Dried

Question: Dried Figs are very hard. How can u make them soft to make them easy to eat and not hurt your teeth? Dried Figs are really hard and difficult to chew. How can u make them soft so as to make them easily chewable and not hurt your teeth. Can any one suggest how to prepare a dessart dish out of dried figs?

Answer: Bring a pot of water to a boil and then drop the figs in. Add about a teaspoon of sugar and a pinch of salt. Turn the heat off and let them steep for about 15 minutes and they'll be soft, juicy and full of flavor!! As far as recipes with dried figs, take a look at some of the online recipe sites, there's ooodles of them out there!

Question: If I put leftover dried pasta into a ziplock bag will it stay fresh? I have one of those tupperware pasta holder things, but right now I have angel hair pasta in it (dried).I cooked Penne and put the leftover dried pasta from the Barilla box in a ziplock bag. I decided I wanted to make Mezzi Rigatoni pasta and now have the leftover dried pasta in another ziplock bag. Will the ziplock bags keep the pasta fresh? Or should I only put them in tupperware?

Answer: Yep, you'll be fine. I always store my "extras" in ziploc bags and seriously, it will keep in there for eternity pretty much. I have a ziploc bag of elbows that I opened up at least 6 months ago, but the bag ripped all to shreds, so I grabbed a gallon size zip bag and they've been perfect in there ever since. In my experience, it's best to take them out of the boxes and store the pasta in zip bags anyway because every so often I'll find a box of mac and cheese or something on the shelf that I don't realize how long it's been there and end up with a boiling pot of pasta and little teenie black bugs floating to the top of the water. I still haven't figured out what the heck they are, but I've heard that they are some kind of mite that eats through cardboard. Gross. Anyway, I haven't had any problems once everything is in a zip bag. Even if it's been in the bag for longer than it probably should have been...LOL Homemade and then dried pasta though has a much shorter shelf life and should only be kept in an airtight container for a maximum of 2 to 3 months. But even the USDA says that store bought dried pasta has a pretty indefinite shelf life, but for best results should be used no longer than 2 years after purchase. Hope that helps a little :-)

Question: How do I removed dried grout from concrete and metal? To my dismay, I hired professionals to lay tile in my sunroom. They waited an entire day after laying the grout before returning to clean it. Therefore, it was completely dried. There is dried grout across the border of my entire room. Chunks of it. Two of the walls are concrete/drywall, and the other two walls are full windows with I believe a metal frame. I am in total PANIC mode because I have no idea how to remove this excess grout without ruining my tile. The grout between some of the tiles is also uneven and unlevel, but I can live with that I suppose. What I can't live it is dried up grout up and down the sides of my wall. PLEASE, can anyone help me?

Answer: for one i would DEMAND a refund or sue for my money back try using a chisel and hammer sorry

Question: How much dried rice do I need to cook so it's 2lbs when cooked? Basically a recipe says I need 2lbs of cooked rice but obviously it weighs different to when it's dried to start with. Please can anyone tell me how much dried rice to cook or where I can find out?

Answer: Here is my thinking. A pint of water is a pound (a pints a pound the world around, as they say), rice weighs slightly less, and the ratio of rice to water is 2 water to 1 rice. So you are going to need about a pint and a half of water (about 3 cups, and 1.5 pounds). and about a cup and a half of rice (about half a pound). to get to about 2 pounds cooked rice. hope this helps.

Question: Can Elmers dried up glue be heated in a microwave and become reusable? How about white out ? I've got a bunch of bottles of dried up glue and white out bottles that have dried up and unusable. Can they me heated in the microwave and turn into liquid and become re-usable?

Answer: I would just throw it out and buy new. Microwaving wouldn't help anything & I wouldn't advise trying it anyways...

Question: How do I reconstitute sun dried tomatoes from the totally dried form? I have purchased a packet of moisture free sun dried tomatoes. What must I add and do to make them similar to the sun dried tomatoes that you find in the delicatesan section at the supermarket?

Answer: add olive oil,garlic and lemon juice pepper basil, oregano and a little thyme

Question: How many freeze-dried bloodworms should I feed my betta every day? I know freeze-dried bloodworms are treats, but this is all I have for now. And I want to know should I feed it once a day with freeze-dried bloodworms or twice a day? Please help.

