Intuitive Cooking and Papaya Trees

Our domestic helper has gone home for good and our family has been coping on our own ever since. Since mum and sis, the newly appointed home cooks, have gone to KL for holiday and work respectively, I am to be their substitute for the task. I was getting sick of take-outs.

I was initially feeling sluggish over the task but, soon found myself enjoying the chopping, the stir-frying and the sizzling sounds as freshly-washed vegetables were poured into the smoking hot wok. It takes a while to enjoy what I used to do everyday, I guess. The joy of cooking, ahh! It reminded me of the days when I was doing my post-grad.

My classmate and I used to talk about what we would be cooking for dinner right after class as we walked home. The conversation didn't just work up our appetites but those impromptu recipes we talked about, it was fun. That's really how I cook anyway. I'd go find whatever is in the fridge, mix and match the veggies and meat, add a dash of this spice and that and voila! Well, one percent of the time it turns bad but most of the time it's usually pretty good especially oven-baked stuff. I love spices and love adding them when I am cooking. It's just fun to put stuff in like making a magic potion or concoction.

My family loves the usual stir-fry with garlic and oyster sauce. So, when I first got back from my studies, I was pretty much doing all the cooking. We didn't have a house helper then. First thing I did was buy bottles of different spices. They loved the Indian dish I made. I don't know what it's called because I put a bit of this and that and turned it into a dish which I could never re-enact. We do not have an oven at home, so I can't show my parents yet how wonderful home-baked stuff could be.

Dad's very health conscious. So, we cook a lot of vegetables at home. The fridge is full of vegetables!


Bulb crops add umph to the dishes, so must have in all the dishes I cook.


I cooked them with a few chillies to spice things up a bit. Then, as usual, I went to the spice drawer, randomly picked a few bottles of spices and sprinkled their contents into the pot. I cooked another dish of potatoes and carrots but left that one without spices in case Dad is overwhelmed by all the spices.

I decided to take a walk in the garden since all I do on most days is stay all cooped up in my room. In a few short months, there's so much that has happened. Papaya trees are taking over what was once a nice, big patch of lawn. My dad is going obsessive over this whole papaya growing business! And, I am not exaggerating!

A whole row of papaya seedlings! @_@


This is a strange addition to our garden and I don't know what it is! It's great we have a lot of new additions to what was there. We had a few herbal plants, star fruit, mango, pomelo and lots of papaya trees. Now, Dad is growing fruit trees that I don't know of, dragon fruit trees, soursop trees, lychee trees, longan trees and a lot MORE papaya trees! Yayy! We now have a little orchard.


After shower and dinner, I relaxed with some aromatherapy. I love the green tea scent by Body Shop. While I was lighting the tea lights, I found a pile of sandy stuff on the counter. It turned out that some insects have built a nest in my angklung! I had it cleaned and put out to dry now. This picture below is of a tea light holder which I bought in Chatuchak. It's made of love peas arranged in an orderly fashioned and frozen in acrylic. I thought it was really beautiful.