Hello there and welcome to our monthly feature of all kinds of tips. We at the business desk are pleased to bring you our monthly feature of a plethora of tips that cover a wide range of topics. All of our tips are designed to help you save time, cut down on your research, and help you get ahead. So go ahead and read on. This week we bring you our monthly tips. It's what we do for a living! We help you to help yourself! Enjoy! From the business desk team at https://www.sterlingcreations.com. Follow us on Twitter @accessibleworld +++++++++++++++ Helpful tips for April 2022 In this issue: General tips Articles of the day * make it better yourself – homemade coffee creamer From the pages of Donna's travel diary * Using an accessible travel app _________________________ General tips Courtesy of the research team at http://www.sterlingcreations.ca Scams of the month: Before giving you our scam tips of the month, here are some very valueable tips. You need to remember that scams come in the following formats: As emails, as phone calls both recorded and via a live caller, and o yes! It can even show up at your door and in your mailbox. And now they are targeting us through texts being sent to our cell phones. Before giving you the latest scams making the rounds; we have some do nots to share with you. Do not respond to emails that look strange to you. Do not download attachments from unknown senders. Do not share your username and password to your online banking and any other online payments facilities with anyone. Do not give out any banking or personal details on the phone to unknown callers. Do not pay any attention to threats from automated phone recordings or from live persons with regard to your credit card or that you owe money to any revenue agency. Do not entertain any offers either via email or by phone from senders and callers offering incredible service packages as they may pertain to cable and tv services, prizes that you have won, or any sort of any type of service package. Do not answer the door to unknown callers. Take extra caution to make sure that the details of your credit cards and debit cards are fully protected when you make payments at restaurants or at stores, pharmacies, and elsewhere. Do not enter your password for Facebook or Twitter in response to a text request on your cell phone. The same if you are asked for your Apple ID. Do not fall prey to a text message telling you that your banking details have been compromised online. From Melanie mama Peach with huge thanks: 1) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Cleanups/For The Drops And Disasters, Plus Some Of The Ordinary Dreary Messes Tea Kettles * To rid of lime deposits, fill with equal parts vinegar and water. Bring to a boil and allow to stand overnight. _____ 2) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Cleanups/For The Drops And Disasters, Plus Some Of The Ordinary Dreary Messes Thermos Bottles * Put 1 teaspoon baking soda in bottle, fill with warm water and soak a few minutes before washing in usual manner. _____ 3) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Cleanups/For The Drops And Disasters, Plus Some Of The Ordinary Dreary Messes Tin Pie Pans * Remove rust by dipping a raw potato in cleaning powder and scouring. _____ 4) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh Lettuce And Celery * Lettuce and celery will keep longer if you store them in the refrigerator in paper bags instead of cellophane ones. Do not remove the outisde leaves of either until ready to use. * Lettuce won't rust as quickly if you place a paper towel or napkin in the storage container. * Line the bottom of the vegetable compartments with paper toweling. This absorbs the excess moisture and keeps all fruits and vegetables fresher for a longer period of time. _____ 5) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh – Sprouting Onions * To keep dry onions from sprouting and becoming soft, wrap individually in foil. They will stay firm for some time. _____ 6) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food FreshToo Many Peeled Potatoes * Cover them with cold water to which a few drops of vinegar have been added. Keep refrigerated and they will last for 3 to 4 days. * Leftover baked potatoes will sour quickly if stacked together in the refrigerator. _____ 7) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh Garlic * Garlic cloves will never dry out if you store them in a bottle of cooking oil. After the garlic is used up, you can use the garlic-flavored oil for salad dressing. _____ 8) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh: Cheese * To keep cheese from drying out, wrap in a cloth damped with vinegar. _____ 9) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh Milk * Don't pour milk from the pitcher or glasses back into the carton. The room temperature milk may cause the colder milk to sour. _____ 10) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh Brown Sugar * Store in plastic bag. Wrap tightly. Place in coffee can with snap-on lid. _____ 11) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh Cocoa * A glass jar is an ideal container for storing cocoa products. It keeps the flavor in and unwanted odors out. Be sure to store in a dry cool place. Moisture will cause cocoa to lump. _____ 12) Best Of Helpful Hints: The Kitchen Keeping Food Fresh Cake * Place one-half an apple in the cake box. * Placing a slice of fresh bread