Today's kitchen tip is super simple, but something I would never have thought of doing if Joshua hadn't showed me how! :)

When we moved from an apartment to a house (with a great kitchen!) last year, a friend gave us a microwave that they no longer needed. I admit to using it more than I expected I would!

But, I don't like it when I go to melt butter in the microwave and before it's all melted, it's splattering everywhere. Or, I try to warm some leftovers and need to keep stirring the food as it gets hot, to prevent spots that are sizzling along with spots that are still hard and cold.

To avoid this? Adjust the power level. Here's how it works on ours:

1. Set the time (minutes/seconds) you want to use.

2. Press the "Power Level" button. Ours is saying "HI" which is at 100% power.

3. Continue to press the "Power Level" button until it says the % of power that you want to use. Ours goes down 10% with each press (shown above: 30% power).

What adjusting the power actually does:

The power level is adjusting how much the microwave cooks. At 100% power, it is emitting microwaves 100% of the time. At 50% power, it's emitting microwaves 50% of the time (alternating 10 seconds "cooking", 10 seconds just turning the turntable).

So, to use my melting butter example: Instead of setting the microwave for 20 seconds and hoping I don't have butter splashed everywhere inside, I set the microwave for 90 seconds at 20% power. This allows the butter to slowly melt.

My tips for Defrosting and Re-heating Without a Microwave (I still think defrosting meat in the microwave is a little scary/gross!)

Softened butter tips (super useful when you don't have a microwave to soften butter on-demand!)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please!

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1. Tips for packing lunches (Healther at Feel Good About Dinner)
2. Covering dishes in the oven (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
3. Butter tip (Living So Abundantly)
4. Cleaning the seal on your fridge (Anna at The Joyful Wife)
5. Using a bowl to cover a crock pot (Lenetta at Nettacow)
6. Easy kitchen tips (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
7. Getting real food on the table, simplified (Christine at Lily of the Valley)
8. Freezing leftover spaghetti sauce (Alea at Premeditated Leftovers)
9. Tip for less-icky dish drainer (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)

I love beans and I love pasta! We eat beans often, but pasta is more of a treat. Last week I made macaroni and cheese for lunch with the kids... so delicious! (I'm ready to enjoy some non-grilled comfort foods again, now that the weather is cooler.)

When I posted my tips for perfect, tender cooked beans, I mentioned that I like to add salt to the cooking water. The salt does not stop the beans from becoming tender and soft, but DOES give a great flavor to the beans, since the salt is in the beans and not just sprinkled on after cooking.

Adding salt when cooking beans eliminates the problem of either A) draining off the salt when you drain the beans or B) needing to stir salt into the cooked beans and ending up smashing them in the process.

Now, the part about pasta. I had known for a long time that adding salt to the water when cooking pasta was an option. I didn't routinely do it or even consider why it might be a good idea until recently though!

Just as beans absorb the salty water and are perfectly salted after cooking, adding salt to your water when cooking pasta salts the pasta from the inside and gives a great flavor! This also eliminates the issue of needing to make an extra-salty sauce to make up for unsalted pasta.

I now always add salt when I'm cooking beans or pasta, and I love the results! Is there anything else like this that you add salt to when cooking? I'd love to hear about it! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Cleaning your stained crock pot (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
2. Freezing pizza dough (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
3. Leftover tomato sauce tip (Living So Abundantly)
4. Baking dishes tip (Anna at The Joyful Wife)
5. Homemade dishwasher rinse aid (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
6. Save money on paper towels (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
7. How to puree winter squash (The Gentle Mom)
8. How to puree pumpkin (Carrie at My Favorite Finds)
9. Making colored sugar for decorating (Cooking Luck)
10. Cleaning coffee parts (Christine at iDreamofClean)
11. Drying herbs from the garden (Blessed Roots)
12. Potato tips (Donna at Moms Frugal)
13. Tips for canning green beans (Gretchen at Extraordinary Ordinary Life)
14. Thawing baby food quickly without the microwave (Covenant Homemaking)

I've been so not online lately, but I'm back this week. I'll share about our blackberry harvest tomorrow, along with one of my favorite recipes for using our freshly-picked or frozen blackberries! :)

We have a gas grill, and we sure do love it! It's quick and convenient and Joshua makes the best grilled food ever. Of course I'm not biased. Anyone who tries his food agrees! ;)

Until recently, we had just one propane tank for the grill. Every number of months, the tank would run empty, sometimes surprising us when we would open the lid of the grill that we thought was pre-heating, only to find a cold grill with no fuel.

