What we did on Saturday afternoon

Semalam we went for an impromptu picnic by the river.

Luckily I was already halfway in making dinner when we decided to go, so we just packed our dinner up and packed a few things and off we went.

Jauh jugak lah our picnic destination this time (jauh for Perth standard not Msia standard ok!).

It took us about 30 minutes to get there. We all pemandu berhemah, ikut speed limit all the time so tu yang ambik masa 30 minit.

But sempatlah we all berjalan meredah the Swan River, the girls main air and makan2 dinner by the river before going home just after sunset.

We had a lot of fun.

Ramai jugak yang berkelah at that place.

Ramai jugak yang kayaking and fishing.

And there was even a wedding going on there.

And there we so many black swans around us so I took about 30+ photos of the swans!

The Other Half said, “More black swans! yippeee!!!!” while rolling his eyes, hahahahaha…..

So, you all pun kenalah jadi macam The Other Half ye, layan gambar the black swans yang diselangi with a few photos of us .

This was what greeted us when we got there.

A bevy of black swans.

I told you I took a lottttttt of photos of them, hahahaha…

Selang selikan with our photos pulak ye .

Sambung balik gambar the swans…

Some more of the girls pulak….

And our picnic dinner, cheese pizza aje.

I’ve already made a family size besar gedabak pizza because my pizza pans are really big.

Then suddenly nak pergi berpicnic terpaksalah cuba sumbat that big pizza into the small boxes.

Tu yang when we opened up that box, it became square shape!

hahahaha…..

And the sunset

And some of the palatial mansions around that area.

Sure penat nak mengemas the whole house kan sebab besar gilers!

hikhikhikhikhik

Hot cross buns

During Easter and a few months leading up to Easter, the shops started selling hot cross buns.

Dolu2 cuma ada traditional hot cross buns aje yang dijual which are the spicy with dried sultanas variety.

But sekarang ni, dah macam2 jenis hot cross buns you can find at the shop, from the traditional to the non traditional varieties.

Like the caramel and date hot cross buns, the craisins and mixed peels hot cross buns, the chocolate hot cross buns, the no fruit hot cross buns….

So, since cuti panjang, I pun diminta lah dek The Other Half membuat hot cross buns semalam.

So, bangun tidur I pun terus lah membuat nya.

He said he wanted the version with loads of spices and also only sultanas.

Miss 13 pulak tak berapa suka that version because she doesn’t like sultanas much.

So I had to make the non spicy without any sultana version which is basically normal sweet buns lah.

But instead of making the normal sweet buns, I made for her chocolate with choc chips hot cross buns.

I made this version of hot cross buns but I followed all the comments and increased the spices to 3 teaspoons each and I soaked the dried fruits in hot water for a few minutes to plump them up.

Rupa the buns sebelum masuk oven.

Instead of crosses, I made squiggles cos I made too much of the paste, hehehe…..

And selepas dimasak. I cuma letak sugar syrup glaze aje instead of jam glaze.

I campur sultanas and currants.

And sebelum masuk mulut The Other Half.

And the choc versions.

I used a mixture of dark, milk and white choc chips and I added a bit of cocoa to the dough mixture. I guna the same recipe as above but I tak letak spices nor fruits.

And then, they wanted cheesy pizza for dinner but I told them that I’ve had enough kneading for that day.

Malas I nak membakar and makan roti lagi!

So, I made jemput2 udang and kuah kacang aje….

But untuk I, I buat ala2 rojak/gado gado, penuh dengan sayur.

baru lah I perasan macam makan benda berkhasiat kan, padahal takde nya healthy mana with goreng2 tu!

The long weekend is here

The Other Half got home from work today with a big smile on his face.

“The long weekend is finally here! i can’t wait to assasinate some baddies on the XBox tonite!”

Hahahahaha…..

Sejak lepas dinner and solat maghrib tadi, the girls and The Other Half dah tersadai depan XBox assasinating people!

The girls tak main lah main girly games ni. They would rather play Skyrim, Assasin Creed, Halo, Minecraft….

Don’t get me wrong, they did play with some girly stuff…

Masa Miss 13 kecik2 dulu, she did play with Barbie until she was 7 y.o. like that kot.

Then both of them started playing Polly Pockets until Miss 13 felt that she was a bit too big for Polly Pockets.

Then they started playing Littlest Pet Shops which Miss 9 still loves to collect and play until now.

