~Tips & Tricks~

1. Use a clean milk carton as a "pitcher" for pancake or waffle batter. It's easy to pour the batter, and there's no extra ladle or pitcher to wash.
   
2. Dried fruits are easier to snip, slice or chop if placed in the freezer for a few minutes. Spray the knife or scissor blades with non-stick cooking spray.
   
3. Snip small amounts of chives, dill, or other fresh herbs with scissors, rather than chopping them with a knife.
   
4. For quick barbecue clean-up, wrap the still-warm grill rack in several thicknesses of newspaper and soak with the garden hose. After an hour or so, burned-on food will wipe away easily.
   
5. For easy peeling of garlic, place each clove rounded-side up on a cutting board and lay the flat of a heavy knife blade or cleaver on top of it. With the side of your fist, bang the knife just hard enought so that the skin splits without completely smashing the clove.
   
6. When preparing a pasta and vegetable dish, cook the vegetables in the same pot of boiling water(while pasta cooks, or before you add it), or steam the vegetables over the boiling water.
   
7. Wrap fresh ginger in plastic wrap and freeze it. It will keep for months, and need not be thawed before use. The brittle texture of the frozen root makes it easy to slice or grate.
   
8. If you've forgotten to soften butter or margarine for baking, grate it on a hard grater; use the tablespoon markings on the scraper as your measurement guide.
   
9. Marinate meat or poultry in a heavy-duty plastic freezer bag with a zipper-seal top. Set the bag in a bowl or baking dish to catch any condensation or leakage.
   
10. When you eat or juice citrus fruits, pare off the thin, colored skin, or zest with a vegetable peeler. Wrap the zest tightly and freeze for later use.
    
11. For faster baking, stand potatoes in muffin tins. (Fill any empty cups with water so they don't scorch.) Other hasty bakers: Boil potatoes for five minutes before baking; or halve potatoes lengthwise and bake cut-sides down on a non-stick pan.
    
12. Separate English muffin halves before freezing them and restack them all cut-sides up--they will be easy to separate for toasting while still frozen.
    
13. For pasta dishes with garlic, drop the unpeeled cloves into the water along with the pasta. When you drain the pasta, remove the garlic cloves and slip them out of their skins. They'll be sweet, mild and soft--easy to mash with a fork and stir into a homemade or store-bought sauce.
    

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