FIDGETY FINGERS' PROJECT LUNCHBOX

Fidgety Fingers will be going on a month's long holiday to the Netherlands to visit Mr Washy. As part of our Feed-Mr-Washy campaign, we are going to embark on our little mission to promote affordable and delicious home-cooking in Europe. It is expensive to eat out and eating out is not necessarily healthy. We have been on a mission to find the perfect lunchbox for Mr Washy. We need the box to be non-fussy, plain (well, because Mr Washy is such a macho guy right?) and most of all, efficient. Most lunchboxes tend to leak and create a mess of gravy in one's bag, so we really need to find one which is airtight enough to encourage Washy to bring healthy and delish lunchboxes to work instead of eating from dull canteens.

Meanwhile, here are some interesting lunchboxes we stumbled upon on the internet. Some of them are just pure sweetness though impractical.

WHAT IS IN THAT SOUP BASE AGAIN? : THE BASIC SOY BROTH

And just when we thought that the ramen soup base is some big secret, we stumbled upon this blog. The wonders of blogs, wow! Ok, so the base of a basic soy broth is nothing but ketchup (yes, tomato ketchup), vinegar, soy sauce, some chili sauce and sesame oil? Of course some people will customize their soup base but this is a great start to our ramen adventure (opps, you guys are going to start seeing a lot of ramen posts from now on). You can use this soy broth as soup base or to conjure up some stir-fries. It is so versatile.

Here is how from thewednesdaychef:

Serves 4

Salt

1/3 cup soy sauce, more to taste

1/3 cup ketchup

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar, more to taste

A few drops dark sesame oil

A squirt of sriracha or other Asian chile-garlic sauce

1 pound egg noodles, preferably fresh (I used 9 ounces of fresh angel hair pasta)

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. In a smaller pot, bring 6 cups of water to a boil; once boiling, reduce heat so water bubbles gently.

2. To the smaller pot add soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, sesame oil if using and sriracha or chili, along with a pinch of salt. Stir and let simmer.

3. Add egg noodles to large pot; fresh noodles will be ready in just a couple of minutes; dried will take longer. When tender but not mushy, drain. Taste broth and add more soy, salt, vinegar or heat as you like. Divide noodles into bowls and pour hot broth over all.

AN ACCIDENTAL EXPENSIVE HUMOUR : YOU GOTTA LAUGH A LIL'

MR WASHY'S RICE COOKER TIPS

We got Mr Washy to buy a rice cooker when he was here. He bought the one shown above that also comes with a steamer tray. The rice cooker is an amazing piece of cooking equipment if you know how to maximize it. Here are some tips:

• Please note that washing rice removes some of the soluble vitamins from the rice. Use your common sense. If your source of rice is doubtful, wash the rise. Don't stop washing until the water is clear!
• For the health-inclined, add some brown rice into the mix. It will give some "chewy" bites. If you want to add some beans (red bean, kidney bean etc), soak the beans overnight before adding to the rice.
• Use a non-stick spoon that will not scratch the inside of the pot to stir and "fluff" the rice after it's done. The best tool for this purpose is a plastic rice paddle that comes with most rice cookers. To keep rice from sticking to the paddle, dampen the paddle with cold water.
• When your rice is nearly done, quickly raise the lid and throw in some broccoli, this is the way steaming works for the cooker, if not your vegetables will be overcooked.
• Use our cooker for oatmeal! 1 cup of oats to 2.5 or 3 cups of water. Add cinnamon, dried fruits and a capful of vanilla extract. After cooking, add sliced nuts and banana.

MR WASHY'S SUNDAY LUNCH : THE FRUGAL CHINESE DIET, CONGEE

Mr Washy was pretty impressed by the breakfast we have in Asia. Apart from the soft boiled eggs he tried, he also loves the regular congee. Congee is relatively easy to make and very versatile. You can boil up some rice (short, medium or long grain) with some stock (fish, chicken, pork or others) to make it tasty and then add other goodies like vegetables or meat when you are reheating it.

