HELOISE: Fruitful hints for strawberry season

Dear Readers: Strawberries are delicious and colorful, and they are a great snack! One cup of strawberries has about 46 calories and provides more than the daily requirement for vitamin C. They also are rich in antioxidants, and they are plentiful in the supermarket at this time of year.

Strawberries will not ripen after picking, so select berries that are bright-red — these are the sweetest berries. Don’t get strawberries with any green or white on them. A dark-red shade means the berry is overripe, will be mushy and will soon spoil. In the supermarket, the ideal berry will be plump and shiny.

To wash just before serving, put them in a colander and run cold water thoroughly over the bowl. Pat dry with a paper towel.

To hull the strawberry, a favorite Heloise hint is to insert a drinking straw into the bottom of the berry. The core and the leaves of the fruit will slide right out.

Slicing the strawberry in an egg slicer makes for a pretty presentation, but you also can make yummy jams and jellies with your prepared strawberries. Enjoy!

By the way, how many seeds are on the average strawberry? Only about 200!

Heloise

Dear Heloise: My husband loves meatloaf, but I hate getting my hands messy mixing it by hand, and it’s too heavy to stir with a spoon. I realized one day that meatloaf mixture is about the same consistency as chocolate-chip cookie dough, so now I just throw all the ingredients into a big bowl and use my mixer to mix it up. Clean hands and a happy husband!

Chris Woodyard, Dayton, Ohio

Dear Heloise: When I need to scramble fried ground beef for a recipe, I mix into the raw beef the spices I need and then proceed to make a large patty, slightly smaller than the size and shape of my indoor counter grill. After cooking it to well-done, I crumble it and use it in my recipe or freeze it to use later.

Marie Lincoln, New Brunswick, Canada

Dear Heloise: I add a teaspoon of vanilla to canned frosting to freshen up its flavor. This also works for brownie mix. Also try 1/2 teaspoon cherry extract in chocolate frosting when making a German chocolate cake, or 1/2 teaspoon mint extract in chocolate frosting on a vanilla or yellow cake mix.

Sarah, via e-mail

Dear Heloise: By accident, I removed the label on an empty instant-coffee container and found that after washing the container, I could use it as a small canister. The way I go through coffee, I soon had a collection of canisters. I found they also make nice containers to send my granddaughter little treats, and now she has a nice bunch of canisters, too.

R. Swaab in Texas

Send a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, fax it to 210-HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

King Features Syndicate