Some Substitutes For Everyday Items

I should be sweeping the kitchen floor, right now, but I thought it would be more fun to share to great "substitutes" for some items I use everyday. Sorry, I don't have pictures to go with said items. I am on uber crunch time today (when am I not?). Anyway, I have recently discovered that.......

Cheap hair conditioner (accidentally bought on a grab and not look moment at the store) makes the BEST shave gel. No razor burn, no knicks, and super smooth skin.

An old toothbrush (properly disinfected in the dishwasher, so that you don't get eye cooties) is a great brow brush/ eyelash  groomer.

The lid off an ice cream bucket is a great substitute for a cutting board for cutting smaller items like fruit or cheese.

Clothes pins are great for closing the tops of chip, cookie, bread, etc. bags. They keep a tight seal and stay in place!

A metal bundt cake pan is great for freezing ice rings for parties. Freeze extra punch or water into ice rings. To use just set the pan in warm water  (just enough to go up the sides, not over the top) for a few minutes to release the ice ring.

These are just a few of my favorite way to reuse everyday household items.

What are some of your favorite ways to substitute and reuse items around your house ( I do love, love, LOVE handy ideas)?

Oh, and just so this post isn't totally pictureless, here is the picture of my daughter's Sweet Sixteen cupcake tree. You will be happy to know the stand was constructed out of scrap glass, and thrift store candy dishes. The cupcakes were baked with love (and sugar)!

Making Scrub Sponges Last Longer

I really like to use Scotch Bright scrub sponges to wash dishes (and scrub dirty counters). 

I can usually buy them cheaply with coupons (especially at Costco).

 Two make the sponge last twice as long, I cut it in half with a sharp pair of scissors.

One half of the sponge is just the right size (especially for kid's size hands) to wash dirty dishes. I always place my sponges on the top rack of the dishwasher when I wash a load of dishes in it to disinfect them.

You need to keep sponges dry between uses, so that they don't become a breeding ground for bacteria. An old plastic berry basket in the drying rack works great for hold drying sponges (and the lids to water bottles, so that they don't don't fall down the garbage disposal).

This little trick my not save me a ton of money, but every little bit helps!

Baking Cheesecake

I like to bake cheese cake. Cheese cake is kind of my signature dessert. I bake it for gifts, fundraisers, birthdays, and holidays (and once in awhile, just for funzies). I will let you in on a little secret..........making (and baking a cheesecake) is very easy. When I decided to conquer # whatever on my bucket list, and try my hand at making a real, live baked in the oven level 5 (in my head) dessert; I did a little research. Now I will let you in on another secret. To get a perfect cheesecake, you need to water bath it. Water bathing will give you a light, fluffy cheesecake without cracks in the top. To water bath a dessert in the oven, simply means that:

• You place a rack in the bottom of a pan larger than your spring form pan. I use four canning jar lids placed in a "circle".
• You place the spring form pan (or dessert mold) on the rack in the pan.
• Fill the larger pan with a couple inches of warm water.
• To make it easier I place the large pan on the oven rack before I fill it with water (just don't pour water on the cheesecake batter).
• Always remember to step back when you open the oven door to retrieve your cheesecake. The steam build up will melt you mascara if you are standing to close (I learned the hard way!)

Water bathing will also produce a soggy, wet crust (because some water will seep into the bottom of the spring form pan). To remedy this little problem, most recipes will tell you to cover the bottom of the spring form pan with  a double layer of aluminum foil. That has been my usually method, but it's kind of wasteful to use that much foil, and I have still had the soggy crust issue. However, I was reading in a Cook's Illustrated magazine (love, love, LOVE Cook's Illustrated), that if you use an oven roasting bag instead of aluminum foil, it eliminates the soggy crust problem. I tried it a couple of days ago, and it worked great. The best part is, that if you hang the oven bag up to dry when your done, you can reuse it for the same purpose; later.

Open up the oven bag (I used the large size that will hold up to an 8 pound roast), and roll down the sides of the bag. Place the spring form pan in the center of the bag. Roll the sides up a couple of inches above the rim of the pan.

Place the covered spring form pan on the rack in the larger pan. Fill the larger pan up with a couple inches of warm water. Use warm water! Cold water will cause a temperature fluctuation that affects the baking time, and it could shatter the glass pan.

It is amazing how finding a handy, dandy tip in a magazine makes life a little easier!  Now that I have inspired you all to add cheesecake baking to your bucket list, you can find my tried and true recipe HERE. I guarantee that you will be the hit of the party if you "whip" one up for your next get together. Not to mention you will achieve mythical status among friends and family (No one has to know how easy it is)!  Happy baking!

