the curious monkey » Pockets of Wisdom

[pockets of wisdom] – shakespeare

the curious monkey — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 20:08:22 +0000

“It is believed that Shakespeare was 46 around the time that the King James Version of the Bible was written. In Psalms 46, the 46th word from the first word is shake and the 46th word from the last word is spear.”
Link to this unnecessary knowledge

[pockets of wisdom] – tips for homemade salad dressing

the curious monkey — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 01:14:33 +0000

this post is part of an ongoing series of posts on helpful hints or as i call then pockets of wisdom. if your curious about its intention and or about its sources etc.. or just board and want something interesting to read, check out the first post here.

my mum was a big fan of making salad dressings at home. the easiest being some spices and some fresh herbs mixed with some salt, vinegar and oil. the other day i decided to give it a try and guess what. it did not taste at all good. in fact all i was tasting was the oil and nothing else. i couldn’t for the life of me figure out what i was doing wrong… until i came across this little fact in my email

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“For maximum flavor in your homemade salad dressings mix the seasonings and herbs your using with vinegar before adding the oil, otherwise the oil will coat the herbs and traps the flavor”

well there you do, now you know and as the G.I Joe’s used to say.. knowing is half the battle i’m oing to have to try this sometime soon and see if it works!

[pockets of wisdom] – boiling water in a kettle

the curious monkey — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:35:15 +0000

this is part of an ongoing series of posts on helpful hints or as i call then pockets of wisdom. you can read the first post here to find out the goal for these posts and some background information about then (stuff about sources, etc…)

so one of the problems that some people face when boiling water is getting distracted only to arrive back at the kitchen with the pot/kettle burn and my whole apartment filled with smoke. i have been lucky so far and its never happened to me (except when i was trying to steam something once and i put too little water in the steamer and ended up burning the bottom of the pan a bit). luckily i caught it in time and was able to stop a major disaster from happening.

here is a really easy way to alert you when you start getting close to the danger zone

“Put a few marbles into your double boiler/tea kettle/pot before putting it on the flame. This will warn you when the water has boiled away”

seems pretty easy. i should try this the next time i have to steam something

[pockets of wisdom] – how to clean a badly burn pan

the curious monkey — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 06:10:22 +0000

one of the things i really love is getting some little tit bits of useful information that i can store away and use when i need to. the only problem is that i usually forget what i’ve read or received via email and that information is not use to me anymore, so i’ve decided to write them all down in this blog as part of a “[pockets of wisdom]” series. i hope you will enjoy receiving these pockets of wisdom as much i as do.

most of these come to me via email as forwards or as random facts that don’t belong to any traceable source so pardon the fact that they don’t have references. if i know the source of a particular fact i’ll include it in the posts. if you see a fact without a source and know the source let me know and i will definitely add it to the post.

“To aid in cleaning the inside of badly burnt pans, bring the outside of the pan into contact with cold water while the pan is still very hot”