Dumplings, originated from Northern China.

Dumplings, originated from Northern China.

 raw, semi panfried and then steamed. and panfried until juice have evaporated. Yesterday, burnt my tall man. I use my tall man finger more than any other finger when tapping on my computer.

 

teeth and lemon

What the dentist says:

Chief of the NZ Dental Association, Dr David Crum, says adding a squeeze of lemon juice to warm water in the morning spells danger for your teeth. "Lemons are acidic. Lemons dissolve teeth. This has the potential of severely eroding teeth," Dr Crum said. Using acidic mouth rinses daily also presents a high risk of making your teeth sensitive to cold food and drinks, he said. "This idea is a bit of a lemon to me."

When it comes to health and wellbeing I think it's best to be informed and make decisions that work for you. I will be sticking to my morning drink for now, but it might not be for everyone.

floss your teeth

My Chinese Grandpa lived to his 80s, he never went to the dentist and went to meet his maker with all his teeth.

I was hoping I would inherit his genes, 
I have all my pear-lies and not a cavity. I do go to the dentist, but not enough according to them. My latest dentist who is also a dental surgeon says I have gum disease and my teeth is full of tartar. If I don't take drastic action, I will lose all my teeth and a periodontist will charge me $4000. I did not go through it.

I was shocked and persuaded to have two painful appointments to my teeth and to my wallet, I think I have saved myself from being a toothless gum old woman or having dentures that didn't fit.

I used to have stress dreams that my tooth will come out from my gums without bleeding or pain, and I end up having a handful of white pearls. Some one interpreted that I value my teeth so much that I worry about the teeth dropping out.

Armed with a whole lot of stuff to keep my teeth, I have a regime. The interdental brush is a newer version of a little brush I was introduced to decades ago.

I am now brushing my teeth 3 times a day, and using the interdental brush because I find it hard to use the dental floss tape to the back teeth.

I wonder why my grandpa kept all his teeth? He didn't have much sugar in his diet. He drank a weak Chinese tea all day long, and yes, he chewed betal nuts all day long. No, he didn't use the ash that the Taiwanese use which doctors say will cause cancer.

There are several studies that regular tea consumption may reduce the incidence and severity of tooth decay. My grandpa knew all along.

Save your teeth, brush and floss, you can floss with the floss string (narrow string), tape or buy an inter-dental brush. Save your money too.

Since writing this post twelve years ago, I lost a tooth, and yesterday, a new dentist told me I must really go to a specialist.

Name a Star - an excellent gift for any occasion logo

Many of my new friends do not know I am a bereaved mum. My baby died 28 years ago. Among the bereaved, they can buy a star in memory of their angel.
I am not sure how this works, whether other parents elsewhere in the world might buy the same star.



I knew about this naming a star from my bereaved friend. Recently I watched on TV, about giffting this for live children.

https://www.star-registration.com/nz/

Rooms, English and Dodos part 2, Maureen Lartar

Rooms, English and Dodos

https://readeatdream.net/

Australia is still sweltering in a hot summer, but there is still gardening that can be done.  The plants don’t take long to burn and shrivel – soon as dead as a dodo – so … don’t forget to water the plants – they need a good drink either early in the morning, or late in the afternoon so they can make good use of the water during the sunless night.
My Zucchini plants are going great – and have been giving me so many zucchinis (courgettes) that I have to dig out my recipes to use them as much as I can. I often grate them into meat balls, slice them up for stir fries, roast them with cheese topping for dinner, but here’s another thing that can be done:-
Rice and Zucchini Slice.

½ cup brown rice

1 carrot, grated

1 zucchini, grated

1 small can corn kernels, drain, wash

¼ cup chopped chives

1 cup cheese, grated

extra grated cheese for top

¾ cup SR flour

4 eggs

½ cup milk.

