What;s Cooking In the Pot, Ms Pinkie Rabbit??

Sorry for putting too many entries in 1 day..Please bear with me since I would like to write as much as I can before the laziness in me creeps in..This was our dinner last nite..or rather.. late evening dinner..

My chicken rendang  simmering merrily in the pan..

Turmeric leaf from my own edible garden which will be added to my rendang

Red spinach and carrot soup to compliment my rendang and for my prince's lunch tomorrow

My version of chicken rendang..

Speaking of rendang, there are many version of rendang: rendang minang (usually with bird chillies added), rendang tok (Perakian specialties,but I personally dun like it very much), rendang pedas, etc..This is my version of rendang pedas but a healthier version which I only put about only 3/4 cup of coconut milk (santanlah..)..Some people like my father likes it very, very dry but this house prefers the one with lots of gravy..whenever I cook meals for my family I cannot go without any veggies..some may find it odd why the red spinach soup complimented my rendang but as I said, I can never eat any meals without veggies..

                     "Happy Cooking, Folks!!"

Update on my edible garden..

I know it was only like 5 days ago since I last posted on my edible garden, but I could not contain my excitement to share with you the progress on my edible garden..So check it out, folks!!

Pic of little baby ocra taken last Monday

Baby ocra has grown into 4-inch tall ocra plants in just 4 days!

These are onion leaves from the bulbs experimented by me last week..

These are not edible, though..these are from the marigold seeds sowed last week..or was it bak choy??I should label my veggies next time..(making a mental note to myself)

Looks like I have "green hands" after all in planting veggies..tee hee. hee..I can't wait to see other veggies coming out from the seeds I sowed.What took you so long guys?? The chives (or kucai in Malays) have not germinated yet ..Patience, patience..

                        "Happy Gardening Everyone!!!"

Decorating my daughter's room..

It has been almost 4 months since we transferred our first little occupant to her own room which I promised to decorate. Actually, we are only adding some deco to her room but my little princess is more than satisfied..This is how her room looks like now..

On the wall sticker personally  selected by my princess

A blue mushroom lamp to accompany my princess who very much terrified of the dark

A blue study table, purchased from IKEA, so that my princess can do her homework comfortably

Can you see the wall deco beside the study table? My princess insisted that we put it there..

A closer look at my princess wall deco

My princess bed with maroon cat character selected by my princess with the influence of her pink& maroon-lover mother

Stick-on the wall giraffe-height measuring sticker for us to keep record of my kids growth progress

Satisfied looking "occupant" who is still occupying our room during daytime

When will this other "occupant" leave our room? Only time will tell..

Actually, we started off with a fancy design border to decorate our princess room,but it did not stick on very long. Thus, we removed it already..Looking forward to add other deco inside her room..If you have any idea to share with me, I would love to hear it..

                         "Happy decorating everyone!!!"

What's Cooking Ms Pinkie Rabbit??

I'm in my mood to write another entry. So, please bear with me, folks! These are the dishes that I cooked for dinner yesterday..

Sotong goreng kunyit..or squid stir-fried with turmeric powder and some shallots. I also threw in some bird-chillies from my edible garden..yummy!!!

It has been so long since I last cooked this squid dish. It reminds me of the good old days where me and my twin sis cooked together, chattering happily as we cooked this dish together.

Black pepper stir fried beef with traffic light capsicum

This is one of this house favourite dish. In fact, this dish is a compulsory dish every week. My husband loves this dish in one condition, not too much pepper in it! Can you see the traffic light capsicum embedded together in the gravy? How I wish that capsicums were from my own edible garden...:)

"Happy  cooking everyone!!"

Starting my own edible garden

Greetings, folks!! I finally had the time to snap some pics of my edible garden when I got back early from work yesterday..Hope you will enjoy these pics..

My little helper posing happily next to my pinkish-turned white small zinnia

Can you see little baby ocra sprouting from the seed?

