Animal rescue: Mr bunny's swimming lesson

20 mins ago, Eric saw something hopping along the edge of the pool, followed by the neighbour's fluffy cat chasing at the back. The next thing I knew, the bunny hopped into the pool, and was trapped, not able to get back out.

That poor thing. Eric helped it out from the pool, n it decided to hide behind a rock, with its butt sticking out. -_-"

The cat was long gone, and we decided that the bunny should leave the backyard, or it will fall into the pool again. So I took a dustpan, wanting to carry the now drenched Mr bunny out into the sun.

Eric probe away the rock, and tempt the bunny to move onto my dustpan. But I guess it was still traumatised, it jumped pass the dustpan, hopped along the edge of the pool, and back into water AGAIN!! >_<  (never learn lesson arh?!)

I did not know that rabbits are good swimmer. This Mr-very-fit-bunny swam from one edge of the pool to the other edge, but it could not climb out itself. 

So here come my dustpan again, scoping it out from the pool. 

By then it must be very tired. It refused to even budge from the dustpan. 

So cute!!

Seeing that it was shivering (yes, the pool water is very cold as we just got out from winter), we left it at the bushland across the road in the sun. It took us more than a nudge to 'tip'/encourage the rabbit to hop onto the sunny green grass (refuse to move?!). After a second on the grass, it happily hopped into the bush.

What, no farewell?! =(

Haha, what an interesting experience. Hope you Mr bunny don't jump into the pool again. It's Dangerous!

Kcan

Photo blog: strawberry jam making

We went to the farmers direct market on Tuesday after seeing a patient in that area. The trend now in Australia, is selling food that are still good to eat, but do not pass the supermarket 'eye' test. (Ie: looks weird, too small or too big fruits and vegetables, aka rejected food) Many tonnes of food from the farms had to be thrown away, because it does not pass the test of appearance, even though it is perfectly ok to eat.

So at this farmers direct market, they are sold cheaply, some times even three times lower than the normal ones. 

I saw boxes of strawberries for sale, 3 for $4. Usual is 2 for $5. They are smaller, some are squashed, but mostly are still ok.

So what did I do? I made strawberry jam out from it!

Firstly, clean and diced the strawberries. (There's a good 650g!)

Put equal amount of sugar as per strawberries. However, as being health conscious, I only put one third of the amount. Meaning I have to put my jam in the fridge and shorter shelf life ( I doubt that it will last long anyway. It's so yummy!). 

Pour all the strawberries and sugar plus three to four teaspoon of lemon/lime juice plus some lemon/lime seeds. 

Keep stirring till they are well cooked, and the juice is jelling up when cooked on a plate.

Sterilize the jars and lids and all the utensils.

Becareful it's very hot. I had a minute burn mark from the water splashing onto my arm, but all is good after applying fresh aloe Vera. *impressed* 

There you go! My low sugar strawberry jam! So for the $4 strawberries, I have two and a half bottles of jam! =D

My breakfast the next day.

That half bottle is gone by the third day. Haha. 

Love making my own jam. Eric could not believe that there were no colouring added, for the colour was so vibrant red!

Kcan

Hot in the press

Jeng Jeng Jeng! Here's our newest brochure, hot out from the press!

This is our pregnancy care brochure which we will be distributing to the Calm Birth class. 

We hope that many expecting mothers will find them useful. =)

Kcan

Kidney soupy!

As I'm still in my 'confinement' month, I had been cooking some nourishing soups and dishes to help my body strengthen. One of them is my favourite Pork offals soup. Back in my childhood days, mum would cook this every month on Saturday for lunch. 

Why Saturday lunch?

Because that is the day off for mum from work and also last day for the butcher to sell fresh meat. So mum would go market early in the morning to get the ingredients from the butcher uncle. Talking about that butcher, we had been buying from him all the thirteen years we had been in Singapore. I wonder if he had retired? My dad's favourite offals are small intestine, liver and kidney. Therefore these were the main ingredients in the soup, together with lean meat. 

As for me, I don't fancy the tough chewy small intestine. My favourite is the kidney. Yum!! 

How do you prepare the raw kidney?

Here's a photo of it!

Nicely soaking in the fresh water after doing the prep work on it.

Well, prepping the fresh kidney takes time. But it is essential so as to get nice yummy taste without the urine smell. 

Yes, kidney filters the urine. So it is important to cleaning them well.

Firstly, cut them horizontally to exposed the filtration unit. (Right kidney)  The part we eat is the cortex of the kidney. So slowly and gently, I have to slice away the filter system to expose the cortex of the kidney. (Left kidney is half done) See those white veins like structure on the left kidney? Those are the filtration tubules that needs to be trim away as well.

After it was all done, gently criss cross the inner surface of the cortex like a sotong, and the slice them into the slice you want for cooking. 

