Monday, September 5, 2016

Pink Stuff

We are very excited to have Jo Wake, one of our faithful friends at the House guest, join us to post this week! She has some sage advice and tidbits to share!

It was so kind of the Really Real Housewives to ask me to do some guest posts this week. I can claim Liz as a friend, but although I follow this blog, I don’t really know any of the other housewives. However, I have been a housewife for a lot longer than most of them so I have been learning to do things the easiest way for a few years now.

One Sunday afternoon I was sitting thinking I didn’t know what advice I could offer you when I looked at my carpet and thought I needed to do something about the spots on it. Lo and behold, I thought of something you might appreciate.

Many years ago, whilst living in the States, I bought some Pink Stuff – it’s actual name is Quick ‘n Brite – and I have been using it forever. It is the best thing I have ever come across for removing the spots and stains which occur through every day life. No, I am not being paid to recommend it, but I think it is wonderful stuff. Recently I visited our local Costco and found they were selling a similar product which the guy selling it actually called the Pink Stuff, although oddly enough it’s white. Something about the pink being from strawberries and people being allergic. I don’t think I believe that. I had loaned Quick ‘n Brite to the local bowling alley and they were impressed with it so the owner’s wife picked some up. I believe you can use it in a carpet cleaning machine these days. But for me, it will always be something I use as a spot cleaner. You can mix it with water or for really bad stains, use it undiluted.

Except for wine spills. Maybe you don’t drink wine, but I do and I found this tip a long time ago. If you spill any red wine on your carpet, don’t touch it; cover it with a thick layer of salt. Leave it for, maybe, 24 hours and then just vacuum it. Hey presto, no wine stain. I tried mopping it up with paper towel first. Big mistake. The salt does a wonderful job of absorbing the wine. Of course the moral of that is drink it don’t drop it.

That same Sunday I had to peel some garlic and I thought you might be interested to know that you can keep garlic forever in a Mason Jar once you have peeled it. I put a piece of paper towel in the jar to absorb any moisture.

Peeling the cloves is a pain and I used to be able to buy peeled garlic in the store but haven’t been able to do so for a while. I first started doing this when I bought huge jars of peeled garlic at Sam’s Club. Way more than you would have thought just two of us could cope with. Amazingly it keeps a very long time. I just wish I could still buy it peeled because peeling it myself is not my favourite job. I find a medium size Mason Jar holds three good sized bulbs of peeled garlic.


Jo Wake has been happily married for almost 44 years, originally from the UK, living in Canada now. She's interested in cooking, reading and wildlife conservation.

Her blog is "Jo on Food, Life and a Scent of Chocolate" When she first signed up with blogger, they would not accept her last name for some reason, so she used a family name.

If you need any more info about Jo, a friend wrote a blog post about her some time ago. Although it claims she's interested in gardening, she's not really. She likes to look at gardens, that’s all.

14 comments:

  1. I was just watching a cooking show on TV and they made a pasta with a garlic sauce using 50 cloves of garlic. Recommended buying them already peeled and I thought of Costco. I did see another show where they smashed the bulb and then shook all the cloves in a covered container to free them. Tried it and it works. I'll look for that carpet cleaner and with white carpets in the house I'll try to remember that salt trick. Thanks Jo.

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  2. You're welcome Denise. There is another trick where they put the garlic in a large covered bowl and shake it to get the skin off. Didn't work for me though.

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    1. Can you bake it a little to make it peel easier? This Philistine (hehe) has never cooked with fresh garlic, but I seem to recall my dad baking it a bit before peeling. He ate a lot of garlic.

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    2. You can cook garlic but when you do it becomes a different animal Liz. Lots of people cook the whole caboodle and then use it as a spread on toast. You need to cut off the top though so when it's cooked you can just squeeze it out. Not the same as fresh garlic though.

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  3. Thank you so much Tara, Liz, Ashley and Tammy for having me as a guest on this blog this week. It's been fun.

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  4. Hi Tara and Jo - good to see Jo here giving out her tips ... the wine story I did know - but the garlic one I didn't .. might give that a try ... Cheers Hilary

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  5. It makes it so much quicker when you are cooking Hilary. I just wish I could find the ready peeled again.

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  6. Oh nice!! And i know you!!! You're the sweetest thing since pink stuff that cleans. Haha

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  7. Jo! My favorite lady! I never spill my wine, though I have been known to dribble it down my shirt...seems hitting my lips gets harder with each glass drank. LOL. You think it would work the same on a shirt?

    I'll be checking out the pink stuff. I need some of that!

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    1. It might work on a shirt Liz, I can't say I've ever tried it. I'm much more likely to wave my hands about and knock the whole glass over.

      That pink stuff is marvelous.

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  8. I sure wish I'd known that trick about putting salt on a red wine spill a long time ago. One of our kids spilled wine on the living room carpet some years back, but I didn't know that handy dandy trick. When I shampoo the carpet, it looks better for a day or two, and then Bingo! The stain shows right back up again. (I think it just goes into hiding when it hears the shampooer.)

    Good tip on the garlic, too. I'll definitely try that. Thanks!

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    1. What a pity Susan. I have also used the pink stuff on an old wine spill. If you use it without deleting it, it also works pretty well.

      Yes, I always have garlic in the fridge.

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