Dear Sara:

I have a small carton of 35 percent whipping cream in the fridge. I believe I bought it for a recipe that didn't come to fruition. I don't want to waste it, but it's not getting used and the expiration date is looming. Any suggestions? FYI: I don't need to make whipped cream, so the obvious suggestion is out. -- Libby, Canada

Dear Libby:

You can make butter (shake it in a glass jar), add it to cream soups, or make salad dressing, Alfredo sauce, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs and more. You can freeze it, too. Use a pastry bag with a large tip and place dollops or spoon-drop mounds of it onto a wax-paper-lined or parchment-paper-lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer. Once it's frozen, transfer it to an airtight storage container and place back in the freezer. Use it within two months. You can't whip it after freezing, but you can use it in other recipes. It also works well for hot cocoa.
Here's a recipe for five-ingredient ice cream, too:
1/2 cup cold milk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 pint heavy cream
In a medium bowl, stir together cold milk, vanilla, condensed milk and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat heavy cream with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Fold milk mixture into whipped cream. Pour into shallow 2-quart dish, cover and freeze for 4 hours, stirring once after 2 hours or when edges start to harden. Serve or store in an airtight container up to 10 days. -- Q.M., Massachusetts

Dear Sara:

I've heard coffee grounds can be reused to make additional pots of coffee. Any tips? I heard it was best to refrigerate the old grounds as soon as the pot is done brewing, to prevent mold. What ratio of new grinds to old grinds (plus water) do you use?
I do reuse coffee. I immediately remove the carafe from the burner when the coffee is fresh. Whatever is not immediately consumed is allowed to cool to room temperature before refrigerating. This coffee is either reheated in the microwave until piping hot to be drunk, or it is used to make iced coffee drinks. -- Stacey, Pennsylvania

Dear Stacey:

Yes, you can reuse coffee grounds if you want to. This probably isn't an appealing idea to some people, but if you don't mind the taste, go ahead. Some people don't like the taste; it can be bitter because the good flavor has already been extracted. Regarding the ratio, you'll have to experiment. You might find topping it off with one extra scoop of fresh coffee grounds is enough, but someone else might want to add more scoops to get the flavor where they want it. If the flavor is weak, you can combine it with hot cocoa and make a thrifty mocha. Reusing the grounds in a French press might work best, and I would reuse them as quickly as possible (back-to-back brewing). I'm a bit of a coffee snob, so I recommend reusing the grounds in other ways, such as sprinkling them in your garden. You can freeze your brewed coffee in an ice-cube tray to use later, too. If you find that you are refrigerating a lot of leftover coffee, you could cold-brew it in a French press instead (let it set for 24 hours in the press).

photo by cookipediachef