Earth Hour 2011 Makan Makan in the Dark

Earth Hour? Hype? Maybe... I guess we can all do more than just turning off the lights for one hour but it's great that many people do their part during that hour, at least it is a good start especially if you have kids, be it to create awareness or just symbolic. It is so important to teach them to do their part for Mother Earth. It is unfortunate that we have witnessed so many catastrophes around the world. I believe as parents, we share the same worries on what is in store for our kids? No one knows but let's try our best not to aggravate the situation at least for the sake of our young ones...

This year, just like what we did last year, we had a family candlelight dinner alfresco (in our car porch, the only space that I have to put a table outside the house) :) Being typical Malaysians, any excuse is an excuse for a makan event. This time around everything was home-cooked. We purposely waited until it was that hour, switched off our lights and started digging in.

A full course dinner (must have enough to last an hour :)). The photos were take prior to the darkness, with my limited skills, those taken in the dark are just not blog-worthy :)

Starter ~ Strawberry Cream Cheese Orange Salad (inspired by Table for 2)
A refreshing salad with olive oil and orange juice as the main dressing. Some cubed cream cheese if you like the creamy effect which I think is optional otherwise. I threw in some strawberries, pieces of orange flesh, romaine lettuce and pieces of cubed toasted crunchy garlic bread (basically, it's what you have plus a little creativity to have a balance in taste and colour effect). You can add some freshly grounded black pepper to spice it up a little.

Main ~ Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken and Spaghetti Oglio Olio

This combination was inspired by what we had at an Italian restaurant in LA. Though we were hurrying to catch our flight back home, the spaghetti that BIL ordered left a lasting impression and cravings too (maybe because I took only a little from BIL to try it)! It looked so simple and yet tasted so good. At that time I didn't know it was called Oglio Olio. Only upon doing some research on the Net, I learned it's name and got to know that it's just olive oil and garlic. Actually, I am not convinced, I have tried it twice but nowhere is it near what I tasted. Something is missing, I just don't know what it is...tell me please if you do

I used Herb de Provence plus some lemon zest to marinate the chicken.


As for the spaghetti, it was basically olive oil, chopped garlic, sea salt and black pepper with some fresh mushrooms. I added some chili to spice it and garnished it with parsley and a little grated cheese. That's all!


Dessert ~ Pineapple Jelly



Some good family time we had :)

Here's to a better earth for our future!