Cleaning Your Pasta Machine – with Flour

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Anne

If your pasta dough is a little sticky and some still sticks to the machine after you are done, do not use water to wash it off.  Water will ruin the machine and does not wash the dough away properly anyway.

If it is not enough to just dust off the crumbs and flour with a dry cloth, use more flour for cleaning:  The sticky pasta will come off much easier if you sprinkle flour on the machine and then roll as if you were rolling dough.  A tooth prick might help to get into the creases to scratch out the last tiny pieces.

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“A thing of beauty is a joy forever!”

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Anne

How do you clean the air in your home?  Do you have an ionic air purifier?  If you are off grid or more inclined towards natural air purification, follow Mary Poppins’ advice and fill your house with house plants and herbs.  If you worry about space, consider hanging baskets or plant stands.  The former will come in especially handy if you have children and pets in the house and need to keep them off the greenery.

Here is a list of common plants that purify the air:

  • Chinese Evergreen (Aglaonema modestum, ‘Silver Queen’)
  • Peace lily (Spathiphyllum species – the most robust house plant I have ever known, and I worked in a flower shop for many many years ;) )
  • Spider plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
  • Golden photos (Epipremnum)
  • Fern (Pteris species and Nephrolepsis species)
  • Weeping fig (Ficus benjamina)
  • Common herbs (basil, thyme, oregano, sage, rosemary, mint and geraniums)

Make sure to wise up on whether the plants you take into your house are poisonous for children or animals to eat and take precautions if they are, or choose different plants to begin with.

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Wasps in the Mailbox

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Anne

“Everybody has them”, the mail lady said when I told her we got rid of ours, for good, it would seem.  Here’s how we deterred them:  We sprayed disinfectant around the opening of the mailbox and into it after removing both wasps and the nest they were starting to build.

Now, anything that destroys the chemical “scent” for the wasps will do the job.  Try what you have in the house – pine cleaner, essential oils, cleaning alcohol…  Try it out and share your experiences :)

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Fighting the Gunk

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Anne

Can openers, appliances and kitchen gadets in general can collect a lot of gunk.  If you dampen an old, soft toothbrush with a couple of drops of essential oil you can get rid of the gunk in no time: Scub, rinse, done :)

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Cleaning Plastic Containers

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Anne

Plastic containers, no matter how expensive they were when you first bought them, are often difficult to clean and tend to get permanently stained.  Here are a few ideas on how to clean them, or deal best with the issue:

  • “Onions Only”: If you keep pieces of onion in the fridge in a plastic container, always use the same container.  Ours has “Onions Only” written on the lid and on the container.  That way nobody will complain about semolina pudding that tastes like onion.  Do likewise with other smelly foods.
  • If your containers are stained from tomato sauce, for example, soak them in a strong herbal infusion (you can use lemon balm, mint or sage, most of which grow abundantly in your garden if you ever planted them) and baking soda.  Scrub after soaking, using more baking soda if necessary.  Even if the stains do not disappear completely, the container should look better afterward.
  • Use yogurt, sour cream, creme cheese, whipped topping and other containers rather than buying expensive name brand ones.  That way, if a container is ruined, you can throw it out without regret.
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