Found - How to not spoil your Non Stick Pan

Started using Non Stick Pan ever since I move to my new place one year back. During then, I was checking out all sorts of Non Stick Pan and the technology behind it. Decided to get the one that I was using as it mention it has a so call diamond coating which is resistance to abrasion.

The demo was quite impressive back then. You can use a metal Spatula and scrap on the surface and it still work nicely. That's how hardy it seems. That's why I was kinda taken aback when I sense something is not right with my Pan these days.

How do I know? Simple. My Sunny side up got stuck on the Pan. That should not happened to a Non Stick Pan right. More and more things got stuck while cooking and I had enough. Decided to source for a new Pan/Wok.

A simple trip to Isetan, Tangs and Takashimaya gave me new knowledge. In the end, I got a Stainless Steel Wok instead. I'll leave that to another post when it arrive.

Do note the following when you are using your Non Stick Pan

Avoid using metal spatulas and utensils which may damage the coating. Choose silicone utensils instead.

Using a sponge or plastic scrubber. Never use Brillo pads, steel wool, or metal scrubbers.

Do not overheat your nonstick pans. Only cook on low or medium heat.

Do not use your Non Stick Pan for Steaming. Yes, you see it correctly, this will damage the coating. When I was told this, I knew what went wrong with my Pan. There goes my Pan with the Steaming, but how not to steam if you are cooking a Chinese dish. That's also why I ended up with a Stainless Steel Wok.

Well I'm still pampered by the Non Stick function of the Non Stick Pan. For now, I'll just use the spare Pan for eggs and other dedicated work. The rest will go Zi Char style with the Wok.

Found - West Bend TEM4500W - 4 Slice Egg & Muffin Toaster

How many of you are Egg McMuffins fan? Will it be exciting if you can make your own Egg McMuffins in the comfort of  your home using just 1 device. This device caught my attention immediately when it was shown to me.

West Bend TEM4500W Egg and Muffin Toaster

Yes, all in one and at one go. You can toast your Muffins, cook your eggs and heat up your ham. All you need is to add in the slice of cheese and you have just completed your very own Egg McMuffins. All these can be done in under 15 minutes. That's even shorter to get from the house to the nearest Mac. The 2 other sides can be easily settled. You can choose to Air Fry your Hashbrown and then brew a cup of Capsuled Coffee. There you have it, the whole meal completed concurrently.

Bagels and Ham

On the toaster, you can use it to toast bread, bagels, and croissants while the other side start heating up the pre cooked meat. Oh I think I heard someone ordered Big Breakfast. Guess what, it can be done too.

basket to soft or hard boil up to 8 eggs

You get to choose the kind of eggs you want in this personalized Big Breakfast. You can have scramble or poach eggs, soft or hard boil all done using this device. 

The last hurdle to get one of these in your home? It's only available on 120 volts, AC only. As long as you got a converter, you are pretty much set. 

Found - Scanomat Top Brewer

First I was curious on this little advertisement that I saw. After clicking in, I was blown away. Talk about elegant, revolutionary and techie. Words that you don't usually use on a coffee maker but it applies on this find perfectly.

Scanomat Top Brewer

The TopBrewer is an innovation that has created an entirely new level for coffee brewers. It changes the idea that coffee makers are the usual block of machine that you see everywhere.

 

 See how easy it is to make a cup of coffee. You can control it via iPhone or iPad. Well, I was being told that I still need to place a cup there manually but hey how cool can it get. Love the idea that I can just select the different kind of coffee and the machine will just make the perfect cup for me. No need to mess around with my frothier when I want a cup of Latte or Cappuccino.  Just need to press and there it is. 

When you think you seen it all, this guy can add a module and now it can also dispense cold juices. It just become your all in one drink station. Press this you get coffee, press that you get juice. Not forgetting press hot water and you can make yourself a nice cup of tea. 

With all the good news comes the bad one... It's not available in Singapore. At least for now and it comes are a price tag of USD$12k for the basic model. Back to dreamland to have one of this in my house.

