1. Hot and spicy to tears, what to do?
If you accidentally eat the hot food that makes you shed tears, your first thought will be probably a glass of water. However, hot water is not a solution, it will make it more spicy. In fact, the best solution is to drink hot milk.
2. Keeping tofu firm
Soft tofu in the cooking process is very easy to break into pieces. If you want to maintain the integrity of tofu, you can soak it in salt water for about 30 minutes before cooking.
3. Soup is too salty
Making soup with too much salt, the subtle taste of the soup will be destroyed. If this happens, the remedy is to add cooked potato pieces for few minutes. The potato will absorb the salt. When soup id served, then remove the potatos.
4. Soak a little vinegar before cutting taros (yam)
Cutting taro can make your hands itching. Soaking your hands in vinegar before cutting taros will prevent your hands from itching.
5. How to remove the wax from an apple?
If you often eat apples with their skin, then you would need to remove the wax first before eating ....
(a) place the apple into hot water, the apple's wax will vanish.
(b) Apply toothpaste on the appple to clean out the wax.
6. How to slow down potato germination?
Potato buds contain toxic alkaloids which can cause abdominal pain and dizziness. Placing an apple in potatoes can significantly delay thier germination time. Ethylene gas produced by apple has hampered the effectiveness of potato development.
Putting apples together with papayas or kiwi will make them ripe faster. Further, apples can make persimmon astringency disappear but sweeten after a week.
7. How to make good rice?
After washing rice in water, add a few drops of lemon juice, (or a few drops of oil), cooked rice will turn out good and fragrant.
8. How to keep biscuits crispy?
When storing biscuits in a container, put a sugar cube in it at the same time. As the sugar absorbs the moisture in the container, biscuits or cookies can remain crispy and delicious.
9. What can be done if clothing stains with ink?
If ink gets on your clothing or fabric, you can use cooked rice or paste with a little detergent to remove the stain. Use your fingers to smear repeatly on the spot, stain can be removed quickly. Then soak it into fresh water with ordinary cleaning agent for a period of time before washing.
10. How to treat smelly shoes?
Put a small amount of baking soda directly into the boots, sneakers or shoes, that are obviously smelly due to dampness. Baking soda powder has the effect of absorbing moisture and odor.
11. Ring around the collar, or spotty under the armpit area of the clothing?
First brush some shampoo, shaving cream or lotion on the dirty area for five minutes. Then wash off the stain.
12. How to keep flower fresh?
Adding a little beer in the vase can keep house flowers fresh for an extended period of time. This is because beer contains alcohol whic is both antiseptic and disinfectant. Beer also contains sugar and other nutrients for the leaves.
13. How to sharpen scissors?
Stacked three aluminum foil together, then cut them with the scissors to be sharpen. You will see surprising result.
14. How to remove annoying gummed labels?
It is quite annoying when comes to remove the price tags on merchandise. To remove the gummed lables neatly, all you need is to use a hair dryer to apply heat on the label before taking them off.
15. What can you do with beer beside drinking?
Most people know milk is good in cleaning foliage plants. In fact, use leftover beer to wipe plants is even better! Dip a cotton ball into beer, lightly wipe leaves to remove dust and keep them lustery. Furthermore, this method also prevents ants from coming to the plant.
15. What to do with unwanted perfumes?
Before throwing them away, unwanted perfumes could be useful. You can use unwanted perfume to clean indoor light bulbs with cotton balls. When the bulbs light up and warm up, the whole room would be filled with the aroma.
17. Remove crayon graffiti from wooden furniture.
If you you kids at home, wooden furniture are subject to crayon graffiti. Crayon stains can not be removed with water. Although the use of paint solvents can do the job, the paint on the surface could be damaged. The most suitable method is to use toothpaste. Not only it cleans, it does no harm to the furniture.
18. Use vinegar to help mopping the kitchen floor.
The kitchen floor is often easy to get greasy. Before mopping the kitchen floor, pour some vinegar on the mop. This will enable easy remove of grease.
19. How to remove stains from tea cups?
Stained tea cups can affect their appearance. To clean up the stain with a man-made loofah cloth the cups would have scraches in the long run. Just spread a little toothpaste and hand-wash the cups, stain can be removed easily. If the stain is too thick, wait a few minutes after applying toothpaste before washing.
20. Improved floor sweeping
The unused stockings can be attached to a broom to clean the floor. Stockings can help sweeping up cotton, hair and other particles that are difficult to sweep with an ordinary broom.
