Have you ever started a recipe and then realized you needed to soften butter and all your butter is stored in the fridge? When I lived up north, I could store my butter on the counter in a butter crock. But now that I live in the south it is too warm to store butter on the counter. I found out the hard way that melted butter is not the same as "softened butter" in recipes. A few years ago my ...

I mentioned this last year, but it is such a good tip I thought I would mention it again. With Christmas right around the corner, many of us will be processing 10 to 20 pounds of potatoes. A fast and easy way to clean all those potatoes at once is to put them on the top rack of your dishwasher and run a quick rinse cycle. The potatoes are clean and you aren't taking up valuable sink space in ...

Five Simple Ways to Fill Your Freezer Any mom knows that dinnertime is the witching hour. Kids are hungry -- and whiny, the clock is ticking, and everyone's ready to sit down and eat. And sometimes, despite our best efforts, dinner prep can take its toll. Make dinnertime a little easier by having a stash of homemade freezer meals on hand. Here are five simple ways to make that dream a ...