This list is from Teri Johnson's Collection! Thank you Teri! Food Repair ~*~ Unripe Avocado? Seal the avocado in a brown paper bag, and keep in a warm but not hot place. If the avocado has already been cut open and found to be unripe, coat the surfaces with butter, margarine or mayonnaise and do likewise. ~*~ Hard to peel? Cut the avocado in half lengthwise, and separate the two halves. Wham of blade of a large knife (not the point) into the pit and twist slightly. The pit will come neatly out. Now you can scoop the flesh out with a spoon or for a fancier meal, a melon baller. ~*~ Baked Beans too Bland? Stir in some ketchup or chili sauce or Tabasco sauce or brown sugar or rosemary or all of them. ~*~ No time to soak beans? Beans for baking should soak overnight. If you don't have that much time you can do this: Add 1 teaspoon of baking powder to 1 pound of beans, cover them with warm water and cook at a medium heat until they are soft, but not mushy - about 40 minutes. Add more water if necessary while they cook. Then drain off the water and bake as usual. ~*~ Quality of the beans? Dump the raw beans in water. The good ones will sink and the bad ones will float. ~*~ Old? If your string beans or lima beans have been around for a week or more, add a pinch of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the cooking water. ~*~ Stringy? If your lima beans are stringy, you have more problems than you can find solutions for here. For stringy string beans, plunge them into boiling water for 3 minutes. Drain the water. The strings should virtually fall off. ~*~ Bland Berries Sprinkle them with brown sugar, confectioner's sugar or one of the slightly sweet seasonings, such as nutmeg, cinnamon or anise seed. If there is some juice, drop a whole cardamom or two into it during storage. ~*~ Leafy, Twiggy Berries? Sometimes there are lots of little leaves and twigs mixed in with the berries, especially if you've picked them yourself. The fastest way to de-leaf and de-twig a large amount of berries is to pour them from one container to another across the path of a fan or other source of briskly moving air. ~*~ Not enough berries? In a pie, use your emergency vanilla pudding and make it a berry cream pie. Either use the berries and the pudding in layers or mix them together. Top with a meringue, and everyone will think that was what you meant all along. ~*~ Overripe Berries? Make fruit sauce. Clean the berries well, eliminate any fuzzy ones. Mash the rest with sugar to taste (start with about 1 tablespoon per cup of berries), and serve with ice cream or shortcake or cream or all three. ~*~ Too Many Berries? Clean and spread them out one layer deep on a cookie sheet. Freeze until firm, and put them into some sort of storage container, freezer bags do nicely. Then, when berries are out of season, you will have the equivalent of fresh ones. You could also make jelly or jam. ~*~ Burned Bread or Rolls? If you are baking or heating bread and it burns slightly, you can remove the burned spots with an ordinary kitchen grater. If there are lots of burned spots, you can cut them off and patch up the scars with a beaten egg brushed on the bare spots. Then just keep heating the bread. ~*~ Reheating Bread There are two ways to heat bread without cooking it anymore. For crusty kinds of bread and rolls, dip them very briefly in a bowl of hot water and toss them into a 350F oven until they are as hot as you'd like. For softer breads and muffins, wrap them rather loosely in foil and heat for 5 minutes at 450F ~*~ Dough Doesn't Rise? When bread dough fails to rise, additional gentle heat often helps. If you have an electric heating pad, set it on low, put foil on the pad, and put the bowl of dough on the foil. You could also put the bowl in the dishwasher, on the dry cycle (if you mix up the cycles see the , Bread and Rolls - Soggy section). Or put the bowl in a gas oven, the warmth from the pilot light may be enough. Alternatively, mix more yeast into 1/4 cup of warm water or milk; let it stand 5 minutes: knead it into the dough, which should now rise. If the bread still does not turn out, slice it very thin, if this is not acceptable make croutons or bread crumbs with the loaf. ~*~ Dried Out? Wrap the bread or rolls in a damp towel and refrigerate for 24 hours. Then remove the towel and heat the bread in the oven at 350F for 5 minutes. It should be restored to something close to its normal condition. ~*~ Bread is hard to slice? Heat the knife. To slice soft bread very thin, about the only thing to do is to freeze it, slice it and defrost it. ~*~ Stale Bread? Here are two fast techniques that often help revitalize stale bread: 1. Pour 1/2 teaspoon of water on the bread, seal it up in a brown paper bag, and heat it in a 350F oven for 10 to 15 minutes. 