Wishful Spirit

Hi everyone.

I have an ice cream maker and I want to use it more often. I don't want to use cream because it's rather expensive and I can't get to the store too often. Does anyone have any ideas about self-stable substitutes? I've thought of unsweetened evaporated milk and coconut milk. Would these work? If not, what would?

Hair color question about colored shampoos?

Hi fellow Yahoo users.

I have a hair color question. A few months ago, I got my ash-blonde hair professionally dyed chocolate brown, a VERY close match to my natural light-brown color. It's been growing out and, as my hair is finally healthy, I don't really want to keep coloring it (expense is a bit of an issue too).

My natural color is only slightly more light than the color. My question is if I can let my natural color grow out and use a "brunette" color shampoo and conditioner to give it a bit of richness, if there's a boxed color that won't fry it, or if I just have to bite the bullet and get it done professionally.

My major concern (other than not doing damage) is I DO NOT want to go back to that "skunk stripe" that used to happen when I was blonde and had regrowth. Thanks.

Hi everyone. I have a Muslim friend and I'd like to get her some woven gloves as a gift, but I need to know if there are any rules in Islam about fabrics (I know nothing that comes from pigs, but they aren't typically used for fibers anyway).

Hi everyone. I recently watched a TV show where the characters are in a military organization loosely based on the rules and ranks of the US Navy and I was wondering how accurate the situation portrayed was. First, a little background: the vessel was in a situation where a formal court-martial wasn't possible.

A lieutenant was charged with insubordination, unauthorized use of a craft, reckless endangerment and conduct unbecoming an officer. The guilty lieutenant was demoted to ensign and sentenced to 30 days solitary confinement in the brig.

Was this a fitting punishment, did the captain go easy on him, or was this too harsh?

Thanks.

Hi everyone. I need a little help with baking at high altitude. My breads are coming out tasty and with the right texture, but they are unappetizingly pale. I live at 5000ft above sea level. Here is what I do:

1. Reduce the yeast by 1/3rd (breads rise faster with less air pushing down on them)

2. Use slightly less flour than the recipe calls for (it's also dry where I live and my flour absorbs more water)

3. Reduce the baking time (I have to pull my bread at 198 degrees F rather than the 205 called for in most recipes, because water boils at 203 here and if bread is baked above the boiling point, it will dry out and turn into a brick).

Maybe I should increase the liquid and/or decrease the oven temp while keeping the baking time the same as the recipe calls for?

Ok, so we get a notice from the state (Colorado) saying that my husband's former employer never filed the forms to contest my husband's unemployment claim. Now the employer has requested a hearing. The hearing notice says it is to determine if the employer had just cause for not filing the papers. The employer is saying they did send the forms, but is not providing proof (like a delivery confirmation).

Can they make a case out of "but we did" when the hearing is supposed to be about "tell us why you didn't"?

My husband lost his job in September and applied for unemployment. We received notification from the State of Colorado that his unemployment was granted because his former employer failed to protest the claim within 12 calendar days as required by state law. The same notification stated that due to this failure to protest, the employer had lost the right to appeal the state's decision.

Today we received notice that his employer had requested a hearing about this issue. The employer's statement was that he had sent the protest forms. He provided no proof of this. However, the hearing notification said "This hearing is only to determine if there is good cause for failure to protest in a timely manner."

Will the court even consider the employer's statement that he didn't send the forms, given that this is not what the hearing is supposed to be about?

Hi everyone. I have a question about unemployment. Last October, my husband lost a job he'd been at for 7 months, where management cared nothing about workers. They fired him right after we got back from our honeymoon, saying that taking time off for the honeymoon (which they approved) was an unacceptable absence, but we think it was because, as his wife, I had just become eligible for his employer-sponsored health care. and they didn't want to pay the benefits. My husband did get sick a few times, but he always had a doctor's note.

His next job was a very hard physical labor job, but this time with a really nice boss. Due to almost being killed by a medical error when he was a child, my husband has a weak immune system. The physical job was too much, he was getting sick all the time, and finally the employer said they didn't think he was wired for this. They also said "apply for unemployment, we won't fight it."

Since the unemployment people will be contacting both employers (in Colorado they look 5 quarters back), can the first employer ruin his entire claim?

