bloom & harvest!

More photos from my tiny garden! Maybe its because its the rainy season, the plants grew really well~ plants in mounds on top of the raised beds! Let me share some more of my favorite here!

 My tiny 'common jasmine orange' bloom this morning {aka murraya paniculata}!

Plant with sweet-smelling flowers, very fragrant ones! Some said it smell close to frangipani, some said gardenia, or jasmine! 

Personally, i think it smells like frangipani.

Can you believe that i grow them from little seeds? The plant nursery owner plucked few of the red fruits from the tree and gave it to me, and asked me to try and grow myself.

Now, this smell like jasmine! hehe ~ my jasmine that bloom once in awhile!

If you have jasmine plant, ill recommend you hand-picking some of the flowers, boil pot of water and make a cup of 
tea with fresh jasmine blossoms. You will know what is the difference! 

 Transplanted some of the basil seedlings into a bigger space - wooden box that i picked up from recycling center! This is the smallest box, i got one in medium and one in large size, they are used for spring onions growing!

Harvest part of my pandan leaves over the weekend, gave 2 bright bunches to our neighbor / another 2 for the grocery store that near my house, initially i'm given it as a gift, but the lady boss said they are going to sell it~ so as the exchange of goods - they gave me some calamansi & pay me another RM1.80 for that 2 bunches! ^_^ How great that can earn some money from what i grow, it made me so happy!

on-growing spring onions! 

  My 'giant' aloe vera plant is growing way too big and has a bit out of control! Hehe, also i have just transplanted them into a BIG pot!

Lately, i am attempting to make DIY aloe vera gel myself and also to cook chinese sweet dessert! The diy aloe vera gel are use to reduce my acne problem & pimple scarring! Been watching lots of related video on youtube and info from the web!

Will share if its really effective. Kids, don't try it yourself as
outer skin of the aloe vera plant can be toxic. Only aloe vera gel at the center part can be consume & use on your skin.

Have you ever try sauté fresh aloe with sesame? I am going to try that!

Enjoy pruning and pinching the butterfly pea plant regularly, it will become more bushy and it will rebloom again and again! 

my favorite succulent plant lately, bought a little pot last year christmas and now i have 2 pots from propagating!

plant propagation practices

hola,

happy new month, hope all goes well! Have been practicing in plant propagation, and i have learned that - patience is always key when it comes to nurturing any living things! I think my little plants are growing pretty well and getting taller. 

I don't really spend a lot on buying plants as young plants are quite expensive here. But instead,  i usually grow them from seeds, or get some 'free' young plants or cuttings from my family/ relatives and friends! I am truly blessed.

 Dad gave me pot of - hmm... i am not 100% sure what's the plant called, i have been trying to find out. If not mistaken, the plant named - begoniaceae begonia / rex begonia from the begonia family. It's so pretty, i especially love the star-burst effect, the color of the leaves are very contrast!

My partner's parents love gardening too! But lately, they have been traveling around often, don't really have much time to take care their plants, and many of the pretty plants has dried up, due to lack of watering. T_T sad... Then I quickly take over the ONE LAST stem of the super duper beautiful - 'oxalis triangularis' or you can called it 'purple shamrocks', put them in a small pot, brought it up all the way from my hometown. And look, more stems now, and even flowering! Yays.

 Propagate rosemary herb & cuban oregano from stem cuttings, waiting for the rooting process! I'll share some pics once the roots coming from the bottom the cuttings. Hehe~

Propagating succulents from leaf, and see how well they are growing! They are all from the same 'mama succulent'!

I started / pluck these “mother leaf” off maybe three weeks ago, and few weeks later...

 some miniature white or pink roots sprout out from the tip of the leaves, can you see those teeny tiny baby plant? It will start to grow.

Growing spring onions from shallots. For me, spring onion are very very useful in cooking, specially in chinese home cooking! We used them in steamed fish as the seasoning to get rid of the “fishy” odour / to make spring onion pancake / for garnishing! 

I found that its not worth on buying a bunch of it and spring onions don't store for long in the fridge, so there's a lot of wastage which i don't really want to! 

SO! why not growing my own spring onion. 

