Borneo Lady: November 2021

I was chatting with a friend about my outdoor stove and told her I was going to write a short story about it. I jokingly created a few funny titles and then she suddenly said "Your waste, my treasure". Wow, I like that and decided to use it as my title for this story😂.

In Singapore, there are people going round looking for items you want to throw or bin, they will shout "karang guni !karang guni ! meaning gunny sack which the men would haul the heavy sacks on their backs to do the collections from door to door at the HDB but now, they are using trolleys to transport those unwanted items from each floor to their lorry. In UK, they shouted, " Rango! Rango " something like that, while in Malaysia, around my garden home area, you can hear the lorry driver shouting," Besi buruk! Besi buruk"! meaning old metal. They will drive around hunting for unwanted or useful discarded items for recycle purpose.

Anyway my topic here is actually a DIY outdoor stove. To make one, I just need to buy Styrofoam and a utensil stand. The rest of the ingredients are available as leftover items from my previous project.
I decided to use a steamer rack as the fire place(where woods or charcoal are placed)

On 23th July 2019, I had written an almost similar story about an outdoor stove using bricks, calling it "Rocket stove". Comparing to these two different stoves, I prefer this current one, because it's easier to move around with it. As for the rocket stove, you need to dismantle the whole stove if there is a change of location for cooking.

Among all the DIY stove in the YouTube, I like this☝

So on the 3rd Nov, 2021, I started my stove making experiment using the above model as a guideline to create an outdoor stove.😂

Items required

Steamer rack ( I have a few so I can afford to use one of them😁 )

Wire mesh which I cut a piece from my previous chicken coop

Then cut the wire mesh into this shape, as shown in the Video shown earlier.
This wire mesh will be buried together with the cement mixture.

Styrofoam

I bought it for less than Rm20 and then cut it into 4 round pieces and then stick them together with the satay bamboo stick. The purpose of this shape is to create a tunnel/ chimney in the stove.

Stove/pot stand to allow the pot or wok to stand securely on top of the stove.

This only cost Rm11.50 from the shop

Empty drinking bottle

Instead of throwing away the bottles, it can be used as a mold to create my outdoor stove,

Cut the top part of the bottle as shown

Mix cement and sand. Ratio 1:1

Method:

I put some sand at the bottom of this bottle to make the base level even.

Mixed sand and cement with water, bit by bit

Put in the Styrofoam on top of the sand as shown

Filled in the space with cement mixture, leaving the big square or the middle visible or untouched.

Place in the steamer rack tightly against the cement mixture

Getting ready to create the tunnel/chimney with the prepared Styrofoam

like this☝

Surround the Styrofoam with wire mesh as shown

Fill up the space with cement

Place the stove stand on top and apply a bit of pressure to turn round slightly to form a mold, then remove

That's all for now

Leave aside and let it dry overnight 😜

I was so excited that I was thinking about it all night.

Morning comes.....

What do you think? 😅

It's ugly but serves the purpose, i.e. a stove made by me! 😁.

If this stove lasts, there is a chance my stove story will be passed on to my younger generations when I rest in peace 😇. "Grandma or Great Grandma's silly ideas!😅

Fire place for charcoal or firewood or twigs to start the fire😂

Before letting it out to sun and dry further, I did a bit of touch up to complete the work.

Short video - Bottom view of stove

Short Video - Top view of the stove

Firewood is mainly for stir frying or boiling water but with charcoal as fuel, it's like a slow cooker to cook soup in a clay pot. It reminds me of those days how our grand parents and parents used to cook soup like this.
Actually the taste is better than the slow cooker we have nowadays. The outcome of the soup with this kind of stove was so delicious that words cannot describe. Those who had tasted those soup before, is a privilege.😍

My 1st trial with my of my self made stove began by starting the fire using twigs and trash papers.

Making French Toast with my camping pan😂
This is how my mom did it . very simply. Those who wants a proper recipe can follow here.

A simple French Toast which my late mom used to do when we were kids- Eggs, sugar, bread.
Nowadays, it's easy to find any recipe you like in google and U-tube.

A simple French Toast with a cup of tea for breakfast

Waffles recipe☝

I found the above recipe at inspiredtaste.net

Do give a try. It really work and it's crispy👍

Chocolate waffle with Neopolitan ice cream - Mmm....Yummy

I copied this recipe from Allrecipes. Those who loves chocolate can give it a try.

Steam boat for lunch

Since children and grandkids came for lunch, I decided a Steam boat menu. Easy peasy, put everything inside the pot and they could dish out what they like to eat with rice or noodles.

My aluminum old fashioned, charcoal steam pot.

Have anyone seen this before in your life? If you are in the same era as me, then you sure have.😆

I bought this pot in 1982 about 4 decades away when it was on offer price of 50% discount in a supermarket called Cash and Carry in Segama which doesn't exist any more.

I had tried and compared the 2 pots - a stainless steel and my "ancient" aluminum one.

As expected the stainless steel one, cooks faster but the soup in the aluminum one, taste better. What is your opinion? The aluminum type cooked like the slow cooker we had in this modern days. The meat is so soft and tear easily.

That's my short story trials😂😁For this work I gave myself 6/7 out of 10.

What do you think?

Before I end my story, I would like to share some more of those trash to my treasure experiences. 🤭😅

Discarded garden stand

One of my former schoolmates wanted to throw away this broken garden stand but I suggested to give to me for my experimental creative works

I picked the unbroken pieces and recreated it into a single flower stand.

Then painted it with the leftover white paint. The stand looks strong enough to hold a 10 to 12 inches diameter pot.

And it looks so pretty and neat with a pot of plant on it☺️.

Discarded Rattan Basket

After I chopped down my overgrown blue peas flower plants, I replanted it's baby plant into this discarded basket so I could keep it's prolific growth under control😊.