Author: Athena

A change agent (PMP certified project manager) who to help organisations achieve positive results and be more eco friendly. In my free time, I like to explore new places on a bike, learning about psychology (more than electrical and electronics engineering) and experimental planting. Everyday is a gift.

13th Feb Sunday covid relieve

Day 4 staying with kid down with covid: the outbreak of this virus threatening humanity. It’s airborne and it’s turning everyone unwell. I am staying with my hubby and kid in our room for nearly 4 days. I can stop the plague by testing myself negative before going out and keeping them happy with snacks and plenty of drinks in house. Other than water, isotonic water and coconut drinks, I’ve bought a bunch of lemon grass, cut a bunch of mint that I’ve grown and made lemon grass tea for my hubby. He has lost his taste, body aches and fever.

For myself, other than my normal indulgence of coffee, I have green tea. I did a little research to find that green tea can help to relieve symptoms. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a cure for covid. “Green tea consumption could be considered an option to combat COVID-19 associated psychological complications, including fatigue, depression and anxiety among patients suffering from mild-to-moderate type of this viral infection” cited here. Although I didn’t have covid, I need to replenish food and drinks through my room service to ensure they are well taken care of. Fortunately, my in-laws are well. I tried to avoid contact with the others outside my room, but it’s inevitable.

Tea crude extracts effectively inactivate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2

Ishimoto K, Hatanaka N, Otani S, Maeda S, Xu B, Yasugi M, Moore JE, Suzuki M, Nakagawa S, Yamasaki S. Tea crude extracts effectively inactivate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Lett Appl Microbiol. 2022 Jan;74(1):2-7. doi: 10.1111/lam.13591. Epub 2021 Nov 5. PMID: 34695222; PMCID: PMC8661916.
Lemon grass tea for hubby
  • Two stalks pounded and cut to fit pot
  • Honey sugar
  • mints from balcony garden
  • Boil in water for 30mins and simmer for another 30 minutes. Remove the Lemongrass before adding rock sugar.

Fortunately there is internet which I can still research and study. I’ve also my tiny balcony garden to grow some vegetables for the family.

Science of oven bake potatoes

Here is an experiment for you to try

  1. 750 g of gemstone potatoes
  2. 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
    • Preboiling potatoes in alkaline water breaks down its surface
    • MIL (mother in law) suggests to leave the skin intact and boil it before putting into oven
  3. Boiling water –
    • Food lab suggests put potatoes in boiling water
    • MIL suggests to put potatoes in room temp water to boil – took me 33 mins which causes the middle to soften so much
    • for chat potatoes less than 20 mins otherwise you will be making mash potatoes
Boil potatoes for 20 minutes
From balcony garden to kitchen: rosemary, parsley (except potatoes)

For marinates

  1. 2 tablespoons of olive oil —
  2. Hand picked rosemary -chopped
  3. Three cloves of garlic – chopped
  4. Parsley leaves
  5. Oregano- sprinkled
  6. salt – pinch
Infuse potatoes with garlic, olive oil and herbs

The finally oven bake potatoes. 45 minutes

40 minutes

Jan 8th Time to start seeding again

Many times, I bought thyme from the store and try to root them but eventually, the plants died.

Now I bought some 70 seeds to start for rhymes and interestingly bought a fake spinach known as malabar spinach. They are huge investments for me. So I took a video to share with you how their journey will look like. Then attempt to grow the fake spinach in water.

Soaking Malabar Spinach Seed

  • Soak Malabar Spinach ) seeds with warm water (temperature 35-45 C) for 8 hours.
  • Water for immersion should be bottled wateror boiled water.
  • Drain

Germination Malabar Spinach seeds

  • Prepare tissue / paper towel for germination containers.
  • Moisten using a water that had been boiled before.
  • Take some seeds and place them on top of tissue / paper towel.
  • Put it in a plastic bag and cover tightly.
  • Malabar Spinach seeds germinate after 4 – 10 days.
  • If the sprouts reach 0.7 – 2.1 cm, transfer to seedling media.
Planting seeds

short-necked clams (Paphia undulata)

Ingredients for hotpot

To prepare the clams, soak the clams in salt water for one hour to allow them to spit sand. Salt water according to some blogs, clams purge out sand and grit and poop. Here is one source https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-clean-clams#how-to-choose-the-right-clams

Steam them for 10 minutes and throw out the dead Unopened ones. “cooking at a temperature of 100°C for two minutes after the every clams’ complete opening is enough to inactivate the hepatitis A virus in the experimentally infected clams.”

