Happy Mother’s Day to all moms out there!

This year, my family did not go out for our usual special Mother’s Day dinner. Seeing as how I didn’t cook as much this year, I wanted to cook some yummy food for my family instead… Heheh, nothing like a mother’s love in some homecooked food.  

We had roast pork shoulder with gravy, mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables and a green salad with homemade oriental dressing.

Ah, it was sure joy and contentment, seeing my husband and children tucking happily into their dinners.

That was Saturday. Around midnight, we went looking for some cool desserts as the weather was really hot and humid, and we ended up having some Taiwanese Ice Bowl desserts at SS2, Petaling Jaya.

A bowl of refreshing Mango Pudding, Sago and Cream over some soft Tohua (beancurd)

Today, we headed to 1Utama Shopping Mall for some simple brunch as we wanted to leave some space for some decadent cakes that we have been eying from the newly opened Isetan’s Cafe Gino – for dessert, we had Hazelnut Truffle, Tiramisu Cheesecake, Red Velvet Cake and Chocolate Indulgence Cake…yummm!

Right now, I have some Miracle Vegetable Soup simmering away on my stove – just some health soup to balance back our over-indulgence in food in the last 48 hours.

Today dinner is leftovers from yesterday roast pork  dinner and I have marinated more pork with barbeque sauce for grilling  later.

May you have a wonderful day today with your family!

With best wishes,

choesf

]]> http://happyhomemaker88.com/2012/05/13/happy-mothers-day-2012/feed/ 0 happyhomemaker88 happy-mothers-daysupermom Mother's Day 2012 Pork Dinner Mother's Day 2012 Dinner Ice Bowl Hazelnut Truffle http://happyhomemaker88.com/2012/04/22/home-the-movie-a-full-documentary-shown-in-hd-with-stunning-extraordinary-and-unforgettable-visuals-with-glenn-close-narrating/ http://happyhomemaker88.com/2012/04/22/home-the-movie-a-full-documentary-shown-in-hd-with-stunning-extraordinary-and-unforgettable-visuals-with-glenn-close-narrating/#comments Sun, 22 Apr 2012 08:14:08 +0000 happyhomemaker88 http://happyhomemaker88.com/?p=2928 ]]>

Watch “Home, The Movie”

Hi there, dear friends

I usually like to unwind after a long, tiring day by watching some travel documentaries on TV, especially over the Discovery HD Channel.  I particularly like to be “brought” to those scenic places by just lounging on my comfortable sofa in the living room, having my favourite cup of tea or coffee…and probably a slice of cake, too…

Yesterday, I found a gem of a movie, called “Home” in Youtube, and wow, was I really impressed with the extraordinary visual imagery, the vivid colours, the beautiful cinematography and the powerful message the documentary brings about the beauty of our planet, Earth, which we call our HOME.

What I did was to plug a HDMI cable from my laptop direct to my 46-inch HD TV and enjoyed tremendously the crisp, vibrant details of the movie. Throughout the whole 1-1/2 hours of the movie, I had gone “wow”, “oooh” and “aaah” so many times over the visual treats. Even my family was impressed and my daughter had downloaded the movie in HD for more future viewings.

Today being the official Earth Day, it is only fitting that I post here about Home, The Movie. It is available online for FREE viewing (Watch “Home, The Movie“). 

When you reach the Youtube page to watch the movie, be sure to put the settings to “English captions” and on 720p HD quality to enjoy fully the visual feast. Glenn Close’s narration is certainly very captivating.  If you like Home, be sure to pass the link around and share the views of our beautiful “home” that we stand to lose  due to humanity’s modernisation and industrialisation effect on Earth, our home. However, do rest assured that some countries have started taking steps to preserve the ecology and nature and that’s a positive!

Here is an excerpt obtained from Home’s website :-

Internationally renowned photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand makes his feature directorial debut with this environmentally conscious documentary produced by Luc Besson, and narrated by Glenn Close. Shot in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days, Home presents the many wonders of planet Earth from an entirely aerial perspective.

As such, we are afforded the unique opportunity to witness our changing environment from an entirely new vantage point. In our 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has hopelessly upset Mother Nature’s delicate balance. Some experts claim that we have less than ten years to change our patterns of consumption and reverse the trend before the damage is irreversible.

Produced to inspire action and encourage thoughtful debate, Home poses the prospect that unless we act quickly, we risk losing the only home we may ever have.

Enjoy!

