Home Grown Green Amaranth & Nyonya Assam Prawns For Dinner

This was 2 Sundays ago. No morning walk because we were preparing to go to church.

Morning sky at 8:05am.

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Preparing for home cooked dinner.

Green Amaranth growing in a tiny vegetable plot.

Harvested Green Amaranth enough for 2 of us.

Sauteed Green Amaranth with garlic, water and salt.

Nyonya Assam Prawns with a packet of paste.

Fried half pack of papadum to eat with the Nyonya Assam Prawn.

Simple home cooked dinner for 2.

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I received the following photos from my friend, Aislynn.

Using Google Lens, this bug was identified as Batocera rubus.

Common names: White spotted Longhorn, Mango Longhorn, Rubber Root Borer.

It has long legs and very long horns, much longer than its body.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Shout to the LORD, all the earth;

break out in praise and sing for joy!

Sing your praise to the LORD with the harp,

with the harp and melodious song.

with trumpets and the sound of the ram's horn.

Make a joyful symphony before the LORD, the King!

(Psalm 98:4-6, New Living Translation-NLT)

Shredded Chicken Noodle & Prawn Tom Yam Clear Soup

This was last Sunday, 7th November. The first thing I did when I woke up was to pick up my hand phone to check the time. I noticed a familiar icon up on the top notification bar on the screen and it was the MySejahtera app. This app is for us to check in and out of public premises and also for keeping records of our vaccination status. That morning, my "Low Risk No Symptom" status was changed to "Person Under Surveillance (PUS)" status. There was a "Home Surveillance Order" (in red) for 14 days and I was told to update my daily health status for that period. I quickly checked hubby's status and his was normal which is strange because we go everywhere together except when I go to get some essentials.

Not knowing how or why I got this "PUS" status, I informed hubby that I will be house bound for the next 14 days, not even going for morning walk. After breakfast at home, I sat down to check the news and an article caught my attention. It said that there was a mistake and the MySejahtera app apologized for wrongly placing individuals under "PUS" status because of technical error. To my relief, my "under surveillance" status was reverted back to the normal low risk status within a few hours. Phew!

This was the next morning (Monday) at 7:43am.

Cancelled our morning walk because of light drizzle.

Our breakfast: Shredded chicken noodle (kai si hor fun) with black coffee at our regular coffee shop.

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Simple home cooked dinner for 2.

I used the last pack of frozen prawns to cook tom yam clear soup.

Ingredients added: carrot, tomatoes, fresh mushrooms, spring onions, etc.

Prawn tom yam clear soup with steamed rice.

Love this appetizing prawn tom yam clear soup.

Pink Balsam plants in front of my house.

One morning I saw this insect on the wall of my bedroom. I took a piece of tissue paper to pick up the insect and took it outside to place it on the ground.

I took pics of the insect and use Google Lens to identify it. It was identified as the Patent-Leather Beetle or Horned Passalus, a saproxylic beetle which can grow to just over an inch-and-a-half long, weighing 1-2 grams and are capable of pulling 50 times their own weight. It is good to know that they do not usually bite and are considered harmless. I took it over to the nearby bushes and left it there.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Beware of false teachers who come disguised as harmless sheep,

but are wolves and will tear you apart.

You can detect them by the way they act,

just as you can identify a tree by its fruit.

You need never confuse grapevines with thorn bushes

or figs with thistles.

(Matthew 7:15-16, The Living Bible-TLB)

Winter Melon & Pork Rib Soup

A friend gave me a small winter melon. I usually use winter melon to cook sweet drink (tong sui) and soup. I used two-third of the winter melon to cook sweet drink with dried longan and loh hon kor. For this sweet drink, I didn't add any sugar because the sweetness from the loh hon kor and longan is enough for us. The remaining one-third of the winter melon was used for boiling soup.

Winter Melon & Pork Rib Soup - my dinner.

Ingredients used: winter melon, pork rib, carrot, and red dates.

Winter melon soup with noodle - hubby's dinner

No carrot for him because he doesn't like carrot.

Peace Lily (spathiphyllum) from my garden.

Love the pure white colour of the petal.

This type of insect is attracted to the flower spadix.

Few days ago, a friend sent me some nice images which was taken in Kiara Park. Below is an image and a video of a weird looking beetle.

Trilobite beetle (Platerodrilus)

Photo credited to: AshleyJ/Nyappy.

Trilobite beetle (Platerodrilus)

Video credited to: AshleyJ/Nyappy.

Linking to Garden Affair & Saturday's Critters.

But you, Timothy, man of God: Run for your life from all this.

Pursue a righteous life-a life of wonder, faith, love, steadiness, courtesy.

Run hard and fast in the faith. Seize the eternal life, the life you were called to,

the life you so fervently embraced in the presence of so many witnesses.

(1 Timothy 6:11-12, The Message-MSG)

Silky Smooth Tau Foo Far At Concubine Lane, Ipoh.

After our lunch at STG Boutique Cafe, we wanted to visit the newly opened Ho Yan Hor museum since we were in the same area.

But we found it closed. A notice said it will reopen on Wednesday.

