Helpful household tips!

I am fascinated by things that help me around the house. After all, if it will make my life easier, sometimes it is worth the cost! Last year, my mother told me about the Magic Clean Eraser. How did we ever live without that? I have cleaned walls, tubs, sinks and other weird items from stains I thought might be impossible to get out. Thanks Mom for the advice! With young kids in the house, my little eraser will never be too far from reach.

Last week, my husband helped me find an oldie...but definitely a great product again. I vaguely remember Mom having this too and hating them when I had to use them. But, I digress. I was running late last week and asked my husband to start the potatoes on the stove. Of course, I ran even later than I thought and he let them keep cooking. When I got home, one of my best pans was black. The situation looked impossible. I filled the pan with baking soda and let it sit for several days, dreading the cleaning attempt it might take. On my next trip to Wally World, I bought SOS pads. You know, the metal ones that Mom used to use? My husband very nicely volunteered for clean up duty. It only took him a few minutes and when he showed me the pan, I was amazed. My 22 year old pan looked brand new inside. It was 100 times better than before the potatoes. The next day, I had another pan to clean and thought I would just try the SOS pad to see what happened. Again, a beautiful shiny pan emerged. I had no idea my pans were that condition...but could be revived. I just assumed that years of use made them dull and stained inside. Thanks Honey for burning the potatoes! Each time I use a pan, I will be spending time with my new SOS friend until they are all shiny and new. I should probably explain that the pans I like the best are these big, heavy aluminum pans.

Another one of my favorite products is Chem-Dry carpet cleaner. While you can buy it in the store, I always track down the local Chem-Dry company and get the professional bottles from them. It is much stronger than the store bought version. Don't tell my husband but it actually took permanent marker out of our new carpet a few months ago. I have tried all the other brands and find that it doesn't take too long for stains to reimerge within a short period of time. They don't seem to do that with Chem-Dry. Of course, the really bad stains still require a lot of elbow grease to get out but I have gotten almost everything out that I have tried over the last 7 years of using it.

This past week I also discovered a short cut in cooking. You might think this is really obvious so hit the "DUH" button if you want to. I was going to make a chicken casserole to take to a friend (but I still haven't, long story). I laid out a few pacakges of chicken breast to thaw. Typically, I cook them on the stove top but I had a lot to do that day and decided to throw both packages of chicken in a big dish and bake them to save time. When they were done, I tossed them into a quart size ziploc bag, into the fridge and headed out the door. Several times over the last week, I have neglected to have something thawed for dinner...and it was the cooked chicken to the rescue. One night, I chopped up a few breasts and made Chicken Chowder Cheese soup. Since the chicken was already cooked, it took no time to throw everything else in a pan to simmer together. One night, I cut some of it into little squares and my daughter had chicken for a snack. She wanted it cold (UGH!) but she ate every bite. Today I wasn't feeling well and didn't even think about dinner until 6:15. I cut up the chicken and made a quick casserole which was done in time for hubby. I bet it didn't take 6-7 minutes for me to assemble, again, because the chicken was already cooked. I have a few breasts left and I think I am going to make chicken salad with it tomorrow. I am wondering how it would be if I cooked some in advance and froze it. This week, the chicken has still been extremely moist because it hasn't been frozen. Hmmmm! If I keep learning little short cuts like this, when the new baby comes, I will have lots of tricks to help me out.