HOW TO MAKE CONGEE:

(This is roughly measured to be a one person's portion)

• Measure about 1 cup of white rice into a saucepan, rinse twice with water. This removes dirt. We sometimes use 3/4 cup of rice and 1/4 cup of oats. The oats add a more gooey texture, more fibres and it will also help to lower your cholesterol level. (To be honest, sometimes we forsake the whole measurement part, the trick is to add more water if it is too thick or to reduce the water when it is too watery)
• Add roughly 6 cups of water (so your water to rice ratio is about 6 to 1). Add 2-3 drops of oil. We love sesame, there is nothing like it. We would also add a stock cube in at this point. Some people prefer using real stock as to stock cubes. Cubes are simple more convenient. We do not suppose Mr Washy has any real stock anyway.
• Put the saucepan on the stove top, bring it to a boil. You want to stir occasionally and watch carefully especially if you are using a non-stick saucepan.
• Turn to medium heat as soon as it starts to boil. Continue to simmer. Stir occasionally, do not cover fully with the lid as it might over flow. The congee is ready the rice turns into a porridge-like texture. This will take a while. It will give you enough time to prepare your other ingredients meanwhile.

The congee is so tasty and versatile, you can add anything to it. Be imaginative, throw in your leftovers, shred leftover chicken from your roast, breaking a raw egg into a bowl of hot congee and stirring it through is only too yummy. Add some drops of sesame oil, some chopped spring onions with soya sauce to taste and yummmzzzz...

HOW MR WASHY LOVES HIS EGGS : THE SIMPLEST SOFT BOILED EGGS

Mr Washy came to see Fidgety Fingers last week. We brought him around town and introduced to him what is our local breakfast, soft boiled eggs with soya sauce and pepper. He loves it so much he took pictures of it and reckon it is the 'bestest' little slurp of golden richness for the morning.

HOW TO PREPARE THE EGGS:

1. The eggs should be at room temperature and not cold from the fridge. Put the eggs in a bowl and boil a pot of water. When the water comes to a vigorous boil, pour it over the eggs. Leave for 3 to 5 minutes to lightly poach.
2. Break the egg into a bowl or a small deep plate. Sprinkle with white pepper over the top and slurp the egg in 1 mouthful. This is the traditional way to eat soft boiled eggs. Some people add a little dark soya sauce to add a light salty taste.

SAVE ABOUT 10% FROM BUYING USED CARS ONLINE

At FF, we are really into our online shopping. What happens then when you want to buy something big like an apartment or a used car? Researching and purchasing such stuff online helps with not haggling with tough sellers and avoiding scams. We seriously think that online prices are non-biase because they are put next to their competitors. Best used car advice on the net are everywhere. You just have to be savvy to go to one with enough entries and hits. Pick a reputable Singapore used cars site such as ST701Cars. They have a thorough search engine for people who want to buy and sell cars in Singapore, featuring new and used cars. Buying used cars can have a significant saving. You're probably going to save at least 10% in most cases from a private seller and you are going to be able to strong arm a private seller, most of whom are selling out of necessity and want to get the car of the the driveway.

Go to ST701Cars for more information.

ANTI THEFT SANDWICH BAG

Anti-theft sandwich bags with mould printed on it. Ha! Love it.

SOME PEOPLE SAY LEFTOVER CUT ONIONS ARE NOT HARMFUL, WHICH IS IT?

Chemist Kitchen says this:

Reason 1: Nothing is a bacteria magnet. Firstly, bacteria have minimal mobility. They usually travel in water droplets, if at all. Sneezes, for example. Moulds can release spores which get blown around but bacteria usually grows in moist environments and are slimy, making getting airborne difficult. Secondly, if there was such a thing as a 'bacteria magnet' it would be enormously useful in the medical field for drawing bacteria away from the ill and infirmed. Not such use has been made of onions. 

Contact with unclean hands can introduce bacteria to new surfaces but they need a surface that will support growth, otherwise they will just stay there without multiplying or die.

Reason 2: Bacteria like moist, neutral environments. Not many acidic things grow bacteria. That's why vinegar is used for preserving. The surface of a cut onion is acidic due to the production of sulphuric acid (this is what makes your eyes water). There are some moulds that will tolerate acidic conditions and grow on onions but they are not high risk, they are visible, and any normal person would cut them off or ditch the onion.

