2 simple tips to save your precious time in kitchen..

Grate the coconut and keep it in a tightly closed jar. It can be stored for a week's use and really helps to save time in kitchen. Same way, if you melt the jaggery and keep it in fridge, it is very easy to use for making any dishes using this. 

Crispy crispy biscuits...

To retain the crispiness of biscuits for long time after its cover is opened, just put it in a plastic container and keep in refrigerator. The biscuits will not lose its crispiness for a long time. 

An additional use of nail polish remover.

Fevi quick/quick fix is a very strong adhesive, so we should be very careful while working with it. Once it is applied on our hands accidentally, and the fingers are sticked,  it is so hard to take out. 
Nail polish remover is a good remedy for it. Apply some remover on the affected area. It will melt the gum easily. So always keep some nail polish remover aside, while working with  quick fix/fevi quick.

How to reuse pressure cooker gasket?

It is a common problem with the pressure cooker gaskets that it becomes expand after many use. As a result pressure leaks through the sides of the cooker and the cooker doesn't function well. Before getting a new gasket, we can just try a simple trick. Keep the gasket in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. Because of contraction, the gasket comes to the normal stage. Use the gasket immediately after taking from the freezer. The cooker will function well.
Tip: It is applicable in minor cases only. If the gasket is very old and it has become too expanded, this trick won't be worked out.

How can we keep kids' ear studs?

It is a big problem in baby girls that they always lose their ear rings/studs. Kids always touch on it and the screw becomes lose and finally it will be lost. So mothers hesitate to wear them golden ear studs. We can do one simple method to avoid it. After wearing them the ear studs, just apply some nail polish on the back side (where the screw and the stud joins). Nail polish acts as a good adhesive and it will remain for a long time and will not be damaged even after many baths. Now I have tried this idea on my kid's stud. But for more safety I check it every day. But still after a month, it is safe.

How to make set curd at home?

Set cud can be made at home easily. Take milk (boiled and cooled) in a pot, add a tea spoon of curd into it and stir well. Keep it aside for 8-12 hours. Set curd is ready.
There are many reasons for curd becoming watery, not set and smelly.
Tips: 

• Always add curd into the milk. Not milk to the curd.
• The milk should not be watery.
• The pot should be clean and fresh. Don't reuse the pot without washing.
• The pot can be covered with a sweater or blanket type cloth in winter season for easy fermentation.

To avoid spilling of toor daal while cooking...

'Yellow pigeon peas' also named as 'toor daal', 'arhar daal', 'thuvara parippu' and 'sambar parippu' has the characteristic of spilling over when it is being boiled. Pour 3-4 drops of oil to the toor daal and pressure cook it. It will not be spilled.

To fry the onions fast...

There is one way to cook the onions faster. If you add some salt along with the onions, it will turn brown fast.

Add more taste to your fish fry...

Fish fry is a very tempting dish of non vegetarians. If you add some lemon juice or vinegar to the gravy in which we use to fry, it will taste more. Just try it!!!
Tip: To avoid the smell from hands after cleaning fish, use lemon peel, lemon juice, lemon leaf or vinegar to clean hands first. Then use soap. Your hands will not smell further.

Want to get rid of odour from your refrigerator?

Fridge odour is caused due to many reasons. Uncovered foods, mainly non veg items stored in the freezer cause this.The skin of lemon after squeezing the juice is a very good remedy for it. It can be kept anywhere inside the fridge and it makes the air fresh.

To make the curry thick...

While making curries, sometimes the gravy becomes so thin in consistency due to lack of coconut paste or excess water. There is an easy way to make the gravy thick. Take a spoon full of maida or wheat flour and make a paste by adding little water. Add this paste to the curry and you can easily make the gravy thick without any taste difference. It is applicable in kadala curry, chicken curry, potato curry and in all coconut paste added curries.

For softer idlies and dosas...

Usually we add some choru (rice) to the Rice & Black gram dal mixture to get smooth and soft idlies. If you add a handful of aval (rice flakes) to this mixture instead of choru, you will get smoother and softer idlies and dosas.

How to avoid pests in the pulses container?

