To all blog readers,
Just a quick note to tell you guys that I am deleting the Cbox chatbox on the side bar.
I have noticed that there seem to be so many spammers using the chatbox which has created some problems to the blog.
I am looking for an alternative and hopefully I will have a new solution up soon.
Thanks for all your comments there, sorry to have to delete them.
On Wednesday nite The Other half said to me, “do you think you have time to make me the Belgian biscuits tomorrow? I want to take them for morning tea on Friday. There are a lot of Kiwis in my office who will love it.”
And then on Thursday morning I received an sms from him, “The Kiwis are so looking forward to be having the belgian biscuits on Friday.” I was still at Miss 8’s school at that time helping with some choir stuff.
Habis aje helping at school, I pun kelam kabut pergi beli barang2 to make the biscuits.
Nasib baik sempat buat the biscuits within a few hours sebelum kena keluar balik to pick up The Little Misses. And I spent last night sandwiching them together and icing them so sempatlah The Other half bawak untuk morning tea pagi tadi.
I didn’t have time to roll the dough out and cut it nicely with a cookie cutter. I cuma freeze the dough into logs and slice them thinly before baking. Thus the different shapes 
The Other Half said this is a famous NZ biscuit. Basically everyone who grows up/ grew up in NZ knows about this biscuit and has eaten it at least once.
Memang every year he will ask me to bake it for him.
It is basically a spice biscuit with a raspberry jam filling (it has to be raspeberry jam, other jam tak boleh or else rasa dia lari, hehehe), topped with icing and then sprinkled with jelly crystals with a tart-ish flavour.
It is an easy biscuit to make cuma leceh/fiddly tang nak letak jam, nak bubuh icing and nak tabur the jelly crystals tu aje lah.
Kalau orang tu tangan lembut part deco2 ni, memang sure nya cantik lah the icing and the taburan jelly crystals tu, but you know me, tangan keras so tu yang macam2 bentuk ada, hehehe.
And this morning he said that the biscuits went so quickly. All the Kiwis took 4-5 biscuits each and didn’t leave that many for the Aussies in the office to try and they loved it.
The Little Misses at home pun tak berhenti makan jugak!
And then today, after coming back from Miss 8’s school assembly (where she was the sea otter, hahaha) and finishing the house chores, I tried my hands at making macarons sebab it’s on Miss 8’s list.
This was my first try ok and I was prepared for it to be a failure anyway.
You know how everyone wants their macarons to have feet……
Well, mine turned out with feet…
But it’s the top that was a disaster, they looked like aliens from outer space (Miss 12 said they look more like mushrooms than macarons!)
I think I know what I did wrong so I know what to do next time..
I made really tiny macarons/ mushrooms. I couldn’t decide whether to do a Malaysian 20-cent size macarons or OZ 20-cent size macarons 
Last2 I pergi buat really tiny sizes, heeeee….
And since I made them so tiny, The Little Misses makan the macarons macam tak hingat dunia.
See I told you they’ve got feet but the top tu yang mengerikan tengok, hehehehe…..
I still think they are way too sweet for my tastebuds.
I rasa nak teguk bergelas2 air kosong aje lepas makan the macarons.
Miss 8’s appointment with the Allergy specialist came up again today so off we went to get her tested for her allergy.
The specialist was such a nice and friendly doctor but I rasa punyalah ramai patients of his yang menyampah kat dia, hehehehe….
Miss 8 doesn’t mind doctors nor dentists but she wasn’t too enamoured to go to see the specialist tadi 
But luckily she didn’t meraung satu klinik this time, cuma meleleh sikit aje air mata dia tadi, hahahahah….
I guess sebab this time she got tested for only 5 or 6 allergens instead of 16 like last year so tu yang tak sempat nak meraung agaknya, heeeee.
She got a skin prick test done tadi to assess her peanut allergy.
And Alhamdulillah, something marvellous happened…
Her reaction to the peanut allergen on the skin prick test today showed a decrease in the severity. It wasn’t as big as last year (but still big enough to be abnormal).
Finally, after so many years, there might be a small hope that one day in the future she might be able to get rid of her medic-alert bracelet and her epi-pen emergency stock.
The specialist said that it could be because she is eating other kinds of nuts frequently.
