Home Grown Chinese Cabbage & Steamed Pork Rib

I have tried to grow some leafy green vegetables before but they didn't turned out well. There must be something which I didn't do right.

I didn't want to give up easily so I bought the above seeds to try again. I sowed the seeds in a small container. Once the seedlings sprouted, I prepared the vegetable patch. This time, I loosen the soil and mixed in with growth fertilizer and left it for a few days. We were in the midst of rainy days. After the seedlings have grown the 2nd leaves, I transferred them to the vegetable patch.

I finally have success in growing leafy vegetables!

Freshly harvested for our dinner.

Washed and broken into pieces, ready to be cooked.

Home grown Chinese cabbage simply sauteed with garlic and salt.

Pork ribs steamed with fermented black beans, chopped garlic and ginger, chilies, dark and light soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste.

Satisfying dinner for a rainy evening.

~~~~~

The following photos were from the Antong Coffee Mill when we visit in June, 2016.

A statue of Dr. Sun Yat Sen in front of the house where he stayed in when he was in Taiping.

This house is next to the Antong coffee mill. Dr. Sun Yat Sen and Chen Cuifen stayed here when they were in Taiping.

Portraits and other artifacts are kept in the upper room. The ground floor is used for coffee tasting and selling of coffee products.

Linking to Image-in-ing, Tuesday's Treasures and Happy Tuesday.

For if you give, you will get!

Your gift will return to you in full and overflowing measure,

pressed down, shaken together to make room for more,

and running over. Whatever measure you use to give - large or small -

will be used to measure what is given back to you."

(Luke 6:38, The Living Bible-TLB)

Enjoy Mooncakes While They Are Freshly Baked

We thought there will be no morning walk when we woke up because it was raining. Surprisingly, it stopped a short while later. When we started out, the ground was still wet and the air fresh and cool. Today, I am combining 2 days posting into 1 post.

Day #1

The top of Kledang Hill was shrouded in mist - 7:30am.

Morning sky with dark cloud looming over us - 7:40am

A lone bird perched on the power cable.

Home cooked instant noodle with steamed pork rib with preserved black bean, leftover from the previous day's dinner.

I prefer to add some dried shrimp chili to my plate of noodle.

We stopped at a roadside stall selling biscuits, cakes and unbranded mooncakes. The mooncake festival is about 4 weeks away but mooncakes are already on sale. I have not bought mooncakes for many years, whatever we had were gifts from friends and neighbour. I couldn't resist because the mooncakes were freshly baked. I ended up buying 2 different types of mooncakes to taste.  

This is 5 mixed nuts mooncake which is my favourite.

Love this 5 nuts mooncake but now I have to take a long time to chew on the nuts because my gum is not as strong as before. It is fresh, tastes good, less oily and not very sweet.

This is white lotus paste with single salted egg yolk mooncake.

This is hubby's favourite. I took a piece (cut into 8 pieces) to taste.

This is also fresh, tastes good, less oily and not very sweet.

~~~~~

Simple home cooked dinner.

Just 1 dish (sambal stinky bean with minced pork and dried shrimp) dinner. This dish is best eaten with white rice. 

My neighbour doesn't eat stinky beans so I kept this extra portion in the fridge for another day's dinner.

Day #2

A cool morning after a whole night's rain.

Mist or low cloud surrounding the hill.

Received 2 big steamed buns (tai pau) from our neighbour.

1 for hubby and 1 for me.

Steamed big bun filled and packed with delicious ingredients.

Since we like and enjoyed the mooncakes, I went back to the same stall to buy 4 more mooncakes:

2 white lotus paste with single salted egg yolk (RM6.80 each),

1 with 5 mixed nuts (RM7.80 each)

and 1 with 5 mixed nuts with Chinese ham (RM8.40).

No more buying of mooncakes, enough for this year.

The cook was in lazy mode, so we went out to buy dinner.

We bought fried noodle (Mamak mee goreng), 2 pieces fried chicken and some potato fries.

