Oscar Winner Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh

Based on the social media report, congratulations messages have been pouring in for Tan Sri Michelle Yeo as soon as she won the prestigious Oscar awards.  

It was in our local newspaper yesterday.  She has made our nation proud.  Malaysia Boleh. 

Home, Food, Family, Love

These are two of the decorative items hanging on our kitchen wall.  

The "HOME" cross stitch on top of the door to the backyard, was a present from my close friend, Viv, we have known each other since primary school, continued to secondary school and later colleague.  It's a very meaningful piece of cross stitch,  "HOME is where you keep your heart"

By the door, we hang a lovely piece of prayer, a Christmas present from family.  We could read the FOOD, FAMILY, LOVE from a distance.

Come closer, the verse goes "Bless the FOOD before us, the FAMILY besides us, the LOVE between us, Amen".  

Flying Noodles / Floating Noodles

Heard so much about the Flying Noodles or Floating Noodles in the social media.  This was last year around Christmas time, we went ot Suria Sabah shopping mall to do our Christmas shopping.  We seated ourselves for lunch at one of the restaurants in the mall, I noticed they have flying noodles in their menu.  Out of curiosity, I ordered one to try out.

The noodles are hard and full of starchy gravy, I find it hard to eat.  I made a bit of a mess eating it and I didn't finish it.  I still prefer the springy and chewy texture type of noodles.

I ordered a hot drink, it was Kopi Kahwin Tarik to help me send the noodles down.

Learning foreign languages

My better half has been wanting to learn how to speak good Mandarin. He mingled around with Hakka speaking classmates when he was in secondary school, and now in most business encounters with the Chinese communities, Mandarin is spoken along side with BM and English. He tends to mix up Hakka with Mandarin. Hence, my girls recommended their daddy to take up online Mandarin class from Duolingo which they have been doing so by learning Spanish and Korean respectively.  They have previously mentioned it before but we did not put attention to what they are talking about.  

Without further delay, my eldest opened up the online website, helped her daddy to register and start learning Mandarin the night itself.  As for me, I chose to learn Korean because my youngest is learning Korean from the same website but put her Korean class on hold to concentrate on her SPM exams revision for the time being.  Well, it would be an advantage if two of us can practice speaking Korean next time.

I have started my Korean lessons since 8th Mar'23

the lessons look like this. 

My daughters have been consistent in reminding us to attend our daily classes.

After few days into the lessons, I still haven't got a clue on the Korean language characters.  Will learn at a slow pace. No pressure (😄😄) 

  

Banana Recipe for Generations

Do you boil the Bananas ?  

Yes we do.  It is very common for us to boil the Pisang Saba even though we can peel the skin off to eat them like other bananas  My mum loves boiled Pisang Saba (Banana Saba).  She served us boiled Pisang Saba when we went visit her, she would ask us to bring some home if she has got extra.  

There is no special recipe for boiled Pisang Saba.  Just clean them and boil them in a pot of water.  The fully ripened banana taste the best (sweeter) after boiling.  The boiled bananas can be kept up to few days in room temperature and longer if store in the fridge.

the boiled pisang Saba turned softer and browned.

We also use Pisang Saba to make banana fritters (pisang goreng) and banana chips.  

We used to have banana trees growing over the fencing at the back of our backyard.  They are growing wide, tall and wild. They have grown near attaching to the roof.  I insisted to remove them when we did our kitchen renovation last year.  They will grow back overnight especially after the rain.  We have to trim them almost every week to prevent them from growing wild again.  The price of Pisang Saba is relatively cheaper than the other bananas of similar size.

Oats for breakfast

We have been frequent having oats for breakfast these days. It is quick to fix and healthy. Pearl likes oatmeal, she learnt from youtube/tiktok on how to prepare overnight oats meal for her next day morning breakfast before school.

I bought this pack of Oats with Omega 3 flax flakes, it is an Australian product.  Easy to prepare by adding hot water to soften the oats just like any instant oats.  The texture is good.

This is my Strawberry Oatmeal breakfast.  I also had some blueberries Oatmeal the day before to add more varieties to my breakfast.

Home Bakes - Cocoa Almond Muffin Cupcakes

My daughter was in the mood to bake cupcakes.  After baking the mini carrot cupcakes on last Sunday, she wanted to try out another cake with different flavour, I was a bit lazy but she promised to help out, she started to randomly flipped through a cake recipe book in the kitchen and found a coffee & walnut cake but I do not have instant coffee power nor walnut.  I do have coco powder and almond flakes which I have not been able to use them for anything yet, thus we have a twist on the ingredients and we had Cocoa Almond Muffin cupcakes instead.

It was supposed to be a cake as per the recipe book, since I have got plenty of unused muffin cupcake cases in stock might as well use them up.  We only made 7 medium size muffin cupcakes using this recipe, using smaller size cupcake cases will yield more. 

I included the ingredients in my youtube video description box for record.

Monday food stuff shopping and dinner

Yesterday Morning, after sending Crystal to Uni, we went to the wet market to get some fresh vegetables, we have totally run out of green in our fridge.  

These are what we bought 

This sawi and pak choi is RM2.00 per ikat

We bought some favourite kuih for our lunch & tea breaks and a loaf of bread for the next day morning breakfast as Pearl has got SPM's Accounting exam in the morning, we need a quick fix breakfast before rushing to school.