fastened with toothpicks to the cut edge of a cake will keep the cake from drying out and getting stale. _____ From Donna – Some very useful tips on using Alexa: 3) Hey Alexa A.) Alexa can help recommend local businesses by hours of operation, delivery, rating, and more. Just say, "Alexa, find restaurants that are open now." B.) You can now choose between Alexa's original voice and a new voice option in Alexa's default voice settings. Just say, "Alexa, change your voice." C.) Speaker groups allow you to play music, podcasts, and news on multiple Echo devices at once, providing a multi-room audio experience. In the Alexa app, you can create custom speaker groups, such as "Upstairs," "Bedrooms," or "Downstairs." Just say, "Alexa, play music everywhere." _________________________ Articles of the day Chosen by the Business Desk team make it better yourself: homemade coffee creamer Cream. It’s coffee’s perfect mate. And when that creamer comes flavored in a handy bottle from the dairy case, even more perfect, right? Oh, but so pricey! Generally, popular brands like Coffeemate, International Delight, Dunkin Donuts Extra Extra and Natural Bliss retail for $.10 to $.30 per ounce. Ouch! But you can make it yourself for a fraction of the price—and it is so easy. The hard part will be not using it all at once. Bonus: You’ll know exactly what’s in it and you can control sweetness and the flavors, too. Stored in the refrigerator in a glass bottle or similar container with the tight-fitting in the refrigerator, homemade coffee creamer is good for at least 10 to 14 days. Generally, homemade coffee creamers start with a base to which you add sweetener and flavor. There are two ways to make coffee creamer base—one that starts out sweet (Base Recipe #1) and one that is not sweet to start (Base Recipe #2). CREAMER RECIPES USING BASE RECIPE #1 Creamer Base Recipe #1: This recipe uses sweetened condensed milk. The most popular national brand is Eagle Sweetened Condensed Milk. Another is La Lechera Milk Condensed Sweetened. I use my store brand, Kroger Sweetened Condensed Milk, which is exactly the same as Eagle brand, but half the price of Eagle and often on sale for even less—about $1.59 for a 14-ounce can. Here’s the deal with sweetened condensed milk. No matter the brand it contains are only two ingredients: milk and sugar. Ingredients include: 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk 1 3/4 cup whole milk Directions: Pour ingredients into a one-quart canning jar. Apply the lid. Shake well until ingredients are fully combined. From here you simply add whatever flavorings (below) to create your favorite sweet, flavored coffee creamer. Each recipe the follows assumes you are adding the stated ingredients to one full recipe of Creamer Base #1. Start with the flavoring amounts below, then you may want to adjust to match your taste. If you want a sweeter creamer, add sugar, blue agave or other sweetener of choice. Want it creamier? Substitute half and half or even heavy cream for the whole milk in Creamer Base #1. Just realize this will increase the fat content substantially. Note: If a recipe calls for a dry ingredient, such as cocoa powder, a spice cinnamon or a thick ingredient like honey, heat a small amount of the base along with these items in a small sauce pan to dissolve those Ingredients so they will be absorbed into the base. Pour the finished creamer through a fine sieve to remove any tiny solids or bits of spice that main remain. Now you won’t have them floating in your coffee. 1. French Vanilla Ingredients include 2 teaspoons (more or less to taste) pure vanilla extract Vanilla Bean 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste Mocha 2 to 3 tablespoons chocolate syrup, to taste 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Chocolate Almond 1 tablespoon cocoa powder 1 teaspoon almond extract Strudel 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon almond extract Vanilla Caramel 2 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping 2 teaspoons vanilla extract Chocolate Raspberry 2 teaspoons cocoa powder 2 tablespoons raspberry syrup 2. Irish Cream Ingredients include 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup 1 teaspoon instant coffee 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon almond extract Coconut 2 teaspoons coconut extract 3. Samoa Ingredients include 2 teaspoons coconut extract (or sub coconut milk or cream of coconut, heated & strained, for the milk/cream) 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup 2 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping 4. Peppermint Patty Ingredients include 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup 1 teaspoon peppermint extract Cinnamon Vanilla 2 teaspoons cinnamon 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 5. Pumpkin Spice Ingredients include 3 tablespoons pureed pumpkin 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice 4 tablespoons maple syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 6. Honey Vanilla Ingredients include 1/4 cup honey 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract 7. Almond Joy Ingredients include 1 to 2 teaspoons coconut extract 1 teaspoon almond extract 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup 8. Sweet Cream Ingredients include Use 1 3/4 cups heavy cream in please of the whole milk in the base recipe 2 teaspoons vanilla extract OR the inside of a vanilla