Household tips and tricks! - Are you having trouble getting the wine stains out of your carpet? Do you clean your cookware with something extraordinary? Come share!

[Shig O'nella]

Lemon juice works ... sort of, but it's not ideal due to the amount of other stuff floating around in the juice. There's a fair bit of limonene in lemon juice and that, like all oils, is a persistant bugger to get rid of. Better for maintainence, using it every couple days to stop the problem in the first place.
It's not a strong and won't shift any really compacted buildups, but it also won't damage any rubber or plastic components or seals (just like citric acid) so it costs nothing but a bit of time to try it out. At least it'll shift some of the scale.
The tubes on keurig are normally small spring clips. Look for the pair of ends sticking up slightly and just squeeze them together with a pair of needle nose pliers. The clip should loosen enough to wiggle the tubes off the spigots.

 

[Soi Woh Jak]

My mother, bless her, is an expert at housework. I've had problems with cleaning niche unreachable places at home. She suggested the ingenious idea of having a spare toothbrush or paintbrush to use exclusively for scrubbing niche places. It's a very helpful thing, dip it in window cleaner or a similar solution and rub places with it to remove dust, fungus anything else. Chair and furniture tends to gather fungus during the winter, if it's too ornate it can be cleaned this way. I use the same for computer parts without removing them. Also useful for a ton of other things like removing scum off the sink, cleaning stainless steel, cleaning display pieces, cleaning plumbing etc etc.

 

[DickMain]

Lemon juice works ... sort of, but it's not ideal due to the amount of other stuff floating around in the juice. There's a fair bit of limonene in lemon juice and that, like all oils, is a persistant bugger to get rid of. Better for maintainence, using it every couple days to stop the problem in the first place.
It's not a strong and won't shift any really compacted buildups, but it also won't damage any rubber or plastic components or seals (just like citric acid) so it costs nothing but a bit of time to try it out. At least it'll shift some of the scale.
The tubes on keurig are normally small spring clips. Look for the pair of ends sticking up slightly and just squeeze them together with a pair of needle nose pliers. The clip should loosen enough to wiggle the tubes off the spigots.

Yeah, I saw those clips in an article I'd read, but mine are plastic zip ties for whatever reason, and I don't happen to have replacements lying around sadly. The actual tubes seem to just go straight into the different parts of the machine without any obvious release mechanism, but I could just be retarded. While it's a cheap little thing I'd rather fix it than replace it.

 

[TrainWreckSpotter]

Yeah, I saw those clips in an article I'd read, but mine are plastic zip ties for whatever reason

Speaking of zip ties, I have never run across an application for them where they have failed. Those buggers are STRONG!

My dog kept losing his tags at daycare from his habit of rubbing up against the fence in the play yard. The last time he lost his ID tag, which was retrieved but the ring was not. I have a ton of zip ties in the house, so I figured I would try that instead. it's a lot easier to get it onto the D-ring on his collar, and so far, so good.

I also kept losing hubcaps on one of my front tires because the rim is slightly bent. (A mechanic I brought it to insisted he banged it out but the hubcap continued to fall off). I saw the trick on YouTube of using zip ties to keep it on, so I tried it. Going on several months now, and it's still holding. Because the rim is bent, though, a section of the hubcap always protrudes slightly. I can't tell you how many times I have been on the highway and had the person in the car next to me beep their horn and point to my tire, or have been stopped about it in a parking lot. But as long as the zip ties, which cost a fraction of a cent each, continue to work, it beats paying $100+ for a new steel wheel.

 

[Dang dirty Pidgeons!]

It's not a strong and won't shift any really compacted buildups, but it also won't damage any rubber or plastic components or seals (just like citric acid) so it costs nothing but a bit of time to try it out. At least it'll shift some of the scale.

25% vinegar? I'm not sure if it's supposed to damage rubber seals tho... I like cleaning pots with it - basically eats away any water marks on stainless steel when boiling it with ~4 parts water. Especially neat to keep glas electric kettles looking like new. I also clean-boil my Moka pot with vinegar from time to time.

