Deadheading Roses . . . . . and

It has been raining since last night, it was good that I made the best of the day yesterday in the garden.  The red roses have finished flowering, for now, it is time for deadheading.  I am sure we will enjoy the second round flowering.

Deadheading the red roses

Little buds have appeared for the next flowers.

Topiary plants of the Lily Pily have shown new growth, beautiful young leaves, shiny with a bronze colour which make the plants so attractive.  It is a pity that I have to trim them into new shapes, but just the way it is for all topiary plants.

Beautiful Leaves

After The Trimming

The red roses maybe finished flowering for now, but the variegated red roses are still in flower, and they last longer but the roses have only a very faint fragrance.

Other roses after the rains.

It was hefty rains, no mercy for the roses, a few branches have broken, but they will survive, roses are vigorous, resilient plants.

White iceberg roses

I don't cut the full bloom roses for flower arrangement, but today I found a lot of broken stems after the rain, I took them and put in a vase, maybe I could enjoy the beauty for a few days.

Rayner tried to fix the white climbing rose today, and I think he did a good job.  Now it stands straight almost reaching the sky with the serene white.

Beautiful Climbing White Iceberg Rose

Hopping for another dry day, but the weather has been beautiful the last week, it was warm, sunny and no strong wind.  We had a great few days.

Until Next Post

Susy

Sambel Goreng (Javanese Cooking)

Welcome back to Javanese cooking.  Today is about one of hot and spicy dishes.
Sambel goreng is one of the more popular dishes in Java.  It is braised meat, or vegetables with hot spices in coconut milk.

Once you know how to prepare the necessary spices and the sauce, you could cook the variations of sambal goreng at any time.

Sambel Goreng Kobis (Sambel Goreng Cabbage)

The cabbage is braised until tender and succulent.
Delicious sambal goreng kobis served hot together with other side dishes,
to complement steamed white rice.

Spices and Ingredients for the braising sauce of sambal goreng.

Red hot chillies, red capsicums, onions, garlic, tomato puree, candlenuts (for extra creamy), galangal, salam leaves, petai, coconut milk/cream.  Palm sugar and salt.  For extra red, add ground paprika and oil for shallow frying.

No candlenuts for sambal goreng kobis

Susy Sambel Goreng Kobis.

5 cups shredded cabbage

Spices

3 hot chillies, thinly sliced

1/2 cup sliced red capsicums

1 red onion, or large fresh shallots, thinly sliced 

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced.
6 petai (available at the Asian grocery stores)

1 small sliced galangal, 1 salam leaf

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated palm sugar, or brown sugar.

1 tablespoon tomato puree

Other ingredients

1/2 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup coconut cream.

1 tablespoon dry paprika

2 tablespoons olive oil

Method

Slice all the spices thinly
Shallow fry the chilli and spices ingredients in a deep pot, until soft, put in the petai.
Add in the cabbage, toss and mix them together.
Stir in the coconut milk, cook in medium heat and bring it to simmer
Continue cooking for 10 minutes. Add in the coconut cream, stir and put the cover on. Continue cooking for another 10 minutes over lower heat.

Check the seasoning

Transfer to a serving plate.

Spices paste for sambal goreng.

Instead of slicing the herb and spices, you can make spice paste by blending or grinding all spices ingredients in a blender to make a smooth paste.  Use for cooking sambal goreng-beef, chicken, fish and eggs.

Mie goreng Putih
Stir fry rice noodles, Javanese style

To complement the hot dish, savoury dishes often are served, in my kitchen, delicious rice noodles dish is prepared, as it is my favourite dish.  Other savoury dishes are perkedel, egg rolls, egg noodles, terik telor (braised egg in mild coconut sauce) etc.

To Be Continued

Susy

The Last Day In October

It was a sunny day, a few jobs in the garden were done, from weeding, tidying up to moving potted plants.
My potted apple blossom hippeastrum is in flower right now, the colour is so beautiful, absolutely gorgeous.

Topiary plants neatly trimmed by Rayner, and now they are looking so smart.


Most days we go out and in our house to fit any commitments and today we did one with ease, our first priority which we had to do in the morning was done correctly.

The lunch was at home, but we travelled to Vietnam, supposedly enjoyed rice rolls with soy dipping sauce.  They were hard to eat, my family was not very impressed.   The taste was agreeable, actually 'yum',  I am sure there won't be any rice rolls for lunch or snacking next time I tell you.
Just in case you wish to try to make the rice rolls, this is a note for you.

Preparing the Rice Rolls

The rice paper can be purchased from supermarkets or Asian greengrocers.  What you have to do, take one out of the packet, soak it in warm water for a minute, transfer and lay it flat,  onto a clean cloth.  Put the filling on it, wrap and roll it, to secure the filling.  Now you have the rice roll.

Note:  you could have any filling as you wish, put extra fresh herbs, or have seafood, chicken etc.

The filling for my rice rolls

shredded lettuce, celery, carrots, sliced avocado, tofu
vermicelli noodles and shredded pork, 

The making of rice rolls took only a few minutes, all the filling had been done before, there is always time for food preparation.
They look beautiful, I did not put enough Vietnamese herbs as my family is not very keen.  I do like them, and I think they are very healthy.
If you love it, it is the equivalent of sandwiches, so quick to prepare, so fresh and so good.

