Nee's Proton Saga

The truth is, she never had one.

The Proton Saga cake was conceived around the time when the national car first came out in 1985. I do not know who invented this recipe. The only Google search results that pair together 'Proton saga' & 'cakes' were 'Proton Saga selling like hot cakes'. So I abandoned the search altogether. Maybe if you know a thing or two about this, leave some comments below.

Here's Nee's attempt a building the national cake.

It's basically a Malay steamed cake. I'll let Nee tell you about it.

Nee:

There are basically two recipes. One for the inner red, green and plain blocks, and the other one for the outer dark layer. The recipe is very rich with kaya, horlick and condensed milk, that one piece will send the weighing scale needle jumping by the kilos. So I am contemplating whether I should blog the recipe or if anyone would even want to eat it.

But the result is seriously good. Soft, yet rich and dense. And highly addictive too.

By the way, I was singing some patriotic national RTM songs when I was doing this. Out of the blue!

Personally I think Nee is crazy to incorporate this into her already packed schedule. Mind you, this was done for fun.

Christmas Dinner This Year

The year-end celebration seems to be a funny social phenomenon. This is the time when everyone is celebrating everything possible under the sun - birthdays, anniversaries, annual dinners, promotions, good exam results, & there would be someone striking Jackpot somewhere. And a celebration is not a celebration if its without food. And so begins the race to eat before the end of the year comes.

We, like the rest of you of course, were not spared from this social binging. And when you come from a large extended family like Greg's, there's a tendency to combine ten anniversaries & ten birthdays all in one night's worth of dinner. Things probably start rolling 2 weeks before and cap with his Uncle William's Christmas birthday or is it new year dinner. And not to forget our yearly cell group's dinner too.

We spent Christmas eve at Greg's VERY extended family's, this time at his youngest uncle Francis' home. I made a Shepard's pie & a couple of quiches for my mum-in-law for the pot luck.

Christmas day this year was at our place with my family. I decided to do something just for them since most of the time we're at Greg's VERY extended family marathon-like celebrations. Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the partying, eating, drinking and be merrying without having me to cook up a storm.

This year's preparations where a bit more challenging. I normally have two gas tanks for cooking at the back of the house. Guess what? They both ran out & it was Christmas day.

Guess what again? Santa doesn't deliver gas tanks on Christmas Day.

But fortunately I had the electric cooker & portable stove to rely on. Thank God. But going back to basics was really tiring.

Fortunately these were done on time:

Australian Ham on the bone, complimentary from Roger ~ it was braised again in pineapple sauce.

Braised Lamb Shank ~ which my dad quite liked. Mind you he does not eat western food.

Rissoto with prawns and asparagus.

Chicken mango salad in lettuce cups ~ couldn't find the smaller cups so I had to make do with the less 'refined' version.

How can anyone go wrong with asparagus and bacon wraps.

French beans drizzled with aged balsamic and olive oil.

And this bottle of sparkling wine was really gorgeous. We learnt that we couldn't call it a champagne just because it did not come from the champagne region. Tonight, we're bringing another one to Alex and Jac's party. It's just another excuse to drink.

Cheers to all of you out there. What better reason to celebrate, it is Christ's Birthday!

A Greg & Nee Christmas

It's been a while since we really made the effort to do up the house for Christmas. This year, out of the blue, Nee suddenly sprang into action & brought all these back from Green Gallery. NEE: I was inspired by all the pretty things at Terri's blog. :)

For those in Kuching, Green Gallery is an excellent place to shop for home & festive decor stuff. They actually import & export these things, & so they have a very very wide selection. So if you're looking for decorative items done in good taste, head on to Green Gallery. You won't need, let me rephrase that, you DON"T WANT to go anywhere else after that.

This holly was from the previous Christmas. It has survived well.

Over the years, we have always dreaded to setup the Chrismas tree having the impression that it takes a lot of time & effort to do it up & then having to take it down again later on. Yes, we've been guilty of leaving the Christmas tree in the store room for the past two Christmases. I think Santa wasn't too happy with us then. But this year, Nee & I have been very good.

