To serve bright green vegetables, simmer them in boiling salted water until they are just tender enough to bite through. Plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking. Remove them and set aside. When it is time to serve the meal, drop them into boiling water to reheat or, if they are bite-size, quickly sauté them in butter or seasoned oil.

For your health and the health of your cookware, do not scrape the non-stick surface of your pans with metal. Heat resistant rubber and plastic, as well as wood will do the trick. Just remember that when you scrape metal against metal, the debris is going into you and your food.

If you've got tortillas in the refrigerator and want something besides quesadillas, wraps or burritos, try these ideas:

• Take your favorite olive oil and brush it on a tortilla. You can season it or rub it with a clove of garlic, then lightly sprinkle with salt and cut 'pie style' into triangles with a knife. Bake the chips in a 375°F oven until golden and crisp. Enjoy with a cheesy topper or your favorite dip. Yummy with butter and cinnamon sugar too!
• Flatten a tortilla and spread it with cream cheese. Top this with salami and pickles. Roll the tortilla tightly into a 'cigar' roll shape. Now, cut the roll into 'pinwheels'.

Another idea for mashed potatoes, particularly when you are dining more elegantly than usual: Add 1 egg per 12 ounces of cold mashed potatoes. Mix until smooth. Using a piping bag, pipe mixture onto a greased flat baking pan and bake until heated through thoroughly, about 20 minutes. Use a metal spatula and return the potato to a plate for serving. Optional: Add chopped parsley, chives, chopped sage and/or your favorite cheese (white cheddar and Brie work well) before piping out onto the baking sheet.

Remember that some foods react differently to different materials. Acid from tomatoes or even milk will discolor food when it reacts with non-coated aluminum cookware. Avoid unlined copper pots, damaged non-stick coatings, and ceramics that are not food grade, as some glazes still contain lead. The FDA provides more detailed information on cookware on their web site.

Don't be intimidated by cookbook or recipe designations. They are really quite simple. Here are several to help you out:

• A pinch is exactly the amount of dry spice that you can hold between your thumb and forefinger.
• A sprig is one stem of fresh herbs, but only in rare cases will you leave the stem on, for garnishes, or for some stock making. For stronger flavors, use a more abundant sprig.
• A splash means holding your finger over half of a bottle opening and giving a 'shot' with the bottle.
• Pan measurements are found on the bottom of the pan and often they are imprinted there. If not, measure the diameter across, if it is sloping, like a pie pan, measure from the inside of the edge.

Just because jarred and paste garlic products are readily available, doesn't mean you should use them. For our money, there is nothing like fresh. But if you're confused by all of the conflicting advice on peeling garlic, don't worry, so are we.

I tend to separate the cloves and smash them with a saucepot or a knife edge to crush and loosen the skin. Colleagues of mine love the rubber tube that was popular several years ago. If you have too much garlic on hand, puree or chop and freeze it either in or out of oil. The beauty of garlic is that, as it goes through each process like chopping or freezing or thawing, it presents a different flavor each time.

To store your garlic, never leave it sitting at room temperature in oil. The whole unpeeled bulbs can stay in a dark, dry place and if they sprout, you can still use the garlic for cooking, just remove the sprout.

Even if you love licking the bowl (or letting your little ones spoon out the yummy stuff that's hard to reach yourself), cooks tell us how frustrating it is when their square spatulas can't scrape rounded bowls. Spatulas can get misshapen and torn over time. Bakers know that rounded scrapers work far better - they are often made of silicone and come in colorful hues. They are far more comfortable to hold when you're using all of your elbow grease to get that last drop of batter.

To make the best pasta possible,
follow the rules of thumb that chefs use:
Plan for 5 quarts of water containing 1 tablespoon of salt per pound of pasta. The water must be boiling vigorously before adding the pasta. Stir it well or you'll get pasta that resembles "doll's hair" and is lumped together. The recommended time on the package is generally a good guide. Drain and toss immediately with sauce, olive oil or butter. If you're making the pasta to eat it later or making a pasta salad, drain the pasta under cool water, coat lightly with oil and refrigerate.

When you really want to dine "elegantly" and really, that can be any day of the week, try this: take your most over-the-top fancy stemware - wine, champagne or margarita. Dip the rim of the glass into freshly squeezed lemon, lime or orange juice and then into sugar. This will give extra sparkle to a fruit cup, mousse or layered vanilla pudding dessert.

