Sweeten recipes with grapes instead of sugar

You can use pureed grapes in place of white sugar in some quick bread or muffin recipes.

By JoAnn Derson
| 7:00 a.m. December 31, 2014

Winter Park - Maitland Observer
Neighborhood

• Cookies are so fun to make (and to eat). To save some of your favorites for the new year, simply place dough balls on a cookie sheet, and freeze. Pop into a freezer-safe bag, and you can have freshly baked cookies pretty much anytime! – JoAnn

• Many people have heard of using applesauce in place of oil or fats, but here's one from T.L. in Georgia about a sugar replacement: "You can use pureed grapes in place of white sugar in some quick bread or muffin recipes. It's pretty easy to make in the blender, and all you need to do is adjust the dry ingredients a little bit so that your muffins are not too moist."

• Wine: Nobody I know is wasting it. But if you're done before the bottle is, pour the leftover wine into ice-cube trays to save it. You can use it later in recipes, or (my favorite) to chill a glass of wine! – E. in Florida

• If you have a lot of overnight guests, here's a good trick so that everybody can hang up his or her towel: Grab some "S" hooks from the shop and hang them off the towel bar. Now everyone can have a towel hook.

• I have two carafes that I use for my breakfast bar. I keep coffee in one, and the other holds milk or cream. On holiday nights, I prep the cream carafe and put it in the fridge. In the morning, while the first pot of coffee is brewing, I fill the coffee carafe with hot water and let it sit until the coffee is ready. It keeps the coffee hot longer. Then guests can serve themselves some coffee while the next pot is brewing.