HELPFUL HINTS

DEAR HELOISE: This isn’t anything earth-shattering, but I found that if I place my coffee mug on top of my coffee maker while the coffee is brewing, it warms up my mug and keeps my coffee warmer, longer.

— Beth H., Juneau, Alaska

DEAR HELOISE: I had a recipe using vinegar to clean my coffee pot, but I can no longer find it. Do you have a recipe? I know you run vinegar through it to clean it out and then run plain water about twice to eliminate the vinegar, but I cannot remember the amount. I read your column every day in the paper and hope you can help me.

— Mary R., Abilene, Texas

DEAR READER: To clean most coffee makers, run full-strength white vinegar (about 6 to 7 cups) through a normal cycle. But don’t go on autopilot and run it through your coffee by mistake! Follow the vinegar with several cycles of plain water. It’s that simple.

DEAR HELOISE: A while ago I was baking a special bread that calls for raisins. I discovered that I was out of raisins, so I substituted dried apricots. I took my kitchen scissors, sprayed them with a nonstick vegetable oil and cut them up into pieces about the size of raisins and did the same thing with pieces of dried apples. I followed the rest of the recipe as usual, and my bread turned out better than ever. I think sometimes a change in a recipe can be very interesting to the taste buds.

— Amy W., Vernon, Conn.

DEAR HELOISE: I had a hard time getting my kids to eat more fruit and less junk food. Finally, my own mother made a suggestion that worked wonders. She told me to take a banana and cut it up into bite-size pieces, then coat them in a thin layer of chocolate and freeze them on a sheet of wax paper. Now I let them have a few at a time as a snack. This worked so well that I started doing the same thing to apple slices, strawberries and dried pineapple slices. I make sure the chocolate is only one thin layer, and it gets them to eat fruit.

— Doria C., Salem, Ore.

DEAR HELOISE: My husband loves cranberry sauce, but I wanted to make it a little more interesting. I added the juice of one fresh orange and a tiny amount of orange zest and mixed it all together. What a difference! The taste was so good, we’re having it at Christmas, too.

— June F., Cumberland, R.I.