5 Ways to Help Organize Your Refrigerator for the Freshest Food

Are you sick of your milk spoiling a few days before the expiration date? The problem could be where you put your milk in the refrigerator. Take the extra time to stock your fridge carefully to cut down on food waste.

Depending on how old or new your refrigerator is or even the special features of your specific model or brand there can be areas that you should watch out for.  Areas like door bins and upper shelves tend to be a little warmer than the middle of the refrigerator or the bottom shelves.  Here are a few steps to help you with placing your food and drinks in the best possible areas to maintain freshness.

1. The Refrigerator Doors

The temperature in the doors can be a couple of degrees higher than the main compartment. This could be too warm to store milk and eggs in. Here are items that you should place in the doors that can handle the slight change:

• Condiments
• Juice
• Soda or soft drinks
• Water
• Butter
• Cooking oils

2. The Lower Shelf

The very middle of you fridge is one of the coldest areas to store food. This spot is best for foods that are more temperature-sensitive. Here are the foods that should be on the lower shelf:

• Milk
• Eggs (in their carton)
• Raw fish, meat, and poultry

Extra tip: You can use little trays to separate the meat from the other foods and they will also catch any drips or spills falling down into the rest of the refrigerator.

3. The Upper Shelf

This area of the refrigerator can get slightly warmer and you want to be cautious as to what you put in this area. Here are items that you should put on the upper shelf:

• Yoghurt
• Snacks like (fruit cups, hummus, etc.)
• Jelly and Jam
• Peanut butter
• Leftovers (store more in the front of the fridge so you don’t forget about them)

4. Veggie and Fruit Bins

Crisper drawers are designed for produce. In some refrigerators you can adjust the humidity for drier foods or moister climate foods.  If you do not have the ability to adjust the humidity, that is okay and you can organize your bins in a way that low versus high humidity foods are stored together and are separate from each other. Here is a list of fruits and vegetables you can group together:

High- Humidity Drawer

• Carrots
• Strawberries
• Watermelon
• Broccoli
• Green Onions
• Leafy Greens
• Brussels sprouts

Low-Humidity Drawer

• Apples
• Mangos
• Pears, plums, peaches, nectarines
• Peppers
• Mushrooms
• Summer squash
• Avocados

5. Outside the Refrigerator

There are common misconceptions for a few foods that should not actually be placed in the refrigerator. Here are a few items that you should keep out on your counter-tops or food pantry:

• Garlic
• Coffee
• Bananas
• Bread (Organic bread should be refrigerated. All bread is okay to freeze)
• Tomatoes
• Lemons and limes
• Onions and Potatoes but keep them away from each other

We hope that these food organization tips help you keep your food fresher longer. Let us know if you have other issues with keeping your food fresh or other questions about organizing your refrigerator. 

Toss It! Things You Should Throw Away During Spring Cleaning

We’ve all heard that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, and most of the time that’s true. “Upcycling” has become downright trendy, with people turning their dumpster-diving finds into one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture for their homes. Likewise, repurposed, recycled and reclaimed items are a badge of honor among the younger crowd. The “waste not, want not” mindset behind giving items a second life as something new and unique is commendable and fantastic. Most of the time.

Then there are those things you should absolutely toss in the garbage without delay- things that are so gnarly that they can’t be repurposed by even the most optimistic dumpster-diver. Here are a few household items it’s almost never a good idea to hang on to when you’re organizing your home for spring.

Old cosmetics- If you are or ever have been female, or if you have lived with a female member of society at any point in your life, chances are you are familiar with the Mascara Conundrum. Though common wisdom dictates that a tube of mascara, an eyeliner, or any other cosmetic that touches your eyes should be thrown out once every three months to avoid contamination which leads to eye infections, few women have the heart to actually go through with it. For one thing, cosmetics can be quite pricey, with even the drugstore brands of mascara costing upwards of $6 per tube. Secondly, when you are faced with the possibility of conjunctivitis or the prospect of chucking your limited-edition plum eyeliner sample you received as a free gift with purchase, a good number of women will roll the dice and opt to keep the eyeliner. Hard as it may be, you really need to purge your eye makeup at regular intervals to keep your eyes healthy and infection-free.

Expired food- There are probably no people on earth who need to be told to get rid of their spoiled dairy, meat or produce- at least we hope not! However, dry goods and spices are another story. Since you don’t have to refrigerate these items, people can mistakenly think they never go bad, or that they should be able to keep just fine for indeterminate periods of time in your cupboards or pantry. This is not accurate- there’s a reason for the “use by” dates stamped on most dry goods and non-perishable items. It may seem like a waste to toss out unused food because of an arbitrary date on the box, but you’ll be glad you did.

