The story of baked beans

I’m finally getting to be really peeved and annoyed with Blogger now. And judging from what I read in the Blogger forum, I am not the only one who’s muy annoyed!

I guess the most annoying bit is when so many people have complained about the same issue and yet no one from the Blogger team has kept us updated on what they are doing to fix the problem. I know it is a free service but I thought the Blogger teams do get paid to ensure that the system works without any glitches.

Come on guys!!!! We can’t live without our blogs!!! Hikhikhikhik .

Enough of them…

Semalam Miss 7 said to us…

“You know what, I’ve never tasted baked beans….”

The Other Half terus said, “That is so sad… How old are you now? And yet you have never eaten baked beans…”

Baked beans and OZ kids go hand in hand so for a true blue OZ kid like Miss 7 who’s never tasted baked beans all her life, tu kira sedih lah, hahaha.

Kiranya macam budak2 Malaysia duduk M’sia tapi tak pernah makan roti canai lah!

How sedih is that kan! .

The people here eat baked beans for breakfast, snacks, lunch, dinner and anytime they are hungry. They have it on toasts, they have it with sausages and bacons for breakfast, they eat it out of the can just like that…

But kat rumah I ni, I rasa adalah baru 2 kali agaknya I beli baked beans in the can sepanjang2 we all satu family duduk kat OZ ni, hahahaha…..

The first time, I think I must have opened the can and then no one ate it and I had to throw it away…

The second time, I mixed it into chilli con carne because it had been sitting in the pantry for ages so I had to use it up.

The Other Half said he doesn’t like baked beans sebab he ate too much of it when he was growing up. I pun tak suka sangat baked beans ni even though masa I kecik2, Mak I selalu beli canned baked beans . Miss 12 memang lah takkan makan baked beans.

So, tu yang buat I jarang2 beli baked beans….

And then bila Miss 7 lahir, we got so used to not buying and eating baked beans.

I terlupa pulak that Miss 7 ni likes to try new things so obviously sure dia selalu terfikir macam manalah agaknya rasa baked beans ni kan everytime she sees the Heinz Baked Beans adverts come on TV, muahahahahaha…….

Takpe lah anak, esok Mum pergi buat grocery shopping, I will buy 1 can of baked beans specially for you ye! .

Makan lah kamu puas2 sebab orang lain tak kisah you tak nak share the baked beans dengan we all, heeeeee….

Anyway, ini our dinner malam semalam. I made Thai green chicken curry for us and I made nasi goreng with chicken satay for the girls.

The Other Half kata dah laaaamaaaaaa dia tak makan nasi….

Kahkahkahkahkah…..

I letak sugar snap peas and carrot in the curry so tak payah lah masak extra veges kan .

Our garden is flowering again

We were warned of impending storm last night, supposed to arrive around 11 at night and last till morning. Once again, we secured all loose objects around the house (mana lah tau kan, kena terbangkan dengan angin kencang sampai ke Melbourne ).

Pastu, dah siap unplugged everything from the power points. Torch and emergency candle memang dah sentiasa tersedia.

But, it rained for 5 minutes masa I nak tidur tu and I slept peacefully throughout the night. No storm woke us up. Either that or we all tidur mati sampai tak dengar langsung when the storm came, hehehe.

When I woke up this morning, I saw all the roses still on the bushes so obviously it just rained only but takde storm.

And since I dah selalu tayang gambar roses orang, hari ni I nak tunjuk our roses pulak.

These will be the last remaining roses to bloom before we have to prune all the rose plants this July. kalau tak prune, nanti masa Spring, they wont flower nicely.

The pale pink

The purple rose,

The light yellow rose (tak silap).

The white rose.

The red rose.

The orange rose.

The dark pink rose.

The tak tau kaler apa rose, hikhikhik….

