Baking Soda

Q. Please tell me what you think of using baking soda for heartburn or other stomach problems. It seems to work for me, but does it do any harm? I use half a teaspoon every now and then. A. Baking soda (sodium bicarbonate) has been used in Alka-Seltzer for decades to relieve indigestion. It neutralizes stomach acid. You can get the benefit by putting a level 1/2 teaspoon in 4 ounces of water. Occasional use should not be a problem, but the sodium in baking soda could be dangerous for people on low-salt diets.

Our latest healthy recipe comes from WebMD . It's for those of you trying to improve your diet, but that can't curb that sweet tooth. WebMD says you can serve this cake with raspberries and a dollop of Cool Whip. If you have a healthy recipe you'd like to share send it to: andrea.walker@baltsun.com . Ingredients:   3/4 cup less-sugar raspberry preserves 1 cup whole-wheat flour 1 cup unbleached white flour 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup Splenda 3/4 cup baking cocoa 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup less-fat margarine (with 8 grams of fat per tablespoon)

And you thought the only thing you could do with it was bake.With a box of baking soda, you can occupy yourself in a frenzy of buffing, scrubbing and cleansing. Here are a few ideas for using the handy powder:1. Wipe shower curtains with baking soda on a damp sponge to remove mildew.2. Clean copper pots with a paste of baking soda and lemon juice; rinse and dry.3. Flush 1 cup of baking soda down the toilet once a week to keep the septic tank clear.4. To remove burned or stuck food from pots (anything but aluminum)

Pat Braun from Mount Pleasant, Wis., said she was at an Amish settlement a few years back and had a soft peanut brittle. She said it tasted just like peanut brittle but was not as hard. She said she has tried several times to duplicate it with no success. Ardice Holbrook of Manchester sent in a recipe she came across on the Internet from CDKitchen (www.cdkitchen.com) that she thought Braun might want to try. I tested the recipe and found it was fairly easy to make, provided you have a working candy thermometer and don't mind a bit of a mess in your kitchen.

Do you have any inexpensive suggestions for treating heartburn? My son suffers from reflux, especially after eating. He has no insurance, so he cannot afford drugs like Nexium or Prevacid. His doctor says that it's not a heart problem or anything serious, but it causes him discomfort. Researchers have known for almost 30 years that stimulating saliva production by chewing gum or sucking on a lozenge can relieve heartburn. Saliva rinses the esophagus and buffers acid that has splashed out of the stomach.

The cool, moist climate of Ireland that turns valleys and hills a lush emerald green calls for sturdy fare. Hence the popularity of such national delights as steaming bowls of nourishing Irish beef stew; baked, fried or roasted potatoes; and glasses brimming with stout -- all good examples of proper "filler" fare.Woven into the fabric of the meal are the baked products of the country, and in Ireland, that means fresh-baked, compact and craggy, full-flavored Irish soda bread -- a perfect addition for your own St. Patrick's Day celebration this coming Monday.

The Sunday Gourmet recipe for Nancy Baggett's Fudge Bundt Cake in the Feb. 13 Sun Magazine should have called for 3/4 teaspoon of baking soda.The Baltimore Sun regrets the error.

Pat Braun from Mount Pleasant, Wis., said she was at an Amish settlement a few years back and had a soft peanut brittle. She said it tasted just like peanut brittle but was not as hard. She said she has tried several times to duplicate it with no success. Ardice Holbrook of Manchester sent in a recipe she came across on the Internet from CDKitchen (www.cdkitchen.com) that she thought Braun might want to try. I tested the recipe and found it was fairly easy to make, provided you have a working candy thermometer and don't mind a bit of a mess in your kitchen.

Last week's Earth Matters included some recipes for non-toxic household cleaners, but the type was garbled in the early editions. We've had many requests to reprint the information. Here it is.Recipes:* For a mild all-purpose cleaner, mix a gallon of hot water, a half cup vinegar and a tablespoon of baking soda. For a stronger mixture, dissolve double the ingredients in the same amount of water.* Spilled something in the oven? Sprinkle the spots with salt right away. When the oven cools -- or whenever you get around to it -- wet the spill and scrub it with baking soda and a brush.

Around the house* Remove cat hair quickly. Use a damp sponge or squeegee to pick up fur from furniture, hard-to-reach niches and baseboards.* Use a pizza cutter to run over slices of onions whenever you need finely chopped onions for recipes.* If baby has wet the mattress, use baking soda to soak up moisture. First, blot stain with a thick towel. Apply baking soda over wet area and allow to sit until dry. Brush off soda.* Check smoke alarm once a month. Light a match, extinguish flame and hold smoldering match beneath detector.

