Even with our central air on, the hateful tropical humidity keeps sneaking into the kitchen and mucking up my salt shaker. You can shake it over food to your heart's desire and nothing comes out because all the little holes are clogged.
This annoys me.
I am not one of those people who salt their entire plate of food before even tasting it but when I want salt on my tomatoes, I want it NOW! I do not want to have to dink around with a toothpick, trying to poke open the little holes to remove soggy salt.
Since things were gummed up, I decided to stick the salt shaker in the oven to dry it out. We did this all the time when I was a little kid and it worked like a charm. So one day after doing some baking, I turned the oven off, let it cool slightly and stuck the sticky salt shaker right in there on the rack.
There, take that.
Later that day, I opened the oven, took the shaker out . . . and watched salt pour out across the oven door, the kitchen floor and my foot.
The stupid little plastic plug in the bottom of the shaker had melted like a Shrinky Dink (Remember those? How fun were they!) and popped right out. The salt was indeed wonderfully dried out now, but since it was also scattered all over the floor, that was pretty much a moot point.
I said a lot of bad words.
Today I went to the Dollar General store and bought new salt and pepper shakers. They are glass. They have metal screw on caps. They cost $1 each. There is absolutely the plainest things you've ever seen. But they won't melt if I want to stick them in the oven.
Jimmy Buffet would be proud.
Put a grain of rice in the salt shaker - my Grandma claimed it kept it from getting gunky.
ReplyDeleteOn a weirder note - you can buy Shrinky Dink paper and make all kinds of dumb stuff. It's fun.
shrinky dink??? Must have been waaaaaaaaayyy before my time. Just don't eat tomatos - then you wouldn't have the salt problem.
ReplyDeleteI've heard about the rice trick before - but never tried it. Shrinky Dinks! I hadn't thought about them in eons! Made me feel, for once, artistic because the mistakes you make coloring the big item all disappear by the time it shrinks to "charm" size!
ReplyDeleteI don't have A/C so know all the tricks and the rice (takes about a 1/4 tsp) does work. But I also have the glass shakers with the metal tops and the salt combined with the humidity actually rusts the tops and creates it's own problems. My solution is Tupperware shaker with a tight-sealed lid and rice. No problems here.
ReplyDelete