Make it pretty

I prefer using liquid hand soap for several reasons. One, there's nothing to get soft and mushy with frequent use. Two, I can dispense just the right amount of soap I need so there's no waste. And three, I don't have to worry about the person before me not rinsing the bar of gunk and stuff that can get stuck on it.

The only problem with liquid soap is the dispenser that they come in. It's such a waste to throw them away when they're empty. Aside from being still perfectly usable (unless it gets broken for some reason), they're usually made of plastic which isn't biodegradable. So I've taken to reusing them.

But first, I try to make them a little prettier. I remove the labels then use scrapbooking plastic and foil stickers to decorate the body all around. Unlike paper stickers, these won't rub off when they get wet, which makes them ideal for the project.

But now, I have a different kind of problem. Unless our stores begin selling liquid soap refills, I'm going to have more dispensers than I know what to do with.

Cruel knives

Thanks to an email sent by a young friend this morning—which had me grinning from ear to ear—I'm going to start a series of blog entries featuring funky home gadgets and furniture. Here's the first: knife blocks.

Inspired by the sword cabinet illusion of stage magicians, this knife block has a crouching man cowering in terror at the bottom of the box. A design exclusive to boingboing: A Directory of Wonderful Things.




"Voodoo" designed by Raffaele Iannello. Do I really need to say anything about it?




There's another funky knife block I discovered while surfing, but I decided not to feature it. Call me a softy, but I just found it too cruel. If you really want to check it out, though, click here.

I have my humongous pot!

Kinox, 18/10 stainless steel, 8.8 liters (about 9.3 quarts), steam release valve

And the sweetest things about it is, one, we got it at a 25% discount (took advantage of the post-Christmas sales going on right now) and, two, we bought it in a store where my husband has gift certificates which he won at a raffle so we spent all of 403 pesos (about US$10) for it.

Now my stews won't be forever spilling over!

(See My cookware wish list here.)

My cookware wish list

And speaking of cooking, on my list of must-buy cookware are these two beauties:

8.5-Quart Stock Pot
I need a humongous pot. My soupy dishes always spill over my 5-quart pot, mainly because they're chock-full of vegetables. This should do the trick.

5-Quart Pre-seasoned Cast Iron Wok
I read somewhere that non-stick cookware should never be pre-heated. That's useless for wok cooking! Woks have to be hot before you start cooking. Besides, aluminum and stainless steel woks are just too light—they're liable to tip over when you're energetically mixing the ingredients.

These babies are by Swiss Diamond. Visit their website and drool.

Broiled, not fried

I'm lousy at frying. Really, really lousy. All my non-cooking friends find that funny because they at least can. Yet if I try cooking tapa or tocino, they're sure to end up charred. I even managed to overcook an omelette once!

The problem is, I get a hankering for fried chicken every now and then. No coating, no gravy, just plain, crispy-skinned fried chicken. (Yes, yes, I know the skin's loaded with bad cholesterol—I don't care! Besides, it's just every now and then.) I tried frying chicken once and I ended up with crispy skin all right, but with raw, pink flesh inside. Another girlfriend suggested I boil the chicken until it's half-cooked before frying, but it came out so dry! We've been avoiding fried foods at home—they aren't exactly healthy, so I don't have a deep-fryer and I have no plans of getting one.

So my solution: use a broiler. That, I have. The chicken comes out all golden brown with crunchy, crispy skin, well-cooked inside but still juicy. I've used whole chicken (like a roast—stuffed and not) and chicken pieces. They're all cooked perfectly.

The broiler I have is old—it was my mom's! It's so sturdy, I'm frustrated it hasn't conked out yet because I'd love to have an excuse to get a new one—the kind that uses tempered glass so I can see inside without lifting the lid. But seeing as how I don't really use it that much, I guess I can wait.

P.S.
Just sharing with you my favorite chicken rub: rosemary, garlic and salt. That's it. Mmm…

Liquid or solid?

Soap, that is.

Only two years ago, I discovered that liquid hand soap is actually more cost-efficient than bar soap because they dispense a limited amount of soap (but not when you have little kids—they just love playing with the pump!). But for the feeling of a good scrub, nothing beats bars (though that's probably just psychological).

So now, I have both kinds in the house. For the kitchen sink, it has to be liquid, and anti-bacterial. I spend so much time there, bars never get enough time to dry out. They get all soft and mushy that so much of it goes to waste. Sometimes, too, little bits and pieces of yicky whatever get stuck on the bar if you don't pay attention. For the bathroom downstairs (which also serves as the guest powder room), the lavatory has both liquid and bar. I really prefer liquid for lavatories, but the one there is old and it has a shallow indentation (with a groove for the run-off)—a built-in soap dish—and it looks funny without a bar of soap in it so I put one. I also tend to use the special, scented kinds there. The upstairs bathroom's lavatory only has the liquid kind. The shower, however, has both again. I usually just use the bar for my daily showers, but when I feel like I need a good exfoliating, then it's the shower gel on a loofah for me.

An answer to "What kind of chopping board?"

