Esok Merdeka!

Merdeka!!! Merdeka!!!!

Esok kita merdeka, esok kita merdeka, esok kita merdeka, yeay yeay, yeay yeay…..(baca sambil nyanyi tau, hehehehe).

Esok, The Little Misses will be going back to school after 7 weeks of Summer holidays.

So, esok I will be going yippeeeeeeeeeee to have the house to myself again, heeeeeee….

They are good kids but the daily bickering and arguing tu yang buat I tak larat dengar!

Kadang kadang, they can last till noon before their first argument.

Kadang kadang, bangun tidur aje terus bertekak.

Kadang kadang, when both of them are in their good moods, they can last the whole day without arguing (but scenario ini sangat sangat sangat lah jarang nya berlaku, hahahaha).

Kakak nya yang jenis suka sakat adik nya and agak lokek sikit tapi tak boleh pulak orang buat the same things to her.

Adik nya pulak jenis yang apa kakak dia buat, dia mesti nak tengok and jenis yang tak boleh kena cuit sikit.

So, bila dua jenis ni duduk dekat2, tak sampai 5 minit, mesti akan keluar bunyi…

“just go somewhere else. you don’t have to look at everything.”

“why can’t I look. I’m not touching anything.”

Or

“You can’t come into my room without knocking. You wouldn’t let me go into your room so get out of my room!”

“Why can’t I play with you…”

Pastu, kalau tak bertekak, tengah main baik2 tiba2 tengok diaorang dah main2 ala2 WWF.

Mula2 memang lah gelak2 aje bila bergolek2 and bertepuk tampar tu but after a while, mulalah…

“ouch, you are hurting me! Get off me!”

“Why did you kick me? I didn’t do that to you.”

Pastu, mula gaduh balik….

Mum dia yang mula2 ala2 ibu mithali terus jadi naga berapi sekejap, hikhikhik……

So, tu yang happy sangat sebab I will get my peace and quiet again for 6 hours from tomorrow .

But, tugas makcik kantin and makcik supir will have to start again….

Nasib baik ada magic freezer kan so tak payah lah pening kepala fikir nak buat apa for their bekal esok.

Miss 8 nak bawak nasi for lunch esok (since dinner tadi we had rice so dia nak bawak leftovers lah).

Miss 12 pulak nak bawak bread roll and schnitzel (leftovers schnitzel from the other day memang banyak lagi and I memang freeze them utk bekal lunches).

Kalau I rajin, I will take photos of their lunch boxes ye. Miss 8 ada lunch bag baru while Miss 12 is happy with last year’s lunch bag. My kids jenis tak kisah, they don’t need all new things to start school so jimat lah we all, hehehehe….

Hari ni, Miss 8 said she wanted to eat rice for dinner. Semata2 sebab dia nak makan ‘that hot green vegetable’ aka kangkung goreng belacan, hahaha.

So, I pun buatlah sweet and sour whiting with kangkung goreng belacan with udang, bendi goreng cili api and telur masin.

The capsicum and the chilli in the sweet and sour came from the garden but telur masin came from the shop .

Bendi and kangkung and chilli came from the garden as well.

I think I should go out for coffee and cake after sending the girls to school tomorrow kan to celebrate, hehehehee…….

Drooling food for him

I do cook a lot of Western food but I rarely cook the typical  Anglo food of meat and 3 veg which is steak and potatoes and peas and carrots.

I guess it’s because I’m scared of overcooking the steaks and making it tough.

Jenuhlah orang nak menggigit and nak chew and nak menelan the daging tu nanti kalau tough kan.

Dah lah hubby I ni jenis yang suka his steaks still mooing and baaing (hahahaha, takde lah seteruk tu but he does like his steaks rare to medium rare).

The Other Half likes to occasionally have steaks but wife dia ni selalu buat2 tak dengar aje bila dia mintak steaks, hikhikhik….

I would rather cook his other favourite foods than steak/ chops.

But when the butcher had a super sweet deal of 2kg of lamb racks for $30, I couldn’t bypass that deal so I bought 2kgs of lamb racks, hehehe.

So, for dinner tadi, I used up 1kg of the rack to make marinated roast lamb racks with roasted potatoes, bean salad and bread rolls.

I marinated the lamb racks for an hour with garlic, lemon zest, lemon juice, rosemary, honey, wholegrain mustard, salt and olive oil. I just mixed all the marinades in a bowl and then brush it over the lamb.

Then I put them all in a big roasting pan with parboiled potatoes and sweet potatoes (kena parboiled the potatoes so they will cook properly at the same time as the lamb.)

Roast them in 180°C (fan-forced oven) for about 20-25 minutes depending on how cooked you want your meat to be.

