home remedies and handy tips' blog

an olio of useful tips...

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DID YOU KNOW?

Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little "stringy things" off of it. That's how the primates do it.

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.

To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in a double broiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if your want a stronger taste of garlic.

Leftover snickers bars make a delicious dessert. Simple chop them up with the food chopper. Peel, core and slice a few apples; place them in a baking dish and sprinkle the chopped candy bars over the apples. Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.

1. Reheat Pizza - Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove; set heat to med-low and heat till warm. This keeps the crust crispy, so no soggy microwaved pizza (seen on the cooking channel).

2. Easy Deviled Eggs - Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal & keep mashing to mix thoroughly. Then cut the tip of the baggy and squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done for an easy clean up.

3. Expanding Frosting - When you buy a container of cake frosting, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount. You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

4. Reheating refrigerated bread - To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.

5. Newspaper weeds away - Start putting in your plants, working the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers and place layers around the plants, overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds! Weeds will get through some gardening plastic, but they will not get through wet newspapers.

6. Broken Glass - Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

7. No More Mosquitoes - Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
 
8. Squirrel Away! - To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn't hurt the plant, and the squirrels won't come near it.

9. Flexible vacuum - To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.  CLEVER IDEA!

10. Reducing Static Cling - Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you won't have a clingy skirt or dress. This also works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and -- ta da! -- static
is gone.

11. Measuring Cups - Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill it with hot water. Dump out the water, but don't dry the cup. Next, add your
ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

12. Foggy Windshield? - Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works even better than a cloth!

13. Reopening envelope - If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place the sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

14. Conditioner - Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's a lot cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought, but didn't like when you tried it in your hair.

15. Goodbye Fruit Flies - To get rid of pesky fruit flies, fill a small glass 1/2" with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dishwashing liquid; mix well. You
will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

16. Get Rid of Ants - Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it and take it "home", but can't digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works & you don't have the worry about pets
or small children being harmed!

17. INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS - According to a household appliance repairman, even if your lint filter looks clean, it may not be - and that could lead to a fire hazard!

One repairman demonstrated how hot water wouldn't run through a clean looking filter. The filter is made of a mesh material, but the hot water just sat on top of the mesh, not going through at all! 

He told us that dryer sheets cause a film to develop over the mesh, and that's what burns out the heating unit. You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what's in the sheets to make your clothes soft, help prevent static, and give a nice fragrance. Have you noticed how these sheets can feel waxy when you take them out of the box? According to him, this stuff builds up on your
clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryers to catch fire & potentially burn your house down!

He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a long time (& keep your electric bill lower) is to take the filter out & scrub it with hot soapy water & a brush at least every 6 months. He said that extends the life of the dryer at least twice as long!