1 week Ago
DEAR HELOISE: For years, I’ve been using various kitchen tools to help me in the kitchen and do jobs that they weren’t originally designed for. I thought I’d share some of these with you and your readers: • I use a tea strainer filled with herbs and spices to flavor soups and stews. You just have to remove the strainer before serving.
You can also fill a strainer with powdered sugar and use it to sprinkle sugar over pastries such as cakes and muffins. • I use an old potato masher to separate ground beef and sausage while it’s cooking. • I use an egg slicer to cut small, firm tomatoes, eggs and strawberries.
• I use a milk frother to mix other small batches of things. I recently mixed whipping cream with my frother to add on top of a pudding that I made. • I tenderize chicken and meat by wrapping it in cling wrap, then using my metal rolling pin to pound the meat.
• I’ve known a number of people who use a pastry slicer to blend or chop up eggs for an egg salad, or to chop up potatoes to make hash browns. • A friend of mine gave me this hint: Take a cast-iron skillet, turn it upside down so that the flat bottom is right side up, and place it in the oven this way to cook a frozen pizza. — D.
F., in Pennsylvania DEAR HELOISE: We recently were out on a picnic, and our dog got away from us and went running after a squirrel. We stayed until after dark looking for our beloved dog.
Finally, we had to go home. A day later, a man called to say that he’d found our dog. Our dog had been microchipped, which is what saved him from ending up at a shelter or the city pound, or from wandering off to never be found again.
Please urge all your readers to get their pets microchipped. And have them wear a tag that says they are microchipped. — M.
Y., in Georgia DEAR HELOISE: My house key keeps getting stuck in the lock, and sometimes it’s even hard to insert the key into the lock. What can I do? I live in an old Victorian house, and I’d like to keep the locks the same as when it was built.
— R.J., New Orleans R.
J., take a half sheet of clean paper and fold it in half. Then fold it in half again.
Get a nice, sharp crease along the middle of the paper. Next, take a knife and shave a graphite pencil, getting as much graphite as possible in the crease. You only need enough to help lubricate the lock.
Once you have your small pile of graphite, hold the paper up to the lock’s opening, keeping the centerfold level with the lock’s opening. Then gently blow the graphite into the key hole. Insert your key, and it should make it easier to insert and remove it.
— Heloise DEAR HELOISE: I use disinfecting wipes that come in a tall, round plastic container. When all the wipes are gone, there is still some liquid in the bottom, so I put a few half-sized paper towels in the bottom and use them after they have soaked up the liquid. I usually do this several times until all the liquid has been used.
With today’s prices, we need to do whatever we can to save money. — A.H.
, via email.
