Renovation & Design
Renovation & Design
SOLUTIONS: Baking soda affects how cookie crumbles
QUESTION: My cookies never turn out. I follow the recipe as written but they either brown too fast or they look green and grey. What am I doing wrong? Marne (Sanford)
ANSWER: Experiment by cutting down on the amount of baking soda in your cookie recipes. Baking soda will brown cookies significantly. As well, baking soda can cause eggs in recipes to turn greeny/grey. Bake at a lower temperature and make sure you're baking on the middle rack of your oven.
QUESTION: We have an 8-foot by 10-foot synthetic rug made in Turkey, which sits on top of a 14-foot by 10-foot fixed wall-to-wall rug in our three-season sunroom. The area rug has developed a series of raised humps on one corner, which we are unable to straighten out. My question is, if we remove the wall-to-wall rug and install laminate flooring, then use a piece of underlay under the area rug, would we be able to get the rug to flatten out? Any other ideas would be welcome. Thanks. Ruth, Winnipeg
ANSWER: Before ripping out your carpet, consider purchasing a product called Curl Stop, available online through websites such as Amazon. It's designed to hold onto rugs and stop corners of area rugs from curling up.
There are several other rug-grip products designed to lay under area rugs to hold them flat on both carpet and smooth floors such as laminate. You may want to experiment with steaming the area rug to flatten it but this is typically a temporary fix. Carpet tape is also a temporary option.
QUESTION: Read your column in the Free Press faithfully. Don't know if I have ever seen this problem. We collect rain water in big barrels for our garden. We have a problem with green algae growing in the barrel and coating the sides.
Could we put chlorine bleach in these barrels to prevent the growth? Would this harm my vegetables? Trying to grow veggies as organically as possible. Any suggestions? Thank you. Gail, Winnipeg
ANSWER: The controversy that goes along with how to prevent algae from forming in barrels is as heated as margarine vs. butter or homework vs. no homework. While some prefer to add one-quarter cup of bleach to barrels, others opt to empty the barrel and scrub it with bleach, or vinegar and water, whenever algae is present.
Another popular solution is to add goldfish, minnows or sucker fish into the barrel, as constant movement in the barrel helps prevent algae from forming. However, people argue that, unless you feed the fish, they're not getting enough food to sustain themselves.
If possible, keep your barrel out of direct sunlight and as clean as possible. Grass clippings and animal waste entering the water pollutes it and triggers bacteria, which in turn promotes algae matter. If you add one tablespoon of bleach to the water every few weeks, this will not hurt your plants because it's very diluted in the same way that chlorine added to city water doesn't kill houseplants.
QUESTION: How can I easily mark clear tape so that I am not wasting time searching for the beginning of the roll and trying to peel it up with my chewed up fingernails? Sadie (Virden)
ANSWER: Secure a toothpick at the end of the tape.
Wet tips for the yard
-- Water your yard early in the morning, on calm days before nine o'clock. This reduces evaporation and scorched leaves.
-- Direct the downspout of your eavestrough into a rain barrel. Collect the water to use for watering the yard. Keep the barrel covered with either an insect screen or pour a drop of oil into the barrel. Doing this changes the surface tension of the water, making it difficult for mosquitoes to lay eggs.
-- Aerate the lawn every two to three years by poking little holes into dirt to loosen the soil and improve moisture penetration.
I enjoy your questions and tips, keep them coming. Missed a column? Can't remember a solution? Need a speaker for an upcoming event? Check out my new videos/blog/website: reena.ca!
