Add a teaspoon of vinegar when cooking to prevent discoloration. Be sure to cook with flowerets down. Wash lettuce with cold water, dry with paper towels, wrap in a kitchen towel, and refrigerate for 1 hour. Hitting the base of a head of lettuce on the kitchen counter will make it easy to break apart. Breaking lettuce rather than cutting it will prevent the edges from becoming brown and discolored.
Pickles turn dark when iodized salt is used.
For delicious pickles, don't use vegetables that have been picked longer than 24 hours. A small amount of butter added to the fruit when cooking eliminates the usual foam which forms on the top. This will not only reduce sugar and hence the calories, but will bring out the flavor. Add a little salt to the water in which you boil the eggs, and if the eggs crack, the whites will not seep out. The eggshells will peel off easier if a teaspoon of salt is added while boiling the eggs.