For those of you who have been reading my blog for quite awhile (um, Patty and Kate) you know I have a fascination with Betty Anne's Household Hints. Yes, this book is a gem to me. Before I share the BeSt of what she has to offer, I will give you the back story.
For my wedding shower, at the tender age of 18, I received this book from Corey's great grandmother Helen. She was about 84 at the time, and has been giving away things from her house for 20+ years. This always makes for interesting gifts from Grandma Helen. You are never surprised to get a homemade faux fur vest, one silver spoon from a set of silver (your father in law will get the pickle fork, your uncle the salad spoon) or a crocheted doily. Being a child of the depression, she never lets anything go to waste. When she was still able to sew, we would get homemade vest, quilts and pillows. Since she had this issue with things going to waste, you might get a quilt made out of old curtains, table cloths, faux fur, and other random fabrics from the 60's and 70's. Which, actually, would be pretty rockin' fabric used in funky color combinations. Ahem.
For my wedding shower, I received an old cookbook, a book on how to be a good wife (in my feminine ways, I threw it. Shouldn't have, it was great) and this book:
It has the best tips ever for a Domestic Maven such as myself. Take a gander at my top faves.
Betty Anne Helpful Household Hint #1:
A gift that's lucky, too- As the cost of meats keep rising, chicken becomes more popular. And that means more leftover wishbones. Here's another way (besides wishing!) to use them. Dry them. Paint them. Put a little glitter and tie them to gift packages. The recipients will not only have a nice gift, but have a lucky wish, too.
It is my friend Kari's birthday this month. I better buy some chicken.
Your car can be a washing machine
If it's absolutely necessary to wash clothes on a trip, try this. Bring along a diaper pail. Fill it with dirty clothes, soap and water, and put back the lid. (Make sure it fits tight.) Store it in your trunk. ( Do this just before departure to another site, or if your taking a drive.) The movement of your car will agitate your clothes. Just rinse and hang at the next location.
Umm, no thanks.
Dolls
Here is a cheap and easy way to make "dolls"! Save used, clean, empty dishwashing detergent bottles. Take some colored marking pens and draw faces, hair and clothes on them. Before long, you'll have a whole "family" of these beautiful friends.
Don't worry, there is one for if your young one is not into dolls. Simply take your man's old necktie, stuff it with stuffing and sew it shut. Then, sew a tongue and eyes on it for a creepy old snake for your kids to cuddle with! Don't worry, they won't strangle themselves on it or anything.
Lastly, my all time favorite:
Bored of the same old meat and potatoes? Well, for variety's sake, try some of what we call the "forgotten" meats. Kidneys, liver, tongue, hearts, even brains can be fixed in a number of tasty and interesting ways. They'll also be easier on your budget.
I am glad she mentioned the "forgotten" meat tip. I have been looking for a good brain (pig, chicken, cow, whatever) recipe. If you have one, do share
29 comments:
eww@kidney, liver..I'm gagging just typing it!! LOL!!
hey there!! I myself am domestically challenged and will definitely be back to your blog. Thanks for commenting on my DarkSide of the Chalkboard blog, I really appreciate it. I am always on the lookout for other teacher blogs....it's nice to be able to vent to someone who "gets it"
great tips...someday when we have kids they will definitely have detergent dolls and necktie snakes. I know whats for dinner tomorrow...look out Mr. Football!
Yuck to the forgotten meats. I was really anemic when I was little and my mom used to fry chicken livers for me to eat. She called them chicken crispies and I ate them for years until I found out they were liver. Haven't touched one since!
We do get along pretty well, don't we!? Speaking of heebie jeebies, did you ever see my post about my quirks? You'll have to backtrack a little and check it out!
Oh...that made me laugh! I can't wait to see the look on my friend's face when I tie a chicken wish bone on her present. Glitter and all.
And who doesn't love organ meets. That is the area on the grocery store where I close my eyes and hold my breathe.
Great post as always!
Cass
Funny. But it sounds like you should've winged this book, too!
And the forgotten meats...don't even go there. That's absolutely disgusting. Bad enough to read it; can't imagine anyone eating it though I know they do. Somewhere.
bwah ha ha ha. funny. :0) i read your random hodgepodge post too. love it. ummm who steals cars just to park them in random places?!?! weirdos. and i could send you my address for that camera. :0) lol.
Oh my goodness?! The dolls alone kinda freaked me out! And sure enough, my kids would've hung themselves on that snake! ha ha ha
"What happened?" Well, he was playing with the fake snake made out of an old necktie cuz my grandma gave me this book which I hated to throw away cuz afterall it is an heairloom ya know, so made the snake, gave snake to said son, son played with said snake, snake bit him tightly round the neck..." Yadda Yadda Yadda - you get the idea!
How funny!
LOVE IT! that is soooo funny.
when i was in kindergarten there was actually a doll type thing made out of a bleach bottle. but it looked more like a pig because it was on it's side with 4 legs. but it had long blonde yarn hair...
and forgotten meats? my MOM actually likes chicken necks. now if you've ever tried to eat one, it's pretty much ALL bones that have a tiny bit of meat every now and then. eww eww eww. but i guess it would be better than a brain!
i wonder how much counselling betty anne's children needed...
