DEAR READERS: Celery is a delicious, light and crisp vegetable. Perfectly boat-shaped to hold peanut butter, cream cheese or cottage cheese for a snack, it's also a staple of stir-fry, salads and soups, and makes a perfect palate cleanser for chicken wings, and, of course, a garnish for a bloody Mary.
Related to parsley, celery will stay fresh in a plastic bag for a week in the refrigerator. Wash the stalk to remove dirt, and cut off the leaves and whitish root. Save the leaves for soup stock.
A serving of celery (two stalks) has a mere 15 calories, no fat and about 2 grams of fiber. Enjoy!
DEAR HELOISE: I started couponing because there was "too much month at the end of the money."
Anyone can coupon, in any space and in any budget. The key is to buy what you are able to use and store within a reasonable amount of time.
Another key point with couponing is that sales come in cycles. All of these deals will come back again.
-- Katie, via email
DEAR HELOISE: I'm an avid reader, and I have lots of books. (I never really got on board with the whole electronic-reader craze.) I store my books on a wall unit I had built, but I store them horizontally rather than vertically. This makes reading the titles on the dust jackets easier.
-- Harris B. in Indianapolis
DEAR HELOISE: Since cellphones have to be unlocked, having emergency info stored there might not be of much help if something happened.
I taped onto the back of my phone a small note that says, "In an emergency or if this phone is found call: xxx.xxx.xxxx."
-- Jacqueline H., via email
DEAR HELOISE: Whenever I change the bed linens, I put TWO pillowcases on each pillow. After a few days, I simply remove the outer pillowcase to expose the clean pillowcase underneath.
This is a quick and easy way to "freshen" the bedding without changing everything.
-- Laurie L., California
DEAR HELOISE: I have an easy fix for cookie sheets with baked-on grease: Spray with oven cleaner. Let it sit for a few hours and clean with a scouring pad. Good as new!
-- Carole W., via email
Send a money- or time-saving hint to Heloise, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio, Texas 78279-5000; fax to (210) 435-6473; or email
Heloise@Heloise.com
Weekend on 07/05/2018