Beat the Heat

How to Keep It Cool This Summer

Break out your sweet tea and swim trunks, this summer is looking to be hot! 

Both the Weather Channel and NOAA have released reports recently citing upcoming weather predictions. The Weather Channel is predicting a scorching summer for all of the continental U.S. thanks to La Nina starting this past winter.  Paired with that, NOAA isn’t seeing much in the way of rain for us, at least through the end of May. And while May might not even be summer, we know Texas. By May we will all be melting. 

So, should we be worried? Well, maybe. On one hand,Texas is already considered to be in a  drought (yes, even with all of that snow in February). High temps and little to no rain for 2 months definitely is not going to do us any favors. On the other hand, we all know that weather prediction is an imprecise science. The Farmer’s Almanac for this year said we were supposed to get a “soggy” spring. “According to our long-range outlook, spring 2021 will be mild and wet for most parts of the country with plenty of thunderstorms, especially over the central and eastern states during late April.” So, who knows. 

What we do know is that summer is summer, and many of us would prefer to keep cooler if possible, and still keep our electric bills down.  To that end, we’ll take a look at changes you can make around your home to keep things cooler and any products you can use to help with that. 

Vent Your Attic 

Let’s start at the top of your house, and work our way down.  Hot air rises, and it gets trapped in your attic. The hotter your attic is, the more that heats up the main body of your home.  If you put a fan in your attic to improve ventilation, you’ll be keeping that air moving through the home, and keeping it cool. 

Insulate the Attic Walls

Bouncing right off the last point, insulate your attic. By insulating the attic walls fully you trap the cooler air in and keep more of the heat outside. 

Invest in the Right Fans

Let’s take a look at your ceilings next. Having a ceiling fan keeps the air circulating and not getting trapped in one ‘layer’ of the room.  However, having ‘a’ fan is only half of the equation. The other half is picking the right size for the room it’s in. 

A 15 x 15 or smaller room will only need a fan that is 52 inches. 

A room that’s 20 x 20 will need one that’s 60 inches. 

A room that is 30 x 30 or larger is going to need a ceiling fan of 84 inches. 

Now, while you need to pay upfront for ceiling fans, they will save you money in the long run. The best fans, according to industry experts, will only cost you between $5- $10  to run them for a month. By comparison, a  window a/c unit can easily cost you $120 a day, if you’re only running it for 6 hours. 

Let Your Bed Breathe

While silk or sateen might look lovely, they’re no good for summer. They both trap heat, regardless of how light they feel. Instead, opt for something like cotton or bamboo. Both are lightweight materials that breathe well to keep you cool all night. Certain bamboo microfibers are also great for wicking moisture away, thus keeping you even cooler. 

Mix Up Your Nighttime Routine 

Instead of the usual, lay in bed, read on your phone, go to sleep routine, try something new for the summer. 

An hour before bed, try washing down with a wet cloth or taking a cold shower. Keep the electronics off and curl up with an ice pack, a book, and a cup of ice water. The less you move around right before bed will let you cool off and stay cooler as the night goes on. 

Block the Windows

Draw the blinds and curtains. If you have both, great! If not, that’s ok too. 

Blinds and white-backed blackout curtains will reflect heat throughout the day, keeping you cooler. We mentioned updating your curtains back in February, as a way to keep the heat in during the winter, and that change is still just as useful now! 

Switch Over To No Heat Lightbulbs 

Have you ever touched a lightbulb after you’ve had it on all day and yelped because you burnt yourself? Well, those bulbs are also a source of excess heat for your home. Swapping them out for LED bulbs or compact fluorescent lightbulbs will cut back heat. 

Products to Bring Into Your Home

Portable AC Unit -Whynter ARC- 14S 

If you want a  portable a/c unit that can follow you from room to room, this is the best. You do need to hook it up to a window for exhaust and humidity, but it’s very easy to set up and break down. The best part is that it can pump out frigid air with 140000 BTUs. 

Cooling Mattress Pad 

What about at the end of the day though, a portable a/c unit doesn’t help much if your bed itself is too warm. There are mattress pads that are water-based that you can use to help. They can cool the water within them as low as 55* F and, during the winter, or for your spouse who wants to stay warm, as high as 100*F.  With a range like that it proves its worth in both summer and winter. 

Even if the summer months ahead are scorching, with this list, you’ve got a leg up on your neighbors when it comes to beating the heat. Do you have any tips and tricks for keeping cool? Let us know over on our Facebook page! 

