Dear Heloise: I remember a delicious coleslaw recipe in your column a few months back, and I was wondering if you could please reprint it for me? — Ter, Gloucester, Mass.

This recipe goes way back to the 1960s, when my mother published it in Hawaii, and I can remember her making it all the time. You'll need:

1 head of cabbage (about 2 pounds), shredded
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vinegar
1/2 teaspoon prepared mustard
1/4 teaspoon celery salt
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
Dash of paprika

Mix oil with vinegar in a bowl. Add prepared mustard, celery salt, mayonnaise, salt, pepper and paprika. Mix well. Pour mixture over shredded cabbage, toss and refrigerate. For the best taste, make this a day ahead so the flavors have a chance to blend. You can find this recipe, other tasty recipes and an alphabetized list of vinegar uses for cooking and cleaning in my six-page Fantabulous Vinegar pamphlet, which you can have by sending $4 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (58 cents) envelope to: Heloise/Vinegar, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001.

FYI: If you're a cooked-cabbage fan but don't like the smell left behind from boiling it, add some vinegar to the cooking water. That should help with the odor. — Heloise

Dear Heloise: I would like to expand on the idea of the computerized grocery list I saw in your column. I sort my list in the order of the items on the store aisles. That makes it so much easier when strolling through the store.

In addition, I use this to comparison-shop. I have a column for each of the four major stores that carry those items. I show the price for each item, for each store, then shop at the lowest-priced store. — Larry Laske, San Diego

Dear Readers: It's chilly, and what better way is there to warm up than with a nice, hot bowl of soup? Here are a few hints for making the best soup in town:

• Add grated cheeses, chopped, hard-boiled egg or even lemon slices to thick soups for extra flavor.

• To jazz up cream soups, add a dollop of sour cream, yogurt or chopped herbs.

• For clear soups, add dumplings, won tons, rice or noodles left over from Chinese takeout to give the soup a little more substance.

• If you'd rather leave the meat out of a soup recipe, try adding beans, lentils or peas. You'll cut costs, but not nutrients.

• If your soup is too hot, toss in some frozen corn or peas.

• Pour leftover soup into ice-cube trays, cover and freeze. When you need a quick cup of soup, just thaw a few cubes and heat. — Heloise

Dear Heloise: Before I stir-fry vegetables, I dice them and then put them in the microwave with a little water for a minute or so, depending on how much there is, and they are softer and take less time to stir-fry, so they're not likely to burn. — Greg, Levittown, N.Y.

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