He said some small scale studies have shown that some peanut allergy sufferers who can tolerate other nuts do show a reduction in their peanut allergy severity when they frequently consume other nuts in their diet.
He said the proteins in these other nuts might have ‘fooled’ the body into thinking that the peanut protein that is causing the allergic reaction is the same kind of protein as these other nuts so the body tak react to it.
So tadi, he told Miss 8 to eat loads and loads of nuts everyday.
(but readers who suffer peanut allergy, don’t try this method at home lah ye. You should consult your allergist first for their opinions.)
Miss 8 pun tersenyum gembira sebab she loves nuts.
I said to her setakat almond and cashew hari2 ok aje because they are cheap but kalau dia demand pistachios and macadamias hari2, no can do lah ye!
Hikhikhikhik……
Ini lah rupa the skin prick test tadi which wasn’t as big as last year’s.
Muka dia dah tak berair mata sebab dah tak sakit masa ni, hehehe.
Bila balik from the specialist tadi, I terus bake the wings and drumsticks that I have marinated since tengah hari tadi.
And makan dengan maggi goreng aje sebab I malas nak masak lebih2 since The Other Half takde for dinner tadi, hehehe.
Kenyang lah jugak we all walaupun maggi goreng aje 
My oven is finally resting in its right place this afternoon.
The carpenter came to enlarge the cabinet this morning and 45 minutes later and $99 poorer, I was already on my knees cleaning the oven 
But before I could use it, I had to run the oven for 4 hours so all the chemicals are burned off.
Balik aje from picking the girls up, I terus bertapa in the kitchen playing with the oven’s functions, hehehe.
First, I baked an apple pie.
Sebelum I switched the oven on, jenuhlah I baca the manual to figure out what is the best function to bake a pie.
I really have no idea so I just used function no 6 which is ‘pizza’. It says that it is a great for foods such as pizzas, quiches, meat pies and fruit pies.
After the pie, I used the oven to make potato bake.
I used the fan-bake function to cook the potato-bake in the first 20 minutes and then the fan-grill function to brown the top of the potato bake.
And then I made large size meatballs on the stove top.
And while cooking each batch of meatballs, I kept the already cooked meatballs warm in the oven using the base heat function.
So, I managed to play around with a few of the functions today, yeay….
I love the quadruple layer oven door sebab even though the oven was continously on since 11.30 this morning until 6 o’clock at night, the oven door stayed cool.
With my old mengong oven, I baru aje turned the oven on for 5 minutes, dah panas gilers the oven door. Kalau berdiri depan the old oven, memang boleh tanned habis lah, hahahaha.
(I don’t care if you think I am a bit jakun or kemaruk with this new baby of mine cos I am. Who wouldn’t be 
I am happy with our new purchase ni.
I’ve been wanting this oven for so long and sekarang baru dapat, hehehe.
Masa we bought a house in Adelaide, we threw the oven and stove top that came with the house out but instead of buying a new set, we got given MIL n PIL ‘old’ set.
They were renovating their kitchen and changed all their kitchen appliances to new ones. Their old stove top and oven were still in very good condition, tu yang we all terima.
They served us well in the 3+ years we lived in that house.
And then when we moved to Perth, we stayed in a rental property for nearly 5 years so bila dah duduk kat rumah sewa, mana boleh pakai oven and stove top sendiri, kenalah pakai oven yang memang dah tersedia kat rumah tu.
And then when we moved into our own house end of 2010, we thought of tunggu nak renovate the kitchen baru nak change the stove and the oven.
But then bila fikir2 balik, entah bila lah nak renovate the kitchen ni so baiklah beli aje oven and stove top baru since the old oven pun dah makin mengong.
Begitu lah cerita nya….. hikhikhikhik…..
Dinner and dessert we all tadi kiranya memang menggunakan oven tu sepenuhnya lah
We had meatballs with gravy, potato cheesy bake and boiled veges.
At first I ingat nak masak fish n chips aje tadi but apa kelas rasmikan oven dengan fish n chips aje kan, hahaha
Apple pie crumble with vanilla ice cream.
I know it doesn’t look pretty but the taste was good!
Esok, The Other Half requests I buat his belgian biscuits sebab dia nak bawak pergi ofis on Friday……
Pakkal ada oven baru, senang aje semangat I nak baking naik, hahahahahaha….
