• If you’re making a marinara or bolognese sauce add a splash of balsamic vinegar to it to give it a fuller, rounder flavour.
• The best way to check if artichokes are fresh at the market, give them a little sqeeze.  If it makes a squeeky sound, it’s fresh, if not, try again.
• You’ve likely heard that placing wilting veggies in cool water will revive them, but if you add some sugar to the water it will work faster and the veggies will be more crisp.
• Open canned goods from the bottom rather than the top, especially brown beans, so that whatever has settled comes out first.  No scraping out the contents with a spoon.
• Freeze soft cheeses before you grate them to make the process a lot faster and less messy.
• If you love onion slices on a sandwich but you find them a bit strong, slice the onion and place the slices in cold water for a quarter of an hour.  It will take the strong edge off and keep them crisp.
• If you’re making salad, cut the lettuce into the desired size then put the lettuce in a sink full of water with a cup of vinegar added.  The water will keep the lettuce fresh, and all of the dirt will sink to the bottom.  Remove the lettuce with a colander and let dry on some clean dish towels or spin the lettuce in a salad spinner.
• If you’re cutting lemons or other citrus fruit clean your knife right away because the acid from the fruit can dull your blade if you wait too long.
• For restaurant style bread/buns at a meal, place already baked buns in the oven at 350 degrees f for 15 minutes, then slice into 4 but not all the way through.  Wrap them in a cloth napkin and place in a bowl or small basket.  They’ll be nice and warm, and the presentation will be impressive.
• When baking most goods your ingredients really should all be at room temperature including butter, eggs and milk.  It will make for fluffier cakes, cookies and breads.
• Don’t open your oven door.  It’s bad for whatever you’re cooking and it isn’t energy efficient to force your oven to work harder to maintain cooking temperature.  Unless you have to turn or flip something, leave the door closed.
• When chopping veggies or fruit with a sharp chopping knife, don’t simply hold on to the handle.  Use your thumb and forefinger to grip the top of the blade near to where the blade meets the handle.  You will have more control over the blade and will therefore be less likely to cut yourself.

Today’s topic is green cleaning.  I’ve spoken about it before but I can’t stress enough that you don’t need to use chemical cleaning products to get things clean!  You’ll save money and contribute to greening.

• Baking Soda/Sodium Bicarbonate:
  • Good at removing stains
  • Scours sticky messes
  • neutralizes acid
  • softens hard water
  • excellent deodorizer
  • good for polishing aluminum, porcelain, stainless steel
• Beeswax:
  • Can be used as a furniture polish if carefully melted down and combined with essential oils and distilled water

• Borax:
  • Deodorizes
  • limits the growth of mould and mildew
  • freshens laundry
• Cream of tartar
  • removes stains in tubs, sinks and toilets
• Lime Juice:
  • powerful cleaner that cuts grease
• Olive oil:
  • great for softening leather furniture
  • alternative to furniture polish
• Orange Oil:
  • great for polishing furniture when mixed with beeswax or olive oil.  Cleans and freshens.
• Salt:
  • cleans abrasively
  • best way to clean wooden cutting boards
  • deoderizes
  • mix with vinegar for great all purpose cleaner
• Tea tree oil:
  • kills germs, mould, mildew
  • antibacterial and antifungal properties
• WHITE Vinegar:
  • the best natural cleaner – disinfectant
  • cuts grease
  • when warmed it loosens caked on gunk (try warming equal parts water and vinegar in a glass bowl in your microwave then wipe away the gunk)
  • great stain remover

I could write a book about the recipes to create cleaners but I don’t have to.  Many people already have.  Amazon and Indigo have several green cleaning guides to offer but if you don’t want to buy a book, you can get some recipes for free via the greenpeace site, as well as at one of my favourite green sites, EarthEasy.

You might have to use a little more elbow grease, but it will get you up and moving, making your home a healthier environment to live in, and helping to conserve the natural environment not to mention saving a few dollars on cleaning products.  Here is one comparison:

A 32oz bottle of Windex costs about $5.00 but a 135oz jug of white vinegar costs about $3.