The following is a guest post from my sister at MidoriLei. Take it away sis!

Can I be honest? I’ve killed quite a few indoor herbs and plants. Many an innocent plant has met their doomsday because of me. There was the dill plant, the thyme, the sage, and a family of basil (3 or 4?) Almost completely bald, my English ivy managed to escape my curse because my husband insisted we bring her out back, away from harms way (aka, me).

My parsley is trying so hard to hang on. I don’t think she’s going to make it:

Every knowledgeable plant vendor I’ve come across, honestly tells me “none,” when I’ve asked the same question, “What are good indoor herbs?” But, call me stubborn, hopeful, or just simply too lazy and cold to go outside to snip off my herbs, I decided I’m going to find herbs and plants that want to live inside, even if it means having to (shhh) send a couple more to their grave. Here’s what I’ve discovered:

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I was listening to a comedy sketch one morning and the speaker was making fun of people who refill their mega-sized water jugs at the local grocery. Mimicking them, he proudly and staunchly said, ”Look at me I’m sophisticated. I drink purer water than everyone else.” My family may get grocery water every week but we don’t flaunt it around like that. We just want to drink something clean and tasteless.

A couple of weeks ago, I filled our three 5-gallon water jugs as usual. But this time, in this hot summer heat, it was just unbearable for me! It didn’t help that I was roasting under the mid-afternoon sun. Even though my kids were there to help me, it was still bad. I felt like a frustrated Lynette!

Later on, I thought about those special faucets at medical facilities. You see them in pharmacies, hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, etc. Above the sink, there is a faucet with regular tap water for washing hands and what not. However, on the side, there is sometimes a smaller faucet with lower-pressured purified water. It suddenly occurred to me that there was nothing in the way of having the same installation on my very own kitchen sink!

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My sister once told me a joke about why we Asians have such squinted eyes: During dinnertime as kids, we would disdainfully say, “Rice again!?” while plopping our eyes on our heads in disgust. This, in turn, would stretch out our eyes over the years until they were long and thin.

It really is half-true … the rice everyday part. Generation upon generation of Asians ate rice as staple food. Because of this, we are connoisseurs on the subject of cooking rice. It runs in our blood. If you need to know anything about rice – how to make a perfect batch, what equipment you need, how to save a bad batch, etc – ask an Asian.

Sad Reality

When I lived in boarding school, I was appalled at how they cooked rice. It was incredulous! Wet rice? Hard rice? Minute rice? Disgusting! Once, during the school year, I cooked for a couple of my friends and someone said, “I never knew rice could be this fluffy!” How painfully sad! My heart went out to these people! From then on, I decided to publicize the secrets of rice. How does one make perfect, fluffy white rice?

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