southpaw's Profile

My go-to with sun tea -- using black tea as a base -- is a a handful of lemon verbena fresh from my garden and some honey to sweeten. Another thing I like to do is thick (half an inch or so) slices of oranges with a few cloves -- also sweetened, but with sugar, not honey. Hey, I'm a southern gal, so sweet tea is a must. :)

No, no, no. Tea and coffee makers do not mix. As QHARTMAN notes, coffee flavor lingers. This is especially true when using coffee makers for some milder teas, like green or herbal blends. Coffee makers don't allow you to control the steeping time either.

Also, many teas are best at different water temperatures, and I've not seen a coffee maker that has that option (they may exist, just haven't seen). My electric hot water kettle was made for tea, and has multiple temp settings. An electric kettle with multiple settings, along with a french press, could cover both coffee and tea needs, but not a coffee maker.

So maybe I'm a tea snob. I know some coffee snobs, too. I get not wanting to have multiple devices, but I think this is definitely one case where you shouldn't cross the streams, as it were.

I've had wild pawpaws that my dad picked. It's a different texture that you'd expect for the flavor - think mango / apple as a custard.

Seconding Swheat Scoop wheat litter. Nice bonus is that it's flushable. I've used corn but switched because the dog, a lab mix, found it too tempting, probably since corn is often an ingredient in his food. I like pine and sometimes mix it with the wheat because of the pine-fresh scent.

Thankfully, my cat is indoor/outdoor, and is happy to go outside like my pup, so I don't even have to worry about litter much at all.

Yes for using a sharpie like sturgeongeneral suggests! Much better than wasting time with a label maker that gets so stuck on it's impossible to remove.

I love the look and tried to do something similar in my own kitchen with the OXO pop containers mentioned by loves2sneeze and lynell above. Although after using them, I would hestitate to recommend them to others.

My experience: granted, I can be a klutz, but the OXO containers cannot take any real wear and tear. I've had to toss containers because of dropping the tops onto the counter or tile floor and having the tops crack and no longer being airtight. I've had the plastic containers themselves get scratched and damaged getting washed, and being useless after that. No to mention some of the bigger ones are just difficult to grab and move around when fully loaded with flour or sugar. That is not something you want to fumble or drop, let me tell you.

I wish I'd gone with something cheap and not plastic. If I had a do-over I'd pick Mason jars - pretty, glass, and airtightness not dependent on a little piece of rubber and plastic.

Better yet, get a compact washer and dryer that is stackable. If you have a stackable combo unit and something goes wrong with one, you are SoL for the whole thing. I had to deal with this very thing myself recently, when my dryer died and I was left with a useless top part and no way to repair for a reasonable amount. I priced out stack combo units, even came up with a couple that you listed, and then realized that I could get a separate washer and dryer that stacks (LG, front loading, energy saver, more options and cycles, way better overall) for less. And by less, I mean hundreds less, enough that I could have added good chunk of what I've been saving up for a new fridge, if I so desired.

After that experience and the price difference shock, I would never consider a stack combo unit again.

7a. call tech support and check with a human to make sure all your wires are accounted for and connected properly, even if you follow the installation guide, or you may find yourself blowing the transformer on your unit because a simple fuse that could have prevented such a thing was never installed.

oooh... WANT.

Kashi's Medley cereal. One day, it was just gone. No warning, no chance to stock up. Just gone.

I know it's a mix of various other Kashi cereals, but I can't seem to get it right, or all of the ingredients.

Oooh... something pretty and useful! All those coffee drinkers who turn their noses up at me, a tea-only drinker, can turn green with envy when they see this sitting on my counter!