Don’t forget that summer heat can cause issues in faulty wiring. If you suspect something is going on with your appliances, don’t hesitate to have one of our techs come out to do a  maintenance check for you. We want to keep your house running cool, whether you’re in Allen or Frisco, Dallas or The Colony, Appliance Rescue Service is here for you. You can reach us via our website or by calling us at ((214) 599-0055). 

What Tools Do You Have to Have In A Small Kitchen

And How Small Can You Get?

How small can you make a kitchen and still call it a kitchen? That’s what we were wondering last week and decided to look it up. While we enjoy our spacious kitchens with full-size appliances and lots of counter space, we know there are people who don’t. People who love the idea of living in a tiny house or an RV. They still need a fully functional kitchen though. That is where this week’s post comes in. 

What to Keep

Let’s start off with the things we won’t budge on. A full size sink and either a coffee pot or tea kettle. The sink is needed because there is nothing worse than trying to scrub a burnt cookie sheet and spilling water all over because your sink is too small. So, a single or double sided sink, it’s your choice. We’re going to stick to a double though, as it means more space for dishes to dry. An added point of having a full sink means you don’t have to have a dishwasher under the counters. Now, while you can certainly have a wide range of options for both tea kettles or coffee makers, we will wager that a large percentage of the population relies on one or both to get through the day. 

What to Cut

Now that we have the two that have to stay, let’s look at what we can cut. Take a look at your range or stovetop. That? It’s at least 30” by 22” of wasted space. If you’re not cooking for many people a single or double electric burner can work just fine. Plus, when you’re done it can easily be stored away in a cabinet. 

What about the oven though? Roast vegetables, cookies, breads, heck, even a turkey. How can you do without those? Easy, you don’t have to. Toaster ovens are an option, and, having tested them, they can most certainly handle everything we rattled off. They cook as well as a standard oven, but they take up ¼ of the space. As an added bonus, you’ve also eliminated the need for a toaster. 

Moving on, let’s look at an Instant Pot. Whether you go for the name brand or not, what matters are the features. With an Instant Pot you can replace 90% of your pots and pans. Just like the electric burner, you can unplug it and stash it away when not in use. The only thing we haven’t tried on ours yet is the ability to make yoghurt. Everything else that we’ve tried from air fryer donuts, to corned beef, to rice has turned out perfectly. 

The last appliance we’ll look at is the Foreman grill. Our team was split on this one. We eventually decided to call it as an “if you have the space” item. On one hand, this makes cooking many different meats very easy. You can also unplug it and store it away when not in use. We don’t feel that it’s a “have to have it.”  So, if you can, if you want it, go for it. It also makes for a wonderful panini press. If you can’t, though, there’s no major loss in that.

So, we’ve ripped out the stove, the oven, 90% of your pots and pans, a toaster and your microwave.  With what’s left, how much space does it take up? The Instant Pot, a single electric burner and the Foreman grill can be fit into a single cabinet measuring 22” high by 30” wide and 16” deep. The toaster oven is the largest on its own, and depending on what size you purchase, requires at least a space of 10” x 15” x9”. However, in most cases, you could fit the coffee pot or tea kettle in the same cabinet as it. So, two mid-sized cabinets and a sink are all you absolutely need to hide away a kitchen at the end of the day. The only other thing to consider is your refrigerator. If you’re short on space, a half fridge can be easily fit under a countertop. 

What do you think? Are we on the mark  with our math? Or are we batting 0? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page. If you happen to have a tiny kitchen of your own, show us please! We’d love to hear how you make it work. 

Just because we talked all about small appliances all day today, doesn’t mean we’ve given up on repairing your normal appliances. Whether you’re dealing with a dishwasher that’s bathed your kitchen in a recreation of the Great Flood, or an oven that won’t turn on, we’re here. We can fix anything you throw at us, so long as you live within Allen or the surrounding area. Reach out anytime via phone ((214) 599-0055), or our website and we’ll be there. 

Disclaimer: These are rough estimates on space. Let’s face it, with how many different options there are for every appliance we named, it would be near impossible for us to account for all possibilities. We also didn’t account for dishes or silverware for the same reasons. 

Stuffed Peppers To Please Your Picky Eaters

How many veggies can you hide in plain sight?