Don't know why it was closed on a Tuesday because it states here it is open from Tuesday to Sunday.

And next to it is the Tin Mining museum. We didn't book for a tour, so we moved on in search of some desserts.

The old buildings for the 2 museums are well preserved.

A sign along Concubine Lane, Ipoh.

A shop lot going under renovation along Concubine Lane.

A miniature windmill outside a shop.

Found this wall painting along a very narrow path.

Advertising for boat noodles. We may come back to try these noodles on our next trip.

This is the place we were looking for....

Creative signage (in Chinese).

The famous soya bean curd - tau foo far.

We need to place our order here and wait to collect our orders - self service. The business was good even on a normal weekday.

Simple decoration on the wall.

Tau Foo Far with ginkgo seeds & something white that looks like bird nest.

Tau Foo Far with brown sugar & black sesame seeds.

And 2 bowls of plain Tau Foo Far (original version).

Everything tasted good and the tau foo far was very smooth.
But this original version is still the best.

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These following photos are for joining "Today's Flowers".

Beige or light orange hibicus flower from my garden.

White Jasmine from my garden.

Purple Balsam flowers from my garden.

White Lily from my friend's garden.

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The following photos are for joining "Saturday's Critters".

A Green Beetle clinging upside down onto the leaf of my lime plant.

The underside is copper red.

Finally, it managed to climb onto the leaf.

Linking to Today's Flowers & Saturday's Critters.

Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough

food in my Temple. If you do," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies,

"I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a

blessing so great you won't have enough room to take it in!

Try it! Put me to the test! Your crops will be abundant,

for I will guard them from insects and disease.

Your grapes will not fall from the vine before they are ripe,"

says the LORD of Heaven's Armies.

"Then all nations will call you blessed, for your land

will be such a delight," says the LORD of Heaven's Armies.

(Malachi 3:10-12, New Living Translation-NLT)

My Garden Guests And Pests

We can have all the healthy and beautiful plants and flowers in our garden but our garden will never be complete without our garden guests and pests. I think they come as a package because naturally all gardens attract these guests and pests.

I have taken photos of my garden guests and pests. Today, I will share some of the photos with you. I will start with my garden guests.

Saw this honey bee enjoying my Japanese rose.

A dainty yellow butterfly/moth fluttering around my Water Jasmine plant, moving from flower to flower. I don't know how to differentiate between a moth and a butterfly.

This one looks like an abstract art piece. I think this looks more like a moth.

Another pretty one settling on my blue plumbago plant.
This one likes to pose - it changed position for me.

This cute, delicate one in white with fine green lines on my blue plumbago plant.

A brown one clinging onto my miniature hibiscus flower.

A bigger one, darker brown and spotted with purple and white.

Posing for my camera.

This is one of the few bird species that frequent my garden but I do not know the name. This is the best photo I can get and so far the only photo that is presentable. The birds are so alert and the slightest movement will put them to flight!

Looks like a big housefly, not exactly the same as the common housefly.

A glowing green fly.

A lady bird on my bird's eye chili plant.

A small glossy black beetle?

One morning after a rainy night, saw these delicate white parasol mushrooms sprouting out from my garden soil.

Can anyone tell me what this is? A worm/caterpillar with a black cap.

Another unknown insect on the mulberry leaf.

Below are the unwelcome guests or pests that I do not want to be in my garden because they do a lot of damage to my plants.

Baby garden snail that can eat up my baby plants especially chili plants overnight.

And this green glutton fella can totally batok or bald my plants.

This nasty hairy thing can cause terrible discomfort, redness, swelling, itch and even pain once it touches our skin.

This tiny black insect can cause harm too. Once I was cutting off some old hyacinth twine and 2 insects fell on my neck. They left behind 2 red spots, very painful, burning sensation and later turned to 2 dark burnt scars on the skin which took quite a while to heal.

Initially I left this alone. I didn't know it can multiply so fast! Later, I found these all over my garden, especially in the soil of my potted plants! Now I am thinking of ways how to get rid of them. They ea and destroy the young roots of my plants.

Once it is touched, it curls up like this - I have seen the big black sized ones in Fraser's Hill which were more than 6 inches long! Scary!

Is this a locust or grasshopper? Saw this on my blue plumbago, sometimes on my orange bauhinia plant. It is not easily frightened away. It is about 3 to 3.5 inches long. I used water to shoo it away but it came back again.

Spotted another one again, or could it be the same one that I saw earlier.

Oh no! One morning when I was watering my plants I saw these tiny grasshoppers on my plant and fence. This is only part of it.

And also on my kaffir lime plant (limau purut). Fortunately they haven't started their work of destruction yet (chewing and balding my plants). The first thing I did was to turn on the tap and hosed them away. Later I saw a few still sticking around and I hosed them again and after that they didn't come back again.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

"I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten

- the great locust and the young locust,

the other locusts and the locust swarm

- my great army that I sent among you.

You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,

and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,

who has worked wonders for you;

never again will my people be shamed.

(Joel 2:25-26, New International Version-NIV)