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 …
Heather says: If you’re new to Home Ec -I know there are some new lurkers about, ’cause I’m a creepy stat watcher- sometimes on Sundays we have the Sunday confessional. It’s something I came up with a couple years ago to try to keep things honest. It’s all too easy when running a site like …
Dear Home Ec 101, I am trying to find out the name of a certain chicken bone in the drumstick. One is a regular bone and the other one looks like a hat pin – thin, round at one end about the size of a pencil eraser, about 4 inches long and comes to a sharp point. What …
Dear Home Ec 101, When I bought my house 20 months ago it had ugly beige builders carpet through the living / dining room, hallway, and master bedroom. Inexplicably, the two spare bedrooms have hardwood floors. My plan when I moved in was to replace the carpet in the living & dining rooms with hardwood …
Dear Home Ec 101, I have heard dull knives are more dangerous than sharp knives. I can’t wrap my brain around this idea. Doesn’t a sharp knife do more damage? Signed, Perpetua the Perplexed Heather says: With knives it’s all about control. Think about cutting a firm, slippery object such as an apple. When the …
Dear Home Ec 101, Is there a particular reason we are supposed to leave the oven door slightly open while broiling? Is this just one of those things my mother taught me that actually has no basis in reality? Hush mom, do I really have to bring up the eating the crust of bread will …
Once in a while, every cook stumbles on a technique that transforms a vegetable from a tolerated item into a highly anticipated side dish. This technique which can easily be modified does it for broccoli and me. Admittedly I never hated broccoli, I didn’t love it, except in salads like broccoli almond salad, where the …
Heather says: Happy Pi Day! In honor of the date, I thought I would round up all the pie posts I’ve done over the last few years. To kick things off, here’s a Pie Crust Tutorial. By the fourth or fifth time I made pie, I felt like a pro. Hang in there for those …
Heather says: If you read solely through the RSS feed, you may have remained safe from all the shuffling and sorting of the last week. If so, please click through and tell me what you think of the new look. A few more categories will be added to the new drop down menus, but they …
Heather says: I spent the weekend digging through the nearly 1400 posts here on Home Ec 101, tagging, sorting, and doing other fun maintenance. While doing so, I stumbled on a post from 2008 asking readers for their best cleaning tips. I thought it would fun to share their knowledge in a conveniently packaged formatt. …