My solution for times when grilling goes awry: 

Use a baking sheet (with sides) and wire cooling rack and place meat in the oven (top rack or near the top is best). Roast uncovered at 425-450 degrees until meat is done, turning once during baking if desired. I usually use a meat thermometer unless I'm really familiar with the cut of meat.

I even have an old, worn-out baking sheet on hand to use for this purpose, so I don't need to worry about harming one of my "good" pans.

Yay! Dinner was rescued, and while my oven "grilled" chicken breast wasn't quite as good as "the real thing", it was definitely better than any other baked chicken breast I've made. :)

A few tips for determining when meat is done (although I still recommend using a thermometer if you're really unsure when it comes to chicken!):

Chicken: Chicken should feel firm, not soft, when you press down on it.

Beef: For beef, one comparison I've read is that a rare steak will feel like your cheek when you press it, a medium steak will feel like your nose when you press it, and a well-done steak will feel like your forehead when you press it. Elise from Simply Recipes has a similar method shown in pictures here.

Fish: Fish should flake easily with a fork. Fish also cooks really quickly! When I first started cooking with fish, I would usually over-cook it because it just didn't seem possible that it could be done after just ~15 minutes. One day, I tested some salmon that truly wasn't done yet -- and it didn't flake. I finally SAW the difference and could believe that my flaking fish really was fully cooked. (Fish should reach an internal temperature of 145 degrees.)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Tip for not wasting fruit (Willa at Armstrong Family Fare)
2. Sweetened condensed milk substitute (The Local Cook)
3. Reduce splatters when frying food (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
4. What to do when you're out of coffee filters (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
5. Tips for using less disposables in the kitchen (Purposely Frugal)
6. Weigh ingredients for easier baking (Robin at Happily Home After)
7. How to make perfect wavy bacon (JessieLeigh at Parenting Miracles)
8. Keep apples from browning (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
9. Spaghetti sauce tip (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
10. Freezing lemon zest (Living So Abundantly)
11. Instant mixes for bread machine (Centsable Dining)
12. How and why to soak grains (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
13. Keeping cookies soft (Carrie at My Favorite Finds)
14. Shopping/pantry supplies tip (Donna at Moms Frugal)
15. Tips for cooking real food with little ones (Blessed Roots)

Since I'm not very tall (5'4"), many times the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard is too high for me to reach without getting a chair or stool, especially if it's something in the back of the cupboard.

My lazy woman's solution? Get a silicone spatula and use it to grab the item and pull it to the edge of the shelf. I have a shiny/smooth silicone spatula that is especially "sticky" and helps me get just about anything from the back of the cupboard without dragging over a chair. Yay! :)

Do you have any tips for helping short(er) people in the kitchen? I'd love to hear them! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. 8 time-saving kitchen tips (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
2. Using parchment paper for cookies (Anna at The Joyful Wife)
3. Sneaky carrots (Christy at One Little Word She Knew)
4. Save money by using re-usable sandwich bags (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
5. Keeping pancakes warm without turning on the oven (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
6. Menu plan and grocery list tips (Purposely Frugal)
7. Organizing foods you stock up on (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
8. Quick and easy way to pit cherries (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
9. Ideas for leftover chicken (Living So Abundantly)
10. Tips for packing tasty healthy lunches (The Gentle Mom)

When I told Joshua what my kitchen tip was going to be this week, he said "You mean your 'common sense' tip?!" because apparently this is something everyone but me knew! Regardless, it was like a revelation to me this week...

Since we got a chest freezer, I've been freezing an extra lot of things. I often divide up stuff I bought at Costco and freeze portions of it. I freeze cooked beans and rice. And this month we've picked tons of blackberries from our yard and the park down the road!

We've been freezing blackberries on cookie sheets and then transferring to gallon bags after they're frozen, so they stay separated. All of us LOVE the sweet, juicy, SUN-RIPENED berries! Yes, the sun came out for August. August may now be my favorite month after 3 summers in the Pacific Northwest... ;)

But, that's not my tip. My tip is: When labeling a bag of food for the freezer, label the bag before you fill it. It's flat, there's no condensation to worry about, and it's a whole lot easier! (Don't ask me why I just realized that this is how I should be labeling things...) :)