We're sure that somewhere along the line, someone has probably lied and told you that carbohydrates aren't good for you. This is a terrible falsehood and should be thoroughly debunked, but we're not on board with turning this blog into a soapbox (at least, not right now). Carbs are necessary for normal metabolic function - but those common, refined carbs are really not the best source, especially if you have certain other health concerns. Here's a relatively simple recipe to get you three servings of veggies, one of them disguised as a processed carbohydrate!

Assuming you haven't already met, allow us to introduce you to a relatively new addition to your grocer's freezer section: riced cauliflower. If you're not familiar with it, it's simply tiny little chunks of cauliflower, snipped into the rough shape of grains of rice. It cooks up about the same as rice, but it's only about 2 grams of net carb in a cup, versus the 40+ grams found in regular white rice.

Stuff some of this in a hollowed out pepper, with some onion and tomato, and there's three of your recommended five servings of veggies for the day! Look at you, being all responsible and stuff.

Ingredients:

2 12 ounce bags frozen riced cauliflower

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (or whatever cooking oil you have handy)

2 Roma tomatoes

1 yellow onion

1 8 ounce can tomato sauce

4 cups chicken broth

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

4 medium bell peppers

4 slices provolone cheese

Tools:

Measuring spoons, knife, cutting board, slotted spoon, baking dish, aluminum foil, large frying pan or sauce pan with lid

First, cut the tops off your peppers, discard the tops and the seeds, and set the peppers aside, right side up, in your baking dish. Add about a quarter inch of water to the bottom of the baking dish (this will help avoid them drying out while baking).

Now that your cutting board is clear, chop up your onions and tomatoes. Cut them as large or as small as you like; if you don't appreciate big chunks of veggies, you might even consider tossing them through a food processor. We, however, generally like the variation in texture large chunks of veggies bring to the dish.

Start your oil heating in the frying pan or sauce pan over medium heat. Pour in your riced cauliflower and sear it in the oil.

We like to use the time while it's searing to measure out spices, but feel free to chill for a few minutes instead and just measure your spices directly into the pan later.

Once you've got your cauliflower mostly defrosted and searing, add the tomato and onion, as well as your minced garlic, give it a stir and place the lid on it. Stir frequently while they're cooking to prevent any of them sticking to the pan.

After things start looking like they're about cooked, pour in your can of tomato sauce, your chicken broth and all those spices you've measured out (or are still in the process of measuring, whichever). Give everything a good stir. It's going to look like the veggies are drowning in all that liquid - we know, it's normal. Don't fret. It will reduce, we promise.

Allow this to simmer (uncovered!) about 20 to 25 minutes, stirring occasionally. It may need more or less time, depending on how big of a burner you have this pan sitting on. The goal is for the veggies to have absorbed most of the liquid, but for there to be just a little left to prevent sticking to the pan, and to optionally use as sauce in/on the peppers.

Once everything has simmered down to where you'd like it to be, remove it from the heat. Maybe start your oven preheating to 350 while you're standing there, and save yourself a minute or two later on.

Grab a slotted spoon and transfer your veggie mixture to the hollowed out peppers. There should be enough to fill those peppers up to the very top. If you've got liquid left over in the sauce pan, feel free to drizzle it over the peppers at this point.

Cover the baking dish with a layer of aluminum foil and pop it in the oven for about half an hour. Half an hour yields a pretty crunchy pepper - so if you'd prefer something you can cut with a fork, you might want to lower the heat and lengthen your covered cook time.

After your half hour (or more, depending on preference) is up, remove the foil cover, place a slice of provolone cheese on top of each stuffed pepper, and bake ten or so more minutes - long enough to get the cheese all melted and browned and bubbly (AKA the best way to serve cheese).

Enjoy your veggies!

If you opt to make this week’s meal, let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook! We’d love to hear from you and see the results.  

If on the other hand you need your oven fixed, or any of your other major appliances, we can help. Just call us at ((214) 599-0055) or make an appointment over at our website. We aim to be the most reliable appliance repair in Coppell and the surrounding areas, and we want to keep your home running smoothly. Whether that’s an oven that won’t heat right for making cookies, or a washing machine that won’t drain right, we’re here to help. 

Dishing on Beeswax Food Wraps

Are they worth the hype, or not worth the buzz?

