5 days Ago
DEAR HELOISE: There are 18 of us dealing with Hanukkah/Christmas gifts — three generations. About a month or so before we get together, one of my daughters assigns everyone a person to buy a gift for at an approximately $50 cost. On the occasion when we’re all together, I pull a name out of a hat, and this person opens their present while the rest of us watch.
Then they pull the next name, and the next person opens their present. No Amazon or gift certificate cards! — Judy, via email DEAR HELOISE: I thought of a fun way to get kids to eat more veggies in salads and maybe as a side dish with dinner. I thought this up years ago, and the kids loved it and helped put it together.
If you make food fun, they are more likely to eat it. Here is what I put together: Dot Salad Thinly sliced rounds of baby carrots Thinly sliced radish rounds Thin slices of English cucumbers (the skinny ones) Round slices of green onions (scallions), using the white and green parts Round slices of cherry or grape tomatoes Sliced mushroom stems (if you like mushrooms) Frozen green peas, defrosted Thin slices of fresh blanched green beans and/or asparagus stems Have kids carefully slice these fresh veggies with supervision and put together a nice salad with any salad dressing that they like. And for a dinner side dish, they can cut up more things like zucchini and yellow squash rounds, even beet rounds or any other veggie that can be cut into rounds and cooked as a warm side dish.
They will look at vegetables differently, seeing what can be cut into a round shape to eat and enjoy. — Rusti S., in Houston Rusti, I’m all for any idea that will get children to eat their vegetables.
Thanks for the hint! — Heloise DEAR HELOISE: If you need to delay dinner, but you already have a roast in the oven that’s not done yet, do not wrap it tightly to keep it warm. If you wrap it up in some manner, it will steam the meat. Remove the roast from the oven and cover it loosely.
When you want to continue the cooking process, just return the roast to the oven at a slightly higher temperature until it’s done. — Janelle O., in Glenview, Illinois DEAR HELOISE: If you’d like to grow parsley indoors, do not go out to your garden and pull it up for replanting.
The shock of transplanting parsley can be the end of the plant. Repot parsley outside and leave it outdoors for a couple of weeks, then bring it indoors. This is especially important in the fall when temperatures are dropping.
— Patsy H., in Fairborn, Ohio DEAR HELOISE: My daughter had several handmade baby blankets and baby clothes given to her at her shower. Nearly all of them are white or some pale color.
She handwashed nearly all of them, and when they dried, she wrapped them first in white tissue paper, then wrapped the item with two sheets of blue tissue paper to prevent them from yellowing. This was a way to store them for the next generation. — Gail W.
, in Montana.
