Fast & Easy Home Cooked Dinners

These days I cook more often due to the good harvest from my garden. My cooking recipes are usually simple and easy to prepare and cook. The following are two simple dinners that I cooked with my home grown vegetables.

1st dinner

Steamed home grown eggplants (brinjals) and stubby okra (ladies fingers). This is drizzled with garlic oil, a mixture of scallop sauce and soy sauce before serving.

Steamed 2 chicken legs (skin removed) with ginger strips, goji berries, salt and Chinese cooking wine. One for hubby and one for me.

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2nd dinner

From top left: home grown green (siew pak choy), fried eggs and 2 plates of noodle (dry version). For extra flavour, there is the chili oil as condiment.

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Before the monsoon season started, I enjoyed a good harvest from my Purple Jordan fig plant. After diligently wrapping the figs individually with plastic to protect from the birds, I finally get to enjoy my figs. I made sure that moisture is not trapped inside the plastic or else the fruit will spoil.

Too much water from the rain will cause some of the figs to smile or burst open.

Home grown figs loaded with rich minerals and vitamins.

Now, here is a lesson from a fig tree.

When its buds become tender and its leaves begin to sprout,

you know that spring has come.

(Mark 13:28, The Living Bible-TLB)

Growing Cucumber For The First Time In My Garden

After planting angled loofah and blessed with plentiful harvest, I was encouraged to plant cucumber plants. I was not expecting much but I was eager to try. I used the same big pot and a smaller pot that were previously used for planting the angled loofah.

Thanks to hubby for putting up the overhead lines for the vines to climb.

 Hub

Then the yellow flowers began to appear all over the vines.

Every morning when I water the plants, I checked for signs of tiny fruits.

And then one day, I spotted this tiny cucumber.

If you look closely, there are tiny crystals on the cucumber. According to the internet, these tiny crystals are sap released by the skin.

The tiny crystals are pricky to touch.
There are pricky hairs on the stalks and leaves.

The first fruit.

Came back from our holiday in Penang to harvest the first fruit.

More fruits hanging from the cucumber vines.

The cucumber vines started fruiting end of August and is still fruiting.

I used the cucumbers to make salad, for juicing, pickle and also saute with dried prawns. Cucumber juice is refreshing and good for quenching thirst especially when the weather is hot.

Cucumber pickle is crunchy and delicious. This time, I made this pickle with salted plums and sugar, minus the vinegar and chili.

One of my mornings' harvest.

Linking to Wordless Wednesday & My Corner of the World.

Yes, the gladness you have given me is far greater

than their joys at harvest time

as they gaze at their bountiful crops.

(Psalm 4:7, The Living Bible-TLB)

Dinner At Durbar At FMS, Ipoh.

I have been to FMS only once before it was closed and it was a long time ago. Now the place is opened for business and this new business is named Durbar at FMS. There were good reviews and not so good reviews, still we were curious and wanted to try out their food for ourselves.

One fine weekday evening, 6 of us decided to pay a visit to Durbar. To avoid disappointment, I called up to make reservation for 6 people. 

We parked our car here beside the building.

We entered through this side door.

Lots of antique items to see.

A portrait of the queen.

Hubby took a photo of us while waiting for our dinner to be served.

Hainanese Chicken Chop

Chicken chop looks so yummy.

Lamb chop (if I am not mistaken) for hubby.

The above were served first.

Fried flat rice noodle (koay teow) with beef slices for a friend.

Another friend ordered these sandwiches.

Flat rice noodle with beef slices in thick gravy (wat tan hor) for me.

Fried chicken wings for sharing

Gold cup

Door bell

Front entrance

This Bar & Restoran FMS listed in the Heritage Trail.

Linking to Happy Tuesday, Image-in-ing & Tuesday's Treasures.

But in that coming day, no weapon turned against you shall succeed,

and you will have justice against every courtroom lie.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord.

This is the blessing I have given you, says the Lord.

(Isaiah 54:17, The Living Bible-TLB)

Lunch At Breda Cafe, Ipoh

One fine day, a friend of mine sent me a message to inform that she is able to have lunch with me the next day. She is a very busy wife and mother, and it is not often we get to enjoy each other's company. So it was a pleasant and wonderful surprise and of course, I dropped everything just to accommodate her since she is seldom available.

My friend suggested a new place which I haven't been to because she knows that I look forward to sampling new food in new places. I drove over to her house, and got into her car. There was a lot of catching up to do since our previous meeting and foodie outing.

Decoration on the table.

We were early and the place was not crowded since it was a weekday.
We chose a table, sat down and went through the menu.

Customers are to order and pay at the counter, then the food will be served to the table.

My hot honey lemon drink.

Hot coffee for my friend.

Soup of the day

One for me and one for my friend.

We ordered 2 set lunches.

Fish and chips for me @ RM 23.90

Alaska pollock fish with tartar sauce, served with French fries and smashed green beans.

Black pepper chicken chop for my friend @ RM 19.90

Grilled chicken chop served with blt pasta salad.

Cake of the day @ RM 12.00
We shared this piece of cake.

I like this quote hung on the wall facing me.

"Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself"

Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last;

but a woman who fears the LORD will be greatly praised.

(Proverbs 31:30, New Living Translation-NLT)

Chinese BBQ Pork Or Char Siew Noodle For Dinner

One day, I was in the mood to make melt in the mouth char siew pork or Chinese BBQ pork.

 These days, hubby prefer noodle to rice, so we had char siew noodle for dinner. 

 Char Siew noodle with blanched home grown sweet potato leaves.

Yummy! Looks delicious. Let's tuck in.

 Morning sky at the park - 6:50 am.

 These are some of the dogs found at the park.

They too enjoy being at the park and the company of their friends.

Linking to Saturday's Critters.

Work happily together. Don't try to act big.

Don't try to get into the good graces of important people,

but enjoy the company of ordinary folks.

And don't think you know it all!

(Romans 12:16, The Living Bible-TLB)