Grandma Betty's Tips for the Kitchen
By Anastacia Mott Austin
Everyone has a Grandma Betty.
Maybe her name is Grandma Ethel, Nana Marie, Granny Mabel, or even an Auntie Bernice. Whatever her name is, your Grandma Betty probably has passed on many of these tips to someone in your family. While many families can't afford to have someone be a full-time housewife or househusband, these old-fashioned tips still come in handy today:
To peel an onion without tears: place the onion in your freezer for several minutes before you peel or cut, and it won't make you cry.
If your favorite frying pan has black scorch marks, put some dishsoap, water, and a few teaspoons of baking soda in it, and put it on the stove burner on high. Once it starts boiling, the black marks will soften and you can easily scrub them.
If you need to separate egg whites from the yolks, break them into a funnel: the whites will slide through, and the yolks won't. Easy!
For super-sweet, tender corn on the cob, add a little milk and a little bit of sugar to the boiling water.
To get more juice out of a lemon, heat it first for a few minutes in the oven (or, as my Grandma Betty said, in "the microwaving oven"). Then roll it on a hard surface with your hands until it feels "squishy." You'll get plenty of juice!
A bay leaf placed inside your dry goods (cereals, flour, rice) will keep mealworms and other buggies away.
If making party punch, freeze some of the punch (or lime or lemon juice, or another complementary flavor) in mini muffin tins. The ice "cubes" will be bigger and melt more slowly, while the concentrated punch or citrus flavor won't dilute your refreshing drink!
Speaking of ice cubes: if you want to freeze ice cubes quickly, don't fill the whole tray. The fewer filled cubes, the faster the ice will freeze. Also, add a dash of salt to the ice cubes and they'll slip out easily without needing to twist the trays or run hot water over them. Not too much salt, though, or you won't have any ice!
Gravy lumps can be avoided by adding a dash of salt to the flour before mixing it in to water or grease.
Add a few drops of vegetable oil to boiling water for pasta and it won't stick together.
Put a few grains of rice, some dry beans, or a few small pieces of pasta in with your salt or sugar to keep it flowing and clump-free. If brown sugar clumps anyway, use a small cheese grater to break it up.
Add extra fluff to baked potatoes with a pinch of baking powder.
Before adding a caustic drain cleaner to a clogged drain, try a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. Put the baking soda in first, followed by the vinegar, and watch it bubble up (like those fifth-grade volcano projects!). Use lots of hot water to clear the drain.
Clean windows with a mixture of two parts water, one part white vinegar. Or use dry newspaper pages, folded up, to rub away spots.
To freshen your garbage disposal, drop lemon or orange peels in, or herbal tea grounds.
Get rid of kitchen ants by sprinkling cornstarch or boric acid mixed with a little sugar wherever you see them. The boric acid is poisonous, and cornstarch is not digestible - either one will take care of the problem. For a line of ants marching into your kitchen, draw a thick line with chalk on wall or floor. Their legs can't get traction, and they'll not cross the line.
Drop a glass? Pick up the tiny, unseen shards with a dampened paper towel.
You probably know many of these already, but if not, add them to your own favorite tricks and store them away to pass them on to your own grandkids!
