HELPFUL HINTS

DEAR HELOISE: When you get to the bottom of chips or salty snack containers, you have a lot of crumbs and small broken pieces. Crush everything together and store in an airtight container. You can use this when you need to bread shrimp or chicken tenders. You’ll have food with a nice, tasty and crisp coating on the outside.

Don’t toss out the inner bag that comes with a box of cereal. These bags that once stored cereal can be reused to store food for the freezer. But be sure to recycle the cereal box.

— Ann in Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas

DEAR HELOISE: To rid your garden of snails, try this natural remedy. Save your eggshells and allow them to dry. Crush them into smaller pieces and then spread them around your plants. Snails don’t like the rough texture of the shells and go away. — Carolyn S., Santa Ana, Calif.

DEAR READER: There is also the “beer” method. You take a pie plate and bury it up to the edge of the pie plate, then pour beer into the bowl section of the plate. The snails gravitate toward beer and crawl into the plate where the alcohol kills them.

DEAR HELOISE: My mother used to use your recipe for bath salts, and she loved the results. She has since passed on, but she took that recipe with her. Would you reprint it for all of us who enjoy a nice, long, hot bath?

— Lois A., Casper, Wyo.

DEAR READER: I get so many requests for this recipe for bath salts because it makes such a wonderful gift for the holidays and is fairly inexpensive to make.

Bath Salts

3 tablespoons glycerin (found

at most drugstores) Perfume, cologne or essential

oil of your choice

Food coloring

3 cups Epsom salts

Mix the glycerin, fragrance and several drops of food coloring in a large glass or metal bowl (plastic can stain). Next add the Epsom salts a little at a time, mixing constantly until the color is evenly distributed.

You can add a little more perfume and color if the salts aren’t fragrant or colorful enough. To use these bath salts, add about ½ cup to your bath water.

DEAR READERS: If you enjoy gardening, April is usually a good time to get the ground ready to plant seeds and bulbs. Clear away leaves, twigs and any other debris. Decide where you want to plant things and create your own garden design.