Quick Tips The Home / Cooking Cleaning Cooking Cut Flowers Decorating Energy Conservation Sundry Hints Quick Tips Categories To thaw your turkey in a hurry, fill your kitchen sink with cold water - enough to cover the turkey. Change the water every sixty minutes. The thaw rate will be approximately thirty (30) minutes per pound. Reader’s Tip: When making large salads, place the washed greens in a cup towel and roll it up, then place it in the (empty) washing machine on spin. This dries the leaves. Reader’s Tip: I use my cordless drill to stir natural peanut butter. I dedicated a new (clean) small paint stirrer for food use only, and it works perfectly (though it sometimes helps to have one person hold the jar while the other runs the drill at low speed and slowly works the stirrer closer to the bottom). No more finding a clump of cementitious peanut butter at the bottom of the jar!! -- from Roger D. To keep dinner rolls piping hot, wrap a hot ceramic tile in a napkin and place it in the bottom of the serving basket. Be sure to use a trivet under the basket to protect the table. Cover cookie sheets with foil. They can be wiped clean with paper towels, dried and reused for continuous cookie baking, and at the end of the baking session, cleanup is a snap. Drain fried foods or cool cookies on brown paper bags. To rid your hands of food odors, rub them with a paste of baking soda and water. Rub your hands with salt and lemon juice to remove fish odors. Remove onion or garlic odors from your hands by holding a stainless steel utensil under running water for a couple of minutes. Cleaning a garlic press can be tiresome. Try putting the cloves through the press unpeeled. You will get a finer profile, but you can just reach in and pull out the husk. When preparing a dish that calls for several different chopped ingredients, place each chopped food in a coffee filter to avoid spills. Also good when weighing ingredients on a kitchen scale. Fresh berries and grapes will keep longer in the refrigerator if you store them in a colander so that cold air can circulate around the fruit. Store tomatoes with stems pointed downward to retain their freshness longer. Freeze tomatoes that are getting too ripe. They’ll get mushy but are still fine for cooking. Peel the tough lower stalks of fresh asparagus with a potato peeler until you reach the soft interior. Cook as usual. The stalks will be as tender as the tips. Truss poultry for cooking with dental floss. Stick a strand of dental floss under fresh cookies that stick to the cookie sheet or, if you must cut a cake hot, use floss. It won’t damage the cake as much as a knife will. Floss even works as a cheese cutter. To grate cheese neatly, place the grater inside a plastic bag and insert a wedge of cheese in the bag. Grasp the cheese through the bag, then grate. To distinguish hard boiled eggs from raw ones in the refrigerator, cook the eggs in water to which food coloring has been added. If your hollandaise sauce starts to curdle, drop in an ice cube and continue stirring. The sauce will be smooth and creamy again. Combine all ingredients for an oil and vinegar dressing in a screw top jar, add an ice cube and shake. Discard what’s left of the cube and your dressing will be extra smooth and well mixed. Keep vegetable or salad oil from dripping by wrapping a sweat band around the outside of the bottle. When the band gets dirty, throw it in the wash. Poached fish will be firmer and whiter if you add lemon juice to the cooking liquid. To get more juice from lemons, halve them, heat on high in the microwave for 30 to 45 seconds, then squeeze. Stir a tablespoon of lemon juice into a cup of fresh sweet milk when you need a substitute for sour cream or buttermilk. If you have more fresh basil than you can use, fill your food processor with basil leaves, add some water and make a puree. Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze immediately. When they are frozen, remove the cubes and store them in labeled plastic bags. To decant bottle-aged wine easily, insert an unbleached coffee filter into the neck of a glass decanter and pour the wine through the filter. Spray cookie cutters with nonstick vegetable spray to keep dough from sticking. Fill a milk carton with whipped cream and freeze. When you need some, cut it off the top with a carving knife. Recap the carton with foil, secure with tape or a rubber band and return to the freezer. Freeze big ice cubes in muffin tins to use in party punches or large drink glasses. Add food coloring to the water, if you wish. Use a 1-1/2 inch natural bristle paintbrush dipped in melted margarine or oil to grease muffin tins, cookie sheets and cake or bread pans. It’s much faster than using a skimpy pasty brush. To cut onions finely, chop as usual then run over them several times with a pizza cutter. Pour salt immediately on spilled grease, a broken egg or a spill in the oven to absorb the mess so you can easily wipe it up. When marinating foods that require a whole clove of garlic, skewer it with a toothpick so it’s easy to remove when the food is served. To keep the bowl from slipping while mixing ingredients, place it on a folded damp towel on the counter or in the sink. A vegetable peeler can be a handy tool: If you need soft butter immediately, shave it with a peeler. Shave off thin cheese slivers or chocolate. Use it to remove the rind from oranges and lemons. Use the tip to pit cherries. After washing a wooden salad bowl, dry it thoroughly, then rub it inside and out with wax paper to keep the surface of the bowl sealed. Never allow cutlery to soak in water. Hand wash and dry immediately after use -- especially if knives have been used on fruit or salty food, which can cause staining, even on stainless steel. Roll out biscuits and pastries on a sheet of wax paper with a few drops of water under it to make it adhere to the counter for easy cleanup. If you put onions in the freezer fifteen minutes before you’re going to use them, you’ll reduce the spray of onion oils that vaporize. When you cut them, your eyes won’t cry. Fresh herbs will retain their flavor longer if they are stored in the freezer. When needed, don’t defrost—just cut off the amount required. If you run ice cold water over popcorn kernels before tossing them into the popper, there will be fewer kernels after popping. Marshmallows stay soft and fresh if you store them in the freezer. A wise cook keeps a powder puff in the flour canister. It’s perfect for dusting flour on pastry boards and rolling pins. To get a tempting brown glaze on your pie, brush it with milk before sliding it in the oven. Egg whites refrigerated for up to two weeks provide a fuller, more fluffy meringue than fresh egg whites. So a pie’s juice can bubble out harmlessly and in one place, insert a piece of tube type macaroni in the center of the pie before baking. If you want your homemade cookies to retain moisture as long as possible, use honey rather than sugar when mixing the batter. Beaten egg yoke thinned with water makes a shiny cookie coating. When it dries it also forms a good surface for painting with icing designs. To prevent cream whipped ahead of time from separating, add one quarter teaspoon of a flavored gelatin to each cup of cream during whipping. Keep a second hair dryer in the kitchen. Set on “cool” it can dry salad greens. Set on “warm” it sets icing on cakes. Set on “hot” it defrosts a stack of chops or softens ice cream for easy scooping. A round container with low sides is the best shape to use in a microwave. This allows uniform distribution of the waves throughout the food so it will cook better. Spray recipe cards with hair spray to help keep them clean. To remove burnt food from enamel pots, cover the bottom of the pot with water and add 4-5 tablespoons of salt. Let the pot soak overnight and then bring the mixture to a boil. Email your favorite tips to us and we’ll post them. Please specify whether you’d like your name and email address included.