Homemade Chocolates

I recently bought a tub of cooking grade cocoa butter online, which is perfect for making my own chocolates. Just melt some, add cocoa powder, sugar or stevia, and a little cream or cream substitute, then whatever flavours you like really. A silicon ice cube tray is perfect for setting the little delights in, and you can add centres like a glace cherry in each pod first, or a sprinkle of coconut on after the pour. Just be careful adding alcohol, it reacts with the hot cocoa butter.

Avocado Squoosh

If you have a lot of avocados and they seem to be getting over-ripe and very soft, maybe nearly runny [you can actually buy bags full in this state in Cyprus] do not throw them out. In my opinion, this is when avocados are at their best.

They are easy to prepare. Cut in half carefully, the stone often just falls out; and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Mix in a bowl with a variety of flavourings. I prefer salt and a little tahini, or tomato and onion for guacamole,

or cream cheese and olive oil is nice too. Mix well and place in an airtight tub. This can be used as a sandwich spread,

and it can be frozen if you are lucky enough to have a lot. Ignore any small areas of black, it's just oxidation, it still tastes just as good. If you are keeping a large tub in the fridge, flatten and smooth the top surface after use and seal with a thin layer of olive oil that you can mix in next use.

Cream blocks

Got more cream than you can use before it goes out of date? Freeze it in an ice cube tray, then you can just pop out one cube direct onto a pudding and leave it to defrost while you do other things. It's a good way to freeze excess milk too.

Also you can put the whole frozen tray in a powerful food processor/blender and add some flavourings- caramel syrup is good, to make instant ice cream.

Eco Bricks

You might already know about this or it might be news to you, but there is something you can do with all those soft plastics that are seemingly not recyclable. Collect your old plastic bottles, any size, but I find two litre drinks bottles the best. Then stuff all your soft plastics into the bottle. Ram it in there with a stick or stair rod or something. You will be amazed how much you can get in one bottle.

Once you have filled a bottle there are various places that will accept them from you. Most places like you to write the weight of the stuffed bottle and give you a reference number to write on the bottle. Here is a link to a good site. Eco Bricks
Or you can use them yourself in a variety of building projects. They can be made into a wall with support sticks/poles and chicken wire, then plastered with something like wattle and daub, which can be painted later. Personally I am saving mine up for my allotment to make a compost bin and flower beds.

Herbs

If you are lucky enough to grow herbs in your garden, or even if you buy fresh herbs from the shop; you will sometimes find yourself with a glut that are gradually wilting and getting thrown away. Freezing them like this in portions in an ice cube tray, means no waste, and you can get a portion out at a time and just drop the frozen cube directly into the cooking pot. Or leave to defrost for salad dressing. You can freeze them in wine too for casseroles.

Bicarbonate of Soda

I'm not great at cleaning stubborn things. I spent a lot of time with hippies and tended to ignore deep cleaning. If it's had a wipe down, it'll be okay, tended to be my philosophy. So I've come late to the world of getting things spick and span. Greasy tiles in the kitchen, off colour grouting in the bathroom, stubborn ovens that refuse to come up shiny. Turns out bicarbonate of soda is the answer, not all these bottles of chemicals on the supermarket shelves.

A couple of tablespoons of bicarb on a sponge mixed with just a few drops of water and tiles come up clean really easily. Also cooker hobs, ovens, and greasy floors. It really does get the job done with a minimum of effort.

Weighing luggage

Have you got one of these types of luggage weighing scales?

If so, you will probably be aware that they have certain limitations. For example the hook starts to bend at 23kg, which is a fairly normal weight for a lot of holiday cases. Also the hook doesn't really fit properly in a lot of case handles, causing it to get stretched open then fall off mid weigh.

We introduced the addition of a paracord bracelet, which snaps around the case handle, then can easily be lifted by the scales. I mean paracord is useful for all kinds of things, and jolly handy to have with you when you travel anyway.

Just remember to take it back off the handle before you hand your luggage in, so it doesn't get snagged on machinery at the airport- which is one of the top reasons for luggage going missing.
Having said all that I now notice they are selling complete weighing kits with exactly our kind of improv design all built in.

Dealing with Garlic

Ever thrown away a bulb of garlic because it's gone mouldy before you could use it all? Ever struggled to pick the papery skin off each clove? This trick quickly solves both those problems and you don't ever need to find you have run out of garlic again. I buy garlic in huge quantities from the market, about a dozen bulbs at a time. Quickly break the bulbs into individual cloves by snapping the stalk and just roughly pulling the cloves apart with your hands. Leave the paper on. You don't have to, but it's just quicker and easier that way. Pop the cloves in a bag and put them away in your freezer.

When you want a clove or two of garlic, just get it out from the freezer. Clip off the root end and the paper will just come away easily. The cloves defrost really fast for crushing, or can be chopped whilst still frozen. It tastes and performs just as well as fresh.

When Life Gives You Lemons

When life gives you lemons and you don't fancy making lemonade, you can chop them into quarters and freeze them, or freeze in slices for straight into drinks [mixed ice and lemon in one],

or food process into mush and freeze in ice cube trays, the peel adds a really good zing to dishes [buy un-waxed] and apparently they are healthier like that too.

Or put them in a jar quartered and top up with vinegar. Leave for six weeks and you have your own pickled lemons. So delicious to cook with and so much nicer and cheaper than the posh shop variety.

Freeze the Cheese

I don't know if you know you can freeze cheese. I found out later in life that it was a do-able thing, maybe I was just a late starter on the freezing things spectrum.
I had a block of mature cheddar in the fridge, just kind of sitting there getting sweaty in its packet and approaching its 4th March expiry date. I'm counting calories, so to be honest, it wasn't seeing a lot of use- just too high cal for casual consumption. So instead of freezing it, I cut it into weighed out 100g pieces, individually wrapped in clingfilm and then put in the freezer. Now I know how many calories are in each piece when I defrost it for use, and it's a good size to work with, for a meal for two. It reminded me I have many hacks which involve freezing things...watch this space.

Water bottle on the go

When you are out for a walk, and you don't need to take a backpack, and it's a hot day and you need to take a bottle of water. On occasions like that, you might find you have to carry the water bottle all day, which can be really annoying, and you can leave your special BPA free bottle behind somewhere. I think we've all been there at one time or another.
You can get these carabiner clips for as little as 50p, and they are great for clipping your water bottle to your belt, for hands free walking and clambering.

Tangled Necklaces No More

So I got really fed up with keeping my necklaces in boxes where they would get tangled up, and also I could never find the one I wanted. I would end up not bothering to wear one just because it was too much hassle. So, with just some gold glittery gift ribbon, some green bauble hooks, but paperclips would work fine too, and some spare space around shelf brackets that wasn't doing anything- I came up with this system.

At a glance I can easily see which necklace I want to wear. They don't get tangled, and are easy to pic up and then put away again later. Also I think they make a bare bit of wall look kind of pretty. Here's a close up of the clips and ribbon.

Cable Tidy

It kept cropping up in our day to day lives; life hacks, recycling, re-using, re-purposing; but it didn't fit in with my Diary of a Writer blog, nor my Travels with Moggie journey diary. So I created a new blog where I will put these things, these ideas, as they crop up.
Firstly, the plastic ring pulls off cartons of milk. In looking for a photo of them on the carton [you can't always tell whether they will have one or just twist and rip a hole in the film seal, and I didn't want to open milk unnecessarily], I discovered lots of pictures of people having made them into pretty junk jewellery, rings and bracelets.

But my hubby uses just the ring part as a cable tidy for phone chargers, mini headphones and suchlike. Keeps things neat.