So many things to do, so little time….

I am so exhausted sekarang sebab I’ve been doing the final mengemas and membersihkan the whole house today before the guests arrive.

Lebih kurang macam masa we all menyewa dulu and buat our 3-monthly house cleaning for the house inspection penatnya, hehehe.

Bila the girls balik from school, awal2 I dah warn diaorang not to mess things up and keep every thing tidy and clean sebab I dah tak larat nak clean up after them.

The Other Half pun dah awal2 kena warn not to leave his stuff lying around everywhere sebab I dah penat mengutip for him…

But I’m not sure berapa lama lah they’ll be able to keep tidy and clean ni…. hmmmmmm…..

I’ve even made meatballs to stock up in the freezer and some rock cakes for snacks for the guests.

I thought of making some more frozen dinners like lasagna or bolognese sauce that I can just take out and reheat bila penat2 balik from sightseeing or shopping with the guests but…

penat and malas both are ruling my body at the moment so might have to shelf that idea, hehehe.

I thought of making fish n chips tonite but since I dah buat the meatballs to be frozen, I just took a few and used them for dinner.

My version of swedish meatballs with fries and salad.

The swedish meatballs recipe I ambil from here but I added a splash of worcesteshire sauce and a squirt of tomato sauce to the mince mixture and loads of ground black pepper to make it less bland.

And I baked the meatballs in the oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes instead of frying them sebab malas nak berdiri depan stove top the whole day.

For the gravy pulak, I used chicken stock, a mixture of sour cream and cream and a splash of soy sauce to add that extra oommph.

Macam IKEA punya meatballs tapi I punya lagi sedap, muahahahaha .

Another repeat dinner

Like I’ve said before, I have probably made 3000+ dinners over the years but most of our dinners are the same repeat dinners instead of newly created dish every nite.

I am just a home cook cooking for my family not Cik Puan Nigella nor Abang Jamie, hahahaha….

Tak kuasa I nak fikir a new dish every single night ni weh….

Mau terbakar my brain cells if I were to do that!

hehehehehe .

The Other Half kata out of that 3000+ dinners, 300+ would be made up of pizzas since boleh katakan every week I buat pizza kan.

And another 500+ would be dinners that have chips in it because chips ni sangat lah senang nya nak “masak”. Turn the oven on and masukkan dalam oven and 20-30 minutes later, they are cooked.

And so many more would have roast chicken of some sort or another in it.

Fish dinners would be very low down on the list of dinners I have cooked though….

Like tonite for example, roast chicken with pan-grilled cheesy toastie and bean salad.

Beli ayam yang dah siap marinate, turn the oven on and let it bake in there until done to your liking.

Buat beans salad sebab semua orang dalam rumah ni suka beans salad sangat2 and I always have a can of four-bean mix in my pantry.

Bila I malas masak sayur, beans salad ni paling senang nak buat sebab you do not need to cook anything in it.

I thought of having the roast chicken with chips but since I am thinking of making fish n chips esok, kenalah tukar to another type of carbs. So, buat lah pan-grilled cheesy toastie ni.

Takde susah mane nak masak ni kan .

The things I wish for sometimes….

Everytime I’m on the road, I always wish I have some sort of magical powers…

Especially the power to curse and make the curses come true!

Hehehehe….

The traffic here is so very tame compared to the traffic in KL or anywhere in Malaysia.

But dalam2 tame and mild tu, masih ramai jugak drivers yang sangat lah menyakitkan hati dan menguji kesabaran.

Tu yang I wish I have magical powers sometimes, heeee…

-The power to make some drivers drive at the speed limit instead of 10kms BELOW the speed limit!

(Come on people! The speed limit here bukannya tinggi mana pun so kalau you nak buat 45-50kms in a 60kms zone, sapa lah tak tension Ah Soh weh!)

-The power to make some drivers be more aware of their surroundings for example being aware that there is a long queue of cars waiting to enter the intersection as well so make a move quickly lah instead of waiting for someone to bentang the red carpet for you baru you nak bergerak!

-The power to make these drivers automatically know the road rules instead of still using the road rules of the countries where they come from!

-The power to make these stupid drivers just go poof and disappear off the roads (The best power of all, hahahahaha….)

-The power to make a policeman magically appear on the road when there are stupid hoons around so they can fine them and confiscate their cars straight away (power yang ini pun best jugak kan, hehehe.)

Kalau I tengah tension kat some of the stupid drivers, I do wish I ada witch’s powers so I can curse them and change them into cane toads, hahahaha….

But since I takde any super magical powers, I cuma boleh beristighfar banyak2 aje lah kan…

Cukuplah I ada magical touch in the kitchen to feed my family kan, itu pun dah kira power yang best jugak, ye tak .

Tonite for dinner, I made beef casserole makan dengan parmesan bread, bread sticks and roast sweet potatoes.

I thought nak buat meat pies but malas pulak nak trim and shape the puff pastry and the shortcrust pastry so tu yang buat the parmesan bread.

Around 3000+ and still counting ^__^

We were having dinner when The Other Half suddenly said…

“we’ve been married nearly 17 years and you still could come up with new dishes for dinners.”

