ridiculously simple tip

Here's a tip I picked up a long time ago - you've probably already seen it, but I thought I'd pass it along just in case. If you happen to have an egg slicer in your mix of kitchen contraptions, you can now move it from uni-tasker to multi-tasker. Not only are egg slicers perfect for creating uniform strips of egg, but they work well on mushrooms and strawberries too. Now you can have sliced strawberries for your spinach and strawberry salad in no time.

Here's a quick tip that we just started implementing in our household. When we take out a new stick of butter, we immediately cut it into tablespoon sized slices (you can use the guidelines on the wrapper to help figure out how big your slices should be). Since most ingredients call for butter in tablespoons (or half tablespoons), it makes it really easy to just grab the pat and go. A little bit of simple prep now will save you time later!

Since we were just talking about cheese, I thought I'd take a few seconds to tell you about this simple tip my friend Eric implemented at his last party. He and his friends are trying to learn more about cheese, so he wanted to make sure that each cheese he served was clearly labeled. He could have bought some fancy cheese markers, or even hand-written his own, but in the end he did something a little more clever. Instead of tossing the labels, he turned them into cheese markers. This way when people enjoyed the cheese they tasted, they were able to look at the label, see what kind it was, and what label they should look for if they wanted to buy it themselves. Talk about a nifty tip!

I don't drink a lot of soda, but every now and then, the crisp bubbly beverage sounds great. Last week I broke down and decided to get one from the kitchen, my gal FabSugar was doing the same thing and we ended up chatting about sodas and straws. That's when Fab did something that totally blew my mind. When she opened up her soda, she pushed the tab forward and shoved the straw through the top tab opening. Voila! Instant straw holder. Although I love to use straws (especially with soda), I hate the way that they bob around, and sort of float when in a soda can. Well, with this ridiculous "gee, why didn't I think of that before?" trick, I don't have to worry about that anymore. I was so excited by it, that I rushed out of the kitchen and shared it with everyone who would listen. A few others (well mostly just geeksugar) were super excited too, and I figured hey if a few of us were interested in this tip, maybe a few of you might be too. So enjoy and pass it on!