Living It With Lisa

The other day MSN Living had several ideas on how to wake up beautiful.  One in particular grabbed me as I woke up that morning with puffy eyes.  I couldn’t even remember when that last happened.

So as I read the list this one JUMPED out at me:

Avoid Carb Face
To wake with defined cheekbones, eat a high-protein, low-sugar dinner (try salmon and asparagus, a natural diuretic). Skip the rice, pasta and potatoes. “When our diet’s high in glycemic carbohydrates, our features take on a soft, doughy appearance,” says Connecticut dermatologist Nicholas Perricone.

Guess what I had for dinner the night before?  Tex-Mex … loaded with carbs!

Note to self :  Less carbs = mo’betta!

Two schools of thought to help your cheese stay fresh much longer and not get moldy:

1.  Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil.

2.  Store your opened chunks of cheese wrapped in Parchment paper and then insert into a plastic baggie.

For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt Andes mints in a double boiler and pour over warm brownies. Let set for a wonderful minty frosting.

At Christmas time I will buy Peppermint Bark from Williams Sonoma and break some in to small pieces and sprinkle on the top of the brownies before I bake in the oven.  The white and dark chocolate melts into the brownie and the peppermint is effervescent on top.  If using a mix don’t use one that has chocolate pieces already in it or you will have a gooey gooey brownie!

For Valentines Day you could bake two brownie mixes and put in a jelly roll pan lined with Aluminum Foil.  This will make it easy to remove from the pan this not scratching your pan.  Then take a heart shaped cookie cutter and make heart shaped brownies for your Valentine.

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

Also if one of your ingredients is oil, measaure that first and them add the sticky substance like peanut butter or honey.

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

Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress. Same thing works with slacks that cling when wearing panty hose or tights. Place pin in seam of slacks and …. ta da! … static is gone.

To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne pepper doesn’t hurt the plant and the squirrels won’t come near it.  I have also used cayenne pepper to keep the neighborhood cats out of my flower bed in Austin.  For some reason they love it as a litter box.  So buy the large size at your favorite Wholesale Store.

Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It’s cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your legs really smooth. It’s also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn’t like when you tried it in your hair.

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

First reports from the fire inspectors for Country Music Star Trace Adkins home said that the total loss of his 5,000 square foot house started in his dryer!  No matter what the cause, there are lots of house fires that start in a dryer.  Let’s eliminate that possibility for our homes with a few easy tips from a appliance repairman.

Have you ever had the heating unit go out on your dryer or think it is about to fail because the clothes aren’t getting dry?   Well here is a tip from a repairman. Go over to the dryer and pull out the lint filter.  I’ll bet it is clean since most of us clean the lint from the filter after every load of clothes.  Now take your “clean” filter over to the sink and run hot water over it.  (The lint filter is made of a mesh material).   If the hot water is sitting on top of the mesh you have a big problem! Dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh and that’s what burns out heating units. You can’t SEE the film, but it’s there. Those dryer sheets make your clothes soft and static free.

Now take one of your dryer sheets out of the box.  Feels waxy doesn’t it?   This substance builds up on your lint screen and can stop the air circulation inside the dryer and vent. This is also what causes dryer units to potentially burn your house down!   The best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time  is to take that filter out and wash it with hot soapy water and an old toothbrush every six months. Put it on your calendar! Your dryer might last a few years longer too.

Note: I went to my dryer and tested my screen by running water on it. The water ran through a little bit but mostly collected all the water in the mesh screen. I washed it with warm soapy water and an old toothbrush and I had it done in 30 seconds. Then when I rinsed it .. the water ran right thru the screen!  There wasn’t any puddling at all!  That repairman knew what he was talking about!

Another  Tip: Twice a year you should clean the plastic hose pipe that vents to the outside. Use the vacuum cleaner to suck out accumulated dust and lint.

So clean them both and don’t forget to schedule the dryer cleaning on your calendar six months from TODAY!