Battered Shrimp and Potato Salad

While I was enjoying the seafood fried kue teow, my husband was enjoying his battered shrimp and potato salad. This post was having technical difficulty and missed being published near the time when I post the seafood kue teow. This is just to give you an idea the type of food we have for our dinner. The fried shrimp is ready made frozen shrimp that we we bought from Sam's club (wholesale store). This brand doesn't soak up oil as much as other brand does.

Homegrown Lettuces with Burger on Father's Day!

Lately I have been dreaming about my grandmother. I jumped to the phone and found out that she is in good health. What a relief! My grandmother must have been missing me then. I cannot wait to see her next year.

My body was aching again yesterday. My coworker invited me to her cook out party after 4 pm. So, I took the time in the morning to do some groceries shopping. Costco gave coupon book this week and I must get some of the items for the household. After groceries shopping, honey had to take the car for inspection. I am glad I decided not to go with him. I took a long shower to wash away the weak feeling. I don’t know why I feel sluggish. After shower, I got ready for the cook out party. I fell asleep the whole time until honey came home from the car dealer. As usual every time coming back from the car inspection, honey will blame all the car problems on me. He said I have been driving the car in a short distance, slow, use the brake a lot that the pipe (who knows what pipe he was talking about) did not get the chance to dry.
"Yea...dry from what?..."
And he also said that I drive badly that the brake need replacement. Everything cost us $1k. I said to him, " Just paid with your credit card".

This morning as early as at 7:30 am, I went to the garden, plot B. The weather was cloudy. I thought it was going to rain. So, I quickly pull out whole lot of area of weeds. I transplanted the rest of the acorn squash and the marigold that I bought last week. By 9:00 am I was already at the flea market. Not many vendor at the flea market today because they thought it was going to rain. After talking to my ex-coworker, she is now one of the vendors; I walked around and bought some sweet potatoes and egg plant.
Above is the picture of my lettuces that I harvested today. I have black seeded simpson loose leaves lettuce, romaine cos island lettuce and buttercrunch lettuces. Are you able to spot each type of lettuce from the picture above?
Above is the loose leaves black seeded simpson lettuce. The leaves are light pale green. This lettuce is very tender and has a little bit tangy. Not bitter anymore because they receive lots of rain this season.
Here is the romaine cos island lettuce. I like this lettuce because it is crunchy and very sweet.
Aha! My first time ever growing buttercrunch lettuce. This lettuce is super crunchy and super sweet. I was afraid at first that this lettuce is not going to make me happy. Most commercial grower will grow this type of lettuce in a controlled green house or grow it with hydroponic technique. The reason being was that this lettuce need lots of water and susceptible to bugs and cabbage worms. But I am very happy with this lettuce. Not only that it is crunchy and sweet, it doesn't have any worms at all. But there are some of this lettuces have been eaten by rabbit. Bad rabbit!This is not lettuce but it is spinach. Yes, lots of spinach to build a strong bone.
So, I use some of the lettuces in my burger. I also use texas toast cut bread as my hamburger bun. I like to spread my bun aka bread with mayo and some hot and sweet chili sauce. I add a layer of the lettuces.
I hope you will enjoy celebrating your father's day and Happy father's day to all!
Honey and I are going out to dinner and then to the movie to celebrate his special day. I didn't buy him any present.

Mixed Seafood Fried Kue Teow

Here is my simple recipe for seafood fried kue teow. Kue Teow is a noodle made from rice flour. It is sold at Asian store in my area and came in sheets. As Gertrude advised me, I microwaved the kue teow for about 2 minutes until it soft. Then I cut the sheets into strips.
Ingredients:
A packet of Kue Teow
2 cups of mixed seafood
1 cup beans sprouts
A big bowl of spinach(wash with baking soda)
5 shallots
2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon crispy spicy prawn ready to use mixed
salt to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil to saute shallots and garlic
Above are mixed seafood that I bought frozen from the Asian store. Beans sprout and a bowl of washed kue teow noodle.
Above is the spinach I harvested from my garden. Finally, after 6 years of trying, I have some spinach in the garden to enjoy. I soak this spinach in baking soda and cold water for 20 minutes. I also harvested some loose leave lettuces of black seeded simpson and radishes.
Method:
In a big skillet, cook spinach with shallot and garlic until soft.
Then add seafood, soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce and crispy spicy prawn ready to use mixed.
Stir and coat evenly.
Add kue teow noodle. Seasoned to taste.
Add beans sprout.
Cook for another 5 minutes or until kue teow is tender.
Serve warm.

Honey BBQ Chicken

A simple dinner I served, honey bbq chicken.
Ingredients:
12 pieces chicken wings(mix drumettes and the wings)
1 cup ready to use bbq sauce
1/2 cup honey

Method:
Marinate chicken in bbq sauce and honey for 30 minutes in the fridge. Leave some bbq sauce and honey for brushing.
Heat oven to 400 degree F.
Lay chicken on baking tray.
Bake for 30 minutes uncovered.
Brush the chicken with the remaining honey bbq sauce
Bake for another 20 minutes or until cooked through.
Serve this honey bbq chicken with some potato salad.
Enjoy!

