About a month ago I chatted to Peter Godfrey on FiveAA about group buying. Have you noticed how many group buying sites there are at the moment? It seems like you can buy practically anything at a bargain basement cut down price if you look hard enough and jump on the deal when it appears.

Of course, I’m preoccupied with food, so I focus on the restaurant deals.

But buying blind like this is fraught with danger and some, like Rachel over at The Food Sage, might choose to avoid these deals altogether. However, if you like to save money and live dangerously read on for my top tips!

1. Check out how many people have bought the deal. 300 people have bought a meal in a tiny restaurant with just 3 months to use the deal? GIVE IT A MISS! Many businesses have been stung by more people taking up the deal than expected and naturally your experience will suffer. You’ll find it more difficult to book a table and when you do turn up you might find portion sizes smaller or your meal rushed. I wait until the day the deal closes to buy: that way I have a really good idea of how many people have bought the deal.

2. Check out online reviews of the restaurant before buying. If it’s being panned on sites like UrbanSpoon or TripAdvisor (or Twitter or Facebook …) you might need to adjust those expectations even further … or you might choose to skip the deal altogether. The trick with using reviews on the internet is not to place too much weight on any one review or site – people have unrealistic expectations, restaurants have off nights so use some commonsense.

3. Book early! Yes – you might have six months to use your voucher but do you really want to be jockeying for a reservation in the last week when everyone has realised the voucher is about to expire? If you book early you’re much more likely to remember to use the voucher and the restaurant is less likely to be over the whole experience.

4. Don’t buy another voucher until you’ve used the last one. This way you don’t have them expiring on you. Some sites will issue an email reminder that your voucher is about to expire but not all do. Often these deals are sold to restaurants on the basis that a large percentage of customers won’t use the voucher. Do you really want to be giving away your money for nothing?

5. Finally – have reasonable expectations. Restaurants participate in group buying in order to boost both business and exposure but that doesn’t mean you’ll be getting a bottle of Penfolds Grange as your included wine!

And of course – enjoy your meal!

Leave a comment to let us all know about your experiences – good and bad!

photo by Tahir Hashmi

So we all know that a microwave is awesome for reheating leftovers – and that’s what most microwaves are mostly used for. There are other popular hacks: cooking bacon or scrambled eggs, melting chocolate (I couldn’t live without that one!) and, of course, popping corn (don’t believe the marketing types who want to sell you a special bag).

On Wednesday night I was chatting to Peter Godfrey about using the microwave and in my research I came up with some much less well known uses.

I haven’t tried any of these out yet but as I do I’ll link from this page to the results of my experiments.

Drying fresh herbs

Pop the leaves between sheets of kitchen towel and microwave on high for a minute. If they’re not yet dry, repeat in 20-30 second bursts.

Homemade chips/crisps
Finely slice the potato (use a mandolin if you have one) and arrange on a microwave safe plate. Microwave for around 5 minutes – but keep an eye on them because this really depends on how thickly (or thinly!) they’re cut.

Again – using a piece of kitchen towel will help absorb the moisture.

Roasting garlic
Cut the top off a head of garlic, place in a deep microwave safe dish, drizzle with a little oil and add a couple of tablespoons of water to the dish. Cover (if using cling film ensure it’s microwave safe!) and microwave on mid power for 7-8 minutes.

A lot easier than the best part of an hour in the oven!

Proving bread dough
Place your dough in the microwave, with a cup of water (not in the same container, obviously!), and microwave on mid heat for 3 minutes. Rest for 3 minutes. Microwave for another 3 minutes and then cover and rest for 5-10 minutes.

If this really works (and I will definitely verify this one for you!) it will be a massive boon during the cold weather!

Cooking pappadums
Cooking pappadums in hot oil on the stove is hard, dirty work. And even though in theory it’s not too unhealthy (the oil is so hot it’s not absorbed) I’m not convinced.

You can microwave pappadums easily. Place a pappadum on a piece of kitchen towel and zap on high. You need to keep an eye on this and turn the pappadum over. The time required varies with size and thickness.

If you fancy a bit of grease, before microwaving brush the pappadum, on both sides, with a little oil or melted ghee.

So that’s my pick of the microwave hacks. Have you tried any of these? Or do you have a favourite that I’ve missed out?