It is often said whatever that has been planted and cared for without using pesticides will be evident in the harvest; there will be worms enjoying the fruits of the labor.
This round, mostly green ones
Our scotch bonnet pepper plants have been very healthy and we have had non-stop supplies. And sometimes worms included. On and off, I’d find tiny worms in the container holding the basket of peppers. And I’d just wash the icky worms down the sink.
Bumper supply of worms too! Five altogether
One morning, I saw a worm on the kitchen counter top instead! Eeek… it had somehow escaped from the container. Before I could do anything, the ants got to it first! They were quickly maneuvering the worm to their nest for the rest of the colony as food. I didn’t have the heart to thwart them. It would be too vicious.
One, two, three… heave! One, two, three… go!
So I simply took a picture of the action but missed the rest of their journey to their lair when I turned away. Dang! They sure are fast but they sure are happy ants with the unexpected bounty.
The Habanero plant in our garden may not be the Habanero that we initially thought. Hubby says what we have is the scotch bonnet peppers instead, which are slightly sweet in the overall taste. If you’re not a pepper expert, it’s hard to tell them apart because these peppers are cousins. The only difference being the Habanero is about an inch bigger.
The spiciness or heat level of all peppers is measured according to the Scoville Scale in Scoville Heat Units (SHU) and both these species are right up there on the chart. But there seem to be contradicting readings I see on the internet.
One site listed our scotch bonnet pepper at 445,000 SHU and the Habanero at 260,000 SHU only while another site says both are on the same level at 100,000–350,000 SHU. Well, it doesn’t matter which exact reading, our scotch bonnet certainly burns the tongue and even fingers if we are not cutting them carefully! Sometimes even the green ones are enough to numb the senses, what more eating the ripe red ones.
Scotch bonnet peppers are an excellent source of phytochemicals and vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin C (ascorbic acid), iron, vitamin B, carotenoids, niacin, riboflavin, dietary fiber, flavonoids, and magnesium but I don’t eat them all the time. Too spicy to handle and too much to consume.
Puny green peppers towards the end, so plant #1 had to be cut down.
Hubby had to trim the first plant because it has grown too tall. At more than eight feet, it’s too taxing to produce plump healthy peppers. The puny harvest, evident in its loss in strength. Eventually, the plant was removed.
Plant #2 is out of control, growing tall and wide!
Now we get our supplies from the second and third plants. And the second plant has grown to become such a monstrous blob, it’s rather unsightly. It is now six feet tall, but its yield has been superb. We have had an abundance of scotch bonnet peppers and have been giving them away to friends because they’re too spicy for us to handle.
Last week, hubby and I were at our neighborhood grocery store to replenish our food when I suddenly felt I wanted cookies. We were standing in the baking aisle because hubby was looking at a new flour product. And the Betty Crocker cookie mix was staring at me.
I asked hubby if I should pick it up since Betty was calling out to me. I reasoned that he’s never baked cookies so far, and he was aghast that I considered Betty over him. I was vetoed on the purchase with him promising to bake a batch for me.
We then discovered why he’s never attempted to bake cookies all this while – the amount of sugar and butter needed was simply eye-popping! Subconsciously, we knew cookies require these two ingredients a fair bit, but never realized to what extend. Now we know.
The making of the giants. Too making to stack up
Although the 27 three and a half to four-inch cookies were very good, I think this will be the first and last time that we’re getting home-baked giant chocolate chip cookies.
The weekend’s post-MCO road trip was nice. The drive up North was pleasant and didn’t take too long. As always, going away is about food. Our first stop was in Ipoh for lunch; we had Chicken Rice and bean sprouts.
The must-eat choice when in Ipoh
After lunch, it was smooth sailing all the way and we arrived by mid-afternoon. The folks are fine and doing good. But weather-wise, it rained a lot so we couldn’t go out. Anyway, with social distancing still in practice, we didn’t want to and was contented just to laze at home.
Before we knew it, it was dinner time! We decided to have Thai food at the restaurant that we visited the last time and discovered the restaurant has changed its name! Despite the change, the food quality was still good.
Previously it was called Khun de Thai
Saturday was our customary golf day. We make it a point, every trip to play at Darulaman Golf Club, which is a short drive away. And I am pleased that this round, I played so much better than all previous games.
After the game, we got boba teas!
The weekend quickly passed with another sumptuous dinner on Saturday night with the parents and an Aunty before we left on Sunday morning. On the way home, we opted for noodles instead of the usual crab porridge at Nibong Tebal and I must say, they were good choices.
The dinner spread for sixLunch at Nibong Tebal
The journey home was peppered with rain now and then, but not too heavy until it made the drive tiring. It was a good weekend away.
We are going on a road trip! Yay. After staying put for four months during this pandemic, it is okay to travel across the state borders now. So hubby has decided it’s time to visit his parents. Moreover, M2 has been back for so long now, it will be good for her to see the grandparents.
We are taking the drive leisurely without any hurry. And no road trip is complete without a stop or two to savor delicious food along the way! We left home at 9.30 this morning and will most likely do lunch somewhere along the way. Hopefully, the traffic won’t be a crawl and we should arrive by mid-afternoon.
And as always, we will be playing a round of golf. Looking forward to the short break away.
