19 Tricks up my mama’s sleeves

1. When boiling greens, do not cover the pan. Covering greens leads to discoloration
2. A drop of vinegar in a boiling pan of Irish potatoes prevents the Irish from discoloration
3. Sprinkle black pepper in the corners of your kitchen. Mice and rats are allergic to black pepper, it keeps them away
4. To remove gum that is stuck on your cloth, place the cloth in the freezer. When the gum freezes, it’s easier to pluck in off without making a sticky mess
5. When washing the inside of your flasks i.e. between the outer part of the vacuum and the caging, use baking soda to rinse. 1 table spoon of baking soda in a Luke warm 1 minute soak can take away any odor that detergents can not remove from any utensil
6. For vegetable meals like cauliflower, beans, cabbages, add more garlic than ginger
7. For non veggie meals, add more ginger than garlic
8. You can also use vinegar (I cup) in a basin of Luke warm water to soak a colored material for 1 hour and drip dry in a shade to keep the dye/color longer
   
9. Incase you put too much salt in the sauce, my mum usually added ½ teaspoon of sugar to balance out, my grand maa when using a charcoal stove which is common in Uganda, she would drop a red hot piece of charcoal which would suck out the excess salt from the food. Charcoal stoves are common in most African kitchens
10. To save gas, if you do not have a pressure cooker, drop a pinch or a tiny piece of rock salt when boiling hard foods like dry peas, dry beans. In hard non meat foods, rock salt plays the same role as tenderizer in marinating meat
11. When making Muchomo of any kind, use a mixture of olive oil, ginger, garlic, tenderizer, garam masala and a bit of lime, lemon or vinegar for marinating your meat for at least an hour or over night to give it a tingling taste and strong flavor
12. For a potato salad, boil the Irish potatoes with their cover and when tender drain, place in ice cold water and remove the peelings with ease by pressing between your palms.
13. Add a little bit of milk in the mayonnaise and mix your potato salad, this will have your mayonnaise spreading evenly on to salad mix
14. For an extra-ordinarily yummy fruitilicious salad mix in condense milk
15. Use hot water to wash off fat that spreads on your kitchen ware and not just that, after washing utensils, pour hot water down your sink drain to melt away fat that can clog your system
16. With a ratio of 1:2 cups of rice to water, a pinch of salt and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, on a low heat, you can never go wrong with boiling rice
17. To make a tomato puree, wash your whole red tomatoes and boil for about 5 minutes and peel off the skin. Chop in halves and blend on medium for 30seconds or until there are not particles.
18. Your microwave can be used for cooking quick meals in less than 10 minutes. Use the microwave for steaming as well. Just remember to stir liquids often to redistribute the heat, and always take the food out a minute or two before it's completely done, since it will continue to cook. Believe me, I tried this with a boiled fish stew, mashed potatoes, noodles, and vegetable soup and it worked.
19. You can disinfect and deodorize kitchen napkins and sponges that smell like spilled milk cleaned the previous night or juices from raw chicken. Soak it in water spiked with vinegar preferably white or lemon juice, and then heat it on high for 1 minute. This will also disinfect any sponges you used to wipe up the juices from a raw chicken.