Earlier this month, I decided to clean out my kitchen cabinets and shelves -- and I was thoroughly amazed at the amount of kitchen gadgets I turned up. The funniest part? I seem to be using and re-using the same five kitchen tools over and over again. So, in the spirit of awards season, I've assembled a winners' list of my five favorite go-to kitchen tools. The envelope, please...

In case you missed the hit movie Julie and Julia this year, you still have time to brush up on your cooking knowledge! Holidash has a Julia Child-inspired Thanksgiving for all of your aspiring chefs! Check it out!:

* Roast Turkey: Most of her technique is pretty classic, but she does add a twist with a slow-simmered giblet gravy.
* Garlic Mashed Potatoes: Regular mashed taters are fine, but Julia knew long ago that a little garlic would make them divine.
* Stuffed Pumpkin: Rather than stuffing your turkey, you could stuff and roast a nice, orange pumpkin.
* Dressing: Julia preferred to keep the dressing out of the turkey, so pull out a casserole dish for this one -- or the pumpkin above.
* Brussels Sprouts Browned with Cheese: A so-called favorite of Julia & Julia star Amy Adams.
* Apple Tart: When the meal is good and done, wrap it up with a classic apple tart.

And don't forget -- no Child feast is complete without some strong libations to wash it all down!

Enjoy!

I'm on bread duty this Thanksgiving and would love to bake a few homemade creations. Looks like I'll be tuning in to this great video -- and stat!:



Here are your step-by-step instructions!:

Step 1: Mix the flour and salt
Mix the flour and salt in a medium-size bowl.

Step 2: Combine yeast and water
Put the yeast, water, and half the flour mixture in a large bowl and mix it together with your hands until it's doughy. Cover with a clean dishcloth and let it sit at room temperature for three hours, until it more than doubles in size.

Step 3: Add remaining flour
Using your hands, mix the remaining flour mixture into the dough.

Step 4: Knead it
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 10 minutes.

Step 5: Oil a bowl
Place the dough in a large, lightly-oiled bowl, turning the dough around in the bowl so it gets covered with oil. Cover with a dishcloth and let it sit for another hour. It should nearly double in size.

Step 6: Preheat oven
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit and knead the dough one more time for about five minutes before dividing it into three parts. Roll each part into a long baguette with your hands, and let them rise in a warm, draft-free spot, for another half hour.

Step 7: Slash and moisten
Make four lengthwise slashes on top of the loaf with a sharp knife, going no deeper than ¼ inch. Lightly spritz or brush the top with cool water. If you're not using the baking stone, cover an upside-down baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle it with cornmeal.

Step 8: Bake
Place a medium-size bowl filled halfway with water on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake the baguettes in the middle of the oven on the baking stone or sheet. Remove the bowl after 15 minutes. Continue baking the bread until golden, 20 to 30 minutes total.

Good luck!

That's right -- another day, another vinegar hack. Oh, you act as if you're surprised! This one's a goodie; I promise. And in the kitchen, no less! Perfect for your upcoming holiday dinner party or fancy, festive feast.

Here's the deal: Next time you thaw out that frozen chuck roast, pour some vinegar over it. Not only does it tenderize the meat, but it will also bring down the freezing temperature of the meat and cause it to defrost quicker. And no, your meat will not taste like vinegar; don't worry. Cool, right?

Now you have no excuse for a still-frozen turkey on Thanksgiving Day!

For additional kitchen hacks with one of my favorite ingredients (vinegar!), check out a few other helpful DIY Life articles:
-Daily DIY: Vinegar Fix
-Vinegar: Laundry's Best Friend
-Vinegar: Not Just for Salad's Anymore!
-Vinegar's Slew of Wonderful Uses
-Remove Mold With Vinegar

Vinegar is one of those all-time best-in-show sort of kitchen items to have around, because it can perform so many different life-saving duties. In fact, here's one that I recently learned -- perfect to add to my ongoing list of Why Vinegar is Awesome:

If you have an electric tea kettle with a bit of calcium build-up on the heating element, don't fret. Simply boil a mixture of equal parts vinegar and water, then empty. The calcium will flush out along with the vinegar mix, leaving your tea kettle fresh, new and smelling cleaner than ever.

