Asian, Western and Fusion

The meals we had…

Chicken curry laksa atau laksa kari ayam.

Home-made potato gnocchi in burnt butter, sage and walnut ‘sauce’ with crumbed lamb cutlet and chicken and steamed veges.

Disebabkan gnocchi tu home-made, tu yang rupa macam hapadah aje, hehehe.

Fried seafood basket with fries and salad.

Ada macam2 in the ‘basket’. I made crumbed prawns and salt n pepper squid n salt n pepper prawns. And then  crumbed calamari, crumbed prawn cutlets, crumbed scallops,  and battered fish and seafood stick from frozen kedai mari.

Tapi sebab tekak I ni tekak melayu, gigih I masak nasi nak makan dgn seafood dgn sambal and serunding!

The other three dah biasa sangat tengok kepelikan I, they didn’t even bat an eyelid tengok I makan the seafood basket dgn nasi tadi, hikhikhik….

3 days update

Another long gap between updates, hehehe….

Takpelah, at least I update jugak walaupun cuma beberapa hari sekali kan.

And what are the excuses this time?

Seperti biasalah, busy and malas, hahahaha.

So, what’s been happening the past few days in this household?

Nothing much, same old same old, tu yang tak tau nak update pasal apa.

On Friday, we had a few guests for dinner so I made this.

Friday nite memang selalunya pizza nite unless I’m so sick and tired of making bread or pizza that week, hikhikhikhik…..

I made all of the above pizzas with garlic bread and salad on the side.

And choc victoria sandwich cake for dessert.

Then the Saturday was spent mostly doing things involving the garden.

Bought some more flowers for the garden .

I’ve been wanting these flowers for so long when I saw it in gardens around our house ni.

Tapi tak tau nama dia and nak ketuk pintu rumah orang saje2 nak tanya nama bunga, tak berani pulak nya, hahahaha.

So, when I saw them at Bunnings, terus lah i sambar.

They are Western Australians wildflowers called Everlastings.

But it’s a bit too late dah for them to grow, cuma lebih kurang 3 bulan aje lagi before they stop producing.

Next year boleh tanam awal sikit since dah tau nama dia.

My little garden helper. She dug the trench and planted the Everlastings.

The Other Half pulak mowed the lawns, fertilised the plants and lawn and readied the vege patch for planting.

Alhamdulillah, malam ni hujan so hopefully all the fertilisers will get to work soon.

And also on that Saturday night, I tried making home made fondant, first time ever!

I’ve never ‘played’ with fondant before so I have no idea jadi ke tak.

Sambil uli, sambil I bayangkan the consequences of having diabetes!

Banyak giler pakai gula!

Hahahaha….

But the girls and Miss 14’s friend certainly had fun playing with the fondant today.

Their creations.

Ok lah kan for first timers without any specific tools.

I had to limit their cupcake intakes tadi or else memang tak kan dapat tidur lah due to sugar rush!

Flowers, food and nearly Friday

The past couple of weeks have just zoomed through so quickly.

Tiba2 dah nak Friday again tomorrow.

It’s been such a lovely week this week, sunshine and low 20s during the day.

Selepas 2 minggu hujan hari2.

So, minggu ni, hari2 lah saya menjemur kain kat ampaian tu and tiap2 hari masuk kebun menyembur all the pests on the citrus trees and the roses.

Sebab minggu depan dah hujan balik .

Tu yang rasa macam cepat sangat aje masa berlalu.

Barulah seronok nak membelek tanaman bila tak hujan ni kan.

Some of the flowers in the garden.

Purple daisy.

The paper flowers

The lavenders

The snapdragons.

This Spring I dah berazam nak tanam banyak2 bunga and letak dalam pots and letak kat pathway to the front door.

So, kalau orang pandang our house dari luar, nampak berseri2 aje lah kan sbb penuh dgn bunga .

If only The Other Half can mow the lawn regularly instead of nampak mcm rumah terbiar, it will be perfect….

