tidying up the pantry

For some people, the reason they cook at home is to save money, other people just really enjoy a home-cooked meal. Bottom line, it is just not practical to eat out every night of the week, and it is much cheaper, and healthier to eat at home. Besides, it is fun to go grocery shopping, especially if you have children, and you make it a free outing that is educational as well.

Unfortunately, when the pantry gets full, food items can be put all over the place, and it can become difficult to use all the products and foodstuffs before their best-by-dates, and before you know it you are throwing food away. This can become an expensive exercise.

On the other hand, pantry organizing can save you money, and make it a pleasure to use your pantry effectively. So, I started an ‘organizing project’ of my own over the weekend. How do you get started? Well, I started out at the freezer.

Tupperware® offers a great line of food storage containers including a nice assortment of airtight, freezer-safe containers like the ones above, in all the most convenient sizes and styles. Tupperware® offers great colors too. While Tupperware® containers tend to cost a bit more than those you will find in your favorite stores, the price is in line with the quality. Most people find Tupperware® containers to be a good value.  I also re-organized my pantry and this is how it looks like now. I wanted all the cooking ingredients to be within hand-reach and visible.

My next project is to label them.

collecting shells

Walking along the beach picking up seashells has been enjoyed by many. There is nothing more heartwarming then watching my Ariana running along the beach for hours and at the end excitedly pointing out all of her fabulous seashells that she found along the beach.

Collecting shells is one of my many hobbies too. It has been said that shell collecting is the second most popular collecting hobby, after postage stamps. Whatever the truth of that, the timeless appeal of shells probably owes as much to the infinite variety of molluscan shape, color and pattern as it does to their actual beauty. And no, I didn’t get them during my dive trips, I purchased my shells mostly from Sabah. Come and see some of my shells collection.

Warning : I’m not a conchologist or a shell expert, so bear with me.

 

p/s – Heading to sabah again this Monday. Hope the sellers have some new ones.

Art Attack II

I was supposed to take up Architecture when I was sent to Canada to further my studies, only to find out that PAM (Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia) does not recognise any scholars that graduated from that country’s School of Architecture.  I  resorted to engineering instead.

But, my love for art still went strong for the entire 6 years in that foreign land. I frequented many visits to Art Galleries throughout Canada and United States, including the famous Guggenheim in NYC. A dear friend of mine, Beb, was my partner in crime. We would analysed in great length the paintings that we liked.  Most of the time, our visits to Art Galleries were whole-day affair.

My favourite painting is still The Towel of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1563). I even had a print of that painting in my bedroom during my student years. Here’s the painting that I’m talking about. 

Being on my own for few years had drawn me to another hobby; solo backpacking. I would collect enough money and spent a month-long backpacking trips to asian countries; Nepal, India, Kashmir, China, SEA to name afew.  I started to collect paintings and other art pieces from my travels. I used to have more than 30 pieces in my collection, but I lost some oil paintings to termites when wifey and I stayed in a rented house in SJ (the owner paid only RM1,500  for the losses). These are some of the ones that survived.

p/s – I still have few more paintings in the store room. I think I need to move to a bigger house to hang them all. But then again, we love this place and even thinking of buying over the neighbouring unit and turn that into an expansive 2500sq. ft. Home Galleria. Really need to work super hard now to turn this dream into reality ….. yes, no?  

a peek at the teak

I’m a big fan of teak furniture, and never grow bored out of it. Over the years (despite of having a small apartment), I collected many teakwood furniture, among others; bookcases, display cabinet, buffet table, foldable writing desk and as the list goes on. I like the simple ones, with straight edges and no carvings. I truly enjoy the ‘feel’ that it gives to my small home.

I have  a small teak display cabinet at home, and this is where we store some ’junks’ collected over the years. I’ll let  you ‘invade’ a little privacy of our home …… enjoy!

p/s – If you think that I’m running out of topics to write, you probably guess it right I have not started on any training for my upcoming races yet. At this instant, I’m totally in my lay-back mode. Some people may call it the ‘M’ bug –  M=Malas …. no lah, M= Melepak …. bulls-eye!

