Saturday, September 20, 2008

Apple Butter Time


It's that time of the year to hit the apple orchards and take advantage of the wonderful bounty of apples.

The bowl above are apples my mother shared with me. While she didn't give me the name of these beauties, she told me they would make great pies, holding a firm shape.

Regardless of whether I know the name of this fruit, I look forward to making a pie, and am already planning my own trip to the local orchard so I may put up some apple butter and, my favorite, apple jelly.

Hint: When working with apples, if peeling several at once, mix a tablespoon of vinegar with a bowl of water and immerse the apple slices in this solution. It will keep the apple slices from oxidizing and turning brown.

~ Paula

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Saving some energy

I was looking in the latest Lehman's catalogue, and noticed they sell dryer balls. These are two prickly-looking, small orbs you put in your dryer when drying a load. They are supposed to help reduce drying time up to 25%.

Since I wash sheets from my massage therapy business several times a week, this certainly piqued my interest, but I found them to be a bit expensive. So, necessity being the mother of invention, I decided to put a tennis ball in my dryer with a load of wet sheets and see if it made any difference in reducing drying time.

I typically use flannel sheets on my massage table. Their being thicker requires a longer drying time, usually around 100 minutes. I have found that using one tennis ball didn't make much difference, adding two tennis balls, however, reduced the dryer time by about 15 minutes. Not too bad. With my dryer that's a reduction of drying time by about 15%. I'll take it.

Hint: Always look around your home and see what is available to use in a creative, economical way. You might be pleasantly surprised.

~ Paula