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  #1  
Old 12/05/07, 01:07 PM
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,239
Good Home/Steading tips.

Some of you may already know most of these, but I received these today, Thought I would share.




GREAT TIPS:


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. Good-bye 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 this 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!
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  #2  
Old 12/05/07, 03:21 PM
hotzcatz's Avatar  
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Hawaii
Posts: 2,854
Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
How do you manage to get leftover pizza? The stuff vanishes! No microwave and no non-stick skillets in this house. Just cast iron and stainless.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
My FIL likes to cook omelets in zip loc bags but they are too expensive. (mix everything into the zip loc then boil them) I usually mix things in the KitchenAid mixer since it is less work than mashing things.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
Cake frosting from the store generally has high fructose corn syrup which we avoid like the plague. Not to mention all those other oddball chemicals they add in. With that ol' KitchenAid mixer frosting is just as easy to whip up as dig it out of a container.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
Oops, no microwave again. Oh wellos! I can just steam them warm if we don't toast them.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
I'll try this on the garden paths. It might make a good place to check for slugs and snails to be hiding under, too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
6. Broken Glass

Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
Masking tape picks them up, too. I generally vacuum up broken glass though with the shop vac.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
7. No More Mosquitoes

Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
No dryer, no dryer sheets. We do use Avon Skin-so-soft body soap which does the same thing.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
No squirrels. We've got enough plant eating bugs to make up for the lack of squirrels, though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
No heat registers (no house heater) and the fridge is on rollers. Might be nice for the shop vac but most of the vacuuming is done by the Roomba robot vacuum. It may not do the best job, but at least it does it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
Eeuwe! Panty hose are for putting over carburetors to keep dirt out wearing the things is icky. The humidity is generally always over 80% we don't usually worry about static cling.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
Putting the measuring cup in a plastic bag first works, too. I generally just use a scraper, though.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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!
Car defroster not working?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
Hmm, so does that mean mail sent in the wintertime on the mainland is at risk? Would this work with envelopes sealed by humidity?

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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...
Bar soap is even cheaper to use while shaving and if I don't like the conditioner, there's always the dogs to wash.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
15. Good-bye 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!
I put an aluminum foil funnel pointing into the glass as well. Then they can't get out even if they don't drown.


Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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!
Boric acid mixed with whatever the ants are eating kills them, too.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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 this 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!
No dryer so we can't try this one. Aren't those dryer sheets supposed to be in your pocket anyway to keep away mosquitoes?
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  #3  
Old 12/05/07, 05:12 PM
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Posts: 1,905
thanks, some interesting ideas i'll have to try.

Quote:
Originally Posted by PD-Riverman
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.
so, what are the chances that someone that's absent minded enough to seal the envelope too soon, is also going to forget the envelop in the freezer two hours from now! i'd guess anyone that tries this will probably find a half-dozen bills in the freezer some day.

--sgl
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  #4  
Old 12/05/07, 08:00 PM
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 19,807
Those are some great (and fun!) tips, PD. (Or do you prefer being called Riverman?)

ANYway, I wonder if I could dust corn seed with hot pepper to keep the little you-know-what tree rat squirrels from eating them. I've had the little buggers systematically dig up a row of freshly sprouted corn and just eat the swollen seed. Grrr!

I can vouch for the newspaper in the garden. We save and use lots of it for starting beds as well as for mulch. Great stuff -- and it breaks down so fast. We also shred junk mail (cheap paper shredder from Menard's was less than $15). It works great as mulch and also as a "brown" (i.e. carbon-rich) material.

As for the freezer and the letter... meh. Did not work so well when I tried it. YES! I admit it!! I WAS SNOOPING!!! And it didn't work, so let that be a lesson to you all!

Pony!
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  #5  
Old 12/20/07, 03:20 AM
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Missouri
Posts: 103
Thanks PD

I thank you for the tips there was a few I hadnt heard but I am sure many have learned alot . I appoligize for some of the rude remarks by some of the others there are some that dont know everything and appreciate the tips
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  #6  
Old 12/20/07, 10:49 AM
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Michigan's thumb
Posts: 14,903
I use wet paper towels for picking up glass. Didn't know about the safety pin and static cling. I hope I remember that one. Don't use a dryer, but when I did I never used dryer sheets- now I'm glad. Another problem with the lint: While taking care of my dd at her place, I noticed that it took a long time for laundry to dry in her dryer. I removed the lint tray, and reached under it. The cavity under the lint screen was filled with lint.

Thanks for the tips.
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