The kidney slices now had to be soak in fresh water to help diffuse out the remaining urine smell in the cortex. I usually kept rinsing and change the water 6-7 times, till the water remains clear. (Like in the first photo)

I had been putting in pork meat, kidney and liver for my soup. It was especially good to have nice warm soup that nourishes the blood and kidney in the cold rainy day. I do hope that the wild weather will ease in the coming week.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Kcan

Tumbler the compost bin.

Welcome to Spring! The nasty winter is finally over. Yay! This year, winter was the coldest for me because of the travelling between the houses and both the houses had very poor insulation. So I am actually looked forward to having warm sun and lots of sunlight around. The last month of winter had been very wet and windy. The laundry was piling up so high in the basket. Looking forward to having the sun out in the coming week.

Last weekend, even though Eric was unwell, he wanted to put the compose bin up to 'cheer himself up'.

My dear Eric, he loves going to Aldi for good bargains. Last year, he read about the different kinds of compost bins. The different designs, different rate of composting, ease of use.... And did I mention about worm farm?

And of course, the price difference can range from $30- >$150. 

So last week, Aldi came out with the gardening sale. And it includes a tumbling compost bin!

And before I knew it, Eric had bought a set and pack it nicely in the car. >_<

What's so cool about the tumbling compost bin?

Turning the compost had never been easier. And oh my, Eric had a fun time turning it like those lottery draw special numbers. 

It has handles all around the bin for easy turning. But the inside part of the 'handle' allows for maximum air circulation for composting. 

The bin has two compartment. So we can fill up one side first, then when it is full, allow it to be composted for two months, and still have another compartment to do more accumulation. So the door can be slide from one side to the other easily to access the compost. 

The compost bin is lifted up from the floor, so any rats, or possums, will not be able to dig through to find scraps. And also prevent worms to grow.

It has many small vents around for circulation, so it will help prevent smells.

And the best of all, the bin itself is made from 100% recycled plastic! And no, it is not made in China. To our surprise, it is actually made in Canada! So yes, we are quite impress with this purchase.

A tumbling compost bins are normally the higher end of the compost bins range. But because it is from aldi, it is at a low price of <$100.

Overall, I'm glad that Eric is such a handy man who can put things together in no time. Looking forward to getting my first compost in two months!

Kcan

Wanton night

Hi everyone!!

So sorry for the hiatus for the past two plus weeks.
Praise our Lord, for He had answered our prayers!!

What happened?
Well, since the start of our clinic, Eric and I had been praying for our clinic. Praying that the people with conditions we could helped will be lead to us, and that we will be faithful and ethical in our clinical practice.
So God answered our prayers by guiding us with a few patients, which we were able to focus and helped immensely, and till they were well. And when that ended, we will continued with another new lot of patients.

So one Sunday, our Pastor gave a sermon which talks about trusting in our God, in all we do. And if we pray boldly, God will answer boldly. If we pray small, he will answer small.

And so that night, I analysed with Eric that, I think God had been answering our prayers because we had only been praying small. So I suggest being bold in praying to God. How about praying that we will have 5 new patients in the coming week!

Eric was skeptical. But he got on board and we started praying to God for giving us 5 new patients in the following week. 

And that's the start of our busy week! Thank you God!

I'm happy that we could be of great help to many, especially amongst our church family. 

This is our latest craze for the past 2weeks. Making wontons! 

I think both Eric and his sis prefers wantons than dumplings. What's more, they were just like kids, happily wrap them up without me 'inviting' them for help, unlike when making dumplings. 

So here it is, Eric's handiwork.

I made some anchovies soup base, add in some choi sum and that's our dinner. 

Simple and yummy!

Have a good evening everyone!

Kcan

Roasted capsicum

Have you tried eating capsicum, the burnt way? 

Let me show you. First, throw the capsicum, whole, onto the gas stove

Let the skin burnt.

Look at these beauty!

Now, the next step is to scrap off the burnt skin using a teaspoon. The skin will peels easily from the soft roasted flesh.

Give it a nice rinse. 

You will be rewarded with a nice juicy roasted capsicum.

Because it is roasted whole, the juice will be contained within the fruit. So don't waste the yummy juices!

Sliced it up n add it to your other roasted veges like eggplant, pumpkin sweet potatoes, and sprinkle with some roasted sunflower seeds. The roasted flavor will add a good depth to your salad.

Enjoy!

Kcan

Bush walk

Two weeks ago, after work on Saturday, Eric and I decided to go bush walking together. It was one of the last remaining warm Autumn, before the setting in of cold winter. So we decided to take the opportunity to exercise and get some Vit D from the dear sun before it becomes 'history' during winter. 

Here is me, all geared up with my walking boots and walking sticks from my China trip. Oh how I missed using the walking sticks! These are the cheap imitations you can easily get in HK night markets. BUT oh boy, they were SOOO useful for us during our climb in China. They are much heavier and thicker than the professional branded ones, but oh well, it serves its purpose and had battle scars all over it. =D

Oh, and that's my Tomato behind me. ^_^

So, our bush walk trek is nothing far away. It's right 2 mins away from our door step!  

