In a previous week's kitchen tip, I wrote about my soft resting place for fragile fruit that needs to ripen at room temperature.

When my fruit is ripe, I usually move it to the fridge for cold storage until we eat it. (Bananas are the exception.) Joshua prefers chilled fruit and I must admit, I'm starting to, too.

The fruit boxes at Costco come with soft trays for the fruit to nestle. I moved some juicy ripe peaches, tray and all, to my fridge drawer last week:

As I'm using the peaches, I'm placing other fuit in the spots. Pears, oranges, apriums. The tray cushions the fruit as I open and close the drawer.

Strawberries are in season, along with peaches. I put this plate of fruit out for dinner last evening and had to snap a picture before we started eating; it was so pretty! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! We need to be able to easily find/see what your kitchen/cooking tip is. :) Thanks for your participation! :)

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1. Spices in a small kitchen (Recipes Happen)
2. 10 tips for hosting a summer grilling party (The Local Cook)
3. Using leftover potato peels (Feel Good About Dinner)
4. Double boiler tip (Living So Abundantly)
5. Cross-contamination in the kitchen (Sunnyside Homestead)
6. Using up bread crumbs (Purposely Frugal)
7. Tips for making faster dinner rolls (Western Warmth)

We just got back from a lovely weekend at my brother's house in Moses Lake, Washington. The 3-hour drive from our place in Seattle takes us through the Cascades, out of our evergreen, cool, and cloudy territory to the hot dry rain shadow in the middle of the state. I love the diversity of Washington, and I really enjoyed seeing the sun all weekend. ;)

During "quiet time" one day when the little ones (and a couple "big people" too!) were all napping, I moseyed around my sister-in-law's kitchen. She has made good use of the space in their current home, which lacks counter space especially.

Here are a few things I noticed and liked:

Candy has a portable dishwasher that has counter on top. Sometimes it's in the middle of the kitchen as an island, sometimes it's pulled alongside the stove while she's cooking, and sometimes it's tucked around the corner into another room, out of the way.

One thing I noticed was that when the dishwasher was running, Candy would put pots and pans that needed soaked and/or washed by hand under the drain from the dishwasher into the sink. As the hot water drained, it soaked a lot off the pans and made them easier to wash. Looked like a good use for the water that was just going down the sink anyway! :)

My brother installed hooks on a beam between the kitchen/dining and living room where all the pots and pans could be hung. I thought it looked classy and filled the space better (and probably more affordably!) than a commercial pre-made pot rack would have.

The hanging utensil canister! I really, really liked this idea. Candy used this flat-sided hanging wooden bucket for some of her cooking utensils, keeping them within easy reach yet off the precious counter space.

Their vitamins and supplements are in this metal basket/bucket on top of the fridge. It's easy to pull the whole bucket down and rummage for what you need rather than losing things in the back of a dark cupboard.

Before we headed home, we stopped at Tonnemaker Hill Farm, an organic farm in the area with wonderful produce. We got 10 pounds of sweet cherries that were being picked while we drove there! And do you want to know the price for those freshly-picked organic sweet cherries? $2 a pound! :) I'd love to live right down the road from Tonnemaker's... they are so friendly and always give the kids samples to munch on. :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. What to do with disposable cake domes (Trial and Error Home Ec)
2. Silicone baking mat tips (Feel Good About Dinner)
3. Stir fry is faster than drive thru (The Local Cook)
4. Pasta cooking tip (A Proverbs 31 Wife)
5. Fridge and garbage space savers (Living So Abundantly)
6. Silk-free sweet corn (Finding Joy in my Kitchen)
7. Crock pot tip (Purposely Frugal)
8. Gluten-free baking (One Little Word She Knew)

I love picnics!

Yes, the frugal part of me is why I am constantly saying "Hey, guys, let's just do a picnic."

That sounds more fun than saying "Since it's expensive to eat out, I'm going to pack some food for us." ;)

Whatever you call it, I love take-along food. It's a whole lot cheaper than eating out, plus being yummy, healthy, and on-demand. Here are some picnic tips that work for us!

Bring enough food, but not too much. This is especially important if you're carrying your picnic with you while you sight-see on foot or hike. I ask the older family members how much food they want (how many sandwiches, pieces of fruit, etc.) and try to take just what we'll eat. The eliminates needing to tote around leftovers or keep them cold.

