Vanilla Extract

What do you get if you “marry”

             This                  with              This ???
        
         Vodka                                       Vanilla Beans

Well you will get this luxurious bottle of vanilla extract!!!!!
  
Being one who bakes regularly, vanilla extract is a must have. It’s not easy to find a good quality vanilla extract. Moreover, quality ones are usually rather pricey.
To save cost, I googled on how to make this “must have” and found that the process is very simple. All I need is alcohol and some good quality vanilla beans. I have a bunch of vanilla beans given to me by my sister-in-law from her trip to Bali. Have been treasuring them and saving each pod in the sugar canister to favour the sugar.
I wanted to used vodka for this project and had requested DH to get me a bottle of Vodka (so that I could make vanilla extract) on his way back from his business trip sometime back. He came back with a bottle of vanilla favoured Vodka!!
Anyway,… with a glass bottle I added some vanilla beans (after scraping of the beans for cake making) and filled it with the vanilla vodka. (the normal proportion is 3 beans to a cup of vodka).Tighten the cap of the bottle and left it in a cool and dark area. The vanilla pods immersed in the vanilla vodka will released its aroma into the vodka. When the colour of the vodka turn amber, it would be ready for use. This will normally take about 3 months to be done. However, mine turned dark amber within a month!!! Lucky me ;)
The  minute you unscrew the cap, the whole room will be filled with the heavenly aroma of the vanilla extract. This bottle will last me quite a while. The longer I keep it, the richer the aroma would be!!!

Care & Cleaning of Linziclips

 

Now what do you do when you have got yourself those fabulous “must have” Linziclips?

 

It goes without saying that you will be wearing them often!!!

There are just so many ways to wear them.

View Full Album

Now after wearing them for a while, you will find that they do get dirty and can be a little stinky (due to the perspiration). This happens to all hair accessories (and everything else) that we wear. In many cases, due to the material used for the hair accessories we will have no choice but to discard the after it gets too dirty. (No ones wants a stinky and dirty clip on their head!).

However, for Linziclips you do not have to worry about having to dispose it off for this reason. Due to the material used, Linziclips can be easily washed and clean to keep them hygienic and fresh all the time.

Here is what I do to keep them fresh and clean.

First… fill a bowl with water and add a drop of your favourite shampoo in it. Shampoo is used to remove the grease, dandruff or dust from the Linziclips.

Next, immerse all your Linziclips into the bowl of soapy water.

Soak them in it for a couple of minutes.

  Discard the soapy water and rinse the Linziclips with more water.

Then shake off the water from the Linziclips.

Once all excessive water is shaken off, gently wipe each Linziclip and leave them on a clean piece of towel / cloth to air dry.

The Linziclips will dry in a jiffy and would be smelling great and squeaky clean.

The process takes less than 10 minutes.It’s so easy to clean and care for those Linziclips that we LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Garbage Enzyme

I have always been an advocate when it comes to greening the earth. I would play my part (even though it is small) in minimizing my carbon foot prints on the earth. To me the 3R's (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle) is most important when it comes to waste management. I keep a container by my kitchen to collect the water used for washing the rice, vegetable and fruits to be used to water my plants. I would also collect rain water for the same purpose. (since rainfall is abundant here in Malaysia). I also diligently segregate my garbage for recycling.

Apart from the many efforts I do, I have found that making garbage enzyme is a very beneficial and effective way to greening the earth. It involves fermenting fruit peels or vegetable with sugar and water to produce and enzyme so powerful yet safe for household use. I made my own garbage enzyme from citrus fruit peels (as I like the citrus scent) .
I have been using it since the beginning of this year. I am using it for mopping the floor, washing dishes and fertilizing my plants. Its many uses are :

• as a household cleaning liquid - mix a small cupful of enzyme with a bucket of water when mopping the floor. The floor will be squeaky clean. No floor cleaner needed.
• removing odour, mold and grime from kitchen and toilets
• Insect repellent - spray small enzyme mixed with water onto your plants or around the house and you will see the insects running away.
• Make the laundry cleaner without excessive use of detergent
• Can be added to the shampoo
• makes dish washing a breeze

Usage Dilute with water Enzyme for fertilizer 1:100 or 1:500 or 1:1000 Enzyme for insecticide 1:1000 Enzyme for pesticide 1:100 For anti odour / air freshener 1:200 As plant hormones to get more flowers and fruits 1:500 When the enzyme is diluted with water, it becomes more effective. Explanation: When diluting with water for the above ratio of 1:1000, it means 1cc of enzyme is added to 1000cc of water

To enhance the nutrients and reduce the side effects of the chemicals in shampoos, dish-washing liquids, detergents: Add one teaspoon of enzyme to every 500cc of shampoos, dish-washing liquids, detergents.

