Refrigerator

Around the house* Wash cutlery by hand unless manufacturer specifies it is dishwasher safe. Avoid soaking in water, which can loosen wooden handles; dry thoroughly.* Plug openings around pipes and vents that lead outside with steel wool. This will prevent mice from entering your home.* Pour 1 cup baking soda into sink drain to avoid clogging. Follow with 1 cup cider vinegar and 1 pint boiling water. Repeat once a week.* Strain scum from old paint with nylon hose. Make vertical snips with scissors along legs of hose and cut to fit; pull nylon taut over the top of a can of paint; attach with rubber band and pour.

Kathy Reid takes her eggs out of the refrigerator about 10 to 15 minutes before using them, so they blend more easily with the sugar and margarine in her recipes. Reid also lets the batter sit in the pan for five minutes before baking. "It seems to help the bread rise better if I do this," she says. In The Best Quickbreads, Beth Hensperger stresses beating the wet and dry ingredients separately. When mixed together, combine them "with a quick and light hand." "Bake quick loaves on the middle shelf with at least two inches of space between each pan," Hensperger says.

Recently the Washington Post printed an article explaining how the appliance manufacturers plan to drive consumers insane. Of course, they don't say they want to drive us insane. What they say they want to do is have us live in homes where "all appliances are on the Internet, sharing information" and appliances will be "smarter than most of their owners." For example, the article states, you would have a home where the dishwasher "can be turned on from the office" and the refrigerator "knows when it's out of milk" and the bathroom scale "transmits your weight to the gym."

How long will condiments last in the refrigerator? I searched the Web to determine what are the shelf lives of ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise. All three products have high acid contents, and it is their acidity that keeps bacterial growth at bay. Heinz recommends that you use its ketchup within 15 months of its manufacture, regardless of where you store it. To determine when it was made, decode the product code on the package. For example, in FR6B08, "FR" refers to the production location, "6" represents the year of production (i.e.

It may seem like a million times that you've told your daughter, son or significant other where to find your will, your health-care directive, the durable power of attorney and other crucial documents they'll need when you're gone. But will they remember that the third drawer in the guest closet holds this information? Or the fishing tackle box in the workshop, or some other arcane spot? Worse yet, maybe you haven't told them anything about your last wishes. When a death occurs, survivors often feel swamped with details, not to mention grief.

An oven treat from the refrigerator and pickled eggs in a jar are responses worth trying.Jessica E. Burns of Los Alamos, N.M., asked for a potato refrigerator roll. She wrote that the recipe was "high in sugar, shortening and contained eggs and made enough for three large batches."Charlotte Stevens of Baltimore responded.Stevens' Refrigerator Potato RollsMakes about 3 dozen1/2 cup warm mashed potatoes1 1/2 cups warm water2 packages dry yeast1/2 cup sugar1 teaspoon salt2 eggs1/2 cup softened butter or margarine6 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flourMeasure flour in large bowl.

A friend of mine makes chicken soup at night, turns off the heat before he goes to bed, leaves the pot covered overnight and in the morning puts it in the refrigerator. I shudder at the thought of leaving food for more than a couple of hours at anything but a cooking temperature or refrigerator temperature. What do you think? I think it sounds fishy. And Kathryn Boor, professor of food microbiology at Cornell University, thinks it sounds downright dangerous. Your friend may well have killed a lot of garden-variety microbes as his soup bubbles away, but he has not eliminated the risk of botulism, "a rare but serious paralytic illness caused by a nerve toxin that is produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Everyone knows the feeling. A repair technician says your refrigerator needs a new whatsit, or the guy at the electronics place concludes your VCR's thingamajig is kaput.You frown. Maybe you ask some questions, hoping to sound knowledgeable. But all you really know is that you'll soon be parting with some cash. And you only hope the machine will work right again.Alas, ABC correspondent Chris Wallace confirms that feeling of helplessness tonight at 10 o'clock on his segment of "PrimeTime Live" (on Channel 13)

It's not too soon to call the turkey hotline. Butterball's Turkey Talk-Line is open now through late December. Call them at 1-800-323-4848.Their hours are 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. On Thanksgiving they will be open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.The toll-free hotline available to callers nationwide who have questions about any and all turkey preparations -- from how to buy the bird to how to fix leftovers. Forty-four home economists and nutritionists are available to answer questions. This is the hotline's tenth year.

Green light for some red foods If you want to be in the pink of health, eat red. The National Cancer Institute reports that deep-red or bright-pink fruit and vegetables contain phytochemicals that help your body fight disease and promote good health. These phytochemicals include lycopene - which is found in watermelons, pink grapefruit and tomatoes - and anthocyanins found in strawberries, raspberries and beets. Lycopenes help reduce the risk of several kinds of cancer while anthocyanins help control high blood pressure and protect against diabetes-related circulatory problems.