Astra Navigo's reply to my question about what kind of chopping board is best (see "What kind of chopping board?"):


I own a home-remodeling company specializing in home interiors. I'm often asked this question, and while the conclusions are much the same, there are some very important caveats:

1. Plastic is the cleaner of the three materials—if it's cleaned properly: (a) Scrub with a bleach solution, then (b) rinse with hot water—the hottest you can—prior to (c) putting it in the dishwasher.

2. Wood is good if your hygiene habits are, should we say, casual. Disinfectants are not necessary; standard detergents is fine. A quick scrub will do the trick. However—and this is the big thing about wood boards—all wood boards are not created equal.

All trees create a more-or-less toxic substance. Some are more toxic than others. Maple, birch, and other dense hardwoods are best, as they are naturally toxic to most bacteria, and non-toxic to humans. Walnut is very toxic—to the point that masks must be worn at all times when working walnut—human allergy to walnut oil is quite common; it's also the most toxic to bacteria, but you'll have to ensure that no one in the household is allergic to it, either.

3. Stone has no antibacterial/toxic qualities—which is why its use as cutting boards is not recommended.

Hope this helps!


Yes, Astra, this helps a lot. Thank you!

What kind of chopping board?

Yesterday, when I Googled "chopping board" to get an image for my post (there was bound to be one on the web, so I didn't bother taking out the camera and boards), I came across an actual article (not just sales and supplies) about chopping boards. The title was "Which chopping board is worse for spreading germs?" With a title like that, I just had to go to the ninemsn (an Australian media company) website to read it.

I suggest that you read the entire article, but essentially, their reporter got a microbiologist to find out which material is best for chopping boards—plastic (polyethylene), marble or wood? The answer: wood. Tight-grain hardwood, to be exact.

Yet another item to add to my shopping list. And I have to do some research about hardwoods first.

One for animals, one for plants

I use two chopping boards in my kitchen, one for meat, chicken and seafood, and one for fruits and vegetables. A friend said it showed my OC-ness, but it makes perfect sense to me. Meat contains more bacteria than plants, and no way can anyone chop meat on my fruit and vegetable chopping board! The other way's alright, especially if the vegetables are meant to be cooked. But for salad vegetables and fruit, meant to be eaten raw, I will only use the chopping board that has never been touched by meat.

One squirt stove cleaning

Another kitchen product that I love is SC Johnson's Mr. Muscle Kitchen Cleaner. If you read the label, it says you can use it to clean almost anything in the kitchen (except things you use to cook and eat). I mostly just use it for the stove after cooking, because I'm such a messy cook there's bound to be a spill or two on it always. Just squirt Mr. Muscle Kitchen on the spill, leave it on for a minute or two, then wipe it off. No scrubbing needed whatsover.

I heart Lock & Lock

I confess: I'm addicted to the Lock & Lock brand of storage containers.

We live in a 40-year-old house which ants of all kinds have decided to call home too, and they used to get into everything—cereal boxes, syrup bottles with the cap screwed on so tightly I had a hard time opening them, dog food, even the uncooked brown rice! We used to place water in cookie trays, put plastic trays on them and keep the foodstuff in the trays. But this awful solution was just that—awful. First, the stale water is just an invitation to mosquitoes to breed. So that meant having to change the water often. Second, have you tried carrying an extremely shallow tray full of water? Third, the trays took up too much counter space. And fourth, the ants learned to swim.

When that last one happened, I decided to go buy a whole bunch of Lock & Locks. I found out about the brand about seven years ago because of my sister, but didn't pay it much mind. Now my kitchen is so full of their products I can actually throw a "Lock & Lock Party." The reason for the heart: they're airtight. As in, you can put water in the container and if you close it properly (there is such a thing as not closing it properly), you can place it in your handbag secure in the knowledge that it won't spill or even leak.

I now keep everything in Lock & Lock containers—at least the ones I want to keep away from ants. And from moisture—this is such a humid country, the containers are perfect for keeping foodstuff dry too. I have tiny ones for spices; small ones for bouillon cubes, salt, pepper; medium ones for powdered milk, ground coffee beans, powdered juice; large ones for sugar, cereals, brown rice, dog food; and one extra large one which serves as a catch-all for oddly shaped items or food we know we'll finish within a day or two. Then we also keep a few small ones as lunch boxes—no more worrying about food with broth or sauces.

The only thing I've discovered so far that Lock & Lock can't handle is onion powder. But I just found out that they've come up with a line of air-free containers. Definitely on my shopping list now.

Rice cooker cooking

I don't know why I never thought of it before when it's so obvious, and I've made flavored rice in the past (although in an ordinary pot).

I've been trying to use up a sack of jasmine rice and I've been cooking variations of Thai fried rice to do so. Our staple at home is brown rice so no one's going to eat plain white rice, even if it's jasmine. But fried rice requires that you cook the rice first then cook it again in a wok with the other ingredients. Then this morning, I suddenly realized that I can just add the flavor directly into the rice cooker. So I dissolved a pack of curry mix into the water needed for cooking the rice. Halfway through, I dumped a can of drained mushroom pieces into the rice cooker, mixed it and let it continue cooking until it automatically stopped. Tadaah! Curry rice with hardly any effort.

Should have thought of this ages ago. Now I can't wait to try out other flavors.