After semua dah masak, then you can ask your ‘helpers’ to set the table with steak knives and forks, and plenty of serviettes to wipe your sticky fingers .

My rack of lamb with roasted potatoes (and the burnt bits), mint gravy, beans salad and bread rolls.

The Other Half and Miss 8 terus started drooling when they saw the lamb racks because they love lamb so much, hihihihihi.

What about you guys???? Did this lamb rack make you drool?……

And then, mana boleh tunjuk the outside aje kan, kena lah tunjuk the inside jugak kan .

We think this is medium/ medium rare.

The Other Half looked like he was having a ‘blissful’ moment at the dinner table just now when he put the lamb pieces in his mouth!

Wahkahkahkahkahkah……

Twilight picnic at the playground

Since it’s been so hot for the past few days, The Little Misses haven’t gone anywhere. Asyik terperap aje kat dalam rumah.

But tadi since a friend and her family invited us to go to the playground by the river at 6 petang, terus lah we all setuju.

It was so much nicer at 6, the breeze was in, the temperature had cooled down considerably and the flies weren’t around either .

We took some food along but the kids tak ingat nak makan, too engrossed with playing.

But I only made chicken wings and mee goreng aje, simple picnic food.

But I made dessert as well…

I had to use up the egg yolks yang lebih from the other day so I decided to make portuguese egg tart (but probably the non original version lah kan).

Let’s just say, kalau I kena kerja kat bakeri and I made these tarts, memang dah kena fired awal2, hahaha.

Rasa ada but rupa hampeh! Lari sungguh, hahahaha….

I should have parbaked the puff pastry casings first, then baru tuang the cooked custard in them and then bake them again using high heat. Baru lah cantik aje tak terkeluar2 the filling kan.

Next time I know .

And these are some photos I took at the playground.

Dolu2 masa I kecik, I main panjat2 pokok aje… Nowadays, they have a purposely built climbing frame at the playgrounds for the kids to climb. Pokok dah tak banyak kan, hahahaha….

I tak tau lah anak sape dalam gambar ni. I dah ambik gambar, baru I perasan dia ada, hikhikhik…..

But definitely bukan anak bunian, heeeee…….

Brownies, schnitzel and 42°C

I don’t really mind the hot weather, even though I love cold weather more.

But I would rather have hot and dry weather than hot and humid weather.

Hot and dry, cuma rasa bahang panas perit on the skins but  not suffocating nor draining the energy.

Hot and humid pulak will always make me feel so lethargic and suffocated with loads of sweating to boot! Tu yang bila balik Msia, sampai2 aje kat luar airport, rasa lembik and penat terus, hikhikhik… (padahal duduk aje for 5+ hours on the plane, tu yg tak larat aje kan, heeeee.).

I rasa kalau hot and humid, my sakit kepala lagi kerap singgah datang menjenguk. And my temper flares easily as well .

Today was extremely hot but unbelievably humid as well!

Rasa macam nak stay under the cold shower the whole day aje!

I had to do some shopping this morning and when I got out of the house at 8.30 this morning to konon2nya beat the heat, it was already 30+C and humid.

When I got back before 12, it was nearly 40°C. And it got up to 42.1°C max hari ni.

Tu yang no one wanted to temankan I bershopping tadi. They would rather stay at home in the comfort of airconditioning, hehehe.

Luckily, there wasn’t any stupid drivers on the road, or else memang dah lama lah kena kutuk dengan I.

(That’s why I suka keluar shopping pagi2 before 9 sebab tak ramai stupid drivers yang dah bangun masa ni, hehehe.).

I had to do some last minute shopping for Miss 8’s school stuff and I had to shop for the most important thing for us….

Coffee beans!

We were already on our last few coffee beans so by hook or by crook, kena jugak keluar beli the beans.

Mana boleh takde coffee pagi2, tak senang I nak buat kerja satu hari, hehehe….

For dinner tadi, The Other Half requested beef schnitzel and chips.

So, I pun buatlah beef schnitzel, makan dengan chips, salad and guacamole.

I normally used beef topside to make the schnitzel. Topside ni senang nak potong nipis and tak tough and rubbery.

We normally have schnitzel with tomato sauce aje tapi tadi we had it with guacamole and our homemade tomato sauce.

Double the kesedapan lah sampai tak sedar makan banyak, hahaha….

And for dessert, I made brownies which we ate with vanilla ice cream.

(I had to use up the egg yolks from the pavlova hari tu and I found this brownies recipe yang used up egg yolk. But I altered the recipe by using only 1 egg and 2 egg yolks. I still have 4 more egg yolks to be used up!).

But I made the mistake of using milk chocolate without reducing the sugar, so for me, the brownies was a bit too manis. Terasa macam my blood glucose level went sky high aje tadi with every bite, hikhikhik.

