我的试验室 My Lab

My neighbour made this fancy nasi kunyit. 

It is different from my hometown nasi kunyit.  Ours is cooked from glutinous rice while this Indonesian nasi kunyit is cooked from white rice. 

It tastes really good.

After giving away tonnes of 雪里红(small Chinese Mustard) to my friends and neighbours, I still have so much of them in my garden.  So, I decided to give it a try to make them into sun dried vegetables. 

Procedure:

1. Clean the vegetables thoroughly.

Veggies after cleaning

2. Blanch them in boiling water.
3. Dry them under the sun.

Veggies after drying for 2 days

4. When they are ready (when the leaves are brittle), store them at dry area.

Tips:

• Remember to collect them at night.
• Pay attention to the weather forecast.  You need at least 4 consecutive fine days (that also depends on the location) to dry them.

According to weather forecast, my next attempt will have to be some time next week.

I just found this interesting picture of Stitch, which was taken on 25 April 2011 at the park.

Stitch is our friend, Michael's cute little puppy. He always calls him 'boy'. 

In this picture, Stitch was really exhausted after having a good run in the park.  So he just dozed off....

Try to look closely, do you know what Stitch was sleeping on?



On his wife's jacket!!

They are very huge summer squash.  They are so cute....

My neighbour grows them.  He gave us 3 last Friday(I think they should  be enough for 3 meals).  They are still in the fridge now.  I have absolutely no idea how to cook them :-p 

Any suggestion?

Have a look!  It was set up on 25 Feb 2011.


 
 

This is the 50th The 75th... The 83th..... and finally, here comes  90!!  Complete!!  Yea..... They are my Squares of JOY 

Hey, I am surprised I got the building license within 2 weeks.  That is absolutely fast.  Don't you think so?

Have a look at the progress of our Garden Shed to here....

The 1st 6 was the toughest, because there is no reference for the ground level

Next 7 slabs are alright since I found the reference already.

These 7 slabs are killing me as the thickness is about 4mm thicker than previous one.

These 10 are easy as the thickness are fairly consistent

I hope the thickness of the slabs in Bunnings will remain the same.  And, I also hope the weather will continue supporting me.  Don't get too hot too soon!

This is what we have been busy with for months.  Yes, we are putting up a garden shed next year!!  Not a big deal actually, but, what if it is a DIY project?  :-p  Lots of preparation job to be carried out.

1.  Weeding
Ever since last Sept holidays, we have been busy weeding.  The grass and the roots were like wires, I just couldn't find a better description for that.

2.  Building Application to council
Just submitted on Monday.  If everything goes well, approval will be in 5 weeks time.  Keeping double fingers crossed for that.

3.  Laying the concrete slab
After weeding, we proceed to the next stage, which is laying the concrete slab.  Before laying it, we have to compact the ground. We don't hire a compactor, instead, I am the compactor!!  Pour the water over, then try to do a ' penguin walk' on the wet sand.  Good idea huh?

Once the ground is compact, we level the ground using a garden shovel and a garden fork, with the aid of an inclinometer (not sure if it is right, the ruler with 3 bubbles).  This is the most tedious job of all and it is our current task!!  When the ground is level, then the concrete slab is laid.

We need to lay 80 concrete slabs, and we are at 12th right now.  Gam ba te ne...

The weather has been good this week.  So, I am stealing my blogging time for this.

4.  Purchase a garden shed
This should be the easiest of all.  As we shall pay the garden shed assembly cost : )

Waiting anxiously for this day to come!!