Great Tips - Have you tried any of these?

You know how you always get all kinds of tips? You get them in emails, your mom tells you, you read them somewhere --- old wives tales.... Well anyway I found some tips that I hadn't heard before on Pinching Your Pennies.

I was wondering if any of you have tried any of these tips. Do they really work?

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!

To 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.

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 keeps 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 forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic they will not get through wet newspapers.

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 narrow openings.

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!

This was a quote from someone else, this story did not happen to me...... 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 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 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 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 (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

Great Back to School Gift!!!

The Popcorn Factory has a great deal on a back to school treat!!!

The Chalkboard Sampler: "In 5th grade, being called to the chalkboard often resulted in the sweaty palm and a dry mouth. Finally, being face to face with the �board is a happy place-this 8" Sampler is packed with Cheese and Caramel corn, alphabet pretzels, chocolate chip cookies, kiddy mix candies, gummy bears and mini gumballs. Whew!"

The sale price is 9.99 and there is a $5.00 off code.... 5JUAG shipping is $5.00 so your total is $9.99 - if you want to order more than one do it separate orders because you can use the code over and over!!!

Have A Happy Sunday

I hope everyone has a great Sunday. I have decided to no longer post on Sunday's. The only exception will be if there is a hot coupon in the Sunday paper that I think you should track down.

See you on Monday!

Another Award --- I AM A KICK A$& BLOGGER!!!

Jaime at Just Add Laughter awarded gave me this great award!!!! I am speechless..... Jaime has a blog that I just started here a few weeks ago and she is great!! I guess she thinks I am great too!!!

So, here are the rules:

* Pick 5 Bloggers that you feel are Kick A** Bloggers
* Let em' know in your post or via email, twitter or blog comments that they've received an award
* Share the love and link back to both the person who awarded you and back to
Kick Ass Blogger Award
* Hop on back to the Kick Ass Blogger Club HQ to sign Mr. Linky then pass it on (which you can also get to on the above link)

Got it? Good... Now that we have all that in order, I pass this award on to:

The Musings of a Mom --- because she is so sweet. She has a beautiful old photo of her mom and her kids are so cute with cream puff all over their faces!!

Nonna's News --- because she is inspiring me to create my own Bucket List. Matt will be so proud of me if I do this --- see he's the dreamer and I am the realist. I am challenging myself to create a Bucket list of Dreams..... Oh yeah and go check out her recipe blog.

Park City Girl ---- because I love Park City!! And this girl can quilt!!! Note to self: add quilting to my bucket list..... Oh yeah go check out her music!!!

Jenny --- because she loves Donny Osmond. She's a great friend. She's new to blogging --kind of and she's doing a great job. I need to sing the "Happy Working Song".

Aubrey --- because I really hope that she will enjoy this award with a swear word in it.... hehehe I know she will!!

Frugal Tip Friday 8/15/08

Yeah!! It's now super easy to link your Frugal Tip back here!! Look over the right sidebar and you will find a convenient box with the code giving you both the button and the link back!!!

My tip of the day is:

Buy in bulk only if it is something that you need. Buying everything in bulk is not necessary. Some bulk prices have a higher unit price than buying a couple of boxes of cereal or baby formula. Carrying a calculator to the store with you can aid in figuring up which is the best buy. Join a shopping warehouse if you frequently buy bulk items.

New Design!!!

After playing with the templates (which are great) and realizing that this blog is here to stay I have taken the plunge and paid for a new blog design! I highly recommend Lex!! She communicated with me the whole way and while I didn't do the work I was definitely part of the process!!! If you want a great blog --- for really not a lot of money (you know I shop around for the best deal) go visit Lex!!!

In the change over however we had a little problem with my blog roll. I hope to get everyone added back in today. If you were there yesterday but you aren't today --- let me know!!!

Just what DOES Sherri need?

Insane Momma posted this. So I had to try it!!!!

I googled Sherri + Needs and this is what I came up with..........

Sherri needs a taller tripod.............. How did google know that I am short?

