Please post your helpful functions (C# or VB.Net)

[Kilgore_Trout_Redux]

A better way of serializing/deserializing XML (Assuming you don't want to use loose coupling and interfaces/DI to make it easier to switch between JSON or something down the line... (I should probably cover my arse considering how critical I've been ))

        public static string XmlSerializer<T>(T item)
        {
            XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

            using (StringWriter writer = new StringWriter())
            {
                serializer.Serialize(writer, item);
                return writer.ToString();
            }
        }

        public static T XmlDeserializer<T>(string item)
        {
            using (StringReader stringReader = new StringReader(item))
            {
                XmlSerializer xmlSerializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));
                return (T)xmlSerializer.Deserialize(stringReader);
            }
        }

...

Foo foo = new Foo();
//hydrate Foo, whatever the hell it is.

 string stringVersionOfFoo = XmlSerializer(foo);
 Foo foo2 = XmlDeserializer<Foo>(stringVersionOfFoo);

Also partially bashed out quickly on my phone. (Why the hell am I being so damn defensive.