Many uses for U-shaped wire pastry blender

Dear Heloise: I read your column daily in the Houston Chronicle. Someone wrote of all the uses for a potato masher. I do similar things with my Ushaped wire pastry blender, which I inherited from my parents. It is a wall hanging decoration in my kitchen, with its Bakelite handle. But I take it down and use it to mash guacamole, stir ingredients into meatloaf, etc. It is a vintage treasure that is also a useful kitchen tool. I don’t often make pastry or pie crust, but it sometimes is used for its intended purpose.

– Rusti Stover, Houston

Dear Heloise: Get a child’s wading pool, fill it halfway with water and place it under a tree. Set your potted plants in the water, and the plants will be in good shape when you return. I read your column in the Houston Chronicle. – Patricia Roberts, Bellaire, Texas After mopping a no-wax floor, add several capfuls of vinegar to the water to help remove soap film and to leave the floor clean and shiny.

Vinegar is such an indispensable and safe household product that can be used for cleaning, deodorizing and cooking. You can learn more uses for vinegar in my vinegar pamphlet “Fantabulous Vinegar Hints and More.” Get a copy by visiting www.heloise.com, or by sending $5 and a long, self-addressed, stamped (78 cents) envelope to: Heloise/vinegar, P.O. Box 795001, San Antonio, TX 78279-5001.

– Heloise

Dear Heloise: A reader from Omaha was having trouble with her gravy and wanted to know what she was doing wrong. It was lumpy and was the worst gravy her husband had ever tried. My suggestion is to tell her husband to get in the kitchen and make his own dang gravy.

– Don Atkinson, Saratoga Springs, New York