Hati berbunga2 hari ni when the electrician and the gas fitter muncul di depan pintu tengah hari tadi, hehehe…
They came to install the oven and the stove top.
Before they came, I made sure I emptied out the cabinets next to the oven and the stove top so they can reach into the gas head and the power point for the stove top.
I put all the stuff in the cabinets on the dining table thinking that I can put them all back in after they’ve done installing.
The gas fitter did an excellent job installing the stove top even though it took him about an hour plus to install the stove top.
And this is my new stove top 
Sangat lah riang gembira ada taman penuh bunga in my heart when I used it to cook dinner tadi.
I love the fact that the trivets are made out of cast iron so less tendency for them to warp on high heat.
I can put my pots and pans anywhere on the trivet and they dont slip off because they are very stable.
Masa tengah masak tadi, I kept on going ooh and aah macam orang jakun habis, hahahaha.
And the electrician came and took the old oven out and tried to put the new oven in….
That’s when ‘tragedy’ struck…
Can you see from the photo that the underbench cavity is slightly too small for the new oven to slip into by about 1cm so the oven is jutting out.
Uwaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!
The electrician didn’t have the tools to saw off a bit of the wood so he couldn’t do anything.
We had to call the carpenter (which we sort of hoping not to have to do) to come and saw off 1cm of the cabinet so the oven can be fitted into the cavity.
But he could only come tomorrow morning so for the time being, the oven is just for display only lah…
And my dining table still penuh dengan barang2 from inside the cabinets. Terpaksalah we all makan dinner at the coffee table tadi, hehehe.
Our new babies, the Westinghouse oven and stove top.
I am in love with the oven already, hehehe.
Do you want to know why?
because of the things below, heeeeeee….
Our old mengong oven cuma ada 2 functions aje you, fan bake and fan grill.
The new oven has 10 functions!
Maunya I tak jatuh cinta lap lap dag dig dug kat dia!
My bedtime read tonite will be the oven manual.
Kahkahkahkahkahkah…..
And what did I cook to rasmikan my new stove top?
Nasi goreng corned silverside aje. I makan dengan sambal belacan and The Other Half makan dengan sambal nasi lemak from a jar, hehehe.
I ada meeting at school tadi tu yang balik from school pun dah lambat so tu yang masak nasi goreng aje.
Takpe, once (when) the oven is functioning, I can cook up a storm!
The Other Half and The Little Misses dah siap a list of things that they want me to bake in the new oven, hehehehehe…
The Other Half wants me to make belgian biscuit, Miss 8 wants me to make macarons and Miss 12 wants me to make pavlova.
I just want to kiss and hug the oven, cukuplah……
Muahahahahaha
We love fresh pasta because the taste is so much nicer than the dried ones.
But everytime I make fresh pasta, I have to set my mind mentally to endure the long process of making it.
And having to endure the mistakes I usually make along the way like stacking them together without putting enough flour so they stick like mad!
Aggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!
For me, it is such a tedious process for something you could eat in 10 minutes, hehehehe.
But occasionally, I will forget that the process is tedious and I will take out the flour and the eggs and make fresh pasta…
And then take out the pasta maker and roll them one by one until they become so thin….
The leftover semi-dried pasta sheets.
I turned some of the pasta sheets into ravioli filled with ricotta, spinach and chicken mixture.
This step took a lot of time too! Having to cut the sheets into similar sized squares and then filled them with the mixture.
And then came the boiling part which was the easiest step, hehehe.
By the time I had to boil the ravioli, I was a bit tired already so I just used pasta sauce from the jar as the sauce 
A very simple looking dinner belying the fact that it took a long time to make it, hehehe.
Cooked ravioli topped with pasta sauce and sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese and cracked pepper.
chicken breast cooked with spinach and mixed with ricotta cheese.
In the end, the taste is worth all the troubles, hehehe.
I am sorry I haven’t been able to reply to the comments from previous entries.
I have been really busy lately.
I guess until everything is installed and the whole house cleaned and nicely tidied up, then only life will be a bit less hectic.
I was taking a breather this afternoon when Miss 8 suddenly said, “Mrs McClay wants us to bring our finished costume to school tomorrow so we can have a full dress rehearsal on Tuesday.”
Erkkkk!!!
