[1] What goes into the fridge: the crisper drawer and on the shelves (photos 1 to 3 © Good Eggs).

[2] What goes into the pantry.

[3] What goes on the countertop.

[4] Radishes go into the high humidity crisper drawer (photo © Amber Engle | Unsplash).

[5] Cauliflower goes into the high humidity crisper drawer (photo © Jennifer Schmidt | Unsplash).

[6] Lemons and limes go into the low humidity crisper drawer (photo © Caroline Attwood | Unsplash).

[7] Store mushrooms on refrigerator shelves (photo of king trumpet mushrooms © Good Eggs).

Properly stored produce cuts down on food waste and wasted money. These tips from Good Eggs will keep your fruits and veggies fresher, longer.

Note that this is just a summary.

 
 
GENERAL TIPS TO STORE FRUITS & VEGETABLES

Don’ts

 
Do’s

 
 
WHERE TO STORE FRUITS & VEGETABLES

The choices are refrigerator, pantry and countertop.

Refrigerator

The crisper drawers at the bottom of the fridge are made to store fruits and vegetables. If your fridge has controls that let you open and close the crisper vents that help manage humidity and the effects of ethylene gas:

 
Here’s what goes in each part of the fridge.

Low Humidity Crisper Drawer

Low humidity slows ripening, while the open vent allows ethylene gas to escape before it spoils the produce you keep there.

 
High Humidity Crisper Drawer

 
Refrigerator Shelves

 
Countertop

 
Pantry

 
 
FRUITS & VEGETABLES STORAGE SUMMARY

Aluminum foil? Container with water? Covered container with holes? Damp paper towels? Loose plastic bags? Sealed plastic bag? Other storage?

Knowing how to wrap the produce is as important as knowing where to store it.

Looking for an activity for yourself or for kids?

Like goat cheese?

You’re in luck. Belle Chevre, award-winning cheesemakers and one of our favorites, has added DIY cheese kits to their line of fresh goat cheeses.

The kits have everything you need to make a log of goat cheese or a bowl of fromage blanc.

While not all cheese is easy to make—you need an aging room, for example—fresh cheeses can be made at home.

There are two kits: Original and Kids, each just $12.00.

It’s so easy (and fun!) to make your own goat cheese at home.

The cheesemaking kit has everything you need to make goat cheese in your own kitchen.

In just a few hours, and with only about ten minutes of active kitchen time, you will be rolling your own chevre logs or mixing a bowl of freshy-fresh fromage blanc.

Once you start making it, you may just want to expand your repertoire to other fresh cheeses. In fact, Here’s a recipe to make fromage blanc at home.
 
 
MORE ABOUT GOAT CHEESE

Belle Chevre Flavored Goat Cream Cheese Review

Decorated Goat Cheese Logs

Goat Cheese For Breakfast

Ways To Use Fresh Goat Cheese

Food & Wine Pairing With Goat Cheese

Why Goat Cheese Is Different
 
 
MORE ABOUT FROMAGE BLANC

Fromage Blanc As A Soup Garnish

Fromage Blanc Vs. Quark

Substituting Fromage Blanc For Fraîche

[1] Belle Chevre’s goat cheese-making kit (all photos © Belle Chevre).

[2] You can make one goat cheese log.

[3] Or, you can make a bowl of fromage blanc.

[1] A close-up on pasta nests. These were made with carbonara ingredients (both photos © DeLallo).

[2] Get out your muffin pan!

[3] Capellini (angel hair) pasta nests. You can get them online from DeLallo.

For Easter—or anytime you’re looking for some food fun—these pasta nests are a festive way to enjoy one of America’s favorite foods.

The nests are simply ribbon pasta like angel hair, rolled into a bird’s nest form while the pasta is still fresh.

The Italian word is sformatini*, but it’s easier to call them nests. Names can vary by region. For example:

 
While this recipe makes mini-nests in muffin cups, you can make plate-size nests as well. You can find pasta nests in larger widths, like fettuccine and spaghetti, etc. If you can’t find the nests, cook regular pasta and use the hack below.

Nests are not a traditional pasta dish. They only appear in recent cookbooks, made with any combination of ingredients.

