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Reader tip of the week: Keep that good gravy

May 11, 2012 | by Jamie Wilson | 1 Comment | in cooking, food, food and meal planning, print, reader tip, usaweekend.com
You spent the time to make delicious gravy to top off a fabulous meal. Now there’s leftover gravy. What to do? Freeze it in ice cube trays,  says Marie Gallashaw of Tinton Falls, N.J. “When it’s frozen, put the gravy cubes in a plastic bag. It takes up less space, and when you need a little  gravy for a potato or anything you can take out what you need.
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Reader Tip of the Week: Keep groceries from melting

May 4, 2012 | by Jamie Wilson | 30 Comments | in food, print, reader tip, shopping, usaweekend.com
When shopping for a large amount of groceries, have the supermarket bagger put your frozen items in paper bags and the rest of your items in plastic, says Val Campbell of Las Vegas. “Then you can unload and put away your frozen items quickly,” she says.
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Guide to an Ideal Mother’s Day for Mom

April 30, 2012 | by Cozi.com | Add Comment | in Cozi.com, Mothers Day

This one's to help the dads and kids honor Mom on Mother's Day... the way she wants! Cozi surveyed over 700 moms and here is how they described the ideal Mother's Day.

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Mother’s Day Recipes Easy Enough for the Kids to Make

April 30, 2012 | by Georgia Johnson | Add Comment | in Cozi.com, Mothers Day

This Mother’s Day, let your little ones treat you to something extra special with a homemade breakfast or dinner! 

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Reader tip: Know which end’s up with fitted sheets

On April 27, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
We’ve all wrestled with a fitted sheet at some point. Pauline Webb of Jacksonville has a method for figuring out what end is up. “Queen-sized sheets are so close to being square that they are difficult to apply. So I have taken a permanent marker and written ‘end’ and ‘side’ on the part of the [...]
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Homemade Card and Gift Ideas for Mother’s Day

On April 12, 2012 By Cozi.com

Moms want a homemade card or gift from the kids more than any other kind of present for Mother's Day. We gathered a list of fun and clever ideas for Mother's Day gifts that the kids can make at home.

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Reader tip of the week: DIY natural laundry detergent alternatives

On April 6, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
Reader Cathy Truesdale of Wheaton, Ill., is a fan of using natural ingredients. “My recipe for soft, sweet-smelling clothes is ¼ cup each of baking soda, washing soda and borax mixed with phosphate-free laundry soap,” she e-mails. “For clothing with offensive odors, I just soak them for 15 minutes in 1 cup of white vinegar [...]
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Go with color and never leave a travel pillow behind

On March 30, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
When Carol W. Grantham of Augusta, Ga., stays at a hotel, she brings her own pillow and has this advice: Put a colored pillowcase on it. That way, “it does not blend in with the white linens and you are less likely to leave it behind,” she writes. Sweet dreams!
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Wipe out the negative thoughts to get more sleep

On March 23, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
Here’s a tip with some years behind it: 84-year-old Floriana Hall of Akron, Ohio, advises getting enough sleep. “Sleep is a healer of many aches and pains,” she writes. “One of the best ways to get enough sleep is to never dwell on anything negative at bedtime.”
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Wait! Hang on to those magnets!

On March 16, 2012 By admin
Susanna Chilelli of Wantagh, N.Y., cleverly reuses the magnets that come in shower curtains. When the shower curtain is old and ready to be replaced, she takes out the magnets and “I usually glue them to the back of things my kids have made in school,” she writes.
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Don’t let out-of-season tomatoes keep you from a great salad

On March 9, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
We all miss fresh vegetables when they’re out of season, but when Barbara Stover of Danville, Ill., runs out of fresh tomatoes for her salad, she doesn’t fret. She keeps a can of diced tomatoes handy for just those times. “They are moist, red, pre-cut and taste good!”
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Connect with your children during dinner

On March 2, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
To keep her kids engaged during the dinner hour, Amy Sheon of Oberlin, Ohio, found success when she interrupted her sulky 11-year old daughter and said, “OK, if you’re not going to talk about your day, then tell us without talking.” The result? “Charades sure livened things up!” She also got things going by challenging [...]
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A cheaper alternative to wax paper

On February 24, 2012 By admin
Several of our ingenious readers have figured out clever ways to get the wax paper they use for cooking, wrapping food or for arts and crafts projects. Phyllis Morrison of Coldwater, Mich., summed it up for the others by advising, “I never buy rolls of wax paper because I can get all that I need [...]
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Keep parsley and cilantro fresh longer

On February 17, 2012 By admin
To keep parsley and cilantro bunches fresh longer, Annette Gerhardt of Huachuca City, Ariz., cuts the ends of the stems as soon as she gets them home, then stands them in a container of fresh water in the refrigerator, with a plastic bag with holes over the top. She finds that the herbs stay fresh [...]
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Save those resealable bags blankets and sheets come in

On February 10, 2012 By admin
Anne Victoria Reich of Stafford, Va., likes to buy blankets and sheets that come in resealable plastic bags. That way, she can reuse the bags to store “extra stuff around my house,” such as magazines, threads, yarn — anything that needs packing up to keep the house clean!
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Stay safe on vacation with a small motion-sensor light

On February 3, 2012 By admin
Here’s a smart way to find your way in the dark and avoid a fall: Whenever Bob Murphy of Champion, Pa., and his wife travel, they take along a small, battery-powered motion-sensor light. They put it on the floor next to the bed, so when they wake up in the middle of the night, it [...]
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Keep non-refrigerated soy, rice or almond milk as a backup

On January 26, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
You know how frustrating it is when you reach into the fridge and find that someone has finished the last of the fresh milk? Well, Marge Risinger of Napa, Calif., keeps a stock of non-refrigerated soy, rice or almond milk in her pantry so she never has to let her cereal or coffee go milk-free.
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Leftover vegetables make for great soup ingredients

On January 20, 2012 By admin
David Hancock of Suwanee, Ga., doesn’t throw away leftover vegetables after meals. Even if there’s just a few peas, some corn or half a serving of beans, he puts them in a plastic container and stores them in the freezer. “Pretty soon you will have enough for a great pot of vegetable soup!” he [...]
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Battle dry hair with a few drops of baby oil

On January 13, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
Winter or summer, some of us struggle with dry hair, despite dousing our heads with potions and lotions. Now, here’s some easy advice from Irene Zagar of Hazel Park, Mich.: “You do not need to buy expensive products. Just put a few drops of baby oil in the palm of your hands and gently rub [...]
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Sock it to dust

On January 6, 2012 By Jamie Wilson
When Christine Haemmerle of Forked River, N.J., needs to dust around tight spaces, she puts an old cotton sock on her hand, sprays it and gets to work. “My fingers are good to go around rungs and spindles and other tight places,” she writes USA WEEKEND, “and my palm does the rest. It goes quick [...]
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