Daily Thrifty Tips
Volume Three, Number 186, November 18, 2004
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Today's newsletter contains:
Today's Tips:
- Faster And Less Painful Dog Nail Clipping!
- Another Use for the Swiffer Duster
- Two Layer Pumpkin Pie
- Harvest Baked Apples
- Freezer Containers For The Workshop
- Thanksgiving Decoration - Cloves and Oranges
- Keep "Better For You" Snacks Within Reach
- Inexpensive Relaxing Bath
- Construction Paper Turkey Decorations
- Lynn's Great Pie Crust
- Add Soup to Stuffing
- Keep Your Turkey Moist
- Still Have Whole Pumpkins? Make a Snowman!
- Crustless Pumpkin Pie
- Minimize Lime Spots On Glass Shower Doors
- Removing Paint Stains from Cars
- Lost the Backs to Your Earrings?
- Lemon-Sage Turkey with Wild-Mushroom Gravy
- Four Layer Pumpkin Cake
- Another Use for the Swiffer Duster
- Cleaning Electric Grilling Machines
- Removing Mildew from Garments
- Removing Blood Stains
- Paper Cup Gobblers
New Requests:
- New Years Eve 1st Birthday
- Cleaning The Inside Of Magnalite Pots
- Looking for AOL CDs
- Inexpensive Ideas For Entertaining Toddlers
More Reading:
- Pet Safety for the upcoming holidays
- Easy Ways To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
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Today's Tips
Faster And Less Painful Dog Nail Clipping!
My dog is a large breed with very large and tough nails. This was a most unpleasant task until I discovered a Dremel Tool! I used the larger grade sanding wheel for my dogs nail size and thickness. For less noise, I used the slowest speed. It was so much faster and not nearly as painful for my pet. I also didn't need to worry about causing bleeding by cutting too close or pinching the nail with the standard clippers for dogs. I also could regulate how much nail to file down at a time - dependent on my pets patience level and mine at the time!
By Mastiffs
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Another Use for the Swiffer Duster
I have a narrow lint trap space in my dryer. I have found that the new Swiffer Duster with the extension handle works really well for going down into the lint trap, after I have removed the trap screen. It also works really well getting under the dryer too!
By Mastiffs
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Two Layer Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients:
- 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
- 1 c. plus 1 T. milk, divided
- 1 T. sugar
- 1 tub Cool Whip, thawed, divided
- 1 pre-made graham cracker crust
- 1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin
- 2 pkg. vanilla flavor instant pudding
- 1 t. ground cinnamon
- 1/2 t. ground ginger
- 1/4 t. ground cloves
Directions:
Mix cream cheese, 1 T. milk and sugar in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Gently stir in half of the whipped topping. Spread into crust.
Pour 1 c milk into large bowl. Add pumpkin, pudding mixes and spices. Beat with wire whisk 2 minutes or until well blended. Spread over cream cheese layer. (Mixture will be thick.)
Refrigerate 4 hr. or overnight. Garnish with remaining whipped topping. Store leftover pie in refrigerator.
By Robin
View Article: Click Here
Harvest Baked Apples
Ingredients:
- 8 medium baking apples
- 1/2 c. apple or orange juice
- 1/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
- 1/2 t. ground cinnamon
- 1 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese
- 1/4 c. raisins
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remover cores from apples to within 1/2 in. of bottoms of apples: pierce the skins with a sharp knife. Place apples in shallow baking dish.
Combine juice, sugar and cinnamon; pour over apples.
Bake 30-35 minutes or until apples are tender, basting occasionally with the juice mixture. Remove apples from oven. Combine cheese and raisins and spoon evenly into centers of apples. Let stand 1 minute.
By Robin
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Freezer Containers For The Workshop
The transparent Glad-Ware Soup/Salad containers make excellent storage boxes for anything from buttons to screws or staples or nails. They have a solid lip around the top, and they slide like drawers if you use the louvered panels from the backs of old fridges as dividing walls between stacks of them.
You can of course make the side and dividing walls from wood or a couple of layers of strong cardboard and just cut grooves into them for the container lips to slide in. That way you can take one container from the bottom without knocking the whole stack over.
