As Seen on Food Fortunes -- Can you measure flour?
plllog
9 years ago
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Islay Corbel
9 years agoRelated Discussions
Where Do You Store Your Canned Foods?
Comments (33)Storage is a problem, especially when the house is small. Our house is single wall construction (vertical one inch thick boards where the outside of the board is the outside of the house and the inside of the board is the interior of the house - it works best in warm climates), however, when we remodeled the bath house (a separate building since the house didn't originally have plumbing) we put in "double wall" (2" x 4" stud) construction. I have found that canning jars fit real nice on shelves set between the studs. Loads of storage space is hiding in the walls. If you have any, tear out some of that drywall, put shelves in the wall and then new drywall panels hinged to hide with push latches or cabinet doors set into the wall. Presto! Instant invisible storage. I'm also planning on building a cabinet to fit the bigger pickle jars used for dry storage since those jars are too big to fit anywhere else. Since our house is old, the traditional "pie safe" style of cabinet is easy to build and fits right in. We also have earthquakes, so having the jars hide behind cabinet doors improves their survival rate. My friend strung wires across her shelves and her canned goods survived the last 6.7 earthquake. The wires aren't very visible and about two or three inches from the shelf. She said if the wires hadn't been there, she didn't think there would have been anything left on the shelves at all....See MoreDo you prepare and measure your food before cooking?
Comments (26)It depends on what it is and if I am going to have help from my husband to do the cutting and chopping. I try to plan things like that when he is around to do the chopping. I just can't do much of that anymore. For some things I can use my food processor or slicer chopper. Baking which I don't do a lot I do follow the directions and do exact measurements but regular cooking I rarely measure which is why it is hard for me to give someone one of my recipes I have to stop and think about how much of each thing I use. I cook by feel and experience, been doing something so long you just know it, I do it my way. I do at times buy the containers of fresh chopped veggies and onions etc at the grocery especially if I think I will need it and he won't be there to help. Today I have a huge roaster pot in the oven filled to the brim with fresh cut okra(they had it all cut and ready at the grocery) and onions and tomatoes, cooking it down to have some for dinner but mostly to divide up into portions just right for making gumbo then put them in the freezer. Time for gumbo grab one and toss it in the pot of gumbo voila perfect okra gumbo. Did I mention how much we love smothered okra onions and tomatoes? OMG and it is smelling really good. I picked up the containers of fresh chopped onions at the store since I knew I would be starting this while he was at work. I like those much better than the bags of the frozen ones. When you have those kinds of problems you have to do what it takes to deal with it. It cost more to buy them cut up, I'm willing to pay it when I have to....See MoreFirst I had to throw away the frozen food, now the flour...
Comments (17)Like anoriginal says, the bugs were already there. The female weevil lays eggs in the wheat kernel and it can sometimes survive the milling process. The eggs will hatch if they’re in warm or humid conditions, or have reached their maturity. The flour bugs eat the grain and then seek to mate… while eating more grain. How do these pests get into our food? Occasionally, some may find their way inside from outdoors; however, the majority of these pests are in food products brought into the home. The initial infestation can originate at the processing plant, the warehouse, the delivery vehicle, or the retail store (chances of becoming infested increase the longer a food item is stored at the same location). Beetles and moths have four stages in their development: egg, larva, pupa and adult. All stages may be present in the food, but the eggs are so tiny they are seldom seen. The larval stage is most destructive, but the adult stage is most often seen. DOES FLOUR GO BAD? The short answer: Yes. The long answer: The more processed the flour is, the longer it takes to go bad. Whole grain flours should be kept in a refrigerator for the short term, about 2-5 days. If you need to store whole grain flour for longer than a handful of days, the freezer is the best place. If the flour will be used within a month or two, it should be kept in a sealed container. One to two months is considered “quick” in terms of flour usage, so you can keep your flour in a container that is NOT sealed (i.e. the same thick paper bag, rolled down) but the chances of the flour going rancid increase. If the flour will not be completely consumed within two months, it should be stored in a sealed container. Freeze newly purchased grains and flour for at least three days to kill any eggs. Some sources recommend freezing for up to one week. (Note that freezing will kill the eggs, but not remove them.) As a general guideline, don’t buy more grain than you will use within four months. Store grain in a tightly sealed container, not a bag. Weevils are HUNGRY little devils and can eat through bags. (See my storage recommendations above). Adding whole bay leaves and garlic cloves to the area seems to deter flour bugs from setting up shop in your pantry. Garlic may leave a trace flavor in your baked goods, so if you don’t want that, go for the bay leaves instead. You can also apply tea tree oil to a few cotton balls and place them throughout the pantry. WILL EATING BEETLES HARM ME? Other than give you the heebie jeebies, they’re harmless. In fact, the heat from baking kills the eggs and any beetles that may have made their way into your batter. So while the odds of us eating weevils – or have eaten weevils in the past – are high, the mortality rate is low....See MoreHave you seen Food Flirts?
Comments (3)Yes, I've caught a couple episodes by channel surfing. I had to google 'PBS FoodFlirts' to see if that was the same. Did not know the show name. Cute and oddly flirty, "The Food Flirts are fun, funny, interesting, fearless, a little cheesy, a little cringy, and hard to take one's eyes off of." ....yes, I agree. I do like cooking shows that visit a restaurants kitchen. Always learn a few tricks. The episodes are on youtube now. I don't really get that from the 'what's for dinner' anymore. I'm 50/50. Authentic/traditional/culturally correct, ethnic based on the world region, is interesting and important. Sometimes the cooking police about spelling and history lessons I can do without but I do like the 'why' for the most part. My other 50% is fresh/local/seasonal. A young country of first generation immigrants brought their traditions but had to adapt to what was available. NYC is probably about 50/50. Authentic restaurants and those that 'fuse' by using fresh/local/seasonal. My only beef with American foods is the 50's 60's obsession with convenient processed and fast foods created by the big money-hog businesses. Creating a country of overweight and sick. Thanksgiving became canned cranberry, marshmallows, jello....even canned green beans with canned onion topping, canned onion soup, etc. We never did that as a family but my in-laws did. Fortunately my nephews on that side of the family recently married vegetarian yoga healthy eaters, lol. My MIL did not like her grandsons requests every year for the junk but that has changed. Thankfully. She got sucked into the early cooking magazines that used processed/convenient foods in everything via advertising....See Morecolleenoz
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