And now moving to food pulak.

We had creamy broccoli n tomato fettucine with chicken pops.

I made this sebab nak menghabiskan chicken pops yang dah lama bertapa dalam freezer tu.

Terus jadi sangat sedaplah pulak chicken pops tu bila makan dengan pasta yang cenggini.

And garlic and parmesan mashed potatoes with onion gravy and sausages and steamed broccoli.

The garlic and parmesan mash ni sama aje mcm any other mash.

Boil your potatoes until tender.

Drain and add loads of butter, warm milk, roasted garlic which is mashed a bit, grated parmesan and salt and pepper.

Mash until everything is nicely combined and there’s no lumpy bits.

And tak lupa jugak nasi dan kari.

But instead of the usual indian style kari yang The Other Half suka bebeno, I made typical melayu style kari.

Makan dengan sambal belacan and kobis goreng.

I rasa sejak bulan puasa hari tu, we all cuma makan nasi seminggu sekali aje sekarang.

The rest of the time makan potato and wheat-based dinner.

Which makes Miss 14 so happy!

WACE, VSC and SDS ;-)

After school tadi, The Other Half and I and Miss 14 had a meeting with one of the school teachers for a course counselling session.

Miss 14 will be in Year 11 next year which is the senior year.

And mula dari sekarang, they have to start thinking of the subjects they need to take in Yr 11 and Yr 12 that will enable them to get into the course they want at uni.

At the end of Year 12, they have a big exam called WACE(Western Australian Certificate of education) which is the make or break exam untuk masuk Uni.

Lebih kurang lah dengan I dulu masa masuk Form 4 and Form 5 kan (tapi itu dah berpuluh puluh tahun dulu lah. Cerite sekarang I tak tau).

Dulu I ambik aliran Sains and ambik geography instead of Sejarah.

Tapi untuk budak2 kat sini, they have more freedom to choose what they want for their final subjects in high school, tak macam I dulu.

And it depends on the school jugak, bukan semua subjects will be offerred at each school.

Ada 52 WACE subjects so memang tak boleh lah the schools nak offer all the subjects kan.

Sape yang nak mengajar nya.

Macam masa tahun I dulu, ambik 9 subjects untuk SPM kan and aggregate SPM ditentukan dari 6 subjects aje.

Macam Miss 14 pulak, they have to do a minimum of 20 units within that 2 years and so many hours of class time.

But kalau nak ambik lebih dari tu pun takpe, as long as you can manage the extra workload lah.

And ada banyak lagi lah rules that they have to follow before they can be awarded the WACE.

So tadi, we all pun berbincang lah pasal whether the subjects that Miss 14 have chosen will be enough.

She’ll be taking 6 subjects for her WACE which is not that many but they only take the highest 4 results anyway for the final score.

The Other Half and I would rather she scores in all the subjects than take too many and tak larat nak buat, hehehehe….

Tapi ramai gak yang ambik sampai 10 subjects+ and aced them….

Budak2 yang dah sah2 pandai lah tu kan, heeeee….

We all including Miss 14 pening jugak masa nak choose the subjects for her, berminggu2 jugak lah we all fikir.

Bila anak2 makin membesar, kenalah fikir about schools and unis kan.

Anyway, semalam I managed to bake Victoria sandwich cake (VCS) yang dah lama sangat I nak try buat.

Ye lah, cake ni kan tengah famous ya amat kat Msia and semua memuji2 kesedapannya.

And tak lah susah nak buat nya so tu yang I buat.

And memang terbukti kesedapannya!

Even The Other half yang tak suka spongy type cake loved this cake.

I used the simplest recipe which requires you to measure the weight of the eggs (still in the shell).

Then, measure the butter, caster sugar and self raising flour to the exact weight of the eggs.

Semalam I guna 4 eggs which weighed 247g so I pun measure 247g of softened butter, 247g of caster sugar and 247g of SRF.