With best wishes,

choesf

A yummy, healthy salad dish that helps relieves sore throats and body heatiness

Good evening, dear friends

I remember when I was a kid, it was very common for everyone I know to just eat a chunk of unpeeled cucumber with a little salt every time we have a sore throat. Sometimes, we even eat that as a snack in between meals. Cucumbers were very cheap and was used as a simple remedy to counter body heatiness. I hardly developed any sore throat when I was a kid, even though my family seldom had cooling herbal drinks.

Two days ago, I did a little “testing” on my 2 daughters who were down with sore throats – I told them that when I was young, it was a very common practice to eat raw cucumbers with a little salt often to prevent heatiness and sore throat. So, I came up with a cucumber salad that I prepared for them for dinner. They liked the salad very much and each had a large portion of it.

By the next morning, one daughter’s sore throat was completely gone and the other daughter’s throat was less painful – confirmation that my cucumber salad”experiment” worked. 

Here is the easy and delicious recipe, it’s sweet and tangy and most importantly, healthy, too  ===>

Yummy Salad to counter sore throats and for good health

Ingredients :-

3 large or 4 medium cucumbers (skin on, deseeded)
6 large tomatoes
1 large red or yellow onion
1 bell pepper

1 canned whole kernel corn (optional), water drained
1 small bunch coriander leaves – chopped
1 small bunch spring onion – chopped

3 tablespoons honey
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (more is better as this is healthy oil)
salt and black pepper to taste
juice of 2 lemons (can use lime, too)
zest of a lemon

Optional – a handful of Daun Pegaga/Centella Asiatica, which is also known as a “One Herb Pharmacy”

Method -

Just cut or dice and then mix everything above together and let stand for 1 hour in the fridge. Then eat like a salad. It is very appetising and it’s good for health. The honey soothes the throat, while the fresh vegetables have lots of vitamins and the lemon juice/zest has Vitamin C. The olive oil is good for health, too.

All ingredients above can be adjusted to your preference, but do make sure that the cucumbers are the “main star.”

I made a big bowl of the salad and we had it the following day also.

Sometimes, I make this as a salad accompaniment for any Western food that I cook as it’s so easy to prepare and delicious to eat. Hope you like this  salad, too!

With best wishes,

choesf

Hi there, dear friends

This year, Master atan has a new spiritual prayer service that he is offering for FREE and anyone of any religion who believes in karma is most welcome to join.  I have copied here the information from his FORUM :-

Master atan Refine Spiritual Technique – Karmic Debts Ceremony – 2012

I feel this is a good time to perform a Karmic Debts Ceremony, for many of you who follow me will stand a good chance to benefit greatly from this unique refine spiritual technique. It requires you to use your own good karma to resolve, reduce or remove your bad karma. When this happens, then good things can flow to you properly and correctly.

What is karma

Karma is natural law, not a moral law. Any thought or deed causes an effect and can be called karma. Thus, wherever there is a cause, there an effect must be produced. The law of karma is the law of causation.

1. In Western countries ~~~ Karma is like, “What you Sow is what you Reap.”

2. In India ~~~ Karma is a law which maintains that for every act done, no matter how insignificant, it will eventually return to the doer with equal impact. Good will be returned with Good; Evil with Evil.

3. In China ~~~ there is a saying – “Plant beans, get beans — Plant melons, get melons.”

The question is – how to get good karma for this purpose

Here are some ways where your good karma can come from :-

1. Use Dhealing Feng Shui techniques – you gain good karma.

2. Use Dhealing Spiritual techniques – you gain good karma.

3. Many who donated to the above two ceremonies or to the Dhealing management will gain much good karma, and

4. Gain more good karma by donating to the Karmic Debts Ceremony.

5. The donations collected for this ceremony will go directly to Rose ( Dhealing moderator – Rozalia of Romania ). Despite her having a stroke a couple of years ago and still recovering from it, she had selflessly given (and still is giving) many people here and those that came to her in her life much hope and happiness. Many of her Prayer listings for members and friends were answered – some were even like miracles. As such, with this special technique I am using, those who donate to the Karmic Debts Ceremony will generate even more good karma from that kind act.

6. some acts of kindness, charity, generosity, merits that you have done in the past

** Notes **

1. Please be informed that this technique will only work for those who believe in karma.

2. One can only use his or her own good karma for himself or herself and not for others. As such, we will require individual usernames or nicknames for the prayer listing.

This Karmic Debts Ceremony is a FREE spiritual service – anyone who believes in karma can join.

I will perform this refine Ceremony on Vesak Day,  5th May 2012.

Master atan

Master atan’s Karmic Debts Ceremony Name List 2012.

