Helpful Hints.

[jakesrocks]

SAY, DID YOU KNOW...?
Pressed for time, read last article on clothes dryers.

Bananas

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.

If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Cheese
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.

It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Peppers
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.

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

Eggs
To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich add a couple of

spoon fulls of sour cream, cream cheese, or heavy cream; then beat them.

Garlic
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.

Reheat Pizza

Heat 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. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the food channel and it really works.

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 it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy; squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done - easy clean up.

Reheating refrigerated bread

To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in

A microwave next to a cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food

Moist and help it reheat faster.

Newspaper weeds away

Start putting torn newspaper in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil. Wet newspapers, put layers around the plants, overlapping as you go; cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic; they will not get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass

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

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.

Reducing Static Cling

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in seam of slacks and ... Ta DA! ... Static is gone.

Measuring Cups

Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water.

Dump out the hot water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient (peanut butter, honey, etc.) and watch how easily it comes right out. ?

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 better than a cloth!

Reopening envelope

If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside,

Just place your sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.

Conditioner

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's 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.

Goodbye Fruit Flies

To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2 with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Get Rid of Ants

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

INFO ABOUT CLOTHES DRYERS

The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes.) He took the filter over to the sink and ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material . I'm sure you know what your dryer's lint filter looks like. The hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn't go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh - that's what burns out the heating unit.

You can't SEE the film, but it's there. It's what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free. You know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box .. well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush at least every six months.

He said that increases the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?!

Learn something new every day! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share!

Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and a nylon brush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it ... the water ran right thru the screen! There wasn't any puddling at all! That repairman knew what he was talking about!



PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHER PEOPLE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.

NOT ONLY COULD IT SAVE SOMEONE'S HOME, BUT IT COULD SAVE A LIFE!

[PinkDiamond]

Lots of good tips jake, but be aware that you should only put food in aluminum foil or cookware when it's absolutely necessary, since it's associated with Alzheimer's. Instead, put the cheese on a small rack in a covered ceramic crock, and add a teaspoon or two of cider vinegar to the bottom of the crock and you'll accomplish the same thing without adding more aluminum to your body's overload.

I've been reheating pizza that way since the mid 90's. I was in Florida at wannaB's house when a storm blew thru and knocked out the power and we had no other way to cook anything. It was a wonderful surprise for both of us to find out it's the best way to reheat pizza. We had a great time enjoying the pizza by candlelight, and laughing our butts off, which is what we do when we're together. We laugh so much we have to take breaks from each other because our faces hurt and our abs can't take the laughing anymore.

ROFL.gif (11.09 KiB) Viewed 456 times

As for refreshing refrigerated bread, it's done the same way in a warm toaster oven for those like me who won't have a microwave in the house. You place the bread and a small cup of water on a tray, make a tent with aluminum foil so it's NOT touching the bread, and in just a couple of minutes it's good as new.

I've done the newspaper thing in the garden, but recently I read that unless they're food-grade vegetable inks, you shouldn't do that if you're gardening organically, or just watching your chemical intake.

I also use a felt eraser and it works great for windows.

Finally, about the dryer sheets. I've always used them in every dryer I've ever had, and never had that happen whether I used cheap dollar store sheets, or Bounce, which is what I normally use, or other brand names. My screen is NEVER clogged and water goes thru the entire surface just as if it wasn't there, so although I keep hearing this mantra, I'm not finding it to be so in my experience.

Cool thread, thanks for posting it.

[Lydia]

I've heard that dryer anti-static sheets are carcinogenic and have switched to using three wool, felted balls. Mine were made locally, but others are available, or you could likely make your own.
http://www.ulat.ca/
Edited to include: Don't use the wool balls on synthetic clothing though, just natural fibres, or you will ruin the synthetic.

Great tips JR.