 

[Generic Name #37]

Anyone have tips for getting into cooking? I want to like to cook but for whatever reason when I try to cook with my parents I get overwhelmed and really anxious.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Anyone have tips for getting into cooking? I want to like to cook but for whatever reason when I try to cook with my parents I get overwhelmed and really anxious.

Try cooking without an audience? My experience as a kid was being in the kitchen being explicitly told how to help, and then given more complicated tasks as I got better/taller, but it sounds like your experience in the kitchen is more like my experience "helping" my dad fix the car. Anyway.

It sounds like you have some basic skills but need help putting foods together into meals that those skills can create. This is a common situation so there are lots of cookbooks written explicitly for the young person on their own for the first time. There are also cookbooks like Joy of Cooking that are formatted like a Bible, but if you can overcome the dry presentation contain absolutely everything you need to know.

One nice thing about living in the modern era is that you can look up a dish on YouTube and watch someone else prepare it step by step, with the ability to pause/reverse.

 

[Generic Name #37]

Try cooking without an audience? My experience as a kid was being in the kitchen being explicitly told how to help, and then given more complicated tasks as I got better/taller, but it sounds like your experience in the kitchen is more like my experience "helping" my dad fix the car. Anyway.

It sounds like you have some basic skills but need help putting foods together into meals that those skills can create. This is a common situation so there are lots of cookbooks written explicitly for the young person on their own for the first time. There are also cookbooks like Joy of Cooking that are formatted like a Bible, but if you can overcome the dry presentation contain absolutely everything you need to know.

One nice thing about living in the modern era is that you can look up a dish on YouTube and watch someone else prepare it step by step, with the ability to pause/reverse.

Yeah it’s definitely a case of it being like you with your dad and the car.

 

[GloriousScarf]

Put a small layer of cat littler at the bottom of the bin, it soaks up the icky garbage juices.

 

[Rap Scallion]

Anyone have tips for getting into cooking? I want to like to cook but for whatever reason when I try to cook with my parents I get overwhelmed and really anxious.

Learn to cook eggs a few different ways. Boiling pasta and making a nice sauce is pretty easy. Have you thought about trying to replicate some of your favorite takeout dishes?

 

[Aunt Carol]

Yeah it’s definitely a case of it being like you with your dad and the car.

I think you should find a cooking show you like, maybe shorter ones on YouTube. You can learn a lot by watching someone cook, and get an idea how things are supposed to look/are supposed to go without the stress of "learning" from someone who's judging you.

Even if you don't make their specific recipes, getting into the groove of watching someone cooking and it not being a clusterfuck of bad feelings sets you up to cooking from a recipe.

You Suck at Cooking is a fun one, heavy on the entertainment and most of his recipes are pretty easy for beginners, no assumptions about skill or knowledge.

 

[Mandy Stroyer]

Yeah it’s definitely a case of it being like you with your dad and the car.

I've been cooking for nearly a decade and can't when someone else is in the kitchen with me. It doesn't even have to be that they're in my way or telling me what to do, I just hate being observed so requesting some trust and privacy in the kitchen would be a start for getting more comfortable. Criticism over learning experiences drives away the passion.

I think you should find a cooking show you like, maybe shorter ones on YouTube. You can learn a lot by watching someone cook, and get an idea how things are supposed to look/are supposed to go without the stress of "learning" from someone who's judging you.

Excellent advice. Watching shows like Good Eats, Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, or channels like YSAC, Adam Ragusea, and Ethan Chlebowski were how I got into cooking and got good at it. Knowing how other people do something and why is vital. I will always be adamant that a basic understanding of food science is the basis for everything else involved in the skill and can turn okay meals into great ones.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Cutthroat Kitchen

"Mom walked by and made passive-aggressive comments, but y'know, at least nobody's duct-taped a potato masher to my dominant hand, so ultimately this casserole seems doable."

 

[Generic Name #37]

I think you should find a cooking show you like, maybe shorter ones on YouTube. You can learn a lot by watching someone cook, and get an idea how things are supposed to look/are supposed to go without the stress of "learning" from someone who's judging you.