I often have extra grilled chicken breast in the freezer, which is perfect for last-minute burritos, quesadillas, pizza, or salads. I really like my Food Saver for sealing cooked meats because they never get freezer burn! Plus, they take up about half the freezer space they otherwise would. When I had only a small(er) apartment freezer/fridge, space-saving was a huge plus. :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. How to soak and dehydrate nuts and seeds (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
2. Using a funnel to separate eggs (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
3. Make-ahead pancakes (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
4. Juicing lemons without a juicer (Living So Abundantly)
5. Freezer cooking tools (Gretchen at Extraordinary Ordinary Life)
6. Tips for cooking in a small kitchen (Katy at Purposely Frugal)
7. 10 Tips I Learned While Canning Peaches (The Local Cook)
8. Leftover chicken fat tips (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
9. Homemade vanilla extract (Katie at Kitchen Stewardship)
10. Tips for long-term food storage with humidity (Donna at Moms Frugal)
11. Freezing green peppers (Amanda at Traditional Foods)
12. Washing dishes tip (Anna at Kolfinna's Korner)
13. How to make casseroles that people will actually eat (The Gentle Mom)
14. Freezer inventory tips (Elizabeth at Cents-Able Dining)

I love using glass jars in my kitchen! I save any nice glass jars that we get and use them for making kefir (any size batch, I have a jar for it!), drinking or storing drinks in the fridge, storing dry foods, or even as a vase for fresh cut flowers.

But what's the best way to remove smells from the jar lids -- like pickle jar lids? In the past, I submerged the lids in baking soda and let them stay there... sometimes for weeks until the smell disappeared.

I still do use the baking soda to start, but after a week if the lid still smells, I let it rest top-down on my window sill in the sunshine. Direct sunshine finishes removing smells from the lid! I know some people skip the baking soda and just use the sunshine, but we don't always have enough direct sunlight here to do that. :)

Other ways to remove smells from lids? One I've heard but never tried is to place crumpled newspaper inside the jar.

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Lemonade tip (Christy at One Little Word She Knew)
2. Tip for chewy chocolate chip cookies (Stephanie at Proactive Bridesmaid)
3. Tips for living without a microwave (Christine at Lily of the Valley)
4. Making oatmeal "to go" (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
5. Muffin mix tips (Robin at Happily Home After)
6. Perfect fluffy scrambled eggs (Purposeful Nourishment)
7. 5 ways to successfully add zucchini to a casserole (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
8. Easiest way to preserve tomatoes (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
9. Toasting corn tortillas (Katie at Gluten-Free Food Storage)
10. How to freeze mushrooms (Finding Joy in my Kitchen)
11. Make dish soap last much longer (Mindy at The Purposed Heart)
12. Keeping produce fresh/using not-so-fresh produce (Katy at Purposely Frugal)
13. Container-free freezing (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
14. Using whole chickens (Living So Abundantly)
15. Time-saving baking tip (Mandy at Biblical Homemaking)
16. Fighting dishwasher hands (Rachel at Trial and Error Home Ec)
17. Open tough jars (Natural Baker)

Guess what's big, black, sweet and juicy -- and growing along all our favorite walking trails and parks right now? Blackberries! Yay! We picked the first few ripe blackberries last week, and this week there's a bunch more ready. The boys are hoping for some mini blackberry pies soon... :)

I know I haven't posted all week. We've been busy with school work and mostly just enjoying the lovely August sunshine here in Washington! Gotta get outside every day before the rainy season is back... :) So, forgive me for re-posting this tip from last year. :)

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Okay, so today's Kitchen Tip is more of an eating tip than a cooking tip... :)

Blackberries are getting ripe here, and we're enjoying them on our walks! Blackberries grow wild here and they are huge, juicy, and sweet. As a non-native to the PNW, I find the delicious wild blackberries amazing!

Whether blackberries or blueberries or another kind of berry, have you ever noticed how each berry has it's own unique flavor?

When I'm eating fresh berries, I think each berry tastes slightly different, and as I eat I think things like "Oh, that was the BEST berry!" or "Eeeks, that one was tart!" or "I think that one was a little too ripe..." (Maybe I over-analyze my food?!)

So, to get the best eating experience, I like to eat fresh berries two or three at a time. Or more if you have a big mouth! ;) When I put several berries in my mouth at once, I get a good blend of flavors and the sweetness and flavor overall is more consistent.

Do any of you eat fresh berries in this way? :)

See also:

Easy way to wash fresh berries or grapes

Homemade whipped cream tip

Our favorite "berry" recipes:

Cherry Mulberry Pie (pictured above) -- my favorite for fruit pies! (Apple pie is a close second though.)