In a large bowl, crack the eggs, add all the other ingredients, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and 2 tsp vanilla extract and beat using electric mixer until they are well combined and smooth.

What I read from UK cooking sites (which this cake originated from), the cake batter has to be soft enough that you can drop it into the cake pans.

Kalau keras kejung tak nak jatuh, add a bit of milk and beat some more.

Grease and line two 20-cm cake pans and dollop the cake mixture into both pans.

Bake at 190C (170C for fan forced oven for 20-30 mins or until brown and springs back when you touch).

Semalam I had to bake it at the longer time sebab tak brown lagi.

After that, let the cakes cool on a wire rack.

Bila dah sejuk, baru lah boleh sapu dengan jam and letak whipped cream.

I had to use raspberry and blackcurrant jam semalam sebab dah sapu separuh raspberry jam, I baru perasan yang I takde jar baru so kenalah topped up with blackcurrant jam, hehehe….

And sekarang kan tgh musim strawberries kat WA ni so tu yang hias dgn sebesar2 straws .

I made the cake for afternoon tea semalam, petang tadi dah habis dimakan.

And ini pulak, the sandwich I made for Miss 9 pagi tadi.

Serunding daging sandwich (SDS) with cheese and lettuce.

Miss 9 kata sedaaaaaap sangat! Tak sangka betul dia!

Hahahahahaha….

The girls in kebaya

Memang sangat lah makin lemau nya mood nak mengupdate blog ni.

I guess since bulan puasa kot, mood lemau ni tiba.

Masa bulan puasa, understandable lah kan sebab banyak masa nak habiskan beramal ibadat so memang blog tolak tepi lah sekejap.

And then bila dah makin jarang update blog, makin susah lah mood lemau tu nak beralih pergi.

Bukan setakat nak update blog, nak pergi bloghopping pun lemau jugak, hikhikhik….

Padahal banyak aje gambar yang boleh di ‘post’ kan.

Orang kat Msia masih dalam mood raya, we all pun masih jugak beraya at the weekends.

And masa ni lah nak tayang baju raya (walaupun baju raya tu dah bertahun2 lamanya disimpan dalam vacuum bag, hehehehe).

And dapat lah jugak the girls pakai the kebaya tops yang nenek belikan yang Mum diaorang forgot about so terlupa nak pakai on the first day of Hari Raya haritu.

But Nenek cuma beli baju dia aje so terpaksalah improvised for the bottom parts.

Yang sorang macam anak cina pakai kebaya…

Yang sorang lagi macam anak arab pakai kebaya….

Yang ini memang dah sah2 Jawa lah, hahahaha….

And some of the food I cooked over the past few days…

On Friday nite, when the others had pizza, I makan nasi.

Tapi, I cuma masak nasi aje, yang lain tu jumpa dalam magic freezer so tinggal thaw and reheat aje!

And then on Saturday morning tu, Miss 9 mintak doughnuts for breakfast so I made doughnuts for morning tea.

But it’s called dropped doughnuts sebab cuma guna spoons aje to drop the dough into the hot oil.

Lebih kurang jemput2 manis lah but with the addition of yeast and egg and milk.

Quiche ni pulak was for dinner a few nights ago.

I made sweet potato. mushroom and caramelised onion quiche.

While for dinner tonite, we had steak sandwich with garlic spread and caramelised onion and fries and salad.

Dah seminggu The Other Half mintak nak makan steak sandwich ni but baru malam ni bini dia rajin nak masak, hahaha….

And yang dalam balang ni pulak is keropok ikan orang melayu Christmas Island.

I had it at someone’s house.

Lain sangat2 dengan keropok ikan Malaysia kan!

Rasa dia pun sangat lah lain nya.

For me personally yang grew up dengan keropok ikan Malaysia, I lagi suka keropok ikan Malaysia yang penuh dgn ikan and tak banyak tepung tu, lagi nikmat rasanya!