Tag: Easy and Quick

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PSA: This Common Ingredient Can Ruin Your Countertops

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Natural stone countertops such as quartz, granite, and marble elevate a kitchen or bathroom appearance. They’re beautiful and have the advantage of being super easy to clean. They’re also incredibly durable. With proper care, they can last decades. And while they’re difficult to stain, it’s definitely not impossible.

When they do need a cleaning, there’s something you should be aware of. One magical, natural cleaning ingredient many of us use on a variety of surfaces in our homes is actually one that should never be used on natural stone countertops or other natural stone surfaces—lemon.

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Bang Bang Deviled Eggs

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

I love eggs in every form—scrambled, fried, boiled—but have a special spot in my heart for deviled eggs. While I believe deviled eggs are already a near-perfect side dish, the addition of bang bang sauce—famously found in popular dishes like bang bang shrimp and bang bang chicken—transforms this classic dish into a sweet-spicy-tangy appetizer fit for any party. 

Inspired by Sichuan cuisine, bang bang sauce combines kewpie mayonnaise, sweet Thai chili sauce, sriracha, and rice vinegar. This sauce is not only delicious drizzled over potatoes, tofu, and meatballs, but also adds a flavorful kick to spice up your classic deviled eggs recipe. 

To ensure the perfect deviled eggs, start by making perfectly hard-cooked eggs using our fool-proof Hard-Boiled Eggs recipe. Once you have the eggs, the bang bang sauce complements the salty egg yolks perfectly, resulting in an easy side dish that can be prepared in just ten minutes.

The best part is, you can make this dish ahead of time. Simply prepare the egg yolk mixture up to two days in advance and store it in an airtight container or piping bag. When you’re ready to serve, assemble the deviled eggs and refrigerate until they’re ready to be served. 

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This Internet-Loved Hack Softens Butter in Seconds

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

Buttered bread or toast is simple and delicious, but nothing is worse than reaching for the butter from the fridge only to find it’s too cold and hard to spread. 

Sure, you can pop the butter in the microwave for a few minutes, but you risk melting it too much (which also renders it unusable if you’re making your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe). And leaving it out on the counter isn’t an option when you need it ASAP. There are several hacks to soften butter in seconds, but the latest one is the most clever one yet, and possibly the least messy.

While this hack isn’t necessarily new, it’s currently trending once again online, and we think for good reason. Vital Farms recently posted about this on Instagram: “This nifty little hack for turning fridge-cold butter into soft, spreadable butter in seconds.” TikTok user roxy.369 says this is a “life hack” that’s worth trying.

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Deadly Foods or Kitchen Folklore? 8 Food Items to Approach With Caution

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

As children, we’re often warned not to eat certain things because “they’re poisonous.” And I started wondering if those warnings had any basis in fact, or if they were nothing but a combination of hand-me-down myths, and an easy way for parents to scare children into behaving. As it turns out, most of the things I was told were poisonous were indeed, to one degree or another, poisonous. Though most will not cause death, they will often produce enough gastrointestinal distress that you might THINK that you’re dying.

Here are some of the most commonly cautioned food items that do, in fact, have a touch of toxicity.

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