Friendship Award.........

Life is indeed sweet for having many friends. I got to know many friends through this blog and it is a pleasure to share our thoughts, opinions, comments and our cooking here. Here is another friendship award I had just recieved from a blogging friend, Little Corner of Mine. Thank you dear friend for this lovely award.

Here is a short poem for you and all my friends in blogsphere whom I have not met.....

Thank you for the friendship

Thoughtful, sincere and yet to meet

Blog here, blog there

Bringing our friendship everywhere

Over the other side of the earth you stay

Yet our friendship grow stronger each day

Now I would like to pass this award to my friends here:

ck lam......bokjae......Dora.....Kess' Mama

Are You Drinking The Right Tea....?

Here are some tips on drinking the right tea, I got this from a friend Esther whom I recently met at my RASG gathering...........

1. People who use their 'brain' to work or students who study hard day and night.

--- Should drink more Chrysanthemum Tea.

2. People who need a lot of body energy to work or those people who exercise a lot everyday.

--- Should drink Wu Loong Tea.

3. People who travel on a bike or work in dirty and polluted places.

--- Should drink Green Tea.

4. For people who like to sit down all day long and not do anything,even exercising

--- Must drink Green Tea and Flower Tea.

5. People who smoke and drink a lot of alcoholic drinks.

--- Should drink more Green Tea.

6. Carnivore (i.e. people who must eat meat at least once a day, or feel sickly)

--- Try to drink some Wu Loong Tea.

7. People who go to the washroom too often or not often enough.

--- Should drink more Honey Tea

8. People with high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

--- Wu Loong Tea, Green Tea.

9. Those who work with computers everyday.

--- Need to drink a Lot of Tea (any tea will do).

Whenever you are working with the computer, you should make some tea,drink it when you are free.

Drinking Tea is healthy, it can protect and prevent the harmful Ultraviolet light from harming us (when using computer).

Furthermore, it can also relief us when we are tired and help make our body feel fresh again.

Weekend Snapshot # 8..National RA Day.

L to R: Annie Hay, Dr. Chow, Dr. Oh, Dr.Tan and Ding Mee Hong.

On Sunday July 6th, 2008, Arthritis Foundation Malaysia (AFM) celebrated RA Day at the Evergreen Laurel Hotel Penang, with a public forum on rheumatoid arthritis to promote public understanding of the disease.

This public awareness outreach was made possible by an educational grant from Wyeth Malaysia. A consultant rheumatologist from Penang Hospital, Dr. Tan Bee Eng and an orthopedic surgeon, Dr Oh Kim Soon were present to give a talk on the various fields of treatment and care for arthritis patients. The President of AFM, Dr. Chow Sook Khuan, my present rheumatologist from Sunway Medical Centre was also present to give a welcoming speech.

The response to this year public forum in Penang was very good by the look of the packed hall. A session of Q & A results in the doctors having their hands full in answering numerous questions from the floor. There was a short break for light meals and coffee in between. The forum ended with a lucky draw.

The full house audience............

Dr. Tan Bee Eng explaining how RA affects the joints.....

A Fellowship Of Arthritis Sufferers..

This year RA(rheumatoid arthritis) National Day was celebrated in Penang. Arthritis Foundation Malaysia(AFM) organised a trip for some 30 plus of its members from Kuala Lumpur to join Penangites in the celebration.

On the evening before the RA Day, I met with this group of arthritis sufferers for the first time in a gathering to share our stories as an arthritis sufferer. Meeting these lovely people of our own kind in sufferings and deformities was really a great and heart warming moment. Hearing stories of their sweet and bitter moments, courage and determination in handling pain, their light hearted humour of their adversities they face in their lives really bring us closer together.

I could remember the lovable and chubby Annie Hay with both knees having gone through knee replacement surgery with her lively humour and walking like a duck. The cheeky Mahendran, a psoriasis arthritis sufferer told about his stories of sitting alone in a packed bus even though his disease is not contagious. Our courageous businesswoman or bionic woman who had the most joint replacement in the group, Ding Mee Hong, with 2 knees, 2 hips and finger joints surgery. She is now the Chairperson of the RA support group trying to bring awareness and educating those ignorant of this destructive disease as well as bringing together RA sufferers. A skeptical young Siti who walks with a limp was given some advice and assurance by the group of the importance and benefits of early treatment and surgery.

