I have so much mint I don’t know what to do! Well, I do know. I made a batch of mint jelly to keep in the pantry for later use. I put mint leaves in my ice cube trays, filled them with water, and voila! they can be added to ice tea, lemonade, or gin and tonic. Put a handfull of mint springs in a pot with equal parts of sugar and water, bring to a boil, remove it from the heat, then let it steep. Strain out the mint leaves and store the mint-flavored sugar water in clean, airtight containers in the ‘fridge. Great to use to make mint juleps. A few snipped mint leaves sprinkled on sliced tomatoes—very refreshing!

Everytime I go into my “drawer from hell” in the kitchen where everything like spatulas, wooden spoons, gadgets and corn holders are stashed, I get stabbed by the corn holders. A friend gave me a helpful tip—stick them on a wine cork! Great idea!

During the summer, store parfait glasses or sundae dishes in the freezer. When dishing up ice cream, the cold glasses slow down the melting process.

If you happen to bite into something way tooooo peppery, don’t grab for water. Rather it’s best to eat bread or crackers, or better yet dairy products like milk, plain yogurt, soft cheese or sour cream.

Ripen avocados more quickly by placing them in a paper bag with an apple or banana. The ethylene gas put out by the fruit will speeding the ripening process.

If your plastic storage containers have a funny oder, stuff balled up newspaper in them, cover (seal), and let them sit overnight. The paper aborbs any lingering food smells.

I’m not a big kitchen gadget collector, but I do use my kitchen shears for all sorts of things. If you want to chope canned tomatoes, put them in a large bowl and chop away. This controls the mess of squirting juices all over a cutting board. Use your shears to snip herbs (I use them to chiffonade basil), slice pizzas, and cut cooked chicken into serving pieces.

I rarely hear anyone say that they like meatballs, but I’m here to say that meatballs are on my list of what is called these days as comfort food. I sometimes poke a hole in the center of my rather large meatballs and insert a big olive stuffed with anchovy, or what about an olive stuffed with a garlic pod, or perhaps one stuffed with blue cheese will give your everyday meatballs a big bam! Sometimes I put a whole garlic clove in the meatball. Once the meatballs are cooked, the semi-soft garlic is a real taste treat and it also gives the meatballs a great garlic flavor. Try it!

My mother used to say “where there’s food there are flies” whenever we swatted them away from the food when eating outdoors. I remember that she often covered the food (and pitchers of tea and lemonade) with muslin or cheesecloth secured with with clothespins. It worked. You can do the same using paper towels or colorful cotton napkins.

I don’t have a lot of kitchen gadgets so I try to “make do” with what I have on hand. I don’t have a salad spinner to dry salad greens, but if you put a couple of sheets of absorbent paper towels in the bottom of a large mixing bowl or salad bowl. Add your washed salad greens and toss around with the paper towels. You may have to do this a couple of times with fresh paper towels but it does the trick. Oh, and I sometimes keep the salad greens in a clean pillow case, rolled up, in the vegetable drawer in the refrigerator to keep them fresh for a couple of days.