Storing berries, citrus and grapes

Store in the refrigerator to keep fresh for up to 2 weeks. Find below a few additional tips for each of them:
• Grapes: store in plastic bags and do not wash until you are ready to eat them!
• Citrus: if you decide to store at room temperature, they will be fresh for about 1 week only. They still last longer than most other fruits because of their hard skin. Meyer lemons and limes have a shorter life and should go straight to the refrigerator.
• Berries: their real life time will depend on the variety (blueberries will stay fresh the longest). Do not wash until you are ready to eat them! The dusty covering you see on berries is a natural preservative that keeps them fresh.

Storing avocados and/or pears

Store any of these fruits at room temperature for up to a week until they are ripe, and then move them to the refrigerator, where they can keep for up to another week. For pears, check for ripeness observing the “neck” right next to the stem for a slight softness. To speed up ripening process of both fruits, place them in a paper bag. For avocados, throw them into the bag with a banana, which produces the most ripening-inducing ethylene of any fruit, and they will be guacamole-ready in about a day.

Keep out of the refrigerator

• Hot sauce: it will be just fine in the pantry for up to 3 years.
• Potatoes: store in the pantry in paper bags to maintain their flavors (plastic bags hold moisture and speed deterioration). They should last up to 3 weeks, depending on variety.
• Bread: keep what you will consume within 4 days at room temperature and freeze the rest. Refrigerator dries bread out fast.
• Onions: keep them in the pantry, inside their original mesh bag (allowing air circulation), and away from potatoes, which emit moisture and gases that can cause onions to rot.
• Garlic: store loose in the pantry for up to 2 months, so air can move around it.
• Tomatoes: leave them on a counter, out of plastic bags. Once ripe, they will last for about 3 days.
• Coffee: store in an airtight container in the pantry. The refrigerator creates condensation, which can change the flavor of both beans and ground coffee.
• Winter squashes: they will be fine in the pantry for about a month (varieties such as acorn, butternut, delicata and spaghetti).

Storing apples in the refrigerator

Place apples in a plastic bag before storing them in the fridge. They give off ethylene, a natural gas that can make lettuce and other produce turn brown, and the plastic will prevent that. It is also good to know that storing apples in the refrigerator will keep crisp for up to 4 weeks, while outside (in a cool and dry place) will keep crisp for about 1 week.

Cooking vegetable quiche

To make sure you achieve a less waterlogged veggie quiche, sauté the veggies before combining with eggs. They will release water but retain their textures.

Crunchy green beans

After you remove the beans from boiling water, immediately submerge them in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. You can help this trick even more, cooking them in a strainer, to make the quick dunk easier for you.

Transporting a tall cake

Your cake is too high and does not fit in your cake carrier. Just top some toothpicks with marshmallows, and then insert them around the cake before wrapping. They will provide enough distance to prevent the wrap from sticking to the frosting, and the marshmallows keep the toothpicks from perforating the plastic.

Preserve bacon left over

If you do not use bacon very often and hate when the rest of the pack goes bad before you can use it again, freeze it! Stack 2 or 3 slices together, roll up into cylinders (Swiss roll cake style), place them in a resealable plastic bag and toss in the freezer. Next time you need bacon, just remove, cook and enjoy your treat.