Food Column: These tips are kinda vanilla
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Spring is my favorite season: budding trees, blooming flowers, balmy temps, playground with the kids.
But dang, spring is a lot of work.
A couple of weeks ago I shoveled three square yards of mulch. Thus far I've given the lawn its first two mowings of the season, although I've been threatening to invent an amphibious lawnmower given the puddles I have to keep skirting. I need to wash windows, spot-clean the siding on the house, paint the trim on the shed, plant some herbs and (moan) stain the deck again because it's peeling after I painstakingly stained it last summer.
As if I'm not already feeling swamped enough, I get a press release in my inbox: "Look to the kitchen for spring cleaning solutions."
Spring cleaning? You mean I have to clean the inside of my house, too?
"The same ingredients that help with cooking can help with cleaning too," the press release boasts. Of course, I scroll down to the second page and notice that this is from Nielsen-Massey Vanillas. They just want to sell me something.
But then I remember the time I went searching drawers for Saran Wrap at my in-laws' house and came upon a little glass bowl with some soiled cotton balls in it. My mother-in-law laughed and said, "You're probably wondering what in the world ... " and explained that she had daubed some vanilla onto the cotton balls to rid the drawer of an odor. And whaddya know, the Nielsen-Massey people suggest the same thing.
Other tips from the vanilla people:
• Drop a vanilla-saturated cotton ball into the vacuum bag to release a sweet scent. (My seventh-grade home ec teacher used to quip that vanilla is the best perfume because it makes boys think their girlfriends smell like chocolate chip cookies.)
• To remove a coffee stain from fabric, dip a white cloth into a beaten egg yolk and rub the yolk into the stain. Then rinse with water.
• Place a bowl of vinegar in an open room to absorb smoke odor. (This is also a mean trick to play on the dog.)
• Use club soda or seltzer water to clean chrome on faucets, utensils, etc.
First Published May 5, 2011 12:00 am
