Cleaning Bathrooms

I managed to find some time to clean my bathroom today and decided to use white vinegar. Golly, that stuff really works. I had this small bottle of white vinegar which I decided to pour neat onto the shower floor and after a few minutes, I scrubbed the floor with a soft brush and all the brown stains and scum came off very easily.

To see the shower floor clean and non-slippery due to the scummy feeling really made my day. Can't wait to clean the shower floor again...

To see more good uses with white vinegar, check out the link below!

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/23-ingenious-uses-for-white-vinegar.html?&page=7

Making it easy to remove hard-boiled egg shell

It would make the job easier to de-shell a hard-boiled egg, simply by adding a little bit of cooking oil or olive oil into the water when boiling the egg. The shell of the egg is porous and the absorption of this oil acts as a coating between the shell and the boiled egg white, thus making the job of removing the shell a breeze.

Try it! :-)

Papaya Pickle

One of my favourites... and this recipe comes from the experience of eating too much pickled stuff!

Ingredients :
1 green papaya (about 1.2-1.5kg)
100-150ml white vinegar (Do get better ones, as this is for consumption)
250-300g sugar
8-10 seedless sour plums, cut to smaller pieces
20-25 cili padi (deseeded and sliced)
1 tbsp salt

Method :

Peel the papaya, cut off the part with the stump. Halve the papaya lengthwise, and deseed, using a tablespoon. Halve the papaya lengthwise again and cut into slices of about 2-3mm thick. Place in a casserole dish with cover or a glass jar with lid.

Add the salt and mix well. Stand for 5 minutes.

Add the vinegar, sugar, sour plum and cili padi and mix well. Sample the mixture, as more vinegar or sugar may be needed, depending on you. Once you are satisfied with the taste, cover the dish/bottle and put in the refrigerator.

You can start to eat the pickle after about 8 hours. Works very well as an appetizer.

Do make sure that the papaya is very raw and green, so that after pickling, it would not be too soft, and would have the crunchiness when you bite into it.

Nyonya Fare on Boxing Day 2009

Instead of our cell group usual Christmas dinner with the usual Western dishes, we decided to have a Nyonya do instead. We had a great dinner with everyone contributing a dish and we had Lobak, served with sweet Thai chilli sauce, Kari Kay (nyonya curry chicken), Kerabu Pucuk Paku (a ferntip salad), Acar (pickled vegetable),Indian Curry Chicken (brought by an Indian friend who insisted that nyonya curry originated from this dish), Steamed Okra with dried shrimps, Konyaku Jelly with Lychee and a non-alcoholic cocktail with fruits and orange cordial. The food... excellent and not much was left at the end. Wish you could have joined us!

Lavender Puppy

This is a craft that I made for some of my friends, for Christmas... which I call Lavender Puppy. Basically it is a Scottish Terrier-shaped casing filled with dried lavender, inspired by some people whom I know, who are going through some issues in their lives, causing them sleepless nights. My wish - that they have peaceful & restful sleep. To my other friends, those without any problems sleeping (& prob. doze off the moment their heads hit the pillow), may you enjoy the lavender scent and a stressless season! :-)

"What is necessary, is never unwise." Spock's father in Star Trek The Future Begins, 93:48mins into the movie.

That sounds logical!

Humility

"Don't be so humble - you are not that great." Golda Meir