Welcome to Makin' Do Tuesday!
Needing to make an emergency substitution while cooking may be the epitome of making do. That is probably why most cookbooks have a list of them somewhere.
Buttermilk can be substituted by adding enough regular milk to a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice to make a cup. Let it sit for about five minutes before you use it.
Yogurt and sour cream appear to be just about interchangeable. There are some consistency differences, so I would supposed it would depend on what you were cooking.
1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp cream of tarter will substitute for a tsp of baking powder.
Adding 1 1/2 tsp baking powder and 1/2 tsp salt to a cup of regular flour will give you self-rising flour.
If you have self-rising and need regular, just omit the baking powder and salt from the recipe.
Make unsweetened chocolate by adding a tbs of oil to every three tbs of cocoa.
You can make whole wheat cake flour by taking two tbs of corn starch and adding enough whole wheat pastry flour to make a cup.
You can find a ton of other cooking substitutions here.
Sometimes though, you run out of other things beside cooking ingredients. What then?
Use paper towels or napkins as make shift coffee filters.
Speaking of coffee filters, you can use them for tea bags. Just put your loose leaf tea in the center and tie it up with cooking twine or something similar.
Baking soda works great for both toothpaste and deoderant.
Olive oil and lemon juice make furniture polish.
Use vinegar for glass cleaner.
Don't have time to shampoo? Sprinkle baby powder or cornstarch on your head and brush out.
Women used to dab a little vanilla behind their ears in lieu of perfume.
This is just my opinion, but I think that once you understand how some things work, its easy to come up with substitutes for what you need. You may have to think outside the box, but that is what makin' do is all about.
See ya tomorrow!
Connie
Showing posts with label vinegar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vinegar. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Makin' Do Tuesday: Bottles, Salt, and Cookware
Hello! Welcome to Makin' Do Tuesday!
Still working on cleaning my bottles, using what I already have. For most of them, the salt treatment followed by a vinegar soak, did the trick. The vinegar may have worked on its own, but I won't know that until I have the occasion to try it.
My step-mom always cleaned all her glass with bleach water, but I just don't want to deal with the bleach fumes. She also used a lot of ammonia, but I don't like that either, for the same reason.
The Sloans' Liniment bottle needed more work, so decided to give it the volcano treatment. You know what I mean. Vinegar and baking soda! How many science project volcanos have been created that way? Anyway, it's also a great cleaner. Watching it bubble, I remembered that many articles I read suggested using denture cleaning tablets to clean bottles. Makes me wonder what those things are made of.
It still didn't come completely clean, but it will do for now. I put it and two other bottles in the large shadow box. The small bottle has sprigs of dried lavender and yarrow from last year's garden.
Another use for salt, and a very good reason to keep it next to your stove, is as a grease fire extinguisher. Ed has worked as a professional fry cook/grill operator for years, and he told me to always use salt. I know that you can use baking soda too, but you have to use a lot. Flour might spread the fire and is actually combustible. Whatever you do, NEVER put water on a grease fire! Many online sources encourage simply smothering a pan fire with the lid, but if your cookware is like mine, most of the lids have disappeared over the years. Mine have...except for the little one-quart sauce pan lid. Those never go anywhere. Probably because they only get used once a year.
Most of my cookware is either hand me down or thrift store finds. Needless to say, those did not come with lids. I have had two sets in the last twenty five years. The first set is long gone. It was a T-Fal non-stick set. I don't even know for sure where they went. Then I got a low-end stainless steel set. They had glass lids. Guess what happened to those? Yep. Broke.
When I got married the first time, over 30 years ago, my step mom gave me a cast iron skillet, as well as a cast iron griddle. I still have them, and I use them nearly every day. I really like cast iron. I have some other cast iron skillets of graduating sizes that I have picked up from thrift stores, and flea markets. I would love to have a full set, including a dutch over with lid, but that isn't in my budget (unless I can find a used one) so I use what I have and make do. Here are the lids I use most of the time. One is a pizza pan, and the other is a salad plate.
Concerning yesterday's post, Miss Betty is doing better today, but my friend who had the heart attack is not doing well. We. of course, continue to lift both to the Lord.
See ya tomorrow.
Connie
Still working on cleaning my bottles, using what I already have. For most of them, the salt treatment followed by a vinegar soak, did the trick. The vinegar may have worked on its own, but I won't know that until I have the occasion to try it.
It still didn't come completely clean, but it will do for now. I put it and two other bottles in the large shadow box. The small bottle has sprigs of dried lavender and yarrow from last year's garden.
Another use for salt, and a very good reason to keep it next to your stove, is as a grease fire extinguisher. Ed has worked as a professional fry cook/grill operator for years, and he told me to always use salt. I know that you can use baking soda too, but you have to use a lot. Flour might spread the fire and is actually combustible. Whatever you do, NEVER put water on a grease fire! Many online sources encourage simply smothering a pan fire with the lid, but if your cookware is like mine, most of the lids have disappeared over the years. Mine have...except for the little one-quart sauce pan lid. Those never go anywhere. Probably because they only get used once a year.
