I LICKED THE PLATTERS CLEAN

Thank god I did not make any resolutions this new year. If I did you would find me agonizing over the all those pretty things that I would have to resist just because I didn't need them. I did it again. Yes I did... bought all them pretty things inspite of the economic woes unfurling across the universe.

But if someone has to keep the economy going. It might as well be me.

Being short of any food worth blogging about at the moment this is also another reason I have decided to display my wares once more. As usual they were a bargain and pretty too. Since everyone at home has been admiring and are in complete acceptance of my little indulgences I therefore have no reason to stop.



Pink is my favourite new colour since I bought these soup mugs. They are quite huge for a single serving of soup but who's measuring? They're cute and that is all that matters.

Rustic is what I love and rustic is what it is.



And here are two plates that challenged my decision making skills. As I looked at them and hefted each one of them in each of my hands, shifted my gaze from one to the other, used both my right and left brains, raised them against the lights in the store as I squinted at them, curled my lips into a painful smile, furrowed my indecisive eyebrows, sighed my breath away and spoke to them, I recalled quite acutely what Theodore Roosevelt had said, "In any moment of indecision the best thing that you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing and the worst thing you can do is nothing."

So I bought them both.



If there are some things that jolt you into mouthing the lyrics of a song or reciting a nursery rhyme these two plates certainly did. I found myself murmuring ..... "and between them both you see I licked the platters clean." Just like scrawny Jack Sprat and his obese wife....the one who could eat no fat and the other who could eat no lean these two platters looked like complete opposites but yet complemented each other so well. My life has been made. For today.

So I baked some semolina cookies and prettied up the plate. God! It takes so little to please me.

THE JOY OF TOYS

I love festivals don't you? You get plenty of cheap things sprouting up in foyers of shopping malls every time a festive celebration threatens to pounce on you when you turn the corner. And in Malaysia that seems to be a monthly event. Almost.



With Chinese New Year looming not too far off, I, the bargain hunter, the cheapskate, the ceramic detector went on the prowl. I found myself surrounded by some Chinese ceramic bowls in candy colours . They glared hard at me. It was all I could do to look back meekly, my spirit, shriveled to a wisp and my fingers groping my purse for 20.50 RM. I handed it over.

It's a jungle out there!

I just stopped in my tracks when I saw them. And when I got closer I almost blacked out. They were almost free at 3.90 RM each. You can see how many I bought. Not that many but many enough to not know what to do with them. At times like these thinking is not an option. In fact it would be the most despicable thing to do. But if you have to think about it here's an interesting article that will set you thinking about it.



Aren't they beauties? I am just insanely in love with them. Wonder what fate has in store for them in my home? I'm thinking now. Bites. Appetizers. Got to think of something soon. Ahh.....rugelach maybe...Yes I got to make some..tiny ones and pile them up nice and sweet in one or two of those bowls. I can't wait to get started.



They're waiting in the garden.



Impatiently.



Having claimed possession of those dream bowls I then headed towards Cold Storage supermarket just across from the foyer. I love that supermarket because they have some really lovely household (small range but good choices) items at very reasonable prices. I have bought some very pretty platters and oven proof casseroles over the years at disgustingly cheap prices.

So if you have an eye for bargains and pretty items and cheap items, like me, go there. Scan, detect, aim and buy.

These jars that I bought almost escaped me if someone hadn't left one of them laying around deserted on one of the shelves.



It came in a set of 4 and I could not find the other 3. I searched and I even used my thing detector hoping to get some more but to no avail. But contented to go home with just one anyway I brought it over to the cashier and when I reached there he told me that I have to buy it in a set of 4.

Did he make me happy or what? So he went in search of the other 3. I would have waited the whole day for him. And they are a funny, odd shape with lovely colourful fruit prints on the covers. I would pay anything for QUAINT. I would die for quaint.

Finally he came back to me with the whole whopping set and the LAST one! Sorry girls!



No. No fairy god mother I knew waved her wand and put those lovely cutesy jars amoung those weeds last night. I put them there so I could take a picture. Got to get working on those weeds.