¼ cup sweet chilli sauce

1. Preheat oven to 180-200°. Grease and prepare a slice tin
2. Cook rice to instructions on packet. Allow to cool.
3. Combine rice, carrot, zucchini, corn, chives, cheese and flour in a large bowl.
4. Whisk eggs, chilli sauce and milk together in a jug.
5. Add to rice mixture and mix well.
6. Spread in tin, sprinkle with extra cheese, then bake for approx 35mins, until cooked through and lightly browned.
7. Stand in pan for 20mins then slice and serve hot or cold. Serves 8.

To keep this post related to the eat, dream and read theme of my blog – just remember – dreams are there to aim you through life. Some are easily achievable, and some you never manage to gain – but a positive attitude, and sheer hard work makes the journey – whatever the outcome – worth every moment. And the beauty of life? You never know what tomorrow may bring – so live each day with the utmost gratitude and joy.
with kindness
Maureen
P.S. – one of my children’s picture book deals with love and change – something we all hope to experience in our life: ‘Candy Cow and the Caterpillar’ _ part of my ‘Alphabet Animals of Australia’ series. This book is illustrated by Patsy Seager. I hope to be able to tell you more about her next time.
getBook.at/CC
Next week, I have a guest blogger – author Wanda Luthman. She will be introducing one of her picture books for children. See you then.

Rooms, English and Dodos Host blogger Maureen Larter

https://readeatdream.net/

I enjoy communicating with friends who write.  Here I am hosting Maureen Larter's work. I hope you will like it.

Asian experience

Rooms, English and Dodos

Posted on 2 Days Ago by mjlarter2

In 1989 I went to China. It was an enlightening experience.
Unfortunately, a world shattering event happened while I was there.
Anyone old enough to remember, can still see the image of a student standing in front of a tank in the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square, Beijing.
When my family and I were finally allowed out of China, I always declared I would go back – it was, and still is, a fascinating country.
In 2006 I got my wish. In a small room of a small apartment in Qiqihar, North China (Heilongjiang province), I lived and breathed my dream for nearly 5 months. While there I taught many students the English language. I worked sixty hour weeks and spent a lot of time in old buses travelling to schools in rural areas.
A different China than I had seen as a tourist seventeen years earlier, but wonderful all the same.
I came home and settled back into my Australian life. Suddenly it was 2016 and ten years had magically past. I decided I needed to travel again.
This time I volunteered to teach English in Cambodia, so the journey of life took me into Asia once again.
Now, home again, as I have mentioned before, I am working on a very ambitious project for the Asian market. ‘Learning basic English‘ is now underway, with ‘nouns’ being the first. 

There will be five books in the series, each having a book for the students, and a manual for the teacher. Hopefully with an audio book involved, too.

ABC WEd Letter C for Cake

https://abcwednesday.com/  
This is a cake that made people say "WoW! Raymond, did you say your Aunty Grace made it?"

Grace made this for our nephew Raymond's wedding. She did most of the work, and some of us gave a little hand. If you look carefully at the bottom tier, where there are those delicate spiral lace work, and notice a rough patch, that's was done by me. Raymond's sister Flora flew back from Australia and did a great job.

We had to send one of the nephews to scour the whole of Kuching town to get as much icing sugar as possible.

This is a cake that made people say "WoW! Raymond, did you say your Aunty Grace made it?"

Grace made this for our nephew Raymond's wedding. She did most of the work, and some of us gave a little hand. If you look carefully at the bottom tier, where there are those delicate spiral lace work, and notice a rough patch, that's was done by me. Raymond's sister Flora flew back from Australia and did a great job.

We had to send one of the nephews to scour the whole of Kuching town to get as much icing sugar as possible.

snap shot of It's ok to cry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZk9w-uywAs&feature=youtu.be 

This is a snapshot of me in the documentary which Television New Zealand produced and interviewed me.

It's OK To Cry

www.youtube.com

For Baby Loss Awareness Week, we meet a support group for mothers who have suffered the tragedy of losing their babies.

 

ABC Letter B for bitter gourd.