And they still love collecting soft toys.

But they’ve never been into Bratz dolls at all. They can’t stand them, hehehe….

But at the same time, they also play with Lego’s and Playmobiles and a lot of other boys toys.

The Other Half and I don’t want our girls to be sangat2 girly which I think we’ve achieved judging from the noise they are making playing Halo in the living room!

I guess with a Mum like me, It will be a major shock to everyone if they do grow up to be women who are obssessed with makeups and clothes, because they certainly won’t get that from me, hahahahaha…..

Jimat duit sikit kan .

Miss 9 tu actually is not that well but main games punya pasal, sanggup tak nak tidur awal.

Luckily lah cuti sekolah for the next 5 days so hopefully dapatlah dia rehat and get better.

And since she’s not that well, I made her chicken soup and noodles for her dinner tonite.

And since dah buat chicken soup, I pun join lah sama makan dengan meehoon.

The Other two I buatkan cheesy muffins and beef kebab (which I found in the freezer).

Esok cuti so malam ni dah start malas masak! hahahaha….

I made clear chicken soup.

Lepas segalanya dah masak, I strained the soup and throw away all the rempah ratus, bawang, carrot pieces….

I just collected the clear strained soup and the chicken pieces aje. In a way, all the khasiat veges tu dah terkumpul dalam the soup kan.

So bila nak makan senang, takdelah Miss 9 kuis2 letak tepi the rempah ratus and the bawang and what not…..

She could just slurrrrp the soup and the noodles terus masuk mulut .

Yang ini mangkuk I sebab ada sambal kicap and tahu goreng and coriander leaves.

Easter long break

Tomorrow is the last day of school before the long Easter break.

Easter holidays ni memang sentiasa dinanti2kan dek semua orang sebab it’s a 4 day public holiday!

The Other Half will have a 4-day Easter break. He goes back to work on Tuesday.

Miss 9 pulak has a 5 day Easter break. Her school will only reopen on Wednesday.

Miss 13 pulak will have a 6-day Easter break! Her school will only reopen on Thursday!

Giler lama cuti!

And then 2 weeks after that, cuti sekolah end of term pulak….

Orang OZ ni kalau long weekend aje, mesti ramai2 pergi bercamping lah, pergi caravanning by the beaches lah, pergi somewhere in the country…

We all?

Duduk rumah aje, tak pergi mana2, hahahaha….

But we’ll definitely go out cycling and picnicking just around here.

And also eating loads of chocolate eggs and hot cross buns! .

Punahlah diet we all, hikhikhik…..

I like buying all the different flavour choc eggs and choc bunnies because they are so cute tapi I tak minat sangat nak makan…. I would rather makan hot cross buns.

But kalau letak the chocs in the bread, I suka!

Choc eggs in bread, choc eggs in choc cake, choc eggs in brownies……

Hehehehe….

Tonite’s dinner is another “punah diet kena pulun exercise lepas makan” meal.

But The Other Half tak kisah sebab dia dah kayuh basikal hari2 so tak payah pulun exercise pun takpe.

I ni pulak skrg tengah malas giler nak exercise. I haven’t been on the elliptical for 2 nights!

But tadi I still pulun makan as though I rajin exercise, hahahaha….

Sebab dah seminggu tak makan ayam so rasa rindu giler nak makan ayam, tu yang pulun makan!

I made chicken curry with potato, ayam goreng berempah, acar mentah, kacang panjang goreng with coconut.

And telur masin kedai mari.

Seminggu ni we all banyak makan seafood and vegetarian aje.

Tu yang I masak ayam macam dah setahun tak jumpa, hahahaha.

Semua orang tersenyum kekenyangan sebab dapat meratah ayam tadi….

Kahkahkahkahkah…….

Another year, another test, another reaction

Miss 9 had her annual skin prick test for her peanut allergy this afternoon.

Last year, the result was hopeful. Her reaction to the peanut allergen was slightly smaller.

Which made us quite happy.

So, we were hoping that it would show promising result today as well.

When we got there, the specialist tested her with 8 allergens.

This is how he did it.

He divided the are inside the forearm into grids by drawing on it with a pen.

Then, he put a small drop of different allergen in liquid form onto each of the grid.

Kalau lagi banyak allergen yang dia nak guna untuk test, lagi banyak lah the petak2 tu.

Then, he used the smallest needle to make a small prick piercing the droplet into the skin.

