photo by ginnerobot

DEAR SARA: How do you stretch steaks? We bought half a cow. It’s a ton of meat, but I am hoping that I can make it. I know how to make ground beef go further, but am at a loss on what to do with the steaks to make them last for more than one or two meals. — Rachael, Texas

DEAR RACHAEL: Stretching meat is fine within the boundaries of proper nutrition and serving sizes. So if you’re serving less meat at dinner, in order to get the right amount of protein, you can include food such as eggs, peanut butter, nuts, beans or seeds into your meal plan for that day. That said, to make your steaks go further, you can slice the meat into strips for stir-fry, fajitas, sandwiches or salad. You can cube it to include in fried rice, quesadillas or shish kabobs. You can pound, stuff and roll them, too.

DEAR SARA: I was single until I was 36 and have lived on my own since I was 20. Clothes-wise, this meant that I had a few good clothes for work, a few nice clothes for meeting friends, church and going out, and lots of old clothes for the time spent at home. I would wear these old clothes until they were past mending and could not care less that they were shapeless, faded, etc. Now that I am married, I want to look nice for my husband, so I do not wear these very old clothes at home. These clothes are too old to be given away but not falling apart. What do you do? — Siebrie, e-mail

DEAR SIEBRIE: Some can be saved to wear for painting or yard and housework. Others can be cut and used as cleaning rags. You can remove any buttons, elastic or zippers for future mending or sewing projects. If you’re crafty, you could make a patchwork quilt with some of the fabric or a rag rug. You can also donate your clothes. Some thrift stores accept clothing regardless of condition. They sell them to used-clothing brokers who sort, grade and bale them. They resell them internationally.

DEAR SARA: How do you get the smell of mothballs out of clothing? The sweatshirt I bought last weekend is wonderful but smelly! — Judi, New Hampshire

DEAR JUDI: Mothball odor is a tough smell to get rid of. You can soak the shirt in vinegar and water and hang it outside in the fresh air and sunshine. Or you can try a product called Smelleze Moth Ball Deodorizer Pouch by Imtek (www.imtek.biz).

DEAR SARA: My several-year-old carpet-cleaning machine has a crack in the “solution/clean water” bottle that goes on the back of the machine. The plastic is pretty thin, like a 2-liter soda-bottle type of plastic. I think it just got a bit brittle over the years from hot water and cleaning solution. Everything else works fine. But it’s an older model, and Bissell no longer supports it and doesn’t carry the tank. I’ve called around, and I can’t find one. It’s the tiniest crack, but it’s in the square corner where it locks into the machine. Can I repair it? It doesn’t seem as if it should be that tricky. I just don’t know how. — Vail, Washington

DEAR VAIL: I’m not sure what the plastic tank is made out of. If it’s not polyethylene or polypropylene, you can use a product called Plast-aid (www.plast-aid.com). You can try using Amazing Goop or Seal All (www.eclecticproducts.com) or epoxy putty, too. But in my opinion, these are temporary fixes.

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