Do you know where to store your butter?

Dear Readers: Here's a quick quiz for you: Where's the best place to store butter? The refrigerator or the freezer? You might learn something new, so read on.
The answer? It's best to keep butter frozen until it's ready to use. It can be frozen in its original wrapper for several months. For longer storage, though, wrap the butter in foil or freezer-safe bags. The butter will keep for a good year. But the refrigerator is fine, too -- if the butter is unopened and still wrapped, it will last for up to four months.
Opened butter should be kept in a covered dish so that it doesn't pick up odors from other foods stored nearby. To quickly soften refrigerated or frozen butter, microwave on the lowest microwave setting for about a minute. To melt butter, put it in a microwave-safe dish, cover and heat on high for about a minute. Remember, these are estimates. Every microwave is different, so check the butter every 30 seconds to avoid overdoing it. Heloise
Dear Heloise: To keep raisins suspended in cake or bread batter, coat with flour before adding. This really works, especially with seeded raisins Delia Sadler, Paris, Ky.
Dear Readers: What tropical fruit tastes like a pineapple, strawberry, banana and guava all mixed together? Answer: A feijoa, or a pineapple guava. This fruit has a greenish-blue skin, and when it is peeled, you can add it to a fruit salad for a delicious treat! The phonetic spelling, so you can ask for it: fee-joe. Heloise
Dear Heloise: I read your column recently about adding bread crumbs or stuffing mix to hamburger for moist burgers and meatloaf. I add about one-fourth cup of instant potatoes per pound of meat. The instant potatoes soak up the juices and make the burgers or meatloaf very moist.
I do not use crackers or bread crumbs because I do not like to see them in the final product. Instant potatoes leave no visual residue.
To give meatloaf and hamburger even more flavor, I add a package of instant dry mushroom-and-onion or just onion soup mix to the mixture along with the instant potatoes. Fay Garner, Opelika, Ala.
Dear Heloise: Whenever I open a can of fruit (of any kind), I save the juice, so when I make gelatin, I use the correct measurement of juice. It enhances the flavor greatly! Joy in Florida
Keep in mind that you shouldn't add fresh or frozen pineapple, kiwi, ginger root, papaya, figs or guava to gelatin, because it will not set! Heloise
Dear Heloise: I only barely had enough flour to make biscuits, so I sprinkled a little cornmeal on a board and patted out the sticky dough on it. I was making a half recipe for my husband and me, and I cut it into six biscuit-size pieces and baked as usual. They turned out light and flaky, with a delicious, slightly crumbly bottom crust. A fluke that turned out to be a keeper. Dorothy Thurman, Springfield, Mo.
XSend a great hint to: Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000, Fax: (210) HELOISE or e-mail: Heloise@Heloise.com.
King Features Syndicate