i'm back !!!

hari ni dah 19 syawal, rasanya kat msia ada lagi orang buat open house on weekends. dah lama blog senyap sunyi, i'd better update before ada spiderweb.

after 19 days of raya baru nak cerita pasal our raya celebration which was rather quiet. 1 Syawal fell on friday 10 September. the kids just started school that week and both of us were working as well so we decided not to have any celebration. but i made kuah kacang that nite sebab dah janji dengan mimi - she & faizal buat satay. on friday petang after work, we went to their place; weather wasnt good but rain or shine, still bakar jugak satay on their new bbq set.

back from makan satay, i headed for the kitchen and cooked kuzi ayam and finished by 12 midnite. on saturday morning i baked cupcakes and boiled nasi himpit. we invited few close friends & their families over for lunch. richard & jane couldnt make it but richard came to deliver jane's chocolate & raspberry roulade.

the girls tak ada baju kurung baru this year, last year's baju kurung dah singkat.. thanks naza for aliyah's green dress..

above : jane's chocolate & raspberry roulade.. sedap!! below : my colourful raya vanilla cuppies

at around 1pm our guests arrived - mimi & family, eva & scott and baby lael from leicester, tracy & lauren (without andy who just got home from work) and pino (kamar's ceo) with his wife & their 4 girls. kuzi ayam 2 ekor and 1 periuk nasi pilau habis that i had to add 1 chicken into kuah kuzi and masak 2nd round of nasi pilau.. meriah jugak syawal kami akhirnya....

above : aisyah & her best friend, lauren & mom. below : pino & carolyn with one of their 4 girls

aliyah & baby lael who will be 1 yr old in 2 weeks time.

get baking

last nite i watched the finale of The Great British Bake Off - 'baking reality show' on bbc1. after 6 weeks, they finally got a winner; a nice guy called Edd @ He-Eats. nama blog He-Eats tak padan dengan tuan yang kurus..but maybe he named his blog after his twin bro who is like twice his size.. the runner up was ruth , a cool mum with 3 boys. i've also put her blog 'The Pink Whisk' on my fav bloghop. at the final show, Edd made Banana Caramel cupcakes which 'look taste' fab!

have a look at their blogs and also this website http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/campaigns/get-baking which shows some tips on how to make Paul Hollywood's scones, Mary Berry's classic victoria sandwich etc..

silence..

i know i've not updated the blog for over a week..banyak cerita sebenarnya nak dikabarkan. its not because i've been really busy even though thats part of the reason tapi sebab utama : mood-less.
tunggu lah ya dalam sehari dua ni..

Ucapan Hari Raya 2

This time from the big missy with opening from Princess Sweetheart Pink to all our family.

Selamat Hari Raya to all our families back in Malaysia. We miss you all. Maaf Zahir & batin.

ucapan hariraya

ini titah ucapan selamat hariraya dari princess sweetheart pink

back to school

just when family members & friends back in homeland are busy preparing for the upcoming Eid, we have been busy preparing our kids for the new school term.


the big missy started secondary/comprehensive school on tuesday.. all year 7 school kids started one day earlier than the others, just to get them familiar with the school system, where to go for what subject, dining room, gym etc. there are about 200 year 7 children in the school, slightly more than the total number of kids from nursery to year 6 in her primary school! on wednesday morning she was a bit apprehensive because there were 800 more heads starting in the new term..but she survived and seems to enjoy school and made new friends. her best friend lauren happens to be in the same home group which is a huge relief to us & lauren's parents.

the little one started preschool on monday and bless her... it wasnt difficult to wake her up at 7am, have a shower, dress her up and have breakfast.. soon as she gets into her 'classroom' she would just go to her carer/teacher, sometimes even forgetting to kiss us goodbye!! she enjoys it there..but when you ask her 'what did you do today?', she would just say 'i dont know..' .after school, the moment we step into the house, she would ask 'mummy, can i have susu..in a big bottle' - thats 7-8 oz of fresh milk. then she switches on the telly and have her milk on the sofa. while we are in the month of ramadhan, we could only finish eating at 8pm and it wouldnt be long before she dozes off ...

