Vinegar: Over 400 Various, Versatile, and Very Good Uses You've Probably Never Thought Of [Paperback]

Vicki Lansky (Author), Martha Campbell (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2004

This collection of useful recipes, cleaning concepts and tips is full of ideas that have worked for others and will work for you. Whimsical line drawings by illustrator, Martha Campbell add a humorous touch to this wonderful addition of a home reference bookshelf filled with books by Vicki Lansky.
A bit if history about, wonderful recipes for, and a lot of amazing uses for—VINEGAR are in this 7" x 6" trade paperback. One hundred and twenty pages fill this fun and practical compendium. In ten different chapters, ranging from cooking to cleaning to hygiene and home remedies, you'll find that vinegar also works as a diet aid, stain remover, condiment, odor eater, grooming aid, preservative and cleaner.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: The Book Peddlers; 1st edition (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0916773531
• ISBN-13: 978-0916773533
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #37,821 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #66 in Books > Crafts, Hobbies & Home > Home Improvement & Design > How-to & Home Improvements > Cleaning, Caretaking & Relocating
  • #74 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Agricultural Sciences > Food Science

More About the Author

Feed Me I'm Yours, my first book, began as a local fund raising cookbook in 1974 and turned me into an author. I thought it was the only book I'd ever write and then for a while, I thought that each new book would be my last. Was I wrong!

Along the way I also became a publisher. Feed Me I'm Yours was first published from my husband's and my home on Meadowbrook Lane (i.e., Meadowbrook Press). Our company grew very fast as we learned the publishing business. After our divorce 8 years later, I left Meadowbook Press with no plans of being a publisher again. However, as the books I wrote for others went out of print, I established my own imprint, Book Peddlers, which now publishes over half of my 30 titles...including (naturally) Vicki Lansky's Divorce Book for Parents.

When you write parenting books, everyone glances critically at your children. Thank goodness mine had the good grace to turn out well. Despite my mistakes (and they'll be the first to point them out) my thirty-something twosome have survived and thrived in spite of having had a "professional" mother. Lucky me!

I think my mother would be astonished to know that I give out cleaning and household advice to millions of people as a columnist for Family Circle magazine. After all, she 'not I' had made a career of homemaking. In 1988, when Family Circle asked me to be a contributing editor to their "Help" column, I was delighted. This would be a place for me to share "grown-up" tips. I was now moving beyond the days of needing to know that peanut butter removes gum from children's hair!

Writing about household hints has been more of an education than I ever dreamt. I'm often asked what my favorite tip is. Usually it's the one I've not heard before, which is what keeps my work so interesting. My books on Baking Soda tips and Vinegar tips have sold in the hundreds of thousands copies. Amazing. How lucky I am to be able to share so many helpful ideas...and it is good, clean FUN too.

Recently we have had most of my titles made available in eBook format.

I'm not sure of my next projects as I've decided to cut back a bit on my book life and work a little more on just my life. But I'm never far from my computer and I know there are idea gremlins scrambling around my brain waiting to escape. Stay tuned.....

For more about Vicki Lansky look her up on Wikipedia.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicki_Lansky)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 101 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A complete and comprehensive household reference December 14, 2003

By Midwest Book Review

Format:Paperback

In Vinegar, Vicki Lansky (a contributing editor to "Family Circle" magazine) provides homemakers with a complete and comprehensive household reference to the uses of vinegar as a home remedy, diet aid, stain remover, condiment, odor eater, grooming aid, preservative, cleaner, recipe ingredient, and more. Lansky reveals the history of this versatile kitchen ingredient along with such invaluable advice as to how to make basic vinegar, how long it can be safely stored, and how to make flavored vinegars. There is even information about vinegar museums and science tricks involving vinegar and suitable for kids to perform. Vinegar is a welcome and enthusiastically recommended addition to family and community library reference collections.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Who knew? April 27, 2009

By Judy K. Polhemus TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

A book filled with so many useful tips in such an easy reading style easily earns five stars. "Vinegar: over 400 various, versatile, and very good uses you've probably never thought of"-- The title alone tells you just how much you are missing without this book.

Home remedy, diet aid, stain remover, condiment, odor eater, grooming aid, preservative, cleaner, recipe ingredient--that's our vinegar!

Home Remedy: To relieve poison ivy itching, pat on a mixture of cider vinegar and water and let dry. (I wish I had known this two weeks ago when the last of four (4!!) different episodes of poison ivy rashes were finally disappearing. I've been clearing out different areas of my yard with heavy poison ivy growth. I had poison ivy rashes three months, almost non-stop!)

Grooming aid: To an unfinished bottle of water add a little vinegar and use for a hair rinse; to get rid of hair lice and dandruff, rinse with white vinegar and water.

Preservative: Use vinegar for making pickles (which I do every summer). The acid kills bacteria. Using white or cider vinegar determines taste outcome. There's a recipe for making pickled eggs.

Recipe ingredient: How about Vinegar Pie? (It's really a custard pie!) If you're out of wine, use a flavored vinegar in making Coq au Vin. If you add too much salt to a recipe, cut the salty taste with a spoonful of vinegar and sugar (this idea is going to my sister-in-law, heavy-handed with a salt shaker!).

Cleaner: Clean out your drain and garbage disposal with a special combination of baking soda and vinegar. Spray vinegar (use an old empty sprayer or find one in the travel section of your pharmacy) full strength on a cutting board at night and don't rinse. To clean the interior of a microwave, boil a 1/2 cup of vinegar and 1/2 cup water so the inside steams. Wipe interior clean.

Stain remover: Attack spaghetti, barbecue or ketchup stains first with a vinegar and water solution. Remove grass stains with water, white vinegar, and liquid soap.

Handy Dandy Help: Water acid-loving plants like azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and gardenias with a vinegar solution now and then. **Kill weeds and grass growing in unwanted places by pouring full strength white vinegar on them. (Can't wait to try this on grass in sidewalk cracks!) When you paint an interior room, place full bowls of vinegar in the room to absorb the paint odor! Wipe out a dog's ears with undiluted vinegar on a soft cloth to prevent scratching.

There are three vinegar museums in the world--one in the United States (South Dakota), China, and Japan. Each is quite popular.

There you have it! A sampling of the many uses of vinegar. As I read the book, I marked the ideas I want to use to prevent having to reread to find them. Ready to spray or pour!

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Throw out your other cleaners June 1, 2007

By C. Varry

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

If you want to go green this is a way to start. Vinegar does an amazing number of things to keep your house and yourself in top shape. And best of all it does not leave a lingering smell as other cleaners do. Try it.