Online shopping is fun. Buying kitchen appliances online is even more fun, although I don’t use these purchases myself. During the MCO since March, I’ve made several online purchases for kitchen stuff for hubby to use and activity items for myself.
The latest purchases are again kitchen gadgets. Purchase #1: two rolling pins that I thought their bright, fun colors would be nice to add to the kitchen, but more because of their sizes especially the mini one that I thought was very cute.
Purchase #2 was more whimsical yet practical: the vomiting chicken.
The what?!
It’s an egg separator, that’s what the vomiting chicken is. When you crack an egg into its body and tilt it, the egg white comes out of the beak, hence vomiting, while the yolk stays put. And it works much better than the conventional egg separators that we already have.
Works even with two eggs! Our other useless separators
It’s fun to play with it. I guess I will assist hubby with his baking endeavors when it comes to separating the egg whites from the yolks.
Hubby’s baking skills have improved. He’s gone on to bake cakes besides bread, cookies and scones as well. He’s done carrot cake a couple of times already. Don’t forget there’s also the team effort apple pie and apple bread bomb.
The scones’ texture and taste were just right
I have to admit, I have gained a pound recently despite the vigorous weekend golf games. Maybe this is insufficient and I need to step up my exercise regime even more if I am constantly savoring all the baked temptations.
The latest effort is a sponge cake with a twist. M2 requested a Victoria Sponge and hubby obliged. But he didn’t want a whole Victoria Sponge cake because he felt that the jam filling would be too sweet.
So he improvised and instead of having a one-flavor cake, he did a half-and-half whereby one half had mixed berries for the Victoria part and the other half had Gula Melaka with coconut shreds. The second flavor was more suited to our tastebuds because the Gula Melaka was drizzled sparingly while the coconut shreds had hints of saltiness to counter the sweetness. Yum.
The half and half sponge cake
Such ingenuity as everyone was able to enjoy their preferred sponge cake without any guilt.
Ever since the MCO started, hubby learned how to bake and as such, the eggs in the fridge are used up very quickly. It used to take forever to finish them but now, they are always on the grocery list to be replenished.
The best part of this is recycling the eggshells as fertilizer for the garden instead of just throwing them away. And I seem to enjoy fussing over the eggshells.
I’d remove the membrane first before pounding them up with my mini mortar and pestle. Fine but not too powdery, the eggshells act as a good deterrent for the slimy snails in the garden. They are also a good source of calcium especially for the habanero chilli peppers and it shows with the healthy harvests.
Besides the eggshells, other food waste is also recycled to be natural fertilizer for the garden. Rice water for instance. Whenever I wash rice grains before cooking, the water from the washing is kept a day or two in a container to be fermented before being used.
Occasionally if there are juice pulps from juicing, these are instantly sprinkled around the garden amongst the plants. And banana peels are always fed to the staghorn fern for nutrition. Nothing goes to waste in our home.
Our weekend golf games are routine by now. During this CMCO phase, we’ve opted to walk and carry our golf bags playing at the Hills course instead of taking the buggy. Some may say crazy but to me, that’s my outdoor gym right there and really good exercise.
I’m proud to say our stamina has improved and the past weekend we walked 18 holes on Saturday and 16 holes on Sunday. An increase in holes covered compared to the weekend before.
And both days, hubby baked in the afternoon. On Saturday, he made dinner rolls which turned out soft and fluffy. And on Sunday, ciabattas. On top of these, we did our tag team baking as well for yet another apple-filled effort.
First time making dinner rollsCiabatta was simply heavenly
Not a pie nor a tart, it bordered between an Apple Bread and a Caramel Apple Bomb. We had to combine two recipes because we didn’t have caramel and I didn’t want the outside to be too flaky. So a bread-like texture akin to dinner rolls instead.
Our version of Apple BombHonestly, you wouldn’t know what these are
Turned out good. So did the ciabattas. Like the golf, the baking is almost like a pro too. And as always, I look forward to the weekend routine of golf and baking efforts by hubby.
It takes a pandemic to change the behavior of people and how the world functions. We have been under the MCO and now CMCO since 18 March, and during this time, things happen to us. I’m sure we’re not alone on this behavioral change.
We discover ourselves in the midst of the semi-lockdown situation, perfecting our patience and unearthing amazing skills in the kitchen. Whilst my cooking has improved, hubby discovered baking. Who would’ve known?
On top of these, I find myself thrilled by online purchases of kitchen appliances and utensils! Something unheard of pre-MCO life. The first thrill was when the stand mixer arrived some time back. This time, it’s an eight inch baking pan which arrived middle of last week. Yes, an eight inch baking pan!
The thrill of my life!
The pan was specifically purchased for one purpose only and that is to bake apple pies. And since I didn’t go to the office the day it arrived, I efficiently whipped up my apple filling before the water could even dry off the pan after a quick wash upon unwrapping.
Then I waited patiently for hubby to return from the office to prepare the dough. That night immediately after dinner, we got down to baking the apple pie.
Again it was a test of patience – an hour for the dough in the fridge to settle, then another hour to complete the rest of the process and baking.
As soon as the pie came out of the oven and cooled, the three of us polished off three quarters of the apple pie without any guilt. So good, burp.
Angieneering 
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