Broken toys- As your kids get older, it’s natural to want to keep some of their toys as keepsakes or mementos, or even put them away in case they want to pass them onto their own children someday. Additionally, any toys that are still in good shape can be donated to charity so they can be enjoyed by other kids. But there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to keeping toys that are broken. Dolls without heads, trucks without wheels, or puzzles that are missing pieces all need to find their way out of your attic and into a garbage truck ASAP.

If you have any spring cleaning tips, including suggestions for where to toss unwanted items, let us know in the comments below.

Benefits to Convection Ovens over Conventional Ovens

Most people are familiar with the conventional oven.  They use radiant heat, usually dispersed through elements in the upper and lower oven. The problem with radiant heat is your cooking will be uneven due to the heat remaining fairly motionless. Because the elements are at the top and bottom of the oven best results are when the food is placed in the middle of the oven to help eliminate burning due to uneven heat within the oven. This limits your ability to utilize the entire oven for baking.

Convention baking uses forced air that is circulated throughout the entire oven through the use of a fan placed at the back of the oven. This eliminated hot and cold spots within the oven and the end result gives the food more visual appeal, texture, and flavor. This has proven to clearly be the choice of the future for baking.

Due to convection baking using forced air throughout the oven, this also cuts down on the overall cooking time and helps roasted foods stay moist and flavorful. It’s been said that forced air convection baking can reduce your time and energy up to 25% due to cutting the backing time down. You’ll also be able to utilize the entire oven space on any rack because of the even & consistent temperature caused by forced air heating.   Check out the Built-in Single Convection Wall Oven from GE.

    

Which Oven to Buy?

For those readers that are interested in converting over to a convection backing product, please start by checking out our website. Call our toll free number to speak to one of our specialists who will find you the right product for your personal needs. 

Need a New Freezer? Here’s What you Should Consider…

    So, it’s that time of year again….the garden needs to be harvested, you’re planning your fall hunting trip, you need to stock up at the grocery store….and you need a new freezer! 

  There are a few things to consider when purchasing your new freezer:

• What types of foods are we putting in this freezer?
• How long will the food be in the freezer?
• Where are you going to put this freezer?
• Should I get an upright, or a chest freezer?
• Frost-free, or manual-defrost?
• What size should we get?

    If you are looking for a freezer to use for your regular day-to-day grocery needs, then a frost-free upright unit might be good for you.  These units do not build-up with ice and are best served for the foods that your family will go thru on a regular basis. If you are looking for more long-term storage, then a manual-defrost chest type freezer would be best.  These units keep your food deep-frozen, while the unit may build up with ice, your food will not get freezer burned.  When you open a chest freezer, the cold air stays down in the freezer.  When you open an upright freezer, the cold air tends to escape.  Chest freezers can hold a lot of food; however, some may find that keeping an upright freezer organized is easier.

    If you are going to put your freezer in the garage, make sure that where you put it doesn’t reach below -5 or above 110.  Put it along a joining wall with your home.

A freezer will hold approx 35 lbs of food per cubic feet, so a 15 cubic feet chest freezer should store approximately 525 lbs of food.

Chest freezers come in a variety of sizes from 5 cubic feet all the way up to 25 cubic feet, and range anywhere from $145-$799

Upright Freezers are usually in the 14-21 cubic feet size and range between $399 & $899.

Old-Fashioned Potato Salad

Here’s a summertime favorite sure to make everyone at your barbecue or picnic smile!

Ingredients:

5 potatoes

3 eggs

1 cup celery, chopped

½ cup onion, chopped

½ cup sweet pickle relish

¼ teaspoon garlic salt

¼ teaspoon celery salt

1 tablespoon mustard

Ground black pepper to taste

¼ cup mayonnaise

Prep time: 45 min.  Cook time: 15 min. 

Directions:

Bring large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes and cook until tender but still firm (about 15 minutes). Drain, cool, peel and chop potatoes.

Place eggs in saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring water to a boil; cover, remove from heat and let eggs stand in hot water for 10-12 minutes. Remove from hot water, cool, peel and chop.

In a large bowl combine potatoes, eggs, celery, onion, relish, garlic salt, celery salt, mustard, pepper and mayonnaise. Mix together well and refrigerate until chilled.

Makes 8 servings