Of crispy chicken & misplaced objects
Volume III, No. 16 (November 20, 2005)
Copyright © Deborah Michelle Sanders
Attach us to Your commandments….
Attach us to the Good Inclination & to good deeds
& compel our Evil Inclination to be subservient to you.
n From the Jewish morning prayers
HOUSEHOLD HINTS:
Get that Kentucky Fried Chicken® crispness without the fast-foods price. Just create a coating of ½ part crumbled cornflakes to ½ part flour & place in a shallow bowl. Season as desired; then add ½ tsp baking powder (NOT soda) for each total part of coating & stir well. Fill another shallow bowl with water. Put chicken first in water, then in the crumbs/flour mixture, & then back in water. People who do not observe Jewish dietary restrictions can use milk in place of water. You can then bake or fry the chicken.
When sending a card to a hospitalized person, use his or her return address, not yours. In this way, if he or she has been discharged, the card will still reach its intended destination.
Squeaky floorboards do not need anything expensive for repair. Just take talcum or baby powder, & apply it with a broom. End of problem.
When you open a container of milk – or, after having prepared non-fat dry milk – add a pinch of salt. It will keep the beverage fresher longer.
Do you have a door that is bent out of shape? The easiest way to get it back in shape is to spring for a new hinge. Apply it midway between the 2 existing hinges. Over time, the curve will be straightened out by the force of gravity.
Are you a man who likes to wear silk neckties? Or a woman who wears silk scarves? You can prolong their lives once you’ve removed them by rubbing them against your bare thigh. The nap will be lifted & the wrinkles will disappear. This works because of your body oil, & the large flat surface like an ironing board.
Anyone who can sew can revamp garments that no longer work in their present condition. For example, sleeves with elbow holes can be shortened. Or a full skirt, or wide tie or lapels, can be made narrower. If the garment seems beyond salvation, at least remove everything that can be used again (buttons, zippers, & other notions), before consigning the garment to the ragbag. (Alternatively, give the intact garment to charity.)
You can save valuable time in scheduling & keeping your kids’ visits to the doctor or dentist for routine checkups, if you schedule the visits back-to-back. In this way, you can make just one trip for all the children.
You can obtain many used or returned items from shop owners, at stellar prices. For example, ask a plumbing contractor for sinks or toilets. Ask a dry-cleaner for clothes, a shoe cobbler for footwear, a carpet store for a rug. You get the idea: you can obtain these -- & more – at fabulous discounts,. Floor samples in a store cannot touch these prices, even though the floor samples are considerably cheaper than regular retail.
Serve breakfast juice in 4-oz shot glasses. All the flavor you need to get the morning started right, without high expense.
Consider what you actually NEED, instead of what you initially WANT, before parting with your hard-earned dollars. For example, I recently had a metal watchband break. After trying to no avail to fix it, I initially thought of getting a professional repair. But then I realized: All that I REALLY need is a watch for outside of my house, as I have several clocks inside it. So, I have taken to keeping my watch inside my purse, AND have saved myself several precious dollars.
Don’t go out & buy a new mattress just because your bed has become too soft or your back has gotten bad. Instead, go out & buy a sheet or sheets of plywood large enough to cover your bedsprings. (Ask the lumberyard to saw the wood to size if you don’t have the appropriate tools.) Insert the plywood between your mattress & bedsprings, & there you are!
Place a layer of newspaper at the bottom of trash bins to keep odors away. This works both in a kitchen garbage pail, or in outside trash barrels.
If your coffeemaker with an automatic timer has seen better days, here’s how to economize. Buy a new coffeemaker that is cheap because it lacks a timer. Buy a separate timer, such as is used to turn lights on & off to fool a potential burglar. Plug your new coffeemaker into the new timer, plug the timer into the outlet, & you’ll have your morning coffee waiting for you, at moderate expense.
If you want to give flowers to an out-of-town friend, phone a florist in her town. (You can get the info on the Web.) You’ll save big bucks over FTD, which charges for the middleman.
In order to find a misplaced object – such a frustration to all of us at times – the best place to look first is exactly where it is supposed to be!