Even if you don't make their specific recipes, getting into the groove of watching someone cooking and it not being a clusterfuck of bad feelings sets you up to cooking from a recipe.

You Suck at Cooking is a fun one, heavy on the entertainment and most of his recipes are pretty easy for beginners, no assumptions about skill or knowledge.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UnXKV6xWtgs

I've been cooking for nearly a decade and can't when someone else is in the kitchen with me. It doesn't even have to be that they're in my way or telling me what to do, I just hate being observed so requesting some trust and privacy in the kitchen would be a start for getting more comfortable. Criticism over learning experiences drives away the passion.

Excellent advice. Watching shows like Good Eats, Chopped, Cutthroat Kitchen, or channels like YSAC, Adam Ragusea, and Ethan Chlebowski were how I got into cooking and got good at it. Knowing how other people do something and why is vital. I will always be adamant that a basic understanding of food science is the basis for everything else involved in the skill and can turn okay meals into great ones.

Thank you two for the advice and understanding, I will definitely look into those YouTube channels. I actually have the You Suck at Cooking cookbook. I liked the leek chicken and brussamic sprouts.

 

[isalaide]

Anyone have tips for getting into cooking? I want to like to cook but for whatever reason when I try to cook with my parents I get overwhelmed and really anxious.

It's reasonable for the person cooking to be alone in the kitchen when they cook, assuming you don't have a shared kitchen and living space like in a small apartment.

It's good to learn a few basic recipes to make say, four everyday dinners, one slightly more special one, and one pretty easy but tasty dessert or cake. You want that confidence of being able to make dinner.

But after that, what you want is the knowledge base to feel confident freestyling it. The knowledge base of how to prepare shit and what generally 'goes with' what is the difference between having recipes you can follow, and being able to look into the fridge, freezer, cupboards etc and make dinner out of what you have. That last skill is the one that saves you time and money.

I would like to recommend you a few YT channels. To contextualise, I have to this day never been allowed to touch any piece of cooking equipment in the homes of my family of origin. Everything I learnt about cooking I learnt about TV shows and didn't get to practice a fucking thing until I was a young adult living with my nigel. I am considered very good at it now. The knowledge base is the first thing to gather; the actual practice is not hard as long as you can remember some pretty simple instructions. Pastry is the shit with complicated instructions and skills and you don't need to know how to scratch make a croquembouche. (If you do learn, we want photos in this thread ok and we will glaze you like a dozen donuts).

For basic "prep and shove it in the slow cooker" meals, take a look at the homesteading channels with big meal prep videos. I don't fancy about half of the stuff they make, but you might, and it helps you think about what you can put an investment of time and money into, upfront, that will save you time and money on making dinner for a few weeks. I don't exclusively meal prep and batchcook, but I always have a few dozen meals like that on hand in the freezer for when we are busy and I seriously cannot be assed to cook for an hour before the kids can have dinner. You get sick, you get tired; take out some insurance against having to cook from scratch every fucking night.

My favourite cooking channel of all the ones I watch is That Guy Can Cook, because he actually teaches you cooking skills rather than just runs you through a recipe. He's entertaining so I think you will enjoy that, and he's got years worth of videos so get stuck in there.

Every SE Asian cooking channel is aesthetic porn only. Do not bother unless you like aesthetics; you are not going to cook any of that shit or bake 1000 macarons.

There's plenty of videos about "so many meals on a budget" that you should watch. You will not want to make them all, and some of them you will want to make but fancy up a little or just add something better ingredients-wise. The point though is that they are low cost stuff to try out whilst you're learning and also to get you thinking about what you can try for yourself. They will also teach you the crucial budget skill that most meals can stand to have some canned beans or canned lentils added for more protein and bulk for comparatively pennies.

 

[often puzzled]

Anyone have tips for getting into cooking? I want to like to cook but for whatever reason when I try to cook with my parents I get overwhelmed and really anxious.

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything: The Basics is a really good cookbook. It teaches you how to cook without being dumbed-down in the least. He's really good about explaining what works as a substitution (things like "if you don't like the primary vegetable that I'm using in this, here's a list of vegetables that will work interchangeably-- just pick one") and gives a lot of practical advice. I use that cookbook to this day because a lot of the recipes in it are such classics and are my go-to for various things.

