A few of my favorite kitchen tips

Every cook develops her own set of time- or work-saving tips over the years.  Here are a few of mine:

• Warm a lemon in the microwave for 15-20 seconds before cutting and juicing it.  You'll get a lot more juice.
• With all that extra lemon juice, just freeze it in an ice cube tray, then pop into a freezer container.  You'll always have lemon juice on hand.  (Did you know that bottled lemon juice is acidic and fresh is alkaline?  All the bad guys--viruses, bacteria, fungus and yeast, and even cancers--thrive in an acidic environment in your body.  A friend of mine who underwent treatment at the Cancer Center of America said they told her to drink/sip fresh lemon water all day--a truly anti-cancer prescription.  Generally, fresh fruits and veggies are alkaline.)
• Buy the industrial-size cans of applesauce, tomato sauce, or salsa at warehouse stores like Sam's or Costco; then open and pour into glass canning jars (leaving some head space) and freeze.  A huge $$$ savings over buying those smaller sizes.
• When you've finished the dishes, microwave your dishcloth for 1 minute on high.  Kills the germs and thus any smell.  I learned this tip from a microbiologist friend of mine.
• Remove labels from tuna cans or other similar sizes and wash in the dishwasher.  Keep a few on hand to spoon excess fat from meats--just let harden and throw the whole thing away.
• Buy the largest packages of ground beef from the warehouse stores.  Fry up the whole batch with some chopped onion, drain fat, and freeze in smaller portions.  SO handy for quick suppers: soups, tacos or taco salad, pizza, sloppy joes, and casseroles.
• Hem up some 1'x1' squares of colorful fabric for fabric napkins.  I have a big assortment and just wash them with the kitchen linen.  It's a big savings over paper napkins and it looks elegant and cheerful on the table.
• I bought a large stack of bar mop towels at Sam's, cut them in half and hemmed them.  I use one during a cooking session just to wipe my hands on, which are always wet.  No cross-contamination with other hand towels in the kitchen and with a big stack just dedicated to this purpose, I use them freely.

I'd love to hear some of your handy tips--care to share any?

Glass jars for storage

A great use I've discovered for glass this year is using canning jars for the freezer.  The safest type is actual canning jars--Kerr, Ball, Mason--because their glass is tempered, rather than mayonnaise or peanut butter jars.  You can buy screw-type lids for them at WalMart, and the jars are often available for pennies apiece at garage sales.

I've been trying to get away from plastic use as much as possible and these jars have worked out great.  I use both quart and pint size.  They work for everything from soup to crumbled fried bacon or grated cheese.  Glass is not air-permeable like plastic is so the storage life-span is longer without that icky freezer taste.  And it's easy to see what you've got in there, too.

I use the small jars to freeze spices.  You can buy the large containers of salsa or applesauce at Sam's or Costco and freeze them in jars at an amazing cost savings.  Bread crumbs, grains, and flour store beautifully this way.

Just a word of caution--a breakable container can be a hazard with kids around!  Also, you can't defrost frozen jars of liquid under running water as they could crack.  So plan on defrost time accordingly.

Canning jars have worked in my cupboard, too, for storing beans and grains--and they look pretty, too!

A microwaving tip

I discovered a better way for covering food plates in the microwave than what I'd been doing.  Paper towel and wax paper cost money, and I really try not to use any kind of plastic because of the health hazard.

So I bought a couple of extra glass lids with handles--the kind that go on top of casserole dishes like Pyrex or Corning--at a thrift store.  They work beautifully!  They keep the splattering down, they pose no health risk, I can see through them, and they cost almost nothing.  Such a deal!