Cook by the appearance of the meal over what the cooking time is. Look for it to be "golden brown" before "done in 30 minutes". This is known as "common sense" cooking.

Cook healthier foods by using a little less salt, a little less sugar, and a little less butter. Bake instead of fry when possible and use whole grains and fat-free milks.

Leftovers - Hot foods should be refrigerated within 2 hours after cooking. Be careful with leftovers. Remember; when in doubt, throw it out! Do not "taste test" something that you think might be bad. Even just a small taste can make you ill if the food is bad.

Be extremely careful not to drag your sleeves over the burner. Wear tight fitting clothes while cooking. Also, put your hair up so that it doesn't catch fire while leaning over the stove.

Are you planning an outdoor camping trip? Plan your meals at home before you go. This way you'll have everything you need ahead of time for cooking and there won't be any surprises.

Make sure your knives are sharp. A dull knife not only does not cut well but it can be dangerous to work with. Keep in mind however that although a sharp knife is preferrable, you must handle it with extreme caution.

Cooking outdoors: For outdoor barbequing, add hickory or mesquite wood chips to the coals. It will add much more flavor to the meat.

Safety Tips: Keep the handles of your pots facing inward so they aren't grabbed by children. Teach your children to stay far away from the stove while you're cooking.

Try sea salt instead of regular table salt. It tends to have more flavor.

Be aware of what type of stove top you are using. Gas stoves heat instantly, but electric stoves take time to warm up. When using an electric stove allow about a minute for the range to heat up before cooking. When using gas, be aware that things will cook faster. Also, for safety purposes remember that electric stove tops will remain hot for a while after you turn them off, so don't touch them or place anything that can melt on them until they are cool.

Be careful not to ruin your non-stick cookware. Do not use metal utensils or anything sharp on non-stick cookware. Be careful not to use overly abrasive cleaning tools as well. The non-stick coating on is fragile and can easily be scratched off by harsh treatment. Once a scratch occurs the non-stick coating will quickly chip away and you'll end up with specks of it in everything you cook. And worst of all your food will stick to the bottom of the cookware because the coating is gone.

As a general rule do not leave plastic containers, aerosol cans, or anything that is not oven proof on top of the stove. When the oven is turned on the stove top can become hot as well and cause plastic items to warp or even melt and aerosol cans to expand and explode.

Potato peelers aren't just for potatoes. You can use them to peel just about any fruit or vegetable. Try using them on apples, carrots, cucumbers and even zucchinis.

The way you store your raw potatoes can affect how they taste. Never store potatoes in the refrigerator, as they will become sweet and their texture will change. Never store potatoes in a hot place or a place where they are exposed to direct sunlight. These conditions cause the potatoes to rot faster and develop a green film under their skin which is toxic if consumed too often. Store potatoes in a cool and dry place away from direct sunlight, such as a bin or a cupboard.

Always poke whole raw potatoes with a fork several times before microwaving, otherwise they might explode.

Never place foil, silverware or any metallic object in the microwave. Heating metal in the microwave will cause sparks and eventually a fire.

Never run a microwave with nothing in it. The microwave will catch on fire.

When baking cookies, leave plenty of room between each cookie because they will spread.

Steaming and stir-frying are two of the healthiest ways to cook vegetables. Boiling vegetables and cooking them in the microwave reduces vitamin content. Steaming and stir-frying allow vegetable to retain more of their vitamins. However, stir-frying ads more fat because it requires oil. But fat is not always bad. A little fat is needed in everyone's diet to maintain healthy skin, hair, and nails. Try using olive oil, which is very flavorful and is a non-saturated fat.

When cutting up and cooking with jalapenos and other spicy peppers, wear gloves, and avoid coming in direct contact with the seeds or seed bulbs. Depending on the degree of exposure, direct contact can cause anything from tingling to a severely painful burning sensation that lasts for several days. Particularly avoid any contact with your eyes.

Always clean out your blender well. Take the bottom section apart and wash each component separately. Washing the blender without taking it apart allows food to get trapped in the seals and causes bacteria to grow. Over time the built up bacteria can cause food poisoning.