Our first descend onto the trek welcomes us with this view.

The steps where we descended from.

Us happily taking selfie, not knowing the route ahead. Apparently, Eric had only travelled on this trek once before (back in his younger days), and it was not even the full length of it.

The first detour from the trek, was a path down to the secluded beach!

I was here!

So we head back onto the main trek and continue the journey further. Excitement awaits.....

We heard water tickling down somewhere... and we saw a mini-water fall!
This place would look so much spectacular after a heavy rain. (not sure if it will be safe to walk on though)

The path was rocky with boulders bigger than us. >_<

One needed to climb onto the rocks on all fours.

At some parts of the trek, we can see nice water views and the suburbs across the river.

There's this weird looking rock.

Lots of Australian native plants.

At one stage, the narrow trek was right next to this bard wire fence, along a very steep descend >_<

We also saw a big tree which had collapsed and was floating on the river surface.

In total, it took us a whole 2 hours to complete the whole trek and get back home. It was such a relief as we reach the main roads as my feet were wobbly from trying not to slip n fall from all the loose rocks on the trek. The bush walk was indeed an intense exercise option which was both Cardio and Stamina workout, with all the uphills n downhills and climbing up n down rock faces.

Along the way home on the main road, we met a young boy who was playing outside his home driveway. We asked him for some directions and he was so polite and helpful. This was something we have not seen for quite a while in Australia. (Don't get me wrong, not that all Aussies are rowdy, but I found that kids these days lack the manners, like in the older generations) What a blessing he must be to his family. And I bet his parents would be proud to have such a well mannered son like him. Hope he grows up to be a find young man too.

We were dead tired after that walk. haha.

kcan

粽子 making day

It's the time of the year where I looked forward to every year. When I was young, my mum will make dumpling every year for our family. It will be a big project, having to clean the bamboo leaves, prepare the ingredients, wrapping the dumplings and lastly, the long cooking process. There were years where my aunt will come and teach my mum to make the Nonia dumpling, and we had such fun time wrapping and chatting away. 

Then as we moved to Perth, mum never made them anymore. So I just had to settle with the store bought variety in the Asian grocery shops (which were made fresh every week and they have my favourite Nonia dumpling too!)

As I moved away for the five long years of study in Melbourne, the land lady whom I stayed with will often share some of the dumplings she made with me. Though it's different flavour, it's still good.

Then God placed me in Canberra, where no one made them (let alone selling the bamboo leave), so my cravings for my fav dumplings only happens when I go back to Perth for the store bought ones.

And this year, I thought to myself, why not make it at home? And so I did!! I declared Friday as my 'holiday', and made dumplings!

I consulted mummy for the ingredients for flavouring the meat. 

Here, I had Mui Choi, Da Tou Choi, and Choi Bo, stir fried with onion, garlic and the marinated fatty pork. Fatty pork is a must for dumplings! 

I marinate the pork with dark soy sauce, sugar and five spice powder.

I use the pressure cooker to pre-cook the peanuts and black eye pea. Then I mixed it into the fried glutinous rice. The glutinous rice was washed, soaked for 1 hr, drained, and then fried with oil, garlic, onion, five spice powder, dark soy and sugar.

The rest of the ingredients were the dried prawns and Chinese mushrooms. Both were soaked in water to regain its shape.

I also defrosted my two pack of frozen boiled chestnuts which I we collected in March.

A close up of my glutinous mixed rice. Stir frying it helps to flavour the rice.

What's making dumplings without the bamboo leaves! I had to cook the leaves in boiling water to soften the stem. After that, I use the water to wash the leaves one by one in the laundry sink.

Now all ingredients were ready, let's start wrapping! 

Fold the leaves.

Add a small spoon of rice mix at the bottom.

Add the ingredients, dried prawns, mushroom, chestnuts.

Then the fatty pork with generous amount of veges.

Top up with more rice.

Fold the leaves down like a lid.

Make sure the top n edges are secure n well wrapped.

And fold the 'lid' to one side to seal the edges.

To properly seal the package, tie the string around it.

And tada! The dumpling is done!

I use the pressure cooker to cook the dumplings. It was so quick! Plus not needing to watch the time n water level. I can only put one bunch (10) each time, but that was ok.

Here it is! Freshly out of the pot!

Let's try first to see if the rice was cooked and dumpling was well seasoned.

Yummmm! Loves the fragrance of the bamboo leaves infused in the rice.

There were so irresistible. I have to eat at least two for each meal. Haha.

Here's a snapshot my dear Eric had taken of me in my wrapping action. N there's the pressure cooker at the back, cooking the dumplings.

Hope you all have a great weekend too!

Kcan