A soapbox, a recipe, some household tips and a silly photo

It has been a wonderful Monday.  One more fun, quiet birthday celebration, some crafting, some cleaning, some Castle and DWTS, a great FHE, a good day.

I have a little soapbox that I'd like to step up on for a few minutes.  Why do some people lie? I don't get it.  Some people will lie when telling the truth would have been easier.  Here's my thoughts on lying.  First of all, you have to remember what you said, which I'm here to tell ya, as you get older, remembering what you did five minutes ago isn't easy.  So, don't lie.  Second, once you're caught in a lie, you usually have to lie more to cover up and get out of it.  Again, don't lie in the first place and you won't have to tell more lies.  Third, as Doug says often, and he is the most honest person I've ever known, "The truth is so absolutely good, it never hurts the teller."  I think I'll have that on his headstone.  That and "I'm 38% deader than I was."  Enough about lying.  Just tell the truth. 

I received this forward from my sister-in-law and it had some ideas that I'd never heard before, so I'm passing on a few homemaking tips today.

• Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.  If you leave them  connected at the stem, they ripen faster.  I tried that tonight.  We'll see how it works.
• 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. (I'd think that this one would have been the opposite. But, here's my two cents to this tip... always add more garlic!  MMM!) 
• 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  350for 15 minutes!!!  Serve alone or with vanilla ice cream.  Yummm!  (This one made me laugh because WHO has leftover snickers bars EVER?)
• 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 microwaved pizza. 
•  For 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.  (Hmmmm?  I'll have to see this one to believe it.)
• When you buy a container of cake  frosting from the store, whip it with your  mixerfor 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.
• 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. 
•  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. 
• Broken glass? Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't  see easily.
• Place a dryer sheet in your  pocket.It will keep the mosquitoes  away.
• 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.  
• 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.
• 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.
• 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! 
• 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. 
• 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.  
• To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take  a small glass, fill it ½” 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!
• Dryer sheets (like Bounce) cause a film over mesh on your dryer vent mesh.  The film is what burns out the heating unit.  This film 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!  Remove the filter and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush, at least every six months. (I took my vent screen to the sink and the water ran right through it.  Maybe it's our Melaleuca dryer sheets.  Maybe not, but it wasn't a problem in our home.)
  

Okay, so it's not a cookie, but here's a great fall recipe repeat, as requested last week by my Canadian blogging friend, Nora.  Better late, than never. 

PUMPKIN CRUNCH CAKE

Here's a tried and true favorite in our neighborhood! It's simple to make but read through the directions before you start, so you don't jump the gun, like I did the first time I made it. It's simple and sure to become a favorite at your house too!

1 pkg. yellow cake mix (2 layer size)
1 large can of pumpkin
1 can of evaporated milk
3 eggs
3/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 cup chopped nuts
Combine pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Pour into a well-greased 9x13 inch pan. Sprinkle about a cup of the cake mix over the top and very gently, fold the cake mix into the pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle the rest of the cake mix on top of that and pat down with a fork or big spoon. Drizzle the melted butter over top and bake for about 1 hour at 350. Let cool and serve with plenty of whipped cream. Enjoy!

And last, but not least,... a photo of Doug and I being silly with our friend, Todd, who works at Hastings.  He was showing us some of their new products, including these hats, which we couldn't resist wearing for a second.  And yes, I know what that leaf is... what a motley couple we are.  My favorite thing about this was that I texted the photo to Liza and her response was "I love that you and Dad still play together.  You two are silly."  He definitely makes me laugh, that's for sure!  Enough said. 
When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry,
show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.

Comments

[Nicole]

Thanks for the tips, most of them new to me. I made the pumpkin crunch cake for our Thanksgiving dinner this weekend (no mistake,Thanksgiving was yesterday in Canada!), one of my favorite fall recipe but this time, I used a spice cake mix (Betty Crocker)and I liked it better than the yellow cake mix

[Trisha]

Love the tips! And the fruit fly remedy really works- I've been using it for a couple years :)

[Trish A]

Great tips, thanks for sharing and I laughed right out loud on the snickers one cause I was thinking..."yeah right, who has left-over snickers.." and then saw you were thinking the same thing! I think I may just go and BUY a snickers today!

[Debra Guerrero]

A lot of great tips, some I would have never thought of. Here is one you might add to it. A couple of years ago my grandmother passed one on to me, I was amazed that it it actually works. When you serve avocado be sure to leave the seed whole and put it in the center of the dish making sure the meat of the fruit is touching it. The avocado will not turn that nasty brown if the seed is still touching the meat. You can keep leftover avocado in the fridge overnight and it is still green and yummy the next day if you follow this rule.
Thanks for the tips.

[susan]

people lie because they can't stand...they can't stand for themselves, for truth, for honesty, for virtue...for being found out, for being not perfect. sad...but I can take just about anything EXCEPT a liar.

[Pamela K.]

That picture of you and Doug is a hoot! And the 38% line cracked me up. :-D Thanks for sharing those household tips. I'll be trying some of them soon. :-)