Gene's Profile

My apartment looking like a Ke$ha video is a bonus of craft time, not a reason to keep the glitter out of my house. I love body glitter too, even though I find glitter in my eyebrows for days after every drag show and pride parade. And with my new glitter kaftan, keeping glitter off of every surface in my house would be an utterly hopeless pursuit. Fortunately, I'm very happy being constantly surrounded by something that makes me so happy. If I end up having kids and they are anything like me, the amount of glitter will only multiply. I can't imagine living in a glitter free house! And as for glitter playdough, oh man! I wonder if I could bake it into my polymer clay statues for a grownup equivalent of this tip!

I find that reading widely about food helps me eat cheaper. I'm a vegetarian, but I've read quite a few posts of Homesick Texan, which has taught me a lot about cooking beans. I also read Manjula's Kitchen, which is about Indian food, and Beyond Kimchee, which is about Korean food. When I read a lot of recipes, I can find money saving and delicious things to cook. I always used to waste money when my bean sprouts went bad, but now I make kimchee with my fresh sprouts and they last two months easy rather than only a few days. I also make my own chapati (which is very easy and takes about fifteen minutes for a small batch) instead of buying expensive, fancy breads. Reading recipes also helps me really enjoy the time I spend cooking. It's a lot more exciting to do an hour or two of precooking on a Sunday afternoon when I've picked out the recipes in advance and have been looking forward to trying them. Even making grocery lists and shopping is more fun this way and, of course, planning ahead means that I don't over spend at the store and makes the cheaper options more convenient to prepare during the week, eg reheating rice I bought in bulk, cooked, and froze during the weekend rather than rice which is purchased in a pre-cooked, single serving state.

I store my seven most used spices in a masala dabba on the countertop. That way there aren't lots of little bottles in my way and I have access to things I use everyday whenever I need them.

One trick I've found is using a dry, clean paper towel under my cutting board and drawer organizer to keep them from slipping around.

It should be mentioned that keeping butter at room temperature is only safe when it's salted. Unsalted butter should not be left out.

I store my most useful, biggest cutting board out on the counter, despite having almost no space. This is because most of my recipes require chopping vegetables or at least some garlic and when I occasionally do need to mix something in a bowl, I just put it right on top of the board. Whenever I'm done cooking, I just wash it by hand real quick and put it back on the counter.

I've got cabinets that are too tall for me, like quite a few people here and I store extras of my basics on the top shelf. I usually only need one box of pasta and maybe two cans of beans at a time, but I like having extras around in case I can't get to the store (it's kind of far away) or whatever. So I put the extras that I don't need right away up high and then only have to climb up the step ladder (which I keep in the hall closet) about once week and only if I run out of rice, pasta, or canned goods.

I live in a tiny apartment with someone who eats very differently than me (spicy,vegetable-filled vegetarian foods verses omnivorian casseroles and packaged foods with lots of meat and dairy), so we both cook things from time to time that bother the other person and the vinegar trick is great! Not only does it work really well, but it's so much cheaper than some of the other options and very easy. If one of us has been cooking something smelly, I'll just leave a little bowl of white vinegar out on the counter overnight and we won't have to be kept awake with stale food smells or, even worse, wake up to them.