When Life Gives You Lemons (or Limes)

 
In my earlier, less refined days, I never really considered that there was a difference between the juice from real lemons vs. ReaLemon juice. I bought the advertising - and its convenience and cheapness. However, reconstituted lemon juice totally pales in taste to fresh. One plus for ReaLemon is that it lasts 'forever' in the fridge; not so much fresh lemons.
I hate throwing away food that's gone bad!

So what's a 2nd Best Job in the World guy to do?  

I had to learn how to store fresh lemons better.
And as it turns out, it's quite simple:

1. Place lemons in a sealable freezer bag and put them in the fridge.  Easy breezy. 

I have found that lemons remain fresh for a month stored in this fashion.

 

And limes, too!

 

Tassimo Tea Hack

I love the speed and convenience of using a Tassimo, however some products, especially teas, are steep in price. (Pun most definitely intended!)

Here's an easy hack so you can use ordinary tea bags and have a cup of tea just as quickly as a Tassimo tea disc, but at a fraction of the cost.

1. Find your  cleaning disc. (It is stored behind your water tank in a slot on the back of the Tassimo and is probably yellow in colour.)

 

 2. Purchase one disc of any tea you like (Personal Service Coffee 3873 Walker Rd sells individual discs. Read the boxes carefully because cup sizes vary.)

3.  Identify the correct bar code to use and carefully cut it out.  A sharp paring knife works well.

(Actually, you can first make a cup of tea with the disc and then cut it out.  No use wasting a perfectly good disc.)

 

4.  Place the bar code (that you cut off) over top of the bar code of your cleaning disc (yellow) and secure with scotch tape.

 5. Insert the newly modified cleaning disc in the Tassimo. Place a cup containing your favourite tea bag underneath and press the start button.

6. Et voilà!  You now have a hot water dispensing Tassimo.  Enjoy!

p.s.  You will still need the cleaning disc to clean the scale from your machine periodically.  Just untape the "tea" barcode from the disc, clean and descale your Tassimo as usual, and then replace the "tea" barcode when you are done.

p.p.s.  You can use vinegar to clean and descale instead of the expensive Tassimo stuff.

  

Appliance Cord Composure

Administering Appliance Cord Control

They get caught, they get twisted, they get damaged, and they are unsightly, but here's a trick to keep those appliance cords under control.

There is one caveat - there needs to be a hole large enough for part of the cord to pass through. (the plug doesn't need to fit through, just a part of the cord) 
This Crockpot has no hole in the handles or lid so the stupid cord remains a constant nuisance. (I really should throw this one out anyway, because the crockery part is attached and can't be removed and the unit cannot be immersed in a sink of water to wash because of the electrical parts.

Who in their right mind thought this was a good design?!?!)

But I digress.

 This one works because of a hole in the lid's handle, and the other has a hole in the carry handle.

So, here's the step by step to harness those pesky plugins:

 

 1. Make a loop in the cord.

 2. Push part of the loop through the hole in the handle.

 3. Pull the plug end over the top of the handle...

 ... and pull it through the loop that was pushed through the handle.

 4.  Carefully pull the cord to tighten and make the loop smaller.

 5. Take the plug end back over the top of the handle.

6. And tuck it under the cord on the other side.

7. Et voilà.  Safe, secured, spick and span!

Here is the process again, using only pictures, and a Panini Press.
(Notice that the 'hole" is actually the very large area that the handle creates just by it being a handle.)

And there you have it... another solution for unruliness and disorder from the 2nd Best Job in the World.