Find a home for narrow, hard-to-store kitchen items like cutting boards, lids, and cookie sheets with a vertical file. A reader over at the organisation blog Unclutter wrote in with the following solution to storing the interchangeable plates on her counter-top grill:

I used a vertical, metal file sorter placed on top of a metal, mesh shelf so I can store my Foreman grill underneath the plates. The file sorter that is holding the grill plates is coated in plastic so it won't scratch the plates, which is vital!

Even if you don't have a plastic coated vertical desk file handy, they are cheap and abundant at office supply stores. For other kitchen storage ideas, check out how to store lids in a drawer.

Food writers at the L.A. Times deflate the hype on popular kitchen items and recommend the stuff you really do need. Mortar and pestle, a good corkscrew, and an instant-read thermometer? Yes. But according to the article, skip on the fondue set, crepe pan, and mini food processor. Here's the whole list of kitchen essentials and items you can pass by.

A round-up of minor furniture hacks includes a simple but appealing idea: carving a slot in the edge of a kitchen island or bench with a circular saw for an easy way of storing knives so they're easily accessible. Good trick for a compact kitchen where you don't want to devote bench space to a separate knife block.

Where would you put a server if you had to keep it in your kitchen? Jonk came up with an unusual option for his Linux server: he adapted a plastic bread bin from IKEA and turned it into a server rack. Step-by-step instructions on how to complete the project are on his site. While IKEA doesn't seem to have any bread bins in its current Australian online catalogue, a quick visit to your local kitchenware store (or $2 discount shop) should easily sort you out.
[Pirateboy via Ikea Hacker]

Cooking web site The Kitchn demonstrates how to dice an onion like a pro in the video above. It's surprisingly simple, and when you're done you'll have a perfectly diced that onion ready for the millions of recipes that might require it. The post also covers a few tips specific to different onion types and briefly discusses chopping onions tear-free, territory we've covered in the past. You're now one more step closer to chopping vegetables like a pro.

Read More »

The dinner was a success, the guests are gone, and your cast iron pans—well, they've seen better days. The TipNut blog suggests pulling out a spare potato and going to town on your sauce-crusted cookware:

To remove rust, slice a fresh potato in half and cover the cut end in liquid dish detergent. Rub the rust spots away with the potato, rinse clean, dry, then apply a light layer of oil to the cookware.

Read More »

Few foods evoke the feeling that warm weather has returned like the pineapple, but even fewer foods inspire such quizzical reactions when it comes time to actually serve the thing. Instructables posts a guide to getting the most juicy yellow stuff out of that expensive (for moderate-climate buyers, anyway) purchase. You'll need a large, sharp knife and a small thin blade, but the author notes a bread knife and thin fillet or boning knife are the best combo. Need to cut for rings or slices? Check out one of my favourite one-purpose sites, How to cut a pineapple.

Read More »

The Simply Recipes blog pulls a tip from one of the best resources around—a mom, of course—that can make using that awkward-to-clean but nifty kitchen tool, the blender, a whole lot easier. Many blenders can snugly fit a standard or wide-mouthed mason jar at their base. Knowing this, you can use your blender as a spice or coffee grinder, make jarfuls of whipped cream or other concoctions that are ready to store, or just make single- or double-serving amounts of smoothies (or margaritas) without having to shove your hand into that tall glass container later on. The writer's mother even suggests that a Hellman's mayonnaise jar might work in a pinch, but I'll wait until a commenter confirms it before trying that out.

Read More »

Small adjustments to your food consumption can lead to huge savings, according to weblog The Urban Vegan. Instead of buying lunch at work, pack your own. Freeze anything that you don't want (instead of tossing it out), and then save the food for another day. Stock up on goods that are on sale at the store. If you're able to, grow your own fruits and vegetables. Use cloth napkins instead of paper. Focus on investing for the long term and not only for the near future and you may reap some huge monetary benefits when you consider the value of the dollar in all of your decisions. What are your favorite food financial tips? Share them in the comments.

Read More »

The Unusual Food Handler weblog has whipped together a home-made method for making Coca-Cola that by their admission is slightly sweeter, slightly less acidic, but remarkably delicious. If you're a Lifehacker with a tinkerer's streak in the kitchen, then brewing your own frosty mug of home-made Coca-Cola is the perfect weekend project for you. Indulge your inner chemist and share the results with us. Photo by Arroz con Nori.