Fervour 3 & Goodbye from Nicole

Nicole's (last) 2-cent: We were passing by this luxury car showroom and can't help but notice it's festive decor. Nice, eh? It's a classy way of celebrating both Eid and Independence Day without doing too much, I thought. Oh, by the way, this is my last blogging day. My contract expires at midnight. Angelina's no more hibernating and claims top blogger position as of 12.01am 1 Sept 2011. She has refused to extend my contract. It's OK, I'm cool with it. It's been fun, peeps. Till the next time, purrrrr *giggles*

The Moon Has Been Sighted

EID MUBARAK

To: Everyone, wherever you are
From: The Feline Family of Angelina, Brad, Michael, Nicole, Nikki and Tom, plus Mama and Dad, of course

Nicole's 2-cent: The moon has been sighted by the authorities, using modern scientific equipment. No need to argue. purrrr *giggles*

Dragon Fruits - The Experiment

Driving along the trunk roads in the East Coast of the Malay Peninsular is a pleasurable experience. Besides the view of the coastal line, there are also heaps of stuff to buy by the roadside. The variety is just mind boggling....from young coconut juice to sugarcane juice to palm toddy to dragon fruits to mangoes to watermelons to lemang (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo) to bananas to jackfruits to breadfruit fritters....I could go on and on and on....

So just stop and buy what you really fancy. Also, don't forget to bargain because that's the Malaysian way of buying stuffs. For example, when we stopped to buy dragon fruits from a 12-year old lass, Mama unashamedly bargained. Well, we did buy a lot so the young lady still made some profit. Then Dad has to ask, "Why did you buy so much?" Mama's answer: "Coz I like the fruit. Anyway, I'll think of something. Experiment in the kitchen."

We brought back heaps of these beauties from the East Coast. Gave some to Mak Long, some to Dad's relatives, still have heaps at home....

And thus, we experimented. Of course, since rediscovering her baking mojo, Mama decided to make dragon fruit cupcakes. "See if we can get a nice red colour like the famous red velvet cake, eh," she said.

Here's the recipe. It's basically a tweaked blended orange cake recipe.

Dragon fruit cake

1 dragon fruit (red skin + red flesh)

1 cup cooking oil

1 cup soft brown sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup full cream milk

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

Cut dragon fruit, discard skin and chop coarsely. Blend with oil, sugar, eggs and milk until fine. Pour into bowl. Mix in sieved flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt bit by bit. Pour into muffin cases. Bake at 190oC for 20 minutes. Makes 12 muffin-sized cakes.

Prior to putting in the oven. We were excited over the pink-coloured concoction...natural colouring of the fruit.

Piping hot....fresh from the oven. Unsure of cake colour though....

Cooled and then put in a container. Cracks on top but can be covered with cream cheese icing, Mama said.

A closer look...can you see those black dots? Those are the dragon fruit seeds...looks like poppy seeds too.

Ready for eating.....

....tara! Where has the nice pink colour gone? Somehow, the colour disappeared. However, the cake tastes good, with nice texture...and moist. Maybe we'll put in some food colouring next time.

Nicole's 2-cent: Oh, we baked the cakes because it's a special occasion today. It's Michael and Nikki's birthday!!!!! They were born on 29 August 2004. That makes them...hmmmm...seven years old. My babies.... Rejoice with us.
For more information about the dragon fruits, click here. It's very cheap at the East Coast, at just RM5 - RM8 per kg for the red skin + red flesh variety, as opposed to about RM8 - RM14 per kg in Kuala Lumpur. purrrr *giggles*

King of My Heart

Nicole's 2-cent: I married him in 2004 and we've produced three children together. He's also my soulmate and playmate. I love you Tom. purrrrr *giggles*

p.s. Mama is sick and she's not very happy about it. Eid is just around the corner and she hasn't done much. Purrrlease purrray for her speedy recovery.