My Mom's Mulberry Pie -- I love mulberries! They grow wild on my parents' property in Ohio.

Whole Wheat Strawberry Shortcake -- I request this for my birthday cake :)

Raspberry Crumble Muffins

Easy Fruit Coffee Cake -- versatile and yummy!

Strawberry Slushie -- Joshua makes these for us on hot days :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, posts not adhering to these guidelines will be removed. We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Food processor tip (Molly Green)
2. Serving ice cream (Rachel)
3. Recipe holder (Linda)
4. Alternative to cooking oil spray (Alea)
5. Homemade fruit leather (Christy)
6. Garbage disposal tips (Christine)
7. 10 uses for a mandoline (Tara)
8. Serving biscuits and gravy without mess (Rachel at Trial and Error Home Ec)
9. Freezer pantry (Lisa at Hopewell Takes on LIFE!)
10 . Tips for fresh tomatoes (Gretchen at Extraordinary Ordinary Life)
11. Organize fridge for less waste (Christine at iDreamofClean)
12. Cutting pizza with kitchen scissors (Living So Abundantly)
13. Choosing: dehydrating, canning, or freezing (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
14. Make your own buttermilk (Katie at Gluten Free Food Storage)
15. Keeping meals healthy on a budget (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
16. Alternative to canning tomatoes (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
17. Toothbrush in the kitchen (Anne Jisca's Healthy Pursuits)
18. Making bread without multiple loaf pans (Michelle at Natural Baker)
19. Leftover list (Purposely Frugal)
20. Bye-bye bacon smell (Haylee at Cookin' the Oldies)
21. Creating new meals from leftovers (Alison at Under The Big Oak Tree)
22. Reusable trash tips (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
23. 10 tips for cookie-baking success (Martha at Best Easy Cookie Recipes)

(This post is later than usual... let's just say that Monday was Not My Friend this week...)

I love using corn tortillas for tacos! They're cheaper than flour tortillas, and have a great flavor. I had been warming them on a skillet or griddle with just a little oil, and they turn out pretty tasty that way. But, a couple weeks ago I came up with a better way of warming corn tortillas. We LOVE them this way!

See, I got to thinking about how restaurants warm corn tortillas for tacos. They have the griddles with a hot lid that presses the tortilla and it cooks quickly but stays soft. I don't have any special equipment, so I brainstormed how I could replicate this technique using what I have in my kitchen.

My solution uses a heavy skillet and a good-quality sauce pan. I've done this numerous times now and we love how the tortillas turn out! I do not like "raw" tasting corn tortillas, and this method heats them perfectly. :)

Here's what to do: Heat a heavy skillet (I use cast iron) over medium-high heat. Place a corn tortilla on the skillet and put the sauce pan on top. Cook for 15 seconds. Flip tortilla and place the saucepan again on top. Cook an additional 15 seconds. Tortilla is done! Find a safe place to set the *very hot* sauce pan while you throw on another tortilla and repeat the process!

Note: Keep a clean towel handy to wipe condensation off the bottom of the saucepan as needed.

The sauce pan will stay very hot, helping to cook the tortillas faster. It also prevents any bubbles from forming during cooking. (My sauce pans conduct heat really well, but I think this would work with any normal pretty-good sauce pan.)

What's better about corn tortillas warmed this way?

#1. It's faster.
#2. The outside is crisp but the inside is soft.
#3. They don't get bubbly when cooking.
#4. It doesn't use oil = fewer calories.

Are you a corn tortilla lover? Tell me your best tips for using them! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

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1. How to make powdered sugar/substitute (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
2. Stir-fry tips (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
3. Browning ground beef (Living So Abundantly)
4. Zucchini prep & Making your own veggie wash (Anna at The Joyful Wife)
5. Covering bowls that don't have lids (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
6. How to get candle wax or blueberry stains out of tablecloths (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
7. Use garden zucchini as lasagna noodles (SnoWhite at Finding Joy in My Kitchen)
8. Tips for using and freezing fresh basil (Robin from Happily Home After)
9.
10.

Today, I have a few miscellaneous kitchen tips -- none of which I feel are worthy of having a post dedicated solely to them, but possibly helpful nonetheless! :)

First, leftovers. When I'm clearing the table after dinner, I pile up everything that goes into the fridge and wait until everything's ready before I open the door. This saves energy and seems to be more efficient, too.

