Smelt

I love making everything from scratch, but some things are just easier to buy. So there are times when you have to find a creative way to split the difference. For me, the easiest dish to buy without compromising on flavor is cornbread mix. Don't Miss: 8 Tricks To Make Boxed ...more

In this article, I will be showing you how to make a crude form of aspirin from the bark of a willow tree. It is a great remedy for headaches, hangovers, and other minor pain. The use of the willow tree as a mild pain reliever goes back to the Native Americans, who used it in ...more

We see Steampunk props all the time and wonder where the maker found all their pieces. In fact, for some people it's almost like a game to examine each prop and see if they can name all of the original parts. However, for a newcomer (or a novice at prop-making), it may be rea ...more

Getting hot and steamy can be awesome, as illustrated in the 1997 smash hit Titanic. But having the bathroom mirrors fog up during a nice hot shower can be very annoying. Getting ready in the morning can already be rushed, and wiping down your mirrors after your shower wastes ...more

When I was moving into my current apartment, I had to store some of my things in my ex-roommate's garage for over a month while I was getting settled. One of those things was my dresser. Upon moving it into my new place, I realized something was horribly, horribly wrong—none o ...more

Welcome to Minecraft World! Check out our advanced tutorials and come play on our free server. Note: As I thought of writing something like this, it sounded fairly simple. A one-stop guide for everything related to survival (survival mode, SMP) in Minecraft. But as I progress ...more

Unless your work clothes require dry cleaning, you probably only go to the cleaner a few times a year. And for those few items in your closet for which you do, you have to then find the time and extra budget to make a trip all the way to the cleaners and back again. In the end ...more

Creamer, milk (whole or skim), sugar, or even butter—you've probably added at least one of these to your coffee to improve its taste at some point. If you're looking for something different, though, try a new twist with a dash of cinnamon. This sweet, sharp spice can do so muc ...more

Living in Los Angeles has given me the opportunity to attend a bunch of really cool events. I've been to Dodgers, Lakers, and Clippers games, a few concerts at the Staples Center, and a plethora of smaller joints. In all of these places, I've found a consistent annoyance—I wa ...more

Acetone-based nail polish remover is great for removing nail polish, and it's also great for some DIY uses around the home. From eliminating scratches to fixing the consistency of correction fluid, its uses are varied but all effective. With nail polish remover, you can also c ...more

Coffee beans are one of my favorite things in the entire world. They smell intoxicatingly perfect. And when ground up and steeped in hot (or cold) water, they somehow taste even better than they smell. Don't Miss: Make Perfect Java Every Time with These Pro Tips Yet when the ...more

I'll be honest—I've never been a huge fan of camping. It's not that I have anything against nature, I'm just partial to showering and sleeping in my own bed. In fact, the only part of camping I've ever really enjoyed is sitting around a campfire. Outdoor fires are perfect for ...more

DO NOT eat a berry if you cannot identify it. I decided not to include the obvious blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, but this guide will assist you in identifying which wild berries are, in fact, poisonous. The best way to stay safe when looking for berries is keepin ...more

When to throw meat away is a common question, and one I often ask when faced with meat sitting in the fridge after a few days. With vegetables, you can usually tell on sight (or with this guide) when they're past due, but meat is not as simple. As long as meat is refrigerated ...more

Though silica gel packets clearly instruct you to throw them away (and not eat them), you can actually keep them for a variety of unexpectedly practical uses around the home. Silica gel is a desiccant, a substance that absorbs moisture, which makes these packets perfect for ke ...more

Enough with zoodles (zucchini noodles), spaghetti squash, and carrot 'pasta' spirals. A well-prepared dish of zoodles with sauce is beautiful and tasty, but let's get real, it doesn't fill you up. If you use it as a meal replacement, then you'll be hungry about 30 minutes late ...more

Cooking isn't something that interests me much, unless it results in a fast burning fuel and a successful rocket launch! WARNING: Ignition of an incendiary or explosive material may not be legal in your area, so check local laws before attempting. Use of this video content is ...more

Ever see those cars so covered in dirt, dust, and grime that someone writes "Wash me" on it using their finger? Well, for those cars' sakes, as well as cases less extreme, a word of advice: procrastination is not a solution — it can only compound the problem. Self-cleaning car ...more

In this article, I'll show you how to build a simplistic circuit to generate negative ions. Negative ions have been known to contribute to fresher air, happier mood, and general health benefits. However, they also look amazing in the dark (check out the photos below, purple pl ...more

