Foil roasting pans can prevent freezer mess

Dear Heloise: When I put food in my upright freezer, I place the containers of food in foil roasting pans.
When I returned home five days after Hurricane Charley, having lost power after the storm, I cleaned my freezer of the spoiled food. All I had to do was lift each roasting pan and put it into a large garbage bag. As the food had thawed in the foil pans, nothing dripped onto other food, and the freezer stayed clean.
Thought this would be a good hint for those who lose their power often. Dolores Harper, Sanibel, Fla.
Dolores, you are one smart cookie! And since hurricane/storm season is here, this hint is timely and could prove helpful to many others. Heloise
Dear Readers: Here are three helpful hints from Linda Jackson, via e-mail:
UIf I cook with pots that have lids, I use an upturned lid as my spoon rest -- the lid gets washed anyway.
UWhen washing fruits and vegetables, I use baking soda. The baking soda gives extra scrubbing action and washes off well.
UWhen I need to get juice from fresh citrus, I have found that microwaving the whole fruit for a few seconds really gets results. This makes juicing quicker and easier.
Dear Heloise: I just realized that I do something that might be interesting for your readers.
I buy my favorite brand of vanilla ice cream when it is on sale. If I want vanilla ice cream, I just put some in a dish, but if I want another flavor, here's what I do:
UAdd a drop or two of vanilla, stir and enjoy a stronger vanilla flavor.
UAdd some cocoa powder (or chocolate syrup -- Heloise).
UAdd a drop of almond extract.
UAdd a drop or two of lemon extract.
UAdd a sprinkle of nutmeg for the flavor of custard, which I love.
I hope others find these as economical as I do. It gives you a choice without having several gallons of different ice cream. Beverly Bierman, Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Dear Heloise: My husband was ready to throw away perfectly good plastic containers because they had been stained by some food. I remembered that my mom had told me to just set them out in the sun, and the sun would bleach them. I tried it, and it worked! We had others with stains, and so we did the same thing. Now we have unstained plastic containers. Lilliana Salazar-Greene, Houston
XSend a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, or you can fax it to (210) HELOISE or e-mail it to Heloise@Heloise.com.
King Features Syndicate