Cook Wannabee

Welcome back!

There are so many hits out in the world about cleaning up things. I have read some amazing ideas tht can help, I just wish that I could remember where they were.

There is one that my husband showed me that does work and it is neither hard, nor expensive.

To clean your windshield on your car. I learned is easy. It involves a bottle of club soda. Just club soda and your windshield wipers. The soda wish bubble up dirt that might otherwise stick, and since it does not contain sugar or coloring, there is not damage to your paint job. Of course most of the vehicles that we have owned have had no worries there as they have older cars.

Just have someone outside start to pour the soda on the glass and start your wipers. EASY

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Nope, I am not talking about cutting hair at this time, although I have done that, too.

I am talking about the times that you might have onions in your fridge for too long. Have you ever seen them when they start to grow and get lots of green things sticking out of them? Believe it or not, but those onions are not for throwing away. Those green tops are great for using as season in many things. Eggs when scrambled, omelettes, soups, meat sauces, and all sorts of things can use ‘green onions for flavoring. When those onions get those green tops, voila, you have green onions.

If you wanted to start you own garden, onions that have sprouted, potatoes that have sprouted are all starts for regular plants. I like to let the potatoes grow so I can have some greenery out in front of our apartment, too. I even have a couple of potatoes waiting right now to be planted. I hope they grow. I like plants. Not always to eat, sometimes just to look at.

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I happen to love pickles of all sorts.

Gherkins, sweet pickles, dill pickles, polish dill pickles, pickled onions, pickled beets, pickled cantaloupe, pickled watermelon rind,…..I guess you get the idea here.

Not only do they do good on a juicy burger (that is another story), they are good by themselves. When I have a sore throat and nothing seems to help it, sucking on a pickle just like a lollipop will ease the pain in my throat. Of course you cannot always tell people to go suck on a pickle when they talk about their throats, though. They might think that you are weird or something.

I don’t care, I like pickles.

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Eating utensils come in a lot of different shapes and sizes. I have a favorite of course, don’t we all? My favorite utensil is a pair of chopsticks. Two items that are very easy to clean and carry with you, if you want. When every we have the money to go out to our favorite Chinese Restaurant, they always have chopstick handy for those who prefer them. I am one of those who do use them. It is easier for me to use the chopsticks sometimes, than a fork and knife. Yes, I will sometimes cut items up to make them easier to eat, but with chopsticks, I eat in a neater manner.

How about the infamous SPORK? A combination of spoon and fork that cannot do either job very well. I wonder who thought that one up? It won’t hold stuff like a spoon, It won’t pierce things like a fork. Yet fast food places seem to like them.

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I do enjoy food. Sometimes, I even enjoy the making of it. Most of the time, if it ready to eat, I am happy,

Have you realized that there are lot of other uses for food other than just eating it? I have heard of egg shampoos, milk shampoos, beer shampoos for starters. You can use vinegar (which counts as a food item) and newspapers to make windows clean and sparkle, they will also not fog up as easily as before. Vinegar can help clean up the interiors of coffee percolators and remove any calcium build up. You can use peanut butter to help remove gum from fabric surfaces. You can use mayo to help make you hair shiny and have more body.

Salt can be used for more than preserving food, it can be used to help clean glass coffee pots. Many waitresses in restaurants have learned this by having to do it with salt and ice. Salt can also be used to preserve snake skins so they can be used. My husband has done this many times. He also uses Neets Foot Oil afterwards to make the skin soft and pliable.

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Had a dream last night. Went to a reunion that involved everyone staying at the school for a couple of days. Don’t remember what type of school, just school. In my dream I drove a pale yellow Volkswagen Beetle.

According to the dream, we all lived at the school while attending it. In the dream I had to clean out my bedroom, before everyone sat to eat. This one apartment my friend lived in had a lot of hidden cabinets, and two kitchens. One rally big kitchen, and one small and tidy kitchen. In the big kitchen, not only were there lots of cabinets, both above and below; but, there was also WILBUR.