Who knows what I would fill them with. But you know what? Who cares. I'll have enough satisfaction just looking at those fruits on the covers. And at their funny shape.



I got them and I own them. That's what's matters.

SHOPPING AND LOOKING

I made a visit to Bangsar Village yesterday because I knew that with Christmas around the corner I'd be able to get glimpses of some very pretty things at the foyer of the complex. And so I did.

I didn't feel very comfortable clicking freely away with my point and shoot so each time before I did I asked for permission and believe it or not some of them did not allow me to take pictures of the stuff they were selling!! Flabbergasting don't you think?

However here are some of the things that I did get pictures of.

Lace, duvet covers, embroidery, table cloths, cushion covers from China and Vietnam. Those from Vietnam are a little cheaper and are hand sewn and very very pretty. I swooned but did not buy any. Shopping for lace wasn't on my list. If it's on yours be ready to spend not less than a few hundred before coming home happy and contented.



Aren't they beautiful? Tea cosies with the typical green and red of Christmas colours. I do wonder how many people use tea cosies these days? I love them but don't use them although I do remember that my mother used to use them about a century ago :). But beautiful nonetheless and it really wouldn't hurt to use them more often again. But then how many people sit down with the family to have tea at four o'clock these days what with traffic jams and the fact that no husbands or children would be home at that ungodly hour! And needless to say the ubiquitous enclaves of kopitiams and mamak shops are constantly beckoning us with ready made treats in their chatty, yet torpid atmosphere typical of a sunny, humid and tropical country.



This little piece was something I bought and have had for years. I was more intrigued by its purpose when I had bought it and I knew that I would never ever use it. Believe it or not it is a sandwich cover!




Yes it is. What you would do was to make a few, and I really mean FEW sandwiches and put them in the middle and the wrap them up like so in the following picture. And there you have a pretty display of a sandwich cover with the sandwiches inside. A novel idea really and it will certainly keep the sandwiches moist. But unfortunately I was thinking of stains and how it would only serve at most two people although very prettily. I have never used it because I can't imagine my husband and I sitting down to a 'feast' of three of four dainty sandwiches as opposed to two plates of rice. And the STAINS! So what I have done with it now is to throw it over one of my lampshades. It works and I'm a happy woman.



I walked into The House of Presentation and these were what caught my eye. I asked for permission to take some pictures for my blog and the lady in charge seemed hesitant at first and asked if I was going to sell them! Actually I would rather buy them. But I didn't of course because a set of those four pretty plates in a very pretty box would make me poorer by 148 ringgit. Besides I have enough collection of plates that I have yet to hang up on a wall somewhere in my house. But that did not stop me from thinking about buying them though.



Right next to those pretty plates were a box of matching cups and saucers. What else! These pretty things costs 208 ringgit. I suppose they weren't that expensive because I have seen some plates and cups and saucers that could blow your credit cards away for good (Somehow Ikea seems tempting now). So I must say that they were reasonably priced. They were not too much on the higher end and quite affordable to many I suppose.



I turned around and these were what I saw! So pretty and dainty were the tiered plates that I fingered them. I believe they cost around a hundred ringgit or more. Didn't buy them though.



Who wouldn't want a set of pots and pans like these? Tell me. Nope, didn't bother to check out the prices.



Back out into the foyer I saw these very Christmassy plates that costs 20 ringgit each. Love the colours and great for gifts.



Some more christmassy salt and pepper shakers. Would have bought them if the attendent did not chase me away for taking pictures! He probably saved me about 50 ringgit. Or was it 80 ringgit? Thank you very much.



Some more Christmassy stuff. Candle holders and flower pots? I just love the red. I just thought the shapes of the flower pots were very pretty. I realise now that I like anything scalloped.



Dropped in at the Khazanah stall. And I saw these lovely lamps. Very Alladin-like but to consider buying them did not cross my mind so unfortunately I did not check out the price. But they are beautiful aren't they?



