Tips from Amanda's Home Kitchen

1. Stuff a miniature marshmallow in the bottom of a sugar cone to prevent ice cream drips.

2. To keep potatoes from budding, place an apple in the bag with the potatoes.

3. To prevent egg shells from cracking, add a pinch of salt to the water before hard-boiling.

4. To get the most juice out of fresh lemons, bring them to room temperature & roll them under your palm against the kitchen counter before squeezing.

5. To easily remove burnt-on food from your skillet, simply add a drop or two of dish soap and enough water to cover bottom of pan, and bring to a boil on stove top-skillet will be much easier to clean.

6. If you accidentally over-salt a dish while it's still cooking, drop in a peeled potato-it absorbs the excess salt for an instant "fix me up."

7. Place a slice of bread in a bag of brown sugar to keep it from hardening. If it already has, place a slice of apple in it to soften it back up.

8. When boiling corn on the cob, add a pinch of sugar to help bring out the corn's natural sweetness.

9. To determine whether an egg is fresh, immerse it in a pan of cool, salted water. If it sinks, it is fresh-if it rises to the surface, throw it away.

10. Ants, ants, ants everywhere ... Well, they are said to never cross a chalk line. So get your chalk out and draw a line on the floor or wherever ants tend to march-see for yourself.

11. Regular Dawn dish soap removes oily stains from clothing (I always manage to forget to check my pockets where I keep my lipgloss, then I dry the clothes, melting the lipgloss and setting a stain.)

12. When making a rue, make sure the oil in your pan or pot is very hot before adding your cornstarch or flour. The rue thickens better.

13. Most moms already know this, but creamy peanut butter removes gum that is stuck in human hair.

14. A brown paper bag (not the lunch sacks, but the type you bring your groceries home in) is useful and versatile:

- it will ripen green bananas, hard tomatoes, hard avocados or most any fruit.

- Place rolls or a loaf of unsliced bread in the bag and put into an oven at 350 degrees to bake for 10 minutes. The crust will crisp and the inside will be warm, moist and chewy.

15. Toothpaste & a toothbrush are great for not only your teeth, but they clean jewelry to make them sparkle!

16. Alka-Seltzer:

* Clean a toilet-drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets, wait twenty minutes, brush, and flush. The citric acid and effervescent action clean vitreous china.

* Clean a vase-to remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase or cruet, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets.

* Polish jewelry-drop two Alka-Seltzer tablets into a glass of water and immerse the jewelry for two minutes.

* Clean a thermos bottle-fill the bottle with water, drop in four Alka-Seltzer tablets, and let soak for an hour (or longer, if necessary).

* Unclog a drain-clear the sink drain by dropping three Alka-Seltzer tablets down the drain followed by a cup of Heinz White Vinegar. Wait a few minutes, then run the hot water.


17. Out of shaving cream, use hair conditioner.

18. A cotton ball will pick up small fibers from a broken glass.

19. If you seal an envelope and forgot to add something, unseal it by placing it in the freezer for an hour. It instantly opens and you can reseal it!

I'll add more as soon as I think of the things I do/use around the house!