Sanibel-Captiva Daily

By Melinda of “Surroundings on Sanibel”

Happy New Year to all! Here are a few tips to help you in the new year. My tips this month are a bit different than those I have written in the past…because these tips were not written by me at all! I have collected helpful information over the years, mostly from my family and friends. The following tips have been particularly helpful to me here on Sanibel. I would love to share these tips and tricks with you…

Tips for the Kitchen

Bananas
Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Cheese
Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!

Pizza
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. I saw this on the cooking channel and it really works.

Boxed Cake Mix
To make a bigger cake from a mix, add 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1 tsp. baking powder.

Frosting
When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few minutes.. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount plus you also eat less sugar and calories per serving.

Fruit Pies
Cut four small slits into top pie crust and stand one piece of tubed pasta into each slit (choose pasta at least 2 or 3 inches long like cannelloni). The juices will bubble up the pasta ‘pipe’ and back down into the pie, instead of running all over your oven. Once pie has finished baking, remove pasta.

Heating Breads
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.

Measuring trick
Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot water, but don’t dry the cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it comes right out.

Leftover Wine
Freeze leftover wine in ice cube trays. You can use it later when cooking sauces, stews and soups.

Household Hints

Vacuum
To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge add an empty paper towel roll or empty gift wrap roll to the end of your vacuum hose. It can be bent or flattened to get into narrow openings.

Vase Stains
To remove a stain from the bottom of a glass vase, fill with water and drop in two Alka-Seltzer tablets.

Static Cling
Simply pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will no longer have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose. Place pin in the seam of your slacks and … ta da … static is gone!

Sealed Envelopes
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.

Dusty Lamp Shades
Lamp shades gather lots of dust due to the static electricity caused by light bulbs. Use a dryer sheet to wipe down the shade; not only does it pick up any dust and lint, it protects the shade so that it will gather dust less quickly.

Air Freshener
To add a wonderful scent to a room, dab a cool lightbulb with perfume. When you turn on the light, the warmth of the bulb will activate the prefume and scent the room.

Outside Ideas

Garden Weeds
When you start putting in your plants, work the nutrients in your soil and plant normally.  Wet newspapers then put layers around the plant roots overlapping as you go cover with mulch. You can forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some gardening plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers.

Car Windsheild
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!

Bugs on your Car
To prevent dead bugs from sticking to your car, spray WD-40 on the grill so you can wipe bugs off easily without damaging the finish.

Cleaning the BBQ Grill
Remove the grill from the barbecue, spray with WD-40, wait, and wipe clean. Wash with soap and water thoroughly before reassembling.

Pests

Fruit Flies
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2′ with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of dish washing liquid. Mix well. The flies will be drawn to the cup and gone forever!

Ants
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it and take it “home”. They can’t digest it so it kills them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don’t have the worry about pets or small children being harmed!

Flour Bugs
Keep a couple bay leaves in the flour canister to help deter the bugs (flour Weevils) congregating in their favorite hangout. You can toss the leaves loose in the flour or make a rough pouch out of one layer of cheesecloth to keep the leaves separated from the flour. Another tip is to tape the bay leaves to the inside of the lid. Always try to keep flour and other grains in air tight containers, this will help keep pantry pests out.

Mosquito Repellent
Tie a sheet of Bounce through a belt loop when outdoors during mosquito season.

Patio Bug Repellent
Put some water in a white dinner plate and add just a couple of drops of Lemon Fresh Joy dishwashing soap. Put it on your patio. I don’t know what attracts them - the lemon smell, the white color, or what - but mosquitos flock to it, drop dead and fall into the water or on the floor within about 10 ft.

Bug Bite Relief
Dissolve an Aspirin in a small amount of water until it creates a paste. Apply the paste to sooth mosquito bits…and works on bee stings too!

Melinda first opened Surroundings on Sanibel as an Interior Design consulting firm in 1994 shortly after graduating from West Virginia University. The business quickly evolved into a retail shop featuring the “marketable version” of her every day life. The shop is filled with all of the lovely things that Melinda has cultivated into her own signature style…casual opulence.

2480 Library Way

Sanibel, Florida

239-579-0409

melinda@melindagrahm.com