I arrived in Singapore in the middle of winter in New Zealand and was feeling very heaty and jetlag. My friend suggested I drink some bitter gourd and apple juice. It didn't taste very bitter. I suspect, he put a tiny slice of bitter gourd and lots of apple in it.

6 Com

first time seeing this bitter gourd. Slim like a telegraph cucumber, the groves are thin. the "meat" also thin. Bought is specially for you.

Dr Henry Chan, climate change

https://youtu.be/tDOwx3mkC3A

This Dr Henry Chan is my brother.

Dr. Henry discusses his journey in persuading and convincing all stakeholders, from local village communities, to business communities, to government ministers to support and participate in the Heart of Borneo Corridor Program. Dr. Henry Chan wants to bring awareness to the public about the current situation of the environment affected by various human factors and how we can play our role in conserving mother nature. Dr. Henry Chan is the Head of Conservation Sarawak, WWF-Malaysia. He was seconded to WWF-Indonesia and WWF-Malaysia as the Heart of Borneo Leader. He recently concluded a Conservation Summit with His Royal Highness Sultan Nazrin, Sultan of Perak, Royal Patron of WWF-Malaysia, and His Royal Highness Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, President of WWF-United Kingdom. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

broccoflower

The term broccoflower is actually used to describe two different, though similar, vegetables. The name comes from a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, two vegetables that are actually so closely related that they can be easily cross-pollinated.
One type of broccoflower looks just like white cauliflower, but is lime-green in color. There are many different kinds of green cauliflower, and several are the result of the cross-pollination of broccoli and cauliflower.

Grandpa's birthday and mum's baking

This was a very formal event. Here he is wearing the formal attire of a royal offical of the Ming Dynasty. It was a black silk top on top of a black silk gown.

Mum made his cake. An aunt brought some red chinese cutting of auspicious words. Making it a perfect fusion of East and West. For beakfast, all of us were served with sweet long noodles. yes, you read it right, the sweetness signifying a sweet life, and long noodles for long life to all who ate this noodles.

There was great feasting, and hundreds of guest were invited. My dad told me that at the birthday of a very healthy and successful person, people like to come to these parties. Some even gate crash. They believe in taking away a bit of the luck of this birthday boy. They will take away uneaten food to share with their family at home.

Vice versa, if the birthday person was a sickly person, people will avoid going to the party. It is seen as taken home the bad luck of the sick person.

Mum's baking

I have been looking for mum's make shift oven, and this aluminum flat top and flat bottom looks quite like hers. Mum was a very clever person. The World War two aka Japanese war interrupted her education when she had to marry father.
Dad was a civil servant and we didn't have an oven. She fashioned a very big pot which was flat on the top and flat on the bottom.
Her first try was to put embers on a rack, place the cake on top of the rack. She also put embers on lid of the pot. Alas the embers were too hot and burn a hole on the lid and one the base of the pot. She smartly put metal sheets to block the holes, and put the embers underneath the pot.

From there, there was no stopping her. She made beautiful cakes.

Imagen: Home Pots & Pans - Buy Home Pots & Pans at Best Price in Malaysia ...

Se encontró en Google desde lazada.com.my

images.google.co.nz

Mother's cake making

Cake making in Mother's house was a big business. Mum learned cake making. Then she would make the cakes for the family and aunties during new year. She used the golden butter churn and her cakes smelled heavenly.
We kids would come back from school, have a quick lunch, and start breaking one hundred eggs, and use the hand held whisk, and beat the eggs. When one of us get tired, we transfer the beater to another.
When mum deemed the eggs had been aerated enough, she measures the flour, vinegar essence, baking power. Transferring to a wooden spoon, we stir the mixture in one direction.
By five pm, the cake mixture is ready. Mum bought a very big flat top pot She fashioned the pot into an oven and baked her cakes at the void deck. , she already had made a fire from charcoal .It's a pity, mum didn't let us watch over the baking. She said, one had to be very careful to watch over the fire. She continued to bake way till the wee hours of the morning.

