Best Ever Tips

Dad Gillum sent us an email with interesting tips regarding food.   We thought we'd pass it along.

• Keeping bananas fresh - take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster. 
• Keeping cheese fresh - store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold.
• Selecting Peppers - peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking. 
• Cooking ground beef - add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
• Cooking eggs - to really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in, then beat them up.
• For a cool brownie treat - melt Andes mints in double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.
• Cooking with garlic - add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.
• What to do with left over Halloween candy - snickers bars make a delicious dessert. Simply chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples. Place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes!!! Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.Yummm!
• Reheating Pizza - heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.
• Easy Deviled Eggs - put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done...easy clean up. 
• Expanding Frosting - when you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving. 
• Reheating refrigerated bread - to warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

Thanks Dad!  If you know of other tips please add them in the comment section.   We'd love to hear from you!