What I learned at cooking school

I hope everyone who attended enjoyed the Taste of Home Swing Into Spring Cooking School brought to Lewistown last week by The Sentinel.

Everyone I know who attended thought it was great fun, and so did I. Here are some of the things I learned:

= It’s OK to keep an open bottle of ketchup in the cabinet, not the refrigerator, even though, on the bottle, it says to refrigerate after opening.

= If fresh, raw cucumbers make you gassy, remove the skins and seeds before eating. To neatly remove the seeds, cut the cucumber lengthwise and drag a spoon through the center, catching the seeds along the way.

= Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies.

= There is a kitchen gadget called a lettuce knife. It looks like a plastic bagel slicer, but it’s not. It allows you cut up lettuce, avoiding the metal blade of a regular knife, which will cause the edges of the lettuce to turn brown. I wish I had a lettuce knife.

= If you don’t have plastic gloves to protect your hands while cutting a jalapeno pepper, clean your hands first with lemon juice, then with warm, soapy water to get the stinging oils off.

= An Italian omelet is one in which you do not mix the ingredients. You put everything in a pan, then finish it in the oven. If you mix the ingredients together, you are making a French omelet.

= Ground herbs last two to three years; spices last one to two years.

= McCormick offers dried garlic slices in bottles. You can rehydrate them in a little warm water and use them in any recipe calling for garlic.

= Poaching eggs in chicken broth gives them a nice flavor and eliminates the need for salt and pepper.

= Roast almonds in the microwave, one minute at a time. When you start smelling them, they are done.

= Flat-nosed tweezers can be used to pull hulls from fresh strawberries.

= Rub a little shortening on your hands when handling fondant to make it easier to handle.