Tomato And Basil Quiche

It had been a while since I baked this quiche. Prior to putting the tomatoes on the quiche, we first need to roast them in the oven. Basil leaves are mixed into the cream and egg mixture. There is a layer of caramelized onion on the based and cheese on top of that, aside from the very top too, Sounds good, doesn't it?

Bangkok Jam Lunch

We had not dined at Bangkok Jam in Great World City for a long while, as in the past, their service was really poor. The food took ages to arrive and the staff and the manager were not responsive to our requests. One afternoon last week, DH and I decided to give it another try, but also tried to beat the crowds by going there for earlier lunch. 

I picked two dishes that I never tried before.  We had a side of Lemongrass Prawn Cakes above, which were quite good. For my main, I tried Thai Olive Fried Rice below. It's just fine too. Nothing extraordinary.

DH stuck to his favorite rice with Stirred Fried Minced Chicken and Basil.  And that's another ordinary lunch date of ours. 

Basil

Basil. Under the hot sun on Sunday morning.

Lemonade With Basil Leaves

It was a simple lemonade on a hot sunny day. Wonderful. Throw in some basil leaves because.... because I have tons of them!

Bruschetta

It took a few minutes to prepare bruschetta. I used the bread that I baked a couple of days earlier and the basil leaves from the garden. Miss K wanted her version of bruschetta by spreading a layer of Ricotta cheese on the bread slices upon pan grilling them and rubbing them with garlic.

After Lots Of Rains....

The plants in the garden looked so good after so much rain we had in December and earlier on this month. Our Basil (below) and Thai Basil Plants (above and at the very bottom) were taller than ever and the Turmeric plants (third picture from the top) looked beautiful healthy.

Freshly Cut

Basil leaves, cut from the plants in the garden. We used some of them for Risotto last Friday and the remainders were kept in a jar filled with water to keep them fresh for a while.

Spaghetti With Bacon

Pasta or Spaghetti in particular, would not be the first pick for my meal, but when I have Spaghetti, I like to keep them simple. I had Spaghetti for dinner a few nights ago, I tossed them in olive oil, chopped basil leaves and crispy bacon and sprinkled with lots of black pepper and top them with grated Parmigiano. Ready to go.

Basil And Pesto...

Our basil plants are growing quite healthily in the garden despite the constant attacks from some bugs who seem to love eating basil leaves and leaving most others there. What better way to use the leaves than making basil pesto? I have pine nuts, garlic, parmigiano and olive oil. It's a matter of putting them together in a food processor or a blender and let the machine do the job. Season with salt and pepper and it's done. Pour some olive oil on top to prevent color change resulting from oxidation, the wise people say. It has not worked for me, but I still did it anyway.

31 October 2011

It's the end of October folks, right at the very end and we only two months left before we enter a new year. It's so surreal, it has so fast. Too fast for me to absorb and enjoy. Days in October have been typically, "have them all". There was sun, there was rain, there was clear sky and followed by the rain again. They could be in any orders, but most of the time we had them all in one day, many of days this month.

We had a gorgeous morning, the sun rose behind Marina Bay Sands and gave me a lovely photograph, a different beauty than other mornings. The sun shone strongly throughout the morning and I wanted to have some pictures that are bright and happy on my last post of the month.

The periwinkles looked so enchanting and the basil leaves appeared so healthy. But unexpectedly the strong wind came, blew away all the papers on the table as my doors were opened. The cloud thickened and the sky turned darker and grew darker that I had to turn on the light in my study area. Then came the rain, a very heavy rain. And on for a while.

There were no traces of cheerful morning and sunshine. I looked out there and everything looked so black and white, and grey.  Everything was wet. Til hours later, the sky was clear again, the sun came out and it was hot all over. Like it never rained before.

Tomorrow will be a new day and a new month! Expect the unexpected. Or maybe  just go with the flow .... Hello November!

Talking About Basil....