2. Plunge the entire loaf (or rolls or whatever) into cold water for just an instant: then bake on a cookie sheet at 350F for 10 minutes. Small amounts of very stale bread can, of course, be used to make bread crumbs. ~*~ Bread sticks to pan? If bread sticks to whatever you're cooking or heating it in, wrap the whole works (pan and all) in a dry towel, while it is still hot. Let cool outside the oven for 5 minutes. Unwrap and it should come right out of the pan. ~*~ Dough sticks to rolling pin? If bread dough sticks to the rolling pin, and you don't want to add more flour by flouring the rolling pin, put the rolling pin in the freezer until it is very cold, and then roll out the dough. ~*~ Bland Broccoli Mustard seed does interesting things to broccoli = either in the cooking water or sprinkled lightly over the finished product. ~*~ Broccoli is old? When you cook old broccoli, add a pinch of sugar and a pinch of salt to each cup of cooking water. ~*~ Burned Foods? When food burns while cooking, do three things: 1. Remove the pot or pan from the heat at once. Fill a container bigger than the pot (use the sick if necessary) with cold water and place the burned container in the cold water. Speed is of the essence. Just removing a pot from the flame doesn't stop the cooking; the cold-water plunge does. 2. Using a wooden spoon, preferably, remove all ingredients that don't cling, and transfer to another pot. Be sure you don't scrape or forcibly remove anything - take only what comes easily. 3. Taste the food. It is unlikely that it will have a burned taste, but if it does, cover the pot with a damp cloth and let it stand for about 1/2 hour. Taste it again. If the taste is still unpleasently burned or smoky, your food is probably beyond repair - unless you can take advantage of the smoky taste by adding barbecue sauce and renaming it "country style" whatever-it-was. ~*~ No Buttermilk? In many recipes, you can substitute 1/4 cup whole milk plus 3/4 cup yogurt for 1 cup of buttermilk. ~*~ Cabbage is bland? Try adding any or all of the following three seeds to the cooking water: dill, mustard and sesame ~*~ Old Cabbage? Add a pinch of salt to each cup of the cooking water. This will help elderly cabbage retain, during the cooking, what flavor may be left. ~*~ Overcooked Cabbage? Make cabbage soup. Alternatively, drain the cabbage very well by patting on paper towels after draining in an colander. If it survives this treatment, it is probably edible as is. Toss it with butter in a warmed bowl, and season with garlic salt and pepper. ~*~ Too Much Cabbage? For raw cabbage, wrap it well in plastic wrap or aluminum foil. It will keep a week if it is fresh. For cooked cabbage, use it to make cabbage soup (it will only be good for a day or so) ~*~ Bland Carrots? Try adding any of the following seasonings to cooked carrots: roughly 1/4 teaspoon per 4 servings of ground cloves, ginger, mace, marjoram, poppy seed, sesame seed, or thyme. Consider ketchup or chili sauce over cooked carrots. ~*~ Carrots are old? For raw carrots, soak them in ice water overnight. Add the juice of 1 lemon or 1 tablespoon of vinegar to the water before soaking. For cooked carrots, add a pinch of sugar and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to each cup of cooking water. ~*~ Bland Cereal? (or Buy cheaper bland cereal and spice it up!) Just about anything goes with cereal so here are a few suggestions: Make hot cereal using chocolate milk instead of white. Add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, a dash of ginger or a few cloves (tied in cheesecloth so you can remove them) to hot water before you add cereal. Stir a can of chopped fruit into hot cereal about half-way through the cooking process. Add prunes, dates, raisins, currants, nuts or other dried fruits to hot or cold cereals. Plump dried fruits in hot water, and let stand 3 minutes for the fruit to rehydrate. Let cool before adding to cold cereal. ~*~ Lumpy Hot Cereal Push hot lumpy cereal through a strainer. To prevent lumping, be sure to stir constantly when preparing hot cereal. ~*~ Cooked cheese is rubbery, tough, stringy: This happens when there is too much heat. The excessive heat separates the fat from the protein in the cheese. This