The pineapple has been a symbol of hospitality since the days of the early American colonies. According to legend, the symbol began with the sea captains of New England who would spear a pineapple on a fence post outside their home to let the community know of their safe return home and to invite friends to visit and share their hospitality.
Likewise, we hope Pineapple Hill Designs boutique will make you feel “Welcome”! We know how important it is to find something special for that certain someone or just the right accessory to complete a room. We believe everyday is a day to celebrate, and we have just the thing to help you create something special out of the ordinary.
“Lemon juice is the strongest food acid in our kitchens, strong enough to make life unbearable for most bacteria,” says Robert Wolke, professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Pittsburghvia Real Simple Magazine
Use Lemon to:
Sanitize a chopping block. Run a slice of lemon over the surface to disinfect.
Eliminate the browning that occurs when food sits out too long. Sprinkle apple or pear slices with lemon juice before serving, or squeeze a bit into guacamole and give it a stir.
Remove tough food stains from plastic and light-colored wooden cutting boards. Slice a lemon in half, squeeze the juice onto the soiled surface, rub, and let sit for 20 minutes. Rinse with water.
Fade tea stains on cloth. Dilute lemon juice with an equal amount of water. Use an eyedropper or a Q-tip to make sure the juice targets the stain. Thoroughly flush with cool water.
Decorate on the cheap. Fill a glass bowl with lemons for a sunny centerpiece. Or display a row of them along a windowsill.
Relieve a sore throat. Cut a lemon in half. Skewer one half over a medium flame on a gas stove or an electric burner set on high and roast until the peel turns golden brown. Let cool slightly, then mix the juice with 1 teaspoon of honey. Swallow the mixture.
Whiten fingernails. Rub a wedge on the surface of your nails.
Shine the interior of copper cookware. Sprinkle a lemon wedge with salt, then scrub.
Brighten laundry whites. Add 1/2 cup lemon juice to the wash cycle of a normal-size load.
Remove soft cheese or other sticky foods from a grater. Rub both sides of the grater with the pulp side of a cut lemon.
Some plants need to have their flowers removed in order to keep producing blooms. Here's a list of flowers that need deadheading as well as some that don't. Mygrandmataught me this when I was a little girl. She called it "pinching back".
You can often prolong bloom by removing spent flowers, but that's not true for all flowering plants. When a flower remains on a plant, the plant's energy is diverted into producing seed, rather than more flowers. Deadheading (removing the spent flower by pinching off or cutting back) is a must for many annuals but not all. With perennials, which generally have a shorter bloom period, deadheading usually isn't necessary but is used just to keep the plant looking tidy.
2 cup fresh corn kernels or frozen corn kernels, thawed
2 poblano chile or Cubanelle peppers, seeded and diced or 1/2 green pepper, seeded and diced (wear plastic glove when handling)
1 jalapeno chile pepper, seeded and diced (optional) (wear plastic gloves when handling)
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons lime juice
1 lime, cut into wedges (optional, for garnish)
Directions:
1.
Preheat the oven to 400ºF.
2.
Coat a medium ovenproof skillet with vegetable oil spray. Dip the chicken into the egg white. Combine the chips with the chili powder, press mixture into chicken, and arrange in skillet, leaving space between each piece. Lightly coat the chicken with vegetable oil spray and sprinkle with 1/8 teaspoon salt. Place the pan in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted in the thickest portion registers 160ºF and the juices run clear.
3.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine the corn; poblano, Cubanelle, or green bell pepper; jalapeno chile pepper (if using); cilantro; lime juice; and the remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt. Stir to mix. Set aside.
4.
Remove the chicken and allow to rest for 4 minutes. Slice each piece crosswise into 5 pieces. Serve with the corn salad. Garnish with lime wedges, if desired
It relieved a bee sting in minutes and reduced pain for more than five hours, according to one informal test -- better than eight other over-the-counter products and home remedies, including every sting cream and stick tried . Toothpaste's other "off-label" use?
