Cook'n is the best selling recipe organizer

The holidays are coming (didn't we just celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas?), so it's really time to save some time, and money, too. When I read these "secrets" in my latest issue of Cook's Country, I was in awe of how clever and resourceful people are.

For instance, Anathea O'Brien saved some money when she figured out how to avoid buying a covered cake stand. She did have a stand, but no cover. She just didn't want to buy another specialized item (that would end up hogging space in her china cupboard), so she decided to use the clear bowl of her salad spinner for covering her cakes. She says it looks nice, it's light weight and it's easy to clean. What the heck, why not?

Carol Mayer is saving herself time with kitchen cleanup with this neat trick: She covers the butter she melts in her microwave oven with the waxy cover of the butter cube, instead of a paper towel. She says when she used a paper towel, the butter would somehow still escape and splatter on the inside of the oven. Smart lady - less cleanup is the name of MY game!

And Valerie Sullivan saves not just a little time, but a lot of frustration now that she's figured out how to win the battle of the curly parchment paper! Hers comes in a roll, like plastic wrap, so when she'd cut some off the roll, it was always curling on her and she'd have to fiddle around with it to get it to lay flat. Now as soon as she gets a new parchment roll she cuts it to size and stores the sheets between the baking pans, which keeps the parchment flat. And of course, you can buy it already cut, but you're paying a hefty price for someone else to cut it for you. So good for Valerie - saving money while she's minimizing her frustration is the smart way to operate.

Then there's a cool secret home baker, Kristie Swanick, discovered. She makes her own biscotti. Here's how she saves some time when doing this: After slicing the biscotti logs that must be returned to the oven to dry, she places the cookies on a cooling rack, then places that rack on the cookie sheet, rather than placing the cookies directly on the cookie sheet. The air circulates and BOTH sides dry (the trick to perfect biscotti), so she no longer needs to flip the cookies partway through their second round of baking. A little time saved here and there really adds up!

And finally, there's the wonderful and well-kept secret from our monthly newsletter writer, Jeanne Wolfley. She saves money by never buying brown sugar or ever having to throw out rock-hard brown sugar. I know - you're thinking, why throw it out, just put a bread slice in with it, right? Well Jeanne has the answer to never having to do that, either. She makes her own brown sugar, and only a little at a time, so it never has the chance to go hard.

If, like me, you were unaware you could make your own, here's what you do: add molasses to white sugar and mix well. The proportions are according to how dark you want your sugar. But a good rule of thumb to start with is 1 Tbsp unsulphured molasses to 1 cup sugar. Mix with a fork or your hand mixer. I had no idea that brown sugar was white sugar that has molasses added to it! I'm not buying brown sugar anymore!