time, throw the cheese in a food processor or blender to break it down and mix it together. Pour it back into the pan or better yet into a double boiler, and continue cooking. Next time, cook the cheese from the start in the top of a double boiler, making sure the top pot does not touch the boiling water below. That should avoid the whole problem. ~*~ Dried out, stale cheese: If it is extremely hard, consider grating it (any cheese can be grated). If it is dry but not all that dry, slice off the crusty wedges (you can grate those) , and wrap the whole cheese in a cloth that has been dipped in vinegar and wrung out. Store in your refrigerator. ~*~ Hard, difficult to cut cheese: Slicing a large piece of firm cheese like cheddar is made easier if you wrap it in plastic, put it on the floor of the microwave oven for 30 to 60 seconds on medium, depending on the size of the piece. ~*~ Moldy Cheese: Cut of the moldy parts; the rest of the cheese will not be affected. Note: Please do not try to remove the mold from Roquefort or Blue cheese, it's supposed to be there. ~*~ Oily Cheese: Wrap the oily cheese in paper towels: they will absorb most of the excess oil within 3 days or so. When the towels become saturated with oil, change them. ~*~ Soft, hard to cut cheese: 1. Heat the knife. 2. Go out and buy a cheese-cutting gadget (a thin wire in a frame) ~*~ Too much supposed-to-be-moldy cheese: Combine leftover Bleu or Roquefort cheese with an equal amount (by weight) of sweet butter, add a dollop of cognac, and store in a covered jar in the refrigerator. It lasts forever and it's great on crackers as an hors d'oeuvre. ~*~ Cherry Pits: You can use a hairpin (or a straightened paper clip). Press it into the cherry, stem side, then down under the pit (round end), and lift up. Pin and pit should emerge leaving the cherry virtually unharmed. ~*~ Can't open clams? The easy way? Drop the clams 4 at a time into boiling water. After 15 seconds, remove and slip a knife in between the shells. The water relaxes the muscle that is holding it shut. ~*~ Sandy, Gritty Clams? Sprinkle the clams with lots of corn meal. Then pour on enough water to cover them. Then wait 3 hours. They will have expelled sand and grit. ~*~ Quality of the Clams? It is always safest to buy clams in the shell. Be suspicious of broken shells or ones that aren't tightly closed. If in doubt, dump clams in cold water and be sure to discard any that float. ~*~ Burnt the Cookies? Cookies baked on brown (generally non-stick) cookie sheets and/or cookies sheets with sides, are more likely to burn. Next time: flat and shiny. If the sheet is half or less full of cookies it may absorb too much heat and get too hot. Put an inverted baking pan on the empty half. ~*~ Crumbly Cookie Dough? If cookie dough is too crumbly, but you don't want to add more moisture, try letting the dough stand at room temperature for half an hour covered with a slightly dampened cloth. ~*~ Cookies to hard? Cookies that are too hard will soften if stored in an airtight container with something to absorb moisture. A glass of water does nicely, so does a slice or too of fresh bread. ~*~ Problems spreading the cookie dough? If cookie dough doesn't spread satisfactorily before or during baking, take something cold and smooth, and flatten out each cookie with a rotary motion. Suggested cold thing 1. A spoon dipped in cold water. 2. an ice cube wrapped in smooth cloth. If however it spreads too much, the problem may be that the cookie sheet is too warm. For the next batch, turn the sheet over and run cold water on the back (no need to dry it) the put the cookies to cook on the other (dry) side. ~*~ Cookies stuck to baking sheet? Run the sheet or tin over a hot burner on the range. Or wrap the whole works in a towel as it comes hot from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Some times greasing the spatula helps. ~*~ Cookie Dough stuck to hands? Wash your hands in cold water. Or juggle a handful of ice cubes or as long as you can bear, the dough will not stick to them. ~*~ Old, not sweet corn: Any corn that has been thoughtfully prehusked for you by your well-meaning supermarket probably fits into this category. Before you cook it, slice a small piece of, and stand the ears on end in an inch of water for a half hour or so. Whether or not you presoak, try adding 1/2 cup of sugar to every 2 quarts of cooking water. A tablespoon or 2 of corn syrup will have the same beneficial effect. ~*~ No Cornstarch? For most cooking purposes, you can substitute 