 Happy may and a wonderful week ahead!

outgoing mail april

Hey!

 

Some of my outgoing mail this month. Not very productive, but snail mail meant to be 'slow' right? >_<  I am a bit slow because i took quite some time on each letter. To collect & gather bits and pieces, little things they {my penpals} might like // then packing and decorating {the most fun parts} // re-read the letter again and slowly response {writing} the letter. 

Like now, i am browsing & pinning some pretty snailmail ideas on pinterest, cool way to decorate an envelope, how others making mail art, collage, doodling...etc.

 My mail to Beverly

North Yorkshire, UK

My mail to Rikke

Denmark

 

Have a great long weekend friends!

april happy mail!

hello,
It's my favorite post again to share all the {love} happy mail that i received this month! It's May 1st tomorrow, which means holiday for all the the workers! Yays, i have more time to cook, to finish some garden works {brought back few pots of new plants for the garden and some seeds to sow} & also few letter to finish!

Nao chan sent me a chubby yellow parcel with her cute handwriting, also the pretty little Japanese postage stamps!

The back of the envelope are very cute too, i just have to take a picture of it.

Keep DRY!! Thank you postman!!

Knew that i love cooking, nao chan sent me a pack of Shiraishi Umen noodles, famous in miyagi prefecture (where she lives)! It taste nearly like ramen, very delicious! She even hand illustrated the cooking instructions too, so sweet! I will try to cook again and take a picture of it to share here. And also she sent me pack of matcha chocolate, so good~ to keep the chocolate fresh, i kept the leftover in an airtight container and store them in the fridge! miam miam!

Shiraishi umen: are noodles that don't use any oil. They are made only from wheat flour and salt water in Shiraishi city, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan

Mail from sweet Sylvie! 

The parcel already look very cute outside right? sky blue envelope with star print, cute decor and Belgium postage stamps!

Sylvie surprised me with an adorable cooking utensil - Wooden spoon/spatula with heart from Hema, this would really cheer up my kitchen and it won't scratch my non-stick pan, very useful!

 Next, mail from my green thumb friend Claudia, she always sent me her mail in a shallow mailer box. I knew it was her goodie parcel immediately when i saw the shallow box, it's like her signature! ^^

Claudia has a crafty hands, she's selling some very beautiful art prints, postcards of her illustration on etsy shop! She is very good in crocheting too, I'm so happy that she sent me a rubber carving block & made me a crochet doilies, i think i'm gonna use it as a mug rug i guess! I will think of her when ever i make a cup of tea or coffee.

We always exchange seeds, this time she sent me a pack of physalis seeds that i couldn't really get it over here.

 Pretty salmon pink envelope from Rikke.

This would be the 2nd mail from her after 1.5 years! Something happened and I am really glad that she manage to find time to start writing again! I just want to say thanks for sending me letter again and me, your friends & family will always be here to support you!

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I recently discovered a very interesting, or i should say it's a very cool webpage about snailmail - Mysterious letters and can't stop browsing and looking on each every letter they sent! 

Mysterious Letters is a collaboration between artists Lenka Clayton and Michael Crowe who sent a personal, handwritten letter to everyone in the world! 

From the info, so far they have written over 2,700 different letters to the residents of Cushendall, a small Northern Irish seaside town, the inhabitants of Polish Hill, Pittsburgh, everyone on a long street through St. Gallen, Switzerland, a suburb of Cologne, Germany, two streets in Paris France, and many, many people in Tilburg, Netherlands.

And they have successfully raised $3,956 USD on Kickstarter to help bring the project to life again! They are even on BBC Newsline too! 

 I want to read all the letters.
Since the artists are aim to write a personal, hand-written letter to every household in the world, so i'm here waiting~ can't wait to receive mine one day! Maybe send me some seeds please >_<
I think the idea {the letter} will definitely put a smile on everyone's face.

i am home again!

We celebrated my nephew's first birthday last weekend back in my hometown! Always feels so good to be back home, it is always fun to get together, lots of laughs and good food.

My 'smiles-all-the-time' super duper adorable little nephew has turned 1 year old last Saturday, we got him his first car! Hehe, the kids ride-on BMW and 2 pairs of cute baby sneakers and socks as he begin to learn to walk now! 

