shop: happy mother's set petite 2

Happy Mother's Set Petite 2, now available for sale comprises:

1 Gr8x Bottle Pack + 1 Techni Ice HDR.

Retail price is MYR75/set only.

Some additional product information:

Gr8x Bottle Pack

• Dimensions: L8.5" x H8.5" x W3.5"/ L22cm x H22cm x W9cm
  
• Insulated compartment keeps 3-4 bottles or food containers cool or warm
  
• Mesh pockets to store small items
  
• Compartment to hold wipes pack and nappy/diaper
  
• Adjustable shoulder and pram strap
  

Techni Ice HDR

• High quality alternative ice/heat pack.
  
• Dimensions: L15" x W11"/ L38cm x 28cm
  

Applications:

1. when shopping - bring home fresh or frozen seafood, meat, milk, yogurt, ice cream etc without rush;
   
2. mothers in office/around town - maintains EBM at temperatures cold and safe for baby (12 hours and longer!);
   
3. on picnics/outstation trips - keeps foods, drinks and fruits cold and fresh for family;
   
4. in office/school - keeps meals warm and tasty;
   
5. at home/office/school/anywhere - as effective cold/heat therapy to soothe and relieve fever, headache, toothache, minor sprain, bruise, cut, etc;
   
6. occasional - transport temperature sensitive medicines and lab samples well preserved.

shop: happy mother's set plus 2

Happy Mother's Set Plus 2, packs a functional and stylish diaper/baby bag + cooler bag + Techni Ice in a complete all-in-one set for modern, practical moms. Comprises:

1 Gr8x Diaper Satchel + Gr8x Bottle Pack + 1 Techni Ice HDR.

Retail price is MYR255/set only.

Some additional product information:

Gr8x Diaper Satchel

• Dimensions: L40cm x W14cm x H30cm (15.5” x 5.5” x 12”)
• Highest quality construction. Sturdy bottom with rubber feet saves on wear and tear on materials
  
• Adjustable shoulder strap ergonomically designed for comfort
  
• Detachable stroller straps
  
• Soft, waterproof change mat
  
• Insulated bottle traveller
  
• Unique built-in exterior pocket for quick and effortless access to baby wipes
  
• Pacifier/dummy pouch
  
• Organised elasticised and zipped pockets inside and out
  
• Front zipped pocket under flap and rear pocket
  

Gr8x Bottle Pack

• Dimensions: L22cm x H22cm x W9cm (8.5" x 8.5" x 3.5")
  
• Insulated compartment keeps 3-4 bottles or food containers cool or warm
  
• Mesh pockets to store small items
  
• Compartment to hold wipes pack and nappy/diaper
  
• Adjustable shoulder and pram strap
  

Techni Ice HDR

• High quality reusable ice/heat pack.
  
• Dimensions: L38cm x 28cm (15" x 11")
  

Applications:

1. when shopping - bring home fresh or frozen seafood, meat, milk, yogurt, ice cream etc without rush;
   
2. mothers in office/around town - maintains EBM at temperatures cold and safe for baby (12 hours and longer!);
   
3. on picnics/outstation trips - keeps foods, drinks and fruits cold and fresh for family;
   
4. in office/school - keeps meals warm and tasty;
   
5. at home/office/school/anywhere - as effective cold/heat therapy to soothe and relieve fever, headache, toothache, minor sprain, bruise, cut, etc;
   
6. occasional - transport temperature sensitive medicines and lab samples well preserved.

pineapple frozen yogurt ice cream

This is a delicious pineapple ice cream to try and you don't need an ice cream maker. Recipe from Back to the Cutting Board.



Pineapple Upside Down Cake Frozen Yogurt

adapted from David Lebovitz

Ingredients
16 oz. fresh pineapple, cut into chunks
2/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. vodka (This is optional, it’s supposed to help make the ice cream softer after it’s frozen, but I didn’t use any and mine turned out perfectly soft)
1 cup low-fat Greek-style vanilla yogurt (you can use regular instead of low-fat to get an even creamier consistency)
1/2 cup half and half (I’d reduce this to 1/4 cup if using regular yogurt)
2 tbsp. orange juice

Butterscotch Sauce
from How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
3/4 cup half and half (use heavy cream, if you’re not concerned with keeping the fat/calories down)
6 tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3/4 cup brown sugar
Pinch of salt

Process

1. In a medium bowl, mix together pineapple, sugar and vodka (if using). Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 2 hours (at room temp), stirring a few times.

2. After the 2 hours, pour pineapple mixture into a blender along with the yogurt, half and half and juice. Mix well.

3. Pour mixture through a fine-mesh strainer (to get out any pulp, seeds, etc.) into a medium metal or plastic bowl, preferably one with a cover. If you don’t have a cover for it, then cover with plastic wrap.

4. Place in freezer to chill. After an hour, take it out and use a hand mixer or a sturdy whisk to whip it vigorously (you’ll get the best results with the mixer). Make sure to break up all the frozen sections around the edges. This may seem counter-intuitive, but this helps make it really creamy in the end. Put back in the freeze.

