Cheaper, Better, Faster by Mary Hunt

washable winter woolens, add ½ cup of hair conditioner or creme rinse to 1 gallon of lukewarm water and soak.Rinse the woolens thoroughly with tepid water.
    Wrinkle-free
    Throw wrinkled clothes into the dryer along with a wet towel. Turn it on for a few minutes and all the wrinkles will steam themselves away while you’re getting ready.
    Zippers—jams
    Paint those fraying threads that constantly get caught in a zipper with clear nail polish.
    Zippers—tab replacement
    If the tab on your zipper is lost or broken, replace it with a safety pin or paper clip. Paint or wind fine yarn around it in a color that complements the garment.
    Zippers—trouble
    You can do several things to get that stubborn, sluggish, sticking metal zipper back into tip-top shape: Run the lead of an ordinary pencil along the metal teeth to lubricate them. Or with a cotton swab, apply a bit of lubricating spray such as WD-40 to the teeth. Be careful to wipe away any excess so it won’t soil the garment. Another solution: Rub the edge of a bar of soap or an old candle up and down the teeth and along both sides of the zipper.

4 Food and Cooking
    Asparagus—tenderness pouch
    For perfectly tender asparagus, fold aluminum foil into a rectangular shape to form a cooking pouch and bake the asparagus inside it. The asparagus will steam within the pouch.
    Baby food—homemade
    Puree some of the family’s regular food (not highly spiced items) in the blender. Pour into ice trays, freeze, then pop “food cubes” into large freezer bags to store. Keep the cubes frozen until needed, and simply heat them in the microwave.
    Bacon—no-stick slices
    Before opening a new package of bacon, roll it up like a jelly roll, then unroll. Slices won’t stick to each other.
    Baking—adjust oven for glass bakeware
    Glass bakeware conducts and retains heat better than metal, so oven temperatures should be reduced by 25 degreeswhenever glass containers are used.
    Baking—biscuit squares from dough scraps
    To use up the scraps left after cutting out rounds, roll the dough into a square and cut square biscuits with a knife or large pizza wheel.
    Baking—bread, dough rising
    Create the perfect environment for bread to rise. Bring 2 cups of water to boil in a lidded 2-quart pot. Remove the pot from the heat, invert the lid on the top of the pot, and lay a pot holder on the inverted lid. Put the bread dough into a mixing bowl, balance the bowl on the inverted lid, and cover with a dish towel. The water releases its heat gradually and keeps the dough at an ideal proofing temperature.
    Baking—bread, dough rising chamber
    To create a great environment for bread to rise, use the clothes dryer. On the high setting, tumble a clean bath towel for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off, and place the towel in the bottom of the dryer and the bowl of bread dough on top of the towel. Shut the dryer door to allow dough to rise. Put up a sign or a piece of tape across the door, or use some other signal in case someone decides it’s a perfect time to do a little laundry.
    Baking—brownie cutting
    Remove brownies from the pan first and then cut them with a pizza cutter. It zips right through. No muss. No fuss. And it makes it easier to cut them straight. This works well with most bar cookies too.
    Baking—brownies, extra fudgy
    For extra-fudgy brownies, add 1 tablespoon corn syrup to the batter, either a box mix or from scratch. Bake as usual. Also, don’t assume it always pays to bake from scratch. Brownies, for example, areoften cheaper to make from a mix.
    Baking—cake cooling
    To cool a cake just out of the oven, place the pan on a wet towel. The cake is less likely to stick to the pan, and after it cools it will come out of the pan easily.
    Baking—cake layer anchors
    To keep the cake layers from slipping while you ice the sides of a cake, push three long strands of dry spaghetti through all of the cake layers. Frost the