If you do find a cookbook that works for you, write down what did and didn't work for you on a sticky note and stick it on the recipe. Just simple stuff like: "this didn't actually need the full 30 minutes" or "I subbed cheese X for cheese Y." If you write down what you thought was important while making (or eating!) the food, then you can reduce anxiety by re-reading your notes the next time you make it.

If you have some money to spend, some people find meal kits (Hello Fresh and similar) helpful. They do make it easy to make decently tasty food and break things down into very manageable steps. For some people, they do really simplify and demystify the process of cook, and they cut down on anxiety by delivering everything you need in one package. If you're new to those things, you can probably find promo codes for first-time purchases.

I agree with others, too: cooking with other people can be very anxiety-inducing. I'd suggest that, whatever you end up trying, you do it by yourself, when no one will be wandering through the kitchen. Cooking by yourself, for yourself, can be a very peaceful experience, and I hope you come to love it.

 

[Aunt Carol]

If you do find a cookbook that works for you, write down what did and didn't work for you on a sticky note and stick it on the recipe.

Use pencil right on the page, you coward! Either your grandkids will treasure your annotations, or someone in the distant future will get to pay $5 less for your cookbook on eBay 3000 because it's Good, not Very Good condition.

Spoiler: cookbooks

One of our family treasures is a cookie cookbook my great-grandmother marked up extensively with baking time changes, substitutions, doubling calculations, noting when someone really liked those cookies, and one recipe that she put a diagonal line through and wrote "don't bother."

 

[isalaide]

Also, go on Amazon or a used books site and get yourself a USED and therefore cheap copy of Delia's Complete How To Cook. Get the Complete one because otherwise it comes in three separate books.
You will literally never fail to succeed at cooking something if you do it exactly as Delia tells you. Sure, Nigella and Nigel Slater are more fun to read, and also tbh pretty idiot proof, but if you NEED to cook a specific dish, Delia will never fail you. So spend fifteen, twenty quid on a copy of that and know that you now have the knowledge.

 

[Josephine Knezevic]

Use pencil right on the page, you coward! Either your grandkids will treasure your annotations, or someone in the distant future will get to pay $5 less for your cookbook on eBay 3000 because it's Good, not Very Good condition.

Spoiler: cookbooks

One of our family treasures is a cookie cookbook my great-grandmother marked up extensively with baking time changes, substitutions, doubling calculations, noting when someone really liked those cookies, and one recipe that she put a diagonal line through and wrote "don't bother."

I have a cookbook written by my great grandmother, my grandma and my mom and I'm writing on it new recipes. It's so precious to me <3

 

[Dang dirty Pidgeons!]

The one really good cookbook I came across sadly is in german and as such not of much use to most here, but what really sprang at me was the fact that it just reiterated what I saw my mom and grandma do anyways - that's really neat, because it's basically what public schools once taught under domestic science - so it's nothing crazy and easy to replicate. So, in general I would go after used, literal school cook books. But the biggest takeaway from it was just the partitioning of several processes, you are used to think of as part of just the recipe for one particular meal: I never even pondered cooking and storing soup-base, for example, which is something I do now. You basically take leek, celery and a carrot, cook some base from it - before that, I like smoring onions in lots of oil before pouring in the water - and then I bottle it.
You can use it for a month easy.
That alone is kinda meh, because you just could buy powered soup base, right?
But don't forget, you get to do all sorts of crazy stuff like the onions or put lots of garlic in.
If that's not interesting enough, still, that's where I combine this with something fancy, I came across on youtube, blanching:
It's a little finicky, but if you do it correctly and store the vegetable cuts in the fridge they also last a week or even two. If you spare the time for both these processes, you can basically build-a-soup with other things like noodles or ready made dumplings and meatballs in around 15 minutes.
And it's still a homemade custom soup and not just canned something. To my knowledge, blanching only kills vitamin C mostly and the vegetables also retain their bite, if you blanch them short enough, if you like that - they basically remain as if they were fresh in the first week.