When we keep pulses in our containers for a long time, it becomes spoiled by pests. There is an easy way to avoid this. Just put one garlic clove in each containers. Pests will not spoil the pulses.

How to peel off garlic skin easily?

When there is a need of bulk quantity of garlic to be peeled off, (while making pickles) you can try these tips to make it easy.

• Soak the garlic in water for 6-8 hours or you can soak it in the previous night. It will be very easy to peel it off. 
• Apply some oil on the garlic and keep it in sunlight for 1-2 hours. This also is an easy method.

Tip: For more easy, first cut the root end of the garlic. Then do rest.  

Gastric problem annoys you?

Cumin seeds are a good remedy for gastric problems. Let us see how we will get relief with cumin seeds in case of gastric problem.
Preheat a pan and splutter some (1 tea spoon) cumin seeds (aviyal jeerakam) in it without oil. It will turn black. Now add a glass of water and allow it to boil. Cool it (lukewarm) and drink. Chew the cumin seeds also. You will get relief in next few minutes. 
Tip: I got this tip from my mother. She uses this whenever suffers with gastric problems. I too have tried it out.

A tip to retain the freshness of coconut

When we keep coconut in fridge, it becomes dry in 2 or 3 days. We can retain its freshness by keeping the coconut in a zip lock cover or in a polythene cover. It will be easy to grate too. Try this out!
Tip: We can keep all the vegetables in a zip lock/polythene cover like this to retain freshness. It is better to wrap leafy vegetables in a paper and keep it in a cover for long time freshness.  

Turmeric powder as a remedy for cough in kids.

As all of us know, turmeric has lots of medicinal uses. I could see that turmeric powder is a best medicine for cough in kids. Add a pinch of turmeric powder (it should be pure & better if we can use home made powder) to warm milk (sugar can be added) and drink twice a day for 2-3 days. It's very effective. 
Note: I got this tip from my father in law when my son caught cough in his younger age. I have never given him any cough syrups yet. So I usually suggest this tip to all my friends and sharing it here too.

Some easy tips to make chapatis/dosas/idlis/biriyani more nutritious.

Like all mothers, I am also so concerned about kid's nutritional food habits. Sharing some tips which I usually apply and have succeeded in it too. You can try it, if your kids are not fond of leafy vegetables and vegetables.


1. Take 2 carrots, 1 beetroot and one potato (the ratio can be changed). Cook it in a pressure cooker with some salt. Keep it some time for cooling. Now you can grind it in mixie to make a fine paste. Instead of water, use this paste to mix while making chapatis. Same way add the paste in idli/dosa batter and make pink dosas and idlies. Your kids will really love the pink color chapatis, idlis and dosas.


2. Take a bundle of palak cheera (spinach), clean it and cut it into small pieces. Cook it for one minute and make a fine paste as before. This paste also can be used in the same way to make chapatis, idlis and dosas. Only one difference, the chapatis will be greenish. Spinach is rich with iron, vitamin K and folic acid. 


3. I tried the palak paste in one more dish. While making vegetable biriyani, add this paste with the water we use to make biriyani. Rich green and more nutritious veg biriyani is ready. If you use the pink paste(carrot and beetroot) in the biriyani, it will look pinkish. (I couldn't try it. Planning to make it next time).

Note: There wont be any taste difference in the chapatis/idlis/dosas/biriyani. You can keep this paste in refrigerator up to one week time. My son never eats leafy vegetables. But he is fond of this *pista chapati and *pista biriyani. (*A new name I made for these green dishes to convince my kids).

Troubling with dandruff?

Troubling with dandruff? 

• Before buying any readymade product from the shop, just take a lemon from the kitchen. Cut it into two pieces and apply it on your scalp. Wait for 10 minutes before bath. Mild shampoo can be used for cleaning. Repeat it once in a week or once in 4 days depending on the depth of dandruff. See the change! And completely forget about dandruff!
• Equal quantity of egg white and lemon juice mix also is a very good remedy for dandruff.

Note: I was really troubled with dandruff and came to know that lemon is a good solution for it. I just thought of trying it rather than buying any shampoo from market. I felt it very useful. So sharing it for you too..