If you’re looking at greening up your kitchen routine, you’ve almost certainly looked at ways to store food without plastic. Silicone bags and containers, glass jars, stainless steel containers, or stretchy non-plastic lids. But the silicone comes in set sizes, and they’re expensive. Glass jars break, and stainless steel everything gets not only heavy, but LOUD. And the stretchy lids? Those break too. You love plastic wrap for its versatility, and ease, there has to be a way to use something similar. Lucky you, there is, and you’ve probably seen it. Beeswax reusable food wraps. They’re reusable, come in multiple sizes, and if you’re of a DIY bent, you can actually make your own. 

The Good 

Straight off the bat, let’s answer the question you’re here for. Are beeswax reusable food wraps any good for preserving food? Yes, they are. You can use them for preserving fruits, vegetables, cakes or leftovers. You can use them to cover dishes, wrap around a sandwich or just wrap half an onion. Using them for a replacement for storing food in the short term, is perfect in our opinion. The fabric will eventually wear out, but this means that they can be used in your garden or as a  fire starter, so you’re still keeping waste out of landfills. 

Now, those of you paying close attention might notice that we stressed only using these for short-term storage. In researching, we found that the wraps did best at preserving foods between 1-3 days. Our favorite maker, Abeego, claims that their wraps keep food fresh for up to a week. So if you’re taking a dish for lunch, or you’re going to use the rest of that avocado in dinner a few days from now, they’re ideal. 

The Bad

However, if you’re looking for storing something for longer than a week, we suggest looking for something else. They do have a few other drawbacks, but this is the biggest. As to what those other drawbacks are, they all have to do with the construction of the wraps. Thanks to the wax coating, you will get a light coat of wax and oil on your hands or dishes when using them. This is inevitable since it’s your body heat that makes the wraps pliable for use. Fortunately, this is food-safe wax and easily washes off. As we just mentioned, your body heat melts the wax. You need that in order for it to be shaped and to seal to itself. However, this also means that you don’t want to leave the wraps near your stove or exposed in your car, or somewhere else where it will be very warm.  

Now that you know what they’re good at and what they’re not, some of you have hopefully decided still to purchase them. That’s great! We’ll show you how to take care of them. 

How To Care For Them

For cleaning them, you can either brush them off or wash them. Brushing them off works when you’re dealing with a dry food like cake, or bread. Something that’s going to be just crumbs. When washing them you need to use cold water, soap and a soft sponge. Wash carefully and then lay it out to dry. For storage, you can either roll your wraps onto  roll similar to plastic wrap, or you can fold them. Taken care of properly, a good wrap will last roughly a year before the wax ‘gives out.’ Now, provided the weave of the fabric is still solid at the end of that year, you can ‘revive’ your wraps. The Art of Doing Stuff shows you how over at their blog. This means that you can continue to use your wraps even longer, saving your wallet. 

How To Get Them

A quick note before we ‘wrap’ things up. You don’t have to purchase beeswax wraps. If you want to, you can make your own, following the guide of Mountain Rose Herbs. They walk you through both their failures and their successes before they give you the recipe and steps you’ll need. This offers the benefit of being able to size them just how you want or need to best fit your life. On the other hand if you’re thinking “who has the time,” we get it. In that case, a good quality wrap is going to cost you between $6 - $9 for a single one, with the best coming from Abeego. 

After looking all of that over, we think we’re willing to give beeswax wraps a chance in our own kitchens. They seem like a great way to stop fighting with cling wrap, and keep a little more plastic out of the landfill. What about you? Are you looking at getting some or making some of your own? Let us know in the comments below or over on our Facebook page. If you’re willing, we’d even love to see some pictures of the process! 

Now, if you landed here not because you’re looking to remove plastic from your kitchen, but because plastic melted in your dishwasher, we can still help. Or if you’re having any other issues with your major appliances, from your fridge to your ice maker, your dryer to your oven. At Appliance Rescue Service, we aim to be the best in the Colony, and that means taking the best care possible of YOU our clients.  You can get hold of us here on our website or via phone at ((214) 599-0055). We hope to see you next week.

Double Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes

The Second Best Use for Guinness

So Saint Patrick's Day is over. You're probably pretty tired of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and soda bread - and you're likely also tired of seeing recipes containing them.

But you know, there's one Saint Patrick's Day staple no one ever seems to get tired of. Guinness. And if you've already had your fill of Guinness for a while, but still have a couple bottles left in the fridge, there's only one thing left to do with them.

Bake.

That's probably not what you were thinking, but that's okay. We've got you covered.

Double Chocolate Guinness Cupcakes, anyone?