Most of my cookware is either hand me down or thrift store finds. Needless to say, those did not come with lids. I have had two sets in the last twenty five years. The first set is long gone. It was a T-Fal non-stick set. I don't even know for sure where they went. Then I got a low-end stainless steel set. They had glass lids. Guess what happened to those? Yep. Broke.
When I got married the first time, over 30 years ago, my step mom gave me a cast iron skillet, as well as a cast iron griddle. I still have them, and I use them nearly every day. I really like cast iron. I have some other cast iron skillets of graduating sizes that I have picked up from thrift stores, and flea markets. I would love to have a full set, including a dutch over with lid, but that isn't in my budget (unless I can find a used one) so I use what I have and make do. Here are the lids I use most of the time. One is a pizza pan, and the other is a salad plate.
Concerning yesterday's post, Miss Betty is doing better today, but my friend who had the heart attack is not doing well. We. of course, continue to lift both to the Lord.
See ya tomorrow.
Connie
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Makin' Do Tuesday: Rubbing Off and Salt
Welcome to Makin' Do Tuesday! This is where we talk about all the ways we “make do” with what we have. While its true that some people seem to naturally make do, I think we can all train our minds to think like this.
Last week, we had to get some new space heaters because the old ones were making noises like rocks in a can. Ed picks up the two old heaters and says. “I'm going to take the cords off these because I just might be able to use them for something else. “ Then he says, “See? You're starting to rub off on me!”
A day or so later, we were able to get outside and do some work on the wood Ed got the day he killed the clutch in the truck. A friend from church went with Ed to get the wood off the truck that was still in our other friend's yard. The wood didn't need to be split, but it did need to be cut in smaller pieces.
The plan was for me to hold one end of the log still so he could cut it. Ok, I have very small hands, and don't really have a lot of strength in them, so this was not working. I could hold my end alright, but I couldn't keep the other end from moving. We needed another set of hands. Ed looked around and found two little scraps of wood. He screwed them onto one end of a saw horse, just far enough apart to catch those logs between them. Voila! Two sets of hands. We laid one end of the logs between the blocks of wood, I held the other end, and all the wood was cut in about 20 minutes or so. So I guess I am rubbing off on him. Good! That means there are two brains coming up with ideas.
By the way, Ed made these saw horses from pieces of old fencing my oldest son gave us. He was tearing down the fence for someone else, and needed a way to haul it off. He told us if he could use our truck we could have the wood. Sounded like a good deal to us.
The other thing I wanted to talk about today is something almost everyone keeps in the pantry: Salt. Plain old table salt. We use it to season food, preserve food, melt ice, and get rid of slugs (if you like doing that sort of thing), but did you know you can clean with it?
Ed told me that his grandmother used to use salt to clean her cast iron skillets. He said she just dumped some salt in there and scrubbed the pan with a rag. Curious, I had to try it. Wow! It really worked, and it didn't remove the seasoning! I just rinsed the salt out with hot water and dried the pan. Next time I do that, I'll take pictures. I promise!
A while back, I was looking for information on some apothecary bottles that I have. I came across something that said you can use salt to clean them. When I decided to try that on my dirty bottles, I couldn't find the article. (Yeah, I know. That’s what I get for not bookmarking it.) I have found some other articles, but they are kind of vague, so I am experimenting. Here are some pictures of my bottles.
I chose three of the dirtiest ones and put quite a bit of salt in them.
Then I added some hot water and let them soak for about a half hour. Then I shook the bottles four about three minutes, or until my arm started getting tired. I let them sit some more and shook some more. Finally, I rinsed them out to see what I had. They are definitely cleaner, especiallly the "Sloan's Linament" bottle in the center. There was black gunk floating in the salt water, when I poured it out..
I refilled them and will let you know how that turns out. I'll do some more research this week and let you know if I learn anything more.
Other internet research showed that there are tons of ways to clean with salt, and even more if you mix them with our old buddy, vinegar!
Here is a link to some more salt info.
Cool huh?
See you tomorrow,
Connie
Last week, we had to get some new space heaters because the old ones were making noises like rocks in a can. Ed picks up the two old heaters and says. “I'm going to take the cords off these because I just might be able to use them for something else. “ Then he says, “See? You're starting to rub off on me!”
A day or so later, we were able to get outside and do some work on the wood Ed got the day he killed the clutch in the truck. A friend from church went with Ed to get the wood off the truck that was still in our other friend's yard. The wood didn't need to be split, but it did need to be cut in smaller pieces.
The plan was for me to hold one end of the log still so he could cut it. Ok, I have very small hands, and don't really have a lot of strength in them, so this was not working. I could hold my end alright, but I couldn't keep the other end from moving. We needed another set of hands. Ed looked around and found two little scraps of wood. He screwed them onto one end of a saw horse, just far enough apart to catch those logs between them. Voila! Two sets of hands. We laid one end of the logs between the blocks of wood, I held the other end, and all the wood was cut in about 20 minutes or so. So I guess I am rubbing off on him. Good! That means there are two brains coming up with ideas.