We’ve got 11 rose bushes in our garden and all of them produce different colour roses. The other 3 bushes produce the dual coloured pink white roses, deep red roses and slightly dark red roses.They are suddenly flowering again. I guess sebab it’s a bit cooler nowadays but with the sun still shining during the day, their kind of weather .

The long winded affair of making dinner

Tonite we had a very late dinner (according to our standard lah) sebab the dinner was at 7!

Why the late dinner?

Sebab The Other Half bercita2 besar nak masak the whole dinner from the potatoes to the corns to the bread and to the chicken in the BBQ!

I guess he should be applauded sebab he managed to cook the chicken and the bread in the BBQ, hikhikhik…. While I cooked the corns and the potatoes on my humble dapur aje .

He started making the bread at 1.15 (with the help of the bread maker) but he chose the ‘wrong’ kind of bread that required double kneading time which means by the time dah habis dua kali dough cycle in the breadmaker, dah 4.30. Pastu nak shape the bread and let it rise again, dah ambik masa lagi. Dah lah the weather mendung aje petang tadi, hehehe.

Pastu, tiba2 he said to me at 6.15 yang the bread will take another 40 minutes to cook in the BBQ. I was like, “what! what time are we going to eat anyway?”

Luckily masa tu, the chicken was already cooked. We started the cooking the chicken in the BBQ before 5 and it took a while jugak to masak I guess. So I said to him that I’ll cook the potatoes and the corns atas dapur aje lah sebab kalau nak tunggu the bread habis masak dalam BBQ, baru bakar the corns and potatoes, adalah yang nanti tergolek2 atas carpet menangis hiba kelaparan macam tak makan sebulan! .

But, it was well worth the wait sebab the ciabatta loaf that he made was superb!

Except that he managed to burn the bottom bit of the bread and managed to wreck my tray as well!

Takpelah, sekali sekala dia nak masak, I tutup mata aje lah (lagi lah bila dia kata dia akan belikan I tray yang baru which kalau di‘translate’ kan means I yang kena pergi kedai beli sendiri tray yang baru .)

So, layanlah gambar our dinner in the making…

The whole chicken cut in half so cepat sikit masak.

Lepas diterbalikkan. Nampak so juicy and sedap kan .

Nasib baik I masak the potatoes awal2 you, hehehe.

On the dining table. The chickens, the corns, the potatoes, the coleslaw and the ciabatta.

The bread that took a long time to make. Maybe tu kot yg buatkan dia lagi sedap kan. The texture is soft but slightly chewy on the inside but so crispy on the outside with a slightly sourish taste.

My plate minus the sweet chilli sauce.

Kalau masak kenduri with nasi dua tiga jenis, lauk 5 macam, patutlah jugak kan berejam2 masak baru boleh makan, hikhikhik….

Too sleepy to think of a catchy title ^___^

I’ve been too tired, too busy and too sleepy since hari Khamis…

Tu yang rasa macam penat nak jawab all the comments presently. But don’t worry, I’ll jawab your comments soon.

And Blogger being mengong doesn’t help my mood either.

I’ve only been getting about 6 hours of sleep a night for the past 3 nights (which for me is not enough) sebab I spent too long at night reading a novel and then waking up early for sahur and not being able to go back to sleep after that.

So, layan aje lah gambar the food ye.

I had Anis for dinner tonite since it’s my last night of eating my kind of food.

I made laksa penang but with a twist, hehehe.

I used ready-made paste . But since I tak jumpa cari laksa penang paste, I terpaksa pakai asam pedas paste. And I guna canned mackerel in oil as the fish. But I think I must have over blended the fish sampai jadi macam paste, hahahaha.

But taste-wise, boleh lah….Rasa jugak lah macam laksa penang!

I terbuat kuah dia pekat giler so macam makan laksa johor aje pulak, boleh guna jari .

And I also made kuih bakar and jemput2 bilis as well. I kan puasa so tu yang terasa macam nak makan everything, heeee…..

