Seven kitchen quick fixes

Tips. There are ways to easier defrost your meat, rid your kitchen or ants, sparkle your pans among other things.

Here are some tricks and tips to make life easier in the kitchen;

• To banish ants from the kitchen, find out where they are coming in and cover the hole with petroleum jelly such as vaseline. Ants will trek through the jelly. If they are coming under a door, draw a line on the floor with chalk. The little bugs also won’t cross a line of chalk.

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• If two drinking glasses become stuck together after stacking, it is not impossible to unstick them. Just put ice in the inner glass and dunk the outer glass in warm water. The warm glass will expand and the cold glass will contract, making the glasses separate easily.
• If your salt is becoming lumpy, put a few grains of rice in with it to absorb excess moisture.

• For aluminium pans that are looking dull, just boil some apple peels in them. This will brighten up the aluminum and make your house smell yummy.

• When defrosting meat from the freezer, pour some vinegar over it. Not only does it tenderise he meat; it will also bring down the freezing temperature of the meat and cause it to thaw quicker.

• Don’t store your bananas in a bunch or in a fruit bowl with other fruits. Separate your bananas and place each in a different location.

• Bananas release gases which cause fruits (including other bananas) to ripen quickly. Separating them will keep them fresh longer.

• To keep potatoes from budding in the bag, put an apple in with them.

• If you happen to over-salt a pot of soup, just drop in a peeled potato. The potato will absorb the excess salt.

• When boiling eggs, add a pinch of salt to keep the shells from cracking.

Two first aid tricks
6. Always keep an aloe vera plant in your kitchen. It’s invaluable when you scrape your arm or burn your finger. Just break off a leaf and rub the gel from the inside on the injury.

7. For splinters under the fingernail, soaking the affected finger in a bowl of milk with a piece of bread in it, it will help.

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