or even on fresh sourdough bread.

The post Get To Know The Spaghetti Squash appeared first on thedancingcucumber.com.

Salt

Salt is something that every food needs, but with potatoes, it’s a different story completely. Especially if you’re frying potatoes in any way, shape, or form, you need to be salting them well. A lot of people when they fry potatoes they don’t know that they need to salt them after they’ve come out of the oil, but if you don’t you’ll have a severely underseasoned dish.

Baked Potato

Although a baked potato seems like a really straightforward way to cook a potato, a lot of people don’t really know how to make it properly. When you’re done cooking a baked potato, the inside should almost be like mashed potatoes, which is the sign of a truly good baked potato. Luckily, it’s easy to do!

Just prick the potato all around it, rub some olive oil on it, season with salt and pepper, and then bake right on the rack at 350F for at least an hour, all the way up to 1 1/4 hours until the skin is super crispy and the inside is beyond soft.

The post Here’s How to Make Your Potatoes Taste Better appeared first on thedancingcucumber.com.