Wednesday, February 13, 2008

~Helpful Tips~


This is a helpful tip list that I received in an email. There were some interesting things that I never knew, so I had to share it with everyone. I take no credit...

Also, if I had more time I would fix the spacing...why is it that when you type it and preview it, then post it...it never looks the same~ Ugh.


1. 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.

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

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

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

5. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.

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

7. 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.

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

9. 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.

10. Leftover snickers bars from Halloween 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.


--- and still more ---
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. No soggy micro pizza. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.


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

3. Expanding Frosting When you buy a container of cake frosting from the
store, 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, 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.

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.

10. 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.

11. 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, 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 better than a cloth!

13. 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.

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, 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!

16. 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 & you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

17. 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 clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, 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. Well,...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 -- that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, all this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn you house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long! How about that!?! Learn something new everyday! I certainly didn't know dryer sheets would do that. So, I thought I'd share! Note: I went to my dryer & 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 & a nylon brush & 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!

33 comments:

krissy said...

You are full of very useful information! I love this stuff!

Thanks sweetie! And by the way, I do add water to my browning hamburger and it really does work!!!

Anonymous said...

I've never heard most of those before... thank you!!

cheese in tin foil, something I'll definitely try, and the conditioner on my legs?? bout to take a shower right now!

Thanks!!!

Chelle' said...

WOW! I'm so excited to try these tips out. Particularly the Banana info. My husband has all the kids peeling those stragglies off the bananas and INCAPABLE of eating them till they're ALL off.

Lisa said...

Good ideas!!! Thanks for sharing :)

Courtney said...

I can't wait to try some of these, especially the dryer thing. We haven't had ours that long and it isn't drying right. Thanks!

Irene said...

Those are GREAT ideas!! I will definitely have to bookmark them!

Thanks!!!

Mary said...

Great tips! I plan to try a few. Thanks for sharing :)

Steph said...

I love those tips! Now to just remember them!
I agree with the 'growing up too fast' thing! Mine all seem to be growing WAY too fast!
Congrats on the bloggy bling!
And no, I do not let my kids ride anything in the house. My mom never did, and maybe that's where I get it, but for me it just makes for way too much chaos in the house! I can't handle it...not to mention the floors... :S

Amy said...

i love tips like this!!! i like the pizza reheat one too!!!

as for the most important one... the dryer. i don't think a lot of people know this one but it's critical!

thanks for sharing!

KATE said...

I love all the TIPS!! I was going to say if you have pesky neighbors dogs doing their business on your lawn, the cayenne pepper works on them too. You have to kind of "mark your territory" with the cayenne pepper. & the dogs stay out of your yard! It's beautiful!!!

Anonymous said...

Great tips! I have used several of them and found several more that I will try. Thank you for sharing!

Lizzy in the Burbs said...

Those are really interesting tips! I'm going to try the dryer one today, it certainly couldn't hurt, and if it could help keep my dryer working longer and not catch on fire, all the better! The only one I've tried before and can vouch for is the dryer sheet in the pocket. My boys do that for all their baseball games. They both say it really helps keep all the bugs away.

BTW, if you get a minute, would you please stop by my blog? I've tagged you for a blogger list/meme thing (don't know what to call it!) but it's a real easy one! Thanks!

Lizzy

lindsey said...

Thanks for all the tips! It's amazing people have enough time to figure stuff like this out. :)

Kat said...

Wow! I've never heard those before either! Thank you!

Valarie said...

Hmmm, some interesting ideas. I wonder if the safety pin thing on your slip works. I may have to give that a try sometime. The Andes mints over top of brownies sounds awesome!!

Kristen said...

I love the one about Deviled Eggs. I'm originally from Indiana and can never seem to get my eggs as smooth as my grandmother's are. (I think deviled eggs are a midwest thing.)

I'm going to give it a shot!

Thanks for sharing!

Unknown said...

I had to smile at the suggestion for scrambled eggs. Has your egg making abilitu improved?

Thanks for the good tips!!

Christina

Mari said...

Wow - that's a lot of tips and most are new to me. I'll have to save this. Thanks.

Wonderful World of Weiners said...

You start condo shopping in Florida and I'll start packing!! How much fun would that be?

Are you still reading? WHy aren't you looking at real estate?

Yeah for young mommies!!

Hallie

jennwa said...

That was a lot of great tips thanks.

girlymom said...

utmomof5~ WOW do you have a good memory! I was reading this tip list and got to the egg one and thought to myself, "huh, that would have been nice to know before I declared to everyone how much I suck at making eggs!" And no, I'm not any better at it.

WWOW~ I'm going down there this spring, I'll let you know what I find as I lay on the beach reading real estate ads! :)

Amy said...

these are some really great ideas..thanks for sharing! I have a recipe for apple snicker salad that's something like that..but it is soo yummy and sooo addictive!

kim-d said...

I love when you do these helpful hints posts--very informative! I personally can attest to the awesomeness of the one about using conditioner for leg-shaving. Everybody needs to try it; you don't have any of the alligator-leg syndrome that usually accompanies shaving!

OHmommy said...

Okay... I am printing as we speak. LOL. I am!

a dryer sheet in your pocket? Really?

I will never peel a banana from the top thanks to you!

kimmy said...

I am going to print out that list - those are awesome ideas!

BTW - can I tag along with you and Hallie to Florida? I'll bring my blender (for all the right reasons, of course)!!!!

Kimmy

Karen said...

I obviously have so much to learn. How do people find these things out to begin with? But I truly appreciate that you shared.

Anonymous said...

hey - yes, Ty's an RDC at the base. we just got here in may of 06. what did your husband do here?

Kellan said...

WOW - what a great list of hints! The fruit fly one I will definitely try and I never knew that about splitting the bananas or peeling the banana from the bottom. I never knew most of these or have tried most of these - thanks for this great list - I loved it!! See you later - Kellan

Amy said...

These are some awesome tips! Thanks for sharing! I just wish I had some Snickers now, YUMMY!

Spammon said...

I've been peeling the banana from that end my whole life because I thought the stem was a handle. And yet, everyone always made fun of me because I was doing it upside down.

Mom said...

Loved all the hints, there were lots I didn't know. I am going to hijack your post and send it to my girlfriends. Thanks!!!

Don Mills Diva said...

Wow - that is a lot of useful info - thanks for sharing.

Angela said...

good info