Sherri needs some soap in her mouth................... um yeah probably

Sherri needs help....................

Sherri wants to save Barbara................ clearly they have me confused with Sherri Shepard

Sherri needs a history lesson

Sherri needs to get her head out of the Bible

Sherri needs names of crafts people available to set up at FF Development Day in October..... I have no idea what they are talking about

Sherri needs a cheeseburger

Sherri needs to contact Patricia Tuck...................who?????

Sherri needs to continue seeking a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Sherri needs to come clean

Sherri needs the support of her fans

Sherri needs this slam dunk to show her constituents that she can prosecute a case

Sherri needs to shut up about ................ what???

Sherri needs to watch her dollars......................... hence Frugal Tip Friday!!!

SHERRI NEEDS TO TAKE A CHILL PILL

Wow!!! The things we can learn on Google!!!

Updated.... I changed my mind!!!

This is the recipe that I am submitting for the great contest at The Secret is in the Sauce. I love it!!! I have posted it before.....

Sweet and Sour Chicken
I will do it again for sure. One thing that I realized is that if you cook the chicken this way you can easily make the sauce many different ways. Here is my Sweet & Sour recipe. It sounds kind of hard but it really isn't. I prepped everything in the morning and then it took maybe about 1/2 to get everything cooked.

Coated Chicken (& marinade)

* 1 lb chicken (cubed)
* 1 tbs. soy sauce
* 1/2 tsp. salt
* 1/2 tsp. sugar
* Cornstarch
* Oil

Combine the soy sauce, salt, sugar, and chicken. Let marinate at least 15 min. – up to all day. Dredge chicken in cornstarch (put it in a ziploc baggie and shake to coat chicken). Cook in hot oil until cooked through. Drain well and set aside.

Sauce Ingredients

* 1/4 c. vinegar
* 1 tbs. ketchup
* 1 clove garlic (I used the pre-chopped garlic in a jar to save time)
* 1/2 c. pineapple chunks – reserve the juice
* 1/2 c. green pepper
* 1/2 c. red pepper
* 1/2 c. celery
* 1/2 c. onion
* 1/4 c. sugar
* 1/4 c. water
* 1 tbs. soy sauce
* 4 tsp. cornstarch
* 1/4 c. water

Heat 1 tbs. oil in a large pan. Stir fry garlic (30 seconds), add veggies & stir fry for about a minute. Add sugar, water, pineapple juice and vinegar and bring to a boil.
Combine soy sauce, corn starch, and water. Add to boiling mixture. Stir until thick. Add pineapple and chicken until coated. Serve over a platter of rice.

Here is a sauce that you could make for Ginger Chicken, then just add whatever veggies you want. I think baby corn, water chestnuts or bamboo shoots would be good. You may also want to add a little cornstarch to thicken the sauce.

Ginger Chicken

* 2 tbs. Oil
* 1 tbs. chopped garlic
* 1 tsp. chopped ginger root or 1/2 tsp. dry ginger
* 1/3 c. soy sauce
* 1 tbs. sugar
* 3 tbs. chopped green onion
* 1 c. boiling water

Fun Things....

This is a fun blog...... Blog Around the World


I am also super excited about this blog.... Good Stuff Maynard. I am so excited about this because I am actually a contributor!!


And last but not least.... after posting our adoption story I received lots of email from bloggers whose children have VCFS - like Micayla! So I started a new blog with an emphasis on our awesome VCFS kids!!

What do you do to keep your sanity?

This is another post that was inspired by something that I read on PYP.....

Is there something that you do as part of your daily routine to keep your sanity and make yourself feel better about your house/life?

There are people that must keep their sink empty and clean, vaccum the whole house, do the dishes, make your bed, eat chocolate cake, bake, drink a Diet Coke, scripture study......

What do you do?

I would like to say scripture study but....... I can't......

One of the things I do is to put a little Pine Sol in the sink with some really hot water..... it makes my house smell clean. I try to make my bed - I think that happens 3-5 days a week.