And as usual, Nee's Kitchen was in full swing at this time of the year. It was a tornado in there & stress levels were at an all time high.

But in the end, it was beautiful. We had a little Christmas Eve dinner last night with our immediate famly members. There were about 9 pax altogether, but I think Nee overshot & cooked for 30 people instead, as usual. I'll just let Nee bring you through the menu.

Hi Guys! Nee here. There were 2 starters, 5 sides, 3 mains and desserts + cheese platters with fruits.

Side 1: Sweet Honey Pea with Hollandaise sauce. I decided to plate this. Greg took the picture upside down. Suppose to look like flowers.

(Greg: I noticed that this year's presentation was more creative & artsy. I wish I could say that I had something to do with that, but honestly speaking, I had nothing to do with it)

Nee: This was the starter 1 - French Bread Foie Gras & Provencal Pork Terrine (hand carried from Melbourne).
Starter 2: Pork Rilletes with gherkins and caper berries and the highlight ~ Italian Proscuitto (hand carried from Singapore) rolled with cantaloupes.

Main 1: Chestnut Stuffing. This was very the last minute and I really don't like stuffing in birds. So we did that separately in a roll.

Main 2: Roasted Chicken, in place of Turkey which we weren't really keen.

Highlight main 3: Christmas ham on the bone.

This fellow is from Melbourne as well. I glazed it with apple and honey, rebake it and it really taste good

Side 2: Mango and Macadamia Nuts with Garden Vegetables and 4 year old Modena Balsamic vineger and olive dressings

Side 3: Pumpkin with pesto. Not too good because the pumpkin was a little wet.

Side 4: Potato Salad. A never fail.

And this, for my super traditional foochow father who only eats rice. Side 5: Pilaf Rice to give rice a upped touch.

For dessert: My last minute Apple Crumble with Vanilla Ice cream & also English tea (Hand Carried from Fortnum & Mason).

And finally, different assorted cheeses like Comte Gruyere and Double Brie with fruits.

Don't you just want to be our friends?

All the same, we'd like to wish all our readers a very Happy, Peaceful & Blessed Christmas this year & have a good holiday!

Photo Showcase by Derbe

Hi Derbe, Nee here. Please don't be shocked to see your name on our blog.

A while ago, we had a dinner do at our place to welcome CK home. It was a small one as many individuals were either travelling or not available. So the dinner was pretty simple with nothing much to shout about.

But Derbe took some really nice photos with her Canon DSLR 400 and I thought we must give credit to her for such nice shots on the food. Please note that we are not those super technical people who will tell you whether the angle, colour, background & the lighting are correct or not. We just like what we saw and thought of sharing this with you.

My Braised Lamb Shank. This is my favourite. I actually gasped the first time she showed it to me on her camera.

Potato Salad. This is Greg's version cos Derbe's didn't turn out well cos lack of light.

My Lagsana.

Cheese and Fruit Platter

Our 572 Richmond Hill wine from Tasmania

Derbe's mixed vegies taken by Greg on his Nikon Coolpix.

CK's Japanese Choc for dessert

Nee's Fridge Management System

Ok, so now I'm all alone at home. I sent Nee to the airport this morning. She's there for her cousin Carol's wedding, & will be back on Saturday evening. Then we'd be off for another wedding dinner in Kuching on Sunday.

So since she's not around, let me just show you how she organises her fridge.

The first thing that you'd notice are the many (or not so many at the moment) fridge magnets that Nee has collected over the years (or not so many years) from the many (or not so many) places that we've been to.

That's nothing right? I mean everyone has fridge magnets. But that's not it. I think you'll go bonkers when you see this.

No, I'm not talking about the High School Musical magnets. I don't know where those came from. We certainly didn't go to any Musical High School. No, I'm talking about this...

And this.