Okay. We have arrived at the last month of the year, soon 2010 will be over and we will be starting a new year again. It's a bit intimidating to me to see the time rapidly passes by. I am going to do the best I can to treasure every single day coming my way. I know it would not be easy, but it's worth trying.

We have enjoyed basil all year long. Our small investment of, if I'm not mistaken, S$7.50 has multiplied by -only God knows- too many times. Has this been a stock that I invested in, I would have been super filthy rich. But I'm talking basil here, so yes, we have saved some bucks from not buying the basil leaves from supermarket anymore. Let me mention also that it gives the convenience of walking a few steps to the garden and just pluck or cut some stems. We have used plenty of the leaves for our pesto, pizza, pasta and countless dishes. We have successfully propagated the plants. The downside is that I am feeding plenty of bugs in the garden too, those that I have not been able to get rid of.

We also have multiplied our Thai basil, which until today, ironically, have not been used in our cooking yet. It is about time to commence using some. I have yet to find recipes using them - in due time, I will.

Seeding Soon!

I can't keep up with the basil flowers that keep on popping up everyone and finally just let go. I have other things to do other than cutting the flowers. Besides, I do get tired of doing it again and again after a while. This woman could use different challenges indeed. I let them grow and get brown and maybe harvest the seeds later on for, I don't know yet, what and whom. Many tiny plants have grown as the seeds were blown away by the wind. Nature works. I have basil plants all around the house, many of which function as fillers. They give me more than enough basil to use nearly on daily basis and much more.

Before Sunset

I started taking pictures of some basil flowers that I let grow. This was taken before the sun went down the other day.

Basil Flower

It is reported everywhere that pinching basil flowers will be good for the plant as it will be able to put its energy on producing leaves. Once basil plant flowers, it tends to produce a more bitter taste in the the leaves. Nearly on daily basil, I go around my basil plants and remove the flowers. The plant in the picture is having such a neat flower that is still in the early stage. I might let it grow and keep the seeds to be planted later. As of right now, I have many basil plants around the garden......

Pesto On The Pizza

Having pesto is handy. We used it as a base for our pizza. Keeping it simple by putting some cherry tomatoes and a little bit more basil leaves and some cheeses of your choice. We put a combination of grated emmenthal and mozzarella. That's it. And it's a hit.

Moving House...

There are too many potted plants that I could wish to handle, so it is about time - using the financial term that I know well - to consolidate. I moved three potted basil plants to the ground, replacing the little Zinnia plants that grew on their own, and knocked down by the recent strong wind. I am doing a lot of re-arrangement of the plants too as I feel it's getting too much of my time to look after all of them.

Sorry kiddos, mommy has limited time. My paper works have been a little neglected as the "Mister"that said "will take care of them" has been taking care of them his way. W hich to me is really confusing! Time to untangle the papers and know where each piece is located.

Pesto And Bread!

By now, with so many basil plants around the house, we have so much basil leaves that we could ever use. We simply can't use them fast enough. Nearly on daily basis, I trim the plants and use them in many dishes that I prepare. But that's not much, I am feeding only 2-4 people at once.

This morning, I decided to make pesto. After all, we had everything we need to make that. Basil leaves, - checked. Pine nuts, garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese -- all checked. Salt and pepper to taste. Got them!

Earlier on, I made a loaf of bread with flax seed too. Good to go with the pesto!

Thai Basil - The Babies

We have begun planting the seeds from our Thai basil a few weeks ago. Some have grown nicely. In the container above, some of the plants were taken from the area surrounding the original plants. The seeds fell and grew and we picked them up and moved them there.

3-Wk Old Basil

I planted these basil plants around three weeks ago and they are growing well. They are easy to grow, needing practically sun and water and occasionally or periodically, fertilizer. Their fourth set of leaves are about to grow bigger and in no time, I should start pinching the leaves.

I

Thai Basil

We got this Thai Basil for nearly two weeks already, we still have not make much use of it other than displaying them, since their purple flowers are quite pretty. For our cooking, we still use the Sweet Basil.

I am looking forward to harvesting the seeds, I really want to begin planting them myself....