Thursday, January 31, 2008

DID YOU KNOW?

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
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 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.

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, well t his stuff builds up on your
clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to
catch fire & potentially burn your 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!