Hi everyone. My hubby's work schedule is erratic and he needs to bring two meals with him every day in case he has to work late. What foods can we make that won't go bad in a lunch box (he's on the road and doesn't have access to a fridge).

Hi everyone. Last night I made fudge using this recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/cho...

This recipe said it would take 10 minutes to cool and then to mix it. It took it an hour and a half to fall to the temperature stated in the recipe, and though it did set up, the texture was a bit looser than I like (the fridge firmed it up nice).

Why did it take so long to cool, and is there a way I can make it cool faster?

Here's some additional info:

I had to take the temperatures called for down by 10 degrees to compensate for my "mile high" altitude and may have got it a little too hot.

I forgot to put the butter on until halfway through cooling, by which time the butter had warmed up.

The house was really warm that day.

Hey everyone. Does anyone have a recipe for deep dish pan pizza that doesn't require a stand mixer? I know how to hand-kneed but worry about working too much flour into the dough if I try to use a stand-mixer-based recipe. Thanks!

Hubby comes home from work with drywall dust and dirty water nastiness on his boots. How do I clean it off without getting them so wet they'll be damp the next day?

Good evening everyone. I got a used Sony Viao from the MIL and when I press Shift 2 I get the double quote mark symbol and when I press Shift Quote Mark I get the @ sign. How to fix this?

Hi everyone. I used to have a VitaMix blender and when I put baby carrots in my smoothie recipes, it did a great job. Now I just have a regular Kmart blender, and I always get chunkies when I try to add the carrots. I've tried steaming and boiling, and that helps but doesn't eliminate the problem. Any ideas? Or should I just invest in some carrot juice?

Hi everyone. Well recently our market had spiral-cut hams on sale, and today we baked one up. Somehow the instruction to "wrap in foil" got overlooked, and now the very edges of the slices are burned, and they are dried out about an inch into the ham. It's just myself and my hubby, so no holiday parties got ruined, but I don't want to throw away the dried-out parts. What can I do with them.

Hey everyone. I live in Colorado, my husband lost his job about 2 months ago and isn't having a lot of luck finding a new one. Last month we got approved for food stamps, and we got $300.00 given that I was only working part time. Last week I got more hours, and today I ran my new wages through a food stamp simulator. It said we only qualify for $75.00 now.

Our rent is half my income, I can't work anymore than I do because of medical issues, we have Rx meds that cost $220 a month, we have credit card minimum payments, a car payment, and when you add it all up, it looks like I'm going to have to chose between paying rent and buying food. What should I do?

Hey everyone. I work with a sweet old lady, helping her take care of her house and cooking her breakfast and lunch. Today she told me (about half an hour before I was scheduled to leave) to put potatoes in the soup I'd already been working on for half an hour. Then, when I served it, she complained they weren't cooked. I just about told her "kiss my a** you demanding old bat." I both love and admire this lady, so that is not like me at all. Later, at my second client's home, I was wanting to throw the cards across the room when she was beating me or I got a bad hand. I can't settle down to go to bed, feel very jittery. My hubby is out of work at the moment, and I thought I was dealing with it. Can stress just hit you all in one day?

We live in a basement apartment of our landlady's home. She is an absolutely wonderful landlord, and we don't want to mess up the relationship with have with her. Here's the problem. Recently she and her significant other invited a family to live upstairs "for a month" while some kind of repairs are being made to their home. This violates local laws about how many unrelated adults can live in the same home, but we are not doing to make a fuss about that since they are being kind and helping out a family in need.

Our problem is they (the family who is getting the help) are constantly screaming at their two young children. All day we hear "sit down", "stop crying", "give that to her" and "shut up" in VERY loud voices. Their kids are also setting off the dogs, which had finally gotten used to us, so when there aren't human voices yelling, dogs are barking, and then they start yelling at the dogs. We've never complained about anything since we've been here. How do we delicately bring this up? Should we put up with it until the month is over and then complain if they're still here?

We need to get a copy of my hubby's credit report, which we are legally entitled to since he was denied credit. We filled out the application months ago, but they never sent it, and now the website says we can't get another one because we've used up our "one per year." What should we do?

Our landlady just gave us some green tomatoes. What should I do with them?