Bird-chillies plant purchased from local nursery

A closer look at my bird-chillies..Many had been happily plucked by my little helper

Gift from my beloved mother..curry leaves plant

Turmeric..I found small whitish snails nibbling at the leaves.managed to hand pluck them one by one yesterday..

Can you see a tall new leaves appearing from the stem? I actually cut the stem a bit since the stem seemed a bit dry..Alhamdulillah, it grows new leaves that hopefully will be ready by the time I want to  make another pot of rendang!

Trying my luck at growing onion leaves..

 I read somewhere that if we do not have the one that have already sprouting, we can actually cut off the upper part (or in other word, circumcise the upper part, just a little bit) and plant the bulb straight away. Just 2 days ago,when  I wanted to replace it to another pot, I saw new freshly grown roots started to form at the base of the bulb. Just this morning I inspected this pot and I saw the first glimmer of the green leaves appeared at the head part of the bulb but I didn't manage to snap any pics since I'm already late for work..

Rows of my potted edible plants.The seed were just sowed and hopefully they will germinate soon!

Faithful mango tree in my lawn..we seldom have the opportunity to taste the fruits since the fruit bats and civet cat got to them first!What a pity..

My little helper peering from inside the house and giving me one of her favourite pose

So, how about you? Hope you are also inspired to start your very own edible garden..

                     "Happy gardening everyone!!"

New hobby!!

      Hi everyone..it's been like years since the last time I posted any N3.Happy Eidul Fitr to all Muslim readers out there. My days were full of busy activities, juggling between going to the labs, finished off my thesis and managing my family. My precious prince is now 1 year and 3 month old and he is an outdoor person himself..Always pointing outside, asking me to take him for a walk around our house. Fortunately,  I'm living in a semi-detached house, so that we have ample of space for him to cruise around..That is how I started to think of the things that I can do with my children outside the house. Actually, I already envisaged to have my own garden since 2 years ago, but Irsyad and Kak Long were still small and we had to carry them around the house whenever we wanted to do sumtin outdoors, but now, since Irsyad has finally walked confidently, the time has come to make my dream a reality. This hobby started off accidentally when I come across this one blog..http://www.tanamsendiri.com.. I'm really amazed that this guy, Mr Iskandar grow his own veggies for his family consumption.He grows so many veggies such as ocra, spinach, mouth watering tomatoes, etc.Anyway, at that moment I wuz only interested to grow some flowers but as days went by, I wuz  very excited to have my own edible garden. When I got home, I urged my hubby to go to a local nursery to buy some soils and I ended up buying 3 flower plants and 1 chilly plant. The flower plants were  1 white zinnia, 1 purple aster and another pink flower which I do not have any idea what's its name but it's a smaller version of zinnia.Anyone that can help me identify this species, feel free to drop your comment here.Here are the their pics:

White zinnia, as white as snow..

Cheery purple aster

Small, pinkie zinnia.has suddenly turned white..anybody knows why??

After 2 days of having these cheery flower pots in my porch, I finally started my edible garden starting with some chillies, capsicum, ocra, chives, onions and bak choy which has been graciously donated by  Mr Iskandar from www.tanamsendiri.com , which I immediately sowed in the pot upon receiving. Hopefully, they will germinate soon!

       Just today before I left to work, I peered down from my bedroom window and to my joy, saw the ocra that was just sowed 2 days before has germinated!! Wow, it wuz very true that growing ocra will never fail you..they were so easy to grow..I will post their progress from time to time..Guess, that's all for now, folks..I'm so glad I found this new hobby which I hope will also teach my children to care for mother earth by planting plants around the house and as the Malay saying goes."Berbakti pada tanah, banyak faedahnya". Now, Kak Long will faithfully follow me around every evening to water the plant. She also seemed to enjoy plucking fresh bird chillies from the chilly plant that I bought from the nursery.

                                          "Happy gardening everyone!!"