When was the last time you went on a blind date only to put off your date by the weird sounds you made just because you enjoyed your dish? Or how about that high-profile lunch with your boss where you kissed your promotion goodbye, just because you used the fork when it was the spoons turn! You may be wondering, why did it matter so much. You were just another foodie eating your heart out…Right? Wrong! Table manners my friends. More important than what you eat is how you eat.It is important to inculcate table manners in your professional as well as personal life. Slurping soups, chomping chocolate cakes, spilling salt, dropping spoons could be quaintly charming. But however, these actions might bring negative points to your persona.

So, here are some simple ‘Do’s and Dont’s that would help you out the next time you go to meet ‘the one’ or ‘the instrumental one’.

• Placing your cutlery in the right manner is extremely important. Your plate should be in the centre, spoons and knives to your right, napkins and forks to your left, solids (eg. starters) go on your left while liquids (eg. water) go on your right.
• You should not make weird or funny noises while eating or drinking.
• When the food is hot, do not blow onto it. Also, chew with your mouth shut.
• Licking your fingers is ok (if you’re a jungle beast that is!). No one wants to know how much you like the food!
• Burping, blowing noses, picking your teeth or taking your shoes off are no-no’s. Should you feel the urge, terminate it!
• Please be neat. Do not comb your hair or apply make up at the dinner table. Everyone appreciates well-groomed people but not the ones grooming up at the table itself!
• Enjoy your drink but not as if it may be your last. Remember its a dinner and not a single’s party!
• You should always pass things such as salt and pepper counter clockwise. Make sure you pass them together.
• Bending over the table to eat is not the right way. Instead bring the spoon/fork to your mouth for that.
• There may be food items or cutlery that are placed beyond your reach. All you need to do is ask the person closest to it to pass it on to you instead of leaping forward!
• You might want to use the wash-room, so excuse yourself and while leaving lay a napkin on your chair.

These are some simple dining etiquettes that you should keep in mind. If you follow them, you can spare yourself of embarrassment and instead enjoy a pleasant dinner.

For all those people who are looking for a new home, this one is for you! Ever had that ecstatic feeling when you came across an apartment which is a perfect ten? Specially when the place falls in your budget, there are barely any words to describe the happiness that you experience. You take a few steps into the kitchen and poof! Your merry emotions come crashing down like a fighter plane that is hit during WW2. The small space available in the kitchen does manage to live true to the phrase, ‘There is a catch to everything’. Well, if you ask us, in our opinion, no worries! SO WHAT IF THE KITCHEN IS SMALL? A little bit of creativity and work will definitely get those happy vibes soaring high again.So the solution here, is to follow certain rules and also opt for professional help. Let’s take the latter option.

• Professional interior designers, today, understand the need to make a small kitchen convenient and spacious. This is the reason as to why there are ample of wall units or cabinets that are crafted in a manner that takes up the least amount of space.
• A bit of creativity can work wonders for your kitchen. There are plenty of wall units that are created in a brilliant manner. These pieces of furniture manage to accommodate almost everything that your kitchen needs.
• Get rid of unwanted junk from your kitchen. Things like extra huge vessels that are not used on a daily basis need to be stored. A cluttered kitchen will only manage to frustrate all the more!
• Make sure that your kitchen is clean at all times, small spaces get dirty pretty fast and tend to get stinky.
• If there is one person cooking in the kitchen, let that person feel comfortable with kitchen chores and hence do not crowd the place. People do like their own space!
• When you open a cabinet in the kitchen to remove something, make sure you close it as well. An open door also takes up space.
• We do understand the sentiment behind a particular appliance or piece of furniture that has been given to you, but if you do not need it, then why keep it.

These few pointers should be a good way to get you started. So go ahead and make full use of these tips. A home is where your heart is! So why make your heart sad by looking at small cluttered up kitchen when you can make the most of it.

