IN THE YEAR OF COOKING DANGEROUSLY

Have been taking my long absence from blogging for a while... just been too busy, tired, lazy lately to have any inspiration for writing anything. But December is the final month of this year and wow, it's been like so incredibly fast the way this year has shot by.

Everywhere, signs of Christmas mood popping up in houses, neighbourhoods, malls.. this year a little bit more upkey than last, at least in shopping malls. Santas with their elves in every mall and crying babies plonked on their laps for cute pixes by eager parents for that memorable shot to go down their albums for years to come...Maybe they just need to drum up the sales, so need to pound into the heads of customers, it's Christmas coming your way soon.. BUY, BUY, SPEND now, or else it will be too late??!!

This year has also been a year of creative adventures in the kitchen for me, I think at no other time have I been trying out so many different things like this year. Maybe the initial plans to perhaps someday run a restaurant got me into this mood to experiment with different stuff... but let's see... I have tried (this is by no means a brag list, just a reflection and wonder at how brave I have become...), but much of it was to salvage food that might otherwise go bad, so you might say, I cooked to avoid wastage..

PESTO- one day, I found myself with so much basil leaves, so I blended them up with some peanuts, olive oil, salt, onions, garlic and pepper and then used it later for cooking with pasta, ham and mushrooms, pesto pasta is a yummy and nutritious must try...

APPLE MUFFINS- Found myself with lots of apples, and threw them into the muffins with some cinnamon powder and raisins and sometimes chopped walnuts. Sometimes, I even popped in leftover Weetbix cereal crumbs which I saved from Jordie's box for extra crunch.

APPLE JAM- Also, because again, I had too many apples rotting away in the fridge, I took them out, cut out the bad parts

and stewed them up into a jam. The 1st time I did it, didn't add brown sugar and 2nd round which is this pix, I did so the it turned out a little brownish, but better tasting and smoother. You also have to add some lemon juice which sorta preserves it longer and sugar. Cinnamon sticks give it a nice flavour and I think I prefer it than cinnamon powder.

Need about 1 hour of constant stirring and simmering.. and it just disintegrates into pulpy jam slowly but surely. ..

.. Jordie loves it with bread and butter.

NASI LEMAK - Have never attempted this Malaysian favourite until we invited some Aussie friends over and decided to treat them to some traditional Malaysian fare. We did the mild version which they liked.Later this year, I decided to slip the spice level a notch up, so sambal was used instead of just sweet chilli. Jordie loved it, esp the fried chicken drumsticks... of course anything fried and crispy for him is a sure winner.. No banana leaves to be found here, so a 'banana leaf' melamine platter was the ambience setter. What to do?

SWEET CHILLI FISH - Deep fried dory or basa fillets, chopped up topped with sweet chilli sauce. Great with capsicum stirred in.. I used some 5 spice powder for fish batter just to zing it up a little. And added in a dollop of (you won't believe this, thousand island dressing) to the sweet chilli sauce topping to give it a more emulsifying texture...

FISH CAKE- 1st attempt was successful, but a teed bit too salty. I mashed up some basa fillet, chopped green beans, onions, garlic, fish sauce and flour, then fried it up with sweet chilli for dip.

BEEF WANTONS- never really attempted this, coz pork was the normal type. Beef is normally cheaper here, so I thought we'd try it out on wantons and what do you know, it tasted pretty good! With garlic, chopped carrots, onions, some spring onions and even celery, most of the beefy smell is dealt with..

ROASTED ALMONDS -decided to try the type coated with egg white and sugar and cinnamon and it really tasted great and not as sticky as the honey roasted type. The ones in the supermarkets cost quite a bomb at bout $10.00 per for packet of less than 500g, I think. Makes nice christmas gifts and holiday snacks.

AVOCADO MILKSHAKE

- inspired by my hubby who used to taste them at Jakarta with some chocolate topping. Really nice with some milk, ice cream and mix of yogurt and ice and texture comes out like some green thick custard but deliciously cold and creamy.

Well, that's just some of the stuff that came out of the year of cooking dangerously, and I thank my hubby, son and willing guests for daring to eat dangerously alongside with me....they're still walking and kicking, I did at least pass the toxic test...

DAM GOOD NEWS

THOUSANDS of litres are gushing from the Hinze Dam, Gold Coast's largest and main dam, after the spill gates were opened yesterday morning. Blessed with lots of rain this October, the new spill gates were finally put to good use. The gates were opened at 7.30am on October 13 yesterday after the dam reached 100 percent capacity. Now, that's dam good news -no water shortage for quite a long while.

EPISODE 47: TURNING 9

Jordie turned 9 yesterday. He was so excited about it as it was his 'treat' day. We took him to AMF for a morning bowling session and he had a blast. Totally. The bigger blast was of course, that his dad scored lower than him. For some reason, daddy could not aim straight and the ball kept rolling into the side gulley. But Jordie had help too. The junior alley had support fences to 'nudge' the ball back onto course. Most of Jordie's throws ended up skidding on the floor before the ball started rolling but hey, still got the strikes nonetheless. .

