Make Your Own Soya Bean Milk

With all the stories going round about milk, as well as store-bought products in general, we are trying to make more and more of our own food and beverages at home.  Soya bean milk is very easy, tastes better homemade and fresh, and is extremely cheap to make, too.

Here is a how-to of making soya bean milk. There are lots of others online, so take a look around the internet if these don't make sense to you.

Step 1:
Go to your local supermarket or general goods store, and buy a bag of soya beans (黃豆 "huang(2) dou(4)").  Start with 半斤 (half (ban(4)) a "jin") to see if you like making it or not.  Buy a cheesecloth. You can either buy a bag kind, or sew your own.

Beans should cost about NTD30.  You can make about 10 liters with that amount, I think.
Cheesecloth is also very cheap.  (Secret: We use an old muslin vest of my daughter's. We washed it first.)

Step 2:
Take them home and rinse and then soak some beans.  I use a cup from the rice cooker to measure the beans, which is about 200cc.  Cover them with enough water to let them soak it up until the beans double in size.  That will take 6-8 hours.

Step 3:
I pour out the water from the beans. Some people use it in the blender.  It's up to you.  Add the beans to the blender.  Add about 4 cups of water.  (Use the same cup as you used to measure the beans.)  Blend until smooth.  Keep adding water until the soya milk is about the consistency you like.  It should be a total of about 10 cups of water.

Step 4:
Strain the mixture through the cheesecloth, into a pot.  Keep the pulp for making other recipes.

Not much left!

Step 5:
Heat the mixture to boiling point, stirring so it doesn't stick to the pot.  Boil it for a good few minutes.  Add sugar or sugar syrup if desired. 

Step 6:
After the soya bean milk cools, you can store it in glass containers.  We use recycled wine bottles from Costco.  They are the ones with the wider necks.

Our fritters, made from the pulp.

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The Cheap Way to Get and Raise a Dog

Just a short note with ideas for raising a dog in Taipei without breaking your bank.

1. ADOPT! There are tons of beautiful dogs available for adoption in Taiwan, so never feel you need to buy one!  One place to go is Taiwan Animal S.O.S.  Sean knows his dogs, and cares very much about having the right dog matched to the right owner.

2. Go raw.  Raw food certainly saved my rescued dog from his distemper and other ailments.  Whatever your stance on dogfood, you also can't deny that TWD100 for around 3kg of chicken meat for your dog can't be beaten.  Go to the wholesaler on Chung Ji Road (near YuanShan MRT station, down the road from Da-An Sports Center) and pick up bags of chicken bags, necks, and other bits and pieces.  You can park in front of their little processing plant in their carpark.

Address: 台北市昌吉街59號
Tel: 25853366/24853388
Hours: Mon-Sat something like 9am-4:30pm
Note: Closed at noon for naptime.

We Wish You A Frugal Christmas (In Taipei)

I really want to do a few Christmas-y things for the children this year, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on it, or run around Taipei looking for the things I "need".  So, I have been collecting ideas and making things in preparation.  Here is a run-down on my humble beginnings.  If you have any ideas for a fun, frugal Christmas in Taiwan, add them here!

1. Christmas music:  Do a search online for Christmas children's song radio stations, and you can get quite a selection of music to play from your computer.

2. Advent Calendar:  I made my own, using leftover materials around home.  I made little envelopes out of card (stuck together with homemade glue left over from an English class), and inside each one I put an activity we can do at home on that day.  They are now hanging up on spare ribbon with paper clips and pegs.  Activities include the kids writing a letter to our sponsored child, watching a Christmas DVD together, and making Christmas cookies to give out to friends.

3.  Christmas Crackers:  I did find some ideas online but they call for things like Christmas cracker pieces and decorative paper.  I'm going to do a Lucky Dip instead.  Still thinking about what to put in the Lucky Dip packages, but I will most likely go and pick up some small useful things from the discount store.

4.  Christmas Tree Decorations: We collected pinecones on a visit to Jung-Li a couple of months ago, and we will paint them and hang them on the tree.

5.  Christmas Dinner:  I'll stick to the roast chicken we do in NZ.  I understand many North Americans love to have turkey for big holiday dinners, but why not try to cook up a chicken instead?

A Great Little Cookbook

Rummaging through mum's drawers, I discovered a wonderful little cookbook printed in 2006 by NZ's Ministry of Social Development.  The book is filled with recipes designed for those on a strict budget or just trying to cut down grocery costs, as well as little hints, tips, and reminders.  I've made a few things for the family, and they have all been welcomed, with grandparents and kids all wanting to eat the dinners "again another day".  Best of all, the recipe book is available, free, online as a PDF file.  So, open up the book and try a recipe or two.

Rediscovering the Outdoors

Last weekend, we did something radical, something adventurous, something cheap.  We got together with a couple of other families and went CAMPING.  In tents.  Who would have thought you could do this so easily and cheaply in Taiwan? 

(I'd like to thank http://www.forumosa.com/ and it's Swap Shop section for providing me with a whole set of camping gear in return for some essential oils I had bought on a whim and left sitting in the closet.  Swapping things with online friends is just awesome; I never would have bought myself a hammock but it was a surprise in the swap items.) 

Here are a few things I discovered over the weekend:

1. Camping is easy.  There are numerous camping grounds around Taiwan, several not far from Taipei.  You can stay in cabins, and places also provide gear for hire if you need it.  Our tent site was only $400 which included use of the bathrooms, hot showers, electrical outlets, and grounds which boasted a very nice tennis court.
2. Kids love camping.  I'd forgotten this part. It is really easy to entertain kids when you take them to an open space, provide friends and a few bits of sports of equipment and food.  My favorite quote was my son's, right before bed, "I love camping.  I feel so free, with nobody telling me what to do and when."
3. Parents love camping.  Sit back, supervise the kids, and hang out with your friends.  Much better than dragging protesting boys and girls through supermarkets and shopping malls or putting up with the noise of an indoor playspace.
4. Camping is cheap.  In Taiwan, you can pick up camping gear at pretty good prices online, from Costco, or from camping stores.  (About $2,000 for a four-person tent.) You can also hire it from a friend of ours here (You can email them in English:dbk.dbk@hotmail.com).  If you stay in a camping ground, things like barbecues and tables are already there, so you don't need to worry about getting those.

So, before you head out for another day at SOGO or Happy Bear, how about doing a little investigation and seeing if you could have a much more memorable couple of days in the woods?  It's easier than I thought, easier than you think!

I Like Coffee, I Like Bodyshop...

When I was single, I liked to pamper myself - uhhem - now and then.  This included buying Bodyshop's tubs of exfoliates and body scrubs.  Taipei's air pollution and nights at smokey bars really made it a necessity.  Recently, I went into Bodyshop, looking to buy some more of this exfoliate.  After reading the ingredients on the tub (salt, water, scent), I decided to see whether I could make something like this at home.  Here are my results:

1. Salt Scrub:  Get some salt (I used some sea salt from Costco), dig out that conditioner or liquid soap you don't like or that has expired, and find the perfume your ex-boyfriend or MotherInLaw in gave you for Christmas.  Mix them together.  Jump in the shower, and then rub this concoction over your limbs and torso.  Rinse.

2.  Coffee Leftover Scrub:  If you make your own coffee in a coffee machine, keep the granules.  Mix them in the same conditioner and scent as listed in (1).  If you have essential oil sitting round, throw some of that in instead.  This is a fantastic scrub for coffee lovers, and it really does cleanse the skin well.  The only issue I had was, you have to work hard to make sure you clean up all the granules after the shower.

Feeling good and TWD650/tub richer!