Sambil borak, tangan sambil jalan ambik makanan. Sambung borak lagi, tangan still tak berenti pegang makanan and mulut tak berenti berborak dan mengunyah, hikhikhik….

Nasib baik I puasa 3 hari so my berat tak lah naik walaupun makan bertambah all the food that I love .

Menggoreng belacan in a Mat Saleh house

Aggghhhhh….. Blogger ni memang buat darah I go upstairs aje.

But, bila fikir yang it’s only a small trivial matter compared to other issues worldwide, tak jadi my blood nak go upstairs, hehehe.

Hopefully, one day, they’ll find a solution to fix it. In the meantime, I’ll just twiddle my thumbs .

Hari ni I puasa ganti yang baru aje sehari, hikhikhik…

Ambik kesempatan sempena Maghrib early (5.22 petang dah berbuka you all!) and The Other Half takde untuk bayar puasa.

Selalunya bila I puasa for the first time after dah lama tak puasa, I’ll get a migrain yang teruk sangat2 from noon to night time.

Alhamdulillah, puasa I hari ni went without any hiccups. Susah jugak kalau dapat migraine and no one to pick The Little Misses up from school. Allah dengar my doa .

And of course lah kan, bila puasa, macam2 terasa nak makan.

And what did I make for dinner?

Sayur lodeh, ikan bawal goreng and SAMBAL BELACAN!!!!! Heeeeee…

(I know my ikan goreng tu sikit nya besar ke the kepala but we all tak makan kepala dia, semua tak sanggup nak makan bila tengok the fish’s eyes, hahahaha)

Punyalah lama nya I tak buat sambal belacan ni sampai I terlupa sekejap apa ingredients dalam samba belacan ni, hahahaha.

Laki I suka pedas tapi dia tak ngam dengan sambal belacan or sambal kicap ni. Tu yang I buat bila dia takde thus lama giler tak buat .

I goreng the belacan on the stove top sebab malas nak bakar such a tiny amount in the oven.

Miss 7 suddenly said, “What’s that awful smell! It’s really really bad!” Sambil kerut2 muka macam nak termuntah and dah siap tutup2 hidung dengan her jumper .

I forgot lah yang I’m living with Mat Salehs ni! (Baru bau belacan goreng dah nak termuntah, hehehehe….)

Kalau you all dah try makan sekali, memang akan terkenang2 seumur hidup wa cakap lu!

(You rasa the whole neighbourhood agaknya macam nak termuntah jugak ke sebab I bukak the windows wide masa goreng tadi, hahahaha.)

And then for dessert, I made pengat keladi+keledek.

Hari tu I beli frozen taro which I thought was keladi but it wasn’t the Malaysian keladi that I know. I think it was the taro that the philippines and the islanders like to eat. I was so disappointed sebab my pengat hari tu tak jadi .

Tadi, I pergi another chinese shop and I found another frozen taro which kali ni resembled our kind of keladi. I pun beli lah 1 packet which was 1kg (banyak giler but they didn’t sell smaller packets). 1kg frozen taro/keladi was $5.20. I also bought purple yam which also looks like keladi cuma purple aje, hehehehe.

So, mana lah I tak confused kan! Keladi is taro, keladi is also yam, taro is also another type of root vegetable…..

My colourful pengat. I letak keladi, purple keladi, orange kumara and purple-skin sweet potato(tapi isi dia putih melepak, go figure!).

Harmoni sungguh I rasa pengat I ni, macam2 kaler ada, hahaha.

Miss 12 memang tak nak langsung rasa. Miss 7 suka sangat2, but dia cuma suka hirup kuah dia aje, all the keladi and the keledek dia tinggalkan untuk I. Sharing is caring kan, hikhikhik….

4 days of my kind of food

The Other Half flew off to Melbourne this morning…

Our house in situated in the flight paths of so many different flights, domestic and international. Even though, we are quite far from the airport, everytime a plane flies overhead, we can hear it. Sometimes, it feels likes the plane is landing in our backyard aje from the sound, hikhikhik…

(I know I am exaggerating a bit but to our ears, it does sound like it ).