bean, scraped 1 teaspoon almond extract Chocolate Orange 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup 1 to 2 teaspoons orange extract 9. Hazelnut Ingredients include 2 teaspoons hazelnut extract Chocolate Hazelnut 2 tablespoons chocolate syrup 2 teaspoons hazelnut extract 10. Cinnamon Cake Ingredients include 2 teaspoons cinnamon 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 11. Salted Caramel Ingredients include 2 to 3 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste 12. Eggnog Ingredients include Replace milk in base recipe with equal amount of heavy cream 1 teaspoons vanilla extract 2 teaspoons rum extract 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 13. Toasted Almond Ingredients include 2 teaspoons almond extract CREAMER RECIPES USING BASE RECIPE #2 Creamer Base Recipe #2: This base is unsweetened which gives you a lot of control for how sweet you wish your homemade creamer to be—and the type of sweetener you prefer. Choices include sugar, stevia, blue agave and even maple syrup, for starters Ingredients: 1 cup heavy whipping cream 1 cup whole milk Directions: Whisk together until fully combined or pour into a Mason jar, apply lid tightly then shake to combine. Store in the refrigerator. From here you simply add whatever flavorings (below) to create your favorite sweet, flavored coffee creamer. Double even triple this recipe as you desire. Curiously, this may appear to be a complicated way to make half and half, and you’re partially correct. However, starting with heavy whipping cream makes a creamier, slightly thicker result, which I prefer and you may as well. Note: If a recipe calls for a dry ingredient, such as cocoa powder, a spice like cinnamon or a thick ingredient like honey, pour all ingredients into a sauce pan and head over medium heat to dissolve those ingredients so they will be absorbed into the base. Pour the finished creamer through a fine sieve to remove any tiny solids or bits of spice that may remain. Now you won’t have them floating in your coffee. 1. Strudel Ingredients include 2 cups Creamer Base #2 4 tablespoons maple syrup 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1 teaspoon almond extract 2. Chocolate Almond Ingredients include 2 cups Creamer Base #2 2 tablespoons cocoa powder 4 tablespoons blue agave, sugar or maple syrup 1 teaspoon almond extract 3. Pumpkin Spice Ingredients include 2 cups Creamer Base #2 3 tablespoons pureed pumpkin 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice 4 tablespoons maple syrup 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Whisk together creamer base, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. When mixture begins to steam, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Strain through a fine mesh sieve, pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator. 5. French Vanilla Ingredients include 2 cups Creamer Base #2 4 tablespoons blue agave (or maple syrup) 1 vanilla bean Whisk together creamer base and maple syrup in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cut vanilla bean in half, and scrape out seeds. Add seeds and vanilla bean to milk mixture. Turn off heat, cover the pot and steep for 30 minutes. After mixture has steeped, strain through a fine mesh sieve, pour into a glass bottle and store in the refrigerator. 6. Peppermint Mocha Ingredients include 2 cups Creamer Base #2 4 tablespoons sugar, blue agave or maple syrup, to taste 3 tablespoons cocoa powder 1 teaspoon peppermint extract Consider all of these flavoring ideas to be just the tip of the delicious coffee “iceberg!” The possibilities are endless. As you come up with new flavor pairing and delicious options, please share! Enjoy! www.everydaycheapskate.com _________________________ From the pages of Donna's diary Using an accessible travel app I can tell you that there are several of these out there to choose from. From those that will tell you what's in your immediate area or surrounding to those that can help you to navigate your area. Each of these apps comes highly recommended. They are jam packed with details for your pleasure and there are even those that go beyond the call of duty. For example, the one that I am thinking of enables you to interact with live agents who can help you to identify objects, documents, and so much more. Heck, there are those that can help you to do such things as identify colours, help you find your hotel room when used correctly, and those that will give you approximations of distances between you and a specific location. You can even use some of these apps to help you navigate the contents of your suitcase, your room, and so much more. All of this has helped to make travel more enjoyable for a blind/vision impaired person. I'm Donna J. Jodhan enjoying my travels. To learn more about me as a sight loss coach and author visit http://www.donnajodhan.com On your next trip you could enrich your down time with some of my audio mysteries. Take them with you wherever you go! In the car, on the plane, on the bus or train, at the beach, anywhere! Affordable, portable, (computer or i device) and you could either purchase or Subscribe for unlimited access to my library at www.donnajodhan.com/store.html and you can now take advantage of our free downloads here. Follow me on Twitter @accessibleworld and at author_jodhan And like me on Facebook at www.facebook.com/donnajodhan and at www.facebook.com/authordonnajo dhan