For a quick and easy appetizer or first course, heat Boston Market Creamy Tomato Soup with Basil and Potato Chowder Soup separately, then combine for a swirling savory sensation. When heated, tip the soup bowl or plate to about 30 degrees. Then carefully pour the chowder, the heavier soup, into the bowl halfway up. While still tipping the bowl, pour the tomato soup, slowly setting the bowl flat. Swirl the soups to make a design. Garnish with scallions, bacon or basil.

September is Honey month and this year we celebrate the 80th birthday of the world's sweetest honey thief - Winnie the Pooh. What a tasty tribute to a beloved bear. Honey is one of the most interesting ingredients we work with in the Boston Market Test Kitchen. The many varieties entice the taste buds and with everyone's quest for natural, wholesome ingredients, there isn't a jar (or a plastic bear) of sweetness more pure than honey.

Did you know that one honey bee makes less than a quarter of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime? Neither did I until recently, and now I will be extra careful to get all of the honey out of the jar next time I cook! Try honey as a sweet drizzle or glaze the next time you cook a delicious meal. Check out our recipes for Bumblebee Bread Pudding and Golden Apple Tamales for more ideas.

Cranberries add color, flavor and a healthy dimension to the dishes we create -- the "trifecta" chefs constantly look for in ingredients.Most cranberries are harvested between September and October.

Boston Market Cranberry Relish is cooked and ready for you to enjoy or use to create your own tasty treats. What are some creative ways to use cranberries? Mix our relish with cream cheese to create a yummy spread. Use them to create a chilled soup or make a cranberry vinaigrette dressing. Fold cooked cranberries or cranberry relish into pound cakes before baking to add a special surprise or into whipped cream for use between cake layers. We are particularly enamored with our Cranberry Bar recipe.

Our moms used to tell us not to play with our food. But as grownups, one of the joys of adulthood is, you guessed it -- "playing" with our food to make it more dynamic and delicious! Pay attention to the basic tastes and textures of the food. There are four basic tastes that play off one another in unexpected ways -- sweet, sour, salty and bitter. When making a dessert that is predominantly sweet, enhance its taste with at least one of the other three flavors.

Don't be afraid to work with opposites -- if a food is creamy, it can be even more interesting with a bit of crunch. Think cheese sauce with crisp corn chips or bacon bits sprinkled on a baked potato. Hot and cold work well together, too. Think of how yummy a spicy dish is when served with cool sour cream or a hot chocolate fondue with chilled strawberries. Experiment! It's what cooking is all about!

Did you know that the type of spices you buy and how and where you store them impacts their shelf lives? You have a variety of options when purchasing spices -- you can mix them yourself or select spice blends or an array of curries, rubs and chili powders. For the freshest spices, don't purchase more than you'll use in three months. Keep in mind that when you purchase spices whole, they'll last twice as long.

You should store your spices in well-sealed containers in a cool dry spot. The aroma will give you an indication of the age and freshness -- musty, stale or flat flavors and smells tell you it's time to replace them.

Not sure which pasta works best with your favorite sauce? The kind of noodle used in recipes varies by the sauce served with it and your personal pasta preference. With a delicate or thin sauce, try a fine or thin noodle like angel hair or vermicelli pasta, which can hold a thin sauce without breaking. For a heavy or thick sauce, such as creamy Alfredo, larger noodles like fettuccini work best because they hold less sauce and allow the flavor of the pasta to come through. With tubular pasta such as rigatoni or penne, you can enjoy the sauce inside and out and the noodles stand up well to heavier stew-like dishes.

You fancy peppers, but you don't enjoy the indigestion. Did you know the sulfur that naturally occurs in the skin of peppers is the culprit? To remedy this, you can roast and peel the peppers prior to using them in your favorite recipe. Simply brush the peppers with oil and roast in a 450-degree oven until the skin starts to blister. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover for a few minutes. Then peel away the loosened skin and rinse the peppers under tap water. Voila! No more chest-clutching.

If you'd like to use whipped cream as an icing but want to avoid the natural breakdown of the moisture in the cream, just stabilize it. Mix a teaspoon of gelatin with very hot water and stir to dissolve the gelatin. Allow to cool to a point so that it is still a liquid but not warm enough to "break" the cream. While mixing the cream, add the gelatin and beat until stiff.

Afraid to keep sharp knives around for fear you'll cut yourself? Just the opposite is true. When using knives to cut and chop, you can minimize the chance of slicing yourself if you keep them sharp enough so they won't slip off the food and onto your unsuspecting finger. Ask for safety advice and a knife-sharpening lesson at your local cooking school or find a knife sharpening service in your phone directory.