The Many Lives of Aluminum Foil!
By Alice Osborne
This handy, yet unassuming product can do a whole lot more than line the drip pans on the stove. Aluminum foil has many lives, and one of my favorite sites, Care2, shared a collection of ideas on how to use foil - some you may not have thought of. Author of the article, Katie Waldeck, arranged them into specific categories for our convenience. See what you think.
All around the house:
1. Prevent Paint from Dripping on your Doorknobs, by wrapping them (and hinges) in foil. You no longer need to remove them when you're repainting a room.
2. Fix those Loose Battery Compartments when your remote no longer holds batteries like it used to. Can't figure out why that flashlight isn't working? The springs might be loose. Fold a tiny piece of foil and place it between the spring and the battery.
Fashion & Beauty:
3. Iron Your Clothes in Half the Time by placing a long strip of foil under your ironing board's cover. Replace the cover. Notice how the foil retains heat as you iron, which means you are basically ironing both sides at the same time! [THIS is my favorite idea!]
4. Protect Your Glasses When Dying Your Hair by lining the temples of them with foil to prevent dye from staining the frames. This way you can read while you wait for the dye to "take."
5. Iron Delicate Fabrics. Is your silk, wool, or rayon garment getting wrinkly? As these types of fabrics can't handle direct heat, you can still iron them at home and save money (avoiding a trip to the dry cleaners). Lay a strip of foil on top of the ironing board and place the clothing item on top of it. Move the iron back and forth, a few inches above the garment, a few times and watch how those wrinkles disappear.
Food:
6. Soften Brown Sugar. Foil works much better than a microwave for softening brown sugar. If you're not careful, a microwave will actually liquefy the sugar. So instead of nuking that hard block of sweetness, preheat the oven to 300°F. Line a baking sheet with foil, spread the brown sugar on top, and heat through for about 5 minutes. You'll have sugar that's soft and fresh!
7. Frost a Cake. Who needs fancy pastry bags when you have foil around? Roll foil into a cone (if your brand isn't very strong, do a second layer of foil.) Leave a tiny opening at the cone's bottom, fold down the top of the cone to prevent spillage, fill with icing and start squeezing.
8. Keep Bread Warm. Don't let those rolls go cold on the dinner table! Line a basket or bowl with foil and place napkin-wrapped bread in it.
9. Perfect Your Pie Crust. An easy and foolproof method for preventing your pie crust from burning is with a "pie crust shield." You can buy these in a kitchen store, but make your own using handy aluminum foil. Cut a square of foil about 1/2 inch bigger than the circumference of your pie. Fold as show in the picture, cut an arc of foil from the center of the foil (where all the folds meet). Open the foil and you have your homemade shield. Take the pie out of the oven a little over halfway through the baking process and lay the shield gently over the crust (molding it to the circular pan as you go). Return pie to oven to complete baking.
Cleaning:
10. Shine Up Your Metals. Line a large pan or bowl with foil, fill it up with cold water and add three teaspoons of salt. Place your rusty metals in the water and let them soak for about five minutes. Rinse the water off and pat them dry.
11. Keep Your Grill or Fireplace Clean by lining the bottom of either with foil. Forgot to do that? Foil is also good for cleaning off the gunk.
12. Extend the Life of your Steel Wool. That stuff's expensive - don't let it go to waste! Store your steel wool on top of a crumpled ball of foil. You can also wrap it in foil and store it in the freezer to lengthen its lifespan.
13. Sharpen Your Scissors. Nobody wants dull scissors! Keep them sharp by cutting through several sheets of foil every once in awhile.
14. [My daughter, Roxy's, Tip] Soften Your Clothes. Instead of using expensive and not-so-environmentally-friendly dryer sheets, using a 4-inch ball of foil instead. Either simply save pieces of foil you've used for other things (be sure they're wiped clean) and form into a ball over time, or cut enough foil to fashion into a ball. Then place the ball in the dryer when drying clothes. The science escapes me, so I can't explain how this works. But clothes that have tumbled around with a ball of aluminum foil come out nice and soft.
15. [Jeanne Wolfley's Tip] Avoid After-Baking Clean-up: Jeanne lines her 9x13 and square bakeware with foil (across the bottom and up all the sides) before she adds her batter. When baking is finished, she removes the bakeware to a cooling rack for a few minutes. Then she lifts the entire baked product out of the pan and returns the food back to the cooling rack (still encased in the foil). She folds the foil sides down to hasten cooling. Meanwhile, she returns her bakeware to the cupboard - there was no need to wash it!
Sources:
www.greenmom.com
www.pinterest.com
www.helpbendbroadband.com
www.article.wn.com
www.flickr.com
www.wikihow.com
www.realsimple.com
www.renewsing.com
www.foodnetwork.com
www.createdby-diane.com
