Nifty Uses for Potholders

Happy New Year! This year, I am planning to explore more in maintaining a green, environmentally friendly home as well as ways to prevent food waste.  One thing that I plan on doing is to find multiple uses for ordinary household items.  Take the potholder.  I use mine (the large cotton mitt kinds) to grab pans out of the oven, but I’ve also found these other uses:

–Insulator – I use the potholders to cover dishes to keep them warm while the rest of the meal is cooking.  I find the potholders convenient on top of lids to corning ware, crockpots, and over foil wrapped meats or potatoes and sweet potatoes, to retain heat.

–As a protector — I will sometimes use potholders on the table as a trivet, so that I can place a pot directly from the stove onto the table without damaging the wood surface,  Certain potholders also act as stabilizers so that pots or dishes don’t slide.

–To prevent cuts — I love avocados, but I have cut myself once or twice when trying to remove the seed.  These days, I hold the avocado half with the pit in a hand inside an oven mitt.  When I bring the knife onto the pit, any slippage or movement in the pit, will not result in a cut hand.

Any nifty kitchen tips you would like to share?

shared at Works for Me Wednesday