Helpful tip...Softening Butter

 I don't know about you, but I ALWAYS forget to pull my butter out of the fridge a few hours before I make cookies. If your butter is room temperature it makes a difference in the appearance of your cookies....for example, I have pulled butter out of the fridge to make cookies, needed it "room temp" right then, stuck it in the microwave for about 12 secs.  The melting process has already started with the butter once I do that and it causes a FLAT cookie!

Notice the difference between these two pictures of cookies.

The cookie with the microwave softened butter flattens out, and the edges turn brown and crispy.

Room temp butter cookies hold their form a little better and cook more uniform.

This has just been my own observation when I have made cookies. So, I thought I would share a helpful tip that I found for helping you soften your butter to room temp quicker!

This idea was found HERE!

Grate the amount you need! It will soften alot quicker! You will be making those COOKIES SOONER!

Watermelon...An Easy Way to Cut It!

My favorite way to eat a watermelon is COLD!  I remember when Mom and Dad would get a watermelon they would put it in a bucket or a cooler and let water from a hose run on it til we were ready to eat it.  Oh soo GOOD! We would always slice a huge piece for everyone and lay it on a big plate, then dig in!

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Here is how I cut my watermelon.

 Wash your watermelon.  I wipe it down with a wet paper towel.  When cutting, you push stuff from the outside through the watermelon. I set the watermelon on a cookie sheet to keep the juice from getting all over.

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Cut a slice off the top and bottom.  It will stand on it's own then.

Cut the rine off in sections going from top to bottom.

 Cut into 4ths

Take one of the 4ths, lay it on a flat side and slice into 1"-2" slices.

Take half of the section you are working with, lay it on the flat side with slices stacked ontop of each other and slice into 1"-2" strips. 

Turn the section a 1/4 of a turn and slice again creating little squares/chunks. Cut the other section of the 4th that you were working with.  Continue cutting the rest of the watermelon the same way.

 Place in a large bowl and serve.

**It seems when I have a watermelon all cut up we eat it better.  If we just cut a slice off at a time, we never finish it. This watermelon is a seedless watermelon.  Watermelons with seeds have such a better flavor, but trying to remove the seeds for all the kids gets frustrating.

**I learned this way of cutting it from a sister in my Hyrum ward. This is about the only way I cut a watermelon.  I catanlope the same way...but I only cut it into halfs then start with the slices.

Helpful Tip

A Good Friend from back home shared a tip on how to save time in the kitchen.  Check out her tip on her blog:  Green Eyed Girl Crafts!  I Love how organized her freezer is.
Thanks Vicki for the Great Idea!

I always try to buy hamburger in bulk.  It saves $$$.  My mom taught me to do this.  I divide it up (usually in 1 lb chunks), wrap it in seran wrap then foil and freeze it.  A trick I saw Jim's mom do was premake hamburger patties also.  Stack them with wax paper between each patty.  Wrap with seran wrap then foil and freeze.