Home Grown Vegetables With Porridge

I prefer to eat rice porridge when the weather is hot. When my father-in-law was with us, he will only eat porridge when he was not feeling well and that only for 1 or 2 days. By the 2nd day, he will complain that his legs felt weak and he needed to eat rice. Good thing, hubby doesn't feel that way and he does not mind eating porridge.

Most times, I will cook plain rice porridge. Other times, I will add meat, salted egg and century egg, or whatever is available. There are also times when I will add in rolled oats to the rice porridge if it is available. Here are 2 examples of our recent rice porridge dinners.

Dinner #1

Some home made pickled ginger and green chili.

Canned pickled lettuce.

Rice porridge with pre-marinated pork slices, century egg, salted egg, and ginger strips.

Home grown vegetable - baby choy sum.

Just plain blanched vegetable without any oil or sauce.

These days I use brown rice to boil porridge. I buy brown rice from the rice shop in my area. Recently, I asked a friend to help me buy a packet of brown rice from Sekinchan. 

Dinner #2

Salted duck egg.

Minced pork with sour belimbing buluh (picture below), chilies and onions.

Belimbing buluh fruits from a friend.

Plain brown rice porridge.

Sauteed home grown Green Amaranth with oil, garlic and salt.

Green Amaranth babies.

When I first planted this, I scattered too many seeds within a small plot.

Now I know better and I try to space out the seeds.

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I received the following photos from a friend.

I searched the internet and I think this insect is the Callirhipis Cardwellensis beetle with Flabellate Antennae.

Insect photos credited to Shirley.

This beetle is new to me.

Have you come across this strange looking beetle before.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

How could he?

For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord's thoughts,

or to discuss them with him, or to move the hands of God by prayer.

But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us

a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ.

(1 Corinthians 2:16, The Living Bible-TLB)

Wonton Noodles & Dumplings For Dinner

It has been raining daily especially in the late afternoon. Sometimes, it will be a short downpour. Sometimes, the rain continued until the wee hours of the next morning.

Sunrise at 6:55am, the morning after a rainy night.

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After clearing my garden of weeds and ageing plants, I didn't cook dinner. Hubby went out to buy wonton noodle from Cheong Kee in Buntong village.

Wonton noodle with pork strips and beansprouts (dry version).

Wonton dumplings in soup.

I added the above blanched vegetable (choy fah), topped with crunchy chili oil and soy sauce.

This was our simple dinner that evening.

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The following photos and videos were from a dear friend. She saw this cute squirrel on her neighbour's coconut tree one morning. Photos and videos credited to Shirley.

The squirrel was busy biting away at the young coconut.

With its sharp and strong teeth, it bit a hole to get to the tender flesh of the young coconut.

The following are 2 short video showing the squirrel busy at work.

Linking to Saturday's Critters

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town.

There was a man there named Zacchaeus.

He was the chief tax collector in the region,

and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus,

but he was too short to see over the crowd.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road,

for Jesus was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus

and called him by name. "Zacchaeus!" he said.

"Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today."

(Luke 19:1-5, New Living Translation-NLT)

Steamed Tilapia With Koay Teow & Home Grown Cucumbers

Have  you eaten steamed fish with noodle before? I haven't. When this eatery suggested this dish to us, twice we rejected. It was only after a friend recommended it to us saying that it is very good, only then we got curious and wanted to try. The opportunity came when I was not in the mood to cook, so we decided to have this dish for special dinner.

We drove out early, about 5:30pm to Restoran WSF 33, Jalan Bharu (parallel to Jalan Tokong), Taman Hoover, Ipoh. We prefer to eat and leave early to avoid the dinner crowd.

If you have been following my blog, you would have noticed that lately we have been here quite often to try out the different types of steamed fish. This is the way to encourage hubby to eat fish.

Part of their menu.

We couldn't get our friends to join us since it was a last minute decision, so we ordered only 2 dishes without rice.

Blanched vegetable (choy fah).