2 teaspoons of flour for 1 teaspoon of cornstarch. ~*~ Soggy Crackers: Put soggy crackers on a cookie sheet and bake for 2 or 3 minutes at 350F. ~*~ Need Cream? Baking soda sweetens sour cream, so add a pinch of soda to some sour cream, and keep adding it slowly until the cream riches the desired degree of sweetness. Start with only a pinch. A teaspoon per pint is about the most you will ever need to use. You could also use powdered milk made with less water than usual, or by adding milk to the powder instead of water. In sauces or other cooking, for 1 cup of cream, use sour milk made by adding 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or cider vinegar to 7/8 cup of milk. Then add 2 tablespoons butter to the recipe. ~*~ Souring Cream? Add a pinch of baking soda to sweeten souring cream. ~*~ Soggy, wilted cucumbers: Put the cucumbers, whole, in a basin of cold water in the refrigerator. About an hour before you want to eat them, peel and slice them, sprinkle with salt, and put back into the water. Drain before serving. ~*~ Too Many Cucumbers? Fresh cucumbers (firm, not shriveled and dark green) will keep for about a week. One solution for excess cucumbers is to saute them until brown. Turn over and brown the other side. Serve with cream cheese. ~*~ Not enough eggs? In baking, you can generally replace 1 in 3 eggs with a tablespoon of cornstarch. Also, for most purposed, 2 yolks will substitute for 1 whole egg. ~*~ Eggs stuck to carton? Wet the carton and the eggs will come out without cracking. ~*~ Stuck on eggs? The secret to cleaning eggs off utensils is to use cold water, not hot water. ~*~ Yolk in the white? When you separate eggs and there are bits of yolk in the white, it is important to remove them, because if you don't, they will never whip properly. Whip out the handy dandy 'yolk magnet', a piece of cloth dampened in cold water. Touch the yolk bit and it should cling to the cloth. ~*~ Egg cracked before boiling? Wrap eggs very tightly with aluminum foil, twisting at both ends. Then boil normally, after boiling plunge the egg quickly into cold water. If you don't, it will continue to cook in the foil. ~*~ Eggs cracked during cooking: Pour 1 teaspoon of salt into the cooking water. It should keep the whites from seeping out. A few drops of lemon juice or vinegar in the egg water will have the same effect. ~*~ Hard to slice eggs? If you don't have a egg slicer thingy, the easiest way to slice hard boiled eggs it either use a cheese slicer or garrote the egg with thread. ~*~ Hard to peel eggs? Tap the warm cooked egg all over the shell with a spoon and/or roll it around in cold water. ~*~ Not enough egg whites? Before beating, add 1 teaspoon of cream of tartar for each cup of egg whites. They will beat up fluffier, thus of greater volume. ~*~ Too many egg whites? Freeze them, one to an ice cube tray section. When they are frozen, remove from the tray and store in a plastic bag in the freezer. They will last for months until you need them. ~*~ Egg whites won't whip? The eggs should be at least 3 days removed from the chicken. If you bought them at a supermarket, they most likely are. They should also be at room temperature. Either let them sit for 1/2 hour, or dunk them in lukewarm water for 5 minutes. The beaters must be very clean and free of grease, even a tiny bit may prevent whipping. If you have no luck after that, add a pinch of baking soda, or less desirable, a pinch of salt. The whites may be a bit fluffier than usual, but they will whip. ~*~ Bitter Eggplant? The peel is the bitter part, so one way or another, try to remove it. ~*~ Fish too bland? Just about any herb or spice can be used in some fashion on most fish dishes. Here is a partial list to get you started. Allspice (405 whole berries in the cooking water), cinnamon (try it in bouillon), ginger (on broiled or fried fish), mace (with trout), marjoram (broiled, baked or creamed fish), rosemary (salmon), sesame seed (fried, broiled, baked fish), tarragon (lobster, tuna, salmon), and there are lots more. ~*~ Fish too dry? Serve with a sauce or simply melted butter and slivered almonds. ~*~ Fish has that *can* taste? To make canned fish (crab, tuna, salmon) taste 'uncanny', soak it in fresh whatever-liquid-it-is-packed-in, (either oil or water presumably) for about half an hour. ~*~ Fish Overcooked? Check your favorite cookbook for all the wonderful things you can do with fish stock. If you have time, overcooked fish makes great fish cakes or croquettes. ~*~ Fish too salty? When