Monday, April 27, 2009

Sesame Oil

I love a great idea & Make Do Monday's hosted by Ann Kroeker is a place where you can certainly find some great ideas on how to make do with what you have. "It’s a carnival you can visit to celebrate creative problem-solving, contentment, patience and ingenuity," says Ann.

Today I am going to tell you about creative problem solving. I have some antibiotics that I'm taking and they are like swallowing a piece of chalk. Neither one of the pills have a smooth coating on them and the first few times I took them they both got stuck. It's like they were Velcro.

I had a bottle of Sesame Oil and remembered that it was a very light, plain oil. So I got out one of my tiny dishes and poured a little puddle of oil into the dish. Then I tossed in my pills, rolled them around a bit, popped them into my mouth and drank a nice big glass of water. They slid right down. In fact, I've had nothing but smooth sailing since I discovered the "rolling in oil" technique.

Sesame Oil is such a neat product.

I looked around for a picture of the Sesame Fruit, the source of all things sesame, that link was all I found. I'm not sure it really is a Sesame Fruit, because it was the only one that looked like that. I'll keep looking because I want to find out for myself.


Sesame oil is used for oil massages because it soaks into the skin easily. One of my favorite authors, Victoria Moran, talks about warm sesame oil massages in her book Younger by the Day. She says that she does this a few times a week. You can read this particular excerpt here. She talks about using the sesame oil for scalp massages, too.

Sesame oil can be used for cooking and salads. It has a real high smoke point and you can even use the light colored version like the one pictured, for deep frying. Roasted sesame oil is much darker in color and should not be used for deep frying as it has a lower smoke point, but it is a popular choice for Asian cooking.

Edited to add -- PW (Pioneer Woman) talked about sesame oil today in her post about lunch. She said that she was going to be serving pasta (cold) so she wanted to use sesame oil to coat it and keep it from drying out or sticking. She also explained where to find the light oil and where you find the darker, roasted sesame oil. I found my sesame oil at a health food type grocery store. End of edit :)

I find it so interesting how involved I can get when researching some of these blog posts. I thought I was just going to tell you about my make-do and instead talked about massages and talked about one of my favorite books. The oil idea for troublesome pills is an excellent make-do idea. I hope if you ever have trouble with any pills like that, you can remember this.

Have a great day!
Kristin

7 comments:

jb said...

Wow! I learn so much from your blog, on a daily basis...I never knew much about sesame seeds or "all things sesame" but the fruit itself must be so tiny...that is a human palm that they are photographed on! Loved your link to Younger By the Day too!
<3 Bob

Ann Kroeker said...

Rolling in oil--I need to give my mom this tip. She has a very hard time taking pills.

It's always great to learn, isn't it? I'm grateful for your research!

Sharinskishe said...

Boy this will come in handy. I have to cut a pill in half and the cut edge has a gross aftertaste. I will be using this technique to make my daily intake a lot easier.

Thanks so much for sharing.

Shari

Keetha Broyles said...

You are such a creative and clever little thing - - - even though you DON'T know your MSU FB players. ;-)

Ruth Ann said...

Good idea! I never thought of that!

Trish Southard said...

So creative...my sis is a Breast CA survivor and has to choke down quite a few pills each day...thank you for this excellent advice will pass onto to her so she can pass to the Oncology group.
Gratefully, Trish

Sesame oil said...

Good to see you found you can use sesame oil in this manner. The way you describe is ideal for anybody to try at home. Using sesame oil in this way is also done on a bigger scale by pharmaceutical companies. The oil, in ultra refined form, is even used in injections as a carrier oil.
You mentioned the sesame fruit but as you already suspected this is not the correct term. The sesame seeds grow in pods which contain hundreds of seeds each. Each sesame plant can have a lot of pods. You can find more information about the plant, including pictures here http://www.dipasa.com/Dipasacom/Sesameseed/Sesameseed/tabid/84/language/en-US/Default.aspx
There is an added benefit to the way you are now using the sesame oil. Consuming a small amount of sesame oil gives you all the benefits of the oil like the antioxidants which help prevent the aging process of your skin!