Hari Raya Holidays

Malaysia, being multi-racial and multi-cultural has once again provided opportunities for families to spend time together. I love living in this country despite of all the underlining 'issues' (many too, at that!).

Hari Raya is wonderfully welcome because schools get the longest break. A whole week to celebrate this festival, adding the weekends, they total up to 10 days.

Last night after dinner, #2 promised to make breakfast for us this morning. Pancakes were the call for this morning. They were freshly made and I made the 'accompaniments'. Instead of Maple syrup and butter, we had a variety of, whipped cream, lemon curd and a combination of onions and canned mushrooms cooked in Italian herbs and cream.


A closer look at this deliciously savory combination. #1 exclaimed that it was "delicious"!


This is a sweet combination of whipped cream and lemon curd.

Breakfast was at the terrace where my vegetable seeds has begun to sprout. These are tomatoes in the making!


My "kunyit" (tumeric) and spring onions are already growing and so is the "sawi" or was it "siew pak choy"? Anyway, there's going to be more updates soon on my other herbs. My little pots of herbs are growing and keeping me very busy.

*happy!*

Holiday Breakfast #3

Daughter number 2 came to me last night and sheepishly asked if she could have a repeat of Monday's breakfast - pancakes and gourmet mushroom sausages.
"I love the sausages mum". How could I say no?

Since she loved the sausages, we'll have sausages but only this time it's going to be with waffles!! Hehe!

Basically the platter is the same except that I made waffles and added cinnamon sugar on top of the banana. If you haven't tried cinnamon sugar on top of ripe banana, please try it ASAP! It's the nicest tasting 'gourmet' banana you can get. You can see from the picture, I dusted icing sugar on the waffle.


Look at Daughter number 1 platter. She likes her food plain and simple. No fancy Kiwi fruit or wholegrain mustard or icing sugar. Cinnamon sugar on banana and gourmet mushroom sausage is fine, plain waffle with butter and Maple syrup is the staple.

So fussy and yet so easy to please. No frills and no trills?

[Waffle]

Holiday Breakfast #2

This morning, I felt like having poached eggs. I made two styles, one Eggs Florentine and the second, Eggs Benedict.

I set out to fry the bacon. Then I started cooking Hollandaise sauce over a Bain marie.

Hollandaise sauce needs delicate handling and takes patience. One thing I have learnt about cooking Japanese food is you really need PATIENCE! The patience I've acquired has helped me in many situations and come in very handy this morning.
Get ready a pot of hot simmering water, add some salt and half a teaspoon of vinegar. The vinegar is believed to 'coagulate' the egg white.

Stir the pot of water (this prevents the egg from sticking to the bottom). Drop fresh egg into the whirlpool of water. Poach for a little while and lift with a slotted spoon or a flat sieve, like the one I used.

Toast two slices of bread, butter it and lay some spinach on one and some bacon on the other.

Place a poached egg each on the ready 'base'. Serve Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise sauce.

Eggs Florentine is served with Mornay sauce but I was running late and just served with Hollandaise sauce - quick fix! Hehehe!

[Eggs Benedict]

School Holidays?

Was up early to send Daughter number 3 for a computer workshop in school. It's Mon - Thurs, 8.30a.m. - 10.30 a.m.

Since I was already up and hubs gone to work, I made pancakes for my two elder girls. I cut some bananas and Kiwi fruit. The gourmet mushroom sausage was topped with some wholegrain mustard.

Pancakes were served with Maple syrup (not shown). Basic Pancake recipe from the reliable and almost full proof Martha Stewart.
Check her out @: http://www.marthastewart.com/
[pancakes]

"He who finds a true friend, finds a treasure"

My very good friend and breakfast buddy Deanna is emigrating to Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirate's capital.

Her husband started working there last month and Deanna and her 4 children will be moving to Abu Dhabi early next month.

On one hand I am happy that this wonderful friend of mine is moving to new horizons but on the other hand I am saddened by the distance put between us.

Sure there is the Internet, and communication has no limits via the PC but the old fashioned fellowship over a cuppa will never the same.

I met Deanna many moons ago at Ballet school where our girls were twirling and tapping their very young toes. We clicked right away and had much in common - love for good food, love for God (although we were of different denominations, it was never an issue), Youth ministry, collecting stuff, the list is endless.

Just one phone call and we'd re-adjust our schedule to meet for breakfast. When hand phones became a necessity, our breakfast rendezvous would only one SMS away. It was important for us to eat well and enjoy our time together because we had endless stories to share.

Good coffee was always the criteria for a good meeting place and so was our short and meaningful prayer to thank God for our chance to fellowship which was fundamental to our friendship.

We decided to meet at her house this morning. I offered to bring breakfast so I made another bento after I finished with the bentos for my girls.

In the back left box I did the same gourmet roll up sandwich which I did for the girls except that for this one I added a fried omelet.

On it's right, I had Babybel cheese, crackers, marshmallows, raisins and some Japanese rice crackers.

In front is a mixed salad and Japanese sushi ingredients chopped and topped with Kew pie mayonnaise. I cut up two Kiwi's to fill the box. Of course, I made a flask of my 'powderful' coffee! Yeah!

We had a wonderful time as usual, amidst the sadness was also a sense of joy, excitement and anticipation for greater things to come. We parted with the promise that we would meet again for breakfast next week.