.

Tadi he tested her for some tree nuts and also peanut and something else.

This photo was taken a few minutes after the specialist did the skin prick test. You can’t really see much,

Tadi, Miss 9 tak meraung dah bila kena cucuk sebab dah biasa kot, hehehe.

Lepas tu, we had to wait for about 10 minutes for the reaction to take place.

This photo pulak was taken a few minutes after the first photo was taken.

From here, you can clearly see which one is the peanut grid, hehehehe. Yang other smaller lumps to are tree nuts.

We thought it was getting smaller.

Tapi bila the specialist had a look at it and compared it to last year’s reaction, it was actually a bit bigger!

And then he said something which made us so sad…..

“It looks like she’s developing some reactions to other nuts. That can happen in some peanut allergy sufferer as they get older. But it’s nothing to worry about yet.”

Last year she showed a small reaction to pecan only….

That cannot be happening!!!!!!!!

Macam mana I nak buat sambal kacang mahal and biskut gajus mazola if she becomes allergic to them too!

He told us to eat loads of tree nuts last year so Miss 9 pun bantai lah makan banyak2 and he still says that Miss 9 can continue to eat other nuts as normal…

But…..kalau next year nya test bertambah teruk…..what to do……

Seafood linguine for dinner

I did stick to my seafood menu tonite.

Even though I know my seafood dish is not as healthy as some but at least we are decreasing our red meat consumption kan.

Kalau nak betul2 healthy, I should have made steamed fish makan dengan brown rice or grilled fish makan dengan salad aje kan….

But if I were to masak like that, the girls will memberontak and diaorang akan lagi rela makan toast aje for dinner, hahahaha….

But the dish I made for dinner tonite, everyone seemed to like it a lot.

I made  creamy saffron seafood and vegetable linguine.

First I sauteed some dices onions and loads of garlic and fresh basil.

Then after they have wilted, I added 3 fresh tomatoes, chopped up, 1 carrot sliced thinly, 2 swiss brown mushrooms sliced thinly and 1 diced yellow capsicum.

Cook covered until everything is tender.

Add a bit of saffron which has been soaked in hot water to the vege mix.

Then add about 1/4 cup of cream and season with salt and pepper.

Set aside.

While the vege mix is cooking, cook the linguine until al dente and drained and set aside.

In a big frying pan, pan fry some marinara mix in garlic and salt and dried chilli flakes until cooked to your liking.

Tip the cooked pasta and the creamy mixed vege sauce into the marinara pan and toss all of them together until all the pasta and the marinara are well coated with the sauce.

Season again with salt and pepper.

Serve it with fresh basil, shaved parmesan and a big sprinkle of chilli flakes.

If you like your pasta to have more sauce, you can increase the amount of whipped cream used or you can add a bit of water to the sauce when you are cooking it.

If there’s a lot of sauce, a big chunk of crusty bread is a good accompaniment to the pasta .

Senang aje nak buat dia kan…

And kalau you present the dish nicely and ‘artistically’ on the plate, boleh kalah restaurant nya pasta!

hikhikhikhik…..

Vegetarian, pescetarian and meatatarian

We’ve always wanted to go vego one day a week and go pescetarian at least twice a week.

But with the easy availibility of chicken and meat everywhere, it’s so very easy to become total meatatarian 7 days a week, hehehehe.

And here in Perth, chickens and meat and meat products are so much cheaper than fish so it’s very easy to reach for the chicken than the fish kan.

And chicken tastes so much better as well kan!

hahahahaha….

But since The Other Half konon2 nya jadi lagi healthy, he persuaded me to cook some nice vegetarian food this weekend.

So on Sunday, I made red lentil dhal and vegetable curry.

He had them with basmathi rice while the rest of us had them with roti paratha instant.

I made potato, cauliflower and eggplant dry curry.

No one complained when there’s no sign of meat on their plates.

Macam makan roti canai dgn kari dal kat kedai mamak aje, hikhikhik….

So, tengah hari tadi I suggested for another vegetarian dinner but western this time.

The Other half said, “I want sausages and chips please. I had pineapple n cheese pizza on Friday nite and the dhal last nite so 2 nites of vegetarian meals is good enough to start with!”

Hahahahaha…..

So, for dinner tadi, I made sausages and chips but with plenty of salad to go with it.

Tomorrow we go pescetarian pulak ye……Marinara mix is on sale at Woolies .