Those Soup/Salad containers are about $2 for five and are quite durable, as long as you don't step on them.
By DearWebby
http://webby.com/humor
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Thanksgiving Decoration - Cloves and Oranges
A simple decoration for Thanksgiving is cloves stuck in an orange. I did this last year with my children and they loved it. Whole cloves have a pointy end that can easily stick into the orange. Let the kids come up with their own designs. It has a wonderful scent also!!
By Jennifer
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Keep "Better For You" Snacks Within Reach
Place 'better for you' snacks in the most prominent spots. Stock pre-cut carrots on the center shelf of your fridge and keep fruit in a bowl on the table for easy access.
By Robin
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Inexpensive Relaxing Bath
I love a hot, relaxing bath and have discovered that one of the best bath treatments I have ever used costs pennies-a-bath. For silky, soft water, add a couple of tablespoons of baking soda to the bath water. Enjoy!
By Noreen
View Article: Click Here
Construction Paper Turkey Decorations
Make turkey decorations from construction paper or fun foam - not your typical trace your hand turkey design!
Ingredients:
You need a total of 3 hand shaped pieces
One gourd shaped think small round on the top of a fat bottom round (like a number 8)
small feathers
wiggle eyes
yellow or brown pipe cleaners
feet, beak
To Assemble:
Use the gourd shape for the birds body and on each side attach one hand for the feathers - then the 3rd hand on the bottom (large end of gourd.)
Use the colored craft feathers behind the head, wings, and bottom.
Make spiral shapes for the 2 legs out of pipe cleaners (wrap around a pencil)
Make feet to attach at the end of the pipe cleaner - like 3 rounded toes,
Make beak- think v shape with rounded top.
Attach wiggle eyes close together at the top of beak.
You can embellish further if desired by adding a stick under the feet so he looks like he's standing on a perch - and ribbons to the end of the stick to go up to a point above the head for a hanger.
Assemble with white glue.
Almost any age kids can do this - you may need to do some of the cutting if they can't; or purchase pre-cut hand pieces from craft stores (but that's not too thrifty).
Fun foam is firmer than construction paper, but either will work. You could even use fabric scraps but it would need to be glued to a backing like cardboard.
By Mary S
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Lynn's Great Pie Crust
Ingredients:
1- 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (whole wheat pastry flour ok)
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons milk
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°
2. Place all ingredients in 9 inch pie pan. Stir together with fork. Pat mixture into bottom and up the sides of the pan. Poke holes in bottom and side of crust.
3. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until light brown. Use as directed in favorite pie recipe.
By Lynn
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Add Soup to Stuffing
I have done my stuffing in the crockpot and have added a can of cream of chicken or celery soup to the top.
By ReNee Smith
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Keep Your Turkey Moist
If you bake your stuffing in another dish, you can make the turkey stay moist by placing an apple inside while baking.
By Gladys Hill
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Still Have Whole Pumpkins? Make a Snowman!
Take 3 pumpkins - small, medium and large. Paint them with white poster paint. Hot glue them together like a snowman. Makes a cute decoration for porch or anywhere you wish. Paint facial features on the top pumpkin. Glue some buttons, made from styrofoam meat trays, down the front. Take a can, paint it black. Glue a paper plate painted black on bottom of the can for a top hat. Glue it to top pumpkin. After Christmas, if the pumpkins are still good, you could even peel off the outer layer, cook them and eat them.
By Gladys Hill
View Article: Click Here
Crustless Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients:
4 eggs
16 oz. can pumpkin
2 t. pumpkin pie spice
1 t. salt
1 1/2 c. sugar
12 oz. can evaporated milk
1 box yellow cake mix
2 sticks butter
Directions:
Combine eggs, pumpkin, spice, salt, sugar and evaporated milk, blending well. Pour into ungreased 13 x 9 baking dish and sprinkle dry cake mix over top. Drizzle butter onto cake mix; do not stir. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour, testing for doneness. Serve with whipped topping, if desired.
