Serving pie or cake ala mode? Save time by doing the scooping ahead. Put ice cream scoops on a plate or cookie sheet, cover it tightly and store in the freezer. When it comes time to serve dessert, simply put a scoop on each serving.

For extra crispy fried chicken, dip the chicken pieces in buttermilk, then flour. The buttermilk holds more flour on the chicken for a thicker coating.

To clean the inside of your microwave, place a bowl of water inside and heat on high for a few minutes to start the water boiling. The steam softens dried splatters, and you can simply wipe them clean.

When leaving on a trip, pour leftover milk into an ice cube tray and freeze it. When you return, you have fresh milk for your coffee by dropping in one or two milk cubes.

To make extra smooth tuna salad perfect for spreading on crackers or a sandwich, stir the mixture using a wire whisk. It easily breaks up all the big chunks of tuna.

Store small portions of uncooked ground beef and turkey in heavy duty plastic freezer bags. To make a meatloaf let the meat thaw in the bag, add the other ingredients, seal the bag, mix the ingredients and form the loaf inside the bag. Slide the loaf out of the bag and into the pan.....no bowl to wash and no messy hands.

To make a peacan pie taste richer, first heat the butter in a saucepan until lightly browned. Be sure to cool the butter before adding it to the egg mixture.

If a whole pie is too much for you, cut it into wedges, wrap each wedge in heavy duty foil and freeze. Soon you'll have a collection of diffferent frozen pie slices. When you have a taste for pie, just pull a slice from the freezer, thaw and enjoy.

To easily cook ground beef without having to skim the fat, place it in a plastic colander set inside a larger bowl in the microwave. Cook the meat on high, stirring often until no longer pink. The grease runs off the meat through the holes in the colander and collects in the bowl.

The next time you bake a cake, use a bit of dry cake mix to "flour" the greased pan. Shake the extra back into the mixing bowl. You'll have no flour residue on your baked cake.

After shredding cheese, sprinkle it with flour and toss. The cheese shreds will not stick together and can be stored in the refrigerator for later use.

If your picnic gets rained out and you end up grilling your hamburgers under the stove broiler, put some water in the drip pan under the broiler rack. Fat drops into the water with no smoke, no sizzling and no charred order...and the drip pan is a breeze to clean.

Soak any red game meat in canned evaporated milk for 30 minutes before cooking. This helps tenderize even the toughest cuts. It's great for cookouts.

Use a clean plastic squirt-top mustard bottle filled with frosting to decorate your cake.

Before boiling red potatoes for potato salad, cut in a circle around each potato, just piercing the skin. Once boiled, the potatoes are easier to peel.

To prevent your homemade ice cream from meltiing to quickly, add one tablespoon of unflavored geletin dissolved in a quarter cup of hot water to your milk mixture before freezing.

If you're a coffee or tea drinker and your mugs are stained, fill them with hot water and add a little bleach. Wait a few minutes, then wash and your mugs will come clean.

Before peeling an onion, cut the root end off the onion and run cold water on the cut while you rub the area firmly with your thumb. You won't shed any more tears.

Husk a garlic clove in an instant by cutting it in half length-wise with a sharp knife. If the husk still doesn't come off, quarter it.

Keep cooking oil in a squeeze bottle with a snap on cap and you won't have to unscrew the cap in the middle of a recipe.