“I wonder how many dishes you’ve cooked in that 17 years?”

Then I said to him, “We cooked together in the first year of our married life. Then when we moved to Malaysia, we ate out more than we cooked. I guess I started to properly cook dinner for the family for the past 10 years.”

Then he started counting…

“Let’s just say you cook about 300 dinners a year give or take so that would be 3000 dinners you’ve cooked so far. And you still can come up with new dishes isntead of the same old dinners every time which is really good.”

(itu tak termasuk breakfast and lunch and snacks and kuih muih in between kan, hehehe).

Awwwwww…..  He’s a sweet talker that guy!

Muahahahaha .

That’s because I cooked gnocchi a different way tonite .

First I cooked a white sauce using cream and milk with a bit of tomato paste in it. So it’s slightly rosé colour to the sauce. Then I added broccoli and peas for the vege factor.

Then I cooked the gnocchi and lay it in an oven-proof dish.

Pour the sauce on the gnocchi until all covered, then sprinkle the grated mozzarella or colby, the smoked salmon, toasted pine nuts and the torn basil leaves.

Put it under the grill until the cheese has all melted.

The end product.

Sprinkle some more pine nuts and smoked salmon just before serving.

It’s very creamy and rich, definitely a dish to be eaten very rarely unless you are trying to pile on some kilos, hehehe….

Bye bye little fish

We decided to put Miss 8’s fish to sleep a few days ago after watching it getting weaker and weaker and gasping for breath.

We told Miss 8 that it is much better to put her fish to sleep than to let it be in pain.

So, we put the fish in a bag of water and straight away put it in the freezer so it could sleep peacefully.

And yesterday, she buried the fish in her bougainvillea pot.

She has 2 pots of bougainvillea growing just outside her bedroom window which she chose and planted herself a few months back. She said the flowers will make the view outside her window more interesting instead of just grey fence .

So I guess it is very fitting for her to bury her fish under the bougainvillea bush kan.

Her fish will be good food for her flowers.

The last photo of her and her fish before it got frozen, heeee….

And then, after we’ve put her fish to sleep, Miss 13’s fish pulak was acting as though it was very depressed!

How am I supposed to treat a depressed fish?

Hikhikhikhik…

It wasn’t interested in eating its food, not interested to swim around. It looked really listless, only staying at the bottom of the tank where Miss 8’s fish used to hide.

But this evening, it finally came up to eat the food and swam around everywhere looking like its old self.

Haiwan pun ada berkabung period agaknya eh? heeeeee……

Malam ni I masak nasi lemak for dinner but I malas nak ambik gambar nasi lemak again and again.

So, layan aje lah gambar mee goreng yang I buat a few days ago (mee goreng lagi! hehehe).

Kalau I buat mee goreng, cuma I and Miss 8 aje yang makan dengan muka ceria. The Other Half will eat it to fill his stomach while Miss 13 memang tak makan mee yg panjang2 macam ni, hehehe.

P/S- I am sorry I haven’t been answering any of your comments. I have been quite busy lately during the day.

And for the past few nights pulak, my time has been taken by Eurovision 2012, hahahaha….

So, memang tak sempat langsung2 lah nak duduk depan PC menjawab the comments.

InsyaAllah, I’ll do it soon ok!

Our busy Saturday tending the gardens

We spent the whole day cleaning up and tidying up.

When you have vege gardens and lawns in front and at the back of the house, you definitely need the whole day to get everything looking neat and tidy.

The Other Half did most of the gardening stuff, mowing the lawns, relayering the no-dig vege garden and building a trellis.

He even had time to wash the car yang dah berbulan tak dibasuh!

Itupun sebab ada guests nak datang, tu yang dia basuh the car, hahahaha…

My job esok will be to clean and vacuum the inside of the car pulak so inside dia pun nampak lah bersih sikit kan .

I pulak pruned the roses, swept the whole outdoor area that was covered with cut grass from the lawn-mowing, tidied up the outside sitting area yet again, helped The Other Half erect the trellis and picked watermelons.

I said to him that he’s a few months too late in building the trellis for the snake beans and the angle beans. Dah jenuh makan kacang panjang, baru nak build the trellis, heeee…

Sebab both beans have already intertwined and the shoots have gone everywhere.

Jenuh lah we all tadi trying to prise off some of the already menjalar shoots and twined them around the new trellis.

Takde kerja, cari kerja kan, hikhikhik…

Ini pulak our no-dig garden. He relayered it today with dirt, compost and sugar cane mulch. So now we just have to start planting the seedlings.

(But we all takde lagi seedlings nak ditanam sebab tak sempat nak menanam biji benih yet, hehehe.)

These are the dwarf beans.

Our wildly grown tomato plant. Tak tau jenis apa yang ini. But Summer baru ni, we planted the cherry tomatoes in this area so hopefully this is a cherry tomato plant jugak lah.

The sugar snap peas just starting to grow.

And ini pulak our watermelon collection that I harvested today.

They are humongous ok! Berat giler nak mengangkat semua ni tadi.

