Quick Facts Who: Sadie, a gentle Collie cross — dubbed “Britain’s loneliest dog” Rescued from: A large-scale hoarding home with around 200 dogs, living in unsuitable outdoor compounds The wait: Nearly three years in RSPCA kennels — close to 1,000…
To clean mushrooms without water, wipe each one with a damp — not wet — paper towel or a soft mushroom brush, turning the mushroom to catch every crevice. Never soak them: mushrooms absorb water like sponges, and wet mushrooms…
To peel kiwi with a spoon, cut off both ends of the fruit, slide a teaspoon between the skin and the green flesh, and rotate the kiwi around the spoon. The entire skin slips off in one piece, leaving zero…
To dispose of used cooking oil without a mess, line a heatproof bowl with aluminium foil, pour in the cooled oil, and let it sit until it firms up. Then scrunch the foil into a parcel and bin it. No…
To cut watermelon into sticks, halve the melon, set one half cut-side down on the board, and score a grid of cuts about 2–3 cm apart into the flesh. Then slice horizontally just above the rind, and the cubes fall…
To cut onion without crying, chill the whole unpeeled onion in the fridge for 15–30 minutes before slicing. The cold slows the release of the eye-irritating gas onions produce when cut. Combine that with a sharp knife and cutting the…
To keep cheese fresh longer, wrap hard cheese in a paper towel lightly dampened with white vinegar, then wrap that bundle in cling film and refrigerate. The vinegar’s acidity inhibits the surface mould that cheese grows first, while the damp…
To pit olives without a pitter, set an olive over the neck of a narrow glass bottle, press down firmly with your thumb, and the pit pops out through the bottom into the bottle. The bottle neck holds the olive…
To open blister packaging without scissors, take a standard metal can opener and run it around the sealed edge of the clamshell pack, just like opening a tin of beans. The cutting wheel slices the plastic seal cleanly in seconds…
To keep salad fresh longer, line your storage container with a dry paper towel before adding washed greens, then seal it and refrigerate. The paper towel absorbs excess moisture — the main cause of soggy, slimy leaves — keeping salad…