Answer: He will be fine for now. In the wild, they do not have pellets and survive off of blood worms, brine shrimp..etc. Anyway, you can do either. If you feed him twice a day, feed a little less than you would if you fed him once a day. Depending on the size, I say about TWO blood worms twice a day is plenty. You might want to soak them a bit in tank water before feeding them so it doesn't cause too much of a constipation problem. * Remember: Don't overfeed and always remove uneaten food.

Question: how do you make dried fruit at home? im just curious as to how it works. i dont have a drying machine or anything, but would like to make my own dried apples because no one around here sells them!

Answer: this website has a good recipe http://www.seasonalchef.com/preserves21.htm

Question: How do you substitute dried herbs for fresh in a recipe? I think the ratio is 2:1, but I don't know if it's fresh to dried or dried to fresh.

Answer: You have the right idea but with dried I tend to do a little less then that. For example...if my recipe called for a tablespoon of fresh thyme, and all I had was dry, I would likely use a teaspoon versus a 1/2 tbs. Go with your tastebuds.

Question: Can dried legumes be frozen to kill insects/eggs without damaging the protein? I've been told I can freeze things like flour, to make sure the insect eggs are dead, and then store the food for long term in air-tight containers. But can I freeze whole foods like dried legumes without it damaging the nutrition and storage life of the protein and fats contained in them?

Answer: Freeze them for a minimum of 24 hours. No change to the nutritional value that I am aware of.

Question: How much prep for dried beans verses canned beans when using a crock pot? I have a ton of dried beans; however, I NEVER use them! I am sick of starring at them thinking they take too much work... I have plenty of crock pot recipes that call for beans - but they all call for canned ones. What do I have to do to use the dried instead?

Answer: If you have recipes that call for canned beans you can bet that you're going to need to add allot of liquid to the recipe if you replace the canned beans with dry ones. An easier way to stick to your recipe would be to soak the beans overnight and then cook them separately in a little salted water or stock and then add them to the recipe as if they were prepared beans from a can. The plus to cooking the beans yourself is that you can flavor them any way you want and thereby add that dimension to the finished dish.

Question: Using dried chillies as a substitute for the real thing in a recipe? I have a recipe calling for fresh green chillies (2 of them). Can I use the dried chillies you buy in the jars and, if so, how many teaspoons would equate to one chilli? I wanted to use dried chilli flakes. Its for a chilli so am guessing they will rehydrate in the cooking.

Answer: Keep tasting as you go, you can add more if needed but its hard to take them away!

Question: How do you remove dried on car wax from your vehicle? I was waxing my car one night with a new hand buffer. The sun was going down so I was running out of sun light. The next day I did not see any dried on wax but late on in the week when I washed the car again, dried wax spot where showing up every where. Any suggestion on how to get rid of it?

Answer: If you re-wax it the dried wax should re-liquify when the new wax comes in contact with it.

Question: How do i remove dried cat urine from my leather couch? I have dried cat urine stains on my leather couch, there is no odor, just a very stubborn stain in several spots. I've tried leather cleaners and reconditioners. I've tried natures miracle pet stain remover and another enzyme cleaner. When I clean it, while it is wet it looks like it's gone but when it dries it comes right back. A cat sprayed on it in 3 spots so it starts in one spot then drips all the way down the side of the couch. Any ideas? This is driving me crazy.

Answer: wash it with a vinegar soaked wash cloth to get the smell out. then wash with an oxiclean laundry spray for the stains.

Question: How do I remove dried paint from my jeans? There are a few dried paint spots on my jeans. I've washed them with spot remover but it didn't work. I have not put them in the dryer.

Answer: 1. Soak the first spot with a lot of Peroxide and then spray the spot with a lot of Zout (made by Dial). 2. Rub the spot hard. 3. Repeat until the spot is almost gone. 4. Repeat the process for each remaining spot. 5. Go back through all the spots a second time, one by one, and get the remaining paint out. 6. Put the garment in the washer with the peroxide and Zout still on the spots. 7. Add a lot of detergent and color safe bleach and wash with hot water on the heavy duty cycle.

Question: How to clean a dried paintbrush? I bought some expensive paintbrushes and did not clean them out well and now they are really dry. Is there anything I can do or something I can soak them in to removed the dried paint so I can try to reuse the paintbrushes? They are regular painting brushes for interior painting. Thanks.

Answer: Use the proper solvent for the last paint you used...soak them...then clean with a wire brush gently clean ( brush from handle to brissel ) as much as you can...repeat as often as necessary