What do you think of these helpful hints?

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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. 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. Yummm!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 for-

get about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not

get through wet newspapers.

Broken Glass

Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.

No More Mosquitoes

Place a dryer sheet in your pocket.

It will keep the mosquitoes away.

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.

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 nar-

row openings.

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.

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.

!

Foggy Windshield?

Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of

your car . When the window s fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!

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.

Conditioner

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's 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.

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!

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

and you don't have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

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 fil-

ter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he

took the filter over to the sink and 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 potentially burn your

house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long

time (and to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it with

hot soapy water and 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 and 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 and a nylon brush and 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! T

hat repairman knew what he was talking about!

note from Jean----I checked out my dryer screen--I seldom use bounce,-- but water would scarcely go through !! I cleaned it and then the water sailed right through -.imagine that ! ----

PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO OTHER PEOPLE IN YOUR ADDRESS BOOK.

NOT ONLY COULD IT SAVE SOMEONE'S HOME, BUT IT COULD SAVE

SOMEONE'S LIFE.