Inside Edition has some tips that can help you make your food better.
Even if you've been preparing meals in the kitchen for years, one food blogger says there are other ways to get the job done.
Alejandra Ramos of AlwaysOrderDessert.com showed Inside Edition her methods behind some popular dishes.
Ramos says that mashed potatoes, for example, are best prepared with your hands over a masher or food processor.
"It's a little bit more work, but you're going to get lighter, fluffier potatoes and it's really worth it," she said.
After boiling broccoli, don’t immediately serve it to your family. Instead, put the hot veggies into a bowl of ice.
“To cook perfect vegetables, shock them in a bowl of ice cold water after you boil them," she said. "This is going to stop the cooking process and keep them bright green and crispy."
Ramos says that it's incorrect to rinse chicken before cooking.
“A lot of people think you need to wash raw chicken and meat but that's all wrong,” she said as she demonstrated how so many people prepare poultry. "The force of the water is going to get bacteria all over your kitchen. If you could see how much bacteria is actually spraying around right now, you'd be disgusted."
"If you think you're rinsing bacteria off, really you're going to kill it when you cook it anyway, so there's no need for that extra step," she added.
Pancakes may be the cornerstone of American breakfast but if you think you're mixing the batter properly, Ramos says you're mistaken.
“When making pancakes, the instinct is to work out all those lumps for a really smooth batter, but that's all wrong," she said. “Really what you want is to keep a few of those lumps in there because that's going to give you the fluffiest, lightest, pancakes."
And while on the subject of breakfast, Ramos has something to say about the way you fry your bacon. For starters, the frying.
She claims to have a better way: Use a baking sheet lined with foil. That way, the strips will be crispier.
“Then just put your bacon strips right next to each other," Ramos said. "They shrink while you cook so you don't even have to put any space in between. So you can make a lot of bacon for a lot of people in just 20 minutes."
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