51 Extraordinary Uses for Aluminum Foil (page 4 of 5)

10 Uses in the Great Outdoors

Keep bees away from beverages
You're about to relax in your backyard with a well-deserved glass of lemonade or soda pop. Suddenly bees start buzzing around your drink -- which they view as sweet nectar. Keep them away by tightly covering the top of your glass with aluminum foil. Poke a straw through it, and then enjoy your drink in peace.

Make a barbecue drip pan
To keep meat drippings off your barbecue coals, fashion a disposable drip pan out of a couple of layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Shape it freehand, or use an inverted baking pan as a mold (remember to remove the pan once your creation is finished). Also, don't forget to make your drip pan slightly larger than the meat on the grill.

Clean your barbecue grill
After the last steak is brought in, and while the coals are still red-hot, lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the grill to burn off any remaining foodstuffs. The next time you use your barbecue, crumple up the foil and use it to easily scrub off the burned food before you start cooking.

Improve outdoor lighting
Brighten up the electrical lighting in your backyard or campsite by making a foil reflector to put behind the light. Attach the reflector to the fixture with a few strips of electrical tape or duct tape -- do not apply tape directly to the bulb.

Make an impromptu picnic platter
When you need a convenient disposable platter for picnics or church suppers, just cover a piece of cardboard with heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Improvise a frying pan
Don't feel like lugging a frying pan along on a camping trip? Form your own by centering a forked stick over two layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Wrap the edges of the foil tightly around the forked branches but leave some slack in the foil between the forks. Invert the stick and depress the center to hold food for frying.

Warm your toes when camping
Keep your tootsies toasty at night while cold-weather camping. Wrap some stones in aluminum foil and heat them by the campfire while you are toasting marshmallows. At bedtime, wrap the stones in towels and put them in the bottom of your sleeping bag.

Keep your sleeping bag dry
Place a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil under your sleeping bag to insulate against moisture.

Keep matches dry
It's a tried-and-true soldier's trick worth remembering: Wrap your kitchen matches in aluminum foil to keep them from getting damp or wet on camping trips.

Lure a fish
None of your fancy fishing lures working? You can make one in a jiffy that just might do the trick: Wrap some aluminum foil around a fishhook. Fringe the foil so that it covers the hook and wiggles invitingly when you reel in the line.

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• Extraordinary Uses: Room-by-Room Guide
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• Keep Fruit From Browning
• A trick for a beautiful fruit salad or platter -- every time.
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Colanders

In the kitchen, at the playground, and in the bath -- colanders are one handy item!