Zit zapping. Put a tiny dot on a pimple before bed. The pimple should be dried out and less noticeable by the next morning. But use only in emergencies. Toothpaste's fluoride can make acne worse, says Adam S. Stibich, MD, director of the Dermatology Clinic in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Dish Detergent
If you've been exposed to poison ivy, liquid dish soap could spare you from the red, itchy rash. When researchers swabbed the forearms of medical students with crushed poison-ivy leaves, then rubbed a patch with everyday dish detergent for 25 seconds before rinsing, they found that dish soap prevented a reaction in almost half the volunteers and reduced the inflammation and blistering in the rest by 56 percent. The soap works because it strips your skin of the plant oil that's responsible for causing the rash. But for it to work you need to wash within two hours of exposure, before the oil has time to bind to your skin cells, says Dr. Stibich, a coauthor of the study. He adds that any full-strength dish detergent will do the trick.
Peppermint
A minty herb that's long been known to quiet the occasional stomach upset, peppermint is now also seen as a powerful treatment for irritable bowel syndrome -- frequent bouts of pain, gas, bloating, diarrhea, or constipation that strike as many as one in five adults. Peppermint-oil capsules bring significant relief to about one in three IBS sufferers, according to the American College of Gastroenterology. Surprisingly, prescription antispasmodic drugs help only one in six. The recommended dose is three 0.2-mL capsules a day and it's safe to try on your own. But don't use it if you have gastroesophageal reflux disease or a hiatal hernia, since it can make their symptoms worse.
Camphor-Eucalyptus Menthol Ointment
Vicks VapoRub and similar topical cold remedies may be more effective than a prescription pill against the fungus that makes toenails thick, yellow, and unsightly: Thirty-eight percent of people who applied the ointment daily to affected toes were fungus-free in five to 16 months, according to a study from the Michigan State University College of Nursing, in East Lansing, compared to 35 percent for the pill. Experts recommend applying the ointment twice a day until the fungal nail has grown out and been replaced by a healthy nail.
Baking Soda
You know you can cook with it or use it to deodorize the fridge, but it's also an effective antacid -- just follow the instructions on the box. What's more, three international studies have concluded that baking soda is one of the best treatments for bothersome earwax. "It takes some time, but it's a safe way to get rid of packed earwax that is interfering with hearing," says Walter C. Johnson, MD, a specialist in internal and emergency medicine at Dewitt Army Community Hospital, in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. Just mix 1/4 teaspoon baking soda with 2 teaspoons water. While lying on your side with one ear on a pillow, have someone drip the liquid into your upturned ear using a small spoon or an eyedropper. Wait one hour. Then flush out the dissolved earwax with warm water, using a bulb-shaped ear syringe. Caveat: Don't try this on children with tubes in their ears.
Baby Shampoo
Treat itchy, red, or crusty eyelids -- a problem for many contact-lens wearers -- by gently scrubbing the edges of your lids with a cotton ball soaked in diluted baby shampoo (three drops shampoo to six tablespoons of water). Then rinse the lids with a clean cotton ball dipped in warm water. Do this in the morning and at bedtime to help your eye feel better, says Dr. Rosen. If the eye problem doesn't clear up in a few days, see your physician. You may have developed an eye infection that requires a prescription for an antibiotic ointment.
Honey
Just a spoonful calms a cough better than over-the-counter cough syrup or no treatment at all, notes a Pennsylvania State University at Hershey study of more than 100 children ages 2 to 18. Honey soothes by coating the throat but may also help because it's packed with disease-fighting antioxidants and antimicrobials. Don't feed it to kids under age 1; their immature immune system can't battle a bacterium that's in some honeys. For adult-size coughs, a teaspoon or two is enough. If you're allergic to bee stings, make sure you don't have a honey allergy, too.
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via Real Simple Magazine