5. Keep checking every 45-60 minutes and whipping/breaking it up. It took me 4-6 hours of total freezing time to get it to the right consistency. It depends on how hard you want it to be.

6. When the frozen yogurt gets to a consistency you are happy with, start making the butterscotch. (Though you can make it earlier and just heat it up when you need it. It keeps up to a week in the fridge.) Combine half and half and butter in a small saucepan, cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted.

7. Add in sugar and salt. Stirring frequently, cook until the mixture is thicker and shiny, about 10 minutes.

8. Set aside to cool off. You want it to be warm (so it’s smooth and easy to pour) but not hot (you don’t want to melt the frozen yogurt too much).

9. Slowly pour in 3/4 cup of the butterscotch (that’s about half of what you made), gently folding it into the frozen yogurt using a spatula. Don’t whip/stir anymore or it’ll just get mixed up in there. You are aiming for swirls of butterscotch throughout.

10. Put back into the freezer to harden for another 30 minutes to an hour. Scoop out into bowls and top with the remaining butterscotch sauce (warmed up).

Makes 1 quart

Upcycling PET bottles : Purses

Some plastic bottle fun facts that puts their rampant use into perspective:

• Plastic bottles take 700 years to begin composting
• 90% of the cost of bottled water is due to the bottle itself
  
• 80% of plastic bottles are not recycled
  
• 38 million plastic bottles go to the dump per year in America from bottled water (not including soda)
  
• 24 million gallons of oil are needed to produce a billion plastic bottles
  
• The average American consumes 167 bottles of water a year
  
• Bottling and shipping water is the least energy efficient method ever used to supply water
  
• Bottled water is the second most popular beverage in the United States

Here's a simple DIY where 2 typical soda bottles is upcycled to make a hip green purse or a carrier for little knicks-knacks. Found via Green Upgrader.

Mochi ice cream

Mochi ice cream is a Japanese dessert made from mochi, a sweetened chewy rice powder confection, with an ice cream filling. These delectable, bite-sized morsels are quite pretty to look at. Try making some yourself from this recipe here. (images from FoodBuzz)

Ice stories

I like this article from Exploratorium about ice. Ice Stories: Dispatches from Polar Scientists is about penguin biologists, glaciologists, cosmologists, geologists, and marine scientists working in Antarctica and the Arctic. They’ve documented their adventures, so you can follow their research, ask questions, and share in their discoveries as they occur. Read on.....

For those who think ice is all the same: think again. At the poles, ice takes many forms—from shiny “grease ice” on the sea surface to mile-thick ice sheets that cover entire continents.

The many varieties of ice found at the poles arise from the various environments in which they form: on land, at sea, and at the boundary between the two.

On land, snow falls and hardly ever melts. Year after year, snowfall piles up and compacts into ice that flows like a slow-motion river—a glacier. When glaciers are bounded by mountains, they carve deep U-shaped valleys on their way to the sea, valleys that remain long after the glacier has melted away; Yosemite Valley in California is an example.

When glaciers stretch out across flat land or over an entire continent, they’re called ice sheets; both Greenland and Antarctica are almost entirely covered by ice sheets that are miles thick. Within ice sheets, faster-moving zones called ice streams occur over water or smooth ground. Smaller ice sheets that sit on mountaintops are called ice caps.

When ice from glaciers and ice sheets reaches the sea, it can spread across the water as a slab called an ice shelf. Ice shelves can extend for miles—even hundreds of miles—over the ocean. Chunks of ice can break off from an ice shelf, forming floating icebergs.

In Arctic climates, even land that seems ice-free may hide a layer of ice beneath its surface. Permafrost is a layer of soil that remains frozen year round.

Sea ice forms when temperatures dip so low that the ocean itself begins to freeze. Sea ice can be free-floating drift ice, or fast ice that is “stuck fast” to land. When sea ice first begins to form, it appears as fine bits of frazil ice, then thickens into soupy grease ice, and then sometimes forms pancake ice, pieces of drift ice that have been battered into rounds by waves and collisions. When pieces of drift ice get packed together, they become pack ice. An ice floe is a solid chunk of drift ice up to 6 miles (9.7 km) across; if it grows larger than this, it’s called an ice field.

More stunning photographs below via Exploratorium.

iceland

How do you describe Iceland? An island of almost 40,000 square miles with a population of only 300,000, 11% of the country is covered by glaciers, more than 10,000 waterfalls and countless hotspring. The coastline is dotted with more than one hundred fjords and green, fertile valleys extend from many of them.

Land of the midnight sun, it's 24-hour daylight can be experienced throughout summer while in winter, try swimming in a geothermally-heated outdoor pool in a blizzard in Reykjavik, the country's vibrant capital.

With outstandingly fresh, clean and clear air, misty geo-thermal steam rising from the ground, miles of walking and cycling paths along the stunning shoreline and through parks and nature reserves, colorful houses...... Iceland is indeed a beautiful country.