Enjoying Chef Fatt's Dim Sum With Friends

Last Saturday hubby and I had a breakfast date with our old friends, Mr & Mrs Yew. It has been quite a while since we last had our breakfast together. We agreed to meet at their church which is halfway between her house and ours.

On our way to meet up with our friends, we drove by this kindergarten.

The wall painting was nicely done and I took a snapshot of it together with the fencing to share in this post.

When we reached their church, our friends got into our car and informed us that they wanted to give us a dim sum breakfast treat.

What a blessing to have a parking lot waiting for us right in front of

Restoran Chef Fatt which serves Hong Kong dim sum.

Dim Sum menu posted on the glass panel.

We started off with fishballs! 4 steamed fish balls for 4 of us.

4 steamed pre-fried fish balls.

Half way through our food, I suddenly remembered I have not taken photos of these 4 items or dumplings. Put them together and this will do!

I only know siew mai, har kau and the other 2 items, I do not know.

2 taro puffs, to be shared by 4 people. 

Pan fried white raddish cake.

Specially ordered from the kitchen.

Freshly cooked, piping hot Deep Fried Noodle (yee mee) with thick gravy.

Again, it was only after I have divided up the noodle into individual bowls, did I remember to snap photo, so I took a photo of my bowl of noodle.

After breakfast, we sent our friends back to their church.

We were invited to take a look at the roses in full bloom, planted by Mr Yew.

He has green fingers. He planted 2 pots of these beautiful red roses.

Hope he remembers to propagate some stem cuttings for me. Lol!

On our way home from the church, we have to cross this bridge with the metal fencing on both sides.

Linked to Good Fences.

Let this message sink into the ears of anyone who listens

to what the Spirit is saying to the churches:

To everyone who is victorious,

I will give fruit from the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God.

(Revelation 2:7, TLB)

Growing Peanuts In My Garden

After I have harvested the sweet potatoes leaves, the big round earthen pot with its soil has been left as it was because I have not thought of what to plant yet.

One morning while watering my plants, an idea came to me. Maybe I could try planting peanuts in this pot. I have tried growing peanuts in the ground before and the harvest was very good. So I searched in my refrigerator and found some store bought peanuts and soaked them for a few hours. I then used a stick to poke holes in the soil and in each hole, I dropped in 2 peanuts and lightly covered up the holes.

After daily watering and keeping the soil moist, the peanuts started to sprout.

 Peanuts belong to the Legume family. Scientific name is Arachis Hypogaea.

Peanuts grow well in light sandy soil.

Peanuts need warm weather to grow well and yield good harvest.

Peanuts need about 4 to 5 months for the legumes to ripen.

The leaves of peanuts have 4 leaflets.

If it is harvested too early, the seeds in the legume will not be well formed.

 With the extra peanuts I also planted them in this medium sized pot.
The harvest from this pot was totally nil!

Looking out for the first bloom.

Finally, the first blooms appeared! The flower is bright golden yellow.

Once pollinated, and after the flowers have faded, the elongated flower stalk with a slightly swollen tip, grow downward and pushed into the soil to develop into legume pods.

The peanut branches are growing taller and longer until they started to droop over the pot. The pot is not big enough for the fruiting of legume pods.

 Normally the branches will fall onto the ground for the flower stalk to push into the soil. But due to lack of space, they are drooping over the side of the pot.

For those flower stalks which were unable to touch the soil, they formed legume pods outside as shown in this photo.  

Each legume pod will normally contains from 1 to 4 seeds.

The peanut patch were getting really untidy but I need to wait until 5 months to harvest.

Reached 5 months, hoping to get some harvest. I gently loosened the soil and pulled out plant by plant. Even though the legume pods may not be very big, I did have a small amount of harvest. At least my time and effort were not wasted.

Peanuts and its many uses:-

• Peanuts can be eaten raw.
• Peanuts as salted peanuts, peanut candy bars, peanut butter, peanut butter cookies, roasted shelled peanuts, deep fried shelled peanuts.
• Boiled peanuts with the shell in brine.
• Peanut oil for cooking.
• Dry roasted peanut with the shell and etc.

