HELPFUL HINTS!



  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.

Simple

  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 < BR ice
cream.





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  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 < BR 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. Keeping weeds away

  Start putting wet newspaper in your plants, work the nutrients in your
soil. Wet newspapers and 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 na rrow 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. 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 fl ies 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

  said to watchy and 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!