raw fish (or shrimp) is too salty, soak it in clear water for about 10 minutes. If you aren't going to serve it soon, store it in new water, not the water you just soaked it in. Adding a lot of vinegar (1 cup per quart of liquid) to the cooking water helps cut down on the saltiness while cooking fish. ~*~ Scaly Fish? If an allegedly scaled fish still has scales on it, try plunging the fish into scalding water. Now you can easily loosen the scales with a serrated knife. ~*~ Smelly Fish? In frying fish, the more dreadful smells usually occur from the boiling fat, not from the fish itself. Reducing the heat should help. When poaching fish, add some celery leaves to the pot. They will help destroy the fish smell (not entirely however) and smell pretty good themselves. ~*~ Too much fish? If it's already cooked, make timbales, croquettes, fish cakes or (for firmer fleshed fish) a salad. ~*~ Out of All-Purpose Flour? For 1 cup of all-purpose flour, you can substitute 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of cake flour. In many baking situations. 1 1/2 cups of rolled oats can replace 1 cup of all-purpose flour. ~*~ Garlic hard to peel? If the peel is slightly loose, run hot water over the garlic and the peel should come of readily. If the peel is just plain hard to get off, drop the garlic into boiling water for 5 seconds, then in cold water. Now the peel should come of easily. ~*~ Gelatin Stuck in Mold? Loosen the gelatin around the edges of the mold with the tip of a knife. Dip the mold in hot water (do not get the gelatin itself wet) for a few seconds, invert it on a plate, and shake the mold and plate gently until it comes loose. Lift the mold gently off the gelatin. If it is still stuck, repeat. If it is still stuck do not despair, the process will work eventually (perhaps next time you should give the mold a very light coating of oil to prevent this problem). ~*~ Gelatin too thick? If a gelatin dessert sets too long and you wanted to have stirred in fruits or marbles or something and now you can't, warm it up by any convenient method (oven, stove, setting it in a bowl of warm water), and it will thin. Then let it set again to the right consistency for stirring stuff in. ~*~ Gelatin too thin? If a gelatin dessert or salad won't thicken at all, or not fast enough for you, set it in an ice bath. An ice bath is a bowl full of ice cubes. Next time, make sure you have let the gelatin soak in cold liquid for 5 minutes before using it. ~*~ Grapefruit too sour? Curiously enough, a bit of salt has the effect of making sour grapefruit taste sweeter. ~*~ Bland gravy? Depending on the kind of gravy, consider adding herbs and spices; for instance, ground allspice, coriander, marjoram, mustard, savory or thyme. ~*~ Gravy too lumpy? Beat lumpy gravy with a whisk or rotary (hand operated) beater. Use a blender or food processor only as a last resort. Or pour (or force) the gravy through a wire strainer. ~*~ Gravy too salty? The only certain way to decrease saltiness is to increase the quantity. A few pinches of brown sugar often have the effect of overcoming saltiness without sweetening. Or, for minor over-salting, cut up a raw potato into thin slices and cook them in the gravy until they become translucent. ~*~ The best thickening agent is time. (Not thyme, time). As a gravy cooks, the water evaporates, but not the other ingredients, so it becomes thicker. If you don't have time, or can't afford to reduce the quantity, here are the most common thickening agents: Arrowroot (about 1 tablespoon per cup of liquid, dissolved in cold water, then stirred in within 10 minutes of serving; can be done just before serving, since arrowroot has no flavor of its own.) Cornstarch (about 1-1 1/2 teaspoons per cup of liquid dissolved in cold water, then added. Allow time for gravy to cook and overcome the cornstrachy taste). Other thickenings for various situations are rice, barley, a paste of flour and water (also good for scrapbooks and pâper maché), milk, cream, egg yolks and mashed potato flakes. ~*~ Rusting Lettuce? If your lettuce or other greens are looking rusty, store them in a plastic bag along with a couple of paper napkins to adsorb the excess moisture, which is the problem. Do not cut lettuce with a knife. ~*~ Wilted Greens? If you got an hour, dip the greens in hot water, then in ice water with a dash of vinegar. Shake the excess liquid from them, and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour. ~*~ Clogged Pepper Shaker? Put about 1/2 teaspoon of whole