25 Helpful Household Tips!
Momma always said “An apple a day keeps the doctor away!” Here are a few other tips to use around the home from the best way to open a banana to how to keep those fruit flies out of the kitchen!
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. Peppers with 4 bumps on the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
5. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. Heat up leftover pizza in a nonstick skillet on top of the stove, set heat to med-low and heat until warm. This keeps the crust crispy.
11. Easy Deviled Eggs. Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal and mash until 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. Then throw bag away when finished
12. Double Your 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.
13. Reheat bread and keep it moist! 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 foodmoist and help it reheat faster.
14. De-weed your garden. Weeds can push their way through plastic but not through wet newspaper. Next time you go out to your garden take some wet newspaper and layer in around the plants overlapping as you go and then cover with mulch.
15. Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
16. To keep mosquitoes away place a dryer sheet in your pocket.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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 static is gone.
20. 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.
21. 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!
22. 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.
23. 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!
24. Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it ‘home’, and can not 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!
25. Get soft hands without spending a lot on the specialty salt scrubs. Take a dab of olive oil and pour regular salt from your salt shakers into your hands then scrub, rinse, and wash with smell good soap for the same results!
Park Avenue Properties
Tanya Stevenson-Becht and Sandy Daniels
ColoradoSpringsEhomes.com
719-548-9900
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