Martha A. Cheves's Blog, page 80

Banana Tidbits

Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store.
If you leave them connected at the stem, they ripen faster.

Jiffy Pudding Cake

This recipe is a variation of the Jiffy Banana Split Cake.  I changed the pudding to vanilla instead of banana.  I added the strawberries and pineapple instead of the pineapple pie filling and added them to the pudding mixture.  Now for some wonderful changes.  Use pistachio pudding, omit the strawberries and use a large can of drained pineapple and fold in about a cup of mini marshmallows.  top with cool whip, nuts and coconut and you have Watergate Jiffy Pudding Cake!  Other changes can consist of changing the cake flavor, pudding flavor and fruit flavor.  I've been asked if you can use a full size cake mix and the answer is yes if you make 2 cakes.  Jiffy mix is cheap and simple to make so I suggest using it unless you want to get creative with the flavors since Jiffy, I believe, only comes in vanilla and chocolate.

Find the full recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet

Deviled Egg Tidbits

   Easy Deviled Eggs Put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken up.
Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the baggy, squeeze mixture into egg.
Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.

Hotel Key Cards - Safety Tips

Did you know this?  I sure didn't. Now we both know.


 Grab a refrigerator magnet on your way out the door, we all have tons of them!
 
Always take a small magnet on your  vacation, they come in handy at the end of it.
This is pretty good info. Never even thought about key cards containing anything other than an access code for the room! 
HOTEL KEY CARDS 

Ever wonder what is on your magnetic key card? 
Answer:
a.  Customer's name
b.  Customer's partial home address
c.  Hotel room number
d.  Check-in date and out dates
e. Customer's credit card number and expiration date! 
When you turn them in to the front desk your personal information is there for any employee to access by simply scanning the card in the hotel scanner.  An employee can take a hand full of cards home and using a scanning device, access the information onto a laptop computer and go shopping at your expense. 
Simply put, hotels do not erase the information on these cards until an employee  reissues the card to the next hotel guest.  At that time, the new guest's information is electronically 'overwritten' on the card and the previous guest's information is erased in the overwriting process. 

But until the card is rewritten for the next guest, it usually is kept in a  drawer at the front desk with YOUR INFORMATION ON IT! 

The bottom line is: Keep the cards, take them home with you, or destroy them.  NEVER leave them behind in the room or room wastebasket, and NEVER turn them into the front desk when you check out of a room. They will not charge you for the card (it's illegal) and you'll be sure you are not leaving a lot of  valuable personal information on it that could be easily lifted off with any simple scanning device card reader. 

For the same reason, if you arrive at the airport and discover you still have the card key in your pocket, do not toss it in an airport trash basket.  Take it home and destroy it by cutting it up, especially through the electronic information strip! 

If you have a small magnet, pass it across the magnetic strip several times. Then try it in the door, it will not work. It erases everything on the card. 

Information courtesy of:  Metropolitan Police Service.

Infographic: We Love Ramen

Guys, you must see this site.  I've never heard the history of Ramen Noodles but after visiting Infographic: We Love Ramen I've found myself highly educated in regards to this delicious yet inexpensive college student staple.

Ramen has been a staple in American student cuisine for quite some time now, because of how inexpensive and edible it is. Ramen can also be quite filling if you add some of your own signature cooking hacks to it. This original Hack College Infographic was created because we, like many students around the world are just so crazy in love with ramen.

Canned Biscuit Sticky Buns

The original recipe came from The Jones Way.  It called for 1/2 cup of pancake syrup which I didn't have so I used the light corn syrup and added the rum flavoring.  You can increase or decrease the rum but taste it after the butter has been added for a truer flavor.  The original recipe also called for 2 small tubes or 1 large tub of Grand biscuits.  I decided to try the Butter Me Not (those with chips of butter throughout the biscuits).  These worked wonderfully and allowed me to use 2 cans.  I also increased the amount of cinnamon from 1/2 tsp. to 1 tsp.  When tasting I felt it needed just a bit more.  So, Think With Your Taste Buds on this one.  There are so many options.  You can use the corn syrup and change up the extract flavorings.  You can change the biscuits to maybe flaky.  You can even change from cinnamon to allspice, apple pie spices, nutmeg, etc. View my version of these Sticky Buns by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet.

Blackout Mobile Marketing, Inc - Beware!