Don’t waste this,pour it into your hot pot, remember don’t pour all because there are sand lurking inside

Some areas of the ocean are saltier than other but on average there are 35 grams of salt per kilogram of seawater.1 Jan 2011

https://scripps.ucsd.edu/news/what-makes-ocean-salty-and-how-much-salt-ocean
https://www.oregon.gov/oha/ph/HealthyEnvironments/Recreation/Documents/Shellfish-safety.pdf

How to Oven bake Naketive chicken wings safety

Naketive is a word invented by my childRen. This is a informative recipe so that you can make sure the food you cook is safe for your family.

Teriyaki sauce marinate the night before

180ml of teriyaki soya

sauce

3 fresh garlic cloves, minced

½-ginger, peeled and finely minced and pound it

1 kg of chicken winglets Or

Naketive teriyaki chicken (kids safe)

Bbq sauce marinate the night b4

1 kg of chicken

2 cups favorite BBQ sauce

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

3 fresh garlic cloves, minced

Instruction

Bake wings in a preheated oven at 425°F (220°C) / 430°F | 220°C. for 45 minutes. Halfway through, Turn each wing over and bake for another 10 minutes until tender and juicy. The wings should be easy to pull apart.

How to ensure food safety?

I was wondering what’s the optimal temperature for chicken wing and set my oven at 200 C, cook the wings 25 minutes each side. Use a thermometer to check the temperature of chicken.

At 165°F (74°C) all foodborne bacteria are destroyed instantly. This instant death for foodborne pathogens is recommended for poultry because even the most stubborn salmonella bacteria will be completely pasteurized at this temperature.

https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/safe-minimum-cooking-temperature

How to clean clams

To get rid of sand and grit, some put in the cold water.

I bought 500 g of clams, about 40 of them. Place clams in a large bowl. Pour in water enough to cover the clams and 2 tbsp of salt.

Sit the clams for 1 hour.

The my mil taught me to steam them for 5 minutes. All of my clams are fresh if they open when they are cooked.

For the soup that reminds, don’t throw them away. Sieve out the sand and you can add in your soup.

If everything fails https://www.wikihow.com/Clean-Clams

Clams at S$7 for 500 g Jul 2022

Black tea with mint

Black tea is a kind of tea made from leaves of Camellia sinensis.

Wikipedia

If you are working from home most of the time, then try to brew black tea as it contains surprisingly good health benefits such as

Inhibit risks of cancer

Improves cholesterol level

Improves high blood pressure

Source

Drink for health, let it seep for 2.5 minutes to 5 minutes and drink it while it’s fresh because antioxidant is unstable. Source

7 tips to start a veggie garden in high rise building?

Start small. Most of us stay in high rise apartments. And our government in Singapore gave us free seeds. If not it’s easily purchase from supermarkets or online.

Tip 1: start seeds in seed tray. Not only you can reuse the tray, you know which seed is a success.

Tip 2: plant either free seeds (Kang kong or bak Choy) or buy curly kale or Red amaranth which are superfood. Use your time wisely to plant high value crop.

Kang kong, Bak Choy, Taiwan Bayam spinach , curly kale

Tip 3: buy soil meant to start seeds. It’s easier that they already premix the soil for you

Tip 4: transplant with are – three to five true leaves

If I transplant too early, my kale will die

For those without hydroponics system, transplant into a bigger pot and space according to the package instruction.

Example of transplanted plants

Tip 5: water it sufficiently, too much water kills and let it grow. Fertiliser them weekly according to instructions. Too much fertiliser will kill your plants.

As a start pot is ok. Just a pilot project

Tip 6: allocate two to three plants per family members. I have a system that produces 48 plants so it’s easier to harvest in batch.

Enjoy

Tip 7: enjoy the whole process. Gardening is not about the end result, like a archer who takes control of his aim, the arrow may end up somewhere but you have done your best.

Wabi Sabi the art of imperfections

“Wonder” is about a story of a boy with facial deformity. When his mom played by Julia Robert told his son about imperfection.

JULIA ROBERTS: (As Isabel Pullman) Look at me. We all have marks on our face. I have this wrinkle here from your first surgery. I have these wrinkles here from your last surgery. This is the map that shows us where you’ve been. And it’s never, never ugly.

JACOB TREMBLAY: (As August Pullman) What about your gray hair?

ROBERTS: (As Isabel Pullman) That’s compliments of your dad, I think.

A chipped off bowl from mom’s place

I’ve brought home a chipped off bowl from mom’s place and decided to repurpose it by putting in Swiss cheese plant. The bowl is beautiful although it’s already broken.

Similarly, do you find beauty in out of ordinary things? I gave my mom a sunflower pot and after it wilted, I brought it home. There are three tiny bulbs along the stem and I continue to water the plants. Now it bloomed.

Multiple head sunflower caused by too much inbreeding

Wabi Sabi embraces imperfections. It’s still beautiful as the essence of authenticity is there.