A lovely Day:  Opening a parcel was exciting, that was what I did in the afternoon, it's a beautiful bath powder thanks, Mel.  Another plan was planting the macadamia nut tree from Eileen.  It was a very memorable afternoon.  In seven years the nuts are ready to be harvested, so I was told.
Now it is a late afternoon, the day is almost closed, and it is a warm day, I thought a salad maybe good for tonight's dinner.  Fresh green, wild green 'dandelion' from the garden was our salad.  It's a bitter fresh green salad with avocado to be served with braised tofu in soy.  Delicious.

Dandelion and Avocado Salad.
Served with Braised Tofu in Soy

It has been a great day today, the best warm weather in the month,  we made the best of it, worked in the garden, got things done and more.  By November the garden will be better, not only an immaculate garden, but it will be colourful, and all roses are in full bloom.

More Potted Plants

They do need regular watering

Mixed plants in a low round pot: Two English Boxes, Flame Grasses,
At the back-Euphorbia Plants
 in the middle-The tall  Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Sheen.'

Beautiful Roses

The last day in October was fruitful, eventful and had stories even for the roses.  The pleasant warm weather made the buds of roses which were in the vase open up, they were at their best and looked so pretty dressing up the table beautifully.

November is the new month, the last day of spring, we shall enjoy and celebrate. Indeed, we are waiting for Jane's family to come home for a visit, hi Milo and everyone we shall have a lot of fun.



Thanks For Visiting
Until Next Post

Susy

The Day Before

The twenty-fifth of October was Jane's birthday, a special day for our family.  Happy birthday, Jane, I am glad that you are having fantastic holidays in New Zealand.  You have been enjoying the holiday with Milo, Ed and Ivy.  What a place to celebrate a birthday.

I had a good day in the garden, in the house and in the kitchen.  We share the birthday month with our daughter Jane,  I thought to bake a delicious and pretty cake was a good idea.  Rose petal cake filled with custard and white chocolate and dressed with meringue was the cake.   Indeed, it looked beautiful, maybe too girlish, but why not.  To be young in spirit is as good as being young.  But the cake was indeed Jane, it's gorgeous and delicate.

We cut the cake and shared it for supper, it 's soft, sweet, and luscious.

Just Joy and other Roses
from our Garden

Our Birthday Cake
Lacy Cake with Meringue

The cake, the birthday cake, our cake, it looked as wrapped in laces.  It had Mediterranean flavour just the way I wanted, and I know Jane would love it too.

25-10-2014

I put on the batik table cloth, thinking of my parents who used to own a batik cloth business.  With love, gratitude and fond memory, thank you, mother and father.

I am so proud of the beautiful flowers, the mixed colour of roses and irises for our table which I picked from my garden.

The day before my birthday, everything was in place, the garden looked neat enough, grass has been mowed, It looked so grand I must say.  And inside the house fresh cut flowers were everywhere.  The celebration started early for me,  a big thanks to my dear husband and family.

It has been a busy day today, and it was excellent Face Timing with Jane, we had a chat with her and the family.  Everyone looked tired but relaxed from the big day outing to see beautiful places.  They were ready to have a rest for the night.  I am glad that you had a fabulous day on your birthday, and all my very best wishes to you,  Happy Birthday Jane, always love, mum.  xx

The day was closed with a good dinner and luscious cake, which was accompanied by black coffee.  It was an indulgence, particularly for us who must not take too much sugar.  A good excuse, though, it was a birthday celebration.


IT WAS THE DAY BEFORE, but Tomorrow is going to be a different story, I am hoping a pleasant and happy day, and I will make the best of it.  On 25 October 1975,  I held a beautiful newborn baby girl, my second daughter.   She's the most precious birthday gift that I ever had, she is a mother now, a good wife and friend, a friend of all good people.  Bless you, Jane.

The day before my birthday thirty nine years ago was so significant to me and one of the happiest day of my life.  I am blessed.


Until next post
Thanks for visiting
Susy

Flowers

Peace Rose

Flowers add colours in our garden.  The red roses are gorgeous, they do very well this year.  The other roses are the Blue moon, Peace Rose, Yellow Graham Thomas, Just Joy, Angel Eyes which are flowering too, but the iceberg roses are still in buds.

Everywhere roses are looking great and healthy, this year is the year for the roses.  I love them, they are lovely for flower arrangements,  they look beautiful in vases.

Beautiful Red Roses

The Red roses look beautiful on a red vase.

Another cut flowers for the house is the snowball, It is beautiful creamy white colour, and it matches up to the room.

Other flowers in my garden are irises,  cream and orange clivia and, hippeastrum, which has four buds.  It is apple blossom hippeastrum - soft pink colour. 

Pink and white geranium is in flower and also the pelargonium.  Actually, almost flowering all year round.  I think everyone should have the geranium in the garden. It is easy to grow and to care for.

Mixed colourful roses from our garden, beautiful!

The orchids are there. Still, they stay in flower for a long time, that is the beauty of having orchids plants.

It was good to have a friend over for a cuppa,  and we had a walk in the garden, smelling the roses and showing off the colourful flowers.

The iceberg rose bushes teeming with the buds.

FLOWERS  BRIGHTEN  UP  OUR  DAY.


Until Next Post
Thanks for stopping by.
Susy