Mary Rose Quigg - 1,001 Country Home Tips & Tricks: Household Hints for Cleaning, Gardening, Cooking, Sewing, and More

Copyright 2021 by Mary Rose Quigg

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Daniel Brount

Cover image by Shutterstock

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-6224-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-6633-4

Printed in China

I would like to dedicate this book to my mother Mary Heron. She loved hints books and I know she would have been very proud of this one. A big thank you to Joe, Karen, Arleen, Orla, Cathal, and Brenda for their encouragement and support.

Efficiency means accomplishing more with less exertion and less expense.

This comprehensive collection of over one thousand valuable hints and tips has been compiled to help make daily tasks easier and less expensive. Over the years I have accumulated hundreds of household hints and tips. Many were given to me by my mother and friends; others have come from my own experience as a cook and housewife.

Cooking, baking, household chores, laundry, stain removal, D.I.Y., and gardening are the main subjects covered but you will find much more of interest, especially the proverbs and sayings that have given me pleasure over the years. Throughout the book, I recommend natural, environmentally friendly products whenever appropriate.

Working on this book has been a labor of love; I have gotten such great enjoyment from sorting and arranging the hints, tips, and ideas into a practical book. I hope you find it interesting and entertaining, but most of all I hope that it is useful to you and improves the quality of your daily life.

MARY ROSE

For a tasty snack, toast a slice of bread on one side. Turn over and spread with tomato pure, top with grated cheese, and pop under the broiler. Add cooked bacon, mushrooms, or any other topping.

Cover a split pita bread with tomato pure, top with cheese, and place under the broiler for a few minutes.

For a delicious beef sandwich: Place beef on a slice of bread and spread with a little horseradish. Sprinkle some crumbled cheese and onion crisps over and place another slice of bread on top. Cut into quarters.

Core a large cooking apple. Stuff the center with pork sausage. Bake at 350F. When cooked, cover with a thin slice of cheese, season, and brown under the broiler.

A dip for fruit or vegetables: Whip half a small carton of heavy cream to soft peaks, then stir in half a carton of natural yogurt. Add a pinch of salt, one teaspoon of mayonnaise, and two tablespoons crunchy peanut butter.

If bread is the first necessity of life, recreation is a close second.
Edward Bellamy

Mince some leftover chicken or ham, season, add a few drops of Tabasco or some other sauce, and mix with mayonnaise. Spread on slices of hot, buttered toast.

Roll out a square of puff pastry. Cover with a layer of creamed mashed potato and a layer of grated cheese. Roll up like a Swiss roll and cut into slices. Bake at 400F until golden. Serve hot or cold.

If Greek yogurt is unavailable, mix a carton of low-fat natural yogurt and a carton of heavy cream together.

Add 1 teaspoon (5 milliliters) crushed instant coffee granules to cream before whipping for an excellent topping for bananas or ice cream.

Store containers of sour cream upside down in the refrigerator to keep fresh longer.

Pipe unused fresh whipped cream into rosettes on a baking tray and freeze for dessert decoration.

Freeze leftover fresh cream in ice cube trays, put into a plastic bag when frozen, and use in soups as required.

To keep cream fresh for longer, add one teaspoon of brandy to the carton.

Maximize the sherry taste in a trifle by adding most of the sherry to the cream and the remainder to the sponge.

To stop milk from boiling over, rub buttered paper around the inside of the top of the saucepan. Or place a wooden spoon in the pan just before the milk comes to a boil.

If an excess purchase of milk is near its sell-by date, make a cheese or white sauce and freeze to use later.

Freeze fresh milk in an ice cube tray to use as a standby if you run out.

Add a pinch of salt to milk to keep it fresh longer.

Always rinse milk jugs or bottles thoroughly in cold water before washing as usual.

Never pour room temperature milk or cream back into the original container.

To keep condensed milk fresh, empty the contents of a newly opened can into a screw-top jar and store in the refrigerator.

Add two drops of vanilla extract to 1 pint (600 milliliters) of reconstituted dried milk to give it a fresh taste.

Add the juice of half a lemon to a small can of chilled evaporated milk and it can be whipped until stiff.

Make an instant smoothie by whisking half a carton of fruit-flavored yogurt into half a glass of cold milk.

Budget butter: take lb butter, lb margarine, 1 large egg, and pint slightly warmed milk. Using an electric mixer, put the butter and margarine into a bowl and mix until well creamed. Add the egg and beat well, then slowly add the milk with the mixer running. Leave to cool before using. This will produce 1 lb butter.

If you need unsalted butter, cut salted butter into small cubes and pour boiling water over them. When melted, chill in the refrigerator. When the butter resets the salt will be in the water.

Before unwrapping butter or margarine, run cold water over the packet for a few seconds and the contents will come away cleanly.

Wrap cheese in plastic film or foil, except for traditional cheese with rind, which should be wrapped in greaseproof paper.

Cheese should be stored covered in the salad compartment or door of the refrigerator.

If you like using Edam cheese because of its low fat but do not like the texture, freeze it, and after a week it will be crumbly with a strong flavor.

Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough but not baked in the same oven.
Yiddish Proverb

Mature hard cheese can be frozen, although the texture and taste can be slightly affected. Crumblier varieties tend not to freeze well as they tend to break up when defrosted. They can be used for cooking.

To soften cheese that has gone hard, soak a cloth in some white wine, squeeze it out, and wrap it around the cheese. Leave for several hours.