Culled from this list of kitchen tips.

14. Don’t throw out all that leftover wine: Freeze into ice cubes for future use in casseroles and sauces.

13. Cure for headaches: Take a lime, cut it in half and rub it on your forehead. The throbbing will go away.

1. Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.

6. To easily remove burnt-on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stovetop-skillet will be much easier to clean.

8. If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it’s still cooking, drop in a peeled potato-it absorbs the excess salt for an instant “fix me up.”

10. Place a slice of apple in hardened brown sugar to soften it back up.

12. To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh-if it rises to the surface, throw it away.

I’ll be at a very interesting conference tomorrow put on by the ASEV in Sacramento. Entitled “Defining & Managing Ripeness from Vine to Wine,” it will feature Doug Adams from Davis as well as Jean-Emmanuel Danjoy of Opus One and a slew of others. I’ll be taking my pocket camera which records video and a small tripod to tape the talks. If all goes well I’ll post the video on YouTube and link to it from here.

Also on Saturday I’ll be in San Francisco at ZAP helping out with TCA screening before the big tasting. I know Ryan from Calwineries will be going (check out his recent post on how to pick a good pinot noir) as well as a few others. Look forward to seeing you all there!

Capozzi Winery