By Robin
View Article: Click Here
Minimize Lime Spots On Glass Shower Doors
I hung a patterned shower curtain which I bought at the Dollar store, just inside the shower doors. It has a pretty design and adds privacy. Best of all, it saves me from having to remove lime build up on the doors. I occasionally have to de-lime the bottom of doors, but hey, that's not a major chore.
By Gladys Hill
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Removing Paint Stains from Cars
Those new 'eraser' sponges also work on cars. Last summer I backed into the garage and got too close, the result was brown paint on a white car! Yikes! Only minimal elbow required.
The brand I used was 'easy erasing pad' by Scotch-brite at Wal-mart, approx. $5 for 2 pads.
By Donna
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Lost the Backs to Your Earrings?
I keep brand new pencils at my desk with unused erasers. There have been so many times that I have lost the backing to an earring, that I came up with the idea to slice off the eraser and use it as a "backing" for the pierced earring. The pencil then can have one of those slip-on erasers added to replace the one cut off.
By JoAn
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Lemon-Sage Turkey with Wild-Mushroom Gravy
Yield: 12 servings
Remember to reserve the drippings from the bottom of the pan. You will use them to make the gravy.
3 tablespoons grated lemon rind
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons dried thyme
2 tablespoons dried rubbed sage
1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 (12-pound) fresh or frozen turkey, thawed
2 (16-ounce) cans fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
Cooking spray
Wild-Mushroom Gravy (see recipe)
Combine first 6 ingredients; set aside.
Remove and discard giblets from turkey, reserving neck for gravy. Rinse turkey with cold water; pat dry. Trim excess fat. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat. Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under turkey. Rub spice mixture under loosened skin; rub into the body cavity.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pour 1 can of broth in bottom of a shallow roasting pan. Place turkey, breast side up, on a rack coated with cooking spray. Place rack in roasting pan. Insert meat thermometer into meaty part of thigh, making sure not to touch bone. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 1/2 hours.
Carefully pour 1 can of broth into pan. Bake an additional 1 1/2 hours or until thermometer registers 180 degrees F. Remove turkey from oven; reserve pan drippings to make gravy. Cover turkey loosely with foil; let stand 15 to 20 minutes. Discard skin. Serve with Wild-Mushroom Gravy.
Wild-Mushroom Gravy
Yield: 3 cups
If your pan doesn't yield enough drippings, add water or chicken broth.
Pan drippings
2 cups water
3/4 cup thinly sliced shallots
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrot
1 turkey neck
1 cup sliced button mushrooms
1 cup thinly sliced shiitake mushroom caps (about 3 1/2 ounces)
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon red currant jelly
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Place a large zip-top plastic bag inside a 4-cup measure. Pour drippings from turkey roasting pan into bag; let stand 10 minutes (fat will rise to the top). Seal bag; carefully snip off 1 bottom corner of bag. Drain drippings to measure 2 cups, stopping before fat layer reaches opening. Reserve 2 tablespoons fat in bag; set aside.
Combine water, shallots, carrot, and turkey neck in a medium saucepan; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 30 minutes. Strain cooking liquid though a sieve over a bowl, reserving 3/4 cup cooking liquid. Discard solids, reserving turkey neck. Remove meat from neck; chop. Add meat and cooking liquid to defatted 2 cups drippings in 4-cup measure.
Heat reserved 2 tablespoons fat in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add mushrooms; sauté 2 minutes. Add flour; cook 1 minute. Gradually add cooking liquid mixture; cook 10 minutes or until slightly thick, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in jelly and pepper.
By Kathy
View Article: Click Here
Four Layer Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients:
1 pkg. yellow cake mix
1 can (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided
1/2 c. milk
1/3 c. vegetable oil
4 large eggs
1 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 pkg. cream cheese (8 oz.)
1 c. powdered sugar
1 tub Cool Whip, thawed (8 oz.)
1/4 c. caramel topping
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 (9 in.) round cake pans. Beat cake mix, 1 cup of the pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs, and 1 t. of the pumpkin pie spice in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Pour evenly into prepared pans.
Bake 20-22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool completely on wire racks. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese in small bowl with electric mixer on on medium speed until creamy. Add powdered sugar, remaining pumpkin and remaining 1/2 t. pumpkin pie spice; mix well. Stir in whipped topping.