How to clean your house with the mostly natural products? How to unclog your drain? Gathered from a wide variety of sources, Kool Grace Household Tips are able to give great ideas. It's really cool.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Do Not Use Salt To Wash Fruits and Vegetables
Salt is sodium chloride. Therefore, washing fruits and vegetables with salt will make pesticides more stable. Fruits and vegetables should be washed with water first, then soak in water again by adding a little low gluten flour (or starch). This will remove the pesticides.
A test done in the Inspection Agency pointed out: salt compound will stabilize pesticides. It is better off to let the vegetables sit at room temperature for half a day, then rinse with water. The advertisement "Washing vegetables with salt is healthy" is incorrect.
A teacher at the Food Engineering Department said: salt makes pesticides more stable due to chemical bonds. Pesticide residues in vegetables will be locked in.
Therefore, pesticides in vegetables should be removed by rinsing with water several times. Do not add salt into water to wash vegetables.
In one nutrition class, Professor of Medicine in Taipei (now also a hospital clinical dietitian), has strong criticism of the misleading ads and wonder why no one ever stop it.
Disclosure of such inaccurate information happened quite often, but no action was taken to correct it. She hopes that the public be provided with more accurate healthy eating information.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Discovering Mosquito Repellent Plant - Pokok Halau Nyamuk (Citrosa Geranium)
Sungai Buloh is famous for plant nurseries. As that is our neighborhood, Grace and I decided to pay some of these nurseries a visit. There are many plants and scrubs that we have never seen before. Browsing through rows of these plants is good for an education in nature study.
We purchase a couple of flowering plants but one of the most interesting one is the mosquito repellent plant known in the Malay language as 'Pokok Halau Nyamuk'. We ask the nursery owner whether this really works and she vows that it does. The Malays have used such plants in their kampongs to get rid of mosquitoes.
We took a whiff of the leaves and true enough, there is a rich fragrance similar to the scent of citronella and a little fresh lemon combined.
'Pokok Halau Nyamuk' is known as Citrosa Geranium - a hybrid of Chinese Citronella grass and a scented African Geranium. It is about 2 feet (61 cm) tall and has large beautifully configured leaves. The flowers are pink but we have not seen those on our plant yet. It has to be grown in dry area and does not like too much water. Our Citrosa plant has been affected by too much water and is dropping its leaves.
We have placed our plant in the porch at the back of the house. We have also plucked off some stems of leaves and planted in small pots on our window sill in the kitchen. Amazingly, these stems are growing well. The leaves remain green for weeks. We believe that we have less mosquitoes than before.
We have learned much about our Pokok Halau Nyamuk from the internet. The next stage is to multiplying the number of Citrosa Geraniums in our house., Here are some ideas from the internet (that we have cut and paste) to show you how you can grow and multiply your own mosquito repellent plant:
- Step 1
Pelargonium Citrosa, or Citrosa Geraniums, can be started using stem cuttings quite easily. Start with a robust "mother plant" and snip branches off as they become long. This trimming also helps shape the plant. Un-shaped, they can grow as large as four feet high and wide.
- Step 2
To start plants from cuttings, snip the ends of branches and strip all but the end leaves off. You should have two or three nodules (where you pulled off leaves) on your stems.
- Step 3
Dust the ends of the stems with rooting hormone and plant them in peat pots filled with a sterile, light planting medium. Keep the soil moist but not wet to avoid mildew.
- Step 4
After about a week to get a good start (developing roots is hard work!), move your plants to a sunny window until after the last frost. I put my Citrosa in an east window.
- Step 5
Put baby Citrosa out after the last frost in your area. Don't bother with fertilizer for this robust plant but make sure it's planted in a good garden soil or potting mixture. Be sure to pinch frequently for bushiness.
- Step 6
Choose a few healthy plants with lots of branches to keep over the winter. Pot them up. Then bring them in and treat them like houseplants. Fertilize lightly in late winter and make sure they get plenty of light. Water when the surface of the soil gets dry to the touch. Don't over water. Trim leggy branches back to encourage bushiness.
Source:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2237718_propogate-mosquito-plants.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_2237718_propogate-mosquito-plants.html
Hi, if you have any great Household tips and ideas,
feel free to write to me at koolgrace7000@gmail.com.
You can also submit your ideas here onsite. Thanks a million and stay kool!
feel free to write to me at koolgrace7000@gmail.com.
You can also submit your ideas here onsite. Thanks a million and stay kool!
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