But everyone else said it was really really yummy!

They definitely have the Mat Saleh’s sweet tooth!

It is so green!

When The Litle Misses saw tonite’s dinner, both of them blurted out..

“It’s so green!”

I pun tadi masa tengah masak and when putting it onto a serving plate terdetik jugak kata, hijau nya lah benda ni, hehehe…

But knowing that everything that made it green was natural and takde colouring langsung made it bearable lah.

I guess because I used so much of it, tu yang hijau sangat2.

Tadi for dinner, I made fettucine with basil pesto and sausages.

And I did use a LOT of pesto in the pasta tu yang hijaunya menikam kalbu sungguh! hahaha

My green pasta !

I made the pesto myself but kali ni cuma guna 2 cloves of garlic, a handful of roasted chashew nuts/gajus, loads of fresh basil, 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese and olive oil.

We have an abundance of basil in the garden so kena guna while it’s still around.

With pesto, you don’t have to use pine nuts, you can use any nuts you want. Even the pesto yang jual kat kedai in a jar tu pun guna a mixture of nuts jugak untuk jimat cost. So far, I’ve tried cashew and pine nuts aje and both tasted great. The Other Half kata if I didn’t tell him it wasn’t pine nuts, he wouldn’t have noticed. I think nuts like almond and cashew will make great pesto.

There’s a lot of pesto recipes out there yang guna other kinds of nuts. (But the pesto connoisseur will definitely say that only pine nuts can be used to make pesto and the taste is much superior. )

But tekak kita sendiri kan and ikut budget kita sendiri kan, apa kisah!

And I also made cheesy bread as a side dish to eat with the pasta.

I tried to knead the grated cheese and the dried garlic into the bread in the second kneading but the cheese clumped up pulaknya so ada some parts dapat cheese and ada some parts takde cheese, hehehe.

But my family didn’t care, they still ate it as though it was so good, hahahaha.

But sape yang suka their bread to be so lembut and kalau picit terus leper tu, won’t like our kind of cheesy bread ni lah. Sebab this bread is a bit rustic, jenis yang takde pakai bread softener or improver or any ‘softening agent’ and I uli sekejap aje. But kalau untuk makan panas2 for dinner, we love this kind of bread .

I sauteed some zucchinis and mushrooms as a side dish as well.

See, I told you it was green! I had to add the oven-dried tomatoes into the pasta to make it a bit more colourful, heeeee….

Happy Australia Day

Happy Australia Day!

We spent the whole day at home sahaja, cuma keluar rumah untuk jemur kain and siram pokok.

Punyalah teruk kan, hehehehehe…

The temperature got up to 41.9°C tadi so that’s why no one wanted to go out.

Miss 12 kept on asking why can’t we go watch the fireworks in the city.

Pastu The Other Half malas nak bagi reasons why, he asked her to stay outside under the sun for a few minutes.

Terus dia tak tanya lagi dah lepas tu, hahahaha……

I tau lah yang the fireworks will be at night time so definitely dah sejuk sikit but you still have to go early masa tengah panas2 terik to the city to get a good place to watch the fireworks kan. Tak larat lah we all.

Since duk terperap aje kat rumah, The Little Misses spent a few hours going through the stationery boxes to get ready for school next week. Sekejap aje rasanya cuti Summer kali ni!

Mengumpul segala barang2 for school and ticking them off the list.

And since semua ada kat rumah hari ni and it’s Australia Day, I made an effort to cook breakfast lah tadi. Selalunya we all just breakfast toasts or cereal aje.

I made crepes with sauteed apples and cream.

Kalau Merdeka Day, I buatlah lempeng kelapa or cekodok pisang kan but since it’s Australia Day, kenalah feeling2 omputih sikit, hahahaha….

And then since its Australia Day, kenalah jugak buat the iconic OZ food kan which is pavlova.

I think last time I buat pavlova was a long time ago so memang everyone was eagerly awaiting it lah.

Setelah dibakar but sebelum kena make-up.

Orang lain make-up kan dia pakai strawberries lah, fresh blueberries lah, passionfruit lah…

But since I takde all of those fruits (the strawberries and the blueberries yg kat pokok kat kebun were still too small untuk dipetik), terpaksalah I guna apa aje yang I could find in the fridge and in the fruit bowl.

Dapatlah dragon fruit, grapes and bananas aje, hehehehe…. Still sangat2 sedap .

Miss 12 kept on saying, “I really want this as my birthday cake this year. I think I only want pavlova from now on as my birthday cake.”

My ‘true blue’ Aussie, hahahaha…..

But memang sedap gilers lah pavlova ni when you haven’t had it for nearly a year!