To join, you can put your names/nicknames/usernames here and I will list them for you at Master atan’s FORUM.

All DONATIONS received for this ceremony will go towards forum Moderator, Rozalis (more commonly known as Rose) as she is a stroke victim and she is living by herself in Romania. 

With best wishes,

choesf

Hi there, dear friends

If you have a vacuum cleaner that is similar to mine (pictured above) and have been using it a few years, you will know exactly what I mean when I complain about the awful stale smells that come out through the air outlet when the vacuum cleaner is in use.

If you also have pets in your home, especially dogs that have their doggy smells and that shed their fur a lot (like my Beagle, Benji), then your vacuum cleaner is bound to emit some foul odours after being in use for a while.

I have tried spraying air fresheners into the box that collects dust, hairs, etc.. (my vacuum cleaner is the bagless type) but they only mask the bad smells for a while, and sometimes, the smells are made worse.

Now, I had also tried putting a few drops of essectial oils into my vacuum cleaner’s dust box but the thing is this – as long as the stale smells are not removed, they will still stand out over the over the pleasant essential oil smell.

Yesterday, I decided to apply the same thing I use to remove smells from mattresses – I had written about that about 4 years ago here :-

How To Remove Urine & Other Odours From Mattresses

Use Medicated Powder !  

There are many brands of medicated powder in the market but any brand that you have or are familiar with should work as well.

Please note that I am not being paid by Electrolux or Ammens companies to promote their products. 

Here’s what I did – it’s really easy ===>

1) just give a few liberal shakes (I would say about 3 tablespoonful) of Ammens Powder onto the floor and then vacuum that up.

2) continue to go about your vacuuming chore

3) after about 5 minutes of vacuuming, you will notice the musty, stale vacuum smell is gone, replaced by the smell of the medicated powder

4) after you are done vacuuming, empty your dust bag or box, and then suck up another few shakes of Ammens powder.

5) store your vacuum cleaner and let the medicated powder continue to neutralise the odours in the vacuum cleaner, hoses, filters and dust box

6) on your next use of the vacuum cleaner, see if the stale smells are all or almost gone. If yes, then you can put a few drops of your favourite essential oils, like Lavendar or Rose, into the dust box…or just vacuum/suck up a few drops of the oils.

Voila! There you have it ….  a cleaner and fresher smelling vacuum cleaner!

Hope this technique works for you, too.

With best wishes,

choesf

Hi there, dear friends

We are just 3 days away from the Chinese New Year of the Water Dragon. Once again, Master atan is offering FREE Prayers for Good Luck and Success for the new lunar year 2012.

Everyone is welcome to request for this auspicious for themselves, their  family, friends and relatives.

You can either submit your names here and I will list your names for you at Dhealing Forum, or you can sign up directly at Dhealing Forum and request for the prayers there

Please submit your name in the format as shown in the example below :-

 Master atan – Malaysia – reason of prayer (e.g. for Good Luck and Success)

You can use nicknames, usernames or pseudonyms if you are worried about revealing your names over the Internet.

You can also request for other types of prayers here, e.g. prayer for job interview, prayer for safe trip, etc.

May the year of the Water Dragon bring you and your family an abundance of blessings, prosperity, success, wealth and good health!

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Happy Chinese New Year!

With best wishes,

choesf

Dhealing Forum Prayer Room Name List 2012

Hi there, dear friends

The new year has begun and on 23 January, 2012, we will be celebrating our lunar Chinese New Year. 

As in previous years, we will follow Master atan’s “Dhealing How To Feng Shui 2012” guidelines to Feng Shui our home for good energies and good luck all year round.

The first step advised by him is to request for Tai Sui Prayers for your family.

Whether you are applying Feng Shui in your life or not, you are most welcome to submit your names here for FREE Tai Sui Prayers offered by Master atan.

You can ask for this free prayers also if you or anyone in your family is a Dog zodiac and will be offending Tai Sui or Grand Duke Jupiter in 2012.

Below are Master atan’s Tai Sui Prayer message from his FORUM .

May you be blessed with Tai Sui Support and Protection for 2012!

With best wishes,

choesf :

Step 1 ~~~ Prayer to Tai Sui – 2012.

All members and their loved ones are encouraged to list their names in the 2011 Prayer Room for Tai Sui Prayer.

This prayer is very important as I had activated it to be …..

1. You and your family will have the protection and support from Tai Sui in many areas of your life – especially for wealth and health.

