Cooking Tips – Beauty Tips – Household Tips

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To save time, dry ground powders can be made ahead, and stored in tight containers when you have more free time. Use when required. Masala powder that use coconut must be kept in the refrigerator.
One way to test if the mango is rip enough to cut, is to smell the point where the mango was attached to the tree. Nip off any remaining stalk, smell. If the mango is right, it will exude a luscious sweet fragrant aroma.
Stains Of Fruit Juices
To remove the stains of citrous fruit juices, especially of lemons from the floor, smear the stain with coconut oil and rub well. The stain will vanish within a few days.
If a grater is not handy, cut ginger or garlic into small bits. Crush with the back of a steel or wooden ladle. It will easily crush.
For Stiff Cotton Clothes
Use starch water from rice to give a light starch to your cotton or silk scarves, dupattas, or sarees. Dilute before using.

To freeze stock of your choice, eg., tomato, mixed vegetable as above, spinach, etc., prepare thick stock and cool to room temperature. Transfer to icecube trays and freeze to make solid cubes. Remove cubes and transfer to a freezable polythene bag, with an airseal. Remove excess air, seal tight. Store in freezer and use cubes as required.
Keep boondi unseasoned, just plain fried and use in boondi raita as required (refer raitas).
When soups or stews get slightly burnt you can renew the taste by transferring it gently and carefully into a clean pan and flavouring with curry powder or mustard to camouflage the burnt taste.
Perfume Tip
When your perfume bottle gets used up, place open bottle in wardrobe. A light whiff of your favourite perfume will envelope your clothes and cupboard for quite some time.
Rainy Season - Shoe Care
During the rainly season, apply mustered oil on the inner side of your shoes. No fungus will form.

Microwave Oven - Cleaning
Place a large bowl half full of water, microwave on high till it comes to a boil. Remove and clean oven with a moist cloth, to remove grime and grease. Clean then as usual with warm soapy water dipped cloth.
Sprinkle salt in tamarind before storing, to keep away the worms. Dry well in sun till a little stiff, cool indoors for few hours and then add salt. 1 fistful to a kilogram of tamarind. Store in airtight plastic or glass container.
Teeth Whitening
Add salt to a tsp. of lemon juice to make a paste. Apply all over teeth, brush to give a gentle massage, rinse. Makes teeth white. Repeat weekly for very yellow cases.
If short of space, wash machine dry curtains and hang them in their place without drying on a clothesline. They will solve your problem of an overcrowded clothesline and will reduce on step of the job. Pull them end to end to spread them fully and let the air dry them.
Add a lemon and onion to the vessel in which potatoes are boiled, add some water and boil a few minutes. Drain and wash with dishwashing soap. Will keep the vessel from discolouring.

Place teabags soaked in chilled water over closed eyes to relieve tired and strained eyes. Regular use will bring the sparkle and smile back to your eyes.
Coffee Stains #1
Remove coffee stains from fabrics, sponge stained area with borax solution, And wash off with warm soap suds. If stain is old and dried, loosen first with Glycerine solution.
You can use the leftover royal icing to pipe clusters and stars. Put them on a sheet of waxed paper to dry and then store them for use when required.
Sketch Pen
To get a dry sketch pen working again, pour three or four drops of hot water into the sponge tube inside and wait a while.
Starch Water
Do not throw away Starch water strained from boiled rice. Use either to starch your dupattas and other clothes, as also to knead dough, in soups, or to make more rice.

When removing rind of oranges or lemons take care not to include the white pithy part, or the rind will taste bitter. To store, either air dry or dry in a microwave after cutting or grating. Store in an airtight jar.
Lot of Housewives complain about the time taken in the kitchen as they are chased by the clock. The Tip is you can do the cleaning of kitchen and utensils while waiting for boiling, heating and lot of other activities over the stove. This will save lot of time and extra efforts.
If frying oil tends foam, add a small ball of tamarind to it, and the foaming will gradually stop.
Pine nuts may be roasted prior in large quantity, if used often, and packed in a freezer proof bag. These can be kept in the freezer for months without losing flavour. Do not allow moisture to touch nuts.
To shine your brass artefacts, apply tamarind paste and scrub well with finely powdered dried mango leaves. Wash in cold water and scrub with soft and thin cotton cloth. For people abroad, you can jolly well carry a stock of dried mango leaf powder.

If curds is too sour, drain for a while in a fine meshed colander to remove the whey. Transfer to A container, add enough milk for desired thickness and beat well. The whey can be used to Knead dough for chappatis, etc. to make them softer.
Set lemon juice with sugar and a little salt in ice trays to make cubes which can be used to make instant lemonade.
Rather than using food colors, use a mixture of limewater and turmeric to get (almost) tandoori color.
Paint brass napkin holders with transparent nailpaint to keep there shine intact for a long Time.
For a more decorative look frost the glasses as follows: Chill them in the freezer for 30 minutes. Pour some castor sugar in a plate. Dip the rim of each glass in this sugar. A frosty edge will form. Chill again for a few minutes. Pour liquid in carefully while serving. Insert a thin lemon sliced round, on rim for special effect.

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