We’ve only had 1/4 for morning tea tadi. The one that we had was so sweet.

Ada lagi about 5 more yang masih kecik on the plants.

Lepas ni, boleh lah I bukak stall jual air tembikai kat depan rumah eh, hahahaha….

But sambil2 tu, sempat jugak buat the easy peasy rock cakes for after lunch treat.

Dah penat2 buat kerja kan, mesti lah ada treat .

Tired Thursday

Miss 8 choir group went to the SingFest today.

7 schools performed 2 songs each and they then sang 5 songs as a mass choir which was really cool.

When they were performing their 2 songs, each school would go up onstage but they stayed sitting on the floor when they were singing the mass choir songs or else memang tak cukup tempat lah the stage tu.

I went to watch them sing and watch the other schools’ choirs sing too.

Penat weh menunggu budak2 menyanyi, hehehehe…

This is their choir uniform, black shirt and black pants. The shirt has a special music logo. The boys also wear a maroon tie.

It makes them stand out more wearing the all black.

So, bila balik tadi, I dah tak larat nak masak yang fancy2, I masak sausages with mashed potato, steamed veges and cheesy pizza bread.

Kat rumah ni memang kena sentiasa ada stock sausages, senang nak buat dinner kalau tengah tak tau nak masak apa.

Everyone loves sausages makan dengan apa2 pun (except nasi lah, hehehe).

The fish and the jala

Miss 8’s fish is still alive, barely though…

I went to the pet shop and asked about the fish’s prognosis and he said that usually fish will not survive from swim bladder disease ni and what we are doing is good enough to help.

I just hope the fish dies while Miss 8 is at home or else mau lah kot seminggu tak habis nangis dia.

Miss 13’s fish pulak I think is missing its friend.

We’ve had so many pets already throughout the years.

We’ve had a cat, a few rabbits, a few guinea pigs, a couple of mice, some hermit crabs, a couple of finches, a turtle and the current goldfish while living in OZ.

And we used to have loads of fish in a big aquarium and a couple of red-head sliders in an indoor small ‘pond’ in Malaysia.

At present, we are happy with just having fishes as pets.

(and the occasional willy wagtails that come hopping into the garden, the seasonal crickets and caterpillars that Miss 8 loves to collect and the worms in The Other Half’s worm farm).

Cukup lah tu kan, hehehe….

Malam ni The Other Half nak makan kari.

But I said to him yang I nak buat roti jala for myself and I will cook some roti canai for the girls and I will cook some rice for him to eat with the kari.

But it ended up cuma Miss 13 aje yang makan roti canai with kari ayam tu.

The rest of us makan roti jala!

Especially Miss 8 yang memang sangat2 minat kat roti jala and dah lama gila tak makan roti jala so tadi dia melantak sakan the roti jala!

Phew, nasib baik lah I buat banyak jugak so tak lah I menangis depan batu belah batu bertangkup lagi, hikhikhihkik…..

I suka makan roti jala tapi leceh betul nak menunggu kat depan stove tu kan…

I added a bit of yellow colouring to the roti jala sebab letak kunyit tadi tak kuning sangat pulak nya.

The story of her pet

Miss 8’s goldfish is dying…

She noticed that her fish is lying on its side since this afternoon when she came back from school and does not look like the fish is going to get better.

It will occasionally swim but can’t seem to get itself upright or swim to the top.

She’s been crying her heart out, poor girl .

She’s had the fish since we first moved into this house so I think it is quite a long life cycle already for a fancy godlfish.

I think the fish is having some problems with its swim bladder and after googling, I found out that I am right.

So, sebab kesian kat Miss 8, we did some of the suggested treatments to try and fix the swim bladder problem.

We’ve removed the fish into a quarantine ‘tank’ with a reduced amount of water to help lessen the pressure on the fish’s swim bladder and fasting the fish for a few days.

Miss 8 is feeling slightly better now because we are trying to help her fish to get better.

But I told her that it might still die even after this.

She knows that fact but I guess she feels that she’s done her best to help her fish with the illness so takdelah rasa guilt or feeling helpless kan.

(I dont think I want to spend money in taking a goldfish to the vet though, heeee…).

But what we found amazing is that Miss 13’s fish has been trying to help Miss 8’s fish to swim upright by nudging it gently and swimming under it so Miss 8’s fish was lying on top of him.

They’ve been best of friends since they got put into the same tank so I guess bila sekor sakit, sekor lagi sedih lah jugak kan, hehehe….

Since I tak sedih sangat about the fish (cuma sedih tengok Miss 8 nangis mendayu2), I still boleh masak and makan…

I teringin sangat nak makan kuih nagasari and kuih sagu gula melaka hari ni.

So I made kuih nagasari versi orang malas (just kukus kat loyang without the daun pisang) and sagu gula melaka to make The Other Half and Miss 8 happy.

I guna pisang yang dah siap dikukus but dijual frozen and I sliced them up thinly and susun cantik2.

Lega rasa dapat makan nagasari after so many months tak makan.

My sagu gula melaka with susu cair.