25 Kitchen tips

• For cleaning smelly hands after chopping onions or garlic, just rub them on a stainless steel spoon. The steel is supposed to absorb the odor.

• Fresh coffee beans can also absorb nasty odors from your hands.

• If you happen to over-salt a pot of soup, just drop in a peeled potato. The potato will absorb the excess salt.

• Don't store your bananas in a bunch or in a fruit bowl with other fruits. Separate your bananas and place each in a different location. Bananas release gases which cause fruits (including other bananas) to ripen quickly. Separating them will keep them fresh longer.

• To keep potatoes from budding in the bag, put an apple in with them.

• If you manage to have some leftover wine at the end of the evening, freeze it in ice cube trays for easy addition to soups and sauces in the future.

• To clean crevices and corners in vases and pitchers, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets. The bubbles will do the scrubbing.

• After boiling pasta or potatoes, cool the water and use it to water your house plants. The water contains nutrients that your plants will love.

• When you clean your fish tank, the water you drain can also be used to water your house plants. The nitrogen and phosphorus in fish droppings make aquarium water a great fertilizer.

• When defrosting meat from the freezer, pour some vinegar over it. Not only does it tenderize the meat; it will also bring down the freezing temperature of the meat and cause it to thaw quicker.

• The substance in onions that causes your eyes to water is located in the root cluster of the onion. Cut this part out in a cone shape, with the largest part of the cone around the exterior root section.

• Taking the top layer off of a onion can also reduce the amount of eye-watering misery.

• Toothpaste is a great silver cleaner.

• When boiling eggs, add a pinch of salt to keep the shells from cracking.

• Never put citrus fruits or tomatoes in the fridge. The low temperatures degrade the aroma and flavor of these persnickety fruits.

• To clean cast iron cookwear, don't use detergents. Just scrub them with salt and a clean, dry paper towel.

• Will milk curdle if it is allowed to boil? It turns out that this age-old piece of wisdom isn't true, after all. Milk that has been boiled is perfectly safe to consume.

• To clean an electric kettle with calcium buildup on the heating element, boil a mixture of half white vinegar and half water, then empty.

• When storing empty airtight containers, throw in a pinch of salt to keep them from getting stinky.

• If you are making gravy and accidentally burn it, just pour it into a clean pan and continue cooking it. Add sugar a little at a time, tasting as you go to avoid over-sugaring it. The sugar will cancel out the burned taste.

• Burned a pot of rice? Just place a piece of white bread on top of the rice for 5-10 minutes to draw out the burned flavor. Be careful not to scrape the burned pieces off of the bottom of the pan when serving the rice.

• Before you chop chili peppers, rub a little vegetable oil into your hands and your skin won't absorb the spicy chili oil.

• If you aren't sure how fresh your eggs are, place them in about four inches of water. Eggs that stay on the bottom are fresh. If only one end tips up, the egg is less fresh and should be used soon. If it floats, it's past the fresh stage.

• To banish ants from the kitchen, find out where they are coming in and cover the hole with petroleum jelly. Ants won't trek through the jelly. If they are coming under a door, draw a line on the floor with chalk. The little bugs also won't cross a line of chalk.

• Before making popcorn on the stove or in an air popper, soak the kernels in water for 10 minutes. Drain the water, then pop as normal. The additional moisture helps the popcorn pop up quicker and fluffier with fewer "old maids."

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