Cheat Sheets for the Home Chef

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Baking, Cooking, Herbs, Measurements, Substitutes, Thanksgiving

Is anyone else in disbelief Thanksgiving – or Thanksgivukkah – is in ONE week? Even though we’re heading to my Grandma’s – our sweet Gigi – for the big feast, I’m still in shock. To help with the feast, Mister V and I are grilling the turkey and Gigi is preparing the tasty side dishes (her sausage and herb stuffing is – wait for it – legendary). And if you happened to be around last year (but no offense taken if you weren’t), you know we have a tradition of tossing our bird on the grill. Nothing beats a grilled turkey.

I don’t know about you, but even with the BEST planning, pantry inventory, ingredient container conversion’ing, and triple-list checking, there are times something slips through the cracks. Sometimes it’s something really small, like a fresh sprig of rosemary. Or while cooking and trying to track every pot on the stovetop, I suddenly have a brain freeze while trying to convert ounces into cups. I’m suddenly standing there with an opened 12-oz container of chicken stock, wondering how many containers I need to pour into the mix when the recipe call for 5 cups.

For example, one year I realized I was shy 1/2-a-cup of honey for the brine. What to do? It was late. I was already in my jammies. I *had* to wrap it up soon so the turkey could have its brine bath for a full 24 hours, before drying out (in the fridge) the following night. I had to find a substitute fast. After searching madly through my cookbooks, I discovered molasses or maple syrup could do the trick. Maple syrup was clearly the winning choice for our house. The brine was saved. The turkey was scrumptious.

Have you ever had that moment in the kitchen when time suddenly stopped and you went a new-founded survival mode trying to find an ingredient substitute? Or were you fine-tuning a recipe and have found certain substitutes work better than others? What did you do? What little cooking tricks do you use? I’m sure I’m not the only one who has a list or two handy for quick subs, so please share!