The date of your next party has arrived; all your favourite people have confirmed their invitation and the menu is set with delicious items ready to be served. But you just realised that you do not know how to go about with your table decorations! Now do not sit all flustered and wonder what you would do next because, you are on the right page, at the right time!A well-set table has the power to make food taste even better! Not literally though, but it does give a very inviting feel and can make even a simple meal seem like a sumptuous delight! Well, here are some options that you can consider.

The basic idea is having fun and being creative when it comes to decorating the table for your next party. In fact, this idea comes handy in all occasions and really works wonders!

• The first thing is buying materials for the décor part. You can buy them from any nearby retailer shops or craft stores.
• For glassware and utensils, you need not use a perfect and expensive crockery set. Think different and mismatch pieces of china. Trust us, they make an amazing collection. Experiment with several patterns and vibrant colours (eg. Salad on a green dessert plate and meals on floral-patterned china-ware). However, do not make it very colourful and limit to only two or three colours at the most.
• Napkin rings are a must and it is not necessary to settle for the old traditional circles that are made of metal, ceramic and wood. Instead, settle for something innovative. Use old soda cans, remove both the bottom and top of the cans and wash them thoroughly. Dry them and decorate the cans with confetti. You will surely get compliments for coming up with an innovative napkin holder.
• A dinner table becomes visually appealing with attractive floral centrepieces, fruit arrangements and an assortment of candles.
• Glassware pieces make for interesting centrepieces. Clear glass pitchers can be filled with fresh blooms bought from the nearby florist. Let your creative ideas flow and make a unique centrepiece. For example, fill a huge clear bowl with water, float candles in the bowl. For a dramatic touch, add a coloured floral marble to its bottom.

So go ahead, throw a rocking party, chill and have a blast!

You wash all your utensils until they are spick and span, but what would you do if all that dirty water had no place to go? Your sink is definitely one of the most important things in your home. Now that the importance of your sink has finally dawned on you, the question here is whether you have done anything lately to take good care of it in return, or not?The most common problem that we face when it comes to our sink at home, is clogging. Many of us have been victims to nightmarish situations when our kitchen sink just decides to give up on us and starts splurging out dirty water all over the place. Within minutes the entire kitchen transforms from a room filled with aromas to a stinky surrounding that will only make you hold your breath and move away! To make it worse, imagine all this happening when your place is filled with visitors and guests. Embarrassing, isn’t it?

Well, here’s what you can do to keep the sink clean and clog free at all times.

• Here, baking soda seems to be your sink’s best friend.
• All you need to do is use a handful of baking soda and then pour some hot water. You will be marvelled at the miracles that this trick can perform.
• If there is no baking soda at your place, no worries! Try vinegar or even lemon juice.
• Pour either vinegar or lemon juice down the drain and let it sit for at least an hour.
• Follow it up with hot water and Voilà! Your drain is clear and smelling good!

This is what you can do to get rid of clogs, but we advice you to try out these tricks once a week. This will not only help to keep your drain ‘clog-free’, but also will avoid any odd situations that might just manage to ruin your day.

When was the last time, you opened your fridge and nearly fainted because of the stinky smell? And you blamed yourself for your double-door, giant electronic’s plight! Well, this is not entirely your fault. The fridge easily falls prey to the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ syndrome! Standing tall and still in one cosy corner of your kitchen, often is the reason behind it being neglected. Now do not start feeling sorry for your refrigerator’s bad condition and sit all baffled, because it is high time you do something about the stink! Do not know how to go about? No problems, just read on……Any odour is a turn off, be it your body or the fridge! The former is something you should definitely be working on, while the latter is just as important and should not be ignored! Here are seven simple steps, which, if followed would free your refrigerator from all the bacteria, mold and mildew that have made your giant beauty their breeding ground!