Since the vaccination program started, coconut water has been a hot selling item. There are about 5 stalls selling coconut water and they are enjoying roaring business. People has been queuing up to buy coconut water. It is believed that drinking coconut water helps to reduce side effects of vaccine such as fever and etc.

If you love someone,

you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost.

You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him,

and always stand your ground in defending him.

(1 Corinthians 13:7, The Living Bible-TLB)

Assorted Pastries, Hokkien Fried Fat Noodle & Steamed Pork Ribs

This is another day with gloomy sky. As long as it is drizzling, we can still go for our walk.

A glimpse of the sunrise at 7:30am.

On the way back, we made a detour to the nearby shops to buy the above items for breakfast.

Top row: 2 yam puffs and 1 curry puff, 3 items for RM5.

Bottow row: 2 siew pau and 1 egg tart, 3 items for RM5.

Fried flaky bbq pau and hum cheem peang.

The bbq pork filling of the fried flaky siew pau is nice but the skin is too thick.

Hubby bought this and he couldn't remember how much he paid for it.

For lunch, hubby went out to buy Hokkien fried fat noodle for us to share.

~~~~~

Home cooked dinner.

Steamed pork ribs with preserved black beans.

Blanched home grown Malabar Spinach, drizzled with garlic oil, oyster and soy sauce.

Our neighbour bought for us stewed fish head. To heat up for dinner, I steamed it and added in the leftover roast pork I had in the fridge. This was more for me because hubby is not a fan of fish head.

I kept aside half of the steamed pork rib for next day.

I saw this unusual white butterfly fluttering on the tarmac road on our morning walk.

~~~~~

The following photo and video credited to Aislynn.

This is a mango loving dog. My friend recently took in a stray dog and it surprised her to see this dog enjoying a ripe mango that had fallen from the tree in her garden.

My friend shared this short video of her adopted dog enjoying the mango.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves.

Instead, you received God's Spirit when he adopted you

as his own children. Now we call him, "Abba, Father."

(Romans 8:15, New Living Translation-NLT)

Hyacinth Bean Soup & Steamed Pork Rib With Cauliflower

This was 2 Tuesdays ago. This was another one of the hot and humid days we are having here.

Beautiful sunrise at 7:06am.

Golden sunrise at 7:26am.

Morning sky at 7:27am.

Clear blue sky and white cloud.

Simple home prepared breakfast.

We had half boiled eggs, toast and jam.

Milo kosong for hubby and Bru coffee with nestum for me

For lunch, we had glutinous rice dumplings (bak chang).

These are the smaller bak chang and just nice for a not so heavy lunch.

The bak chang filling consist of mung beans, salted egg yolk and pork. We have been buying these at RM11 for 3 bak changs. We were informed that very likely they will have to increase the price due to the increasing prices of raw materials.

~~~~~

When the weather is hot and humid, my kitchen becomes like an sauna room. I have a mini fan in the kitchen but it doesn't help much. I will be sweating away and my t-shirt will be all wet. So, to spend less time in the kitchen, I tried to cook dishes with less preparation time.

Steamed pork rib with salted black beans with the cauliflower as base in a metal plate.

Soup:  Green hyacinth beans (pang pei dau), carrot, red dates, goji berries, and chicken bones. Cooking soup is easy. I just dump everything into a pressure cooker. Once it reached high pressure, I let it slow cook for 25 to 30 minutes over low fire. In this way, it taste like authentic soup cooked the traditional way and it also helps to save gas.

This steamed pork rib dish and the soup is an appetizing combination for a warm and sweaty evening.

My bauhinia kockiana clusters in different shades of yellow and orange.

~~~~~

I received the following photos from my friend.

She saw this monitor lizard in the drain outside her house.

Photos credited to Shirley T.

If I see this, I don't know whether I have the courage to take these snapshots.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Don't be impatient.

Wait for the Lord, and he will come and save you!

Be brave, stouthearted and courageous.

Yes, wait and he will help you.

(Psalm 27:14, The Living Bible-TLB)