The Happiness Thing & Tips on storing Ginger

What is happiness? To me that is time spent just catching up with friends and being in their company-chatting . I had a lovely time sharing the finer art of storing food with my senior friends last Saturday. I never knew, we could store our home made chilli and blended garlic like we make ice cubes! Those are wonderful tips and save the woman of the house loads of preparation time!! Makes me wonder, why I didn't have that chat session with these two friends earlier. 

I remember the days past, when the kids were still young and the in-laws practised nomadic lives, a few weeks  here and there and then the remainder of the year with me and the family. During their absence and after they left,  I had to prepare food before leaving for work. I use plenty of ginger. I believe in the benefits of ginger. I use it as a spice and flavour for my cooking whether it is for a chicken curry dish, black sauce chicken, steam fish, marinating chicken before frying and the works. (Imagine how much of time I would have saved, chopping and pounding the ginger each day.) had I known those tips earlier.

 I also use ginger  to treat a cold chest and get rid of phlegm. In the days of my mother, a diet rich in ginger and Chinese red wine , is a must after child birth to banish the wind from the system. The new mother has to continue with that diet for at least a month to strengthen their immune system.In addition, if you need to wash yourself (whole body but only after two weeks-that's from my mother in law) you need to boil herb water with the all important ingredient of ginger in it so that your bones do not get wind. Those were village 'Must do', and Cures these two wise mothers taught me.

Research has come up with more interesting information. Do you know that Ginger is part of the Zingiberaceae family? MNT Knowledge Centre , a site on alternative and complementary medicine shared that Ginger also helps with the symptoms of the upper respiratory tract infection, bronchitis, cough, menstrual cramps, arthritis and muscle pain. It states that Ginger also contains a chemical that is used as antacid, laxative and anti-gas medications.

Looks like, it pays to consume more ginger, as  it  is an effective natural remedy, besides adding flavour to your food.

Make use of the tips my friends taught me. Blend you ginger when you have the time and store them in the freezer like what you would do for your ice cubes. When you need to make use of them, just take out the number of cubes you need and do your cooking minus the additional task of the 'on the spot' pounding and blending. Plus, there is no wastage! Give it a try!