Sweet Potato

Dropped by wholesale market along Jalan Lintas near Beverly after collecting a cheque from my client.  I bought 1/4 water melon, a bunch of banana, a cempedak, 20 limau kasturi, ginger and 4 sweet potatoes.  Costs me RM12. Cheap as compared if I were to buy from Foh Sang, Borneon or Lido.

I boiled the sweet potatoes this morning.  After a while, I found out that the water turned green.  This is a strange colour as the sweet potatoes are purple in colour.  I even cut off the tip to confirm the colour as I have never seen green sweet potatoes.  Could it be the fertilizer colour or insecticides that the farmer used?  Out of curiosity, I changed into clean water and continue boiling.  Again, the water turned green, but after a while, the water turned into purple similar to the colour of the sweet potatoes.

In water colouring, purple is mixed by red and blue. I suppose the green colour must have come from the colour pigments of the sweet potatoes.

Strange.  But I still ate them.

Ayam Brand Sardine

I only buy Ayam Brand Sardine.  Ayam Brand Sardine is quality guaranteed.  One of my relative cum church friend was a Ayam Brand salesman for donkey years.  After high school, he started working as a salesman selling Ayam Brand until he retired 2 years ago.  He told me how the Ayam Brand fishes were caught at deep sea and bla bla bla..... He was so sincere when he told me how good Ayam Brand was, and I felt so touch of him being a faithful and believer in Ayam Brand.  Ha2.

Stella shared with me how to improve the flavour of Sardine.

1.  Fried shredded ginger till brown.  Push to the side of wok.
2.  Slightly fried sardine on both sides.
3.  Stir in sliced bombay onion.
4.  Add in gravy.
5.  Serve.

My son loves sardine prepared this way.  I don't eat much as canned food is high in sodium which is not so healthy for a person having hypertension like me.

If you only heat up sardine, why not do a little bit extra to flavour up your sardine?

Fried Chicken Wing

Stella gave me a simple recipe for fried chicken wing.  Her uncle was a chef with one of the restaurant in Kota Kinabalu.  He fried the chicken wing this way when they had a Chinese New Year celebration in Tenom.

Salt
Pepper
Chicken wings
Limau Kasturi (or lemon and lime)

Marinate chicken wings with salt, pepper and limau kasturi's juice.
Deep fried till cook.

I did it in the morning and deep fried the chicken wings for dinner.  My son said tasted like restaurant food.  I agreed.  Yummy.  I had 2 chicken wings and he had 3.  Very simple recipe.  Hubby is outstation in Pantai Remis, Perak. He always miss my special dish when he is away.

Live within your means

Robert and Sally are sending off their children to Singapore for high school education.  They just finished their primary schools last year.

The combined income of both Robert and Sally are around RM4,500.  The company gives them an apartment to stay.  Their commitments are a new piano and Myvi, around RM1,000.  As long as they maintain simple lifestyle, their household income should be sufficient for the family.

However Sally seems to give a lot of priorities to their children by minimizing their own spending.  She sends them for piano and dancing sessions, she wants them to get the best eduction she knows off.  By sending the children away, Sally does not think of their higher eduction as she has no plan to save for them.  Sally is spending almost every dollar on their high school education.

What if either Robert and Sally cannot work as they are now, the whole family will be in financial difficulty.  Their children need to come back.

Like many others, Robert and Sally do not plan ahead.  When you are not planning ahead, you are indeed planting a time bomb.  It seems as though they are planning the best for your children, they are in fact ignorant financial planning.

Lazy

Menopause?  Nap very frequently these two years.  After sending off children to school, I normally make sure all the clothes are done  before breakfast, then follow by a shower.  The shower always make me feel so drain out that I quickly jump to my bed for half an hour nap.  Lunch also make me doze off.  A quick nap will allow me to work through the afternoon.  In the evening before 11pm, my eyes are so tired that I fall asleep very fast.

I don't know why I need so much sleep now.  People used to say that you can't sleep much as you grow older.  But I seem to be just the opposite.  My friend said I may be going through menopause but checking the websites tell me that you can't sleep well during menopause.

Never mind, this is my physical changes in my body.  Just tune to my psychology clock.

Inflation

Breakfast on Sunday must be different from the Monday to Saturday boring food served on table, as my sons requested.

After Sunday worship, I dropped by Lido to get some breakfast.  To my surprise, the hawker auntie is asking for RM1 for a piece of very normal 7 layer kuih lapis!  Everything of that size is RM1!  The ingredients are only rice flour, sugar, santan and pandan!  The Malay kuih muih and Chinese kuih muih are made up of almost the same ingredients.  Why should they be asking so much?  Finally I bought 2 Cha Siu Pau and 2 pork pau, which i feel worth better.  I don't understand why other aunties customers can afford to buy the kuih muih without their faces changing colour!  Why are they willing to pay for the expensive kuih when they can make it cheaply?

In the coming weekend, I must try my hands on steaming my own 7 layer kuih lapis. 

I remember when I was young living in Kampung Air, most families would have many kids.  People couldn't afford to eat out like what we are now. My breakfast would be fried dried hock kian mee, fried mee hoon, bread with very thinly spread jam or kaya.  On Sunday, mother would give my brother RM2 to buy breakfast for the whole family in the market.  My brother would buy different types of breakfast like You Za Kui, Ham Jim Bian and fried noodles.  At that time, fried noodles were wrapped with a big leave.  Those were the days!

Bringing up two teenagers

Younger Son is having mock exam this week. First week of Oct is PMR followed by UEC Junior Exam on last week of Oct.  Exam, exam, exam.  After his long afternoon nap, he came downstair to tell me he was hungry.  Since hubby was out-stationed, I chose to cook the fast way.  Roasted two back quarter of fresh chicken and made lemon sauce to go with it.  Blanched Chinese broccoli and mixed in oyster sauce, sesame oil and sprinkled with fried garlic.

We enjoyed the dinner together while his brother was still sleeping.  To my surprise, he agreed that I can remove the modem so that he doesn't get distracted by getting online.

Finally he settled down sitting on the dining table to start his revision.  Everything went so well but before long, his brother came downstair, had his dinner and started playing piano.  That really annoyed him.  My son is so particular about the type of music he likes and dislikes.  I can only categorize music into two broad categories.  Soft music and noisy music.  Before the war began, I suggested that we should go to Burger King to study.  I was glad he accepted my suggestion.  He was really serious in his study last night.  I couldn't believe it as he refused to go to school on Monday because he felt that going to school had no meaning.

Anyway, I was glad we went to Burger King.  I bought him potato chips and a cup of hot milo.  He likes good food.

I spent most of my time caring for my two boys and husband.  If things go smoothly, elder son will go to Taiwan next year followed by younger son 3 years later.  Next year will be half empty nest and before I realize it, the nest will only leave me and my hubby.

Hope we still have the stamina to travel when the little birds have matured.