Thanksgiving dinner is piled around the kitchen in an un-peeled, un-sliced, un-diced mess. Don’t panic. Just try these simple tricks to cut kitchen duty time in half.

How to peel a potato without using a peeler:

Start by rinsing the potato and getting a pot of boiling water ready. Carefully take the potato and cut a ring around the middle of the potato that is roughly a quarter of an inch thick. Let the potato boil for 15 minutes and remove it from the pot. Have a bowl of ice water ready and move the potato from the boiling water to the ice water. Using both hands, pull the skin away from where you cut. The skin should simply fall away. Now the potatoes can go back into the pot to continue boiling until they are ready to be mashed.

How to cut an onion without crying:

There are a number of ways to take down the potency of an onion before you start chopping. Refrigerating the onion before you begin cutting, or running the onion under cold water while you chop often helps. Also try chewing on pieces of white bread, leaving a small portion sticking out of your mouth. The bread helps absorbs the onion’s smell before it ever reaches your nose.

How to peel a head of garlic in seconds:

To start, take an entire head of garlic and place it on the cutting board. Using the palm of your hand, smash open the head of garlic by hitting the top of the bulb. This releases the individual cloves. Scoop the cloves into a large metal bowl and place another metal bowl on top creating a dome. With the two bowls held together, pick both up and begin shaking the garlic inside for roughly 10 seconds. This should remove the skins from each of the individual cloves. Remember, the smaller the bowl, the longer it will take to remove the skins.

A few other tricks:

• Breathe new life into wilting greens by soaking them in ice cold water for a few minutes.
• Keep mashed potatoes warm until dinner by lining a crock pot with an oven bag, moving the potatoes over and setting it to warm.
• Save bland gravy by adding soy sauce. It will both color the gravy and pull out its natural flavor.
• Always let the turkey set for at least 20 minutes before carving to allow the juices inside the bird to settle.