After the wet market, we went to the supermarket meant to get a can of evaporated milk for the whole grain desert that I boiled on Saturday.  100% of the time when we went into the supermarket we will come out with more stuff than what we intended to buy.

the evaporated milk and a bag of rice

some frozen food that come in handy for breakfast (the Mantou), lunch and dinner (the chicken meat rolls & Pork meat ball)

and a bag of 16 rolls of toilet tissues.  The prices of the toilet tissues have increased some much, this brand cost RM2.04 per roll, I find the quality of this tissue is satisfying.

To save us time from cooking lunch, we take out/tapau 2 Tuaran Mee for our girls from the shop we had breakfast.  

For dinner, we had the chicken meat rolls that we bought from the supermarket in the morning.  I fried the rolls in the air fryer

and cut them up, served them in a bed of green vegetable

3 dishes, very simple dinner

Multiplying Hoya Kerrii, the lucky heart plant

Honestly I did not know what this plant called until I searched it out from Mr Google by typing "heart shape cactus" wahahaha.  Now I know it is call Hoya Kerrii, Hoya Heart or Lucky Heart among many other names given to it.  Anyway, I prefer to called it Lucky Heart plant from now on.

This Lucky Heart plant with 2 leaves was given to us by my SIL last year who is very passionate in plants and flowers, she has got a garden full of greens and flowers and also vegetables too. She puts a lot of afford in maintaining her garden. 

from 2 leaves last year (forgot the date).....I gave auspicious names "吉祥, 如意" to the leaves, simply means "Good Fortune and Abundance of all that you love"

and today, it has multiplied with an additional of 3 leaves with minimal care.  I just have to water it 2-3 times a week.

In order for it to multiple more, I will have to transfer my Lucky Heart plant to a bigger pot.  Will do that soon.

 

Philips Coffee Maker HD7431

My previous "kitchen" was only like a pantry, I can only place the most frequent use kitchen aids on the table. 

This Philips Coffee Maker has never been used, still in its original box for years. I took it out for good used since 3 months ago when there are more space in the renovated kitchen. I use local coffee powder from Yit Foh Tenom Coffee, more economical and thick. Sometimes I place a coffee bag inside its jug and boil water in the reservoir to make my coffee. This coffee machine has got keep warm feature which allows me to have warm coffee throughout the day. 

I will use this coffee maker until I have got the budget to buy a capsule coffee machine.

Sunday bakes - Carrot cupcakes

After taking a long break off from baking due to kitchen renovation. Crystal wanted to baked some little cupcakes. She agreed to help me in the baking, my better half flipped thru the recipe book and suggested us to bake the carrot cake because we have got carrots in the fridge. The ingredient called for self-raising flour but we didn't have any. Crystal suggested to ask uncle Google see whether we can replace it with cake flour. Yes, we can. Just add baking powder and salt.

We did it with some modifications from the book's ingredients by reducing the amount of sugar and oil especially.  

most of the cupcakes are in this small size with only 4 bigger size with cheddar cheese topping.  The cheese all turned brown after baking.  

 

Company 2021 Christmas & year end lunch gathering

This is a very very late post.

It was on 9th December 2021 we had a company's Christmas & Year End Lunch gathering at The Palace Hotel Kota Kinabalu.  We were served with a 4-course Western Set Lunch. 

For the starter, I chose the Prawn, Avocado Salsa with Meslun Leaves & Sesame Seed Vinaigrette

Soup : Cream of cauliflower with olive oil drizzle & garlic bread

Main course : Chicken Wellington served with potato au gratin, creamed spinach sauteed vegetables

Dessert : Chocolate Mouse Cake with Strawberry compote

We have Christmas gift exchange after lunch.

A nice pastel blue handbag was in the gift bag from a colleague who had picked my name, a secret Santarina.

A compilation of plants & flowers at front yard

These are some of the photos of my plants & flowers that I managed to capture when they are flowering or I would say in good condition.  Post them here to record their blooming glory.

Desert roses are the only flowering plants that I have.  As you can see they are of common varieties.  I experienced down times with them, seeing all the leaves turned yellow, brown and dropped off completely.  I have to spray them with soap water when they are infected with fungal.  At times, I have no choice but to trim the branches.  They will grow back amazingly.  That's what I love about Desert Roses.

This plant is given to us by my sister in law who has green figures.  

Starbucks Doughnut

I grew up with round doughnuts. When seeing a doughnut in different shape, there is an urge to try it out. Just like what I did to Starbucks Doughnut, thought kind of different in taste because it is square. Do you have this kind of mindset ?

On board Airasia and MAS from BKI to KUL return

Is was sometime mid 2022 that I was on board an Air Asia 5 a.m. flight to Kuala Lumpur. I was thrilled to see the tiger painted on the air plane. Don't you think is nice ?  I got to stop to take a photo of it letting the other passengers went ahead of me.

the whole cabin luggage compartments are about "Save our Malayan Tiger". Nice.  So long as there is no real tiger on board :DDD

I always pre-ordered my meal on board Air Asia.  Most of the times are Chicken Rice.

Taste nice though..

I took Malaysia Airlines (MAS) on my return flight to KK..Meal is included in all MAS flights and with on flight movies selections for entertainment from take off to touch down. 

It was not long after the pandemic, the fares between Air Asia and MAS was not that much of a difference then.