LIFETIPS - In The Kitchen

• Honey will sometimes thicken and become sugary if left in you leave it in a cool place. To quickly solve this problem, put the honey jar (without the lid) into a microwave for about a minute, and then leave to cool down. You honey will be runny again.

• The best way of removing oil, especially cooking oil, or any kind of greasy substance from a surface is you use washing up liquid on it. This thins out the oil and removes it's sticky consistancy. Washing up liquid also works wonders when washing the hands and fingers and even works hard on engine oil.

• The best time to wash a sausepan is the second you have finished using it - while the food is still soft enough to remove easily. Small pans only take a few seconds to wash out, and it saves doing the washing up the day after.

• If your food has stuck to the pan like glue, especially casserole dishes and stew pots, there is a quick and easier way to remove it rather than leaving it soaking overnight. Just before you wash up, get some water boiling and fill your pot with it. Within a few minuties, all the stuck material will fall away with minimum effort

• To empty a deep fat fryer, simply use a large cooking oil container to pour the old oil back into. Cut the top quarter off a pop bottle to make a simple funnel. You can also place a cloth over this to strain your liquid of you need to.

• If you are concerned about germs in the kitchen, there are many areas you can look at. First of all, avoid using kitchen/tea towels as bacteria can build on these quickly, and of course this will infect your hands and the dishes you dry with it. An alternative would be to let the dishes dry naturally, and use disposable cloths for your hands. Taps easily collect germs, so as you wash your hands to prepare food, you get the gems back as you turn off the tap! Modern taps are motion sensitive, which cuts this out completely. As your washing up water gets murky, residue will build up on your pots from the washing up bowl and the liquid you use to clean them. To prevent this, rinse your utensils under a hot tap before your leave them to dry - and this will help them dry quickly as well.

• To save water and produce even clearer dishes, which not try the two stage method of washing up. First of all, use really hot soapy water to pre-clean your dishes and pots of food and set them to one side. You can clean as many things as you like using the same old washing-up water at this stage - just get all that grime off. After all your things are reasonably clean, fill the bowl or sink again with clean water and with hardly any (if any) washingup liquid. Clean everything up and leave to air dry. This method will ensure all the chemical liquid residues are off your plates before you eat off them. The double wash helps make sure all food is removed, and as a bonus, only the first stage of the job needs to use hot water - so one kettle full could do for the whole of your dishes!

• Old herbal tea bags, when dried, make excellect potpouri.

• Most people know you can freeze bread to keep it fresh for when you need it. Place 4 or 5 slices in an old bread bag and freeze. This will keep for months and you will not notice any difference if you toast the bread when you take it out.

• It is possible to freeze milk to keep it fresh for over a month. Full cream milk works best as the extra cream will mix with the extra water caused through freezing. Make sure you get milk in a plastic bottle as glass may shatter on freezing. The day before you are ready to use the milk, take it out of the freezer and place it in a cool, dark place (not in sunlight) and leave it there overnight to thaw. Shake well in the morning. You may notice a difference in tea or coffee but the milk will always taste fine on cerial and other 'straight' uses.

• Honey will eventually turn itself into sugar, especially if you leave the jar in a cold cupboard. To rescue solidifying honey, fill a plastic container with boiling water and stand the honey jar in it until the water goes cool again. Loosening the top of the jar will ensure any hot gasses can escape. If you let the water get cold, the honey will start to solidify again.
• If you throw bones in the waste, it is a good idea to wrap them in a sealed bag first. This will stop the bones from smelling as they decay, and it also helps stop dogs and cats from detecting these goodies as well.
• Hate cooking? No time to waste? Why not cook all your weeks food at the weekend and freeze it all for later. Most meals can be frozen after cooking, using foil dishes and foil wrap to cover. Then after a hard days work, just throw your dish into a medium oven for 30mins and put your feet up for an instant hot meal. This also has the added bonus of less washing up - always a good thing!

• There is a microwave trick you can use to help dry your cloths. Quite a few garments benefit from 30 seconds / 1minutes worth of microwaving after you take them from the washer. Beware though, dry or partially dry cloths will burn. An oven can also work wonders in an emergency, so long as you use a low heat.

  Save cleaning the top of your gas cooker by using foil. Take off the gas elements first and put the foil over the whole of the top. Then when you come to clean it, just take off the foil and put fresh back on. You can also save the inside of your cooker from the same fate, and any spillages can by cleared up easily - just wait for them to dry onto the foil and take it out. Lining your cooker is also a good way to make it more energy efficient.

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