Clever Ideas For Around the Home!

1. Take your bananas apart when you get home  from the store.  If you leave them  connected at the stem, they ripen faster.
2.  Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!  
3.  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.  
4. 4. Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat while cooking. 
5. 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. 
6. 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. 
7. Add garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic  and at the end of the recipe if you want a stronger taste of  garlic.  
8. 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.                                                   
9. 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.  
10. 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.  
11. 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. 
                                            
12. 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.   
13. 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.   
14. Broken  Glass Use a wet cotton  ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't  see easily.                     
    
15.  No More Mosquitoes Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.  
16.    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. (Wonder if this works with rabbits?  Sure gonna give it a try)
17. 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 narrow openings.  
      
18. 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.
19. 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.  
20. 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! 
21. Re opening envelopes  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. Voila! It unseals easily.   
22. 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.   
23. 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 an d gone forever. 
24.  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!   
25. 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 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 r 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 longtime (and to keep your  electric bill lower) is to take that filter out and wash it  with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush sh (or other brush)  at least every six months. He said  that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!  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! That repairman knew what he was talking  about!