Garden update (number 643, hahahaha :-P)

Let’s go harvesting…

There’s a lot more where they came from!

I made tomato salsa and tomato-based enchilada filling with the tomatoes yang baru dituai ni. Miss 8 and The Other Half just ate the cherry tomatoes raw off the plant.

Lepas ni, I tak tau nak buat apa lagi dengan the tomatoes, hahaha.

Our rose bushes have finally grown so many flowers after sakit berminggu2…

So many colour everywhere…

Unfortunately for me, I tak boleh nak potong the roses bawak masuk rumah because I seem to get quite a bad hay fever reaction to it this year. My nose gradually starts to stuff up bila duduk dekat2 the roses ni until it is so difficult to breathe through it.

So, terpaksalah I biar them kembang and layu kat pokok aje…..

The hydrangeas in the pot. I’m not sure whether the purple flowers are turning pink or the pink turning blue. We just have to wait and see .

Title-less Tuesday

Tu lah you all, macam mana lah I nak buat sambal belacan and sambal tomat kaw kaw sekarang ni kan…

Baru you all terkejut tengok betapa tak munasabah nya harga some sayur kat Perth ni kan, hehehehehe.

Kangkung is $10.99/kg, okra/bendi is $16.99/kg, daun limau purut beberapa helai dah $2.50, serai kecut2 yang besar jari kelingking $1 for 3, kalau serai gemuk2 $1 sebatang, daun ketumbar $17/kg but still ok lagi sebab beli pun sikit2 aje.

Now you know why we want to become peladang berjaya tanam segala benda kalau boleh, hahahaha….

On a completely different story….

Miss 12 has been involved as a Front of House team at her school for a few months now. What it means is that they’ll be called whenever the school requires people to be the ticket collectors and ushers and a few other things for their stage productions.

And the Front of House team ada their own ‘uniform’ which is white collared shirts, black pants/skirts and black shoes. Memang sebijik waiters and waitresses lah the uniform kan. I guess the students look more formal that way.

She used to wear black pants but all her friends semua pakai black skirts so obviously she wants to blend in lah a bit. And now since she’s got her hair cut short, lagi lah dia nak pakai skirt so people can see that she’s a girl, hahahaha. So, we got her a black skirt.

She’s already got a pair of black shoes but since tak sama macam her friends, we bought her another pair yang lebih kurang what all the other girls wear.

(Bila diaorang ni makin besar, they try so hard not to be that different from their friends kan.)

Nasib baik lah she’s as tall as me now so bolehlah dia pinjam my black stockings to complete her attire tadi .

She’s all grown up, hehehe….

But the more grown up she is, the less she looks like us kan!

I tau lah masa dia baby, I hari2 tiap2 petang dok tengok cerita cina kat TV3, takkan lah boleh kenan kot? hikhikhikhik…..

She’s a bit like the rose nowadays… pretty but very thorny!

Kalau silap handle, tercucuk ‘jari’ kita, hmmmmmmm…..

Mind boggling????

Have you ever seen a photo or something that makes your eyes terbeliak and go ???

I have (banyak kali dah, hehehe..).

And pagi tadi, I saw something that made me do just that…

And nasib baik lah sekarang ni semua handphone ada camera so dengan segeranya I pun ambik lah gambar nak tunjuk kat you all (mentang2 lah ada blog, semua nak tayang kat blog kan )…

(but at the same time, I ambik gambar sembunyi2 sebab takut kena marah dengan tuan empunya kedai, hahahaha).

Jom kita sama2 beliakkan biji mata tengok gambar kat bawah ni

Can you see apa yang membuatkan mata I terjegil tadi?

No….not harga the fresh lime….

No….not harga the red chillies….

But…harga the hot chilli or chilli api itu!

$69.99!!!!!!!!! (It was not a typo error tau and neither was it $6.99/kg).

I rasa harga ni macam betul2 tak munasabah kan. But I guess there’s a few other food yang mahal macma ni jugak. I think pine nuts pun lebih kurang jugak harga dia with this chilli.