Salam dari perantauan

Selamat Menyambut Hari Raya Aidil Fitri, Maaf Zahir & Batin diucapkan kepada semua ahli keluarga & sahabat handai..Ingat2kan lah kami disini ya bila makan ketupat, rendang, lemang...

something different

cooking for iftar is supposed to be the same as cooking 'normal' dinners except that ramadhan has always been that special month. towards the end of ramadhan, one normally get stucked with ideas of what to cook for iftar. i flipped through the bbc goodfood magazines which i subscribe monthly and found some nice & easy recipes to try.

last nite i made sweet potato & rosemary soup, sloppy joe bake and raspberry ripple cheese cupcakes. bought the frozen garlic baguette from sainsbury's.

sloppy joe bake is just minced meat sauce (just like bolognese sauce) with a bit of chilli powder & cumin, put few pieces of garlic bread on top and bake for 20 minutes.

below : raspberry (supposed to be cranberry) ripple cheese cupcakes. my first attempt in making cheesecake; cuppies definitely look better & easier to eat (and marketable kalau nak buat business..)

miss saigon

few days ago, i tried making vietnamese spring roll after being 'influenced' by my cousin jimi on fb. biasa lah bulan puasa ni, favourite topic on fb is menu berbuka puasa. main dish that day was vietnamese beef noodle in which i added fish tofu.

vietnamese spring roll uses rice paper instead of the normal popiah skin. you need to soak the rice paper in warm water to soften it. i spread a bit of hoisin sauce + oyster sauce, then put the lettuce, cucumber strips, cooked prawns/crab sticks/smoked salmon and roll. dip into sweet chilli sauce..

Innovative Marketing

I recently found this while going through google news. It's actually very good and made me laugh.

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tippexperience&annotation_id=annotation_980821&feature=iv

Try it out.

1 Malaysia

the new tagline by the new PM, DSN. biasalah kan, every PM will introduce a tagline when they come into power, for the public to remember them by. for me, 1 Malaysia is nothing new. when i was at school, we were introduced the word Muhibbah - the unity of all races in Malaysia. basically 1 Malaysia = Muhibbah. i attended sekolah rendah & sekolah menengah kebangsaan, and had friends from different racial backgrounds - malays, chinese, indians, kadazan, iban and also those of mixed parentage. we got along just fine. nowadays there are lots of tensions among the different races, all started from these political parties which are doing more harm than good; so much so that the PM had to come up with 1Malaysia, just to encourage unity.

for me & my family, 1 Malaysia = influence of malay, chinese, indian in our gastronomic delights. its all about food of course! on tuesday, being a kelantanese thro & thro, i tried my skill in making Nasi Kerabu, a popular kelantan delight. the only dish to cook was the tumis which i learned from my mom over the phone. the last time i made tumis was probably 20 years ago!! kalau kat msia, beli aja.. or mom made it.

kelantan's delight - nasi kerabu with tumis, ulam (daun kesom+cabbage+kacang+daun ketumbar), timun, taugeh, telur masin, daging panggang, ayam goreng kunyit, budu, keropok...

kari kambing with naan & roti canai (mamak's delight)

chicken porridge (ala2 teochew) with accompaniments - ikan bilis + kacang goreng, kacang goreng kicap & prawns, taugeh goreng kicap, telur masin, chaipo (lobak asin), ikan pekasam goreng, cili kicap.

summer break is over

my month long break is now over. yesterday i was back to work..literally but not physically. since the kids are still on holiday, i had to take them with me to the office. by 9am we were already in the office, switched off the 'out of office assistant' on my pc, signed in WAH (work at home)-marking in the diary, took the pile of referred coursework & exam papers and walked out of the building by 11.00am.

the kids have to go for their half yearly dental appointment at 12.00 noon. they got a new dentist, a male dentist who's got a pony tail ..... kids teeth are ok, by 12.15 pm we were out of there. then walked to the hairdresser, big missy need to get her hair trimmed before the new term starts next week. we could only got an appointment for 12.45pm so we walked home first ... the beauty of living in this neighbourhood - dentist, bank, post office, grocery store, fruit & flower shops, travel agent, clinic, cafe, bakery, laundrette, hardware shop, butcher (not that we go there), hairdresser are all on the short stretch of street, within 5 minutes walk from our house.


i can imagine the chaos in this household next week with everyone back to school & work. i've got my provisional timetable yesterday which doesnt look good - i dont get any 'free' day..and the schedule sucks! no doubt the teaching hours have been reduced from 16 hrs/wk last year to 13 hours/week but the timing is ridiculous...classes at 10-11 or 12, then a long gap with 1 hour teaching at 4-5pm..i shall have that 'slow talk' with the scheduler next week, see if i can get better timetable and do some juggling to suit little missy's preschool to minimise daycare (and fees!!)..