The next few days, she suffered from a headache. When my girl Kong Hie Ding said it was too hot making kueh Lapis, I remember my mum. I also remember making Kuih kapit which is a crispy and delicious wafer, which is also called love letters.

My 4th Aunty Wah Mee

4th Aunty Ngui Nee Kong Wah Mee, mum's youngest sister told me and my cousins that I was her favourite niece. Thanks aunty.

Before Dad went to England, he begged Aunty to leave Sibu town with Ah Tai to go up to the Lanang Road village to keep my mum company. She really didn't want to go to the village, but she loved Mum, seeing Mum had a brood of 4 kids. I was only 20 months.

So she came, Mum saved Dad's family allowance and went to tap rubber. Aunty took care of us. I presume she cooked lunch too before she went to the village school.

This is the most significant part. She fed me before she went to school. As I was a slow eater, she chewed my food and fed it to me. That's how the story came about. I became her favourite niece as I had eaten her saliva.

During my 2006 trip, I stayed with her. We stayed up late in the night and she told me stories that I wouldn't have known.

My pigs

Visiting my mum's Ah Pia aka Kai Dad in the Rejang Basin.

4 times a year, my aunty would buy from the Ibans a little piglet like thee in the photo. We kept the piglet in a big box, and I was the pig farmer. In fact I was the farmer for chicken, ducks, and one turkey.

My aunty had a curry stall at Pulau Babi. She collected all the leftover food from her customers, and mother drove me to the stall and pick up the bucket. I had to dilute the food, so that it wouldn't be too spicy for the pig. I had to empty the old stale food and clean the trough. Sometimes, I was too lazy and just dumped the food over the now staled food. I pay for my tardiness. The pig won't eat stale food. Then I had to rinse the trough and find some food for him. I also gave him kangkong which was growing aplenty in the garden.

The pig loved it most when I splashed buckets of water from the pond. It also like the occasional brush.

I knew this was a pig reared for food and when it was grown. It had to make way for another piglet. We shared the meat with my aunty and other aunties and uncles.

Sonia Lahung J We seem to have the same experience at feeding pigs Ann Chin. When my siblings and I were in Primary, we helped our parents to feed the pigs. We collected yams from the garden esp planted for pig food, chopped and cooked with some fine paddy husk. I once cut the side of my left thumb while chopping the yams. My parents sold the pigs and piglets aside fr hvg it slaughted during planting or harvesting season. Nice feeling to reminish😅

Ann Chin my pig ate kangkong, so no need to chop. but have to remove the old twine as pig ate only the young leaves.

yunnan olive

Ba Tze said this is called oil olive in Yunnan and suggested that I tried one. I bit into one. It tasted siap siap. The surprising thing is each time I needed to cough the urge went away when I bite on it. The husband was surprised I still had it in my mouth.



Kam Lin Chow 這種果实我們叫油甘子，吃了對喉嚨痛有幫助，它的叶還可以用來做枕頭的。

The Fruit of this kind of fruit we call oil gan, eat it with a sore throat, and its leaves can be used to make pillows.

A

Living in the country in China

In November 2017, I went to my ancestral home. I found the time had stood still. My cousins lived like the way my great grand father had lived. The only thing they had changed was they built an indoor toilet. even then it wasn't flushing. On the upstairs toilet, they had to carry the water up. They built the toilet when they saw relatives from Malaysia feeling so difficult going to the outdoor toilet.

There were mosquitoes and they slept in the mosquito nets. 

ice plant

Hardy ice plant (Delos)perma is a succulent, perennial ground cover with daisy-like flowers. The ice plant is not called an ice plant because it is cold hardy, but rather because the flowers and leaves seem to shimmer as though covered in frost or ice crystals. The plants grow to be about 3 to 6 inches tall and 2 to 4 feet wide. known by the common names heartleaf iceplant[1] and baby sun rose.

Read more at Gardening Know How: How To Grow An Ice Plant And Purple Ice Plant Care https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/flowers/ice-plant/growing-hardy-ice-plant.htm