AMF had a very good discount for school holidays and for a game of about $6.90 each, one could play roughly about 45 minutes, depending on how good you are. I don't know much about bowling and was just a spectator. Looks like fun but was contented to just watch for now. Then, we stopped by the Cheesecake shop and he got to choose his fave cheesecake flavour, strawberry glazed from the stack.

Jordie said this was one of his best birthdays ever and we were glad we decided to do something different for a change. For previous years, we held parties for him and invited neighbourhood kids over. But he has now discovered... the art of personal enjoyment..ahh.. the pleasure of not needing to entertain, and just get to do the stuff you like with people you love. Again, this might be just a phase..oh well, we'll enjoy it while it lasts, maybe in a few years' time, he won't even want us around for his birthdays.. He loves his new tommy toy gun too.

We enjoy pampering him, because he's been such a good boy. Makes his bed every morning, keeps his room tidy, did well for his piano and studies, helps around when asked. He's never complained about us not bringing him anywhere for this term break, or any of the previous breaks, so, he really deserves his treat on his special day....we love you Jordie... muacks!

MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB

Recently, a friend invited our family to a Marriage Supper of the Lamb event organised by Heart of David Ministries. It was held in Nerang Bicentennial Culture Centre and was a Jewish celebration which was held to depict a future point in holy history when the saints will pass through the gates of splendor to enter the mansions of glory. There they will be ushered into a love feast and a glorious consummation of marriage of Christ and His bride.

When we arrived, we heard some familiar either Singaporean or Malaysian accent English being spoken by one of the chinese couples who were in charge of reception.

They had lovely tabletop centrepieces and we saw some booths also selling stuff like books and Jewish souvenirs. Food was great. We had lamb (of course), roast beef, chicken stew, salad, baked potatoes, rice and some salad. We also had a cake-cutting session, with words written "Shalom Jerusalem".

The Marriage Supper of the Lamb is based on scriptures which indicate that this climactic banquet of the ages will come at the end of this present evil age at the second coming of Christ. At that time we shall see Jesus/Yeshua face to face on the occasion of His return to this earth. This time He will come not as the Suffering Servant but as the returning conquering King of Kings. Revelation chapter 19 (below) gives the context of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

They made a wedding tent under which traditional jewish weddings were held and danced under it.

It was lovely to watch people just being free to dance unto the Lord in this fashion, and meaningful as it was symbolic of the relationship we had with Christ, when He comes back for His bride, the church. More importantly, it reminded us how much God loves us and the type of intimate relationship He was looking for in His people.

Sharing the lantern

Jordie wanted to share lanterns with his neighbour pal, Liam, so they both walked the lantern together the night following mid-autumn festival. It was fun watching them enjoy it. His friend thot the whole thing rather 'cool' and enjoyed the mooncakes very much too... He found it such a novelty and we were glad to be able to share the chinese culture with an aussie.

ONCE IN A PURPLE MOON

Once upon a purple moon ago, when mooncakes became scarce and super expensive on Gold Coast land, and chinese heritage was seriously in danger of becoming obliterated in the Lim family, we decided let's just celebrate this year's Mid-Autumn Festival in mini-fashion for the evening and get Jordie acquainted with some of his chinese roots before he totally lost it... So off we went on the hunt for mooncake lotus paste plus the mould for it, with the ambitious aim of wanting to make our own home-made ones since they really cost a bomb here. To my dismay, no shops carried those mooncake moulds and the lotus paste was just nowhere to be found in asian shops here. They only had black sesame and red bean- not so divine. Lotus paste which is the filling for mooncake is so tedious to make, I'd rather not bother with it and might even not manage to make a good one anyway. So, yesterday, on the mooncake festival date itself, we went to try to get some mooncakes,... well, most shops were out of stock and the ones left were so expensive, so we just got the teochew types and the mini round ones. After dinner, we told Jordan the origin and legend of the festival. Then, we 'walked the lantern' outside the neighbourhood streets and he had fun, the thrill of 'playing with fire' I guess.... too bad his neighbours were already in bed by then.

We then had some mooncakes, which Jordie found lip-smackingly good and daddy taught him the finer aspects of chinese tea appreciation and preparation.

For once, he enjoyed the tea and wanted 2nd and 3rd helpings so daddy was quite happy because he had now found a tea companion. I never really enjoyed chinese tea myself, coffee's more my thing...

Well anyway, when I quote purple moon, I mean it really IS RARE for us to get traditional in this manner... I mean while in Malaysia, I never really went into this kinda chinese heritage embracing and it was a virtual non-event there. Now, it just felt important to do it, because when I look at Jordan growing up in this land, amongst Aussies and many other internationals, I feel he is slowly losing his identity as a chinese. His hair had been turning brown lately maybe due to the sun or the high chlorine content in the water and he seemed happy about it because he felt he was turning into an 'aussie' boy. So, I feel we needed to teach him to be proud of his background, who he is and where he came from. Of course, speaking the language, behaviour and understanding of lifestyles to blend in well here is just as important, but knowing who he is and being able to live out this diversity in his life will be a definite advantage.... I hope...

