Serve fried pickles with a beer or
a Martini. Photo courtesy ILovePickles.org.

With little room in the fridge for a large bottle of pickles, we needed to use them up right away. The solution: an end-of-the-day celebration of fried pickles, martinis and beer.

Fried pickles—called frickles by some—are an easy and fun snack. Just batter pickle slices, fry and serve.

We headed to ILovePickles.org, the consumer website of Pickle Packers International (is Peter Piper is an honorary member?), for the recipe.

Dill pickle chips are most often used for frying, but you can also fry spears and whole pickles.

Get the recipe.

How many types of pickles can you name?
Check ‘em out in our Pickle Glossary.

Imagine a fruit bread loaf packed with healthful chopped dates and walnuts, sliced and spread with cream cheese (O.K., the cream cheese is less healthful).

Or update the concept with soft goat cheese, Gorgonzola Dolce (a sweeter, softer, younger Gorgonzola cheese) or sweet mascarpone. How delicious!

If you like raisin bread, carrot bread (a dense loaf version of carrot cake) and zucchini bread, you’ll probably like date nut bread even more.

Make more than one loaf: They freeze really well, and you can enjoy a slice every morning with coffee or tea. Just like Mom.

Head for the recipe.
  

Cooked or raw, enoki mushrooms can add
flair to any meal, from breakfast (omelets) to lunch (salads) to dinner (with beef or other protein). Photo by Kelly Cline | IST.

While mushrooms are often packed in plastic wrap on the shelf, that wrap is usually a special, air-permeable variety.

Never store loose mushrooms in plastic wrap or plastic bags. Mushrooms contain a lot of moisture, and a plastic enclosure increases the humidity, which in turn causes more rapid deterioration.

Even the heartiest mushroom won’t last more than a few days, so buy only what you need fresh and roll them in paper towels.

If you have more mushrooms than you can use, here are four tips on what to do with them.