Shortcuts, Tips & Tricks

Here are a few more gems that may or may not make domestic goddessliness easier to achieve.

Ever tried to slice a fresh tomato from your garden or, in my case, one fresh picked out of the produce section, only to have your knife slide right off without making nary a cut? May I be so bold as to suggest you’re using the wrong knife. Try one with a serrated edge. It works like a charm.

Those old-school peelers may not work that well when used for their intended purpose but they’re great for seeding. I think I learned this trick at one of the cooking classes I took down at the Party Source. If you’re like me and traded your old peeler in for a nice OXO version, just pick one up at the dollar store.

To seed jalapeños, just cut off the stem top, insert the blade of the peeler into the jalapeño cavity and run it around the inside. To seed a cucumber, cut it length-wise and use the handle of the peeler to scoop out the seeds.

While watching an episode of How Clean Is Your House yesterday, I learned you can use the inside of a banana peel to dust plant leaves. I haven’t tried it yet myself, but looked like it worked on the telly. I would stick to larger-leaved plants, though; it would probably get pretty tedius trying to dust a ficus in this manner.

One final suggestion that doesn’t relate to food one way or another: when cleaning windows, use newspaper instead of paper towels. It prevents streaking. Why or how this works will always remain a mystery to me as it stands to reason the ink would get all over the place, much like it does on your fingers,but I’ve seen it first-hand when my parents were here. It’s amazing.