Reason 3: High risk foods are usually high in protein and available moisture. Onions are low protein, verging on nil, and what moisture they have is contained in their cellular structure. The surface, as well as being acidic, dries soon after cutting and will not support bacterial growth.

Reason 4: If onions are attracting bacteria, where are they coming from? Somewhere else in your fridge? Perhaps it is time to clean the fridge.

Reason 5: In the 20 odd years I worked in a food laboratory, onions were never mentioned as even a suspect in a food poisoning case.

DON'T USE LEFTOVER ONIONS

We have used an onion which has been left in the fridge, and sometimes we don’t use a whole one at one time, so save the other half for later. We should really buy smaller onions in the future.Onions are a huge magnet for bacteria, especially uncooked onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced onion. It’s not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it in your refrigerator. It’s already contaminated enough just by being cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch out for those onions you put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!)If you take the leftover onion and cook it like crazy you’ll probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover onion and put on your sandwich, you’re asking for trouble. Both the onions and the moist potato in a potato salad, will attract and grow bacteria faster than any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down.Also, dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions.

DON'T USE EXTRA OLIVE OIL FOR COOKING

This is a bad habit for some of us because it boils down to convenience. Extra virgin can actually be worse to cook with as opposed to the "lower grades" of olive oil. Extra virgin has a lower smoke point and cooking with it can result in greasier tasting dishes. Use regular olive oil if you intend to fry things with it. Only use extra virgin olive oil for drizzling and dipping breads.

MAKE YOUR OWN YARN

We are into crocheting and yarn is sometimes expensive to buy. Here are some alternative to wool which we can possibly make ourselves. The  tee shirt yarn, paper yarn and plastic bag yarn.

FIDGETY FINGERS' APPLE PROJECT

We have been keeping bits of yarn, sometimes too short to even make anything out of it. After we came across the apple cozy pattern, we thought it would be time to make use of these loose bits because the crochet pattern does not require that much yarn anyway.

Anyway, we have been making so many apple cozies, we are calling it our Apple Project. We are giving apples away with the cozies to friends. An apple a day keeps the doctor away, An apple cozy with leftovers keeps our planet smiling a bit more.

CROCHET IS THE NEW MEDITATION : MAKE YOURSELF A PRESENT AT THE END

Yes, crocheting is our new addiction. We cannot get enough of it. The thing we love about it is that it is so calming and ok, somewhat monotonous. You can do that whilst watching telly, listening to music, whilst on the bus and at the end of it, you have a present for yourself, yea!

You can solve personal problems and come up with new ideas for just about any situation. If you’re anxious, upset, or just want to pass some time, you can always count on crocheting to help unwind while tapping into your creativity. The best part of this is you’re also making a useful item in the process.

CHOOSE A SIMPLE PATTERN

To really get the full benefits of reducing stress through crocheting choose a project you don’t have to think too deeply about. Stay away from complicated patterns, instead choosing something simple such as an afghan or a beach bag. These have repeating stitches and don’t require that you pay too much attention to what you’re doing. After awhile you’ll get into a smooth rhythm with your stitches and feel your mind start to wander. Let it! The worst that could happen is you’ll goof up a stitch or two that you can easily take out. Most likely though nobody will even notice.

RECYCLE YOUR ONION SKINS : USE IT AS A DYE

This is from a crafty knitter who used natural ingredients to dye her yarn. So cool.

The other day I finished up yet another batch of hand-dyed yarn. This time I used onion skins. I had been collecting them forever in order to get enough to dye some yarn with! Two ounces of onion skins is an insane amount as you can tell from the picture. I only used yellow onion skins, no red onions. Thankfully my husband and I cook a lot so there is always an abundance of onions in our house. Although, that still was a lot of onions! I would highly recommend recruiting friends and family in the onion skin saving endeavor if you decide to try this one yourself. Or you could ask the produce manager of your local grocer if you can have their discards. I never got around to doing that.

For the 2 ounces of onion skins I ended up using 3 ½ ounces (the whole skein) of Patons Classic wool yarn. Because I was feeling lazy and just wanted to jump right into dyeing I didn’t bother with mordanting the yarn. If I had I would have used alum which is my mordant of choice. I soaked the yarn overnight in cool water to thoroughly saturate it.