Most arthritis sufferers shy away from telling about their pain for the reason that most non sufferers would not understand their pain and with a gathering like this we are able to express ourselves better besides educating and comforting each other to a better lifestyle. As for that matter I would really like to see more of these fellowship among arthritis sufferers through a support group in Penang if possible. Those who are interested in joining a support group which I will be gathering can leave a note for me in my message box here. Here are some pics of our gathering to share.....



Annie Hay....the MC of the evening.......




Ding Mee Hong sharing her stories...........




Siti is all ears...............



Pat and Mee Hong listening earnestly to a speaker.....



L to R...Teon, Esther, Steven and Lucie, in concentration....


A member speaking out.........

Steamed Eggy Fish Rolls........

I had cook this dish for my boys when they were small kids. As they usually dislike eating fish especially the whole fish, I have to spend my time picking out the flesh from a cooked fish whenever I wanted them to eat fish or else they would not even touch it. So this great idea of camouflage by presenting the fish meat in pretty egg rolls definitely won the battle of them having some fish in their diet. They really love it when eaten with a dipping of their favourite sauce like mayo and tomato sauce.

So few days ago, I scrap out the meat from some pieces of cut up fish which I think will not go well with my fussy eaters and made these eggy rolls again. Here is how I do it. I never weigh anything when I cook this, so here are just my approximate figure of the ingredients used.....

Ingredients:

4 to 5 eggs - beaten and season with salt and pepper

100 g fish meat - minced

50 g prawn meat - minced

2 tbsp chopped spring onion

2 tbsp chopped mushroom (dried or button mushroom)

1 tbsp chopped carrots

1 tsp cornflour

1 tsp sesame oil - optional

1 tsp ikan bilis granules or fish stock

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Frying egg skin.............


Method:

Heat up a non-stick pan oiled slightly and pour in a few spoonful of beaten eggs swirling the eggs round the pan to cover the whole pan speading the egg thinly over the pan. Fry for a min and turn over the other side to cook. When cooked, place the egg skin on a plate to cool. Then continue this process with the rest of the eggs. Can make 3 pieces. Leave aside to cool.


The fish paste mixture.............

Then mixed together the fish paste, prawn paste, and the rest of the ingredients. Spread it on the cooled egg skin evenly and roll up tightly. Place the rolls on a heat proof plate and steamed for about 7 to 8 minutes. Cooled and cut crosswise and serve with chilli or tomato sauce.

Spreading the mixture evenly on egg skin. Chopped mushroom can be spread on top or mix together with paste.......

The rolls ready for steaming...........

Savoury Pancakes.........

Recently while tidying up my larder in the kitchen, I saw 2 boxes of left over self raising flour. This is the usual scene when the unreliable maid always made me buy or open up new packets of flour with the usual answers like "xxxxxxxx sudah habis" when I ask her to list out the items which needed to be fill up when I go shopping for groceries.

So in order to prevent the flours from producing more 'kutus' or 'flour ticks' crawling everywhere I crack my brains to see what I can cook up...

So here comes my savoury pancakes make with some sliced veges and eggs.........a creation also inspired by some Korean Pancakes which my niece Iris made for me sometime ago using korean pancake mix and kim chi. Here is a rough estimation of the ingredients I used.......

Ingredients:

2 cups self raising flour

1/2 medium sized carrot - julienned

80 g cabbage - julienned

1 big onion - sliced

1 sprig of spring onion - sliced into 1/2 cm

10 to 15 medium sized prawns - peeled and cut into small cubes and season with a dash of salt and pepper

2 eggs - slightly beaten

1 tbsp olive oil or melted butter

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

water to mix - just enough for a not too thick and watery mixture

The pancake mixture ready for frying......

Methods:

In a heated pan, saute the sliced onions in a tablespoon of oil, when softened, add in cubed prawns to cook til it changed colour. Add in cabbage and carrots to stir-fry for a minute. Then put aside to cool.

Sieve flour in a bowl, make a hole in the centre and pour in beaten eggs. Slowly use a ladle or big spoon to mix in the flour and add water bit by bit while stirring to mix into a not too thick and watery smooth mixture. Add in sugar and salt and continue mixing til the sugar dissolved. Add in the vege prawn mixture and spring onion. Mix well.

Heat a non stick pan with a little oil and scoop a ladle of the pancake mixture into the pan spreading out the mixture with the back of the ladle and fry for a few minutes turning over to cook on the other side when one side is slightly golden brown in colour. These savoury pancakes are best eaten hot.

Pancake frying in pan..........

Crispy and yummy golden pancake................

Note: For a korean flavour just add sliced kimchi in place of cabbage.