Found - Samsung TecTiles

Have it ever happens to you that when you reach office, you got to switch your phone to silent, off the Wifi, or do some setting that you will minimize disruption to the colleagues around you. Then when you are back home, you got to do the reverse all over.

Bet there are those times that you forgot to set your phone to silent and it just ring loudly in the office and everyone is looking at you fumbling to answer that call. Or you forgotten to switch the phone back to ringing and gets missed call or messages late.

That is why I'm quite excited to see the Samsung TecTiles. Its basically a sticker and when you tap on it, it will just program your phone to whatever setting you programmed the sticker to be.

The only issue is that I can only find one for Samsung and Android. Other brands or iPhone users just got to keep searching.

This is one whole list of things you can program TecTiles to do for you when it's tap on.

"
Settings & Apps:

Change Phone Settings
Make a tag to set your phone up the way you like it when you get to work, or when you get in your car. You can even set an alarm time for a bedside tag. You can set individual settings, or combine settings to optimize your phone for your location - at home, at work, in the car, or other places.
Switch Phone Profiles
Switch between pre-defined or custom profiles. Profile TecTiles let the result of scanning be defined by the user. For example, create a “meeting” profile and put it on the conference room table that one user will have mute their phone while letting another user set their ringer to vibrate.
Launch an App
Make a tag to launch any app you have on your phone. You can even set music volume for music players or internet radio applications.
Toggle Music Playback
Make a tag to toggle between playing music or pausing music.
Join a WiFi Network
Make a tag that will connect a phone to your WiFi network. Great for visitors to scan when they arrive!
Show a Message
Make a tag that shows a message to whoever scans it.
Play a Track
Choose your favorite song and make a tag to play that tune at the tap of a TecTile!

Phone & Text:

Make a Call
Make a tag that'll bring up the phone ready to make a call to the number you choose. This is the 'Call Mom' tag.
Send a Text Message
Make a tag that'll send an SMS to the number you choose. This is the 'Honey, I'm Home' tag.
Send an Email Message
Make a tag that’ll send an email to the contact you choose. Great for those who don’t have unlimited texting but want to send their loved ones a message frequently.
Share a Contact
Make a tag that shares a contact's details. Great as a way to exchange business cards.
Start a Google Talk Conversation
Make a tag which will start a Google Talk conversation with the Google Talk user that you choose.
Forward Calls
Make a tag which will forward all of your calls to another phone number.

Location & Web:

Show an Address or Location
Make a tag that'll bring up a map of an address or location.
Foursquare Check In
Make a tag that checks the reader into the Foursquare venue that you choose. Put this tag on your reception desk or next to your register. Lock the tag to ensure everyone checks in to your business.
Facebook Places Check In
Make a tag that checks the reader into the Facebook Place that you choose. Put this tag on your reception desk or next to your register. Lock the tag to ensure everyone checks in to your business.
Show a Google Place
Make a tag that shows a Google Place. Find all of the information you want about your favorite store or restaurant – all with a simple tap.
Send a Glympse
Make a tag that shares your current location for a set duration of time. Great for letting your friends know exactly how close you are to the party or letting your family track your progress on a road trip home for the holidays.
Open a Web Page
Make a tag that shows a web page.
Save a Bookmark
Make a tag that adds a link to a website in the user’s browser. For business owners, this is a great way to promote your website or link to a weekly specials page that your customers can access again and again.

Social:

Update Facebook Status
Make a tag that updates the Facebook status of the reader.
Facebook Like
Make a tag so the reader can Like the link you supply.
Tweet a Status
Make a tag which will tweet the message you choose.
Follow a Twitter User
Make a tag which will let the reader follow the Twitter user you choose.
Update Google+ Status
Make a tag that updates the Google+ status of the reader.
Connect on LinkedIn
Make a tag which will connect the reader with the LinkedIn user you choose.
"

As you can see, you can practically do anything  using the TecTile. Samsung users, the next time you are out shopping, go grab youself one and try for yourself. It'll be interesting.

Found - Origami Strollers

Mummies, Daddies, Mummy to be, Daddy to be, I bet you have experience or already imagine the challenge that you might need to deploy the stroller when you have the baby on hand? Or when you hands are full but u need to keep the stroller?