Re-soiling

I went out to see my plants earlier this morning, and noticed that the soil in the pots were getting little less, and less airy too.  The plants do not look healthy. So, I decided to re-soil by mixing/adding more organic earth to it. Now, the roots are able to breathe well, and live healthily again.

For those who want to start out their own edible garden, Corporate Athlete’s Farm Fitness has some seeds for you. Have a look at our Stir Fry Seeds Collection.   It consists of 5 different seeds, where once fully grown, these vegetables are perfect to be stir-fried with garlic … yummy!

1. 5g of White Flower Pole Bean Seeds (Kacang Buncis)
2. 5g Curly Kale (Kailan)
3. 5g of Golden Yellow Amaranth (Bayam Emas)
4. 5g of Hong Kong Oily Choy Sum (Sawi Minyak)
5. 5g Dwarf Pak Choy (Pak Choi Kerdil)

The entire seeds collection is for RM10.00 only.

Sketching Sceneries

I used to sketch beautiful sceneries (note : not beautiful sketches), especially during my backpacking trips where freetime was abundent. Nowadays, I don’t seem to have the privilege to sketch anymore, and I do miss that alot. Our trips are short now, and mostly filled with activities, one after another. We hardly have time for even massages nowadays ….

I love sketching using artliners with sizes ranging from 0.2mm to 0.4mm. Artliners give me better control as compared to pencils. It gives very little room for mistakes as well. Once ready, I would frame them up as if these were my masterpieces. Truth is, I do appreciate my own work. Despite of not turning out good, they are much more meaningful to me than photographs – probably because these are live sketchings. Come and have a look at some of the pieces that I’ve sketched in the past!

p/s - I lost some sketches plus ten other oil paintings to termites when we used to stay at a rented house in SJ (the owner paid only RM1,500  for the losses). These are the only ones that survived.

Art Attack

With A(H1N1) virus in full rampage, we decided to shy away from public places. My daughter and I ended up doing everything indoor; from cycling (along the corridors) to paintworks and other craftworks. Come and have a look.

   

Frangipani blooms

I posted about our attempt to plant a big frangipani at our balcony two months ago. After waiting and tending the plant patiently, we got to enjoy the first blooms of our pinky frangipani last week. Now, each branch is boasting its own bouquet.

Came back home late after PT last night, and was surprised that our frangipanis were all over the house; in bowls, shower rooms and vases. Wifey loves to add these flowers in water – it’s therapeutic, while infusing the water rather sweetly.

p/s – She used to collect the white frangipanis from nearby park, but now she can harvest the flowers from our balcony ….

    

a big frangipani at balcony

I got a 3-meter frangipani (plumeria) tree from my god-brother. Wifey and I fell in love with Frangipani, ever since we came back from Bali 5 years back. And to own a big Frangipani in our balcony is definitely one of our toplist.

We removed the Holland Money plant (believed to bring in fortune) from the big pot and planted the new Frangipani, while more organic soil was added to it.

In the next few days, all of the existing leaves will die and fall off, and new shoots will be forming.

We hope in a month’s time, we can witness the first blooms and sweet smells of frangipani  coming into our home.

 

My Little Corner

My apartment right now is just too small … well, not for us but for our wooden furniture … hehehhe. And yes, I used to collect many furniture until the home is little crampy for a small family of us. Mind you, these are all bulky solid wood (mostly teak) furniture and really really heavy. My 8-seater dining table is a one solid piece with four huge legs, and it took four guys to bring up this piece to this highest floor. I promised my family that if we were to change home again, I will never bring out any of these furniture as it is just not worth the effort!

Despite of being crampy, I’m glad to have found a little tiny spot for my ‘home office’ – an office that most of these weblog entries are born. But too bad, some of the paintings* that I have on the wall need to be removed to allow for my office space.  Whatdouthink of my new playground?

Since my laptop was the old Compaq Presario, my wife is kind enough to loan me her white Macbook (as seen on pic).

* will tell more about it later.