Let me share with you all the love i have got from home.

 Look at this handsome boy on his first-ever bmw, how cool!

I love love love this beautiful photo! (em, please ignore my mom behind trying to hang all our freshly washed laundry)

His smile and facial expression, and also every of his cute gestures just melted my heart.

He's really a little angel, keep the happy spirit floating around our house always!

 I made some of "my signature" (food to be proud of) osmanthus jellies and took home for mom, grandma and my partner's parents. They loved it.

Granny's homegrown jackfruit! There was a big jackfruit tree just outside my granny's house.

I remember when we were just a child, my uncle would ask one of us to climb the tree (not very high) and pick some of those large jackfruits. 

I miss my childhood very much, nothing beats childhood memories.

Jackfruit is very sweet, delicious also rich in fiber & minerals; but its difficult to cut open and to eat it.
Jackfruit is very resinous, and the sticky latex/substance is very hard to remove.
Guess I'm just a glutton for food. I managed to cut, trimmed and removed those sticky fibrous strands and finally retrieve all the yummy fruit pods with my bare hands very patiently. Yohoo!

  We happened to pass by Ipoh (capital city of Perak state) to buy some nice foods home!
How can we miss the best chicken rice in town? (Lou Wong Bean Sprouts Chicken)
A must try chicken rice and the best blanched bean sprouts drizzle with the combination of soy sauce, sesame oil, & shallot oil. oh mama mia!

There are many many old bakeries in old town of Ipoh. We went to an old bakery (not so commercialized, not much reno & decor) for these freshly baked egg tarts with piping hot wobbly custard! Oh~ these are really good!

Kompyang is a biscuit popular in my hometown, its like our comfort food! Its made with lard, onions, salt and flour, some with meats, some sweet & soft inside! Best eaten while still hot, but we usually buy more and reheat them with oven.
 

Mom gave me 2 pineapple crowns, they can be placed directly into the ground and yes! i can actually start growing my own pineapple!

From the info, pineapples don’t really have usable seeds, so pineapple plants start from the pineapple itself, it usually propagate from the crown.

Beside food shots, I love taking pictures of plants too! Here are some veggies & edible plants that my parents are growing.

top left - winter melon
top right - calamansi 
bottom left - curious cat that hovering around daily
bottom right - daun kaduk / wild betel leaf / piper sarmentosum 
*(they are widely used throughout SE Asia as a herb in Asian cooking or eaten raw)

My mom usually used them to make otak-otak (fish custard/ dumplings wrapped in banana leaves), or nyonya perut ikan (fermented fish stomach with herbs & vegetable curry). Original recipe are using fermented fish stomach, but my mom substitute it with small prawns and blood cockles.
I know 'fermented fish stomach' sounds a bit weird or scary for you, but trust me~ they taste really good in this nyonya recipe. ^_^

calamari with thai green curry sauce

hello,

I guess this was a perfect meal for a gloomy, rainy day! Nothing better than a meal containing a little spiciness in a cold cold evening. Heavy traffic due to the rains yesterday and I reached home pretty late. Spent 1.5 hours in the car was really frustrated sometimes, but i try to elevate my mood by thinking what's for dinner tonight, or listening to the funny talk show broadcasts every evening, or watching what others are doing in the middle of a traffic jam! >_<

I don't really have a recipe for this, i mean the ingredients in exact portions. But I'm trying to provide the ingredients used & measurement of seasonings. ***Again, the seasonings are all approximately measured, please adjust according to your own taste. I'm added whatever veggies i think its suitable, of course it must be your favorite one. I've been cooking eggplant like crazy lately, even my soul mate asked me about - "umm, felt like we have been eating a lot of eggplant lately?"

Mmmm! who cares? hehe, I'm the heaf chef at home, keep continue seeking to new eggplant dishes!

how beautiful all of those eggplants are!

Ingredients:

• Calamari (1 large-sized or 2 medium-sized)
• 2 Egg plant (medium-sized)
• 8-10 long beans (cut into 3 inches in length)
• 1 onion (sliced or diced)
• green curry paste (you may either make the paste from scratch or get store-bought one)
* (the green curry paste i used was from my brother, its made by a chef who works in a thai restaurant, quality assured! ^^)
• 200 ml coconut milk  
• 150ml water 
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt & sugar to taste

egg plants sizzling in the hot oil!