(I boleh beli satu soft leather handbag or a basic breadmaker or a square corelle set or a few Tefal frying pans or a few pieces of Royal Doulton with that money!)

So, bila I nampak how much the chilli costs, I pun terus lah zoooom ke Bunnings (my favourite store, hehehe).

And this was what I bought which I straight away planted in the new garden bed…

Puas I cari the seedlings for the normal chilli api tapi tak jumpa so I pun belilah this ‘black pearl’ chilli, hikhikhik….

The label says that it’s one of the hottest chillies but we’ll see once it has fruited whether it’s pedas or not.

(cepat lah kamu membesar bagai johan so I boleh jual you for $70/kg jugak, muahahahahaha…)

And sambil menanam, I menuai…

dapatlah hasil ini tadi…

a couple of shallots, some cherry tomatoes, some sugar snap peas and some kangkung.

So, tadi i masak nasi goreng guna kangkung, shallots, the peas and the tomatoes!

Sedap betul rasa kangkung ni tadi sebab dah lama tak makan kangkung, hahaha….

Junk, swingball and eggs

Weekend ni adalah weekend mengemas rumah sedunia .

Kat Perth, every council has their own ‘hard rubbish collection’ day. Basically, segala barang2 yang besar/junk yang tak boleh muat masuk dalam rubbish bins boleh kita letak kat luar untuk diaorang kutip during the hard rubbish collection day ni.

(but adalah a few things yang diaorang takkan kutip like paint, building materials, tyres, hazardous materials.)

So, our hard rubbish collection day is next week, tu yang weekend ni we all busy mengemas rumah getting rid of all the junk that we have accumulated over the years.

Punyalah banyak gilers junk we all kan, hahahaha.

From broken elliptical machine, broken desks, broken bike, broken chest of drawers to old CPUs and old computer screens and old TVs. The TVs are still good but TV bagak zaman tok kaduk dulu tu. Nak bagi kat orang pun orang tak nak sekarang ni sebab LED and LCD tvs are so cheap sekarang.

A lot of these stuff have been with us since we were in Adelaide lagi, so memang kira dah lama sangat2 lah kan, tu yang dah patah lah, rosak lah, grotty lah .

But, tak sampai pun sejam we all letak the stuff outside, about 1/2 of the stuff has been taken by people already.

I guess some people junks are other people’s treasures kan .

And while the adults were busy mengangkut harta karun junk, the kids were busy jugak…

Busy playing!

I just bought this swingball tennis game on Friday for the girls.

And since Friday, they’ve been at it non-stop everytime they are at home.

At first, lagi banyak gelak dari pukul bola….

But after 2 days of playing, dah bertambah lah the hits dari the misses.

It’s amazing how such a simple game can bring so much fun, hehehe.

And for dinner pulak, I made spanish sausage pie. I loosely followed this recipe changing here and there to suit our tastes and what I had in the fridge.

I didn’t use and pastry as the base. I sauteed onion, garlic, mushroom and diced tomatoes on the stove top until wilted. Then I added sliced cooked sausages, diced cooked potatoes and a bit of paprika, salt and pepper. After everything is well mixed, I poured a bit of bottled pasta sauce to cover it up a bit.

Then I cracked 3 whole eggs over the mix and shoved the whole pan into the oven and baked it at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes until the eggs have set a bit.

(you have to make sure your frying pan can go into the oven before you shove it in the oven though ).

The yolks are still very runny which The Other Half and Miss 8 love so much .

 

Then, you can either have it with bread or like us, with cheesy garlic bread and a bit of fries to mop the gravy up.

The cheesy garlic bread I made a few days ago.

Salam Maal Hijrah

Hopefully this new year will bring a new beginning for all of us, changing all the bad things to good and making us a better person.

What did I do today?

Nothing much! (which was really fun, hahaha)

I had the house to myself cos The Other Half and The Little Misses went painting the whole morning.

I ended up just lepaking depan PC cari idea on what to bake for the end of year goodie bags for the teachers at school.

Kalau boleh, segala benda I nak buat. Tak boleh tengok something nice and yummy, terus I rasa teruja nak buat to give them.

