Stuck in a Rut with Side Items, an Ask the Audience

Heather says: Frequent commenter Mrs. Jen B left this in Monday’s post on meal planning: I am absolutely stuck in a rut when it comes to side dishes – heck, even main dishes! My father in law is the pickiest, pickiest eater I’ve ever met in my life. Seriously. We need for him to eat, …

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Choosing Sides, Meal Plan Primer Part IV

Dear Home Ec 101, I need to get our food budget under control, we spend a ton of money eating out.  It’s starting to cause fights.  I can’t cook or plan; even if I could, I wouldn’t know where to start. Signed, Hopeless in Hopeswell I began this series as a response to Hopeless back …

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How to Wipe Out Ants

Dear Home Ec 101: Help! I have ants milling around my cats’ water bowl. We can’t figure out where they are coming from, but a few more appear each day. They seem to be mostly interested in the water dish, since we tend to keep the rest of the food put away except for meal …

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Food Labels, Controversy, and MSG

Heather says: Yesterday’s conversation on high fructose corn syrup is a nice segue today’s look at food labeling and MSG. While I understand that cost and profits are the bottom line for many companies, I refuse to take the cynical view that all companies are out to hurt people. I believe there may be some misguided motives …

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Dishing on High Fructose Corn Syrup

Heather says: I live under a rock. Well, that’s not true at all let me rephrase it. When we moved from Minnesota to my home state of South Carolina, we decided to not pay for cable or satellite TV to save a little money after the expense of moving and buying a home. We live …

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Cleaning Up After Potty Training Accidents

how to wash underwear

Dear Home Ec 101, I am finally becoming successful in potty-training my 3.5 year old, but he has had a few accidents in his “big boy underwear.” I know to scrape as much of the mess as I can into the toilet, but beyond that how do I launder it? I’m afraid bleaching would wipe …

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