Handy Kitchen Tips
Contents:
Vegetable storage tips
Egg tips
Avocado tips
Further reading
Marketfresh
Marketfresh has handy tips and suggestions for storing fresh fruit and vegetables: 
• Store potatoes, onions, garlic, and uncut pumpkin in a dry place (not in the fridge).
• Most vegetables, for example, carrots, cut pumpkin, zucchini, eggplant, capsicum and broccoli, are best stored in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator.
• Keep mushrooms in paper bags in the fridge.
• Store apples, pears, bananas, lemons, and oranges in a large fruit bowl in a well ventilated, cool part of the kitchen and away from the sun.
• Buy fresh vegetables often and consume them soon after purchase. Avoid storing them for more than 3-4 days.
• Store all berries in the refrigerator.
• Store unripe avocadoes in the fruit bowl. Ripe ones can be refrigerated.
• Store tomatoes in a brown paper bag at room temperature with top loosely open to ripen and gain flavour.
• Store fresh herbs in the refrigerator in a sealed freezer bag. They keep well for 4-6 days.
• Keep your refrigerator vegetable crisper clean and dry for best storage and rotate produce gently every day or so.
• Small quantities of left over fresh vegetables such as carrots, beans, broccoli, snow peas and celery are great for stir fries or soups.
Above content from Purchasing and Storage Tips for Fruit and Vegetables - Marketfresh.
Want the best out of your vegetables? Follow these handy storage tips from Melanie Senior (Australian Good Taste - November 2008, Page 167)
Asparagus lasts longest when you stand the spears upright in a glass containing 1-2cm of water. Cover the tips of the spears with a plastic bag. Store in the fridge for up to five days.
Broccoli will keep in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge for up to three days.
Capsicum and carrots should be stored in a plastic bag in the crisper for up to one week.
Mushrooms are best kept in a paper bag in the fridge for up to five days.
Tomatoes ripen at room temperature out of direct sunlight. Once ripe, store them in the fridge for up to two days.
Beans, celery, peas, spinach and zucchini are best stored in a sealable plastic bag in the fridge for up to four days.
Fresh herbs should be stored in the fridge. Wrap mint, chives and oregano in damp paper towel in a sealed plastic bag. Wrap basil in dry paper towel, then store in a sealed plastic bag. Place parsley and coriander upright in a glass containing 1-2cm of water and cover with a plastic bag. The storage life of fresh herbs ranges from a few days to a week.
Egg tips from the Australian Egg Corporation 
What is the best way to store eggs?
The easiest way to maintain eggs at high quality is to store them in their original carton in the refrigerator as soon as possible after purchase. Cartons reduce water loss and protect flavours from other foods being absorbed into the eggs. Storing eggs loose, or in specially designed sections located on refrigerator doors is not recommended as this also exposes eggs to a greater risk of damage. Did you know a single eggshell might have as many as 17,000 tiny pores over its surface? Through them, the egg can absorb flavours and odours. Storing them in their cartons helps keep them fresh.
How long will eggs keep?
Fresh shell eggs can be kept refrigerated in their carton for 5 weeks from the date of lay. Quality losses are kept to a minimum if eggs are placed in the refrigerator as soon as possible after purchase.
How do I test an egg for freshness?
A quick test for freshness is to check if the raw egg in the shell sinks in a basin of water. Fresh eggs stay at the bottom of the bowl while stale eggs float because of the large air cell.
Avocado Tips from Avocados Australia
Avocados are great in salads, as a dip or in a wrap or sandwich.
Fact: Avocados don't ripen on trees. It's actually the harvesting (picking) action that triggers the ripening process.
Hint: To ripen an Avocado, place the fruit in a plain brown paper bag and store at room temperature until ready to eat. This will usually take two to five days. Including an apple or banana in the bag accelerates the process, as these fruits give off ethylene gas - a ripening agent.
Did you know that avocados have 60% more potassium than bananas?
Avocados have only five grams of fat per serving, most of it being monounsaturated (good) fat.
Check out great recipes, facts, articles and tips about avocados from Avocados Australia.
- www.taste.com.au has pages of cooking tips.
- Want to learn the best way to clean a mushroom, peel garlic or prevent freshly cut fruit from browning? Discover handy kitchen tips at Simply Great Meals Tip Page.
Quick Tip: Once you have opened a can of food store any remaining food in a plastic container in the fridge, rather than putting the can in the fridge.
Quick Tip: Use a pair of kitchen scissors to finely cut small amounts of herbs such as parsley. Kitchen scissors should only be used for food, so label them with a sticker and keep them separate.
Quick Tip: For healthier cooking use margarine instead of butter.
Images: FreeDigitalPhotos.net