Turquoise is soo middle eastern and I just love the colour of these thingys. I suppose they are candle holders or something of that sort. Dust magnets. That was what came to mind but I took a picture anyway because they were very attractive.



Necklaces. Beautiful and exotic. Wouldn't wear them myself because it would just take too much work and effort to mix and match. But lovely aren't they?



THEN I went to do what I always do. Grocery shopping. I dropped in at the Village Grocer Supermarket and since I seldom go there to do my not so weekly shopping I was pleasantly surprised.

First of all I stumbled upon a satisfying variety of whipped cream of which some were very reasonably priced. I bought the cheapest at 12.90 I think. It was dairy cream and not a vegetable product. These are what they had and I happily clicked away. So for those of you who are looking for whipping cream (dairy) at reasonable prices this is the place.



This is also the only place that I have seen extracts in these variety. Pure vanilla extracts, peppermint extract, orange and lemon extract and imitation rum. A little pricey of course so if you really want original vanilla essence go buy the vanilla beans at a bakery supply store. Much cheaper and more authentic I believe. But imitation flavours are available here as you can see. Imitation rum. Wonder if they will pass a fatwa on that?



Some more flavours! For lazy bakers.



Then I came across these. This is the ONLY place where I have seen these. I mean I've seen Betty Crocker's chocolate cakes and brownies etc but not pie crusts. Not that I need to buy them but it just goes to show that one can get lots of things here where you can't find in other supermarkets even in KL. As far as I know. Pricey aren't they? If you were to make them yourself it would probably cost a third of what you have to pay for here.



Button mushrooms at 28.50 per kilo. Quite reasonable but if you want to get it at a cheaper price go to the Taman Tun Pasar Besar. It will cost you only 20 ringgit per kilo at a certain stall! TTDI Pasar Besar here I come!

While I Whiled Away My Mind

I didn't know where else to go while waiting for the Pest Busters to finish their job at home so I went to Ikea. Took some pictures for some show and tell.

Things I love.

These are what I love. I saw them at IKEA and I could not shake it off from my mind for a week. However, at RM19.90 each I had to reconsider my affections and as of today I have yet to make a final decision. I am sure there are many more, as many as there are fish in the sea, so they can wait. But they would look so good in my blog filled with some yummy noodles or some fruit cocktail or.....I don't knoowww.....somehow it doesn't seem very suitable or practical for eating anything out of. It would be like eating from a little flower pot albeit a very pretty one. But I love the scalloped edge and the embossed flowers, don't you?



Then I saw these. I love the colours but I did not buy these either. I love the game I played with myself. Do what pains me, do not purchase anything and leave triumphant in the thought that I have resisted temptation.



Then I saw these. I did not have much of a problem with these because although I thought they were very attractive I also thought they were a little too bold. It's food that I want t o serve not the platter.



Then I saw these. Curtain fabrics. But I was thinking table cloths. They would make very pretty table covers for daily use. It's not easy getting a table cloth for a large dining table for eight persons, at a reasonable price, for everyday use, with three distracted males in the house. Neither is it easy to get one that is large and that hangs down over the edges sufficiently enough so that it does not look like it had shrunk after a wash. At about RM 39 per meter, I think it would cost me RM 90, for a decent length of a very pretty table cloth. But just to get it stained with curry? NEXT!



Ah.. I saw these. Red lampshades are very flattering and gives off a rosy glow to your guests complexions. Must get a red lampshade.



Dust traps. That's what I call these. But lovely nonetheless. Don't have one because I don't fancy spending time dusting every nook and cranny of that basket over the years. But who knows I might give in and suffer.




Things I need :

Plastics. Can't live with them but can't live without them. At RM 15 for a set of seventeen pieces it is a bargain. Seven different sizes in a set. The best set of plastic containers that I have bought and used in my life, Easy to wash, no difficult and annoying edges on the covers to fiddle and clean and the corners of the bottoms are rounded off which makes washing them a breeze. A good buy.



