2. If a soup or stew is too salty, add raw cut potatoes. Discard them after they have cooked - they will have absorbed the salt. If a soup or stew is too sweet, add salt. If a main dish or vegetable is too sweet, add a teaspoon of cider vinegar. Here are some more food tips…
• To avoid ‘onion eyes’ peel under cold water or refrigerate (or freeze) before chopping.
• To perk up soggy lettuce, add lemon juice to a bowl of cold water and soak lettuce for an hour in the refrigerator.
• When cooking carrots, peas, beets or corn, add a small amount of sugar to the water to keep the flavor.
• To keep sweet corn yellow, add one teaspoon of lemon juice to the cooking water just about a minute before taking off the stove.
• Never salt the water you cook corn in. It will only toughen the corn. Store celery and lettuce in paper bags, not plastic. And leave the outside leaves and stalks alone until ready to use.
• Sunlight doesn’t ripen tomatoes, warmth does. Store tomatoes with stems pointed down and they will stay fresher, longer.
• To soften rock-hard brown sugar, simply add a slice of soft bread to the package and close the bag tightly. In a few hours the sugar will be soft again.

Fortunately, there’s a better way to own real estate. It’s called the
land trust. The concept is particularly popular in American states
that have specific statutes enabling such trusts, e.g., Illinois and
Florida. Most other states recognize the land trust under common law
as a revocable or living trust.

As with any trust, in a land trust, the trustee — generally an
attorney, law firm or title insurance company — holds legal title to
all trust property. However, in a land trust, the named beneficiaries
retain use of the property and any income it generates. In addition,
the trustee can act only when it receives written instructions from
the beneficiaries, who maintain complete control at all times.

From a privacy standpoint, a land trust is superior. There is
generally no requirement to register the trust. Nor are there public
records of officers, directors and shareholders. The trustee keeps
control of the trust records and the identity of the beneficiaries in
a secure location and will not reveal this information without a
subpoena. No one knows about your beneficial ownership except you,
your attorney and the trustee.

You can convey property you own in your name into the trust, but it is
better to have the seller convey it directly to the trustee. This
avoids having real estate records ever showing that you owned the
property.

Other advantages of the land trust include:

Asset Protection when used in conjunction with a properly structured
limited liability company. We can provide this service and explain
the full benefit to you.

Another beneift is the ability to own multiple properties and at the
same time, maintain that same level of privacy and asset protection.
With a land trust, since the trustee holds title, only the trustee
needs to sign, notarize and record documents (in his name, not the
name of the investor).

No right of partition. Whenever two or more persons or entities share
ownership of real estate, any owner can at any time demand partition;
i.e., to sell the real estate and divide the proceeds. In contrast,
real estate held in trust cannot be partitioned. However, any
beneficiary can transfer part or all of his beneficial interest in the
trust to another party.

Probate avoidance. Real estate holdings are generally subject to
probate — that costly and privacy-invading legal procedure by which
your estate passes to your heirs. However, a trust agreement can
provide for succession of beneficial ownership upon the death of named
beneficiaries — your children and grandchildren, for instance —
without going through probate.6

No adverse tax consequences. There are no tax consequences of
transferring property into a revocable trust such as a land trust.
Since you as the grantor maintain control over the property in trust,
you are considered the owner for tax purposes. And, with a single
member LLC or husband and wife, it has the benefit of pass-through
taxation so there is no adverse tax consequence.