++ When making tomato sauce for pasta, you have a few options for reducing acidity. You can cut off a small piece of potato or carrot, add a tiny sprinkle of sugar, plop in a few pieces of paper, or use a tablespoon or so of jelly and cook it with the sauce.

++ If you ever have a problem eating a hamburger with a leaky bottom bun, eat it upside down. The top half of the bun tends to be larger than the bottom, and much better padded for soaking up burger juices.

-- There's a color code subtly incorporated through the bread tie to tell when a loaf of bread was baked. The color of the tie represents the day on which the bread was baked:

++ Monday - blue
++ Tuesday - green
++ Thursday - red
++ Friday - white
++ Saturday - yellow

++ And to help you remember, the colors are in alphabetical order. BGRWY for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

++ If you don't have a dishwasher, do yourself a favour and rinse the dishes before you leave them in the sink.

++ To keep lettuce fresh for days longer, wrap it in paper towels instead of inside a plastic bag, it works very well.

++ Always tear your salad greens. Cutting salad greens chops open the cells. This means that the green leaks out quicker, and it'll brown faster. If you tear lettuce / spinach / endive / whatever, you'll find your salads looking fresher longer.

++ When you measure flour out, use the back of a knife (a straight edge) to "cut" away the extra flour. Take a big, heaping measuring-cup-full,
and tap the top with the back of the knife. Tap, and push the excess off. This should take about 30 seconds - if you're just cutting off the excess, you're not doing it right. Flour bunches up, which means you can have big pockets of air in a cup. You may think you're getting a cup, and really only be getting a few tablespoons.

++ Always use real butter, real sour cream, and real half and half. Those dairy products have strong, heavy flavors and really make a difference in cooking.

++ Always eat your toast upside down. that way the butter goes on your tongue. it tastes much better.

++ To de-core a head of Iceburg lettuce, hold the head by the top, core-side down. Give it a swift slam on a hard countertop. The core will come free with very little effort from the head.

++ Eat vegetables, and lots of them. Your parents weren't kidding.

++ Put some absorbant paper under your cheese in the fridge, all excess moisture will be absorbed by the paper and the cheese won't become
moldy.

++ Tie your plastic grocery bag handles at the top before putting them in the trunk of your car. That way you won't have rutabegas and bologna spread out all over when you get home because you drive like a maniac.

++ For a quick meal, seal some fish in tinfoil with whole vegetables. Heat at 420 for about 20 min.

++ To peel garlic, put a clove on the cutting board and smash it with the flat side of your knife.

++ Always put frozen spinach in a towel and squeeze out the water before using it in any type of dish.

++ Cubes of sugar in biscuit barrels help the biscuits stay crisp.

++ To cook the perfect Digiorno/Freschetta/etc rising crust pizza:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
2. Place pizza on the middle rack, no pan.
3. Cook 16-18 minutes for "delivery" style crust (slightly crispy, still able to fold without cracking), 25-28 minutes for brick oven
style crust (crispy, cracks when folded).

++ Boil eggs straight from the fridge, and drop them in a dish of cold water when they're done. They peel like magic.

++ If you need to slice a lot of mushrooms, a good egg slicer does it extremely quickly.

++ Let cooked meat "rest" after you take it off of heat for about 5-10 minutes before you cut into it. This allows the hot juices to redistribute. Thus, when you finally cut into it, the juices don't run all out of the meat leaving you with shoe leather.

++ When making scrambled eggs, keep the heat low until the eggs begin to curdle. Then jack up the heat to full and finish them off to just before done. This will keep as much moisture as possible inside the egg without overcooking it.

++ When microwaving leftover pizza, it tastes best if you wrap the slice in a damp paper towel.

++ If you're having trouble opening a jar, and you don't have one of those rubber jar openers, you can whack the lid against a hard surface a couple of times. If that doesn't work, hold the jar lid under hot running water for about half a minute. Works every time.

++ Do not wash your pasta, unless you're making a pasta salad. If you're serving sauce with pasta, keep the starch on. Putting olive oil in the water is useless, and a waste of olive oil. Always salt the water in your pot, but wait until the water has come almost to a boil before adding it.

++ Salt is not just a seasoning, it is a flavor enhancer. That's why just about every recipe for cake, for example, calls for at least a pinch of salt. On the other hand, don't over-season with salt when you're cooking. You can always add salt later.

++ Do not clean knives with steel wool. This can cause for painful experiences.

++ When ordering from Papa John's pizza, turn on the broiler and when your pizza gets there, stick it in the oven since it's never cooked the way it should be.

++ A single bay leaf can add an incredible amount of flavor to sauces and other wet dishes like chili without being overbearing.

++ If you use vegetable peelers, sharpen or replace them regularly. They seem insignificant, but it helps a lot to have a good one.

++ To keep brown sugar from getting hard, put an end-piece of bread in the bag with it. Works wonders.

++ When eating spicy food, try to eat some sour cream with it. It contains an enzyme that helps control the burn on the way in and on the way out.

++ A couple of grains of rice in a salt shaker will absorb moisture and keep the salt from turning into a miniature brick.

++ The best time for microwaving popcorn is 2 minutes and 17 seconds.

++ A blunt knife causes more accidents than a sharp one.


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