The Iron Lady

The Iron Lady

Let’s face it, who in their right mind likes to iron?  In a world where it is easier to take your clothes to the dry cleaners, why would anyone haunch over a board and iron their clothes?  Yet dry cleaners can charge a bomb to have your suits nicely starched and pressed and chemically wash your duvet.  Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers never had that luxury.   Back in their days the laundry was done on Mondays.  Women had to wash their clothes, not in washing machines, but in a tub using a wash board. The job of doing the laundry took several days.  First the clothes had to sit in a tub of soapy boiling or cold water.  Women used lye to dissolve grease and bleach clothes that were yellow stained.  Buckling (The act of soaking clothes in soap and lye) was done in a buckling tub.  Women used a clothes dolly to agitate the clothes inside the buckling tub.  This is what the drum in our modern washing machine does.  The drum spins the clothes.  As the clothes rub against each other with the aid of the drum, dirt and grime loosen and the alkaline in the detergent lifts the dirt.

Old-fashion stove top iron

  After the clothes were washed, our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had to run each article of clothes through a mangle.  This got rid of the excess water.  The clothes were then hung on a clothes line or clothe horse.  On Thursdays the task of ironing was carried on.  Back in their day, irons had to be heated on coal stoves. 

  Electricity and electric irons hadn’t been invented.  The flat iron, first introduced in the middle ages, was forged out of iron.  Prior to its invention, people used pans with heated coals to iron out fabric.

Nowadays, with the invention of the washing machine, heated clothes rack and electric iron, the task of laundering has been made much easier.  The science of ironing is simple.  When the hot iron hits the fabric, it loosens the polymer fibres.  As the fibres cool the fibres keep its shape.  The weight of the iron helps to smooth the material out.  Would you wear a shirt that looks like it came out of a bottle?  I wouldn’t.   Ironing is a necessary task in the process of laundering.  I iron a little bit each day until all the week’s laundry has been done.  Here are a few tips to make ironing easier.

 

Ironing Tips

1.   Buy yourself a large, broad ironing board. Ironing boards come in all sizes.  They range from size A-E.  The broader the ironing board, the wider you can stretch your cloth against the ironing board cover, thus ironing the cloth in less time than you would using a smaller size ironing board.  Buy yourself a size E, which is 53 inches by 19 inches.

2.   Always, always fill your iron with filtered or spring water.  Never use water from the tap.  Tap water often leaves mineral deposits that can clog the iron and transfers lime scale onto your clean clothes.  Invest in a Brita filtered jug which filters the tap water. You can also boil a kettle of water and leave to cool. But for heaven’s sake...don’t use tap water to fill your iron. 

3.   Wrap your ironing board with aluminium foil.  Foil reflects heat.  You will cut the ironing time by half and iron on both sides of your cloth.  Line the ironing board with aluminium foil and then place the ironing board cover over this.

4.   Don’t iron just one garment at a time.  Why waste electricity, time and energy? Wait until you have a basket full of clothes to be ironed.  Iron once!  If the basket is overflowing, don’t panic.  Just iron a few articles of clothing at one time until the water in the iron runs out.  Unplug the iron. Take a break and then come back and iron the rest.

5.   Do your ironing in the bedroom.  I do this.  I position the ironing board between my side of the bed and the bureau and sit on the edge of the bed with Classic FM in the background.  I use the bed to sort the clothes to be ironed on one side of the bed and place the freshly ironed and neatly folded clothes in a neat pile on the other side.

6.   Begin ironing with the lowest temperature and iron those articles of clothes that need to be ironed on a lower temperature setting first.

7.   Reduce wrinkles by moving the freshly ironed areas away from you.

8.   Prevent marks on dark articles of clothing by ironing the material inside out.

9.   Shirts and other garments should never be ironed bone dry; they need to be moist before you start to iron them.

10.                Don’t have a sleeve board? No problem; simply place a couple of rolled up tea towels inside the sleeve and iron away.

11.                You can make your own starch by mixing 1 TBS of corn starch to 2 cups of water.  Place it in an empty spray bottle and you are good to go.  Starch settles in the bottom of the spray bottle, so shake the spray bottle each time you use it.  If the nozzle of the spray bottle clogs, simply insert a needle into the hole of the nozzle until it is clear.

12.                 When ironing a shirt, always hang it up straight after ironing.

Jenny Colgan's Lemon 'Getting-what-you-want' Cake

Jenny Colgan’s Lemon ‘Getting- what- you- want’ Cake

    Midway into JennyColgan’s book, MeetMe at the Cupcake Cafe, I ran across a delightful recipe.  The title of the recipe caught my attention.  It was a recipe for ‘Lemon ‘Get what you want’ cake that appeared in one of the chapters.  Most of the chapters of the book start off with a recipe. This particular recipe caught my eye.  I decided to give it a whirl.  It’s not a particularly pretty cake to look at, but let me tell you, in the taste department, it really packs a punch.    I don’t guarantee that you’ll always get what you want after serving this cake, but you will certainly make your guests happy.  There will not be anything left of this cake when you serve it.

