Look Out! The Chemist Is Loose in the Kitchen Again

Cook's Country, the magazine, arrived yesterday.  This is the postal carrier's delight because the editors carry no advertising whatsoever so perforce it's thinner than Vogue (8 lbs.) or Vanity Fair (5 lbs. or more, depending on the season. 

My old Daddy always told me, "Make your brain work, not your butt."  In the spirit of that wise admonishment, I always read the how-to hints and Cook's does not disappoint.

Use a table fork to  peel and devein shrimp.  Stick an end tine on the fork into the head end of the shrimp and work your way up the shrimp.  This makes sense to me if only because all of us are more than familiar with a fork. 

One poor woman wrote that she would decorate a cake with words - Happy Birthday - or whatever and it would come out Happy Birthd  because she ran out of space on the cake top.  Until she got the bright idea to take a toothpick and lightly etch in what she wanted to say and put the frosting on over her guideline. 

Another bragged about the "cool new use" for her waffle iron - make grilled cheese sandwiches with it!   It would certainly be crunchy!  And if you were making grilled cheese and tomato soup for guests, you could do quite a few in a lot less time. 

A man wrote in that he likes to make ice cream cookies from scratch  (Ladies, he lives in Carmel, IN)  and has trouble putting the rock-hard ice cream on the tender cookies.  His solution was to use a tool called an adjust-a-cup that pushes out the ice cream in the thickness desired which can then be whacked off with a knife onto the cookie.

Better idea - buy a little can of corn or peas or mixed vegetables - the important thing here is the can size.  When the contents have been eaten, wash the can and the lid well..  Then removed the bottom of the can.  Using the can as a tube, fill it with ice cream.  Use the lid to push it down the barrel of the can and cut of a slice of ice cream directly over the cookie.