For more incredible vinegar uses, check out these DIY Life articles:
-Place white vinegar in your washer at the beginning of a laundry load; it will both freshen and soften the clothes being washed.
-Half-fill an open travel mug with vinegar and leave it in your car's cup holder for a day to eliminate any vehicle odors.

Sure, a vegetable-inspired cupcake sounds like heresy in the minds of dessert lovers everywhere, but with one bite of this corn-on-the-cob, you'll quickly change your tune. Go on; I dare you. The Martha Stewart video gives you step-by-step coverage, including a written tutorial, so the process couldn't be easier. And the ingredients, unlike many Martha Stewart creations, are far from gourmet. Here's the list:

* Vanilla Frosting
* Yellow liquid food coloring
* 24 Vanilla Cupcakes, baked in white paper liners
* 3 1/2 cups small yellow, cream, or white jelly beans, such as Jelly Belly
* 4 pieces yellow fruit chews, such as Laffy Taffys or Starbursts
* 1 tablespoon black decorating sugar
* 1 tablespoon white decorating sugar
* 8 sets of corn holders (optional)

Go ahead; call your family and tell them you'll be bringing corn-on-the-cob for Thanksgiving dinner year. One less vegetable to make Fido scarf down underneath the table, and one more dessert to enjoy later! It's a win-win!

I love DIY hacks in the kitchen. One of my favorites is this easy secret about cutting onions. To prevent the waterworks show when slicing this potent vegetable, simply hold your tongue on the roof of your mouth (but don't breathe through your nose!). You'll still be able to breathe, don't worry, but you won't have to explain to your guests that really, nothing's wrong -- it's the onions.

Of course, there are a ton of other onion hacks for the kitchen, and most can be found right here at DIY Life. Let's take a look, shall we?:
-For an instructional video including 5 tips for slicing onions without crying like a baby, visit How to Dice an Onion.
-Sure, onions are full of flavor, but did you know they could juice up your iPod (literally?). Find out more at Charge Your iPod With an Onion.

Clearly, onions just got a whole lot sweeter.

I looove salt, but my husband likes to keep it at a minimum. Of course, any time I do the cooking (which I'll admit is totally rare), there's always too much salt added for the husband. Instead of adding a little bit of everything to even things out, I learned a bit of a trick to tame the salt: toss in a peeled potato while the dish is still cooking.

Surprisingly, it works like a charm. Want to know a few more additional tips and tricks you can use the trusty potato for? Some of these fun kitchen hacks will surprise you!:
-Change a Broken Light Bulb with a Potato
-Use a Potato Chip to Light a Fire While Camping

And, of course, just for fun --- you can make lasagna in your dishwasher. How's that for a kitchen hack? Now if only my oven could do the dishes for me...

I am in desperate need of a kitchen apron. I have been cooking since I was 8 years old, and I have always absentmindedly wiped my hands on my clothing, even though there is always a dish towel nearby. Yup, I need an apron.

DIY Maven on Curbly has written a fabulous tutorial, complete with awesome pictures, teaching us how to turn large cloth napkins into a kitchen apron using a sewing machine. You'll need several yards of ribbon for tie strings and for the apron collar, and of course, some basic sewing skills.

This apron is perfect, not just for the kitchen, but also for gardening. The pockets in the apron could hold your kitchen gadgets, or your gardening tools. Of course, I always absentmindedly wipe my dirty hands on my clothes when I am gardening too.

Check your local thrift stores for some awesome napkins. Mine always seem to have the prettiest sets of fabric napkins on hand, and for the price they sell at (6 for $1.00), there are plenty available to make as gifts for my gardening and cooking friends.

What a concept! It's summertime and we've already got the sun's heat beating down outside, while the air conditioner struggles to keep up inside. Why make it worse by using the stove and oven? Kill two birds with one stone, by using the sun's heat to do the cooking outside!