peppers into a pepper shaker, and it will not only keep the pepper pouring, it will also impart a lovely fresh-pepper smell. ~*~ Fresh & Dried Spices: For most herbs and spices, 1 teaspoon of fresh equals 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoon of dried. ~*~ Old or Weak Spices? Many herbs loose their potency after a few months; most in a year. One way to deal with old herbs if to rub them between your fingers for a few moments. Some spices can be renewed, if it ties in with your recipe, by cooking them in butter for a few minutes before using. This method is effective with curry powder, for example. ~*~ Crystallized, Sugared, Honey? Heating honey will restore it to its un-crystallized state, just the way it came out of the bee. A simple way to heat it is to stand your honeypot in a pan of hot water. A faster way is to cook the honey in a microwave oven for 60 to 90 seconds per cup of honey. ~*~ Out of Honey? In most recipes, you can substitute 1 1/4 cups of sugar and 1/4 cup of any liquid for 1 cup of honey. ~*~ Honey stuck to container? Next time, butter the container lightly before pouring the honey in it; it won't stick at all. ~*~ Lamb chops curling? Slash the fat on the edges every half inch or so, and turn the chops over once (you can turn them back later). ~*~ Lemons old and all dried up? Boil the lemon for about 5 minutes and a lot more juice will come out; roughly 1/3 more. (It is better, but not vital, to let the lemon cool in the fridge before juicing.) Heating for 5 minutes in a 300F oven will have the same effect, and so will 15 seconds on a high setting in a microwave oven. So, to a lesser extent, will rolling the lemon around on a table top with a circular pressing motion, as in making balls of clay. ~*~ Out of lemon juice? For small quantity use, 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar can be substituted for 1 teaspoon of lemon juice. ~*~ Lemon pits falling in? Wrap half a lemon in a cheesecloth before squeezing. For serving at dinner, do as some elegant restaurants do: knot or sew the cheesecloth shut. Very classy. ~*~ For squirting lemons? Insert a fork into your lemon wedge and squeezing it over the fork, shielding it with your hand as you do so. ~*~ Cheap, tough liver? No matter what the instructions may say, meat tenderizer works as well on liver as most other meats. If you anticipate that your liver is going to be tough or untasty, soak it for an hour in milk and fry in butter. ~*~ Popping and spattering? Chicken livers are one to do this, but they won't if you perforate them all over with a fork. ~*~ Not enough Mayonnaise? In things like eggs salad or on sandwiches, stir in some ketchup or chili sauce if the taste is compatible. If not, thin out the mayonnaise and increase the seasoning in the salad. Or make your own mayonnaise, it's unbelievably easy in a blender or food processor. ~*~ Mayonnaise too thick? Thin it out with cream, whipped cream, evaporated milk or lemon juice, whichever is handiest. None of these will flavor it, you can thin it out with fruit juice. The juice of a cantaloupe or watermelon is especially interesting. ~*~ Meringue Cracked? Best to make a Pavlova, the New Zealand national dessert. Assemble the bits in a ring, using a liberal amount of whipped cream to stick together. Fill the ring with fresh fruit (kiwi, berries or well-drained mandarin orange slices.) ~*~ Meringue Hard to Cut? Dip the knife in very cold water. ~*~ Weeping Meringue? (so sad) It tends to do so when it is cooled too fast. Cool it very slowly, by leaving it in the oven as the oven cools for example. ~*~ Need Milk? If you don't have any powdered milk, then for most uses (including drinking but mostly cooking) you can substitute the following for 1 cup of whole milk: 1 cup of buttermilk plus 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda; or 1 cup of skim milk plus 2 teaspoons of oil or fat. If you need sour milk, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice or cider vinegar to 1 cup of regular milk. In baking, depending on the recipes, 1 cup of fruit juice can sometimes be substituted for 1 cup of milk. ~*~ Muffins have soggy bottoms? This happens because the moisture in the muffins condenses in the bottom of the muffin pans after cooking. Counteract either by putting the muffins on a rack to cool, or simply turning them sideways in their little compartments. ~*~ Muffins stuck to the pan? Put the muffin pan on a wet towel. In a couple of minutes, the muffins should come free. ~*~ Tough