Use disposable wrappings/plates if you're carrying everything; use re-usable containers if weight isn't an issue. I freely admit that I use plastic wrap, sandwich baggies, and paper napkins for an on-foot picnic! If we're packing a big cooler and driving somewhere in the van, then I'll use my normal re-usable containers and some washable plates. (I have extra plastic plates purchased for large crowds, bbqs, and picnics!)

Take finger foods so you don't even need dinnerware! Our favorite picnics are finger foods like:

Sandwiches
Veggie sticks
Pre-washed/cut fruit like grapes, apple slices, pear slices, or bananas
Cheese sticks or slices
Nuts
Chips

I like to pack serving-size baggies of the veggies, fruits, or nuts so no little dirty hands are reaching into one big bag. ;)

And speaking of dirty...

Don't forget a clean tablecloth (if picnicking at a table) and some wet wipes or washcloths for dirty hands! :)

We also like to have at-home picnics on the deck or in the yard. Eating out in the sunshine and fresh air makes the kids (and me!) happy while keeping the kitchen floor clean. The benefit of an at-home picnic is that I can serve most anything -- like leftovers, even -- with no extra effort. :)

This week, the Eat Well, Spend Less bloggers are writing about summer fun! Check out:

Eat Well, Spend Less During a Staycation from Life As Mom

Grilled Salads from Simple Bites

Sprouted Lentil Salad Recipe and Dressings from Kitchen Stewardship

Easy and Tasty Summertime Snacks from Kingdom First Mom

Eat Well, Spend Less During Your Insane Summer Schedule from Food for my Family

...and more to come from Denver Bargains and Good Life Eats!

I've been searching for a good solution for oil bottles for a long time. I try to be diligent about wiping any drips after using oil, but somehow oil still ends up on my cupboard shelf.

One of my solutions: Place an old t-shirt or other rag on the shelf under the oil bottle to catch drips. This works pretty well unless you have messy cooks in your kitchen who let the rag get bunched up... or your oil is on a high shelf where you can't even see the rag when you're putting the bottle away... Then you end up with an oily rag in the back of your cupboard and an oily shelf too. ;)

A tip I just read in Taste of Home (August/Sept 2000 issue), which I plan to try:

Cut the toe off of a clean white athletic sock and slip it over your bottle of olive or vegetable oil. It catches drops of oil that may run down the side of the bottle and prevents the bottle from getting slippery.

I may need to use an old baby t-shirt for my Costco-size jugs of oil, though. ;) I have a huge bag of rags so I'll surely come up with something that fits! :)

And lastly, if you're the crafty sort (and don't mind the thought of lovely yarn getting all oily), here's a free pattern for a knitted Olive Oil Drip Catcher! :)

Do you have any good oil bottle tips? I'd love to hear! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. Hard boiled eggs tips (The Joyful Wife)
2. Saving money on special diets (Wole New Mom)
3. Cooking oil tip (Trial and Error Home Ec)
4. Reinventing the water pitcher (Simply Made Home)
5. Stubborn lids tip (Some Call It Natural)

Here's a tip for chicken drumsticks! When I pull chicken drumsticks out of the package, the skin tends to be bunched up around the small end of the drumstick. If I just throw them into the baking dish, I end up with a lot of exposed meat and bunched-up skin.

This is not good because without the skin covering it, the meat will dry out during baking. And if the skin is bunched up, it won't get deliciously crisp.

Tip: Pull the skin back over the meat before placing the chicken drumsticks in the dish. The end result is perfectly moist meat and crispy seasoned skin!

Baked chicken drumsticks are a super easy meal. I do a variety of seasonings on them; sometimes I cover with barbecue sauce, salad dressings, or spray with oil and sprinkle with Italian seasoning.

In the picture above, I had some Italian dressing to use up, and I added a garlic parmesan seasoning. I baked the 9x13 dish at 350 degrees for about 70 minutes (uncovered).