2. When you are moving outside or away from your home or traveling – you will also have His protection and support.

3. If you had unknowingly offended Tai Sui – you will be protected.

For the past few years, we had placed SCC and Trinity 3coins in the NW and North, and Piyao in the SE facing Him – these sectors were very clean when Tai Sui came and stay in our home – Tai Sui was very happy in years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and I hope the same in 2012.

With more than 10,000 people praying to Tai Sui in 2011 – please don’t miss out this Prayer, it is FREE.

Master atan.

Tai Sui Prayer Room Name List 2012

Happy New Year, dear friends!

Another year has flown by and tomorrow we will begin another year – 2012! 

Tonight, my family will have a Roast Turkey dinner with all the trimmings – roast turkey with gravy, mash potatoes, turkey stuffing, brussel sprouts, garlic bread and steamed vegetables.  This year, we have moved our usual Turkey Dinner from Christmas to New Year’s Eve instead, for a change.  

Our previous year’s Christmas Eve Turkey Dinner

Well, I have to go  now put my 5 kg turkey in the oven now.

Happy New Year and may you be blessed with love, happiness and success! 

With best wishes,

choesf

A hearty, yummy bowl of Chinese Herbal Lamb Soup to warm the stomach

Hello there, dear friends

This year, my stomach is acting up quite often and I have to really watch my food intake and diet.   Some foods that seemed alright  previously somehow do not agree with my stomach this year…hmmm,  must be a sign of getting old for me!

As usual, I would ask my lady healer friend for advice when I go to her for a healing massage. She said my stomach is prone to developing wind and the reason is due to the weather this year! Yes, she said the weather is the cause of my problem.

I was very surprised that the weather can affect our health in such a manner, i.e. stomach ailments. 

My stomach is developing wind more frequently and I end up having nausea, indigestion, headaches and even migraines, bloatedness….all resulting from wind.

Even  my husband and my eldest daughter had wind-related problems. My husband had very bad neck, shoulder and upper left arm pains. He thought he had sprained those areas somehow or perhaps, it could be due to work stress. Seeing a doctor for treatments over a week didn’t relieve his pains at all. Finally, a visit to my lady healer friend revealed that my husband’s stomach was producing wind and it was a bad case of wind that resulted in his neck/shoulder/arm pains.

As for my eldest daughter, she  experienced mild nausea every day, especially towards the evening. Her doctor checked her health and couldn’t find anything wrong with her. She was prescribed some antibiotics, but that didn’t help with her nausea at all. Although her nausea was mild, it was a discomfort and a distraction. So, I brought her to my healer friend who said my daughter was suffering from stomach wind.

In both my husband and daughter’s cases, my healer friend recommended them to take the “5 Pagoda” brand (called “Ng Tarp San” in the Cantonese dialect)  of Chinese medicine that was a product of Thailand (see picture below). She said this is the most effective solution for stomach related problems like wind, nausea, indigestion, etc. I asked her about the “Po Chai” brand of pills and she said this Thai one is even better.

Both my husband and daughter took just one dose of the 5-Pagoda Powder in the morning, before breakfast and on an empty stomach, and they did this for one week. Wow, they recovered from their pains and nausea respectively by the end of the week!

For me, I have been taking this powder when I feel I am burping a lot or my stomach starts to feel like a balloon. Although the 5-Pagoda Powder doesn’t taste good as in any Chinese herbal powder, I really love the strong minty and cool taste it has. My stomach feels immediately soothed after I take the powder.

After taking the 5-Pagoda Powder for a week, my healer friend told me to make a hearty Chinese Herbal Lamb Soup (picture at the top) to warm back our stomach.  Below are the ingredients for that soup :-

Chinese Herbs For Lamb Soup - carrots, 2 honey dates, red dates, Wai San, Yook, dried longans, Kei Jee, Pak Kei and Tong Sum

500 gms of Lamb Shanks and Ribs

Instructions

1) Bring 2 litres water to a boil in a pot on the stove top.

2 Put in the Chinese herbs and lamb. Bring water to a boil. Skim off any scum that come to the surface.

3) Lower heat to small and simmer for 2 hours.

4) Season with some salt to taste and serve immediately.

In addition to warming up the stomach, this soup is also good to improve one’s energy, stamina and overall good health.

I also bought a bottle of “Tiger Stork” brand ( “Fu Hock Yau” in the Cantonese dialect) of medicated oil which was recommended by my healer friend for applying on the stomach for relieving gastric or winds stomach pains. I had complained to her that my “Minyak Angin” and “Yu Yee Yau” didn’t help at all in removing wind. She said to just apply the “Tiger Stork” oil on the our middle back and then on our stomach areas. Then our stomach would be soothed.