Anywayyyyyy……

Pagi tadi while I was hanging out the clothes in the backyard, I saw a Qantas plane heading out towards somewhere at exactly the right time for The Other Half’s plane to be taking off in the air. So, I pun saje je buat kerja bodoh waved macam orang giler at the plane, muahahahaha…

(nasib baik pagar kat sini tinggi2 so memang the neighbours tak boleh nampak I buat kerja giler tu lah ).

Tapi alangkah sedih nya sebab I couldn’t see The Other Half waving back, hikhikhikhik .

(Kalau I nampak dia waving back, itu baru sahih2 the plane has landed on my backyard kan! Heeeeee……).

And as usual, bila The Other Half takde, I pun start lah makan segala macam mee yang I tak makan while he’s around.

I toldThe Other Half yang I’ll be cooking all the food that I like while he’s away. Then he said, “You always say that but then you ended up cooking things that I like as well. And I missed out on eating those food.”

Hehehehehe….Betul jugak dia cakap tu sebab the food that I like selalunya ambik masa nak buat and a bit leceh. So, tu yang I always ended up cooking food that is simple aje (which he tends to also like) .

But malam ni, I masak meehoon+nasi impit sup/soto tak cukup bahan.

Takde bergedil sebab I tak suka sgt bergedil. Takde bawang goreng sebab lupa nak beli. Takde ayam goreng siat2 sebab I malas nak buat.

Nasib baik ada taugeh, tahu goreng, kacang and daun ketumbar and sambal kicap! Adalah jugak rasa soto, hehehehe…..

Tension I bila The Other Half takde ni sebab I tend to overeat. Ye lah kan, dah masak my favourite food, tu yang makan tambah2!

Agggggghhhhhhhhhh….. 4 hari ni taknak timbang!

Kalau I tetiba pengsan lepas 4 hari ni, you tau lah apasal kan!

Is Blogger playing up again?

I know Blogger tengah mengong sikit sekarang because I found out that a lot of bloggers are experiencing the same problem as me.

I can ‘sign in’ into Blogger and it will take me straight to my dashboard. But, lepas tu, when I view my blog again, I cannot do anything to it which means I am not signed in lah kan? And then, my bloglist tak update dari tengah hari tadi walhal orang lain nya blog list dah update ke berita terkini.

Maybe I should change to wordpress kan……. I’ve already got a Wordpress blog as a backup, maybe I should change that to my main blog ye tak. Tak lah tergugat semangat I nak update blog everytime Blogger bermasaalah kan .

But since I am updating using Windows LiveWriter, I hope it does update.

Enough about Blogger yang tengah ada hormonal imbalance ni….

Pagi tadi, I saje2 je ambik gambar the sunrise kat depan rumah when I was sending The Other Half to work. Dia kayuh beskal, I lambai2 and kiss2 aje, hehehe.

This was at 6.30 in the morning. It was freezing at this time. He wears a long-sleeved thermal, a long-sleeved tshirt, riding gloves, balaclava that covers his neck and whole head, a pair of lycra long pants and shorts when he rides nowadays. Then only he doesn’t freeze his a**e off, hehehehe.

And he will be flying off to Melbourne tomorrow morning for 4 days. Tinggallah kami  bertiga tanpa teman .

So, since dia tak dapat rasa home-cooking for the next 4 days, I tanyalah dia nak makan apa for dinner. He said, burger and chips!

Senang dapat laki macam ni kan yang mintak burger and chips aje,  instead of mintak nak makan nasi briyani, gulai kambing and acar buah!

(I guess dia tau, kalau dia mintak nasi briyani and gulai kambing, memang takkan nya wife dia masakkan, hahahaha.)

My plate, so full dengan macam2.