Iva Thorpe from Headland, Ala., was looking for a recipe for a sweet potato cake or bread that had crushed pineapple and nuts in it. I did not receive any responses from readers to Thorpe's query, but I thought a sweet potato bread sounded perfect for this time of year and was worth doing a little research. I found several quick bread recipes on the Web and decided to test one from the Ontario sweet-potato growers' website, http://www.ontariosweetpotato.com. The recipe comes from Bob and Juli Proracki , the owners of Round Plains Plantation, growers of sweet potatoes near Waterford, Ontario.

The Charles Village apartment was largely empty — except for the guns, the drugs and the 20-ton hydraulic compressor. The apartment, in the 2900 block of St. Paul St. near the Johns Hopkins University, was raided this week by detectives after a monthlong investigation. Police said Joseph Batson, 39, was arrested on the street with a 10 mm Glock pistol and 4.5 ounces of crack cocaine, while his wife, Jamie Batson, 25, who was put on home detention for a drug conviction in Baltimore County about a month ago, was arrested inside the apartment.

One recent morning in Catonsville, Ned Atwater was wielding his bench knife, cutting lumps of dough and shaping them into the two types of bread, Irish brown and Irish soda, that he will offer to Baltimore-area bread eaters on St. Patrick's Day. Like many things Irish, there is a lively debate about what goes in their breads. For example, one traditional version of an Irish brown bread calls for oatmeal. For some, this bread offers a hearty taste of the old country. For others, like Atwater, the loaf can be leaden.

Alice Cottle from Fort Bragg, Calif., was looking for a recipe for persimmon bread. Lorraine Hatter from Tremont, Pa., sent in a recipe she found in September/October issue of Good Old Days magazine for the bread. Persimmons are a fall or winter fruit that are very good eaten raw or cooked to make lovely bread when gently spiced with cinnamon and augmented with raisins and chopped walnuts as in this recipe. This bread is moist and delicious, and keeps well for several days so it makes an ideal gift.

Gaila Droegemeier from Centerton, Ark., was hoping someone would have the recipe for a Weight Watchers oatmeal cookie. She had a recipe some years ago but misplaced it and she has not been able to reproduce the wholesome-tasting cookie to her satisfaction. A quick search on the Internet turned up several promising recipes. I tested one by Michelle Marshal that she posted on a site called Suite101.com. I decided not to tell my testers that it was a Weight Watchers cookie. Based upon how fast the batch was gobbled at my house, I doubt anyone was aware that the chewy and delicious cookies were also low fat and relatively low calorie.

Joyce Sanders from Selman City, Texas, was looking for a recipe for a cookie that she loved when she was a teenager made with Grape-Nut flake cereal. She said the recipe came from the back of the cereal box. Now she wants to make them for her own family. Evelyn Osteraas from The Sea Ranch, Calif., sent in a recipe that was given to her by her sister in law that uses both Grape-Nuts and Grape-Nut flakes. She says everyone in her family enjoys these cookies and it's easy to understand why. The cookies are wholesome and very delicious.

As a bride in the 1950s, Dorothy McMann of Baltimore used to make an applesauce cake with a recipe that came from the label of the Ann Page applesauce jar. Unfortunately, she never copied down the recipe and she was hoping someone might still have a copy. Millie DiBlasi of Linthicum sent in a recipe for an applesauce cake that she clipped from the newspaper in 1979. Any good-quality, natural-style applesauce will work just fine for this dense but moist spice cake. This cake tastes even better the day after you make it and will keep well for several days.

Our latest healthy recipe comes from WebMD . It's for those of you trying to improve your diet, but that can't curb that sweet tooth. WebMD says you can serve this cake with raspberries and a dollop of Cool Whip. If you have a healthy recipe you'd like to share send it to: andrea.walker@baltsun.com . Ingredients:   3/4 cup less-sugar raspberry preserves 1 cup whole-wheat flour 1 cup unbleached white flour 1 cup granulated sugar 1/2 cup Splenda 3/4 cup baking cocoa 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup less-fat margarine (with 8 grams of fat per tablespoon)

Marcy Callahan from Parkton was looking for a recipe for a chocolate applesauce cake similar to the one her mother had come across in a magazine around 30 years ago and now is lost. Jacquelyn Meadors, who says she has resided in Baltimore for the past five years, saw Callahan's request and was prompted to send in her recipe for this delicious cake. She says she is in her 86th year of life and is so blessed to be able to still bake occasionally. She says that "this cake is so easy and so moist and is a family favorite."

Florence Shimano of Glen Ellen, Calif., was looking for a recipe for banana cake like the one her mother used to make. She remembers that her mother's recipe called for the addition of sour cream. Helen Frantz of St. Clair, Pa., sent in a recipe for a banana cake that was given to her by a friend in 1953. She says that she has made this cake for her family many times over the years, and folks always love it. This is a great recipe to have in your collection when you need to use up over-ripe bananas.