Heather Solos Dear Home Ec 101: My daughter shredded her diaper before I knew she was awake. There are diaper crystals everywhere! The room smells like pee, can I vacuum it? I never knew a diaper had that much stuff. Horrified in Helena Heather says: Ay yi yi, there is nothing like body fluids to start a … Read more
Heather says: Here at Home Ec 101, we get many questions on how to stretch those grocery dollars. One of my personal favorites is to roast chicken. You can get a lot of bang for your buck when you buy whole chickens. As you are choosing your chicken, be sure to watch the amount of … Read more
Dear Home Ec 101: Any helpful hints on cleaning wood floors? I can get them clean and I can get them shiny, but not at the same time without doing two rounds. First with water/vinegar, then going over it with Orange Glo wood floor cleaner. But who has time for that? And another thing about … Read more
Dear Home Ec 101: I started to bake some cookies and realized I’m completely out of butter and margarine. Is there anything else I can use? I can’t believe I’m out of butter! Heather says: Substitutions are a piece of cake if you know where to look. For your particular dilemma you have a choice. … Read more
Heather says: This soup goes perfectly with the announcement of today’s contest. While you’re digging through the fridge, pull out all of the things that are on the edge of needing to be tossed out. Here are the items that Must Go: 1/2 meatloaf celery a few green beans a tomato with a bad spot … Read more
Dear Home-ec 101: My son’s school had an earthquake drill; they sent him home with a worksheet to fill out. We need to locate the main shut off valve for our home’s water supply. Can you help? Shakin’ in Shelbyville Heather says: Excellent question, your main shut off valve is the knob on the house … Read more
Dear Home-ec 101: That’s it, I’m done! As of today we’re going to start eating at home. Well, if I can learn to cook. I need Hamburger Helper easy. What do you suggest? Hungry in Hartford Heather says: You won’t be hungry for long. The best part is, a lot of the simplest recipes are … Read more
Dear Domestically Divine ones, I recently purchased replacement pieces for a beloved vintage Fisher-Price toy on eBay. They arrived today after a long wait, absolutely reeking of smoke. If the seller will refund my money, that’s the direction I’ll go in. If she won’t, I’d like to find a way to exorcise the smoke stink … Read more
Heather says: Today is one of those days, the kind of day where nothing is a crisis on its own, but added together it becomes one great big mess. I live in Hurricane Country, seven or eight months of the year I ensure I have clean enough clean bottled water to last my family for … Read more
Dear Home-ec 101, I hang pans up above the stove and cruddy looking, stained bottoms look bad. I bought two new shiny ones and the smaller one looks like heck after just one run through the dishwasher. The packaging did NOT say to avoid the dishwasher so what happened? It said it was “professional grade” … Read more