HELOISE: Vinegar aids in cooking, cleaning

Dear Readers: We use different types of vinegar in our daily lives, such as for cleaning and in salads.

Distilled white vinegar is made from corn and works well for pickling. It’s great for household cleaning, so keep it handy.

Balsamic vinegar is used in salad dressing and can do double duty as a tenderizer for meats.

Malt vinegar is sprinkled on fish and chips in England. The malt syrup gives it a strong odor.

Vinegar is a terrific, cheap tool in the kitchen, not only for cleaning, but for cooking as well. There are several recipes in my six-page vinegar pamphlet that you can have by sending $5 and a long, stamped (64 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Heloise/Vinegar, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. My pamphlet also will tell you how vinegar helps to perk up your veggies!

Heloise

Dear Heloise: When you use the last roll of toilet paper from the plastic package and you try to wad up the plastic and throw it in the small bathroom garbage can, it always unwads and takes up half the can. Instead, wad it up and stuff it in the last empty cardboard roll, and it won’t unwad.

Kathy G., via email

Dear Heloise: We have beautiful woodwork in our home, and I don’t use conventional curtain rods; I’ve always used tension rods. I changed my curtains in the family room that I had hanging for 10 years. The thin tension rods wouldn’t hold the weight of these curtains. I bought shower-curtain tension rods and painted them a bronze color with spray paint. I let them dry for several days. I hung them up, and you can’t tell they weren’t made that way! They are strong enough to hold the weight and look great.

Mary in Middletown, Ohio

Dear Heloise: To avoid the crack of light that comes through the drapes at motels or anywhere, use a ponytail claw clip to clamp the drapes.

Ann, via email

Dear Heloise: In one of your columns, you mentioned donating items that were gently used but not clothes that were frayed or stained. Yes, please DO donate frayed clothes, etc. These clothes go to a rag pile, and these clothes are recycled. One of the big items that are made is rags that mechanics use, among other things. Almost nothing gets wasted.

B. in Richmond, Texas

We talked to a clothing donation store, which said it does take more heavily-used clothes and determines where they are most needed at the time.

Heloise

Dear Heloise: A barely visible coating of facial cleanser applied to whiskers with the fingers will let you see what you’re doing when you shave, and it has the same softening effect as the messy cream you buy.

Paul in Florida

Send a money-saving or timesaving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, TX 78279-5000, fax it to 210-HELOISE or email it to Heloise@Heloise.com.

King Features Syndicate