I managed to get this amount from the harvest, enough for hubby and myself. I boiled these in brine and eat them as snack while watching the TV.
Anything home grown always taste sweeter.

Now as for you, dear brothers

who are waiting for the Lord's return, be patient,

like a farmer who waits until the autumn

for his precious harvest to ripen.

Yes, be patient.

And take courage, for the coming of the Lord is near.

(James 5:7-8, TLB)

Growing Cockscomb In My Garden

When I expressed my liking for this flower and expressed my wish to plant it in my garden, my friend grabbed hold of a dried comb, plucked it off from the plant and gave it to me. When I reached home, I removed the tiny black seeds from the dried comb. I just gave the dried comb a light shake and many tiny black seeds dropped off from it.

I sprinkled some the tiny black seeds onto the soil in a small container. And I added a few centimeters of soil to cover the seeds. Then I lightly watered the soil and kept it in partial shade, keeping the soil moist until the seeds sprouted.

Some of the common names of this flower are Cockscomb, Red Cockscomb and Crested Celosia, etc. Its scientific name is Celosia Cristata.

Cockscomb flower looks like the rooster's or cock's comb or crest on its head.

The cockscomb flowers come in many shapes, sizes and various striking colours of red, golden yellow, pink, orange, purple and etc.

Here, the baby plants are ready to be transferred to a bigger pot. Cockscomb is very easy to propagate through seeds, easy to grow and maintain.

I planted them deeper into the soil for the roots to be anchored firmly in the soil.

Later, I removed the smaller plants and let the bigger and healthier plants remained in the pot.

The plants are getting bigger and they all looked so healthy that I had a hard time deciding which to discard. Finally, I managed to remove the smaller ones and left behind 4 bigger ones in the pot.

Took this picture during a hot, sunny day.

Every morning when I watered my plants, I would peek to see if there was any sign of the comb. One morning, I saw something pinkish like this and my heart leaped for joy!

 Cockscomb loves the sun. Can be under full sun or in partial shade.

 It is also drought resistant. If it is too dry, the leaves will droop. But once it is watered, the leaves will be restored to its full freshness.

If it is exposed to full sun, the plant will grow taller.

It can grow to about 3 to 4 feet or even taller.

With regular fertilizing, the plant will grow healthy and have bigger comb.

It grows well in rich and moist garden soil with good water drainage.

 It is not a woody plant. It is quite disease resistant but can be attacked by fungal disease and mealy bugs. Cockscomb is usually grown as ornamental plant. The flower or comb can last for many weeks.

Medicinal Uses:

• The seeds are used to treat retinal degeneration, blurred vision, cataracts, bloodshot eyes.
• The flowers or comb are used to treat uterine bleeding, bloody stool, bleeding hemorrhoids, to control diarrhea.
• The pulp of leaves and stalks are used as dressings for boils, sores, wounds.
• Whole plant are used for cough, excessive menstrual flow, intestinal bleeding, intestinal worms, hemorrhoids, urinary tract infection, painful urination, mouth sores, redness of eyes, lower blood pressure, headache, etc.
• Tender leaves and shoots are used as vegetable.

Use these herbs with caution. For uses and dosage, please refer to traditional sifu or professional herbalist. 

One morning, an uninvited guest came to visit the Cockscomb plant.

It landed on a leaf, almost went unnoticed. I have not seen this visitor before and I was curious. I stood and watch and this visitor was too engrossed with its organic meal to notice me.

It went about doing its business. It started to feed on the leaf. From a tiny hole, the hole started to grow bigger. I took a pincer and took hold of it and threw it out of my garden. Hope it will go elsewhere and not return.

This is a dried cockscomb. The tiny black seeds will easily fall out just by brushing against or shaking the dried cockscomb.

Cockscomb of different shapes and sizes.

Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped

by those desires you had when you were still ignorant.

Instead, be holy in all that you do,

just as God who called you is holy.

(1 Peter 1:14-15, GNT)