These things (splatter proof thingys) keep your stove clean and you get to reserve more energy for other things besides cleaning the stove, like napping and blogging. I can't remember how much they cost though. Can't live without them!



Things I wouldn't buy :

Very cute, small but too big for spices and too small for anything else. Besides, the aluminium paint on the cover peels off after a time and they don't look very nice at all.



Not as practical as it looks. Been there done that. Its a magnet for dust and frankly I'd rather have family's underwear etc immediately transported from the laundry basket to a dark, dank cupboard. See not, see mess not.



I congratulated myself for not spending a sen. Headed straight home ready to face the world of home and a pest free life.

Microwave Ovens - Boon or Bane?

During a visit with some friends about a week ago the conversation steered towards the use of microwave ovens. Their microwave oven had been sent for repair and in the course of the event they were told by those at the fixit shop how to use the microwave oven safely.

They were advised that food cooked or heated up in a microwave oven should not be eaten immediately but left for about ten minutes before being consumed. They were also warned that when the beep of the microwave goes off it is advisable to wait for several minutes before opening the oven door in order to avoid ourselves being exposed to an unnecessary amount of microwaves.

This reminded me and confirmed that my refrainment from getting that oh-so-convenient microwave oven at all was the wisest thing I have done in my entire life. Very few other decisions can compare in wisdom, if there are any at all.

There have been reports of the dangers of consuming food cooked or heated up in a microwave oven for years but apparently the convenience that a microwave oven provides especially for working or single mothers far outshines the danger that it poses and as a result most who can afford do and will own one.

In all forms of cooking whether it be stir frying, steaming boiling or baking and so on, heat is applied to food. This heat comes from an external source. It is generated by some sort of fuel, firewood, charcoal, gas or electricity.

Microwave ovens however don't produce heat. Microwave ovens cook food by producing waves of energy, that is the microwaves, which is a high energy radiation that excite certain molecules within your food such as water and fat. Atoms, molecules and cells within the food are forced to reverse polarity, causing fricton which in turn produces the heat.

In other words the heat is produced in the food itself which in turn explains why the food that is microwaved is always hotter than the container that holds it. This oscillation tears and deforms the molecular structure of food and new compounds, called radiolytic compounds, which are not found in nature are formed. This deformation impairs the quality of the nutrients and the damamged cells also become easy prey to viruses, fungi and other microorganisms.

This 'tearing apart' of the food molecules sometimes rearranges them into toxic substances that cause many allergic responses.

Dr Hans Ulrich-Hertal, a Swiss biologist, in his study proved for the first time that microwave energy(retained in food) which promoted cancer could be transmitted to humans through the consumption of this food, and not by just being near the oven as has long been known.

Other studies done in the US and elsewhere lend support to Hertels findings

Russia banned microwave ovens in 1976 because of the negative health consequences.

Tests in Russia conducted on microwaved food showed that carcinogens were found in virtually all foods tested. We all know that carcinogen is a cancer causing substance.

Some of the other findings are:

1. Microwave alters food substances causing digestive disorders

2. It alters the food chemistry and can lead to malfunction in the lymphatic system and degeneration of the body's immune system's capacity to protect itself against cancerous growth.

3. Microwave foods lead to a higher percentage of cancerous cells in the blood stream.

4. Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens

According to Russian studies one need not eat microwaved foods to suffer from its side effects. Exposure to the energy field itself when one uses it or is close to the oven can be detrimental to health.

This is because all microwave ovens leak.

In 1990, during a microwave oven testing programme conducted by the Berlin Foundation for Product Tests, it was found that all of the ovens emitted microwaves while in operation.

Slamming the oven door, basic wear and tear, broken or missing door glass, manufacturing defects and food particle build up around door seals can also cause microwave leakage.

While gas leak is easily detected,with microwave ovens there is no easy way to detect leakages. Leaked microwave can damage your health. They can cook the protein in your eye lens causing cataracts.

Parts of the body that can be affected by microwave radiation are those that cannot dissipate heat quickly like the lens of the eye, stomach, intestine and the bladder.