 
The only limits are your palate and your creativity.
 
 
RECIPE: PASTA CARBONARA NESTS

This recipe, from DeLallo, turns Spaghetti Carbonara into a bird’s nest, with a few substitutions (like angel hair pasta/capellini for the spaghetti).

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 425°. Lightly butter a 12-cup muffin pan.

2. HEAT the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pancetta and cook until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Set aside.

3. BRING a large pot of salted water to a boil. With a slotted spoon, gently lower the pasta nests into the boiling water. They will cook fairly quickly, about three minutes. Gently remove them, tapping off excess water on the rim of the pot, and place them in the muffin cups.

5. SCOOP the pasta from the hot water with a slotted spoon and place it directly into the cream mixture. Stir gently to coat. If the cream begins to clump, add a little of the hot pasta cooking water. Let sit for 5 minutes and place in the muffin cups.

6. CREATE a small indentation in the center of each nest and sprinkle in the remaining cheese among the nests. Sprinkle the remaining sauce over the top, and add the pancetta bits around the rim.

7. BAKE the nests until they become golden and bubbly, about 10 minutes. Remove the muffin pan from the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 350°F.

8. CRACK a quail egg into each nest and bake for another minute. Once cooked, remove the pan from the oven and allow it to cool for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and serve garnished with the chopped olives.

If You Don’t Have Nests: A Hack

1. COOK the ribbon pasta—angel hair/capellini, fettuccine, linguine, spaghetti—according to package directions, to al dente.

2. USE tongs to transfer a small amount of the pasta mixture into each muffin cup, forming a spiral as you place it. Arrange to form a nest shape. Do the same if you are cooking regular pasta ribbons, and need to form a nest in a bowl or on a plate.

_______________

*Sformatini also refers to other foods. In Tuscany, for example, it refers to a savory flan.
 
  

[1] The Easter Bunny, fitted with a mask to prevent Covid (photo © Lillie Belle Farms).

Even the Easter Bunny is taking precautions in these risky times.

The chocolatiers at Lillie Belle Farms have been turning out a colony* of chocolate bunnies wearing protective masks.

Dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate bunnies are waiting for you, while supplies last.

Head to Lillie Belle Farms

All of the other chocolates are terrific, too. Our favorites:

We can always rely on DiBruno Bros. in Philadelphia for the best specialty foods—and creative ways to use them.

For Easter, they’ve used Easter egg cookie cutters (photo #2) to create an Easter cheese plate (photo #1).

The semi-hard cheese group includes young Asiago, Cheddar, Colby, Edam, Fontinella, Gouda, Manchego, Provolone (photo #1) and Queso Blanco, among others.

Semi-hard cheese is a classification of cheese based upon body. The terms semi-hard and hard refer mainly to moisture content, not to texture.

Because these cheeses contain less moisture than the soft and soft-ripened types, they hold their shape much better—good to cut with cookie cutters.

A cheese can start as semi-soft, then move to semi-hard via aging, which evaporates the moisture.
 
 
HOW TO MAKE CHEESE EASTER EGGS

1. PICK your cheeses. While DiBruno Bros. used only provolone, try at least two different colors: provolone and cheddar, for example.

2. PICK your toppings. You can use anything you have around, but here are some ideas. Use as much color as you can; e.g., green pimento olives instead of black olives, and sultanas (golden raisins) instead of dark purple raisins.

 
Plus:

 
You can also add colorful fruit to the plate: berries, dried apricots, orange/mandarin segments, red grapes, etc.

3. CUT and decorate the cheese shapes.

4. SERVE as a first course, with a salad course, or after the main course, before dessert.

[1] Easter egg cheese plate, created by DiBruno Bros from provolone (photo © DiBruno Bros).

[2] Easter egg cookie cutter set on Amazon (photo © Ann Clark Cookie Cutters).

[3] The easy cheese platter: Surround rounds and wedges of cheese with Easter candy (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

Put your favorite cheeses on a board and surround them with Easter candy (photo #3). This works best when cheese is served after the main course.

Bite-size, foil-wrapped Easter eggs are best because chocolate is a good pairing with cheese.
 
 
> CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE IN OUR CHEESE GLOSSARY <