Copyright © Deborah Michelle Sanders
Attach us to Your commandments….
Attach us to the Good Inclination & to good deeds
& compel our Evil Inclination to be subservient to you.
n From the Jewish morning prayers
HOUSEHOLD HINTS:
Get that Kentucky Fried Chicken® crispness without the fast-foods price. Just create a coating of ½ part crumbled cornflakes to ½ part flour & place in a shallow bowl. Season as desired; then add ½ tsp baking powder (NOT soda) for each total part of coating & stir well. Fill another shallow bowl with water. Put chicken first in water, then in the crumbs/flour mixture, & then back in water. People who do not observe Jewish dietary restrictions can use milk in place of water. You can then bake or fry the chicken.
When sending a card to a hospitalized person, use his or her return address, not yours. In this way, if he or she has been discharged, the card will still reach its intended destination.
Squeaky floorboards do not need anything expensive for repair. Just take talcum or baby powder, & apply it with a broom. End of problem.
When you open a container of milk – or, after having prepared non-fat dry milk – add a pinch of salt. It will keep the beverage fresher longer.
Do you have a door that is bent out of shape? The easiest way to get it back in shape is to spring for a new hinge. Apply it midway between the 2 existing hinges. Over time, the curve will be straightened out by the force of gravity.
Are you a man who likes to wear silk neckties? Or a woman who wears silk scarves? You can prolong their lives once you’ve removed them by rubbing them against your bare thigh. The nap will be lifted & the wrinkles will disappear. This works because of your body oil, & the large flat surface like an ironing board.
Anyone who can sew can revamp garments that no longer work in their present condition. For example, sleeves with elbow holes can be shortened. Or a full skirt, or wide tie or lapels, can be made narrower. If the garment seems beyond salvation, at least remove everything that can be used again (buttons, zippers, & other notions), before consigning the garment to the ragbag. (Alternatively, give the intact garment to charity.)
You can save valuable time in scheduling & keeping your kids’ visits to the doctor or dentist for routine checkups, if you schedule the visits back-to-back. In this way, you can make just one trip for all the children.
You can obtain many used or returned items from shop owners, at stellar prices. For example, ask a plumbing contractor for sinks or toilets. Ask a dry-cleaner for clothes, a shoe cobbler for footwear, a carpet store for a rug. You get the idea: you can obtain these -- & more – at fabulous discounts,. Floor samples in a store cannot touch these prices, even though the floor samples are considerably cheaper than regular retail.
Serve breakfast juice in 4-oz shot glasses. All the flavor you need to get the morning started right, without high expense.
Consider what you actually NEED, instead of what you initially WANT, before parting with your hard-earned dollars. For example, I recently had a metal watchband break. After trying to no avail to fix it, I initially thought of getting a professional repair. But then I realized: All that I REALLY need is a watch for outside of my house, as I have several clocks inside it. So, I have taken to keeping my watch inside my purse, AND have saved myself several precious dollars.
Don’t go out & buy a new mattress just because your bed has become too soft or your back has gotten bad. Instead, go out & buy a sheet or sheets of plywood large enough to cover your bedsprings. (Ask the lumberyard to saw the wood to size if you don’t have the appropriate tools.) Insert the plywood between your mattress & bedsprings, & there you are!
Place a layer of newspaper at the bottom of trash bins to keep odors away. This works both in a kitchen garbage pail, or in outside trash barrels.
If your coffeemaker with an automatic timer has seen better days, here’s how to economize. Buy a new coffeemaker that is cheap because it lacks a timer. Buy a separate timer, such as is used to turn lights on & off to fool a potential burglar. Plug your new coffeemaker into the new timer, plug the timer into the outlet, & you’ll have your morning coffee waiting for you, at moderate expense.
If you want to give flowers to an out-of-town friend, phone a florist in her town. (You can get the info on the Web.) You’ll save big bucks over FTD, which charges for the middleman.
In order to find a misplaced object – such a frustration to all of us at times – the best place to look first is exactly where it is supposed to be!
posted by THE PENNY ORCHID -- "Thrift with Flair" at 2:51 PM
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