In 1991 Norma Levitt of Oklahoma had hip surgery only to be killed by a sample blood transfusion when a nurse warmed the blood for transfusion by microwaving it. Although blood for transfusion are normally warmed they are however not warmed in the microwave. It was reported that the microwaving altered the blood.

Other tests have shown that the practice of reheating leftover food in the micrwave is potentially dangerous.

In 1995, the UK Consumer's association reheated food in 14 microwave ovens, tested them and found temperature differences of up to 40 degrees C between the hottest and the coldest parts of the food. The presence of cold spots means that some bacteria in the food will survive and can cause ill health.

Heating up food is always a chore as I have to either heat up food in a pan over the stove or in the oven. It takes longer and is certainly not as convenient as heating up food in a microwave oven. Inspite of that I am still adamant about getting a microwave oven because I know that if there is one in the home the temptation of using it on a daily basis is very great.

However, after reading many articles on the dangers of microwave ovens I have opted very willingly to make my life somewhat miserable if just to go to sleep at the end of the day with a guilt free conscience and for the sake of my family's health.

Health before convenience.

The information above have been obtained from various sources, that is, an article that appeared in a paper by the Consumers'Asociation of Penang and here and here and here.

Was there life before?

I just came back from The Old Foodie and after having read "...a pounde or a halfe of suger, and myngle all those together over the fyre, till thyme they seethe, and then set it to cole...." Iwas reminded of how young I am. Thank god we have spelling checks these days.

However, I do have a history. And I would like to share it with you. Look at this :




Yes they are old aren't they? So old that it's verging on hilarity. These were/are my collection of recipes that I have kept for an unsaid number of years.

Just in case you were wondering : No, I'm not fraying around the edges nor do I look as helpless as those there things. But they are mine nevertheless. They are my precious hard-copies, touchable and age-able, of recipes that I had collected just for the sake of collecting. May I add too that I'm not particularly careful with my property so they actually age before their time. Snigger. So in no way should you equate from the way my property looks to the way I look. Really. Jokes aside. I insist. Swear to god.

That was life before blogging. That was life before friends and people were invisible and untouchable. That was life before, when the skills of typing were limited to typists or secretaries only. That was life at a time when you attended typing school while waiting for your A level results just in case you didn't make it beyond that point, deliberately or otherwise.

Most of the recipes that were collected were cut out from newspapers and women's magazines like Her World and Female or Wanita and so on and so forth. It was a preoccupation that did not necessarily include cooking. it was just the basic act of cutting, or copying in longhand and/or pasting with gum or sticky-tape that made the activity worthwhile and queerly satisfying. Most of the time I would be flipping those pages and admiring the collection that I had amassed and occasionally I would try out a recipe or two.

Apart from the cookery books that I also collected, of which some are as horrifyingly old as my children, cutting and pasting scraps of recipes was a normal preoccupation of us medieval women who had an interest in cooking or baking. Tips and recipes were also gleaned from friends, acquaintances and old folks. What I mean is, from actual and visibly embodied people, whom you could touch, see, smell and irritate where the only way of deleting them from your life was by deleting theirs.

But, thanks to the internet and blogging, things have changed. Incredibly so. There are people now to whom I talk, joke and laugh with but whom I have not met and have not compared heights/weights/figure/clothes/shoes(age of shoes) or meals with. It is incredible. It is phenomenal. Unfortunately there are also people whom I used to joke, talk, laugh and eat with but whom I don't meet, talk, joke or laugh with anymore. It is disgusting and shameful. The act I mean. The act of not meeting I mean.

But let not my aghast at technological advancement disturb you. I have advanced along with it more than comfortably so and bloggerin' on to such a stage that it would take a crane, Hulk Hogan, Arnold Swazzernager or a chain saw to pry me away from the laptop/keyboard/mouse and all other paraphernalia associated with blogging. It has gotten to such a stage that my children despise me, that I would claw at the keyboard if it was taken away from me,that I would wail and moan and rant if the computer broke down or was just excruciatingly s-l-o-w.