What is Garbage Enzyme? Garbage Enzyme is a complex organic substance of protein chains and mineral salts and juvenile hormones.

Functions of Garbage Enzyme is to - resolve / decompose - transform / change - compose / make up / combine - catalysis As a result of catalysis, ozone is produced which can reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and this in turn reduces global warming. This enzyme can be produced easily with the organic waste from our kitchens. During enzyme production, O3 + NO3 + CO3 are generated and these could help purify and whiten the clouds in the sky. Those clouds that trap lots of heavy metals appear dark. Those dark clouds cause more heat to be trapped on earth due to the greenhouse effect. O3 (ozone) from the garbage enzymes could reduce the heavy metals in the clouds and this would reduce global warming. More NO3 (nitrite) in the air is useful as nutrients for the plants and soil. If every household makes and uses enzymes, it would help tremendously in the reduction of global warming.

Here is how you can make your own garbage enzyme.

Black sugar is needed for making garbage enzyme. Brown or any raw unprocessed sugar can also be used but never use white sugar.

Kitchen waste is another ingredient used for the production of garbage enzyme. Leftover cooked food from meals like vegetables is usable too but rinse off any gravy or sauces from them first before using. Never use any kind of meat! Fruit skins should be taken from fruits like apple, orange, pineapple, pear, watermelon, grape, lemon, guava but don't use durians! ** I only use orange and lemon peels as I prefer the citrus scent***

An example: Add 300g of sugar + 900g of fruit skins + 3000g of water and mix well in a 5000cc plastic bottle and cap tightly. Keep in a cool dry place at room temperature. Release the gases formed once a day for the first month. Make sure it is re-capped tightly each time after the gas release. For the 2nd and 3rd months, only release any gases if necessary. Sometimes, there is a white layer on the surface of the enzyme solution during fermentation. Should worms appear in your enzyme solution, don't panic. Add in a handful of sugar, mix well and cap the bottle tightly. They will disappear overnight!

These bottles contain kitchen waste with sugar and water. Fermentation will take place in the bottles for 3 months. Then after filtration and removal of the residue, garbage enzyme is obtained. The residue can be used again for a new batch of production by adding fresh garbage. The residue can also be dried, then blended and buried in the ground as a fertilizer.

These bottles of garbage enzyme are ready for dilution with water to be used.

Give it a try!!! Garbage enzyme is now sold commercially. However, why pay for it when you can make your own!!!!!

Colour coding

I am not Martha Stewart nor am I one in the making. Nevertheless, as a homemaker, I am always looking for ways to make my life easier. Call it home improvement.

Many of you will be shocked to hear that I enjoy ironing clothes. (a chore that many prefer to put aside if given a choice). I find it therapeutic. The joy of seeing how a creased shirt magically turn smooth and crisp when the iron glides over it always bring a smile to my face. With a family of 5, I do have quite a lot of ironing to do. I would iron clothes almost everyday. To ensure that the clothes that have been ironed are sorted and ease for the owners to claim them is maximized, I resort to colour coding the hangers. I assign a specific colour for each member of the family. I use blue hangers for my eldest son, green for my second boy, pink for my girl, black for my hubby and purple for myself. Just like the picture below.

So, clothes are hung according to the colour of the hangers. I will make it a point to arrange them according to the colours during my ironing routine. In this way, once ironing is completed, all that is needed to be done is for the owner of the clothing to come and scoop up their clothes and keep into their own wardrobe. No more running through the line of clothing looking for their belongings and have each others clothing in their wardrobe by mistake. On top of that, their wardrobe looks good too (with one a single colour range in each wardrobe). If there is an odd one out, it can be easily identified and returned to the rightly owner.

Simple yet effective.

It's back to the normal routine again

It is the weekend and the short school break is almost over. By tomorrow everything will be back to normal as the kids will be back to school. That means daily bread baking for breakfast.

Since my weekday schedule is pretty tight with the ferrying of my children around, I have devised a method of preparing the bread dough in advance for my daily baking. YES, you heard it right! What I do is....on weekends I would make a few batches of bread dough. Divide them into the weight I want (for my daily use) and stashed them into my freezer. The dough will rise a little in the freezer before the yeast goes to sleep.

All I need to do now is every morning, I just have to pull out 1 piece of the frozen dough. Leave it in a bowl (covered with cling wrap) to defrost and prove. It will take about 3 hours (depending on the weather). Then I will work on the dough, shaping it followed by the 2nd proving before baking them. This method works perfectly and does not affect the quality of the bread. In fact, with this method I free myself from the daily kneading and cleaning up. I do not have to rush home just to knead the dough in order to bake a bread!!!! hehehe

This is so versatile and convenient. If you bake daily...you can give it a try.