Kitchen Organization:Baking

Have you ever left out a important ingredient in a recipe and didn't realize it until you finish your creation? Yuk! You can organize so this doesn't happen to you again!

Have you ever left out an important ingredient out of a recipe and didn't realize it until you tasted the finished product? I have! One time I left the sugar out of a batch of muffins. Ick!! Since the muffin fiasco however, I have come up with 2 ways to organize my baking endeavors so that I will not forget ingredients, or (another problem) put the same ingredient in more than once!

1. Take out every single ingredient needed for the recipe before you start baking, and put these all together in the same location. If you don't have enough room on the counter sometimes a tray table or some other small table can be used for this purpose temporarily.
- After you measure each ingredient, put it away! This can also help keep your kitchen less cluttered while you are trying to bake. =)

2. Grab a dry erase marker and put your recipe in a clear plastic sleeve, or laminate your recipe. Now you will be able to cross off each ingredient, and cross off steps on your recipe as you complete each one, without permanently marking our recipe. Just wipe off the card when done baking.

Thanks for visiting my site! I hope these tips help you organize your kitchen baking project. Please leave your thoughts below. For more great tips on kitchen organization please be sure to visit the Works for Me Wednessday post at Rocks in my Dryer!

Works For Me Wednesday

This weeks works for me Wednesday is themed "favorite online shops." For this, I would have to say my favorite online shop is half.com. This is a site that lets you buy books way less than retail. Sometimes the books are used, sometimes new. The best think I like about this site is that you can create a wish list of books. I don't always have extra money to spend on books, so I put the ones I want on my wish list, and specify I want to be notified when this books gets posted on half.com. I can even specify a certain amount I am willing to pay for the book. When that book appears, at the right price, half.com e-mails me about it so I can grab the deal. It is great for us bookaholics. ;-)

What is your favorite site for buying books, or other items? Please leave comment.

For more ideas for great online shops visit Rocks In My Dryer's website. Thanks!

Works for Me Wednesday

For this "Works for Me Wednesday" I thought I would share a trick that my sister-in-law taught me. This is a way to store plastic grocery bags. By folding them up, like the picture at left, you can fit a lot more in those grocery bag holders that everyone seems to have now. Also, I have found out it is easier just to pull out the number of bags you need to use, rather than pulling out a whole wad of crumpled up bags.
Directions for folding bags:

1. Lay your bag out on a flat surface.
2. Fold the back lengthwise down the middle.
3. Fold as in step 2, once more.
4. Starting at the bottom of the bag, fold the bag in triangles. The first triangle is made by folding one of the bottom corners upward so the bottom edge of the bag is aligned with the opisite edge of the bag.
5. Continue folding the bag into a triangle till all you have left sticking out is the bag handles.
6. Look for a folded edge of this triangle, that has pocket in it, made by the layer of the bag. Wrap the remaining bag handles around the triangle, and tuck the ends in this pocket.


Now you are finished and have a nicely folded bag ready for storage. After folding a few bags, and you get used to the steps, folding the bags goes pretty fast, and I think folding them when i first get them, saves me time untangling them later! :-D

What ways do you store plastic grocery bags? How do you use the bags you've collected? I'd love to here from you!

Oh, I forgot to mention, if you would like more tips, visit Rocks in My Dryer for more great works for me Wednesday tips. :-)