Lemon ‘Get what you Want Cake’.

  The book’s main character, Issy Randall, has been made redundant from her city job and loses her boyfriend, Graeme, in the process.  She loves baking so she came up with the idea of opening her own Cupcake Cafe.  After presenting her idea to her bank manager, Austin, to persuade him to lend her the money to open up her own Cafe in Stoking Newton, Issy opens up the cafe of her dreams. She finds the business a bit challenging but meets very interesting people and in the end gains a new relationship.  Read my review of the book here:  My Review of Meet me at the CupcakeCafe.

Jenny Colgan’s  Lemon'Getting- what- you- want’ Cake
Ingredients		Notes  This cake is mentioned in Jenny Colgan’s book, ‘Meet me at the Cupcake Cafe’.
For the cake 4 ounces sifted self rising flour 4 ounces unflavoured butter 4 ounces sugar 2 whole eggs 1 teaspoon baking powder Juice of 1 lemon Zest of 1 lemon     For the glaze 4 ounces confectioner’s (icing) sugar Juice of half a lemon 2 TBS water	softened	Cooking Time: 20-35 minutes	Prep Time 10 minutes
			Ready in: 30 to 45 minutes
Method
1.       Preheat the oven to 180 C. 2.       Grease and line a 9 inch loaf tin. 3.       In a mixing bowl combine sifted flour, baking powder and lemon zest. 4.       In a separate mixing bowl mix butter, sugar, lemon juice and eggs.  Using an electric mixer beat the wet ingredients well. 5.       Gradually add the sifted flour mix into the wet ingredients. Beat well but don’t over mix. 6.       Pour batter into the prepared tin. 7.       *Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown.  You’ll know when it’s done when you insert a cake tester or toothpick and it comes out clean. 8.       Make the icing/glaze:  Into a mixing bowl add l lemon juice, 2 TBS water and icing sugar.  Mix well. 9.       Remove cake from oven.  While cake is still warm, pour icing/glaze over it. Let cool completely before serving.
		Additional notes
		*Ovens do vary.  The original recipe says to bake for 20 minutes.  My oven, which is a fan oven, baked the cake in 35 to 40 minutes.  It’s a good idea to bake the cake as indicated in Jenny’s book and see if it’s done; then if it isn’t, bake a further 10 minutes, then check again.  The cake should be golden and spring back when touched. The centre should be firm, not wobbly. I added the juice of 2 lemons because I like mine lemony.  I also like my cakes sweeter, so I put in an extra 2 ounces of sugar in the cake mix and an extra 2 ounces of icing sugar for the icing/glaze.  (I have a renowened sweet tooth). To prevent cake from burning cover the tin with foil for the first 10 minutes; then uncover and bake for the additional cooking time stated in the recipe.

Hygiene and Household Regime

Hygiene

    My mother was right when she said “A dirty house will be consumed by its own grime!” Hygiene in the home is imperative to happiness and health. There is a lot of truth in the age old adages, ‘Cleanliness is godliness’ and  ‘A clean home is a happy home’.   My mother always kept a clean, tidy, and organized home. She always insisted on cleanliness and tidiness.  Every morning she’d spring out of bed and the first thing she’d grab instead of the coffee cup was her broom. I’d laugh about it at the time.

 I never saw a lady who after waking up dashed to sweep her kitchen instead of taking an hour out to gather her thoughts, have a spot of breakfast and then proceed with the housework.  Every week she would scrub her cupboard cabinets out and put each item back neatly.  All her food items had to be placed with their labels facing forwards.  She’d cringe if any of the labels were facing east or west.   Every week she’d empty the fridge and freezer and clean the fridge religiously. 

 

I agree with my mother’s philosophy about a clean home; although, I hate to admit, I’m not as ferocious as she was about the regime.  I am a bit more laid back; but I still like to keep a clean and tidy house as best as I can.  My health and energy levels keep me from cleaning as much as I feel I should...but I always try to keep a regular cleaning routine.

 Once a week I clean the bathroom thoroughly.  I swear by boiling water.  I boil a kettle and pour it over the sides and inside of the tub.  This will kill any germs lingering in the surface.  I then turn the hot water tap on, cover the plug hole, and pour a capful of bleach in the tub.  I leave the bath soaking for fifteen minutes to half an hour.  Then I come back with a rag and bathe the bathtub clean.  I do the same thing with the bathroom basin.  After draining the water, I go over it once more with a clean cloth.  Incidentally, I use different cloths for each job.  I normally clean the toilet with kitchen roll.  It is more hygienic.