These are very true challenges that most if not all parent faces with strollers. That's why I'm pretty amazed when I come across this stroller. I like to call it a transformer than a stroller. Ever though if you can deploy or keep a stroller with a touch of a button? Now you can.


Check this out!

Amazing right? Daddies will love the gadgets that comes with it while mummies will love the ease of deploying and keeping it. One plus point is that it can charges itself when we are pushing the baby around. Further more, it can charge your phone on the move. How cool is that?

Comes with built in headlights. That makes strolling in the evening much safer for parents and babies. This I believe will be the next generation stroller.

Found - Rice Weevil Control

The rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae) is a serious stored product pest which attacks several crops, including wheat, rice, and maize. These little pest can be seen usually in your tub of rice or other grains. It's main targets are grains so its not as annoying as Ants that almost go for every other thing. However it's still irritating enough especially if you have an outbreak of them like me.

My whole rice container is filled with them.

Rice Weevil

It gets to you when they starts to crawl out of the container and into the house. You can find them in the cupboards or the floor. Not wanting to waste food by throwing the whole container away, I start to find out how I can get rid of them. Most of the advice are more for deterrents rather than cure. e.g. Bay leaves and  Cloves are mention to be a good deterrents for Rice Weevil. Nothing was mention what I can do when I already have them until now.

Found an article on how to solve this. One method would be to place them in deep freeze and freeze them to death. But then this involved packing the rice into a bag and place it in the freezer, set to as cold as possible for 4 days. This will kill them all. I only got the following concerns:

1. Not space in the freezer for such a big pack of rice
2. The thought of having Rice Weevil invade my freeze give me the creeps.

This solution was out. Next suggestion was something that I like . Heat treatment of the affected rice. It was said to place the rice in the oven and heat it and it will eliminate all the Rice Weevil, Larvae and eggs.

Parchment Paper

1. Firstly place a piece of Parchment Paper on the baking tray.

Pre heat oven

2. Pre heat the oven with 60 degree Celsius using top and bottom mode for 10 mins.

Baking the rice

3. Spread a reasonable amount of rice on the Parchment Paper and place into the oven for baking. Set the temp to 60 degree Celsius using top and bottom mode for 30 mins. Do not use fan mode as it will blow the rice all over the place. 

Cooked Rice Weevil

4. After 30 mins, remove the baking tray and pour the rice into a clean container. One additional step you might want to add would be to sift the rice to remove the dead Weevil and the Larvae. If not you can keep everything back into a clean container and waste the rice cleanly the next time.

I find that this is the best solution has it make sure the Rice Weevil from all stages are eliminated.

For those who faces the same issue as me can try this out. It works and now I do not face the little black guys moving around my kitchen and house. 

Found - WaterProof Camera

These days people usually talk about DSLR or the recent rave of Micro 4/3. However there are one more class of camera that is slowly picking up. It's like your wish list all cramped into 1 camera. It's like jack of all trade but master of none but then this part its improving more and more.

After a recent dive trip, my interest was renewed for a rugged camera that I can bring underwater. Was looking through all the models and these 3 caught my attention the most.

 

 Courtesy of individual brands

They are the Sony Cyber-shot TX30, Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS5 and Olympus Stylus Tough TG-2. The TX30 can go under 10m while the TG-2 can go down to a staggering 15m. Before you jump the gun and grab a TG-2, you should really look at individual specs and see what really interest you. Some are better in mega pixels, some got better features while others have better image quality. It really very much depends on what draws your interest and also your budget.

One thing to note before you grab one of these camera and start jumping into the waters. Though it says they are water proof camera, it's not 100% to a certain extend. Like the Tx30, it's being mention upfront that it can only be underwater no more than 60 minutes. You also need to make sure the O rings are well maintained.

If you are those who want to bring the camera down for diving, getting a marine case if highly recommended. It will increase your depth to 40m and waterproofing is much better. You will never know how deep you might need to go.

Nevertheless, having a rugged camera has its advantages. Swimming pool shots of your kids, a day at the beach or simply just a normal shot, these camera has it covered. Check out the camera and who knows you might get 1 for yourself.