Steamed Tilapia (smaller size) with koay teow (flat rice noodle). The koay teow was separated into 2 portions; one on each side of the fish.

So instead of rice, we had koay teow (noodle) with the fish and vegetable. Ipoh is known for its soft, silky koay teow. For those who love fish and koay teow, you will enjoy this dish. Hubby paid RM37 for the 2 dishes.

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From my garden.

These are my cucumber plants.

Cucumbers harvested from my garden.

Instead of buying fresh coconut water, I have been blending cucumber juice for hubby and I. Sometimes we have it plain, sometimes I add some salted sour plum (assam boi) to the cucumber juice for extra flavour.

Some of the produce from my garden.

The extra will be shared with friends and neighbours.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday & My Corner of The World.

Only the person involved can know his own bitterness

or joy - no one else can really share it.

(Proverbs 14:10, The Living Bible-TLB)

Steamed Sweet Lips Fish & Fried Minced Meat Patties

3rd day of Chinese New Year 2022 (3rd of Feb). While the young men were still sleeping, the early risers (hubby and I) went out for our breakfast.

Sunrise at 7:20am

No morning walk for us for the whole week of Chinese New Year celebration.

Sunrise at 7:25am.

We had breakfast at one of our regular coffee shops.

I ordered 1 plain polo bun.

Hubby ordered pre-fried noodle (yee mee) in soup.

~~~~~

Lunch for 4 people.

Sweet Lips Fish from elder son's fishing trip.

I cut the fish into 2 halves. Even half the fish was too much for 4 of us. I steamed the top half and topped with blended ginger and garlic oil.

Beef slices cooked with king oyster mushrooms and fresh shittake mushrooms.

Three dishes including a plate of green (blanched choy fah) for dinner.

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Dinner for 3 people.

Younger son going out for dinner with friends.

Minced meat with egg patties. This is something I which I haven't had for a long, long time. This is my childhood's favourite and also I used to cook for my sons.

Cabbage with beef slices.

Added the ladies finger harvested from my garden.

Simple dinner for 3 of us.

This mural shows 2 washer women signed by Kareem.

Dulang washers are usually women who pan for tin sediments at the water's edge.

Linking to Monday Mural.

That, by the way, is what baptism pictures for us:

In baptism we show that we have been saved from death

and doom by the resurrection of Christ;

not because our bodies are washed clean by the water but

because in being baptized we are turning to God and

asking him to cleanse our hearts from sin.

(1 Peter 3:21, The Living Bible-TLB)

Stuffed Tofu Puffs, Roast Duck & Steamed Chicken

This was 1st day of Chinese New Year 2022 (Tuesday, 1st of February). End of January, a friend gave me a packet of tofu puffs from Bentong. These tofu puffs are very different from our local ones and their taste and texture so much better too.

Lunch for 4 people.

Stuffed tofu puffs with minced pork and fish paste.

The Thai sweet chili sauce is a good dipping for the tofu puffs.

This is the 2nd half of the roast duck hubby bought for reunion dinner.

Sauteed long beans and chive flowers with garlic and salt.

Both were from my garden.

Every day, my mind will be planning the menu for lunch and dinner. I stood in front of the freezer compartment of the fridge and finally took out a frozen chicken.

Steamed chicken with abalone.

I rub salt all over the chicken and let it rest for about 30 to 45 minutes before I steamed the chicken.

Steamed chicken with blended ginger.

I sliced the abalone thinly for easy eating

The leftover stuffed tofu puffs cooked with fresh mushrooms and carrot.

Blanched greens (choy fah), drizzled with garlic oil, oyster and soy sauce.

Home cooked dinner for 4 people.

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The following sky shots were taken end of January, 2022 during one of our morning walk.

Sunrise at 7:16am.

7:21am

7:26am

7:27am.

Wishing everyone a happy and cheerful new year!

Linking To Friday Bliss & Skywatch Friday.

When a man is gloomy, everything seems to go wrong;

when he is cheerful, everything seems right!

(Proverbs 15:15, The Living Bible-TLB)