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Show "It Makes Cents" By Vi Blake Dear Mom: Here's a little ditty for your column: My doctor prescribed Motrin four times a day for ten days for my wrist problem. Having had lots of experience with medicine, I asked him if this wasn't just ibuprofen and how many milligrams each tablet contained. He told me they were 800 milligrams each. "Couldn't I just take four 200 milligram store brand ibuprofens every four hours," I asked. He seemed surprised at my lack of ignorance, but reluctantly agreed. In my case, this will cost 32 cents a day as compared to $2 for prescribed Motrin. (Watch for store brand ibuprofin on sale at about two cents a pill. Acetimenophen, generic tylenol, is also available at the same price.) Even when we have insurance, we should save our insurance companies the money. After all, don't we all pay the high cost of medical care? How many billions a year would be saved if we weren't so ignorant and indifferent about what we are taking and simply asked our doctor what the cheapest way to accomplish the slated objective would be. There's my little lecture. With love, Dan, (Mesa, Arizona) Thank you son. I've been thinking along the same lines a lot lately. We should examine the statements from our health insurance companies to make sure they are not being billed at exorbitant prices for services and medication we did not receive. Medicare fraud is rampant these days and we should all fight to stop it by challenging dishonest billing. j Our niece, Marsha Payne I (Mesa, Az.) told us about her . family's dearly-loved elderly cat who had a sore paw but wouldn't 1 let her treat it. He finally chewed ' out the sliver or whatever it was I and the paw is healing. He is still limping around, however, so while he sleeps, she puts a paste I of aspirin on the sore paw. He I licks it off and gets some aspirin , in him , which relieves the pain a bit. Isn't that a clever way to get medication into a pet? Dear Vi: Emily Quinn (St. George) called to tell me a way she uses squash seeds. She lets the uncooked seeds air-dry thoroughly, tho-roughly, then grinds them with her nut grinder and uses them with peanut butter or in baked goods in place of nuts. She used butternut squash seeds but thinks this will work for pumpkin or any kind of squash seeds, all of which are said to be good for us. Emily, who because of wrist damage cannot use her hands as well as she would like, has found that if you dampen the buttonholes slightly, it's much easier to get the buttons in. Knots, too, are easier to undo if they are dampened, she said. She has also been told by an experienced gardener that tomatoes need morning sun. We have a huge tomato vine on the west side of our house. Perhaps that's the reason it's so stingy with its fruit. One or two tomatoes at a time is all it gives us. Dear Vi: We love fresh coconut in coconut cream pie but it can be difficult to remove from the shell. We find that baking the whole coconut for about 15 minutes in a 400 degree oven greatly facilitates the task. Be carefulwhen removing it it will be very hot. While still hot, with a hammer, tap it gently all around until it begins to crack. Continue tapping that area and it will pop open and the meat will be easy to remove. The brown skin on the meat can be pared off with a swivel vegetable peeler. The meat can be kept tightly wrapped in the refrigerator for several days without losing its freshness. It can also be kept frozen for several months. It's nice to freeze some chunks because, when frozen, it's easy to grate or slice some off as needed. Dotty Primel, Idaho Falls Dear Vi: Buy crunchy peanut butter for cookies or fudge and you won't have to add extra nuts. We love peanut butter fudge. To make it, simply add peanut butter to taste to fudge as you beat it Freda Zindle, San Diego, Makes my mouth water, Freda. When I was a girl in our little town of Panguitch, in Southern Utah, a favorite entertainment was making candy. Peanut butter fudge was our undisputed favorite. We'd pool our weekly allowances to buy the peanut butter and other ingredients. ingre-dients. Too bad many of us can't indulge in such good things as our years pile up? ' THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It isn't the experience of today that drives men mad. It is remorse for what happened yesterday and the dread of what tomorrow may disclose. Jones Burdette. READERS: This is your feature. Thanks for sharing your good ideas. Send yours to IT MAKES CENTS, 328 So. 300 E. 5, St. George, Utah, 84770. If used here, I'll send you $2 or a copy of one of my booklets: "Kitchen Tricks" or "Vinegar, the Homemaker's Best Friend," Please state your choice. These booklets are also available to others. Price $2.50 plus $1.10 for postage. My e-mail address: viblakeinfowest.com My web page, www.infowest.comcents |