Almost Gone, Almost Home

All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…

All our bags are packed

I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since I last posted that the House of Annie is moving to Malaysia.  Since then, our house has been a frenzy of activity, with running multiple garage sales, re-sodding the backyard, selling off almost all of our furniture, and seemingly endless trips to drop off donations at Goodwill.  I have had no time or energy to blog at all!

Well, the movers have come and gone.  All our kitchen supplies and other stuff are in a big box heading to Malaysia.  We’ve turned our keys back to the landlord and now we’re actually living out of our suitcases, staying at our Pastor’s house in these final few days before we fly off as well.

Since we don’t have our kitchen to cook in and our pots, pans and ingredients to cook with, this week has been a whirlwind of eating out with many of our friends. While it has been very nice to spend time with them over a meal without having to fuss over a stove, eating out is taking a toll.  We’ve found ourselves longing for some good, home-cooked food.

The Last Supper

Fortunately, we still had a few things we had left over from our kitchen, including a couple of pork tenderloins, some soy sauce, a few lemons, a head of garlic, and a box of fettuccine. Combined with a few more ingredients from our Pastor’s kitchen, and we had the makings of an easy House of Annie (almost) home-cooked meal.

I marinated the pork tenderloins in a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, sugar, lemon zest and lemon slices from one lemon. They all went together in a ziplock bag and sat in the fridge for about 6 hours.  Annie roasted them in the oven at 425*F for 20 minutes.  After resting for a few minutes, I sliced them on the bias.

While the tenderloins were roasting, Annie cooked the fettuccine in salted water until they were al dente.  In the meantime, she sliced half a head’s worth of garlic cloves.  She heated a half cup of vegetable oil in a saucepan then added the garlic slices to the oil.  After adding the garlic slices, she turned the heat down low and gently cooked the garlic until golden brown (careful not to burn them!).

One of our friends kindly gave us a few beefsteak tomatoes from her garden. Annie diced them up and added them to the saucepan. She seasoned with some soy sauce, salt and pepper, and a pinch of chili pepper flakes and simmered the whole sauce till the tomatoes had melded with the garlic oil, about 7-10 minutes.  Finally, she tossed in the drained fettucine and stirred to combine.

Pork Tenderloin with Fettuccine

Pork Tenderloin and Fettucine

This meal was seriously easy and seriously good.  Some fresh herbs would have made it perfect, but you can’t always have perfection.

Since we used someone’s homegrown tomatoes in this dinner, I am entering this post in the next Grow Your Own roundup, hosted by MomGateway.

This meal was probably the last Annie-cooked meal we’ll have for a while.  We fly out for Kuala Lumpur next week. Then it’ll be another whirlwind of meeting (and eating!) with the family there.  Then sometime after that, we fly out to the city of Kuching in Sarawak, East Malaysia, to settle in before I start my new job there.

What’s this about Kuching?  This is a new development!  Read more about it on my Xanga blog.

Aloha,  Nate

13 thoughts on “Almost Gone, Almost Home”

  1. >Good luck in your new adventures. I've always wanted to go to Malaysia, so look forward to hearing about it when you get settled.

  2. >Congrats on getting through the last month and here you are, on the cusp of the next leg of your life's journey. Best wishes to getting settled into your old/new home and look forward to your next post, whenever that may be.

  3. >God has led you there and will continue to help you and your family. I had the same problem with the home residency requirement but God made it possible for my family to stay here despite the odds. Continue to trust Him.

  4. >Have a wonderful and safe trip to KL & Kuching.

    We look forward to more stories from SE Asia. I can just imagine the Curry Laksa in Kuching… yummy 😉

  5. >Have a safe trip! You must be excited about going home. Now you guys will be geographically closer to me, I'm in Singapore 🙂 look forward to your updates when you are settled down 🙂

  6. >I knew you guys would be super busy since the last post, but it's nice to hear from you again 🙂 Have a safe trip. I can't wait for the post from Malaysia!

  7. >May God bless your journey in Malaysia. Stumbled upon your blog from Foodbuzz and was really blessed by the testimony I read from your Xanga blog. Have fun over in this part of the world. It has amazing food! Do visit Singapore if you can too! 🙂

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