1. Remove all food items from your refrigerator. Have a good look and discard any food item which is spoiled or has expired.
2. After sorting out the items and zeroing on ones you wish to keep, place them in a cooler, till you finish cleaning. For better preservation, add ice to it.
3. The next step would be cleaning all the drawers and shelves of the fridge with soapy water. The floor and walls of your refrigerator need thorough cleaning. So wash them well with soap, detergent and water.
4. Sometimes the odour is so strong that it persists even after cleaning rigorously. In such a case, using ground coffee is a must. Here’s how…
   • Dump at least 2 cups of freshly ground coffee on a big plate and spread coffee evenly on the plate. Multiple plates should be used if the smell is terrible.
   • The plate should be placed on the centre shelf. So do that and close your fridge for the next 24 hours.
   • After that dispose the ground coffee. This would help in getting rid of that stinky smell.
5. If you do not have coffee grounds at home, you could settle with baking soda instead.
   • Pour the baking soda in a plastic container.
   • Place it, uncovered, in the fridge.
6. After 3 days, remove it and there will be no foul smell.
7. Other alternative methods would be using cat litter or imitation vanilla.
8. Once the stench is cleared, put all the food items back into the fridge.

Following this simple seven step procedure that will be very instrumental in keeping your fridge completely odour free!

There is one thing that is more hard working than your super mom at home! It goes by the name of, ‘Refrigerator’. When you need a glass of cold water or when you suddenly stir up the urge to have a glass of chilled beer that is left over from yesterday’s party, where do you go? Straight to the refrigerator! We all know that the refrigerator is where your chef stores all those delicious dishes and other perishable delicacies as well.

However, the refrigerator does tend to get pretty filthy and stained really fast. Just imagine yourself hosting a party at your home and your refrigerator is looking like the crypt keeper storing souls instead of delicious food! Scary, isn’t it? So go ahead, scrub scrub scrub!

If you are doing it, then do it right! Here is how you can in six easy ways:

1. The first step is pretty simple. Empty your refrigerator, remove all food products and store
   them separately till you finish cleaning. Throw the ones you will not require and also the
   ones which are spoiled. Seriously! Why would you want to keep spoiled food?
2. Vinegar is one liquid which is very effective in removing stains from the fridge. So take a
   large bowl and mix a solution of half vinegar and half lukewarm water.
3. As they say, ‘If you are clean from within, you have nothing to fear!’ So see to it that you clean the inner side of your fridge thoroughly, including the shelves and the sides, using a wash cloth or sponge dipped in the bowl of vinegar solution.
4. Baking soda works well on stains too, so you can add baking soda to the solution or simply
   pour some on the sponge. Using it, scrub all the dried food particles and stains away. There
   will definitely be some stains that are really difficult to get rid of. So for them, use
   100% vinegar.
5. After using baking soda and vinegar, rinse the interior and exteriors of fridge with only
   water.
6. The last step is using a dry cloth or towel to wipe the inside of the fridge, leaving it
   completely dry. You can then restore all the food items back in your refrigerator.

These six simple and easy steps can work wonders in keeping your refrigerator free of all the ugly
looking stains and messy spots. So go ahead, and work your way to get a much cleaner appliance!

Be Cool and Stay Clean

There is no feeling more cherishable than munching on some well baked or roasted corn during the rainy season. This one is for all you corn lovers. Maize, popularly known in many English speaking countries as ‘mealle’ or ‘mielle’ is a actually a grain familiarised in Mesoamerica during the prehistoric period by the indigenous people. (Remember it has no connection to the horror movie, “Children of the corn”, apart for the corn that is!)Today, maize is widely cultivated all across the globe in which the United States of America is at the top of the charts, producing about forty percent of the world’s harvest, followed by countries like China, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia. India is the sixth largest producer of maize in the world and as of 2009, churns out about 17, 300, 000 tonnes per year. In 2010, the maize producing area in the U.S was a staggering 87.9 million acres. (Wow, they do like their mealles, don’t they!)

What the maize lovers might not know is that after being introduced in Africa by the Portuguese during the 16th century, maize has become one of its most important staple food crops. When out for a movie at the theatre, your experience is not complete without a nice big bucket of popcorn right? Pop’corn’, as the name suggests consists of maize kernels which are heated to prepare this snack. Maybe next time you go for a movie with your cursh, this might be a good conversation starter if you’re the nervous kind.

