We are family

Anyone working for the same company in the past 30 years? Is the company so "employee -friendly" that warrants such  loyalty and dedication? Maybe.
The new generation nowadays would seldom work for the same company for such long time- hey that's almost half of our working life!
By the time I was with the present company for  13 years, I entered and  won a contest for Secretary Day  - "How long you been working for the same boss".   I won the 3rd prize and you can imagine how long the first prize winner has been with her boss.   The prize was a lunch at the Hotel Hilton together with the show for Secretary Day.  My boss did not accompanied me- I went alone yet till today I am still working for him?!
Most of the staff  has grown "up"  with this company - even the bosses themselves are  getting on.  We are like a big family as the bosses always seems to say. We see the bosses' and our own children growing up, graduating and started working  too. Some have already got married and have became parents themselves! 

Last Sunday, one of  our "family" members-  Abdul Razak's daughter got married and the "big family" turned out for the happy occasion.

We seldom see him dressed so handsomely!

Its is gotong-royong - his neighbours chipping in to help with the cooking

Big cauldrons of Ayam Masak Merah- this is hot, spicy and delicious.
The food were definitely very much tastier  than usual stuffs offered by the catering business.

 The "thank you" gift - recycled paper basket.

Tasty tidbits

 There is Nasi Briyani, Ayam Masak Merah (very spicy and  tasty); beef in dark soya sauce (also very delicious); mixed vegetarian dish; long beans; chutney and oranges of course.

Here comes the bride and groom - for the bersanding.

These cute little sweeties accompanying the bride...

The rousing kompang group

 Some of the "family members".

Some of the staff had already left us for greener pastures and motherhood.
  

  These were some of the interesting food presentation set up at the table for the bride and the groom.

Lastly before we leave, we went foward to give our blessing to the happy couple.



May they be happy always. God Bless.



STEAMED CHICKEN WITH GLUTINOUS RICE

The Aspiring Bakers' theme this month was Dim Sum Affairs and you can see a lot of interesting  creations on the internet. I was drooling over all those Dim sums and I just can't help but to say that there are so many wonderful and creative  chefs out there.
So over the weekend, I was prompted to make what must be the easiest Dim Sum  and truly you just cannot go wrong with it- Steamed Glutinous Rice with Chicken (Loh Mai Kai).

To make things a  bit easier, I  used the Char Siew sauce which was given along with the purchase of Char Siew to mix the rice which has been soaked overnight.   I love this char siew sauce.   The rice were  then steamed.

I purposely bought these stainless steel bowls which costs RM10.00 for 3. But as there were too much rice, I had to use the rice bowls as well.

Place the marinated meat filling- piece of char siew, mushroom, Chinese sausage and chicken at bottom of bowl.  As I had some left roasted pork, I added them to the filling.  

 Cover with the rice, pressing down tight.

Steam over high heat for around 15-20 minutes.

This is one of  my favourite dimsum. 

COPYCATS

Easy and readily available ingredients, quick to make, low budget and definitely good tasting and totally satifying the hunger pangs.

Below are  my version of fast foods. These have been prepared the last 3 weekends.

Jeremy bought back 2 packets of English muffins on his holidays back home during the Easter holidays.
Our schedules were so packed during his holidays that we had no time to partake these muffins.
Now since he had gone back to Australia and that everything has settled back to the routine, I had the time to make breakfast for my girls during the weekends.

Homecooked McEgg. 
I had bought these 2 rings  for making perfecting round eggs from Daiso- just got to make sure that you greased the sides of the rings so that the cooked eggs come off easily.  The eggs sits perfectly onto the muffins.
The muffins were lightly buttered and just brown over low heat for a minute or so
Top with a piece of cheese, some cucumber and mayo and mustard.
A good imitation, I should say.

When I cooked a whole chicken normally the leftovers would be the breast part. So I reserve the chicken breast for salads or do this...

Mixed with mayo, whole grain mustard, salt and pepper and dash of lemon juice

The rest of the condiments- pickled onions (with lime juice), cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce.

I used store bought flatbreads-  layer each of the condiments on top of the bread.

After all the ingredients have been placed, top with mayo and mustard sauce



Finally roll up the wrap and voila! move over chicken foldover..we prefer big rolls!

To finish the muffins before the expiry date, decided to make Chicken burger.  Minced chicken breast seasoned with cayenne pepper, garlic powder, paprika (whatever I had on hand),  salt, pepper and diced onion. Chilled them in the fridge before frying.

Coat them with breadcrumbs and pan fry with olive oil.

Just when  I have got everything ready, split open the muffins for browning only to realise that these are not plain muffins but cinnamon and spice muffins! mong cha-cha...lah

Anyway just go ahead to finish the burgers- something new and equally delicious!

Homecooked McChicken anyone?

I'M A LITTLE TEAPOT

When I first set up my own house, I was given these "teapots".

Since then, my collection of teapots has grown to this.

The aluminium teapot in front was bought at a flea market for only RM5.00

Some of the teapots from this shelf had migrated to this cabinet to make way for my cooking/baking ingredients.

Yes that really half a cup!.

These are my small collection  nothing valuable but more of sentimental value .

I was therefore thoroughly awed by the vast collection of teapots in this cafe.

Yes, I am talking about the Teapot Cafe located in SS 2, Petaling Jaya.  
This cafe has been established since 1998 from a showroom on the first floor to the cafe on the ground level now.

My first visit to this cafe was not favourable as the place was crowded and the high noise levels did not conjured a good impression of  serenity and afternoon tea back then.

After my workshop on Saturday, my daughter Sarah came to pick me up. As we are in the neighbourhood of Petaling Jaya,  we decided to revisit The Teapot Cafe for lunch.

Maybe it was past lunchtime and the crowds had gone, this time we can feel the cosy ambience as we walked in. The collections of teapots belonging to the owners around the cafe shouts  this is "the place for English afternoon teas".

The affable waiter posing for a photo. The rows of teas available behind him.

We wanted to try their  Devonshire Tea- scones served clotted cream and strawberry jam but this is only available from  3.00pm onwards.
We could not wait till then, so we ordered lunch instead. They also serve western food as well as local cuisine.

Ultimate Omelette - erh- did not see how "ultimate" it was. Rather plain and taste ok.  It served with a huge dose of fries and I have to request for some tartare sauce as it was rather dry.

Fillet Milanese -  tasty morsels of fish fillet.
We also ordered the soup of the day- Mushroom soup- nice thick soup.

Wanted  to try some of their pastries but Sarah was full,  so I choose a Mini Chicken Pie- thin crusty pastry deliciously packed with fillings.

Just as we finished our lunch, they brought out the scones. The scones are also being sold in pairs besides the Devonshire Teat set.  Their cakes, pastries and scones seems to be popular as there was a constant flow of customers coming in for takeaways.
Nice to come back another time for some Devonshire Tea perhaps.