Method:

1. Deep fry egg plant & long beans for 10-15 seconds or until it looks slightly golden, drain well. 
2. Using a sharp knife, cut the calamari tubes from one side until they become flat. Then score the calamari in a diagonal pattern and cut into pieces. They called this calamari/squid flower carving. When it cooked, the calamari will roll up and the cross hatching texture will catch and hold the sauces together. What a brilliant method!
3. Bring the water to boil in a small sauce pan, add calamari to scald for 1-2 minutes. Until just opaque, drain in a colander and immediately transfer to a bowl.
4. Heat up a pan with some oil, sauté the green curry paste until fragrant. Add chopped or sliced onions and cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender.
5. Turn heat to high and put in calamari flower & fried vegetables, toss around until everything is dry and fragrant. Adding water to create more sauces.
6. Add the seasonings and coconut milk. *Remember, always taste your food before serving.
7. Finally step, toss well to combine and dish up. 

It's a dried version of calamari green curry. 

Ready to serve with white rice!

The leftovers were for lunch the next day!

Watched another great Italian movie last weekend, love it so so much! I think you will like it too.
I have also learned a Italian word through this movie -
 domani =  tomorrow

Synopsis from a movie webpage:
When Jan (Christian Ulmen) proposes to his German-Italian girlfriend, Sara (Mina Tander), their small private wedding ceremony is hijacked by Sara's overbearing father and moved to her hometown in Italy. With Jan's up-tight German family in tow, there is an almighty clash of cultures as the two families set about celebrating their children's union in very different ways.

There are 2 english title translated from the original Italian title.
Maria, He Doesn't Like It / Wedding Fever in Campobello

Sneak peak on the trailer here!

haemul pajeon

Have a bunch of fresh spring onion, shrimps and soy bean paste in the fridge, so i made a basic korean pancake for lunch over the busy weekend. 'Haemul pajeon' is a savoury seafood and spring onion pancake. Its very easy to made, taste very yummy and only a few simple ingredients needed. Try it!

Ingredients you already have in the fridge & kitchen!

Ingredients:
• A bunch of spring onion / about 8-10 stalks (cut it into 4-5 inches length)
• 100g medium shrimps / about 6-8 pcs (cleaned and deveined)
• 1 free range egg (beat the egg in a small bowl and set aside)
• 70g flour
• 125 ml cold water
• 1 tsp soy bean paste (as a substitute for both salt or soy sauce)
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil

Dipping Sauce:
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar /honey
• 1/4 chopped onion
• 1/2 chopped green or red chili peppers
•1 tsp roasted sesame seeds

Trying to show the steps, but it wasn't easy to take photo while you are busy during cooking, the food sizzling and oil splashing! Really have to shoot it quick before the food over cook. Haha, but its a great experience.

Method:
1. Clean, wash, and drain a handful of spring onions.
2. Combine flour, soy bean paste & sugar in a medium bowl ready to make batter. Start by adding a small amount of cold water and add more as needed to achieve a batter consistency, then whisk until combined.
3. Heat up a non-stick pan, add about 2 tbs vegetable oil; then spread out the spring onion on the bottom of the pan.
4. Drizzle the batter over the green onion evenly, and add the shrimps on top of the batter, so it can stick on the batter, and lightly pour the beaten egg.
5. Then cook until edges begin to turn golden, then turn over with spatula and cook until other side is golden, about 2-3 minutes each side. Pressing down the pancake with spatula occasionally.
6. Cook a few more minutes until the bottom of the pancake turns crispy and golden brown again, and flip it or turn it over.
7. Once you see pancake is crispy and golden brown both side, they are ready to transfer to a cutting board or plates
8. Serve hot with sauce.

The pancake wasn't looked very good, doesn't hold the shape i wanted, but they still taste very good. The taste is even more enhanced when you dip the the sauce. Yummy!

Love the mild flavor of pan fried spring onions in the pancake & the crunchy shrimps.

Have a great start to the week.