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

Dear Papa:

Today is Father's Day (in Australia) and I thought about you. This letter is a tribute to you and the great person that you were during your lifetime.

It's been like 36 years - such a long time, I barely even have any impression of you in my life.

My memories of you were unfortunately, not so vivid because you left this world too early in my life. Some of the earliest flashbacks I can recall were when you were ill.. lying in bed at home, asking me for back massages and me playing with those 'ice cream' sticks which you used for oral therapy in your mouth when you were battling face cancer. Of course, I also remember the few playground trips and you bought me these colourful layered cakes from the roti man. But vague, really vague for me at the moment... What is not vague is that cheek pinching! You loved to pinch my cheeks when you came back from work, and it really hurt. I disliked that, but now looking back, it really spoke volumes of your affection for me.

However, mum always had such good things to say about you. You were a good dad & hubby, the best that you tried to be. You saw to our family's needs and prepared as much for us as you could before you went off. This much I knew about you from the people and relatives who spoke of you. You were kind and generously helped many people in their time of need. You believed in education for young people, gave tuition and helped to ensure many of your siblings and their kids and even some of my uncles had the opportunity to finish off their school and have a fair go at a better future. You were the only son in your family to complete a diploma education and fought for your right for higher education. You taught and gave tuition to support your own education because your family just could not afford to put you through college. They did not believe in higher education either.

Agriculture became your destiny when you went to the College of Agriculture and studied agricultural science. It opened doors for you in ICI and you became a very good salesperson in that company.

You were promoted to Assistant Manager for your division and dined with British colleagues and professionals, moved to various towns in Malaysia to do your work. What you had achieved was amazing considering your circumstances and family background. Well, if you had chosen to stay on in pigfarming and helped your brothers, you might have eventually turned it into something outstanding too because you had great intelligence and foresight.

You loved life and all the joys it could offer, family, sports, friends, food, travel, photography. You played football, went hunting, fishing, took up archery (I think mum still keeps the bow somewhere in the house...)..and golf and travelled to many places for work and pleasure. I know you loved taking photos coz we had stacks of those 35mm slides which I loved to hold up against the sunlight in my younger days to see the life that you had led. You lived a life that was so different from the rest of your family. You believed in true love

and didn't settle for the normal matchmaking practices that happened in your family during those early days. You zoomed in on your girl and relentlessly pursued her. You made sure mum finished her studies at least till Form 6, even when her dad wanted her to drop out of school to work. You supported her family financially to keep her in school so that she could eventually qualify for a teaching post. She was just a student and you were her English teacher. But you were a gentleman and waited for her to grow up. Now, if that's not true, mature love, I don't know what is.

Often, people & relatives would come up and tell us, 'Your dad was a very good brother, good man. He was good to us." Now, I may not have gotten to know you as well as my brother and sisters but you know what? The memories and image of you are still good. And that's the way I wanna keep them always. Some people had dads with them all their lives but unfortunately, never really got to know them anyway. Some aren't even talking to their dads... but you, I know you loved us with all your heart,

,

each one of us was special in your eyes. Reminds me of the bible scriptures: "We love him because he first loved us." ~ 1 John 4:19

To be loved and know that you were special to someone ( even if only for a short time) inspires you to move on, to hope, to grow and to live and to love that person back.

MAN WHO BUILT ROBINA DIES IN FLIGHT

Robin Loh with masterplans of Robina Town Centre

August 30th, 2010 ~ THE Singaporean industrialist who masterminded the development of Robina has died during a flight to Hong Kong. Dr Robin Loh died on Saturday after a long battle with Parkinson's disease and related conditions. The 81-year-old was on a flight from Singapore to Hong Kong when he succumbed to breathing difficulties.

Not many people today know about this, but Dr Loh secured a place for himself in Queensland history when, in 1980, he acquired a 20 square kilometre parcel of scrub and grazing land on the southern end of the Gold Coast. The name Robina was logically named after its founder...!!

Three decades later, Robina has become a master-planned community of 30,000 people, with a specially constructed town centre as its anchor point, along with parks, transport, health, entertainment and other infrastructure. Robina, as it stands today, is one of the best planned townships in Gold Coast. Since then, other planned communities have since been built across Australia using the same formula.

In May, the Queensland government flagged three new, similar cities for the state's southeast, to be built on greenfield sites at Ripley Valley, west of Springfield, and Greater Flagstone and Yarrabilba, in Logan's south near Jimboomba.

''He was a visionary with an exceptional work ethic and he will be sadly missed by all those close to him,'' Dr Loh's daughter Louise said in a statement.

''My father was very proud of what has been achieved at Robina. We were hoping that he could make it to Robina to mark the 30th anniversary, but that wasn't to be.''

At the peak of his career, Dr Loh was involved in shipping, shipbuilding, oil rig construction, banking, insurance, hotels, property development, manufacturing, research and development, and primary industries. The Robina landholdings are no longer part of Dr Loh's interests, after being acquired by entities associated with Ms Loh and her husband, Robina Land Corporation (RLC) chief executive Richard Wyatt. - (Source; AAP)