Parchment paper (for baking) works well.

I was just about to post and say parchment paper works wonders. My roomie last year introduced it to me and I love, love, love it! I always keep a roll in my pantry. Its so much easier than scraping cookies off the bottom of the tray.

I used a cookie recipe last night that actually called for waxed paper under the cookies while baking. I had no problem with it!

Amanda Dyer
Delta Gamma

Martha is weeping in her jail cell cot. Don't you guys know about the wonders of parchment paper? ;) All you need is that, and a Silpat, and you're set for life. ZTAngel, sorry that your cookies were ruined!

On a related baking note: This wasn't me, but a lady at work the other day put her Burger King breakfast sandwich in the microwave to heat it up. The only problem is, she didn't take it out of the wrapper, which has ALUMINUM FOIL on it, and it caught fire. She totally didn't know she couldn't put it in the microwave. She survived, but I can't say as much for her Croissanwich.

If you drive on the NJ Turnpike extension to the Holland Tunnel, you pass three huge oil towers labelled Oil, Heats, and Best. When I was a kid, I understood what oil was, and I understood that heats could be in the tower, but had never heard of Best. So I asked my dad one time when we passed and he said it was another fossil fuel - like oil.

I was 20 before I realized that the towers were a promotion - that Oil Heats Best. And in my defense, for the last ten years, we took an alternate route to the Holland Tunnel.

I must try this next time. Anything is better than smoke coming out of the oven!

I know that its like 5 minutes to hard boil an egg, 3 minutes to soft boil an egg . . . . but when do you put the egg in the water?

When it starts boiling? Or when you first put the water on the stove?

The best way I've found is to take the egg in some tongs, run it under really hot water and gently place it into boiling water.

Just dumping a cold egg into boiling water usually cracks it which isn't a horrible thing, but I prefer uncracked eggs. :D

From "The Absolute Beginner's Cookbook" :

- Immerse the egg in a small saucepan of cold water.
- Bring water to a boil over high heat.
- As soon as the water bubbles, turn heat down so that water stays simmering.
- Cover the saucepan and start timing.
- For a soft-boiled egg, simmer for 5 minutes. For a hard-boiled egg, simmer for 12 minutes.
- And believe it or not, the altitude at which you are cooking makes a difference! This timing is for a high altitude. A soft-boiled egg cooked at sea level will take a full 2 minutes less cooking time and a hard-boiled egg will take 3 minutes less.

And, BTW, AAAAARGH at that cookbook for giving cooking times at altitude first. Usually, recipes are written for those at sea level, and directions for cooking at altitude are given as a sidebar.

I never heard of the word plethera until I went to grad school in 2001.

I think you wanted parchment paper...! THE BEST for non stick cookie making!

i didn't know you can't microwave styrafoam

yeah you can. I do it all the time. I don't think its really healthy to microwave styrofoam. I remember seeing or hearing something one time about how when you microwave it that some chemicals or something in the styrofoam can get into the food, but the styrofoam isn't going to blow up or catch fire or anything if you microwave it.

Welllll, that's not exactly accurate. You can microwave heavy weight styrofoam but only for a little while.

true, but one of my friends was sitting with me at a dinner table and said "This person didn't know you can't microwave styrofoam!" and everyone laughed as if it was common knowledge. They said chemicals get all in your food and slowly poison you or something.