Do you sometimes get into the kitchen and say now what? Here are some great tips to not only help you be a cooking success but to also be a food and money stretcher for your family.

• Can't remember if an egg is fresh or hardboiled?
  Just spin the egg. If it wobbles, it's raw, if it spins easily, it's hard-boiled.
• A fresh egg will sink in water, a stale egg will float.
• For light fluffy scrambled eggs, add a little water while beating the eggs.
• To avoid "onion eyes", peel under cold water or refrigerate (or freeze) before chopping.
• You can also use sunshades to shield your eyes from the watery fumes of onions.
• To perk up soggy lettuce, add a small amount of lemon juice to a bowl of cold water and soak lettuce for an hour in the refrigerator.
• Sun light does not ripen tomatoes, it softens them. Leave them with stems pointed down in a warm place that is not in direct sunlight.
• Remove fat from soups and stews by dropping ice cubes into the pot. The fat will cling to the cubes as you stir. Take out the cubes before they melt. Or you can also wrap the ice cubes in a paper towel and skim over the top of the pot.
• When making mashed potatoes save water or the cooking liquid the potatoes were boiled in and use powdered milk when mashing. This restores some of the nutrients lost in the boiling.
• For extra flavoring for potatoes add low fat cream cheese instead of butter or substitute low-fat sour cream for milk when making mashed potatoes.
• Put vegetables in water after the water boils to preserve essential vitamins. Save this vegetable water and use it to cook rice in order to add extra flavor and nutritive value to the rice.
• When cooking dried beans, add salt after cooking. When adding salt in the beginning you may over salt because you are trying to bring out the flavor of a raw bean. Also adding salt after cooking will reduce cooking time.
• Buy ice cream in bulk and repack in small margarine containers for smaller family servings.