Question: What is the best way to clean a pineapple? I probably end up throwing away more than I need to and it seems like I can never get rid of all those brown areas. - Jennifer Waltman, Austintown, Ohio

Answer: The best tool we've found for dealing with pineapples is the one-two punch of a serrated knife and a chef's knife. First, snap off the leafy top of the pineapple. Then, use your serrated knife to make a thin cut off the top and bottom, leveling the edges and cutting away the skin. Still using the serrated knife, slice away the skin on all sides of the pineapple.

At this point, you can use the tip of a vegetable peeler to cut away the brown spots if necessary, but you should have been able to get most of them off with the serrated knife. Then use your chef's knife to cut the pineapple vertically into quarters. You should have four long, triangular columns at this point. The very tip of each of those columns is the core - use your knife to cut that out of each column, then slice or dice as needed.

Q.: How do I make crème fraîche? - Joan Hart, Toms River, N.J.

A.: Crème fraîche is essentially slightly cultured cream. If you can't find it in grocery stores, you can make your own; all you have to do is add cultures (in the form of buttermilk or live-culture yogurt) to heated heavy cream, and let it sit overnight, either in a warm oven or at room temperature, until thickened. If you choose this method, you'll want to make sure that both your cream and your buttermilk come from extremely reputable sources. If you don't want to leave anything out overnight, this can also be done using a yogurt machine.

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