Stingy Brad

Nicole's 2-cent: Brad's been mean and stingy. He's been hogging the Galaxy Tab like there's no tomorrow. Not letting go even when asleep. We have an appropriate Malay word for him. Kedekut. purrrr *giggles*

Gardening Hiccups 2

Nicole's 2-cent: I have to apologise for the bad bad behaviour of my children Michael and Nikki. First it was Michael who attacked Mama's pandan plant, it hasn't really recovered until now...and look at what Nikki has done? She has "acquired" one of the planters as her sleeping port. Mama wants to use that to raise some seeds. Oh well...Mama's gardening effort is not progressing well. purrrr *giggles*

Over the Moon Over a Cake

What's that in your bag, Mama?

Aaahhh....it's a moon cake. It's that time of the year, eh? This one is with pandan-flavoured lotus seed filling...yummmm.....

Nicole's 2-cent: To know more about moon cakes, click here. Hey...at least I've given you the link, not just ask y'all to google the information. purrrr *giggles*

Who's Under the Table????

Mama said it's hard to eat in peace whenever we dine out. Almost always, there'll be strays needing to be fed. Worse if Dad tags along. He's a softie when it comes to begging felines (even at home, mind you!).

Anyway, this gorgeous tabby came to our table while we were dining at a seafood joint in Cherating. And guess what? Dad fed her. Mama pretended she didn't see what was going on....cheeky!

Kitty being fed the last piece of the fish. Dad fed her at least a quarter of the fish we had.

Is that a satiated look or is she still hungry? Anyway, she looks well fed. Must have been TLC she was craving for.

Nicole's 2-cent: Hurry up, Mama. Stock up on the kibbles for strays fast. purrrr *giggles*

p.s. Mama has been updating the F2F blog. click here. Oh, she has also stock up the kibbles for strays.

Turtlemania

I was sleeping...and dreaming of succulent tuna...and chicken...and sardines....

....when something furry and bluey woke me up.... No....not the smurfs...but a blue plush turtle that Mama brought back from her short trip to Dad's hometown.

OK....let's be nice to each other....you stay quiet or I'll shred you to pieces you blue-eyed thingy...

Nicole's 2-cent: Mama said she got it for me cause its colour matches my eyes. purrrr *giggles*

Jongbyuk, Payletuk, Hale!

Mama had iftar away from home again. No, not at an over-priced Ramadan Buffet eatery! She and a few of her fellow Board of Trustees had iftar with the Myanmar refugee community in a suburb called Selayang, about 15-minute drive from home. It was part of the Fast2Feed programme we talked about in the previous entry (the RM30 question). The iftar spread was simple but delicious...and we learned a few Myanmarese words as well. Yeah...food names but that's what felines think of most times anyway.

This is jongbyuk, basically wheat cooked with sugar and garnished with grated coconut. Served as dessert.

This is payletuk, mainly chickpeas and cabbage stirfried with spices and curry leaves.

Hale - a type of rice and vegetable porridge in the bowls on either side of this child.

Nicole's 2-cent: Thanks to donors who helped us provide food the poor and needy. For more information and on how to support the programme, click here. Or just email us. purrrr *giggles*

Fervor 2

How creative can people be in showing their patriotism? Some will overdo it while some are creative yet not that over the top.
We were staying at a hotel in Cherating over the weekend and saw a different kind of raising the flags as opposed to the cab driver in our previous entry.

Flags that wrap around and four hanging lines. Just nice, I think.

What I love most is that handsome specimen of staghorn fern (Platycerium nidus). Lovely! Can we grow that at home, Mama?

The bird's nest fern (Asplenium nidus) is equally handsome...I didn't see any birdies there though.

Nicole's 2-cent: I think Mama and Dad should invest in a motor home instead of staying at hotel rooms that are only used for very very short sleeping hours. I didn't even get to use the pool or go to beach that I could clearly see from the room. purrrr *giggles*

Wordless Wednesday: Kerpok Lekor Plus Plus

Check Out Mama's Work Blog

What can we buy with just RM30? Mama posed that question in her work blog. Click here.