But I know myself. Angan2 aje lebih but nanti I will end up doing something simple for them, hahaha.

So since dah melepek tengok recipes satu hari suntuk, I pun tried my hands at making fudge while everyone was away this morning.

I guna this recipe to make my fudge.

I’ve made fudge before and slalunya I made it in the microwave. I’m not that good at fudge making, my fudge tak se smooth yang jual kat kedai tu. I think it’s because I’m impatient, couldn’t be bothered waiting for the fudge to reach the stages slowly. And even though I ada candy thermometer, tak pernah kisah nak guna while I’m making it, hehehe.

But tastewise, the fudge has always tasted yummy, hahaha.

But I takde seasalt flakes so I just guna seasalt biasa aje. I takde white choc so I guna milk choc aje. And then I pergi pandai2 tambah chopped macadamia on the fudge.

So, kiranya my own version of salted caramel and macadamia fudge lah kan!

Pastu, I tried to clear the fridge and found a bit of leftover mashed sweet potato. I buat keria balls haritu but tak guna habis the keledek so tu yang ada lebih.

Then I pun buat roti keledek….

Jangan tanya the recipe sebab I pakai add aje all the ingredients.

I guna yeast, air suam, telur, margarine, susu tepung, gula, garam dan tepung gandum.

And it turned out ok. Rasa macam roti biasa. I guess sebab I tak guna banyak keledek so rasa keledek dia pun so subtle.

(My breadmaker tengah sakit, the bread pan’s sealant dah tertanggal so I tak berani guna cos takut leaking all the liquid masa tgh menguli. So sekarang ni kalau I nak buat roti, semua kena guna tulang 4 kerat untuk menguli. Tu yang malas aje bila The Other Half mintak I  buat pizza now ni, hehehe.)

Cuma kaler dia aje lah yang kuning oren semacam, hehehe.

And then for dinner, I made sushi.

I found some soft shell crabs in the freezer (dari zaman to kaduk dulu, hahaha) so I goreng it for the sushi filling. For the kids, I buat crabsticks aje but I dip in batter and then deep fry so lagi sedap rasanya.

I also hand rolled some of the sushi.

Actually, bila fikir balik…. I did do a few things today, not nothing much!

Heeeee…..

weekly garden update, again….

You know it’s Spring going to Summer here in OZ when I start updating about our garden weekly.

Actually, I masak pizza (again! ) tonite since it’s Friday nite so tu yang lagi baik I tayang gambar garden dari gambar pizza yang entah ke berapa ratus kali kan! (hahahaha, exagerate tak hengat!).

Walaupun I dah tayang gambar garden beratus2 kali jugak (again, exagerating mode on, hikhikhik) tapi gambar garden sentiasa baertukar ikut musim so tu yang I rasa tak bosan tengok.

So, let the photos do the talking…

The red currant and the blueberry bushes in their new home. Our other blueberry is the ‘Nelly Kelly’ variety and this time we bought the ‘brigitta’ variety. Dah beli baru tau yang this brigitta variety will grow to 2 meters tall! Kenalah cari tempat yang sesuai for it later, hehehe.

Weekend ni we thought of buying a raspberry plant and another variety of blueberry.

Some more cucumbers growing. One of the easiest plants to grow .

One of the no-dig garden beds. We’ve got strawberries, cucumbers and 1 tomato plant in there.

The strawberries yang tengah growing but haven’t yet produced any fruits.

Our kangkung yang tengah galak membiak, hehehe.

Lepas ni kan, adalah orang tu buat jualan kangkung kat depan rumah! hahaha

(Kangkung kat fruit n veg shop tu I think diaorang jual around $6/kg tak silap.)

Some of my money-producing chilli plants, hahaha .

Buah tomato yang dah kuning, lambat gilers nak merah….

Our Thai basil yang tak mati2, hehehe.

One of the capsicum plants pun dah mula berbuah.

One of the rose bushes yang sekarang ni nak makin sembuh .

And finally, our ‘pet’ ladybird .

Tak larat dah you all nak tengok kebun we all kan, hehehe….