I made instant mashed potatoes and vegetables to go along with the chicken for dinner. The dish of chicken pictured was $5.21 at Costco, and we had 3 drumsticks leftover. Joshua loves drumsticks, and I love making a meal that takes 15 minutes to prep! :)

Bonus picture: One of the many Lego creations I've been asked to photograph. :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. Storing gluten-free flours (One Little Word She Knew)
2. Fitting real food into real life (The Local Cook)
3. Monthly meal planning (Simply Made Home)
4. Clearing drains naturally (A Proverbs 31 Wife)
5. Freezing foods with the "use by" date (Living So Abundantly)
6. 7 tips for shopping at farmer's markets (Modern Alternative Mama)
7. Fridge cleaning (Kolfinna's Korner)
8. Keep berries fresh longer; kill mold spores (iDreamofClean)
9. Save time and energy when boiling water (Nature's Nurture)
10. Scrambled eggs tip (Moms Frugal)

Okay, this is one of those tips that sounded like a good idea when I originally decided to share it, but now I have my doubts. Oh, well, take it for what it's worth! :)

I use a pacifier sometimes with my babies*, and I wash it after it falls on the floor. Sometimes a pacifier goes missing for a few days or weeks or... I found one under the couch last week that hadn't been seen in months! I think Moshe used it last and that was months and months ago! Crazy.

And in that case, I not only wash the pacifier but I sanitize it in boiling water, too.

And I never feel like taking the time to specifically boil water and sanitize the pacifier.

So, when I'm boiling water for tea, I drop in the (clean, washed) pacifier for a few minutes to sanitize it.

Then I take out the (clean, sanitized) pacifier and use the water for my tea. This isn't yucky because I already washed the pacifier in my hot soapy dishwater before I sanitized it. ;)

*I feel compelled to note that I recommend the KellyMom information about pacifier use with breastfed babies. I always offer the breast first, but if it's rejected, I feel a pacifier is acceptable for a sanitary comfort-sucking solution. :)

Bonus picture: Channah, who has been using a pacifier lately. :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. Freezing fresh fruit (Nature's Nurture)
2. Reviving, storing, and re-growing celery (Nature's Nurture)
3. Masking tape in the kitchen (Moms Frugal)
4. Recipe saving (Western Warmth)
5. Spaghetti (One Little Word She Knew)
6. Crockpot chicken broth (All Done Monkey)
7. Rhubarb syrup (The Local Cook)
8. Whole herbs vs. ground in crockpot + spaghetti sauce (Purposely Frugal)
9. Freezer foods (A Proverbs 31 Wife)
10. Watermelon rinds (Trial and Error Home Ec)
11. Getting kids to cook (Earthlings Handbook)

When you want to thaw something more quickly without a microwave or warm water (warm water isn't recommended for meats), here is another way.

Place the frozen item on something that will absorb the cold. In my case, I use one of my heavy multi-clad stock pots -- which absorb the cold right down the sides of the pan, thawing the meat more quickly while keeping it cold.

Last weekend I had an "aha!" moment when I realized I could use this same technique to more quickly cool the black bean brownies that Yehoshua and I had made.

We were having guests, and black bean brownies are much better when they've been chilled. Even though we "started" the brownies the night before (by putting black beans in the crock pot to cook overnight!), they were still warm from the oven a couple hours before lunch.

My solution? I put the warm dishes of brownies on the over-turned stock pots, which quickly cooled them enough for me to pop into the fridge to finish chilling! :)

Bonus picture today: Channah (3 months) and me on our deck. We had eaten lunch out here and Eliyahu (6) took this picture of us. I know it looks like she's frowning, but it's really just her non-smiling face. She does smile -- just not for the camera! ;)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. Freeing up counter space in a small kitchen (Lily of the Valley)
2. Cleaning pans with baking soda (Frugal in Florida)
3. Tips for cooking with coconut oil (Feel Good About Dinner)
4. Tips and recipes for cooking with kids (Balanced Platter)
5. Baking with toddler (All Done Monkey)
6. Meals disguised as snacks (Western Warmth)
7. Tips for saving money / bulk shopping (Simply Made Home)
8. Natural cleaning tips (The Joyful Wife)
9. "Put an egg on it" tip (The Local Cook)

Eliyahu (age 6) helped me make some homemade instant oatmeal packets. I don't have a big food processor, just this little mini chopper that attaches to my immersion blender. It works fine but only holds about 1 cup of oats at a time! I did a small batch of the instant oatmeal which will be used for snacks or individual breakfasts.