Jerky is one of the tastiest snacks in existence. It's packed with richness, saltiness, and spiciness, and it's one of those things that you can't stop eating once you start. It's also fairly expensive, unless you're opting for the gas station variety which is… er… jerky in th ...more

Scented candles tend to magically turn a house into a home. The light flicker of the flame gives a relaxed or romantic tone to the atmosphere, and keeps the space smelling fragrant for hours. The only problem? Wax melts, and the candle becomes worthless after the wax is all go ...more

Things smell, and whether or not those things smell good or not is up to you. For lingering food odors on your hands, try using stainless steel or coffee grounds to remove the stench. To de-stink smelly jars, use mustard and water. For cutting boards, use lemons and salt, and ...more

About ten years ago, Western research figured out that green tea was a nutritional powerhouse. After all, in Asian countries where green tea is consumed throughout the day, cancer rates tend to be much lower, although there are probably other factors contributing to that fact, ...more

When it comes to common household items with a million practical uses, baking soda reigns supreme. We all know that baking soda is great for deodorizing stinky things, whitening your teeth, and helping with clean-up around the house, but did you know about the other weirdly un ...more

It feels great to wrap up in a big, fluffy towel after a steamy shower, but it's frustrating when that towel isn't quite up to the job. Over time, towels lose their ability to hold water and dry as needed thanks to daily use and the biggest culprit—laundry detergent. Why Laun ...more

Unless you're vegan or lactose intolerant, butter is an indispensible ingredient. However, butter is no one-trick pony. It can take many forms that make it even more versatile and useful in the kitchen. Clarified butter has many advantages over regular butter—but there are cer ...more

Your freezer is no one-trick pony. While it does excel at keeping your food fresh for as long as possible, it has a few secret talents it doesn't want you to know about. Like making soda slushies and pyro-friendly smoke mix, as well as reviving dead hard drives. Even better—it ...more

Is it possible to cut or chop onions in the kitchen without stinging eyes and looking as if you just watched the saddest movie ever? Before we get to that answer, it's important to know why we tear up when cutting raw onions in the first place. What is this irritant? Are you r ...more

There's something primal about the smell of smoking food. Somewhere deep in the recesses of our souls, we remember a time when humans only ate by the fire. Or perhaps that's just something I tell myself. Either way, it's hard to smell smoke and food and not feel like you shoul ...more

Are you an aspiring actor with a crying scene in a play? Or are you a shameless manipulator who will need some cheap sympathy from the jury during a court case? You never know when the ability to shed fake tears will come in handy. If you need to pop a few tear drops for a co ...more

Is your beloved silver bracelet looking a little worn? Stick it in a bowl of tomato ketchup to remove the tarnish. The acid in the tomatoes oxidizes with tarnished silver, which helps make your silver items look newer than ever before. If you're not keen on the idea of mixing ...more

It's that time a year when winter storms begin causing havoc across the United States, and when "rotating outages" are common to help sustain the electrical grid during intense cold periods. That means pretty much anybody with snow and ice in their backyard can succumb to powe ...more

Need to get a painful splinter out of your skin? Apply some bacon grease onto the affected area and place a band-aid on it overnight. The bacon grease will soften the skin tissue and draw out the splinter, making it easier to remove with tweezers the next day. After cooking y ...more

There are hundreds of delicious ways to enjoy caramel, from chocolate confections to sticky caramel apples and carnival bags of caramel corn. Caramel might be the special sauce that makes every dessert taste better, but it's also surprisingly simple to make. In about 7 minute ...more

When you come home from the grocery store, you probably put away every single fruit and vegetable in the bins and drawers in your refrigerator. Any fifth grader knows that fridges work to preserve food, thus everything should go in there, right? Nope! Chances are, you've been ...more

Dried spices and herbs seem to be immortal; a peek in your parents or grandparents' cupboards will likely unveil cinnamon, basil, and oregano older than you. But the truth is, spices and herbs do have an expiration date—for their potency. Technically, they are still edible, b ...more

When alcohol tastes bad, there's little you can do to save it—or so you think. While it might seem easier to toss your entire bottle of old, opened wine, or to give up and drink crappy vodka anyway, there are creative ways to turn a spoiled or just plain bad boozy beverage int ...more

Something in your life getting a little stinky? No worries--it happens to the best of us. Whether it is your musty bedroom, stuffy car or four-legged friend, unpleasant odors have a way of infiltrating our daily lives. Below are 5 DIY ways to deodorize bad smells no matter whe ...more