Muffins? Tough muffins (which are not the same as tough cookies) got that way because you probably beat the dough rather than folded it over and over. This time: Cut your tough muffins in slices, toast and serve with jam. Next time, don't whip, fold the dough. ~*~ Mushrooms too dark or darkening? Wipe them with a damp cloth, rub them with lemon juice, and store them in the refrigerator. Or steam them in milk or butter in the top of a double boiler for 20 minutes. Or, while cooking add a few drops of lemon juice to the cooking liquid. (It is just about impossible to lighten mushrooms in a black iron skillet). ~*~ Shriveled Mushrooms? Peel them with your fingers. Beneath every shriveled mushroom lies a somewhat smaller smooth mushroom waiting to be found. (You can use the peelings to flavor soups and sauces). ~*~ Mushrooms too light? Mushrooms will darken if cooked in butter in a black iron skillet on high heat. ~*~ Too many mushrooms? Chop them, cook very slowly over low heat until they are reduced by half or more. Now you have duxelle, a mushroom paste that stores well (in the refrigerator). Use it where mushroom flavoring is required (soups, sauces, stews, etc.). ~*~ Nuts too Crumbly? If nut meats crumble when you crack the shells, soak the remaining unshelled nuts in salt water overnight. ~*~ Nuts are hard to crack or peel? For almonds or similar nuts, drip the whole nut (shelled) in boiling water, and let stand for 3 minutes with the heat off. The skins (that is the brown layer on the nut meat) should come off easily. Dry the nut meats on a towel. For chestnuts and similar nuts, make a small gash on the flat side of the nut, penetrating the outer skin. Roast in a 400F oven until the skins loosen, or ~*~ I always have two squirt-top bottles in my cabinet, one for vegetable oil and one for olive oil. I have found these terrific when I only need a very small amount of oil. It helps control the amount better and is much more convenient than getting out the original containers. ~*~ When making sugar cookie cut outs, roll the dough on the cookie sheet. Use cookie cutters to cut shapes. Remove excess dough. Bake as directed. No more broken or misshapen cookies. ~*~ Substitute for sour cream- mix 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 cup cottage cheese, 1/3 cup buttermilk. Blend in a blender or food processer for 2 minutes @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Baking Soda Baking Tips 1)Give a chocolate cake a darker texture by mixing 1 tsp baking soda with the other dry ingredients 2) Keep icing moist and prevent it's cracking by adding a pinch of baking soda before spreading on cake 3)Make your own self-rising flour: 3 1/2 c flour 1 3/4 tsp baking powder 1 3/4 tsp baking soda 1 3/4 tsp salt 4)Sweeten tart blackberries for pies and cobblers by adding 1/2 tsp baking soda before adding the sugar 5) Consider adding baking soda to your dry ingredients when combining baking ingredients as your SOP(standard operating procedure) 6)For perfect sour cream pound cake add the baking soda to the sour cream before you start mixing the cake ingredients. The soda is activated in the sour cream to begin it's work earlier 7)Mix batters quickly and put them in a preheated oven fairly fast so that gases don't escape from the dough before baking. 8) Make fluffy breakfast biscuits without yeast by substituting 1 tsp baking soda and an equal amount of ascorbic acid (or powdered vitamin C) for the yeast called for. 35 USEFUL COOKING & HOUSEHOLD HINTS: 1- 1/3 to 1/2 teaspoons of dried herbs = 1 tablespoon fresh herbs. 2- Rub 1/2 lime on your hands or cutting board to remove onion, garlic or fish odors. 3- To avoid trouble with weevils, keep flour or cornmeal in a glass jar or plastic container in the refrigerator. 4- 1 tablespoon oil in water for boiling pastas (macaroni etc.) prevents it from sticking together. 5- 1 pound of coffee brews 40 cups. 6- For a tender pie crust use less water than is called for. 7- Dip knife in hot water to slice hard boiled eggs. 8- 1 cup macaroni makes 2 cups of cooked macaroni. 9- Freeze left over coffee in icecube tray. When used to chill iced coffee, the cubes will not dilute the coffee. 10- Parsley rinsed in hot water instead of cold retains more flavor. 11- Brown sugar will not become lumpy if stored in a jar with a piece of blotting paper fitted to the inside of the jar lid. 12- If food boils over in the oven, cover with salt to prevent smoking and excessive odor. 13- Add diced crisp bacon and a dash of nutmeg to cauliflower or cabbage for a gourmet touch. 