If you are a true beer drinker, then this is something you would definitely like to know; Maize is sometimes used for preparing beer as it acts as a starch source. Amazing isn’t it? Beer, pop-corn, it seems like Maize is the mother of many ‘fun-foods’.

A summer squash, known as courgette too, zucchini is a vegetable that can grow up to a meter long. A hybrid of cucumber, this incredible vegetable belongs to the Cucurbita pepo species. This squash is usually light or dark green in colour while its related hybrid is a deeper yellow or tangy orange type. Zucchini is available in bulk in the the summer season and has a delightful texture and taste. One can team it up with other vegetables for cooking a a savoury dish. Fried, sauteed, baked or freshly pickled, zucchini is great in all forms!

The ancestry of zucchini lies in America where it was first grown. Italy developed the varieties of zucchini after many generations. 19Th century saw the advent of this vegetable in Milan, where early varieties were given names of the nearby cities. The name courgette is actually a French word for vegetable and it is spelt the same way. In France, United Kingdom and Ireland grow its varieties too. First cultivated in America, it was later on brought by the Italian immigrants.

This nutritional dynamite is all packed and ready to explode! Being a hybrid of the cucumber, zucchini is far more beneficial health-wise than most vegetables.

• Zucchini is high in fiber and low in calories and cholesterol. This makes it ideal for all of you who are trying desperately to loose weight. It is also heart healthy and helps in digestion and is known to prevent you from over eating.
• It acts as an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory agent and helps cleanse your body by removing all kinds of unwanted toxins and that makes it vital for cancer patients especially colon cancer.
• Zucchini can reduce chances of a heart attack or a stroke. It is as good as your blood pressure tablet as it reduces the stress on your body’s circulatory system. Folate, an essential vitamin in Zucchini not only keeps your heart clean but also enhances cell division which is good for pregnancy.
• Rich in manganese, sodium and potassium it helps in formation of many essential enzymes that are needed for the proper functioning of the body and in maintaining healthy skin.

An extremely prolific vegetable that is easy to cultivate and tastes delicious, zucchini is blessed with all the goody-goody nutritional qualities too! The Zucchini is sure to keep you fit, healthy and strong.

So stay healthy in vogue with Zucchini!!!

Enjoy some delicious & healthy Zucchini recipes…

Zucchini Pasta

A biennial plant in reality, Celery is one of the most common household staple diet. Celery has a crunchy texture and an amazingly distinctive flavour. Its blends perfectly with salads and cooked dishes. Belonging to the Apiaceae species that is linked to parsley, fennel, carrot and dill, it is available the whole year. However, the best time to consume it is in the summer season. The varieties are grown locally and found easily in many markets.

In the early 1856, a Scotsman by the name of Taylor grew celery for the first time. This happened in a place called Kalamazoo. People were amazed by this and the ones located at Burdick hotel were curious to find out more. To explore further, in 1866, a gardener named Cornelius De Bruyn came from Netherlands and ended up developing a modern kind of celery from the soup celery. The Dutch farmers did not stay far behind and in 1872 turned the Kalamazoo mucklands into vast celery fields. As this plant had medicinal values, a man named J.S. Dunkley made condiments and medicines from it and sold them. Kalamazoo celery became well known nationwide. After that there was no looking back!

• Celery juice help stabilize body temperature and is also effective in removing bad breathe.
• Celery is a kidney expert. It removes toxins from the bladder. While it is at its best in removing toxins, it also destroys the possible formation of kidney stones.
• Get some celery to get out excess fluids in your body because celery helps in the regulation of body fluid and stimulates urine production.
• It is at its best in the cure of stomach and colon cancer.
• Celery replaces the lost electrolytes in your body and their rich mineral rehydrates your body.
• Celery is an amazing relief for all inflammations. So no more of your problems with rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, gout, asthma and bronchitis.
• Its natural laxatives are capable of putting off a nasty constipation.

Coupled with a wonderful taste, a perfect addition to salads and numerous health benefits, celery is a complete package! So go ahead and enjoy this gift from nature!