Sprinkler Make Do

Well, in true Barrett fashion, I went looking for our good sprinkler the other day (the one I bought on clearance last year, so that we would finally have a good quality one that would water a large area of lawn at one time. How I wish we had an automatic sprinkler system! Sigh!). Of course, I could only find this yellow one.  It is designed to work alone (with a cap on the end), or you can connect several together with several hoses. I know there are probably eight bazillion stinking sprinklers in the garage, but I could only find this one.....without the cap on the end. Further searching did not result in finding the cap (which I am sure I put in a safe place, so I could find it when I needed it. Along with the GOOD sprinkler). In desperation, I grabbed the spray nozzle that I use to hose off dirty sidewalks, dirty children, and dirty cars; and twisted it on the end (making sure the spray nozzle was twisted completely closed). I am happy to report that it worked like a charm and the lawn got watered before it completely burned to a crisp! Desperation is the mother of .....well.....flying by the seat of your pants, but the end result is what matters.............right?

It's Oven Cleaning Day!!!!

Today I conquered the monumental task of cleaning my oven.  I have not cleaned it since it bought 1 year and 11 months ago. Cleaning my oven has not been high on my priority list, because I am really the only one who sees all the grossness. However, my Dear Sweet Friend has "borrowed" my oven several times lately (her oven was on the fritz and the repair man had not come yet). Having someone else seeing my filthy oven (even though she loves me despite my failings) shamed me into tackling the project! It's not like it should be a huge production....it is a self cleaning oven (my previous oven was not self cleaning, so I am a newbie here)..........right. This is going to be a full disclosure post, so here is what it looked like before:

 

 

 

Once I started prepping the oven for it's cleaning ( I even dug out the owner's manual and followed the instructions to the letter) it sort of snowballed! I pulled the oven out of it's little cubby (Caution: more embarrassing photos to follow):

It appears that there was a dust bunny convention going on under the stove, and why is there a q tip under the stove(maybe I don't want to know the answer to that question)? Nothing a good sweeping and scrubbing couldn't fix! 

I forgot I left this this piece of wallpaper up for posterity!

 

Have I mentioned that whoever built this house had horrible taste!!!!!!!  Who wallpapers a kitchen (and dining area) with feather wallpaper?  As I was giving the stove a good vaccumming and scrubbing (the dust bunnies had decided to take up residence around the storage drawer, as well) I discovered some treasures:

Two quarters and the schematic for the stove (I'm sure this will come in handy when it time to start repairing the stove). While the oven was doing it's self cleaning thing. I pulled off  knobs and let them soak in some soapy water for awhile.

 

The instructions were adamant that you could not leave the racks in the oven during  the cleaning cycle. I placed them in the bathtub filled with hot soapy water (that I had added dish soap and ammonia to). I let them soak for a couple of hours. It worked like a charm. All the baked on gunk wiped off easily (Woo Hoo)!

After a quick wipe down once the cleaning cycle was finished; the oven it now a beautiful sight to behold!

 

 

My project did take a good chunk of the day to complete, but now that  I'm done I think it was time well spent. It bright and shiny clean! All ready for a holiday baking marathon! Oh, and did I mention I love my self cleaning oven? Whoever invented them is a genius......pure GENIUS!

Soap On A Rope....Sort Of

I have two pet peeves (okay, I have more than two, but for right now I want to focus on the two that are on my mind right now). The first one is pantyhose with runs in them. Why is it that I can only wear a pair of pantyhose a couple of times, before they end up with a hole or run? I have a plastic grocery bag stuffed full of maimed nylons that I can't bare to throw away, because I haven't gotten my money's worth out of them yet! The second thing that really irks me (probably more than the pantyhose) is a slimy bar of soap sitting in the bottom of the tub every night after bath time. After grilling child #2, 3, and 4 (child #1 is to mature to sit in bath water) I have discovered that once the soap has slipped out of their hands it becomes a physical impossibility to retrieve the bar from the murky depths of the tub. In their minds it is much easier to let it dissolve in the water as the tub drains, and hope for the best! After much mental duress on my part (it likes watching money slip down the drain every night; not to mention the unholy amount of bar soap my children can go through if I do not intervene) I have come up with a solution that may save my sanity. I created my own version of Soap On A Rope.

Here's what you do:

1. Measure 14 inches from the toe up on the leg of a worn out pair of pantyhose and cut it off. Now grab a bar of soap.


2. Place the soap in the leg of the pantyhose and tie a knot just above the bar of soap.


3. Cut down the center of the remaining section of the pantyhose until you are 1 inch from the knot.


4. Tie the two ends together with a double knot.

Now we have a bar of non slippery soap (the nylon gives it enough grip that it won't slip out of little, or not so little, hands so easily). Plus, we have created a handy, dandy "rope" so that it can be hung over the end of the faucet, or on the hook of the shower caddy to dry out after bath time. So far, it has been a raging success! The soap seems to be lasting much longer. It is now hung up to dry, and not left to sit in a mushy pile on the tub floor!