Home Kitchen Management Skills You Can Only Learn Working in a Restaurant

Both my husband and I have spent many years throughout high school and college working in professional kitchens, so neither of us bats an eye when the other opens a jar of homemade turkey stock and writes the date on the lid, pulls out a knife steel and swings a giant knife around it or scrubs every surface of the kitchen every time the dishes are done (at least once a day when you don’t own a dishwasher, or invite one over for dinner). However, we do get strange looks when we do these things in front of friends who have never worked in real restaurants. To help all home cooks run a cleaner, safer, more organized kitchen, my husband and I have compiled a list of skills and knowledge only learned working in a restaurant that every home cook should be using in their own kitchen.

Nothing strange about this at all.

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How to: Wash Your Shoes

One spring time ritual I really look forward to is boxing up my winter boots and bringing out my summer shoes. If you are anything like me, this ritual takes place while you are in the midst of an overwhelming compulsion to make your interior as bright and fresh as the new spring time exterior, making the dinginess of your favourite summer shoes the first thing you notice as you revive them from storage. The good news is, your shoes are easier to clean than your windows, walls, ceilings and all the other places you’ve suddenly noticed are in dire need of a good bubbly scrubbing. Continue reading

A Girl’s Guide to Computer Maintenance

In this day and age, knowing your way around a computer can be a great asset. Unfortunately, not all of us take easily to understanding that magical box under the desk that we call our computer. If you are anything like me, you ignore it completely until it stops working. I can get away with this because I married a computer programmer, but for the rest of the world, the best way to avoid a catastrophic meltdown and the stress of finding someone to repair your computer at a reasonable price is through preventative maintenance. This week I handed my husband a tasty bottle of beer and asked him all of my computer maintenance questions, the following is what I learned. Continue reading

How to: Clean Your Washing Machine and Dryer

As I have previously mentioned, I genuinely enjoy doing the laundry and getting my very own washer and dryer was one of the best days of my life. My parents taught me how to clean a house from top to bottom at an early age; they taught me how to sort the laundry, how to remove stubborn stains and how to use the laundry machines. Unfortunately, they neglected to teach me one important thing: how to clean the laundry machines themselves. To rectify this oversight, I scoured the internet and all of my housekeeping tip books, donned my rubber gloves and learned how to keep those glorious machines clean, fresh and running smoothly. Continue reading