I have two suggestions that will speak to the klutz in all of us. When measuring rice to cook, I set my measuring cup in the saucepan I will be using. When I pour the rice in, I place one hand as a guard to keep the rice from spilling onto the counter. I then empty the cup into the pan, add the right amount of water and cook.
The next one is to set my coffee canister in the sink when I fill it. Any spillage can be taken care of by turning on the faucet. As a person who spills and slops a lot this has been helpful to me. I certainly hope I'm not the only one who needs it.
By Marty Dick from Houston, TX
When I was a little girl, I invented a little "short-cut" in cleaning up after myself when I was done baking.
When preparing a dish with anything sticky like syrups, honey, molasses, or peanut butter, spray your spoon and measuring cup with a non-stick cooking spray.
Has anyone ever used or heard of narrow measuring spoons? They are supposed to eliminate spilling and wasting spices when measuring from narrow mouth jars. Also, does anyone have any tips other than special spoons to prevent the spilling?
I live in Los Angeles, California and have a set of stainless steel narrow measuring spoons that I bought in a local store called Sur La Table. Their website is surlatable.com and you will find they sell both oval and round measuring spoons for regular measuring and also spice measuring spoons, which are shaped like little narrow shovels with raised sides.
Tips on organizing measuring cups and spoons.
Measuring Honey. I haven't been baking for very long, maybe you already know this trick.
Some of our butter and shortening wrappers have markings on them for measuring like 1 cup, 1/2 cup, and 1/4 cup. Copy this "ruler" onto the front page of your recipe book.
I buy plastic measuring cups at the dollar store and then leave them in bulk bins of sugar, rice, flour, brown sugar, oatmeal etc. This saves me times in washing the cup each time I need to measure one of these dry ingredients.
Because I bake things often, I have purchased several sets of extra measuring cups and spoons I have found on sale days.
Two sets of measuring cups and spoons are a must for any kitchen. Use one to measure the wet ingredients, one for the dry. This saves the wash and dry time exercise when cooking or baking.
Whenever a recipe calls for honey, first measure out the oil for the recipe (or if it doesn't call for oil, just spread a little oil all over the measuring cup), then measure out the honey, and it should come out of the cup like a charm!
Honey in your recipe? If you coat your measuring cup or spoon with oil or a spray of Pam, the honey will slide out easily and you won't have a sticky mess to clean up.
When baking, I use my ice cream scoop to measure shortening or peanut butter. It is the type with a lever you push and it goes around the inside edge of the scoop to empty.
Spray an ice cream scooper with Pam, the use it to scoop out peanut butter or shortening, your finger will be kept clean! I scoop equals 1/4 cup.
Have two different 2 cup sized measuring cups for making recipes. Use one cup exclusively for dry ingredients and one for wet.
Maybe I'm the only one that has done this, but when measuring a cup of flour from this small bag, I have been doing it in the bag and it was hard. I finally figured out a better way to do it.
This is a page about measuring shortening. Measuring shortening can be difficult because it sticks to the measuring cup. Here are some great tips for making it easier to measure shortening.