Okay. We all have them, so - anyone have any little tips they want to share?

I have a couple:

A lot of American biscuit and cake recipes call for buttermilk - if you can't get hold of that, mix a teaspoon of lemon juice into 3/4 cup of semi-skimmed milk (I don't think the kind of milk matters really). And voila!

Cakes, I find, turn out better if you hand-whisk instead of using an electric mixer. Takes longer but ends up more fluffy and light than heavy.

apparently no one has any lol

my tips are always use the best quality produce you can, as the difference between eg cheap steak and high quality steak is huge.

That's a really interesting tip about buttermilk - thank you! I bought several cook books in the States earlier this year, and there are lots of mentions of buttermilk in recipes I want to try, but am too scared to.

To get more juice when squeezing oranges etc.....zap them in the microwave for a few seconds first

You can buy bones for c. 10p from a butchers to simmer with veg to make great soup.

When cooking thick (as in 1/2") home made chips, first put them in a glass mixing bowel, cover them with a plate, then microwave them for 5 mins before deep frying them.

The partial cooking in the microwave will mean they are cooked through by the time the outside is nicely golden, rather than having to incinerate the outside to cook them through.