Also by the fridge (in my case, on top of the fridge, out of reach of little hands!), I have a marker (or pen) and masking tape. Label containers of leftovers with the date so you know for sure when something needs to be used or when something is unsafe to consume any longer! :)

When I was at my mom's this spring, one of the things I noticed her doing was making a running list of what leftovers were waiting in her (always packed) fridge. Her list looked like this:

Sunday:

meatloaf
mashed potatoes
green beans

Monday:

Chop Suey

Tuesday:

Oriental Chicken Salad
pizza

...and so forth. A each day passed, she added the day to the list and listed the leftovers that had been added to the fridge. When something was eaten, she crossed it off the list.

It was an easy way for a big, busy family to keep track of the leftovers and quickly see what needed to be located and used! :)

We eat cooked vegetables often, and I sometimes have small amounts left. Put the vegetables in a tub, store in the freezer, and keep adding when you have bits of corn, green beans, peas, etc. leftover. Then make some Beef Vegetable Soup and toss in the extra veggies! :)

By the way, on the topic of not wasting leftovers, Kristen at The Frugal Girl has a Food Waste Fridays carnival each week to help encourage everyone not to waste food! :)

My essential kitchen tools: Masking tape and marker (perfect for containers in the fridge or freezer), screw driver (for pan handles or appliances), box cutter, and scissors.

And finally: In the past year or so, I noticed that when I had the fridge door open and the light(s) inside were on, the light bulbs got very hot, very quickly. I'm not sure if it's just the bulbs in my fridge that get almost hot enough to burn my hand, or what -- but I decided to gently unscrew the light bulbs just enough that they wouldn't turn on any more. I hated the idea of closing the fridge door with two hot light bulbs inside every time I had the door open for 15 seconds or longer!

I can't say that this has made any perceivable difference in our electric bill, but it just seems better to me. When I asked Joshua recently if he had noticed that the fridge lights had been off for quite a while, he said the fridge is "kinda dark" for his preferences, but he hasn't asked me to turn them back on. :)

What do you think? Does it matter if the light bulbs in the fridge are used, or not? :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, we need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Cheaper white sauce tip (Rachel at Trial and Error Home Ec)
2. Easiest way to preserve fresh herbs (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
3. Kitchen sink drain catcher basket (Living So Abundantly)
4. Tips on reusing empty cereal bags (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
5. Tip for keeping a crispy coating on fish or chicken (Heather at Feel Good About Dinner)
6. Getting rid of strong smells on cutting boards (Purposely Frugal)
7. Freezer cooking after bedtime or at nap time (Gretchen at Extraordinary Ordinary Life)
8. Ways to use a make-your-own pastry bag (Georgia at Georgia's Cookie Jar)
9. Bread crumb tips (Katie at Gluten-Free Food Storage)
10. How to fix lumpy gravy (Mindy at The Purposed Heart)
11. Jelly-making tip (Donna at Moms Frugal)
12. Easily prevent flour and sugar spills (Christine at iDreamofClean)
13. Making superfine/caster sugar (Alea at Premeditated Leftovers)
14. Corn grits instead of cornmeal for fried green tomatoes (Stephanie at Proactive Bridesmaid)

Here's an oft-used tip when baking bread (or casseroles or coffeecake or cinnamon rolls...):

Challah bread

When bread (or other food) that's baking is getting dark on top, but isn't fully cooked on the inside yet, make a loose tent from foil and place on top of the item. It'll finish baking without burning! :)

I use this trick almost every time I bake bread, for the final 5-10 minutes of baking. And I always do it for challah (above) which would probably be charred otherwise! ;)

You can also use foil to help celery last longer in the fridge!

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link here, so we know where to find YOU! :) In order to keep the kitchen tips more easily accessible, we need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

Leave your tip links in a comment. I'll manually add them to this post!

1. Easiest way to peel garlic (Adrienne at Whole New Mom)
2. Using vinegar as a rinse agent (Living So Abundantly)
3. Knowing how much food to can or freeze for the year (Gretchen at Extraordinary Ordinary Life)
4. Baked potatoes in the crock pot (April at Angel Foods Kitchen)
5. Cleaning up after kids meals without paper towels (Stacy at Stacy Makes Cents)
6. Pan handle safety (Donna at Moms Frugal)
7. Using apples that are going bad (Gluten-free Food Storage)
8. Decorating icing tip (Alea at Premeditated Leftovers)
9. Corn syrup substitute (Alea at Premeditated Leftovers)
10. Scheduling kitchen chores (Rachel at Trial and Error Home Ec)
11. Pitting cherries with no mess (SnoWhite at Finding Joy In My Kitchen)