Renovation & Design
SOLUTIONS: Silence that sqeaky door with Petroleum jelly
QUESTION: I was wondering if you might have a solution for a bedroom door that all of a sudden started to squeak every time we shut it. I polished all the doors in the house with Pledge and none of the others squeak. We used WD-40 on the hinges but that didn't work. I enjoy reading your column and do hope you can help me this time. Thank you so much. Debbie, Winnipeg
ANSWER: Ensure long-lasting silence by tapping the hinge pin out of the hinge and coating the top, bottom and middle of the pin with petroleum jelly. Push the pin back in place and test the door. The door should open and close without any further noise. In some cases doors become loose due to worn out screw holes at the hinges. To repair, remove the loose hinges and insert toothpicks into the holes then apply wood glue. Leave for 24 hours and cut the excess toothpicks. If necessary, screws the hinges back in place and your door will be tight once again.
QUESTION: I hope you can help me with the rabbit droppings that are next to my deck in the backyard. First of all, those little "beggars" did a nice job of eating my shrubs this winter and now their droppings are all along my deck. Can I mix some type of solution to pour over their mess so these droppings dissolve? Secondly, is there something I can do to keep them away from my shrubs? I know I could put up wire fencing but the area makes it a little hard to do this. Thanks for your help. Lorraine, Winnipeg
ANSWER: The easiest way to clean your deck is by spraying it with a pressure washer or a strong spray from a garden hose. If neither is an option, purchase a product such as Poop Off from a pet store or make your own cleaner. Into a one-litre spray bottle combine 1 1/2 cups of water, two cups of white vinegar and 1/2 a cup of liquid laundry detergent. Spray and scrub with a stiff brush. Rinse with water.
You are right, the best way to repel rabbits from chewing your shrub is with a 1 1/2 metre (or higher) fence, but if that isn't an option perhaps you can wrap at least the trunk of the shrub with chicken wire. When it comes to the garden, here are a few hints to try: surround the garden with milk jugs lined with sand. The idea is that the rabbits will chew on the jugs instead of your plants. As well, suspend aluminum pie plates around plants to keep rabbits away.
Or sprinkle one of the following around plants or shrubs: bags of human hair (from your local hair salon), bone meal, shaved pieces of Irish Spring bar soap or add turkey manure in with the soil.
Homemade rabbit repellent: Into a spray bottle mix one tbsp. of baby shampoo with one tbsp. of household ammonia and one litre of water. Spray plants every three days. Or soak corn cobs in vinegar for five minutes and then place them throughout the garden or under shrubs. The corn cobs should be re-soaked in vinegar after two weeks. When planting your flower beds, mix thyme, spearmint, daffodils and/or eucalyptus in with your flowers -- rabbits don't like the smell and often won't pass by them to get to your yummy plants. Some people have had success by burying fabric softener sheets around plants. Lastly, bury a collar cut out of a milk carton or jug around new individual plants or vegetables to protect them.
QUESTION: What should I use to keep my cake batter from sticking to the sides of my pan? China (Dugald, MB)
ANSWER: Butter, margarine, cooking spray, lard and shortening are acceptable choices for greasing a cake pan -- they all work. The choice just depends on your preference. While many bakers typically sprinkle flour onto the grease to prevent batter from sticking to the pan, some chefs opt for using sugar, instead, to add to the sweetness of cakes, such as shortcake.
Strawberry shortcake!
-- When making a layered strawberry shortcake, cut the layer(s) of the cake and moisten each layer with sugar syrup. Combine equal amounts of white granulated sugar and water. Lightly dab syrup onto cake layers with a pastry brush before placing strawberries in position.
-- After topping the cake with strawberries, brush sugar syrup onto strawberries to give the fruit a glossy finish.
-- I love to use real whip cream instead of artificial or ready-made whipped cream. Sweeten with a spoonful of icing sugar while whipping.
-- If you ever over beat whipping cream and notice you are left with a solid substance, you have inadvertently made butter so don't throw it out, it will be delicious on toast!
-- Anyone interested in receiving a recipe for a twist on strawberry shortcake by making strawberry shortcake biscuits please email me. They are delicious.
Life just got easier!
I enjoy your questions and tips, keep them coming. Missed a column? Can't remember a solution? Need a speaker for an upcoming event? Check out my brand new videos/blog/website: reena.ca!
