Best Kitchen Tip You've Ever Been Given?

Clean as I go.

My mum is a terrible cook so she didn't pass any advice down to me ... sorry mum!!   

I'm self taught ... The Food Network and the internet have helped me along ...

The most important advice I will pass to my dd's is to have a great chef's knife ... if your knife sucks it is difficult to prep anything   

Tip- do the grates outside

This is a tip from me to you. My mother used to like to bleach white clothing or spot bleach things like a spaghetti stain on a white t-shirt. I use a Qtip to do so. I also tell everyone in my family that they are not to come downstairs while I am doing bleaching because I do it naked and don't want bleach on my clothes. They are compliant as they want clean clothes, too. Bleach in the buff!

Oh yes, I forgot to mention it almost makes me cry because the ammonia is so strong.

I add a little bit of vinegar to the water as well.

When boiling pasta, put a wood spoon across the pot and it helps prevent it from boiling over. Some may not like this tip, but I add a bit of vegetable oil as well. So much easier to get the noodles out!

I have a messed up thumb and wear a ring splint, so a $5.00 food chopper from Wal-Mart has been an awesome time saver!

I need recommendations for some mid-range knives!

Hot pan, cold oil, food won't stick.

Does this dissolve stuck/cooked on grime? I normally just throw my grates in the dishwasher, but there are a couple of spots that just won't come clean. I was going to give oven cleaner a try, but wonder if ammonia would be more successful.

It was a Pea and this is absolutely the best tip ever, for me. 

We cut everything with a pizza cutter. Spaghetti, pancakes, toast, roller knife for the win! With three kids I've probably babied them for far to long because it is just easier to cut up all their food with a pizza cutter. My 10 year old struggles with a knife, but can work the pizza knife.

And I love my good knives.

mom that's a GREAT tip! Thank you!

I could not live without my garlic press 

Storing lettuce or parsley in cloth bags; freezing browned ground beef and cooked shredded chicken for instant use making meals; and running hard boiled eggs under cold water before peeling to get the shell off easily. 

My best tip is about chopping celery. Instead of taking the whole bunch out of the bag and then pulling off a stalk or two to chop up, push the bag down around the bunch, and chop cross-wise across the entire bunch to get the amount you need. You can easily chop or mince further once the pieces have been cut off the bunch. In addition to being super quick and simple, the other thing I love about this method is that at the end, you have an intact celery bunch "bottom." Trim off the root end, and you can toss the whole thing in when you're making stock.

My second-best tip came from my mom. If you have a package of 8 hot dogs, and a package of 10 or 12 buns, use the leftover hot dog buns to make garlic toast to go with spaghetti. I saw this once on Rachel Ray, too, but I remember my mom doing this in my early childhood.