So, these are my home remedies for stomach ailments. Hope you can find them in your area as they brought a lot of relief to my family. The medicated oil and 5-Pagoda powder cost about RM5-00 or so and I bought them from some Chinese Medicing shops. in Kepong.

In my next post, I will share with you a wonderful Chinese medicated oil which is really good in treating cuts and burns and can stop bleeding almost instantaneously.

With best wishes for good health,

choesf

(READ HERE for the homemade cleaning enzyme recipe)

Hello there, dear friends

After an unusual period of rainy weather, the hot and humid heatwave is back again in tropical Malaysia and the air-conditioners become a necessity again to get a good night’s sleep! 

Somehow, electrical appliances tend to go out of order at the wrong time, and in my case, my bedroom air-conditioner developed a  leak  at 11pm on a Saturday! Aaarrggghhh…..how frustrating!  At least, if it needed a technician to come and fix it, it could have chosen to break down on a weekday afternoon, right?  What a bad timing indeed!  

The thought of having to sleep and sweat through the hot night was too unbearable and definitely out of the question. My other alternative was to leave the air-conditioner on and bear with the continuously leaking water sounds ===> drip, drip, drip…..oh, one would never be able to sleep well through all that..well, at least not for me as I am a very light sleeper.  

So, out of desperation, I thought of using my homemade enzyme cleaner to see if it could help fix my leaky air-conditioner. I know the leak was caused by some blockage in the water drainage pipes and I know enzymes can help to clear the kitchen sink outlet pipes. 

Wow, good news! My air-conditioner stopped leaking immediately after I sprayed enzyme all over the metal slates of the air-cond and it didn’t leak again for a good one week. Then it started leaking again and I did the enzyme “treatment” again and that stopped the leak. So, I presumed that I should have sprayed the enzyme cleaner more often to clear the air-conditioner pipe better.

Another reason why I thought of using the enzyme was because every time my air-conditioners are being serviced by my regular technician, he always poured a little enzyme onto the air-conditioner slates after he has installed the air-conditioner after cleaning/servicing.  That was to help clear the outlet pipe for water condensation, he said. Anyway, he was the one that also taught me how to make my own enzyme cleaners.  

I found out from an electrician and my technician that the stuff or gunge that is blocking the air-conditioner water condensation outlet pipe is some jelly-like stuff and if that is the case, then the enzyme should work in breaking down or “melting” the jelly.

Here’s the method on how to use your homemade enzymes to clean and fix your leaky air-conditioner (split unit A/C only)  :-

1) prepare a strong enzyme cleaner of 1 part enzyme (strained)  to 1 part water in a spray bottle.  Add a tablespoon of baking soda to balance the acidity of the enzyme so that it doesn’t rust the parts of the air conditioner. Give the mixture a good shake in the spray bottle.

2) turn off the air-conditioner (if you haven’t by now)

3) if you can remove the plastic cover of the air-conditioner, that makes it easier to the enzyme onto the metal slates by giving you more room/space to work. Otherwise, pull up the cover as high as it can go. 

4) remove the air-conditioner filters. Either vacuum the filtered dust off or given the filters a good rinse in the bathroom and let dry.

5) carefully spray the enzyme cleaning solution onto the air-conditioner slates.  Be sure to avoid spraying onto areas that are connected to wires or any other electronic boards. For this , I had used up almost a whole cup of the cleaning enzyme mixture. 

6) give the enzyme about 30 minutes or so to clean the slates and blocked piping.

7) turn back on the air-conditioner and see if the air-conditioner has stopped leaking. If not, spray another cup of the enzyme mixture and see if it will work this time. It should as it was successful for me on the two occasions that I tried out this method of fixing the leaks of my bedroom air-conditioner.

It is best to give a few more “enzyme treatments” to your air-conditioner the next day to allow further cleaning and clearing of the water outlet piping.

Caution!

1) do this “enzyme treatment” at your own risk of damaging your air-conditioner! This is only an emergency measure for those times when you can’t get your technician to come and fix your air-conditioner.

2) if you can, try to check the air-conditioner outlet pipe to see if there is water flowing out when the air-conditioner is on. The rate and amount of water flow will tell you how bad the pipe is blocked and the seriousness of the leaking problem. The “enzyme treatment” may not work if the pipe is completely blocked.

3) it is best is you can get your air-conditioner technician to check it out and give it a proper cleaning to prevent further leakings.

Good Luck!

With best wishes,

choesf