Dear Home Ec 101: I started to bake some cookies and realized I was completely out of butter and margarine. Is there anything else I can use? I can’t believe I’m out of butter! Substitutions are a piece of cake if you know where to look. For your particular dilemma, you have a choice. 1 …
Heather says: This soup goes perfectly with the announcement of today’s contest. While you’re digging through the fridge, pull out all of the things that are on the edge of needing to be tossed out. Here are the items that Must Go: 1/2 meatloaf celery a few green beans a tomato with a bad spot …
Dear Home-Ec 101, What is the best way to clean diarrhea off of carpet? I’ll spare you the exact details, but let’s just say it’s pretty heinous. Signed, Poopy in Peewauket Ivy says: Oh, dear. Clearly, your day has been crappier than mine, so I shall cut out the bad puns and get right down …
Dear Home-ec 101: My son’s school had an earthquake drill; they sent him home with a worksheet to fill out. We need to locate the main shut off valve for our home’s water supply. Can you help? Shakin’ in Shelbyville Heather says: Excellent question, your main shut off valve is the knob on the house …
Dear Home-ec 101: That’s it, I’m done! As of today we’re going to start eating at home. Well, if I can learn to cook. I need Hamburger Helper easy. What do you suggest? Hungry in Hartford Heather says: You won’t be hungry for long. The best part is, a lot of the simplest recipes are …
Ivy says: Each Friday, we’ll be rounding up some of the most helpful and/or just downright fun posts we find on the web. Because we are unique and special little snowflakes, we will call this the “Friday Five”. Without further ado, here are the 5 posts we rounded up this week: 1. Bruno over at …
Dear Domestically Divine ones,I recently purchased replacement pieces for a beloved vintage Fisher-Price toy on eBay. They arrived today after a long wait, absolutely reeking of smoke. If the seller will refund my money, that’s the direction I’ll go in. If she won’t, I’d like to find a way to exorcise the smoke stink from …
Heather says: Today is one of those days, the kind of day where nothing is a crisis on its own, but added together it becomes one great big mess. I live in Hurricane Country, seven or eight months of the year I ensure I have clean enough clean bottled water to last my family for …
Dear Home-Ec 101, How do you get the foot-stink out of shoes? Specifically, leather shoes, since those make your feet sweat like a fat guy chasing after an ice cream truck in August? Signed, Ron Ivy says: Stinky shoes are no laughing matter, and neither are fat guys and ice cream trucks. We on the …
Dear Home-ec 101, I hang pans up above the stove and cruddy looking, stained bottoms look bad. I bought two new shiny ones and the smaller one looks like heck after just one run through the dishwasher. The packaging did NOT say to avoid the dishwasher so what happened? It said it was “professional grade” …