#HACK OF THE DAY--CLEVER USES FOR WHITE BREAD

“It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!” Who hasn’t heard that expression? It’s been around since the automatic commercial loaf slicer was invented and unveiled by Otto Rohwedder in Missouri in 1928. (Rohwedder actually created his prototype in 1917, but a fire destroyed it and all his blueprints. It took him another eleven years to rebuild the machine and convince a friend to use it at his baking company.)

So that’s where the expression comes from, but let’s move on to some amazing hacks for sliced white bread that don’t involve peanut butter and jelly or ham and cheese. Here are some ways a slice of bread can help make your life easier.

1. Soak up the oil that rises to the surface when cooking soup, sauce, stew, or pot roast by placing a slice of stale white bread on top of the food while it’s still in the pot. Let the bread sit there for a few seconds to absorb the oil, then discard it. You’ll wind up with a much healthier dish.

2. Ever break a glass or mirror and find it next to impossible to sweep up all those miniscule shards and slivers? Gently press a slice of bread onto the surface where the glass broke. The bread will pick up the glass you don’t see. Carefully discard the bread.

3. Do you find it difficult to clean your coffee grinder? Bread to the rescue once again! Place a few small chunks of stale bread in the grinder. Pulse a few times, then dump out the contents. The coffee grounds will stick to the breadcrumbs.

4. Air fresheners don’t always work to rid nasty smells from your kitchen trashcan. Often they just mask the smells. If you keep your can under the sink, the smell can also migrate to the cabinets on either side of the sink. Soak a slice of bread in vinegar. Place the bread on a paper towel inside the trashcan or on a plate in your other cabinets. Leave overnight. The vinegar will neutralize the odors.

5. Curious fingers often leave fingerprints and smudges on the photos in your albums and scrapbooks. Wad up a ball of stale bread and swipe over the photos to absorb the oils without scratching the photos.

WEDNESDAY TIMESAVING TIP

We’re busy people. Any time we can save time, we jump at the chance. Saving time on things we have to do enables us to spend more time doing things we want to do. If you’re like me, daily household chores fall into the former category. So any time I can find a way to shorten the time I spend on chores, I’m all in.

Many people I know stack their dirty dishes in the sink and on the kitchen counter, meal after meal, until they have no choice but to wash the dishes. Then they curse themselves as they scrub and scrub to remove all that dried on food and grease. Here’s a tip that will cut down on both the elbow grease and the cursing:

Fill a spray bottle with 8 oz. of water and a tablespoon of dish detergent. Keep it on your counter next to your sink. Spray each dish as you add it to the pile in the sink. When you finally get around to washing the dishes, you’ll find you spend a lot less time doing so.

Want more timesaving tips? Check out We'd Rather BeWriting: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips.

Have you ever wished you could find more time to do the things you want to do, rather than just doing the things you have to do? Most authors juggle day jobs and family responsibilities along with their writing. Because they need to find time to write, they look for ways to save time in other aspects of their lives.

Cooking often takes up a huge chunk of time. In We'd Rather BeWriting: 88 Authors Share Timesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you'll find easy, nutritious recipes for meat, poultry, pasta, soup, stew, chili, and vegetarian meals. All of the recipes require a minimum of prep time, freeing you up to read, exercise, garden, craft, write, spend more time with family, or whatever.

Within the pages of We'd Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors ShareTimesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips you'll be introduced to authors who write a wide range of fiction—everything from mystery to romance to speculative fiction to books for children, young adults, and new adults—and some who write nonfiction. Some of the authors write sweet; others write steamy. Some write cozy; others write tense thrillers.

Some are debut authors with only one published book; others are multi-published and have had long publishing careers. Some are New York Times and USA Today bestselling authors who may or may not be familiar to you, but being a bestselling author doesn't mean they still don't have to juggle their day job along with their writing.

The authors who contributed to this book are a rather creative and resourceful bunch when it comes to carving out time from their busy lives. So in addition to timesaving recipes, within the pages of this book you'll find timesaving and organizational tips for other aspects of your life. And if you happen to be a writer, you'll also find a plethora of great ideas to help you organize your writing life.

A percentage of the profit from the sale of We'd Rather Be Writing: 88 Authors ShareTimesaving Dinner Recipes and Other Tips will be donated to No Kid Hungry.

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HOW TO AVOID TURKEY DAY DISASTERS

Tips to Avoid Thanksgiving Dinner Disasters

Thanksgiving is next Thursday. If you’re hosting the family dinner, you know there are all sorts of dinner disasters you worry about. Here are a few tips to deal with some of the more common ones.

Turkey didn’t defrost completely in time, or worse yet, you forgot to defrost it? No worries. Leave Tom in his plastic wrapper and submerge him in a sink filled with cold water--or use your cooler. Figure 30 minutes per pound if he’s completely frozen, less if partially frozen. Change the water at least once to keep it cold.

Undercooked poultry is a huge no-no. If your bird looks pink as you’re carving it, place those undercooked portions on a baking sheet and pop them back in the over to roast until the pink is completely gone.

Turkey has a tendency to dry out quickly after it’s carved. Keep it moist with a sprinkling of hot chicken broth.

No one likes lumpy gravy. Avoid the lumps by pouring the gravy through a mesh strainer.

Squeeze some lemon juice into your cranberry sauce if it’s too sweet.