Helpful Tips

:flowerforyou:

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. They 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. Simply 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. 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. W hen 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!

Replies

  • magichatter06
    magichatter06 Posts: 3,593 Member
    :flowerforyou:

    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. They 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. Simply 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. 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. W hen 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!
  • mmmm minty brownies sounds so good right now. thanks for the tips! some of these are really good. i especially like the cooking ones.
  • jamerz3294
    jamerz3294 Posts: 1,824 Member
    Wow... our very own:

    hints-from-heloise.jpg

    ps; the bit about putting sour cream, or milk and such into eggs to scramble, or omelettes *is* true, they taste fantastic. BUT.... then they are loaded with calories. SOOOOO... what I do, to help beat them up, is a tspn of water! Really, your eggs will come out nice and fluffly, and no *extra* calories! :happy:
  • shashod
    shashod Posts: 103
    wow, so cool, I'll be trying a lot of these
  • yoginimary
    yoginimary Posts: 6,783 Member
    I've tried #5 & #7 - neither work completely. #5 is helpful for some gardeners but #7 didn't work at all - maybe you have to use a scented dryer sheet.
  • EllaBella
    EllaBella Posts: 140
    Thanks for all the hints!! My problem is remembering them when I need them!!
  • magichatter06
    magichatter06 Posts: 3,593 Member
    You're welcome! :flowerforyou: I've actually tried the thing about the banana and it seems to work, somewhat! lol