Ew, gross! That last one is yucky! I have to admit though, that first one is funny. It is a good one. Not personally a meat eater, so no wishbones in my house, but if I was, that would be super cute! Yay for feminine ways, lol.
My great grandmother was always fond of giving the great grandchildren olives ... I wonder what we will give when we hit "old age?"
I think I will risk getting sick of meat and potatoes at the expense of passing on the kidney and liver, etc. Ewww!
My husband and I are moving back to Ohio and I am applying like mad for teaching jobs that are few and far in between.
OMG, those are great! I am totally going to tie wishbones to all of my gifts this year! And using your car as a washer? Ingenious!
Eww. and LoL. You get nothing interesting from me today. I'm pre-coffee. I would have loved to have seen the How to be a Good Wife book. That would have been a gem for sure.
I might actually have to try the portable washing machine. I suppose the portable dryer would be tying the now-clean(ish) clothes to the exterior of the car and letting them flap in the breeze while I'm shuttling down the highway. Can you imagine being behind that car? Here you are at 65-70 MPH, when all of the sudden, your windshield is obliterated by a blown off T-shirt? The last thing you see before you crash is the design on the T-Shirt, which displays: "You might be a redneck if..."
And organ meats? I used to eat liver (for the iron), but I never could cook it. The mere sight of it grosses me out. As for the rest of it, I don't eat anything that can taste me back, hear me, think about what I'm doing, or watch me. EWWWWW!!!
Clearly, this lady did not realize that ties are supposed to be sewn shut, stuffed, and laid behind doors to stop the drafts. She must've lived in the tropics.
I could see kids having fun with those pre-barbie dolls. You fill 'em with water and when you hug 'em too tightly, they get all mad and their heads explode!
Thanks for a good laugh to start my morning!
Thanks for the laugh. I really needed it this morning.
Oh, I'm from the land of rednecks. When I was in college I waited tables at a little mom and pop restaurant. I was the only waitress most mornings. At some point brains and eggs were taken off the menu so these men would routinely hand me jars of brains to be scrambled with their eggs. It was great for dieting. I didn't want to eat for the rest of the day. Looking back I'm just thankful I wasn't the cook.
Was this "Betty" certifiable?? I'll get right on trying some of those out.
What's with Corey not allowing a baseball bat?! :) But like you said, you can always kung fu them right!! I was reading your comment and laughing last night...my husband had just walked in and thought I was losing my mind.
I was wondering when you were gonna post some more of Betty Anne!! I don't think you have posted one since last summer!
brains...yummm! lol
I knew about this crazy gift that you received already... I have gone back to the very beginning of your blog and read every post! (Couldn't
sleep one night and read all of yours and a couple of others!)
As always, you crack me up!
Hope Elijah is feeling better. Reagan seems to have "turned the corner" I think.
Ha! My grandma would also save everything, that's probably why she was able to give my mom and her brother so much moola when she passed away. She'd save the little milk cartons from the senior center where she'd have lunch every day, and of course offer them to us when we'd come over on holidays. Oh, and my husband's grandma would spray paint cigar boxes and put cookies in them. Sometimes, the cookies would already be in the box when she spray painted it. That was a bonus. ;)
bwahahahaha! Those were great. I love the wishbone. Can you imagine getting one on a gift? With glitter?
Can't stop laughing.
Oh, come on. The driving laundry service will do you well on your trip across country visiting bloggy friends.
You know what? My mom fed us cow tongue when we were younger- cooked in a crockpot, but wouldn't tell us what the mystery meat was. Now I know why. "Excuse me mom, this tongue is delish. Please pass me another slice. Oh, and save me the leftovers."
Yuk.
I have a cook book from the 20's that my grandmother gave me. It has the same sort of things.
My favorite is turtle soup, starting with a 20-30lb turtle.
And, coffee, you add an egg to the coffee grounds, brew the coffee, and something about the egg made it taste better??
There's a good reason why they are "forgotten" meats.
So you mean instead of a pretty bow, tie a wishbone for luck, lovely idea, I will try that at my next birthday party and hope their pet dog doesn't find it before the birthday person Tee Hee!!!
These are hilarious!
My grandmother gave me her first cookbook. It is full of the funniest June Cleaver-type cartoons. We all (herself included!) got a kick out of reading those! :)
To answer the question that you posted on my blog, she was kissing a fake cow. :)
Any time I add someone's button, I have to refresh my blog a couple of times to get it to show up the first time. Maybe this is what's happening with you?
Thanks so much for trying to add my button! You're too kind. :)
Ack! Those are funny! I have a cookbook that's interesting...the original print date is in the 1800s. It has a lot of basic stuff, but it also has some weird crazy things too.
Oh my GOSH! It's hard to believe these are for real!! Hilarious.
These are hilarious! Isn't fun to get random old stuff from grandparents. They always have the craziest things!
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