Prepping Dry Ingredients

I like to get my dry ingredients ready ahead of time. I've got a few bags of pre-measured flour for bread in my bread drawer, for example. I'm going to try a new recipe for Memorial Day. It is the Deen Brothers' Hush Puppies. I cut it from a magazine, which would either be Paula Deen's or Food Network--can't remember which. Anyway, the more I can do ahead of time, the happier I am. So I measured out the dry ingredients into a zipper bag. I know that people use tall glasses for filling bags, but I needed something bigger. Then I remembered this metal 'vase' I'd bought for a dollar on some clearance rack. I don't currently have anything in it. It was the perfect size for this job! Now I can fill up bigger bags with dry ingredients without making a big mess.

Don't you love finding new uses for old things? I have another one of these that I spray-painted turquoise. It holds all my little dish detergent packets!

It's time for Kitchen Tip Tuesday's over at Tammy's Recipes. I have a link to Tammy's blog on my sidebar, but here's a link to today's carnival:

http://tammysrecipes.com/node/3899

BTW, the hush puppies were a total failure. Well, not total. They looked great. But they tasted horrible. I'm sure it's something I did wrong, but I'd never make the recipe again.

I did, however, make the best ribs I've ever made. My husband said, 'that's the way to make ribs.' Basically, you simply brown them off on the grill, then you put them in a big pan covered in barbecue sauce (I used Bullseye Memphis style) and cover that with foil. Then you throw them into a 250 degree oven for about 3 hours. They just fall off the bone when you eat them. Oh, and that really is two hundred fifty degrees. 350 for 3 hours would probably burn the sauce!