HELOISE: Filling slack in garbage sack

Dear Heloise: Here is a great idea for saving on plastic tall kitchen garbage sacks: Buy the kind with drawstrings and use in your trash can. When it’s full, take it out and hang a loop of the drawstring on a pull knob or the corner of a drawer (close the drawer so the sack hangs securely), and fill the sack until it is full. I get three times as much trash in the sack. It is a little unsightly, but if you aren’t entertaining, what the hey?

You spoke to the Texas Extension Education Association when Hurricane Ike came through the Gulf (September 2008 — Heloise), and that was one of the highlights of my life. Thank you so much for your accommodating personality.

Carolyn West from West Texas

Hi to my friends in West Texas and the Extension Service! That was a special speech for me, too! Sharing stories about my mother, my five-point plan for clutter-control hints from past to present and funny hints that never make it to print! Then closing up our coast house and heading to San Antonio, my home, just ahead of the hurricane.

Heloise

Dear Heloise: Can you help me and let me know if I can use an oven-cleaner spray on my convection oven? Unfortunately, I cannot find any instructions that might have come at the time I bought it.

Ruth H., Basking Ridge, N.J.

A convection oven can be a countertop oven, or the convection feature can be part of a self-cleaning electric or gas oven. If your oven has a self-cleaning feature, do not use oven cleaner!

Research shows that you should not use regular oven-cleaner spray in a convection oven. What to do? Use a wet sponge/nylon pad or cloth and some elbow grease to clean. Putting baking soda on the sponge will provide an added cleanser. Baking soda should be in every household! I have a pamphlet filled with hints to save money. To receive one, send $5 and a business-size, stamped (64 cents), self-addressed envelope to: Heloise/Baking Soda, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001. Do you know how to test to see if baking soda is still active? My pamphlet will tell you, along with some tasty recipes using baking soda as an ingredient!

Heloise

Hi, Heloise: I found a way to help my pizza dough finish rising when it seems to “stall” or it won’t start rising because I inadvertently used a package of yeast that is old. When it is finished kneading in my food processor, I wrap a heating pad around it, set on “low.” This has worked beautifully a couple of times, and it sure beats having to start another batch of dough.

Joanne V. Romano, Houston

Dear Heloise: I use an overturned cupcake baking pan as a trivet. Works well.

Jim of Rahway, N.J.

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