Thyme in Olive Oil

I love thyme. I love the smell of it in my cooking. I grow a pot of thyme. Below is the thyme that has come back from the long cold weather.
The petite white flowers is so beautiful. It almost look like baby breadth to me.
I just cut a few sprigs of thyme and insert it into my cooking oil bottle.
I wash and dry the thyme before I pour in the olive oil. In a few days, the olive oil will infused with the thyme. I then use the oil in everything I cook. It make my egg sandwich taste so much better.

Baked Fish Wrapped in Banana Leaves

Last weekend I went to the Asian store and bought some fish. I bought trout heads, croaker and unknown fish. I cook soup with some of the fish heads. It was just a simple salt, ground black pepper and herbs in the fish soup. The fish was very sweet. I finish them in a jiffy.

For the croaker, I deep fry them. Now, I am left with the unknown fish. I decided to cook this fish wrapped in banana leaves. I was not sure if honey will like baked fish. He usually prefers fried fish. The weather is very humid today despite some showers earlier of the day. The idea of frying the fish and heat up my kitchen is not to my liking.
The first step in preparing for this meal is to cut some herbs that I grow around the house. Above, in the bowl of water, was chives, thyme, thai basil, sweet basil and sage. The aroma from these herbs was wonderful.
Ingredients:
2 fishes
1 big red onion
2 chinese eggplants (long and skinny shape)
2 tablespoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon salt
4 pandan leaves
fresh herbs (thyme, sage, thai basil, sweet basil, chives)
Some olive oil

Wash and clean the banana leaves. I am using about 6 banana leaves. Three pieces is used for each fish.
Rub turmeric powder and salt on both fishes.
Lay cut side down of the eggplant on the banana leaves.
Then layer it with the onion and pandan leaves.
Add all of the herbs and lay down the fish on top. Drizzle the fish with some olive oil.

Wrap nicely and put it on the tray or cooking dish.
Bake this fish on 350 degree F for about 1 hour.

Serve this fish with tartar sauce.
How to make the tartar sauce. My simple recipe is as follows:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 tablespoon dijon mustard (I prefer honey dijon)
1 tablespoon sweet relish
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chopped chives

Method:
Mix everything in a bowl. Seasoned to taste.
As for dessert, I served few slices of watermelon.
Honey enjoyed the fish very much. I am very happy to see all my effort are paid off.
The tartar sauce was tasty despite lacking anchovies and vinegar.
I must say that the fish doesn't have that yucky fishy smell at all.
The eggplants was tender and very sweet.
I am not sure where the sweetness in the eggplant came from. I suspect it could be from the juice of the fish and onion. I did not serve the eggplant to my husband. He will not eat the vegetable.

SIL Birthday Party

Since I came back from the trip for my SIL birthday party, I have been busy getting my time back on schedule at home. I do not have the time to cook anything special for everyone to share. Everyday, I serve the same meal I already posted in this site for our dinner. Each day, I make sure I did not cook the same meat in a row.
Monday, shrimp + green string beans;
Tuesday, chicken;
Wednesday, beef;
Thursday, fish + potato salad;
Friday, scallop;
Saturday, Philly cheese steak;
Sunday, lamb;
And the menu rotate for the following week.
One thing that I am grateful is that honey will not mind having just one meal for his dinner. It really save my time preparing for his dinner. I on the other hand, still preferred Asian cooking. I still keep my ritual of cooking my own food on weekend. But I limit it to a simple Nasi Lemak or porridge with lots of spinach and vegetables.

Now, back to my SIL birthday party, here are some of the pictures on the night of her birthday party. The venue for the party was at a hall of the local hotel in her hometown.
Before we enter the hall, there was a nice display on a table to greet us. There was also a guest book that we could sign in.
The table setting was very nice. My husband and I were given the honor to sit at the birthday girl's table. To some people, celebrating their 60th birthday is a big event. It was a formal birthday party for my SIL. My SIL invites reputable people to her party. Everyone came in their suit and black tie. The ladies all look fabulous in their glittering evening gown.
This is me ready to leave the house for the party.
The birthday cake. Simple yet elegant with white icing.

The buffet table. The food was delicious. I apologize for the poor quality of this picture.
Everyone say their grace before eating. These young men are my SIL's grandsons.
The birthday cake has a chocolate cake on one side...
and the white cake on the other side. The chocolate cake was for me and the white cake was for my husband.
For dessert, we were served with cheesecake with fresh strawberry topping.
The wild rice was delicious. The steamed carrot was not soft, it was little bit raw but very tasty. I love the dinner roll. It was not a plain dinner roll. I can taste some herb in the dinner roll but not quite sure which herb it was. There were program throughout the party time. My husband was invited to give a speech. My SIL introduced me to the audience because we had successfully completed our 2600 miles road trip together.