Ya Allah, nasib baik lah dia bagitau tengah hari tadi instead of malam sebeum nak tidur so sempat lah I finished off the last few things on the costume.
I thought esok baru I nak finish off the few bits and pieces.
And bila dah semua complete tadi, I suruh lah Miss 8 menggayakan her costume.
She definitely looks like a CAT instead of an OTTER!
Hikhikhikhikhik….
Maybe we can invent this new sea creature called a sea cat?
Oh well, takpelah kan, asalkan ada rupa binatang, tu dah kira bagus lah, hahahahaha.
You judge yourself eh, otter ke cat 
The face can go either way 
I said to Miss 8, “why don’t you lie on your back since sea otter is always on their back in the water, maybe you’ll look more like an otter that way?”
Takde nya rupa sea otter jugak, hahahahha. Rupa macam cat kekenyangan adalah, hehehehe.
Lepas tu, bila dia buat cat pose, lagi lah sebijik cat instead of otter.
Nanti masa assembly, I kena tampal on her costume the word ‘SEA OTTER’ besar besar so no one can question it!
Hahahahaha…..
But dalam busy2 tu, dinner still kena masak jugak.
I teringin sangat nak makan kari laksa so I made kari laksa for the us and pizza for the girls.
I just used ready-made laksa paste and a mixture of seafood and fishballs.
That chilli was from our garden and pedas gilerrrrrrrsssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I had to teguk susu 1 cawan baru hilang the pedas from my mouth and I cuma letak separuh chilli aje in my bowl!
The Other Half terus makan ice cream lepas makan laksa tadi sebab nak hilangkan pedas (well, that was his excuse lah, hehehe.)
We’ve been busy the whole day today.
Dari pagi tak berhenti rasanya (but still ada selingan makan kat luar and pergi window shopping though, hehehe.)
Pagi2 morning, we reorganised the fridge and freezer. We had to empty out the old fridge and freezers and then transfer the stuff from there to the new fridge and freezer.
Sambil tu buat ‘spring cleaning’ the freezers jugak.
Punyalah banyak benda dalam freezer tu yang tidak dapat di cam intipatinya, hahahahaha.
Mostly they were leftovers and I put them in ziplock bags but forgot to write on the bags what the content is. So, bila dah berbulan2 duduk dalam freezer, you tend to forget what they were 
But nowadays I dah ‘rajin’ sikit, I will usually write straight away on the ziplock bags what’s in them and the dates so senang lah nak cari and nak guna and nak buang kalau dah lama sangat.
Then we went light hunting in the morning.
Since we moved into this house, we haven’t changed the light fittings and fixtures in this house.
The previous owner ni loves roses so a lot of the lamp covers on the ceilings were glass covers with roses/ flowers prints.
We really do not like them!
But we were too malas to change them and just left them there. Until a few days ago we sort of said since we are going to have new stuff in the kitchen, we might as well change the lights in the kitchen as well.
So, tadi bila pergi the lighting shop, terus teruja nak tukar the covers for the whole house.
These are the lights that we got.
We got this for the kitchen.
The Other Half kata, senang 1 lampu tuju the stove/ oven area, satu lampu tuju the sink, 2 lampu tuju the bench 
And this one sits over the dining area.
And this glass light fitting pulak for the rest of the house (except the bathrooms, toilet, hallway and Miss 8’s room).
Why not in Miss 8’s room?
Sebab dia nak yang macam ni untuk her room.
A purple glass shade in her room! hehehe.
The Other Half tadi spent the afternoon tolong I kemas the fridge and freezer and also pasang all the lights as well.
Pastu, after dinner kat luar, we came back home and sambung kemas bookcases pulak since we have to rearrange the family room to accomodate the freezer.
Ini selonggok recipe books that I have (the recipe magazines I tak longgok lagi tu, hehehe).
Pastu, masa tengah2 kemas the recipe books, I terjumpalah these 2 books….
Mak mentua I bagi 2 buku ni ke I as hadiah Christmas about 8 years ago…
You rasa lah kan, apasal dia bagi buku ni ke I eh?
Dia nak hint2 ke I about something ke?
Hikhikhikhikhik……. 
For the next few days, our house memang macam rumah orang baru pindah, penuh dengan kotak and stuff everywhere!
