All That Lint

What was I thinking when I put in a comforter together with a blanket throw to wash? Now I will have to find a mega lint remover brush. Sigh.

Ayúdame! Somebody, please save my parsley!

I love having plants in the home. Unfortunately, I do not have a green thumb. If anyone is to be put behind bars for mass murdering of plants, that would be me. Anyhoo, I was at the Botanical Garden's "Ripe! Food and Garden Festival" last Friday and I won myself a small potted plant of parsley. Ah, a chance to redeem myself. And in all that excitement, I decided to acquire a cute little chilli plant as well. The instructions were simple - water them 1-2 times a week and make sure they get plenty of sunshine. How difficult can that be, right? WRONG! I came home last evening to find the parsley plant looking like this:

I'm not sure what went wrong. It was still looking good when I left in the morning. Perhaps it was the cold since I had it right next to the window. :(
Can anyone tell me how I can salvage it now?! *Sobs!*

P.S. My chilli plant is still very much alive. For now.

Frugal housewife at work

So what does a [reluctant] housewife who has given up her job and feeling the financial pinch do? Why, she looks for bargain websites and freebies all day long (well, almost!). Good news is that US is a land of coupons & discounts and you could really get a good deal on things if you do your homework. For the past few months here, I have accumulated a list of websites that could help me save a buck or two. Good stuff needs to be shared, so here they are:

Daily deals:
Groupon.com
Eversave.com
Livingsocial.com
Housewaredeals.com

Coupons:
Retailmenot.com

Deal aggregators: There are plenty of such sites online but these are the two sites I use
DealAgg.com
Thedealmap.com
 
Pricewatch: Let the website do the price tracking for you
Priceprotectr.com
 
Cashback: Nothing like saving a few extra dollars for everything you spend
Fatwallet
Ebates

Sometimes housewives need a break from cooking too:
Restaurant.com
idinedeals.com

Travel: This is not a discount website but it allows you to search for the cheapest flights minus all that online advertisements
Matrix

Designer stuff for less: Honestly, some of these stuff are beyond my budget but it's fun for window shopping anyway!
Ideeli.com
Ruelala.com
Swirl.com
Thesamplesale.com
Onekingslane.com

P.S. Let's not forget amazon.com and ebay.com as well.  Great for comparing prices and they do have some of the best deals online!
That's all I have for now! Do feel free to add on to the list so that we can all spend, save and be happy all at once! ;)

Mission accomplished! :)

So last evening's meal went pretty successfully! My first attempt without cheating with pizza delivery or ready bought food! *Yay!* I took practically the whole day preparing for it in my hell's kitchen. It was so darn hot in there that my face remained flushed the whole evening. Did not have time to take pics of my dishes but I managed to capture just this one shot while we were eating.

The menu included:
Pickled cucumber and carrot
Egg drop soup with tofu and enoki mushroom
Sesame grilled asparagus
Steamed corn with butter
Beer braised BBQ ribs
Kung Pao chicken
Fruit & mochi ice cream for dessert

I guess my biggest challenge was coordinating the cooking so that I could serve them hot when the guests arrive. I think it helps that I had all my recipes typed out on a piece of paper and I did all the prep for the ingredients and sauces early in the afternoon. I also used different modes of cooking and included a few dishes which were really quick and easy to cook (e.g. steamed corn & grilled asparagus). I prepared the pickled cucumber and carrot a day in advance and cooked the soup slightly earlier and kept it warm in a slow cooker. All in all, it worked out pretty well but I don't think I will be repeating this anytime soon. Well, not until the weather improves!

My Crudités platter

We were made to practise the different cuts for a vegetable platter at our culinary prac class yesterday. Julienne, batonnet, chiffonade, brunoise, dicing, paysanne... Didn't really manage to perfect the cuts but it was fun.

My mini platter. The dip was made with plain yogurt, mayo, thousand island dressing and dry herbs.

It is interesting to see all the different designs that can come out from the very same ingredients.

The Pressure is On....

After months of procrastination, it is finally happening. We are inviting 4 guests over to our place for dinner this Friday and I will be cooking. To tell you the truth, I feel as if I am about to take a culinary exam. I am sticking to tried and tested recipes and I already have my menu planned and typed out. But...what if I can't find the ingredients I need? What if one of my electric cooker decides to break down at the last minute? What if there is insufficient food to go around? What if my food turns out like crap??! :S
Seasoned homemakers will probably look at this post and think "It's just a simple dinner. What's the big deal, anyway?" Well, it's a mental barrier I need to overcome and hopefully I will gain enough confidence to start cooking for other people other than my guinea pig - my hubby. ;) *fingers crossed*

Only in my household.

I have succeeded in vacuuming down one of the blinds in my room and the elastic band in my vacuum cleaner broke. Just brilliant. *sigh*

Culinary Bootcamp!

Escoffier /  Hollandaise sauce / Roux/ Temperature danger zone (40 - 140 degrees F)/ Clean chopping board between cutting meat and poultry. Prevent cross contamination!/ On Cooking: A Textbook of Culinary Fundamentals/ Blanching/  Save those broccoli stems! / Vegetable trimmings for stock

Those were some random things I picked up from my first lesson at the community college last evening.  Figured if I'm to be a homemaker, I might as well get the fundamentals right. By the end of this module, I should be working those knives and cooking like a pro (not!). Heh. Anyway,  it's high time I assimilate into the community and make some new friends too. *Exciting. Exciting!*

Our "Mexican" dinner

Lesson learnt: Do not ever leave roasted veggies in the oven to keep warm unless you want them shrivelled like this! *My poor asparagus!*

How to load a dishwasher

The apt I am renting at the moment comes with a dishwasher. It may sound backward but this is the first time I am operating a dishwasher and there is no manual. So naturally I have all these questions I need answered. How should I load the dishwasher? Can all my dishes fit in there? What is the minimum load I need before I effectively save water and energy? Since it is just me and hubs in the household is it really cost effective considering the limited kitchenware/ utensils that we have in the first place? Do I need to pre-rinse? Yada..yada...

Tried looking for answers on the web and this is what I concluded:
1. Pre-rinsing is generally not required. Apparently, pre-rinsing can take up to 20 gallons of water!
2. Do however scrape off bits of leftovers on the dishes before loading them.
3. Load glassware on the top rack and try to space them apart to avoid breakage.
4. Similarly, plastic containers goes on top to avoid melting during the dry heating since it gets hotter at the bottom rack.
5. Place plates, bowls, pots and pans at the bottom facing down towards the the spray arm.
6. Spoons, forks, knives (facing down) and other silverware goes into a basket usually located on the bottom rack and mix them up to avoid "nesting".
7.To be more energy efficient, run the dishwasher with a full load and avoid using the heat dry function.
8.And do go easy on the detergent! More is not necessarily cleaner!

On a final note, "washing dishes by hand uses much more water than using a dishwashers. Using an ENERGY STAR qualified dishwashers instead of hand washing will save you annually 5,000 gallons of water, $40 in utility costs, and 230 hours of your time."

Woo..I like the sound of that...:)