*This post was sponsored by ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda, an ingredient and tool I use daily. The story and images are my own.

There are many secrets of the kitchen that are often not taught. Techniques and tricks that become inherently a part of those who work and live in the kitchen. We glide across our limited kitchen space employing numerous short cuts and skills that have been collected along the way like memories.

Lately I’ve been trying to become more aware of those subconscious tricks that I use in order to run my very small home kitchen more efficiently. In doing so I hope to do a better job of passing along such tricks.

Much of what I know about effective kitchen management I learned while working in a restaurant where pushing out over 250 desserts a night was not out of the ordinary. In order to perform such a task everything must be impeccably organized and everyone must follow the same plan. Every movement is calculated and every action is scrupulously examined to ensure that it is performed in the most efficient way possible.

But it’s the moments in which I recall a trick I picked up from my grandmothers or my mom that remind me of the real power of the kitchen. In those moments I feel a great sense of honor and duty in continuing the tradition and passing along skills in the kitchen to my children. I can’t help but think of how the future wives of my boys will thank me for showing my son’s how to finesse flakes out of a simple pie dough. And how my daughter’s husband will benefit from her lack of fear in the kitchen just as my husband has.

In the kitchen of my childhood I could only reach the front burner but I didn’t let that stop me from “helping” with dinner. At the cusp of learning how to multi-task and just beginning to hone my skills in having the kitchen run like a well oiled machine, I neglected to stir the pot and directed my attention elsewhere. By the time I returned to the pan a deep layer had crusted to the bottom and the evidence of burnt on food was in the air. My mother noticed what was happening at the same time but rather than scolding my negligence she reached for the golden box with the muscular arm while at the same time teaching me one of those invaluable kitchen secrets.

She proceeded to boil the pot with a heavy dose of baking soda and by the end of the evening the pot contained no evidence of what was to be the first of many (many) kitchen mistakes.

Years later, while working in a high end restaurant, a similarly burnt food-crusted pan appeared on our station. Rather than whisk the pan away and let the dishwashers deal with the mess, I passed along the baking soda trick to my pastry chef and felt swollen with pride while doing so.

The ARM & HAMMER® Baking Soda box represents many of those tricks I learned at a young age. Imagine my delight when I was able to return the favor to my mom and share with her one of my favorite uses for this iconic ingredient. She was unfamiliar with the idea of adding a touch of baking soda instead of sugar, to tomato sauce for the purpose of reducing the acidity. I thought for a moment what that pan-burning little girl would think knowing that decades later she would have something to share with the woman who taught her how to move in the kitchen. She would be proud, I’m quite certain. Just don’t tell that little girl how many more pans she’ll burn in her kitchen career.

What are some of your favorite uses for baking soda in your kitchen? Share your tricks on beyondthebake.com for a chance to win.

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In a rare moment of calm, while Roman (age 1) slept, I taught Baron the art of tasting chocolate. At three I figure it’s never to early to start discovering how to savor and tune in to one’s taste buds. Baron’s ears perked as my lips uttered the word chocolate. He is a self-proclaimed “chocolate man” and seeing that we (on occasion) put chocolate in our milk, pancakes and sprinkle it on toast, I think it’s a fairly accurate claim.

We began by studying the three tasting subjects. I read the back of the packages and Googled images of the Amazon (where the beans originate) and of the football shaped cocoa pods that house the beans. Meanwhile my eager student fumbled with the packaging trying to uncover the dark chocolate. Hurrying the lesson I discussed the importance of the “snap” – the sound properly tempered chocolate makes when broken.

After we judged the appearance and the sound I asked Baron what he smelled. “Chocolate.” He replied, while I noted hints of citrus.

Finally we tasted.

“What does it taste like?” I asked.

“Chocolate.” He replied.

Trying to encourage him to taste beyond the chocolate I said, “I taste some banana.”

“I taste banana too.” Baron said only trying to make me happy. I was happy.

The samples we tasted were from a company whose chocolate tastes as good as the mission behind the bar.

Kallari is a farmer’s cooperative made up of 850 indigenous Kichwa families that harvest and market their own line of organic chocolate. All of the profits from the purchase of the intensely rich dark chocolate bars go back into the cooperative. You can enjoy your organic chocolate in good conscience because your purchase helps theKichwa people support sustainable development, health and education programs while also preserving their backyard – the rainforest.

Each of the three single-source dark chocolate bars packs an intense cocoa flavor balanced with hints of tropical fruits and citrus. In the 85% bar a mild sweetness lingers after your taste buds have been smothered with a buttery coat then tickled with tastes of passion fruit. The 70% bar is one that even milk chocolate purists will enjoy. It is dark yet sweet – reminiscent of Swiss Chocolate. Playing the part of Goldilocks in this tasting I found the 85% bar a bit to intense and the 70% much to sweet. Don’t get me wrong I would HAPPILY eat all three (and I have) but if I had my choice 75% would be it – a perfect marriage of rich coffee and tobacco with a slight bright taste of fruit balanced with a subtle sugar and vanilla finish.

You may have to pay a bit more for this bar that is “four times as fair as ‘Fair-Trade’” but you will do so with a clear conscience knowing you are playing a vital part in helping theKichwa teach and nourish their people while protecting their coveted land.

You can find Kallari Chocolate in the specialty/cheese department at Whole Food Stores throughout the U.S. or you can order online.

Note: Kallari sent me the chocolate. They did not however pay me to review their product. I am very fortunate to be able to taste some incredible new products (and some not so incredible) but I do not review them all. In fact it is rare that I review products. What I do choose to review are products or books that I find enjoyable and that help to promote good food and are created in a fair and sustainable way.

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