Freeze leftover tea or coffee in ice cube trays. Next time, when your coffee or tea is too hot, plop an appropriately flavored cube into to your cup to cool it down without diluting it. It’s nice to add thin strips of lemon peel, or a mint leaves to the leftover liquids you will freeze. These ice cubes are also great for iced tea or coffee.

Tired of cleaning roasting pans? Place a chicken or turkey on top of onion halves, carrots and celery on the bottom of the roasting pan and let the fat from the birds soak into the vegetables…roasting and cooking them beautifully! No mess to clean up and a complete meal that is roasted to perfection as a bonus.

In half a cup of butter, press 6 garlic cloves and add chopped chives or parsley. Place the flavored butter on plastic wrap and roll into a log and refrigerate. Slice pats of the flavored butter and place on plates with steaming rolls for a pretty guest presentation.

Bury strips of organic lemon, lime and orange in a bowl of organic sugar. Let the citrus strips sit for a week in the sugar. Remove the citrus and use the sugar to flavor your favorite hot or cold drinks.

Leftover wine after a party? Freeze the wine in ice cube trays and then place the frozen cubes in a freezer bag. When your soup, stew or sauce needs a lift, toss in a wine-cube for flavor.

Like to cook with fresh ginger but hate that it gets moldy or dry before you get to use it all up? Freeze ginger in a freezer bag! When you need it, pull out the frozen ginger and without defrosting it, grate as much as you need. Peeling the ginger is not necessary as most of the peel will stick to your grater or microplane.

Do some of your foods expire before you get a chance to eat them? Pick a shelf in your pantry or your cupboard and designate it as a ‘soon to be expired’ food shelf. Check expiration dates on all of your foods on a regular basis, and when a food is within a month of expiration, place it on the special shelf. It will get used rather than expire: the shelf remembers even when you don’t!

Are your eggs about to expire? Separate the eggs: put single yolks into each section in an ice cube tray and separate whites into another ice cube trays and freeze. Thaw and use as usual.

If you need to keep rice warm before serving, line the lid with a few paper towels. The paper towels absorb moisture, preventing the rice from becoming sticky. If you want fluffy rice, add one teaspoon of lemon juice to each quart of water in your rice recipe. Lemon keeps the rice fluffy. If you want fluffy mashed potatoes, add 1 teaspoon of baking powder.

If you bought too many fall grapes or have berries of any kind leftover, freeze them on baking sheets (do not let them touch each other) and then place the frozen fruit in freezer bags. Pull out the grapes or berries and add to smoothies, yogurt or ice cream…without thawing.

For a mouthwatering centerpiece, place shiny apples, tiny pumpkins our gourds or perfect pears on top of candlesticks…instead of using taper candles. If you still want the glow of candlelight, place tea lights around the candlesticks.

A perfect placecard is a perfect pear on a napkin on a plate. Cut out a small leaf shape from paper and write your guest’s name on the leaf. Punch a small hole in one end of the leaf and with a pretty ribbon, tie the leaf to the stem of the pear.

Have you ever scorched milk and needed it for a recipe? Put the pan of scorched milk in a sink with cold water. Add a pinch of salt to the milk. The scorched taste will disappear.

Going to bake with oil, syrup or honey? Rinse your measuring cup or spoons in hot water then fill with your sticky ingredient….it will smoothly pour out and not stick to the container.

Freeze lemon or orange peel, sprigs of mint or even a strawberry half in water in ice cube trays. When you have guests for a party, use these pretty cubes to make drinks festive as well as add distinctive flavor.

If you have scraped the seeds from a vanilla bean to use in baking, do not discard the vanilla pod! Put all your scraped vanilla pods in a sugar bowl and let the sugar absorb the rich vanilla flavor for a week or so. Use this sugar in coffee, tea or baking.

Bread ready to get stale before you can eat it all? Wrap the bread well and freeze it. When you need breadcrumbs, remove a piece of frozen bread and grate it.

Have you rolled out cookie dough? Cut it with a pastry cutter for a pretty fluted edge. Cut brownies or fudge with a pizza cutter: smooth edges and fast work!

Going to make oatmeal cookies? Be sure to toast the oatmeal in the oven first for maximum flavor…then add it to the rest of the ingredients.

Need a larger cooling rack? Take an oven rack out of the oven and place on the counter top. Cool cakes, pies, breads and large items easily.