14- Before baking, have ingredients at room temperature. 15- To chop sticky dried fruits, heat knife before using. 16- Parsley freezes well. Cut stems and place bunch in a plastic bag. Thaws easily. 17- Tear lettuce into pieces instead of cutting to prevent browning. 18- It is a good idea to make stock from left over bones and keep in freezer to enhance soups and sauces. 19- Sour milk can be made by adding two teaspoons of lime juice to a cup of warm milk, which will curdle. 20- As soon as vegetables are tender drain and plunge into cold water. This sets the colour. Vegetables may be stored and reheated when needed. 21- Whip cream in a large bowl set in ice. If no cream is available, place a tin of evaporated in the freezer for about one hour and then proceed to whip as for cream. To sweeten, use icing sugar, which is preferable to granulated sugar. 22- Molds should be oiled before they are filled. Custards baked in hot water should be removed and left to stand for 5 minutes to settle before unmolding. Run knife around the edge. Place a plate over the mold, invert the plate and mold and lift off. 23- To prepare nuts, first blanch. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Let soak until skin wrinkles then slip the skin off between the fingers. 24- To keep kettles clean, fill with cold water, add some ammonia and bring to a boil. Rinse well. 25- Gas ovens must be wiped clean before oven is cold. Racks and shelves must be washed with hot water and backing soda. 26- Wash pewter with hot water and soap, polish will scratch the surface. 27- Mildew stains can be removed by soaking overnight in sour milk. Dry in the sun without rinsing. Repeat process if necessary. 28- To remove scorch, spread a paste of starch and cold water over the mark. Dry in sun and brush off. 29- Wash glass windows with crumbled newspaper dipped in cold water, to which has been added a few drops of ammonia. 30- For wood worms - apply kerosene oil with a brush to the infected area daily for 10 days. 31- To stop doors creaking, rub hinges with soap. 32- Rust marks can be removed from steel by rubbing with a cut onion. 33- When washing thermo flasks, add a little vinegar to the water. It removes the musty smell. Do not cork flasks when storing. 34- To remove stains from china use a rag dipped in cold water and salt. 35- Soak tarnished silver in hot water and ammonia - 1 tablespoon ammonia to 1 quart water. @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ ~*~ Stained plastic containers can be cleaned with a mixture of baking soda and lemon juice. ~*~ To get the smell out of plastic storage containers, put a piece of crumpled newspaper in them, cover tightly and leave overnight. ~~*~~ Wax Paper Our mothers probably used miles of it in their kitchens, but today, wax paper seems to have been pushed to the back of the kitchen cabinet. But when it comes to versatility, wax paper is on a roll. Here are a few ideas. To keep a bottle of pancake syrup from dripping, rub the rim with a piece of wax paper. Wax paper can be used to keep wooden salad bowls in good condition. Rub the bowl inside and out with a piece of crumpled wax paper. It will seal in moisture and help prevent strong flavors from permeating the wood. Use the same technique to treat wooden salad utensils. To help shower curtain rings slide more smoothly, buff the rod with a piece of wax paper. This works on both metal and plastic rods. Give a crisp finish to ribbon, linen cloths, collars and cuffs by ironing between two sheets of wax paper. Place a sheet of clean paper underneath to protect the ironing board and one on top to protect the iron. Use wax paper to apply a temporary non-stick coating to your waffle iron. Heat up the appliance and then turn it off. Lay a double thickness of wax paper on the grid and close the iron. Remove the paper once the waffle iron is cool. Rub the barrel of a cool curling iron with wax paper to keep it slick and smooth. To keep foods from getting soggy in the microwave, cover them with paper instead of plastic wrap. Because it doesn't cling, wax paper will allow more steam to escape. A sure fire way to prevent cakes from sticking to the pan is with wax paper. Trace the bottom of your pan on wax paper and use scissors to cut out the shape. Grease the pan, lay in the wax paper and grease that too. Turn out the cake and remove the paper while it is still warm. So there you have it, some great new tips for an old-fashioned kitchen favorite. Thanks Again Teri!