I had a few words with AT&T last night.  There was a $9.99 charge on my cell phone charges and it's been there for 3 months now.  It's a service called "Blackout Mobile Marketing, Inc." and I didn't order it!  When I talked to AT&T cell service the woman got upset because I wanted to cancel my service.  She tried to say they would block all texts so I wouldn't be charged anymore and that they would give me my service for $29.99 plus tax and service charges per month, coming to about $42.00 per month.  Last month I used 34 cell phone minutes and have over 4,000 roll-over minutes.  With the minutes I used it came to $1.25 per minute.  Not worth it!  She told me they would credit the last 3 months of the $9.99 charge and I still insisted that I wanted to cancel my service.  She then told me they would charge me $75.00 to discontinue because my contract runs until August and they would NOT refund my 3 months of $9.99 charges.  Well, I very 'nicely' told her to disconnect my cell phone and I would never use AT&T cell again plus I will be posting on my site about the scam charges that they were collecting knowing they were scams.  I told her that I went to their own site and they are the ones who were telling people that the Blackout Mobile Marketing charge is a scam but they do this AFTER people call to complain.  So, I have cell service with AT&T until the 20th and after that I'm going to Wally World and buy a Track Phone and pay for my minutes using their $30.00 for 300 minutes service.  


Moral of the story - don't do like I do and just pay your bills without inspecting the statement and watch for scams such as this Blackout Mobile Marketing so you won't get stuck like myself and others who have been caught up in this AT&T scam.  


For more information click here

Romano Chicken with Vodka Sauce

I had never tried Vodka sauce until I found a coupon for a jar of Wolfgang Puck's.  When I saw a recipe for Easy Chicken Parmesan from Kraft foods I decided to give it a try using the Vodka sauce and Romano instead of Parmesan.  Good choice!  It turned out delicious.  See my full recipe by going to Martha's Recipe Cabinet.  You can use any flavor of spaghetti sauce but give this one a try.  I don't think you'll be disappointed when you bite into that juicy, tender chicken.  Now, did Wolfgang Puck's Creamy Vodka Sauce give me what I wanted?  Find out my rating for this product by going to The Good, The Bad, The Maybe.

Join the Blog Carnival

Well, the carnivals are over for this year, but we've decided to organise our own monthly Carnival - a Blog Carnival! We obviously focus on Greek recipes on this blog, but there are so many delightful ethnic dishes from around the world that we want to feature a selection of these every month in what we are calling World Food Delights.How will it work? Well, any bloggers with ethnic recipes can submit one of their blog posts with a recipe that fits in the particular category for each month, we select the best and then they are all featured on the Blog Carnival, with a short description and a direct link to the recipe. We are also going to pin the photo from each of the selected recipes on Pinterest, with a direct link to the recipe.The first edition of World Food Delights will be on Sunday April 1st. As a 'sweetener' to start things off the category will be Sweets and Desserts. So if you have a blog with ethnic recipes and want to submit a sweet or dessert to be featured, just click on Submit on the button at the bottom of this post. The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 28th March.Let us just say that we are going to give preference to bloggers who are actual natives / residents of the country for which they are submitting a recipe - in other words, local cooks wherever possible. Also, if you have a blog post which is not a recipe, but you feel it is related to the field of international cooking, then you can submit that as well. All posts need to be in English.So if you have recipes from Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Japan, Thailand, India or wherever, then just click on the button below and send it. And even if you don't, just visit this blog on Sunday April 1st to find a great selection of World Food Delights!

Cajun Pepper for Organic Pest Control

 This tip came from Thrifty Fun and receives a thumbs up from me. I'm for anything organic instead of poison.  I hate any kind of bugs or spiders, even ants. If you can see them, it's so much easier to control. I was looking into smaller units that send out radio frequency that you just plug into outlets. I have known about these since the early 90's. They work really well with rodents and roaches.
In my garage which is not attached to the unit, there isn't an outlet near where the mice would be. With weather changing this year, I was very afraid to even open the cabinet doors! Not only am I terrified of them, they are so dirty leaving behind many germs.
The solution I found was so easy, cheap and works. Cajun pepper sprinkled around doors and next to the wall gets rid of any problem without poison or finding a dead mouse in those traps. The man who told me about this has it sprayed all over his attic. He re-does it one time a year. I'm amazed at ideas I would never have thought of.

They don't eat it and die where you put the pepper, it appears they can't stand being around it at all. Make sure you have things covered that could be ruined from the Cajun pepper. If it's where there is no chance of getting wet, it isn't different than a layer of dust. It can be sprayed over large area or put against walls, doors and openings straight from package.

Source: Organic pest control company employee in San Diego area.
By Luana M. from San Diego, CA in ThriftyTips.com newsletter
Related: Organic Pest Control in the Garden