To prepare the onion skins I placed them in my dye pot and filled it with tap water. I then slowly brought the water to a simmer and held it there for one hour. After that I contemplated straining the dye bath but then decided to let the onion skins sit in it over night and cool.

For day two I was going to strain out the onion skins before adding the yarn to the now cooled dye bath but at the last minute decided to leave them in and see what would happen. I did take a picture of the cooled dye bath and it shows what a deep golden color I ended up with.

To the cooled dye I added my soaked yarn and slowly brought the bath up to a simmer. I keep it at a simmer for one hour. Once it was done simmering I let the yarn cool completely in the bath before I removed it and washed it out.

After I removed the yarn I noted that there was still a significant amount of color left in the dye bath so I decided for the heck of it to see if I could get a little bit more out of it. So, I prepared 1 ½ ounces of wool yarn by soaking it for several hours. I used less yarn this time only because I was unsure of the outcome and didn’t want to waste too much yarn if I didn’t like the results.  No mordant again. I then added this yarn to the pot and simmered for once again another hour.

So to conclude, the first batch of yarn came out a very deep rusty gold color, sort of like a burnt orange and the second batch was very noticeably lighter. It is more of a light red orange. I was actually very surprised by these two batches. I was not expecting such orange colors. But that is the fun part of using natural dyes! You never really know what is going to come out of the dye pot until you are done!

ROAST CHICKEN SOUP : WHY THROW AWAY YOUR ROAST CHICKEN CARCASS

One of our favourite soups, especially since it uses up the carcass of a roast chicken, which so many people just throw away. Also because it's so easy to make. We used to buy chicken carcass from the market, but after coming across the idea of reusing the carcass from a roast chicken... hey! we get a free pot of soup with every roast chicken we make over the weekend. SWEET!

INGREDIENTS

• One roast chicken carcass – as much meat stripped off as possible and most of the juice dark meat from the bottom. Save all the meat for sandwiches, curry etc.
• The juices from he roasting tin, and any leftover gravy
• 2 medium onions, chopped finely
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 2 large carrots, diced
• 1/2 a large celeriac, swede, turnip or other similar root vegetable, diced
• 2 stalk of celery, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Water
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil (not extra virgin, we will explain why later)
• 2 teaspoon of fresh thyme
• 1 bay leaf

DIRECTIONS

• Chop all the vegetables, and breakup the carcass into half or quarter it depending on your pot.
• Sweat the onions in olive oil in a saucepan till they are translucent.
• Turn up the heat and add the garlic and vegetables to soften and coat with oil.
• Add the parsley, thyme and bay leaf, then add the chiccken carcass together with the roasting tin juices and gravy. Add salt and pepper.
• Pour in enough water to cover the carcass and bring it to a gentle boil. We usually boil it for 2-3 hours.

TADA! Use this stock however you might. You can even freeze it for use next time.

CHOOSING CROCHET PATTERNS FOR MEN (i.e. MR WASHY)

Mr Washy is coming to visit and because Europe is getting ridiculously cold and also because Washy doesn't have proper scarves, we have found a couple of patterns to crochet some for him. We found a cable stitch scarf as pictured in green and knitted one for him in brick colour. We are not experts in crochet or knitting but all the instruction videos on youtube made it so easy! These videos are like the grandma or mother we never had. :-S

CABLE STITCH SCARF

Ch 20.

Foundation Row Hdc in 3rd ch from hook and each ch across - 18 hdc.

Row 1 (wrong side) and all odd rows Ch 2, turn, hdc in each st across.

Row 2 (right side) Ch 2, turn, hdc in first 2 hdc, FPdc around next hdc 2 rows below; hdc in next 4 hdc, sk 2 hdc, FPtr around next 2 hdc 2 rows below; working in front of previous 2 FPtr, FPtr around 2 skipped hdc 2 rows below, hdc in next 4 hdc; FPdc around next hdc 2 rows below, hdc in last 2 hdc.

Row 4 Ch 2, turn, hdc in first 2 hdc, FPdc around FPdc 2 rows below; hdc in next 3 hdc, FPtr around next 2 FPtr 2 rows below (slanted FPtr), hdc in next 2 hdc, FPtr around next 2 FPtr 2 rows below (slanted FPtr), hdc in next 3 hdc; FPdc around next FPdc 2 rows below, hdc in last 2 hdc.