Mama 1, Felines 0

People say, curiosity kills the cat. However, sometimes (only sometimes) human ingenuity wins the day. For years we've seen the green plastic food cover on top of the old oven. It was there, day in day out, not covering anything of significance, just a couple of oven trays. Oh boy....were we duped!

Do you notice some green blades poking out of the green food cover? We didn't!!!

.....until Mama took it off. It's the cat grass and she has kept it under wraps, so to speak.

Take a closer look....yummy and delicious succulent cat grass. The colour is a bit light as it hasn't seen sunlight.

There....it's been transplanted to a bigger pot with potting soil and all.

It is now enjoying much needed sunlight so that the colour will darken as it can now make chlorophyll.

Nicole's 2-cent: Yeah...you win this round, Mama. Don't know how long it will stay that way. I'm drooling..... purrrr *giggles*

Fervor

Nicole's 2-cent: Malaysians are encouraged to fly the national flag this month and next as 31 August is Independence Day while 16 September is Malaysia Day. However, this taxi driver is taking it too far. I hope all those flags don't hamper his vision. Would you flag him down? purrrr *giggles*

Cat vs Catfish

We just got home from dinner outside when this stray came near. We happen to have packed food in the car...and some grilled catfish. We gave one to her. She seemed hungry and gobbled up the fish in a jiffy. Mama's considering keeping some kibble stock in the car....for future hungry strays we meet. purrrr *giggles*

Where I Belonged

Mama took me back to Mak Long's house. (Mak Long means eldest aunt in Malay). Remember her? She's my handsome Abang Epi (the eligible physiotherapist)'s mother. We went there for dinner. I had a fun time getting reacquainted with the surrounding as I used to live there. I was Abang Epi's lap dancer pet before he went off to uni...and coincidentally Mama was looking for a wife for Tom.

Anyway, while waiting for the hooomans to finish cooking and whatever they do in preparing dinner, I snooped around in the garden. I really have this thing about gardening and photography at the moment. So, bear with me, OK? First I'm going to show you the edible stuff I found in Mak Long's garden. I'm a cat, food is always on my mind naturally.

Lovely pomegrenate flowers......

...and fruit....can't wait for it to grow bigger and ripen.

Dwarf ambarella (Spondias dulcis) aka  hog plum tree laden with fruits. The local name for the fruit is kedondong.

Another miniature - dwarf sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) tree with fruits. Local name for the fruit is ciku.

Apparently this mango tree suffered damage during a recent storm. Then it started fruiting...at the broken bough. Weird, eh?

"Normal" fruits from the same mango tree protected from the elements. A good way to reuse and recycle newspapers here.

Who can guess what this is?....OK...it's the bud of a soursop (Annona muricata) fruit. Local name is durian belanda (Dutch durian???).

What's "edible" about this  you might ask. Aha....but this is the fish pond. Fishies are edible, OK?

This is my Mak Long's turmeric and tapioca patch.

We picked some of the young tapioca shoots....to be consumed as vegetable. There are many ways to cook this vege.

Yummy papayas.....will visit again when these fruits are ripe.

And now, feast your eyes on the non-edible stuff I found. Here goes....

Elegant multi-layered red hibiscus....

....and single-layer tri-coloured hibiscus too.

Dreamy....white camellia. The locals call this Bunga Cina (Chinese flower).

ooops.....no, I didn't get anywhere near those lilies. I used the zoom lens to take the pix, OK?

Heady perfume of the jasmines....local name is Melur...what a pretty name.

I don't know the name of this beautiful bunch. Can someone help me?

Aaah...another aromatic species -  Cananga odorata.... local name is Kenanga...hmmm... Mak Long can open a perfumery, eh?

oooohhh...but I digress. The main reason we went to Mak Long's place was to have dinner with the family....

The dinner spread....for iftar.

After dinner? I played with Abang Epi....

Nicole's 2-cent: And why did I agree to leave this house in the first place? hmmmmm.....purrrr *giggles*