Household and Garden Tips
Index:

Growing Sprouts

Outdoor Entertaining

Cooking in the Kitchen

BBQ & Dutch
Oven Cooking


Smoked Meats & Fish
Drying & Dehydrating Fruit

Backpacking
Family Camping
Camp Cooking Recipes

Harvest &
Storage

Cleaning Up

Grocery Shopping
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Shopping List

Ripening Tips for Apples & Pears

Nutritional
Qualities

Little Fixes

Baby stuff!

Baby Stuff

Clothing

Pets

Weights & Measures

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Gardening
To Do Lists

Fall Garden Help

Sunflowers in the Fall
Composting
Hardy Annuals
Bulbs
Hardwood Cuttings
Root Storage
Pleaching
Mulching
Cover Crops

Summer
Garden Help

Encourage beneficial insects in summer garden
Annuals
Perennials
Baskets
Berries
Cuttings
Greenhouse
Hedges
Herbs
Plant Disease Control
Seed Collecting
Topiary
Vegetables

Spring
Garden Help

Spring blossoms

Ground Prep
Cold Frames
Early Crops
Fertilizer
Manure Tea
Beneficials
Pollinators

Winter Garden Help

Winter garden scene

Feeding Wild Birds
Clean-up
Garden Plans
Seed Orders
Tree Care
Pruning

Historical Gardens
Victory Garden

Garden Catalog Links

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Fruit From Washington Country Cooking, Household Hints & Other Helpful TipsGrandma Violet's tips on how to clean a waffle iron

My Grandma Violet had the habit of jotting notes on whatever was handy. Her cookbook pages are rife with penned lines that offer suggestions on how to improve recipes to her own taste or ideas on how to run a household smoothly. A tip on how to clean a waffle iron appears on the back of a torn envelope and she underlined the household tips she thought important in the Stanwood Community Cook Book (compiled by Young Married Folks' Club of the St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Stanwood, Iowa in 1948).

Among these household tips and hints are:

Tips on Cooking In The Kitchen
To keep the stovetop clean while you are frying, place an overturned baking sheet across the two burners opposite the skillet. The baking sheeet will catch most of the spatters and is easy to clean. - The Register-Guard, 3/10/04

When making a pie of custard type, bake the crust just enough to set it well before pouring in the filling and the crust will never rise to the top. The pie won't get soggy either.

When frying eggs drop a few pinches of flour in the hot grease in the skillet to prevent the hot grease from popping out.

If a frying pan is heated and rubbed well with salt nothing in it will burn.

To keep doughnuts from absorbing grease add a pinch of cream of tartar to the flour used.

Mix powdered sugar instead of white sugar with whipped cream to prevent water settling.

To make sure pie crust is always flaky, add a little baking powder when making it. This will help to make it flaky.

Good uses for left over egg whites: all kinds of meringues; cake frostings; angel cake, white cake or macaroons; fruit sherbets, parfaits, snow puddings.

Tips on Little Fixes
If a knob comes off a sauce pan cover or other cover, just put a screw thru from the under side, then screw on a cork from the top.

Tips on Cleaning Up
White syrup will take out grass stain.

A cloth dipped in vinegar then in salt will scour the lime ring from fish bowls and vases.

To clean finger-marked furniture or woodwork that is varnished, 1 qt. warm water, 3 T. linseed oil, 1 T. turpentine, keep warm while using. Wash with this and then shine with a soft dry cloth. This may also be used on a piano.

It wouldn't surprise me if she kept the above mixture handy to clean up after visits from those sticky fingered grandchildren (of which I was one).

Handwritten recipe for peanut butter crisscross cookies We highly recommend the Peanut Butter Crisscross Cookies that Grandma Violet wrote into the pages of the Stanwood Community Cook Book! If you are having trouble reading the handwriting, click here! Other great cookie recipes at FruitFromWashington.com Cookies and Candies - Recipes Using Apples and Pears!
Grandma Violet wrote out the recipe for Aunt Lena's Drop Biscuits. Despite her note that they were perfect, let us suggest an ingredient substitution of shortening or butter for the lard! Handwritten recipe for Aunt Lena's Drop Biscuits

Tips on Growing Sprouts

Q: I want to do a batch of sprouts but can't find the directions. Have you ever grown sprouts?

A: Here are some directions for growing sprouts written up by Sophia.

Sprouting directions:
1. Measure seeds into jar. Add water in ratio of 4 parts water to 1 part seeds. Place screen on top and soak overnight.
2. In a.m. drain soak water through screen top. Rinse by holding under running water until filled. Swirl gently and drain. Rinse sprouts each morning and evening. Rinse more often, if disired, for slightly faster growth. After rinsing, prop jar at angle with screen top facing down (to ensure proper drainage and ventilation).
3. As sprouts grow and throw off seed hulls, change to larger screen top. Hold jar at slight angle under running water. Swirl sprouts around as it fills and overflows. Hulls will be flushed out the top. Continue until most hulls are rinsed away. Drain well. Continue rinse cylce until harvest.

Sprout Table:
Alfalfa: 1.5 - 2 Tbsp dry seeds yields 1 qt.; soak time: 3-4 hours; rinse hulls away on day 3 or 4; growing time 4-5 days.
Radish: 3 Tbsp=1qt.;soak time: 4-6 hrs; rinse hulls on day 3 or 4; growing time 3-5 days.

Family Matters and Baby Stuff

This morning I noticed Ellette's shirt was on inside-out. She said she liked it because it felt better that way. I said, "well, you do have a point." She started looking down her sleeve, and said, "where, Mommy?"

Harmon
Meet Harmon. He's an expert on a lot of things, including applesauce.
Here is his big sister, Aliza,
Aliza
Ellette
and here is Ellette, his other big sister.
Don't forget, Jackie. She is a  good old dog.
Jackie

Harmon has an apple a day with a little help from Mom, the microwave oven and the Happy BabyŽ Food Grinder (a Happy BabyŽ Product). Here is the recipe.

Fruit From Washington Special RecipeHarmon's Pure Apple Applesauce

The Romes are the best (better than Empire, MacIntosh, Gala, Delicious, Braeburn...in my opinion). They have the most beautiful red in the white flesh and they cook up the quickest with the best overall texture!--Mom

1 apple (a Rome Beauty is the best choice) cored, sliced
Cook apple with water for 4-˝ minutes on high in the microwave oven
Cool pieces slightly (skin will peel off easily, if desired) then grind pieces in the Happy BabyŽ Food Grinder
Serve what the baby will eat for breakfast and the remainder after dinner for dessert!

Baby wearing a Yum! www.fruitfromwashington.com bib

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