Row 6 Ch 2, turn, hdc in first 2 hdc, FPdc around next FPdc 2 rows below; hdc in next 2 hdc, FPtr around next 2 FPtr 2 rows below, hdc in next 4 hdc, FPtr around next 2 FPtr 2 rows below, hdc in next 2 hdc; FPdc around next FPdc 2 rows below, hdc in last 2 hdc.

Row 8 Repeat Row 4.

Row 10 Ch 2, turn, hdc in first 2 hdc, FPdc around next FPdc 2 rows below; hdc in next 4 hdc, sk 2 FPtr 2 rows below, FPtr around next 2 FPtr 2 rows below; working in front of previous 2 FPtr, FPtr around 2 sked FPtr 2 rows below, hdc in next 4 hdc; FPdc around next FPdc 2 rows below, hdc in last 2 hdc.

Rows 11-146 Repeat Rows 3-10 seventeen times.

Row 147 Ch 2, turn, hdc in each st across.

Fasten off.

This is the other scarf is a camel-ish colour. We like this stitch. It makes the scarf looks very solid, it also makes the scarf thicker and thus warmer. Instead of starting with 19 ch as in the pattern below (which is for kids), we started with 29 ch instead.


BASKET WEAVE STITCH

Ch 19. Row 1 (Wrong Side): Dc in 4th ch from hook and in each ch across; turn – 17 sts. 

Rows 2 and 3: Ch 2, skip first st; yo, insert hook from front to back to front around the post of the next st, yo and draw lp through, [yo and draw through 2 lps] twice – fpdc made; work 2 more fpdc; yo, insert hook from back to front to back around the post of the next st, yo and draw lp through, [yo and draw through 2 lps] twice – bpdc made; work 2 more bpdc, 3 fpdc, 3 bpdc, 3 fpdc, hdc in top of beg ch; turn. 

Rows 4 and 5: Ch 2, skip first st, 3 bpdc, [3 fpdc, 3 bpdc] twice, hdc in top of beg ch; turn. 

Rep Rows 2-5 until 50" from beg. Fasten off.

A WISHY WASHY COMPANION

This little guy was accompanying us last night when we were crocheting Mr Washy's scarf. He landed on our jewellery and sat there for ages. Look at the colours!

OUR SUZENE OF FIDGETY FINGERS : LOLITA BOOK COVER

John Gall, vice president and art director at Vintage/Anchor Books and designer of the latest cover of Lolita (see samples of his work here), kindly agreed to review the submissions and picked his own top choices. His favorite is by Suzene Ang of Singapore:
 ”It takes a second before you see what is going on. It’s abstract enough to keep it metaphorical, yet literal enough to imply a sense of story. I love the tease of having the type run up the leg. Elegant, with a sense of humor.”

Gall made a point a few times of stressing the difficulty of the task:
“This is a tough assignment. So many clichéd images to either avoid or make new. Not an easy task.  I teach a cover design class and wouldn’t give this as an assignment in a million years!”


TUESDAY OCTOBER 13TH, 2009

A Makeover for Lolita

A while back, I linked to a contest to redesign the cover of Nabokov’s Lolita. We now have a winner. It is not the cover at left. That one is by Suzene Ang of Singapore, and it was chosen as best not by John Bertram, who sponsored the contest, but by John Gall, a brilliant designer and art director at Vintage/Anchor. He said: “It takes a second before you see what is going on. It’s abstract enough to keep it metaphorical, yet literal enough to imply a sense of story. I love the tease of having the type run up the leg. Elegant, with a sense of humor.”

I like his choice more than the grand prize winner, but I can see why it didn’t appeal most to Bertram. One of Bertram’s big complaints about previously published covers was that they focused on Lolita’s sexuality and “serve[d] to re-traumatize the poor girl all over again.” The winner he chose, Lyuba Haleva of Bulgaria, pleased him by focusing on Humbert: “Somehow it all feels right to me and very inspired, and although the typeface is anachronistic and suggests to me a classic European novel, it seems to work.”

AND SHE LOVES THE RIBBON SCARF...