One area of the big kitchen was an outward pointing corner of cabinets that went from the ceiling to the floor. There were a lot of little knobs all over it, that were painted a light blue. My friend used the small kitchen mostly because if you bumped that one corner cabinet with knobs, WILBUR would come rolling out and unfold. WILBUR was a huge folding table that was 8′x4′ and big. Once WILBUR ws out, it was very tiresome to fold it back in and it would keep trying to come back out and unfold. Most of my dream was spent trying to get the table back into its storage cabinet, and helping the new tenants refold WILBUR over and over agin. We finally had to tie many of the knobs together to keep it contained. When I finally gathered up the things that I dropped, because of WILBUR, I went out to find my car.

That car was parked in one corner of the parking lot and it was filled with all types of yellow cars, trucks, vans, etc. I wanted my car! I wanted my VW ! I wanted to leave.

Boy, was I glad to wake up and finally feel like I was going to get some rest.

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Yup, I did spell out Crisco fight. You have heard of water balloon fights, squirt guns, water hose fights. These are things that can be fun and get a lot of laughter involved. Well, one day a few years ago our family (before I got married) got into a fun mood. We lived in Florida and sometimes we got into water fights. Well, we ended up with Crisco one day. All four of us were smeared all over with generous gobs of Crisco.

When we were finally able to get it all cleaned up, our hair had new shine to it! Of course it was not easy to clean up, but I remember all of the laughter that happened. Our sides were sore the next day because we had laughed so hard. Families can be fun. Laughter can be one of the most glorious parts of family fun.

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Who is it that truly designs kitchens for apartments? Has that person ever had to actually use one that they have designed? Sometimes I do wonder about that myself.

It is the same thing with the public bath rooms that can be found in many places. The way things are arranged can truly be a pain in the back or other places. I have actually heard very slender people complain about how things are arranged. That means that the normal or over-weight person wouldn’t have a chance would they?

Any way, back to the kitchen again. Where we live now the kitchen isn’t so bad, except for the need for more shelf space. I have it easy. My mother-in-law (yes, sometimes they can be very helpful) gave me a rather large metal shelf rack that is installed and very well used. It sits right next to the ‘fridge’ and couldn’t be in a better spot. We usually keep it well occupied with the things that sometimes have no regular place to be stored. With Hurricane season coming up, we have a lot of different bottles of water for ‘just in case’. A nice lady that I know used to call that type of water - bomb water. She probably still does call it that. We call it ’storm water’. Having storage in your kitchen is really nice. Just once, though, it would be nice for an actual cook to design the kitchens for apartments. Architects are very handy, but they are not cooks, are they?

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Did you ever want to write something, but had no idea what to say? Well, that happens to me sometimes. Then I wonder what is going on when my thoughts go blank. A piece of cheese right now would help. I know, usually chocolate is what some go for, but I am a cheese lover.

I need to get some sleep, but my mind is active - sort of. My cats are exploring the under sink cabinets, I hear thumps, rattles, and other noises. They have been there before, but keep going back. I mean under the kitchen sink hasn’t changed for use in years. Bottles, tightly closed of course, a box of sos pads or their equivalent, dust - what is there to see? I am surprised that they do not get on the counters. There is more stuff there. Dishes, silverware, knick-knacks, paddy-wacks, and other stuff. I am still looking at the cheese of course. Hmmmm, maybe a grilled cheese sandwich? It is almost midnight though. Maybe bed woul be better. Nite all

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I imagine that we all have made mistakes when cooking for the first few times. I know that I did. I’ve written about a couple so far. Well, here is another one.

When mom decided to help me learn about cooking we lived in St. Louis, Mo. The St. Louis Post Dispatch had a cooking section where kids could learn how to cook by following recipes. It was mostly fun. I remember one recipe for Mulligan stew. I remember potatoes put on to boil.

I also remember not stirring them. They burned on the bottom and the rest of the potatoes picked up the flavor of the burn. I hadn’t realized this until the complete stew was made. Yuk. To this day I remember to stir what ever I am cooking, and if not stirring, I get it iff the heat or the stove. Burned Mulligan stew is not nice. What an understatement.

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