Eliyahu loved getting to pulse the blender! We practiced counting to 30 while he held the button. Then it was finished! It was a fun way to get a little extra math practice into our morning. :)

I like to store things in jars, but this particular jar was difficult to fill from the chopper without spilling. Tip: I didn't have an appropriately-sized funnel, so we made our own from a rolled up piece of paper!

The paper funnel worked and all the kids thought that was pretty cool. (I did NOT show them how to make paper cups yet!!)

Last step was to label the jar, which Eliyahu also did for me with masking tape and a pen. Labeling things with tape and a pen or marker is a fun way to get spelling and writing practice. ;)

All done? Time for exercise! I sent this monkey outside to play. :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. Paper clutter kitchen tip (Western Warmth)
2. Shortcut for mashing bananas (Feel Good About Dinner)
3. Freezer yogurt pops (Under the Big Oak Tree)
4. Chive blossom vinegar (The Local Cook)
5. Hamburger patties w/o touching the meat (Simply Made Home)
6. Testing baking soda/powder (Nature's Nurture)

With little hands using our condiment bottles, they can get kinda messy. I usually wipe the tops before putting them away, but now that my kids are old enough to put things away for me, the cleaning part doesn't get done.

It's pretty embarrassing to pull out ketchup or hot sauce for guests and have them find dried condiment all over or around the lid!

Tip: When we're planning a barbeque and will be using condiments, I pull them out and clean the lids before the guests arrive. If it's something we don't use often (like ketchup), the lid may need to be washed (in hot soapy water) for all the dried goop to come off.

Yay! Clean lids! :) Now no one will ever know that our 2-year-old was using that ketchup bottle... ;)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. Healthy alternatives for thickening sauces (Feel Good About Dinner)
2. Dehydrating, canning, freezing comparisons (Whole New Mom)
3. Freezing dessert portions (Western Warmth)
4. Making the most of your CSA share (The Local Cook)
5. Freeze extra marinade (Simply Made Home)
6. Watermelon tips (Ponder Your Path)
7. No stick cookies (The Joyful Wife)
8. Reviving over-microwaved peas (Rie 'n Wheat)
9. Reuse take-out containers (Under the Big Oak Tree)
10. Stale foods (Moms Frugal)
11. Quinoa tips (Wholesome Homemaker)

Did you know that wooden grilling planks can be re-used? Well, they can! We soak ours for at least 2 hours, leaving them quite saturated.

After grilling fish (usually salmon), I wash the plank in my dish water with a soapy scrub brush. It comes mostly clean -- which is okay because...

...after the board is washed, I wrap the still-wet board in plastic wrap and put it in the freezer. Now I have a pre-soaked grilling plank ready for next time! :)

My favorite grill-planked foods are Cedar Plank Salmon and Alder-Plank Potatoes... yummy!!

Joshua's Weber Q gas grill is still holding strong. This will be our 9th year of using it! A friend gave us an extra tank of propane, which is very handy since we grill a lot.

This past weekend, Joshua and the boys cleaned off the deck and chairs. There were pine needles, maple tree "helicopter seeds", and algae growing. A sturdy scrub brush, soapy water, and a broom had things looking sparkly out there in the sunshine when they finished! I love eating outside. (It keeps the crumbs off my kitchen floor!) :)

By the way, this week I'm departing from my bad habit of blogging only on Tuesdays. ;) Come back tomorrow for a fun Mother's Day giveaway! :)

To Participate in Kitchen Tip Tuesdays:

Post a kitchen tip in your blog. Link to this post, and then leave your link in a comment here, so we know where to find YOU! :) No giveaways or non-tip posts, please! 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. Pasta cooking tip (Newlyweds Blog)
2. Water tips (Moms Frugal)
3. Prepping garlic tip (Frugal in Florida)
4. Storing asparagus + homemade veggie wash (The Joyful Wife)
5. Vinegar tips (The Local Cook)
6. Opening difficult jars (Feel Good About Dinner)
7. Apple cider vinegar tips (Simply Made Home)
8. Baking soda / washing soda tip (Nature's Nurture)
9. Butterfly cake and decorating/frosting tips (All Done Monkey)
10. Guacamole and avocado tips (Wholesome Homemaker)