The other thing I wanted to talk about today is something almost everyone keeps in the pantry: Salt. Plain old table salt. We use it to season food, preserve food, melt ice, and get rid of slugs (if you like doing that sort of thing), but did you know you can clean with it?
Ed told me that his grandmother used to use salt to clean her cast iron skillets. He said she just dumped some salt in there and scrubbed the pan with a rag. Curious, I had to try it. Wow! It really worked, and it didn't remove the seasoning! I just rinsed the salt out with hot water and dried the pan. Next time I do that, I'll take pictures. I promise!
A while back, I was looking for information on some apothecary bottles that I have. I came across something that said you can use salt to clean them. When I decided to try that on my dirty bottles, I couldn't find the article. (Yeah, I know. That’s what I get for not bookmarking it.) I have found some other articles, but they are kind of vague, so I am experimenting. Here are some pictures of my bottles.
Then I added some hot water and let them soak for about a half hour. Then I shook the bottles four about three minutes, or until my arm started getting tired. I let them sit some more and shook some more. Finally, I rinsed them out to see what I had. They are definitely cleaner, especiallly the "Sloan's Linament" bottle in the center. There was black gunk floating in the salt water, when I poured it out..
I refilled them and will let you know how that turns out. I'll do some more research this week and let you know if I learn anything more.
Other internet research showed that there are tons of ways to clean with salt, and even more if you mix them with our old buddy, vinegar!
Here is a link to some more salt info.
Cool huh?
See you tomorrow,
Connie
Monday, January 6, 2014
Finally, Vinegar!
Its cold here in the Kansas City Metro. About 4 degrees right now with a wind chill of -12.
Mom is gettting released from the hospital today. They still aren't sure what caused the infection, but she is so much better, the decided to send her home with oral antibiotics as opposed to the IV meds they have been giving her. There is a whole other blog post, that I will save for another time.
Usually, I am right in the middle of something before I realize I should have taken some pictures to show before and after, and this time was no different. Last fall, we were cleaning out Ed's outside storage box and discovered there had been a leak. Several small tools, nails, screws, etc were pretty rusty. You know me, I wasn't going to pitch any of it, if I could save it.
An internet search revealed I could use Vinegar. So I put everything in a plastic dish pan and soaked it in vinegar, leaving it sitting outside. Fortunately it didn't rain, because I got side tracked and left them out there for about a week. Worked like a charm!
A little while later, maybe a few weeks, I was looking for some bolts and I remembered that I had a ton of nuts, bolts, etc in the old cellar behind the house. Well, I did, but they were literally rusted together in one big clump. I brought them in, put them in a plastic bowl, filled it with vinegar, and left it for about a week.
Here are the during and after pictures. Of course, I didn't think about the before.
Awesome huh? The vinegar lifted the rust and other crud right off. That all floated to the top, leaving the clean hardware below.
My stepmom told me a long time ago that vinegar would "kill" mildew. Well, it will clean it off anyway. Anytime laundry gets that mildewy smell to it, we add a cup of vinegar to the wash water.
I also already knew that vinegar works well to clean glass and mirrors.
Any cursory internet search about using vinegar for cleaning yeilds a ton of results. Add baking soda and you just about have everything you need to clean your house without using harsh (and wallet draining) chemicals.
However, this site was the mother lode for vinegar uses. Definitely gonna bookmark this one.
How do you use vinegar?
Mom is gettting released from the hospital today. They still aren't sure what caused the infection, but she is so much better, the decided to send her home with oral antibiotics as opposed to the IV meds they have been giving her. There is a whole other blog post, that I will save for another time.
Usually, I am right in the middle of something before I realize I should have taken some pictures to show before and after, and this time was no different. Last fall, we were cleaning out Ed's outside storage box and discovered there had been a leak. Several small tools, nails, screws, etc were pretty rusty. You know me, I wasn't going to pitch any of it, if I could save it.
An internet search revealed I could use Vinegar. So I put everything in a plastic dish pan and soaked it in vinegar, leaving it sitting outside. Fortunately it didn't rain, because I got side tracked and left them out there for about a week. Worked like a charm!
A little while later, maybe a few weeks, I was looking for some bolts and I remembered that I had a ton of nuts, bolts, etc in the old cellar behind the house. Well, I did, but they were literally rusted together in one big clump. I brought them in, put them in a plastic bowl, filled it with vinegar, and left it for about a week.
Here are the during and after pictures. Of course, I didn't think about the before.
My stepmom told me a long time ago that vinegar would "kill" mildew. Well, it will clean it off anyway. Anytime laundry gets that mildewy smell to it, we add a cup of vinegar to the wash water.
I also already knew that vinegar works well to clean glass and mirrors.
Any cursory internet search about using vinegar for cleaning yeilds a ton of results. Add baking soda and you just about have everything you need to clean your house without using harsh (and wallet draining) chemicals.
However, this site was the mother lode for vinegar uses. Definitely gonna bookmark this one.
How do you use vinegar?
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