30 alternative uses for lemons

The next time life gives you lemons, throw them back and demand chocolate cake ... of course, if that doesn't work there are plenty of options that go beyond making the proverbial lemonade.

Containing citric acid and low pH levels, lemons are a natural choice for cleaning, deodorizing and disinfecting around the house. After harvesting a basket full of lemons from a neighbor's tree (I asked first!), I set to work seeing what miracles the fruit might hold.

My first task, inspired by theReader's Digest website, was to find out if lemons really would work magic on less-than-lustrous pots and pans. Using the cut side of the lemon, I scrubbed inside and outside a variety of pots and watched in amazement as the shine was restored.The lemon removed hard-to-clean rings and watermarks and made the pots shiny and bright. Voila! Cheap, lemon scented thrills! Cluebert, another online resource devoted to helpful hints, recommends an alternative method of filling the pots with water, adding three tablespoons of lemon juice and boiling for 15 minutes before attempting to scrub with half a lemon.