So I wonder now whether this is all worth my time and energy or what's left of it. Is it worth growing roots and getting attached to this here dining chair in the name of blogging? Is it worth being permanently disabled with an act that eats up your brains 24/7 and losing the sight of sun and moon? Is it worth the threat of blindness, back pain and an expanding bottom over blogging?

I can't quite decide yet. I'm in the midst of searching for the answers to my life and the worth of it. I'm in the midst of blogging. But when I get them I'll let you know. In the meantime I'll put away those dinosaur-recipe collection and carry on living in my impalpable, virtual world.

A Bottle of Honey

Haven't we all been perplexed, crippled and thwarted by that cone-shaped bottle of honey? Yes, plain old honey. In a bottle with the pointed tip. That you can't keep in the fridge ( for fear of it solidifying),that you can't keep on a Malaysian kitchen table (for fear of ants), that you don't want to bother to let it sit in a bowl of water to outsmart those ants and that you don't want to bother to cover the tip with a piece of foil to outsmart other bothersome beings like impregnated flies. So what do we do?

Let me not tell you the things that I have done to get that honey out (after refrigerating it). I have soaked the bottle in warm/hot water until the honey, along with the bottle, liquified (which took forever), I have struggled with the feat of making the bottle stand upside down, on its tip, on its own, hands free, for at least fifteen minutes or, out of frustration, I have wrung the bottle and then asked to be resuscitated afterwards from the effort of it all, and sometimes, just sometimes, I begin to wonder if I was, after all, just a stupid cow.

However, after having had one of my sons go to the mini market to get a bottle of honey for the pancakes that I was making for them, he came home with a bottle of honey that I found, after some pain, to be worthy of some blogological dissertation..

It's not the honey that I'm going to tell you about though but the bottle. It was actually labeled upside down. My first thought was how could any respectable manufacturing company have labeled their bottles up side down only to have it exported and have them sit on the shelves all around the world? So silly. I smirked.

But I took a second look and then out of itchy hands (gatal tangan) I turned it the 'right way up'. At least, what seemed the right way up, that is with the label the right way up. When I had done that I found that there was no opening on the 'top'. So I sat there staring at the bottle's bottom but with the label the right way up all the way. Oh God! this calls for some serious use of brain power.

In the meantime I took some pictures thinking that I might have stumbled upon the opportunity to win fifty ringgit from Star for strange, amusing and incomprehensible situations. Plus an evil opportunity to put CAPILANO HONEY LIMITED to shame and out of business.

However, still determined and hopeful to put things right, I turned it 'upside down' again, that is, with the label the wrong way up, with the bottom end at the bottom and the capped end at the top. Then I did the unthinkable. I flipped the cap open and peered inside. I snapped off the little thingy that sealed the opening and scrutinized further.

Ah..... discovery of the century and science at its most useful stared back smack into my flabbergasted face.

The opening was covered with a translucent and concave shield with an X cut across it. That, my dear Watson, was why the bottle was 'upside down' or that 'right side up' was actually the 'wrong side up'.

That little concave screen, with the X cut across it, allowed you to keep it 'upside down' or the 'right side up' (frankly in this here discussion it doesn't matter so long everything is put in inverted commas) for the easy flow of honey when you squeeze the bottle but at the same time it prevents the honey from leaking out when you don't squeeze the bottle inspite of the pressure from the weight of the honey when the bottle is 'upside down'. Why?

Well, the cross does not activate and open up unless the bottle is squeezed (meaning when extra pressure is exerted) and because of its concave shape, or convex shape if you are inside the bottle, it does not give way under all that pressure and therefore remains closed and seals off the opening so long the bottle is not squeezed(that is when there is no extra pressure being exerted).

I rest my case.

However, being the visionary that I am, I have taken pictures of this here bottle of honey so that those of you out there, who are still in an ignoramus state of mind like I was some seconds ago, will not have to go through the puzzling pain, the obtuse scrutiny and whimsical wonderment that I had to go through.

You're welcome.