Tausi Insider

Photo : LightField Studios ( Shutterstock ) The holiday season is the perfect time to lie to your family. Whether it’s “no presents this year,” or giving everyone an extra slice of the “low-fat” cheesecake, I know you have your reasons. Now we’ve got a whopper to lay on your annoying pastry chef cousin: “This crust is from scratch.” Here’s how to manipulate a store bought pie crust so that you can effectively fool your family into thinking you’ve got pastry skills. The best liars believe their lies, but to enjoy a good hoodwink, you have to invest in your deception by going all in. That means a good story, and the appropriate details in the right places. We’re talking taste, bakeware, and shape. A store bought pie shell is a great way to lighten the load on baking days, but it’s a near necessity for folks who struggle with pastry. There are many big name brands out there and a handful of them are terrible. Luckily, I did the hard work for you and tested out some store bought pie...

Photo : Brent Hofacker ( Shutterstock ) The best pot pies are homemade ones, but lazy pot pies are the best answer to cold weather and low energy. You have every right to eat thick meat stews in pie form, but not everyone has the gumption to toil away for hours. There is a way to have it all. Summon up your inner Sandra Lee: T his hearty dish is made with store-bought components, so you can manipulate them into a delicious and worthy pie. For a proper lazy pie that tastes better than anything in the frozen section, you’ll need a can of soup and a sheet of packaged, frozen pastry. You can use puff pastry, or a sheet of pie dough, if you prefer. Thaw the pastry in the refrigerator according to the package directions, and preheat the oven to 400°F. Grab a can of creamy chicken soup. Maybe you already have a favorite: It might be chicken corn chowder, or chicken and dumplings, maybe even creamy chicken noodle, Progresso makes a chicken pot pie style soup , but whatever it is, t...

Photo : Allie Chanthorn Reinmann With winter holidays and the new year quickly rolling in, I think it’s safe to say, it’s officially party time. Whether you’re hosting or contributing snacks, these occasions require a strong rotation of hors d’oeuvres. For December holidays, and beyond, savory choux puffs are an easy and versatile appetizer, guaranteed to be an absolute hit. Choux dough, choux paste, or pâte à choux, is a mildly flavored pastry shell made from a few simple ingredients: butter, milk or water, salt, flour, and eggs. (For more info on choux, a recipe, and details on how to make a batch, read here .) From these humble pantry staples you can make the impressive dough that éclairs and cream puffs are made of. But why stop there? Choux makes great savory appetizers too (and excellent linguistic material for silly culinary puns). Since the dough is relatively bland, you can really pair it with anything. It’s a vehicle for flavor in the same way a cracker carries cheese an...

Photo : Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Cinnamon buns are one of those desserts where there’s not much of an intermediate level. Either you enjoy making a brioche-like dough from scratch and spend hours nurturing it, or you slap a can of Pillsbury onto the cashier conveyor belt and crack open the tube at home. If you’ve ever wanted homemade cinnamon rolls but aren’t much of a bread maker, this is the hack for you. Pick up a bag of pre-made pizza dough, a small carton of heavy cream, and get rollin’. I’m not about to tell you that pizza dough and enriched doughs are the same thing, they’re definitely different. Lean doughs, like pizza dough, are made with higher gluten flours to make them chewier, and are usually enlisted for savory dishes. Enriched doughs, like brioche, use a lower percentage of gluten, and higher ratio of fats and sugars, yielding a softer bread. Pizza dough has very little fat in it, and won’t result in a passable cinnamon roll all on its own. Since we can’t mix fat dir...

Photo : Lulub ( Shutterstock ) You’re probably familiar with these unassuming gems from soup takeout, or watching The Bear, and maybe you’ve already discovered their many uses. The quart container is simple and effective for everything from holding long utensils upright to serving as an impromptu water glass. Quart containers rise above the other reusable containers, literally, because of their shape. Instead of getting wider to hold more material, they are tall and thin. You can stack leftover ribs in there, gravies, frostings, and tofu in water without concerning yourself with spillage, and maximizing the vertical space in your fridge. They’re especially useful for storing homemade stock, sauce, or broth in the freezer. https://www.tausiinsider.com/10-professional-kitchen-tools-i-use-in-my-home-kitchen/?feed_id=322422&_unique_id=63d8163535f63