What is the wintertime staple in many Canadian communities? My guess would be the rink.
You can drive into a small prairie town where there looks to be no action on the street, turn a corner and the rink parking lot is full. People come for the social life. Yes, believe it, the rink can become a person’s top social engagement. This applies to people of all ages. It is where you congregate and get updated on community events, and if you are lucky, you can get free marital and parenting advice over a cup of coffee.
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You can hear hot-off-the-press stories of scandal, such as who is buying what, who is seeing whom or who is moving where.
One of my first social outings as a child was going to watch my father play hockey. It is where I met my dearest lifelong friends and I think I even went to the rink for my first real date. I guess you could say I am coming full circle because I am now bringing my boys to the rink.
You can never be too dirty, you can never eat too much candy, and you cannot find a place where you can make more noise. You can go there any time of day.
I have been there so early, in fact, that I have put on my makeup in the public washroom on a dark winter hockey morning. And fine dining, well, you haven’t tasted gourmet until you have had a rink burger, some delicious homemade soup and pie.
Burger sauce
At the rink in Fiske, Sask., the secret to great burgers is in the sauce. It goes like this:
Mix together and heat:
- 11/2 cups ketchup 375 mL
- 2 tablespoons 30 mL
- Worcestershire sauce
- 1 cup water 250 mL
- 4 tablespoons sugar 60 mL
- 2 tablespoons dry mustard 30 mL
Add cooked burgers to the sauce. Serve warm.
Happy eating, happy socializing and enjoy your community rink this winter.
What’s in your child’s lunch?
A recent American survey of lunches that fourth graders bring from home reveals that the most common foods contain high levels of fat, calories, sugar and sodium. If children are eating like this now, they are more likely to continue eating like this through adulthood.
During the St. Louis, Missouri, study, the authors examined 147 home-packed lunches on three separate days.
Most of the lunches contained sweets, chips and deli meat sandwiches on white bread. Around one-third of the home-packed meals contained fruit, and only two included a vegetable.
When answering why kids don’t bring healthier lunches to school, researchers said that parents may feel they don’t have the time to prepare something nutritious, relying instead on pre-packaged foods such as chips, and sweetened beverages and candy.
In addition, kids may experience peer pressure to eat certain foods, and refuse healthier choices such as fruits and vegetables.
But if parents want their children to learn healthy eating habits, they need to tell them one treat is fine, but a lunch full of treats is not. Make a nutritious choice, and improve what your family is eating now. No one else will do it for you.
Winter cleaning
I am still trying to find homes for all of our new Christmas gifts. While I attempt to find a place for everything, I decided that it is also a good time to clean. Here are some tips from the Queen of Clean, Linda Cobb.
- Cleaning stuffed animals: Dust heavily with baking soda or cornstarch and work in well with your fingers. Roll the toys in towels or place in a plastic bag and leave overnight. The next day, remove them from the bag and brush the toys thoroughly. Do this outdoors to save yourself cleanup work.
- Writing on plastic toys and doll faces: Ink and marker are difficult to remove from plastic surfaces. Try applying a cotton ball saturated with rubbing alcohol. Let it sit for 15 minutes and then rub.
Sometimes using the pressure of a cotton swab dipped in alcohol helps. You can also try rubbing with cuticle remover on a soft cloth. Apply the cuticle remover, wait 10 minutes, then rub gently with the cloth.
- Removing candle wax: To remove candle wax from carpet, place ice in a bag and freeze the wax. Chip off all that you can, then lay a plain (without writing) brown paper bag or a blotting paper over the wax. Heat an iron to medium-hot and press over the bag, moving the bag as it absorbs the wax. Do not touch the carpet with the iron.
Once you have removed all the wax you can absorb, clean the area with a carpet stain remover.
To remove candle wax from wood, heat the wax with a blow-dryer and slide a piece of dull plastic (such as a credit card) under it to “pop” it up. Clean any residue with warm water and dishwashing liquid. Rinse well, then polish.
- Removing crayon: To remove crayon from hard surfaces, spray with WD-40 lubricant and wipe off. Wash with one quart (one litre) warm water and one teaspoon (five mL) dishwashing liquid. To remove crayon from fabrics, spray both sides of the fabric with WD-40. Let sit 15 minutes, then work in undiluted dishwashing liquid, flush under the hottest water allowable for the fabric and launder as usual.
- Removing chocolate from clothing: Sponge with cold water and then apply an enzyme pre-soak. Soaking with cold water and meat tenderizer is also effective. Applying a paste of borax and warm water may also work. Let this paste soak for an hour or so, then flush with a forceful stream of water.
- Removing mystery stains from clothing: Lay the stain over a bowl and keep it taut by putting a rubber band around it. Pour on a layer of borax, then pour the hottest water you can use on the fabric, starting from the outside of the stain and working to the centre. Some mystery stains may require several treatments.
- Removing perspiration stains from clothing: After wearing a garment for the first time, prior to laundering, work into the underarm area some warm water and Fels Naptha soap, available in the bar soap section of your local supermarket . This will prevent the yellow stains from forming.
If you have a garment that has only been worn once and odour is present, apply warm water to the area and work in borax, which is an effective odour remover.
You can also try heated white vinegar on existing stains. Spray it on the fabric, then work in the borax. If the colour has changed in the fabric, try spraying with sudsy ammonia, let it sit about 15 minutes, then launder as usual.