Cheetos fingers is defined as the unpleasant (but mostly pleasant), oddly-colored residue left on the thumb, index finger, and middle finger after ravenously eating through a bag of—you guessed it—Cheetos. It can usually be cleaned up by licking your fingers (my favorite) or w ...more

Part 2 Welcome back! In my last post I talked about the exterior aspects and techniques of building a great looking house, and now we shall focus on the interiors. Interiors There are a few important prerequisites to look at before starting the interiors of a house: The ge ...more

All day I dream of eggs: scrambled, poached, over easy, hard-boiled, fried, baked, raw... Okay, the last one is a joke (unless you're Gaston, which means that you eat five dozen of them and you're roughly the size of a barge). But eggs are freaking good in just about any cooki ...more

Hello there, people. Today, I am going to show you how to extract the essence from a useful plant, using either alcohol or olive oil. This is how you take a plant and turn it into a useful (and preservable) medicine. For those of you who know nothing about herbal medicine, let ...more

Though nobody's going to hide the fact that they're getting sloshed on major holidays, you might want to be more discreet when it comes to your morning pick-me-up or lunchtime tipple during the rest of the year. It used to be that having four martinis at lunch was acceptable a ...more

I used a plastic water filter for years. Who wouldn't? It cuts down on buying bottled water, which, as it turns out, is pretty much the same as unfiltered tap water. Plus, bottled water is terrible for the environment and your wallet, too. Water that costs only pennies a day a ...more

Holidays are a time for good food and good drink, but more often than not, we substitute good drink for, well, cheap drink. However, cheap wine doesn't have to be bad. As the international wine industry grows, it's becoming more common to find decent bottles on the cheap, and ...more

Rather than reaching for aspirin the next time a headache strikes, try grabbing a drink of lemonade instead. Not only can it help ease your head pain, but it can also help relieve stress, anxiety, and depression. But not just any old lemonade will do the trick—reach for the la ...more

To flip, or not to flip, that is the real question. When you're nervously standing over the stove or grill, what do you do with that steak before you? I always believed that to have a perfect medium or medium-rare steak, I needed to let a thick cut of meat sear on one side fo ...more

It's so nice to be able to reuse old glass jars for food storage. Occasionally, though, even the sturdiest container has to be recycled because it retains the smell of its previous contents. Usually the culprit was garlic, garlic-based, or something pickled, and you're certain ...more

We all know that distilled white vinegar is great as a general non-toxic cleaning solution and for deodorizing funky smelling rooms, but did you know that vinegar is also great for curing hiccups, deterring ants from invading your home, relieving jellyfish stings, and testing ...more

Kindle users love reading. But let's face it—nothing compares to the feel of a book in your hands. Sure, Amazon's Kindle makes it possible to read more books, clears up a lot of shelf space, fits snugly in anyone's baggage and can actually be cheaper in the long run. But each ...more

How can you tell if a coconut is ready to eat? The entire fruit is covered by a rock-hard exterior, so you can't really squeeze them to test their ripeness. Instead, feel the three "eyes" at the bottom of the coconut. If they feel slightly soft and dry, that's a good sign that ...more

Even if you're a good cook, sometimes home-cooked food just doesn't taste the same as it does in a restaurant. Of course, there are some utensils and appliances in a professional kitchen that the average person doesn't have access to, but it's not just about the tools. There ...more

A new coat of paint is an easy, cheap way to make your home look instantly better, but dealing with paint fumes for days afterward isn't so fun, especially if you have kids or pets. Most household paints have VOCs (volatile organic compounds) in them that release fumes as the ...more

Now that the Super Bowl is over, you might find that you have an econo-sized bag or two of opened potato chips slowly going stale in your pantry. After all, there are only so many bowls of Buffalo Chicken Pizza Beer Dip you can eat with 'em—and you definitely don't want them t ...more

Before I get ostracized by all of you whisky lovers who live and die by whisky served neat, let me say my piece. In the past, I haven't been much of a whisky fan—I would shoot it back or add it to Coke or ginger ale, but I certainly wouldn't sip on it and enjoy it. In fact, t ...more

Other than keeping your popsicles and frozen veggies frosty, who would have thought that your everyday freezer had so many uses? Just like your dishwasher can be used for many non-cookware items, the freezer can be used in a variety of useful ways that don't involve perishable ...more

Smelly foods are what make my culinary world "go 'round," so to speak. I grew up with fish sauce, learned to cook with and love fermented beans and veggies, and am one of the biggest garlic advocates I know... other than my husband, who thankfully shares the same smelly food s ...more