Kim and Aggie have persuaded me to ditch the toilet brush which isn’t a very hygienic tool to have.  The germs cling to the brush and dirty your bathroom.  I now invest in disposable latex gloves for the job.  I simply take a wad of kitchen roll, spray bleach over the outer parts of the toilet first, clean the outer bits of the toilet first; then I squirt toilet cleaner inside the U-bend and leave it there to soak for up to half an hour.  After the toilet cleaner has done its job, I wipe the u-bend with a gloved hand and a piece of kitchen roll.

 Cola also cleans a dirty toilet.  Pour a cup of cola down the toilet.  Let it soak for an hour and then wipe it clean with a gloved hand and kitchen roll.  The acidity in the cola disintegrates the lime scale. However, it can also leave a sticky residue; so the best bet to get rid of stain and lime scale is to make a solution of ½ cup vinegar and ¼ cup baking soda to 1 gallon of water.  Pour down the toilet...wait up to an hour and then scrub away. If using the cola method, you could just spray some bleach and water solution to rinse the residue of the cola away. (I like to get a spray bottle and fill it with a few capfuls of bleach and a gallon of water.)  Ideally the bathroom should be cleaned twice a week; a thorough clean once a week, followed by a once-over.  I also like to wipe the tub every time I take a bath.  I also try to wipe the basin every day after each use. 

Of all the rooms in a house or apartment, the bathroom and kitchen are the most important rooms to keep clean all the time.  I have a strict rule of using the kitchen sink for just washing dishes.  Once or twice a week I de-sanitize the kitchen sink.  I remove all dishwashing paraphernalia, dish drainer, etc, and I fill the sink with a kettle of boiled water. I pour a capful of bleach into the hot water and let it soak for fifteen minutes.  Meanwhile I scrub the draining board with my handy bleach/water solution and wipe it down with a clean kitchen roll.  After draining the water in the sink, I wipe down the sink and then buff it dry with a clean piece of kitchen roll.   I make it a habit of spraying my trusty bleach/water solution on each kitchen counter and wiping them down once a day.

 I don’t wash my cupboards every week like my mother, but I do wash them at least once a month.  I do make it a habit of arranging my food items facing forward and neatly.  Twice a week I mop the floor.  We have a Linoleum floor in our kitchen.  To clean it I make a solution of a capful of white vinegar, a few squirts of dishwashing liquid and a gallon of boiling water.  This makes a linoleum floor shiny.  Do not add bleach to the solution because it will make the linoleum dull.  I swear by white vinegar.

 

First I sweep the floor of all debris.  A good sweep is essential before mopping.  Then I get to work by filling my bucket with the vinegar/dishwashing detergent/water solution.  I soak the mop in this solution and I squeeze the excess water out using the bucket’s winger.  Mop in a zigzag motion.  Let dry. Change the water in your bucket and then repeat the motion.  Incidentally, do not pour the dirty water into the kitchen sink; do so into the toilet.  Let the floor air dry.  Ideally you should mop after cleaning the kitchen.

Once a week I dust my furniture.  I confess that I don’t dust as often as I should.  You should dust once a week.  A beautifully polished piece of furniture is a beauty that would last a lifetime.  I like to use beeswax on my dresser and wardrobe.  It nourishes the wood and adds shine.  I make my own furniture polish by combining two parts olive oil (don’t use extra virgin) to one part lemon juice.  Mix the ingredients together and pour into a jar.  Give the jar a shake and polish.  You can also add 1teaspoon of essential oil to the jar, if you wish.  It will make it smell nicer.  The solution will keep in a dark, cool place away from sunlight for two weeks. Note: this solution only works for finished wood.

A nicely dressed bed gives the impression of organization and opulence.  Each day I like to air my bed.  I open the window and throw the covers to the edge of the bed, then plump my pillows and arrange them on top of the cover.  I let the bed air for an hour while I have breakfast.  This allows any debris and moisture from your body as you sleep evaporates and leaves your mattress fresh.  After airing the bed, I brush the sheets and lay the covers back.  I plump up the pillows and cover the bed with my bedspread.  At the end of the day I throw the covers back down towards the middle of the bed and plump up the pillows again before going to sleep. This is called Turning the bed down.

A clean home is a happy home!  After cleaning my home, I feel a sense of accomplishment.  I like to make a cup of tea and retire to my nice clean living room and marvel in the knowledge that my home is a clean haven where I can relax and unwind.