Remove cake layers from pans; cut each layer horizontally in half with a serrated knife. Stack the layers on a serving plate. spreading the cream cheese mixture between the layers. Do not frost the top layer. Drizzle with caramel topping. Store in refrigerator.
By Robin
View Article: Click Here
Another Use for the Swiffer Duster
I have a narrow lint trap space in my dryer. I have found that the new Swiffer Duster with the extension handle works really well for going down into the lint trap, after I have removed the trap screen. It also works really well getting under the dryer too!
By Mastiffs
View Article: Click Here
Cleaning Electric Grilling Machines
An easy way to clean an electric grilling machine is to put wet paper towels on the bottom surface, close teh cover and plug it in. In a short while the cooking surface debris will be easy to wipe off. Using a pair of tongs, move the paper towel around and rub off the debris. Make sure to hang the grill a little over the edge of the sink to catch drips and please be careful of the hot machine. Important: Be sure to unplug it as soon as it softens the debris and BEFORE you start to rub it off.
By SueKaf
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Removing Mildew from Garments
To remove lightly stained mildew from garments, you can do one of 4 things.
1. Just by ordinary laundering and then laying or hanging in the sun to dry.
2. By soaking in sour milk overnight, rinse, and expose to the sun for several hours.
3. By rubbing salt on the stain, then lemon juice, and then placing the item in the sun.
4. Using a chlorine bleach.
By Robin
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Removing Blood Stains
Blood stains are set by hot water so soak the item in cold water and then launder it. If the item is non-washable, sponge on cold water and a mild laundry or dish soap.
By Robin
View Article: Click Here
Paper Cup Gobblers
(These will make a parents crazy, but kids love them)
Use a yellow paper cup - not the small size but coffee size or larger.
With the cup upside down - use colored paper or construction paper to make a beak and the red thingy on its head.
Use black marker or wiggly eyes.
Then take kite string, or other natural fiber string (not nylon or twine) cut about 16" depending on the size of your cup. Tape it inside on the center of the bottom of the cup so when you hold up your gobbler the cup is upside down and the string is hanging down around 8-10" or so.
Now, wet the string slightly and wet your fingers - pull your fingers down the string and your gobbler will gobble.
By Mary S
View Article: Click Here
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New Requests:
New Years Eve 1st Birthday
Hello, I'm planning my daughters 1st birthday. Her birthday just happens to be on New Years Eve. She has two older brothers ages 3 and 2. We are planning on having something in the mid-morning to afternoon. I'm thinking of simulating New Years at Noon instead of Midnight and having the children jump on bubble wrap and yell out Happy Birthday instead of Happy New Year. I was thinking they could make their own blowers and hats as something for them to do. Most of the children invited will range from ages 1-4. If you have any other suggestions I would greatly apperciate them.
Thanks for you time :)
Trish from Maryland
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Cleaning The Inside Of Magnalite Pots
How do you clean the Inside of the Magnalite Pots? My pots have white dots on the bottom of the pans. Could you possibly tell me what to do?
Thanks so much,
Ladyluck from Violet
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Looking for AOL CDs
Does anyone know where I can get a bunch of aol disks (or the likes) to use for craft projects?
jlyn
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Inexpensive Ideas For Entertaining Toddlers
I recently became a stay-at-home mom of a 2 1/2-year old and a 5-month old. I'm looking for inexpensive things to do with them, especially things my 2-year-old can do with other kids.
We've already done things like a color and shape search at the store, but it's getting too cold to go to the park.
Camilla
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More Reading:
Pet Safety for the upcoming holidays
By Bradley Wallace
Be sure to make this upcoming holiday season safe and enjoyable for everyone in your family by observing the following pet safety tips:
View Article: Click Here
Easy Ways To Avoid Holiday Weight Gain
By Lynn Bode
The holiday season is undoubtedly a time for rejoicing.
Unfortunately, the average adult does a little too much celebrating
during this time of year, which leads to extra baggage when the New
Year rings in. Festivities that include indulging in extra helpings,
snacking on seasonal treats, and little to no workout time all
contribute to the increase in dieters in January.
View Article: Click Here
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