Use a serrated knife to cut tomatoes. Using a knife with a flat edge will squish the tomato before it breaks the skin.

If you want your bananas to ripen faster wrap them up in a brown paper bag.

Toss sliced apples in lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown.

Try stir-frying vegetables and meats in your favorite oil-based salad dressing. The oil keeps stuff from sticking and the seasonings in the dressing help spice up your food.

When preparing food for other people, use salt sparingly. Different people have different preferences. They can always add more salt to their food if there's not enough for their taste, but they can't take it out if there's too much.

Be careful what part of the refrigerator you store your fresh fruits and vegetables. Items placed near the back of the fridge can often freeze a little. Being frozen changes the texture of the fresh produce and when it thaws back out it will no longer be crunchy and fresh but mushy. Many refrigerators have special bins just for produce.

If you buy a bunch of celery and don't plan to eat it all at once but want it to remain fresh, cut the celery up in smaller pieces and place in a container filled with water. Place the container in the refrigerator. The celery will remain fresh and crisp for at least a week. If not stored in water the celery will become limp and rubbery.

Sometimes screw top jar lids can be tough to get off. A great way to loosen up these lids so that you can turn them is to hit the side of the lid (the part where the ridges are) with the handle end of a sturdy piece of silverware. Several well aimed hits will often loosen up the lid. If the jar contains something sticky, such as honey, syrup, vanilla extract, jelly, etc. run hot water over the place where the lid meets the jar. The heat will help melt anything sticky that is keeping the lid from turning.

Don't leave a plastic spatula sitting in a hot pan. The heat will quickly melt the spatula.

When following a recipe in a cookbook, don't feel like you have to stick to it exactly. You can adapt the recipe to your own preferences. You can eliminate ingredients you don't like, add some you do, add more of a particular ingredient, or less, whatever you want. Remember, you're the one who has to eat the dish when it's finished.

If you end up with too many bananas that are going ripe too fast, you CAN and SHOULD put them in the refrigerator. Despite what Chiquita Banana used to say in the old radio commercials, you can slow the ripening process by storing them in the fridge. The skins may turn black, but the fruit inside will still be good for cooking and baking.

NEVER use the same cutting board for preparing meats and preparing vegetables. Juices from the meat board can spread bacteria to other foods prepared on that same board. This "cross contamination" can be dangerous, particularly if the veggies are to be served raw.

Keep one cutting board for carving and cutting meat, and one for veggies.

For the same reason, never use the same plate for preparing raw meat and serving cooked meat...

If you clip recipes from magazines and newspapers, you know they accumulate fast and are hard to organize--

UNLESS you purchase three-ring binders and "magnetic" adhesive photo album pages at your favorite store. Just divide recipes by categories (appetizers, breads, cakes, and so on), put them on the pages as you would photos, and put them into the binders. Voila! Organized recipes!

A tip for when you serve dinner rolls: Line the basket of rolls with tin foil first before you cover it with the linen napkin. It will help keep the rolls warm longer.

Keep your kitchen knives sharp at all times. It takes more effort for a dull knife to cut through food, increasing the risk of cuts if the knife slips. Invest in a good sharpening stone (whetstone) and/or a sharpening steel to keep your knives sharp between uses.

Do NOT try to sharpen serrated knives at home. Most serrated knives can only be sharpened by a professional, if at all!

If you are baking, know the difference between baking soda and baking powder - what they're used for individually, what they do to what you're baking, and why you need one (or both) of them.

When traveling on business or going on vacation, the trick is booking a condo or hotel room with a kitchen. It may cost slightly more, but you'll save a bundle by making your meals, and save your diet as well.

When baking cookies – once they have come out of the oven you can place them on a paper bag that you get from the grocery store to cool. To get the most use out of the bag, cut it along the folds so that it will open up and place it on the counter-top with the stores name down. Not only is this a good way to cool the cookies, but the paper bag will also absorb the grease that is on the cookies from baking them.