This tip for a solar stove comes to us just in time from Craftster's "ladybuggins" -- it'll be almost 100 degrees here, and I'm hankerin' for some chili! Here's what you'll need:

• A cooking pot with a lid
• An auto windshield sun reflector
• A few clothes pins and...
• Plenty of sunshine!

First, curl the reflector around into a funnel shape and secure it with the clothes pins. Set it on the ground with the open funnel pointing upwards. Place the pot with the food in it down in the center, and the radiant energy will focus into the center of the parabola to cook the contents. Bon appetit!

I dare you to find an American household without any carrots in the fridge. Granted, most will probably be the scrubbed-clean, prepackaged, more expensive baby carrots. If you'd like to save money (and waste less food!), read on.

First of all, buying whole carrots -- or, better yet, growing them -- is cheaper than buying baby carrots. A good thing, right? Well, if you learn how to peel them just so, you'll be able to save more of the carrot... and more money.

According to eHow, if you peel away from you with a sharp-bladed peeler, you'll peel off less carrot. Additionally, if you peel the top until no green is showing, then peel the tip as well -- no chopping -- you'll end up with more of the carrot.

It seems like a simple way to be frugal while respecting the Earth's resources.

Mmm-mmm. Fresh basil. It's so very fragrant -- the indispensable ingredient in a host of mid-summer recipes.

My basil is lush, green and ready for picking. Okay, I don't have a whole lot of it out in my garden; however, I'm planning on growing a lot more next summer. In preparation for that lofty enterprise, I thought it'd be cool to find out how the expert basil-growers harvest their beloved herb. Here are some tips I picked up:

1. Know your basil. There are lots of varieties out there, and it's always good to know which one you have, as the flavors vary quite a bit between them. Chances are good that, like me, you've got the most common variety: Genovese sweet basil.

Mmmm.... pizza. Not only does it make a tasty meal, it's the perfect dish for the end of the week when your fridge is full of odds and ends and not much else.

Pizza is also a no-stress meal for families who love to be together, but who like different things. You can either make personal pans or let everyone top their own corner of a pizza with their favorite items.

Either way, pizza-making is a lot more fun when the dough gets thrown around. Throwing a pizza dough is no small feat (heck, I have trouble just getting it to stretch out to meet the corners of my pizza pan), but it's not impossible.

If you're cooking for a pizza-loving household, check out WonderHowTo, where Chef Michael Kalanty from the California Culinary Academy will show you some surefire tricks for throwing your own pizza dough.

The secret appears to be in pinching the edge, presumably so it doesn't fall on the floor. That's where my first attempt will likely end up... better make a little extra!

There was a time when I used the microwave for everything. Now I use it as little as possible, but I could never give up microwave popcorn, or my nightly heating pad, so our microwave remains a household staple.

Of all the things you can do in microwaves, I never would have guessed that you could sun-dry tomatoes (ok, not really "sun," but definitely "dry"). It will allow you to use your garden tomatoes in recipes all year round.

Drying them in your microwave is the fastest and easiest method. All you need is the tomatoes, salt, and if you choose, seasoning salt and garlic. Prepare, microwave, let them sit according to the instructions, seal them in a baggie, toss them in the fridge, and keep them as long as you'd like.

Stoves ranges, both gas and electric, are reliable appliances generally. But like everything else, every now and then something goes amiss. If yours suddenly won't fire up, here's a few DIY things to try before calling the expensive service guy.

Gas burner DIY
If your gas range won't "flame on," (sorry, Fantastic Four, I couldn't resist), the first obvious step is to make sure it's getting gas. Turn it up and you should hear it hissing. If there's no gas, make sure it's getting electricity. Yes, gas stoves do have power.

Still no go? Use a small brush to clean the igniter and the pilot light hole.

Electric stove DIY

Make sure the electric stove is getting power. Next ask yourself, "Did I recently clean it?" If you reply in the affirmative, you might not have seated the element terminals properly when you reinstalled it. Check it out by lifting the stove top. Also, ensure that you didn't knock the terminal block out of the holder.

If you have an "aha" moment, set everything in order and you're good to go. Bon appetit!