Nee has this thing about organisation & she's really proud of it. She's even got my dinner tonite, breakfast & lunch tomorrow, all planned out.

See what I mean?

She makes me feel like the little boy who died in the end cos he's so lazy, even to eat the pancake hung around his neck, when the mother had to be away.

Stress Duck

I am getting a little stressed because I am travelling tomorrow on my own to KL to attend my cousin Carol's wedding to Gooi (who graciously took us around in Hong Kong).

Stress 1: The trip is pretty last minute but I managed to book cheap MAS tickets (RM385 return) very early on. But then I realised that my classes do not finish until Friday and I have a teaching assignment early Sun morning. So there were a lot of 'to go or not to go' going on and when I finally decided, I had to forgo my return ticket and buy another one from Air Asia that costs RM213 to return on Saturday evening instead. So this whole week revolved around getting things arranged so that I get my Friday off.

Stress 2: I rarely travel alone without Greg. I think this must be the 2nd or 3rd time since we got married. I dont like to have to catch taxis alone in KL and having to watch out for potential snatchers or thieves everywhere I go. So normally, when I'm alone, Greg will make sure that I get Foong Sin, my good uni mate to drive me around and that I am staying with someone like my cousins or my friends.

Stress 3: I get stressed about what Greg will be eating during my stay away. I know it's just for 2Days/1 Night but I am seriously worried because my hubby lives on junk like cookies, cakes & takeaways if food is not on the table. Like when I got up late last Sat morning, he ended up eating the leftover bits cut from the side of a napolean cake. He just walloped a whole plateful of buttercream laden bits when there were homemade curry puffs in the fridge. See, even when there is food is in the fridge, he seems to ignore it. So I am seriously thinking of labelling everyone of his meal before my trip. I cooked a little more tonite to last him for the next two days.

One of the dish is the 8 Jewel Duck. I am seriously proud of myself for this. Under the supervision of Aunty Yeo, I managed to debone the whole duck. Yeap, all the bones are gone and the duck is still in one piece, & is still looking like a .... duck. It was an absolute perfect destress-er - all the wringing, poking, slicing, chopping and when the carcass came out one piece without any meat attached to it, the satisfaction is indescribeable. And next time if Greg ever upsets me, I will debone a duck in front of him to show him what I am capable off with a little carving knife.

Darling, looook...ONLYYYY skin and meat left. No bonesssss....

The Mid-Autumn Project

Yes we are alive. We have been quiet but we were around. We've been busy with work and the mid autumn festival. This year we ate out. Saturday was with my parents and brother. Sunday was with Greg's family at the courtesy of my BIL and wife, Chiang and Winnie.

It is wonderful to celebrate Mid-Autumn Fest with families. This is a time for family and reunion and to the Chinese, it's a celebration which is as important as Chinese New Year. The moon's roundness and fullness signifies the same for families (complete and full of joy).

Also it is something like Greg and Nee on the Go's 1st anniversary. I remember one of our earlier posts was about me making mooncakes. So all the more meaningful this Festival is to us this time. We have completed one full cycle. Thank you fall or supporting us and being a part of our lives!

As much as I thought about not making mooncakes this year, I ended up making all sorts of different kinds. Some how not giving mooncakes especially to the elderly seems so odd and disrespectful. Especially with all the support and love that they have shown us.

But unfortunately for our readers, we can't send mooncakes to you. So we'll just have to let you feast with your eyes.

These are the traditional types.

Baked

Snowskin

Homemade Lotus with and without salty egg yolks and homemade red bean paste.

Presenting the agar-agar mooncakes. I had fun with this type. Pretty and easy. These are with the durian (green), chendol (white) and lotus (brown) fillings.

These are the traditional Teochew ones.

Black La Ko (Sesame with Yam Paste)

Mooncake Pastry

(Greg's aunt calls it 3 ping or 3 layer but mine is just 2 layers because

I mixed the sweet salty vegie layer with the nutty-fruitty layer)

Windmill Mooncake

White Mooncake

Happy Autumn Festival!