Ingredients:

1 ~15 ounce box chocolate cake mix (every brand is a little different; just try to stay in the 15 ounce ballpark)

1 4 ounce package chocolate pudding mix

1 11.25 ounce bottle Guinness Stout

3 large eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil or melted unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Tools:

Mixing bowl, mixer or whisk, measuring cups, sauce pan, spoon, cupcake pan, cupcake liners

Instructions:

Grab a bottle opener and crack open that bottle Guinness. Take a taste. No, seriously, you really should taste it. You do not want to ruin an entire batch of chocolate cupcakes with skunked beer. That's just disappointing.

Pour your Guinness into a sauce pan. We know, it seems like a bunch of extra work and an extra pan to clean. But the result is worth it. Turn the burner on medium-low and let the Guinness simmer. It will smell strongly like a brewery in the kitchen; you might consider opening a window to keep the family from complaining. It will also foam and threaten to make a great big mess, but this is normal. Give it a gentle stir to break up the foam and keep it from boiling over. Allow it to simmer for 20 minutes or so - your goal here is to reduce the Guinness down to about 1 cup. You started with not quite 12 ounces, so you have only a little ways to go here. Don't worry too much about the measurement until you can see a visible difference from your starting point in the pan.

Once you can see a difference between the amount of beer you started with and the amount of (reduced) beer you now have, remove it from the heat and allow it to come back to something around room temperature. Please do not immediately pour boiling hot beer into a measuring cup - it may crack or shatter the cup, and it will likely waste the Guinness. Both of these are terrible things.

While you're waiting for your Guinness to cool back down, start the oven preheating to 350 degrees.

Pour your cake mix and your pudding mix into your mixing bowl. Add in your vanilla extract, oil or melted butter and your eggs. (If you're using butter and you've just melted it, please also allow it to come back up a little closer to room temperature before pouring it in with the eggs. Otherwise the butter will scramble the eggs and you’ll have to start over.) You can give it a little stir at this point, but don't expect it to combine neatly or fully. There isn't near enough liquid, and we've added extra dry ingredients with the pudding mix.

Take your cupcake pan and place a liner in each of the wells. You'll make a little over a dozen large cupcakes with the amount of batter you'll have. We ended up with 14 and a half (because we lost some batter in transfer from the bowl to the pan) generous sized cupcakes - plan on 15 or 16.

By now, your Guinness should be back down to a more workable temperature. Measure out one cup of your reduced beer. If you have extra, that's okay - just set it aside and use it later to braise or baste some meats. If you've reduced it down further than needed and don't quite have a full cup, that's okay too - you can add a little water back.

Add your cup of Guinness to the other cake ingredients and stir well for about two minutes. If you're using an electric mixer, be aware that the batter will climb up the beaters while you mix. It's a very heavy batter for a cake, and it's also rather sticky - both of these are results of adding in that box of pudding mix. If you're worried about the batter hitting the body of the mixer, just pause and scrape it back down once in a while.

Be attentive and be careful not to over mix the batter - if you mix too long, it will go from thick and fluffy to dense and flat and chewy - and no one wants cupcakes that bounce. Mix until everything is combined, but quit when you stop seeing lumps or variations in color.

Transfer your batter from the mixing bowl to your cupcake liners. Again, this is some sticky stuff. You will likely find yourself needing an extra spoon to make it let go of the first one, and you might want to recruit someone else as extra hands if possible. Those cupcake liners, despite the blob of batter that should hold them down, will attempt to follow the spoon at least once. That's how we lost a cupcake worth of batter - the liner decided gravity wasn't going to hold it back, and suddenly the batter was on the counter and not in the cupcake pan. It was a mournful moment for all - especially the family dogs, who usually get the things that escape pans and plates, but were denied this time.

Once you have your cupcakes liners about 2/3rds full, pop them in the oven for 20 minutes or so. Toothpick test after 20 minutes to make sure they're done (sometimes they need an extra minute or two), and assuming they're fully baked, allow them to cool.

The beer flavor doesn't take over the cupcake, so expect a mostly chocolate flavor with some malty tones to back it up. Frost with whatever you'd like (we like just some simple whipped cream on top) and enjoy!

If you do decide to make this, or something similar, let us know over on our Facebook! We’d love to see what you get up to!

And if you’re in Dallas, and any of your appliances are acting a little... tipsy... don't blame the Guinness. Or the fumes. You cooked most of the alcohol out of it. Instead, give us a call - we'll shape them back up for you. You can reach us at our website or via ((214) 599-0055).