5 LIFE CHANGING KITCHEN HACKS FROM A COLLEGE KID

I hated living in the dorms at Iowa State. While the room was small and drab, it was not the style or size of the room that bothered me. I had an awesome roommate named Jolynn and a lot of friends on my floor, so that wasn’t it either. And, I was just minutes away from most of my classes and was able to park my truck in the adjacent parking lot. So what was the kicker? The food.

I have been a cooking kid for as long as I can remember. My mom was always baking delicious cakes and breads from scratch, and my dad could do anything with ground beef and a grill. Grandma Campbell’s house was catty-corner from the elementary school and one of my favorite memories with her is getting to walk to her house in the afternoons while my parents were in the field and cut up chicken breasts, dredge them in flour, and fry them in a pan on the stove to make “chicken nuggets.” As I got older and become more involved in 4-H I spent my summers testing the most intricate and decadent desserts from angel food cakes to apple pies and pink lemonade cakes to red velvet. I also took on a love for experimenting with savory flavors at home, trying all kinds of new casseroles, pasta dishes, and whole cuts of meat.

Anyways, back to the dorms. My biggest problems with the dorms was that I couldn’t cook while I was there. I mean sure, I had a meal plan and there was an oven in the lounge for everyone on the 4th floor to use. But there were no measuring utensils, barely any pots or pans, and the one time I tried to make cookies that oven was more uneven than the Harvard admissions process. So when I finally moved into my own apartment off campus I was thrilled to have my very own big, beautiful kitchen to cook and bake (and make a mess in) whenever I wanted.

Call me an old lady, but since moving into this little abode I have baked countless birthday cakes, hosted numerous dinner parties, and even cooked up a few failures of meals. I have, however, realized that cooking up a storm instead of going out for ‘Thirsty Thursday’ is not the norm for a college student and in that realization, I found that a lot of my peers struggle in the kitchen. To help assist, I’ve compiled a list of 5 of my most life-changing kitchen hacks!

1. Making a chocolate cake but don’t want the flour from the pan to show? “Flour” your pan with cocoa powder! This is one that I learned when I was making cakes for 4-H in junior high. Even though running around the pan with a blob of butter then tapping flour around it to cover takes much more work than grabbing a can of Pam, we all know that cooking spray is not good on our pans. Using flour on a chocolate cake, however, can leave you with a less than appealing powdery film on the outside of your cake. Using cocoa blends into the cake much more, especially if you will not be frosting it!

2. Use a slotted spoon to separate eggs. Sure, you can buy some fancy gadget to split the whites from the yolks but unless you’re making angel food cakes everyday I’m not sure it would be a wise investment. Most people break the egg and then use the shells to separate the whites from the yolks. This method works fine… until it doesn’t. The jagged edges of the shell can puncture the yolks, leaving you with a contaminated, messy, waste of your time. Instead, simply break the egg into a bowl, scoop up the yolk with your slotted spoon, wait for all the whites to drip off, and discard the rest.

3. When waiting for yeast bread dough to rise use your microwave and a cup of water to enhance the process. Use the microwave? Yes! Right before you are ready to let your bread begin rising, fill a cup with water and put it on high in the microwave until it boils. Once this happens, cover your dough and quickly put it in the microwave- don’t turn the microwave on, though! The water vapor, steam, and warmth trapped in the microwave will help the dough stay soft while rising and will encourage the yeast to do its thing- like a sauna for the dough.

4. Using butter or shortening does make a difference in your cookies. So maybe this isn’t a hack, but I think it’s important and interesting so I’m gonna put it in here anyways. Many people claim that butter and shortening are interchangeable. THIS. IS. NOT. TRUE. While they do both serve as fats in your recipe, they treat the dough very, very differently. If you want a crispier, flatter cookie, go for the butter. Using Crisco (or your favorite shortening) will give you a softer and more dimensional cookie. Honestly, it comes down to personal preference. Typically, I like using butter because it’s less messy to cook with and has a better flavor, but a high school classmate’s mom always made her world-famous chocolate chip cookies with shortening. It’s all up to you!

5. Steam your ground beef in a pressure cooker for that nostalgic texture. Maybe I’m the only one, but I always remember foodservice ground beef dishes being the best. Okay, maybe the taste was not there, but there’s nothing like that crumbly, soft texture the lunch ladies in elementary school somehow achieved on Sloppy Joe day (if you know, you know). To get that same “old fashioned” consistency, steam your ground beef in a pressure cooker (or Instapot as the kids these days call them). I typically use a 1:1 ratio of beef to liquid- 1 cup of liquid for every 1 pound of ground beef. Then, seal the lid up and cook for 20 minutes on high. If you are using a fattier mix, like and 80% or 85% lean, you may have to simmer with the lid off for 10 minutes or so to render out the last bit of fat. Then, drain the liquid off, dump the meat out on a few layers of paper towels, and pat until relatively dry. I have used this method to make the best copycat Maid Rites, but it could definitely work for taco meat, nachos meat, or the start of a great pot of chili.

These are just 5 of my favorite hacks from the kitchen! Do you have a favorite kitchen hack, or do you have one from above you can’t wait to try? Let us know!