The still ongoing sale

I love window shopping.

Because tak keluar duit and dapat cuci mata sambil berangan2.

And sejak lepas Christmas tu memang tak habis2 sale.

Most shops dah stop lah their mega sales but they still have small weekly sales which can be amazing sometimes.

One of them is Target.

A couple of times I masuk Target cari benda lain, keluar mesti bawak benda lain!

Susah betul bila rambang mata ni kan!

Semua nak beli!

Hehehehehe

The other day I masuk, I nampak benda2 ni…

Sape yang hantu gadgets comel2 macam ni sure akan ambik every single one of them kan!

Tadi I masuk, I nampak benda2 ni pulak….

They sell the mixer+the thermal ice cream bowl in a pack for $249 ajerr!

I dah ada mixer but takde all this planetary action nor scraper mixer nor the alien-looking special mixer for ice cream!

Hati meronta2 nak ambik tapi mixer I yang bagak tu nak letak mana.

Hehehehehe…..

And they have other stuff on clearance and on sale.

Nampak mcm best aje kan the Breville grill ni!

And the Sunbeam kettle is so so cute.

Since that was what I was looking for and this happened to be on sale.

Memang dah fated lah kiranya for the kettle to join our household.

Tu sebab The Other Half seriau aje kalau bini dia kata nak pergi window shopping!

Hahahahaha.

P/S Sape yang tanya pasal the bread recipe, I ada pernah bagi recipe sweet dough and white bread dough and pizza dough in previous entries.

But you kena kerja lebih sikit cari kat shortcut recipe tu.

And yes, I still guna tangan untuk uli all my dough sebab dah bertahun2 my BM berkubur masuk hard rubbish and sampai sekarang masih tak beli2 baru lagi.

And so far, tak lah susah mana nak menguli nya sebab the dough is quite soft so tak lah sampai berketul2 muscles naik kat tangan I akibat menguli, hikhikhik…

Overdosing!

Saturday hari tu we all tak keluar ke mana2 pun, not even to go cycling or walking!

Tersangat lah malasnya nak keluar rumah cos it was quite hot.

Nasib baik keluar jugak jemur kain or else memang tak rasa cahaya matahari langsung lah hari tu, hehehe

But I tak boleh lah duduk rumah tak buat something bila cuaca panas2 ni.

Macam memanggil manggil aje tepung roti dalam flour bin tu

Rasa rugi aje kalau tak make full use of the heat kan!

So I meroti hari tu sampai The Other Half said, “I’ve never thought that I could overdose on bread but now I know I can!”

Hahahahahaha…

I started with bread for lunch.

But I wanted to make something different yang we all tak pernah makan lagi.

So I made silverside, garlic and chives monkey bread style loaf.

I used basic white dough yang I guna untuk buat white bread and then cut it up into cubes.

layer it in a baking pan, then scatter the silverside, garlic, chives and grated cheese on top of it.

then pour a bit of melted butter on the topping.

Do another layer of bread dough and repeat the process until all the dough’s used up.

This is how it looks like cooked.

Rupa dia setelah kena cubit .

It’s so good with butter!

Then for afternoon tea, I buat sweet breads pulak!

Bukan setakat 1 jenis, 3 jenis terus! hahahaha

I made apple and custard plaited bread.

(macam rupa sotong alien aje kan!)

letak diced raw apple, a bit of sugar, some cinnamon, custard, currants and flaked almond.

Then pandai2 lah buat tocang.

I also made red bean ‘caterpillar’ buns and roti kelapa.

It took us until Sunday night nak menghabis kan all the bread!

Memang overdosed bread sungguh lah!

Stay at home Mums are busy too ;-)

I’ve been quite busy lately.

When budak2 baru start sekolah, memang semua parents a bit busy kan.

Especially parents yang jadi makcik kantin and mak supir .

Baru 3 weeks of school, I dah pening kepala fikir nak buat apa for their lunches.

So far they are quite happy with leftovers, chicken wraps, sandwiches and the occasional karipap, hehehe.

But their favourite is still wraps cos easy to hold, the ‘bread’ is nice and everything nicely placed in it.

And 2 days a week, the girls have early start so I will normally make breakfast on the go that they can have in the car or at school, because they say their stomachs tak larat nak makan too early in the morning.

I’ll normally make them jaffles (toasted sandwich) with sweet fillings for their ‘on the go’ breakfast.

Then letak the jaffles dlm paper lunch bags and a cup of milo for Miss 10 and tea for Miss 14 in the thermal mugs.

Nasib 2 days a week aje kena buat macam ni, kalau hari2 pengsan kejap lah.

Kalah breakfast in a plane kan!

At least diaorang tak mintak nasi lemak or mee goreng or roti canai or roti telur or kuih muih 2-3 ketul for breakfast kan!

And another thing that kept me busy the past few days was this…

Making samples of these desserts for someone to taste test.

Remember the black n white themed birthday party that I mentioned last week.

I decided to make these 4 desserts for them to choose from.

I made Oreos cupcakes.

black and white meringue kisses with dark choc ganache

upside down black and white cake pops.

and mini Oreos cheesecakes.

The mini cheesecakes looked yellow instead of black or white cos baru keluar oven terus kena posing but I guess if you present them without the liners and pipe some whipped cream and dark choc ganache on it, ada lah rupa black n white kot, hehehe.

I hope they like the samples and will choose one of them.

I guess yang dah pro buat cakes and cookies ni, they can do all these pejam mata sebelah aje in a few hours which took me a long time.

I ni masa nak decorate tu lah baru nak cari segala peralatan yang memang tak cukup so make do aje lah with apa yang ada.

Wordless Wednesday night

Shells or meringues?

Mee goreng mamak or mee goreng jawa?

Lauk kenduri masak tungkus lumus berjam2 kat dapur or lauk reheat dari magic freezer?

Hahahahaha….

Lukisan free hand or tracing?

Tapi sudah semestinya bukan I yang lukis lah!

Black and white and the meatballs

I’ve accepted a request from a friend of a friend to make some desserts for her daughter’s 21st birthday party.

And the theme is Black and White.

Miss 10 said, “what about that black rice dessert with the coconut milk that you sometimes make. that’s black and white”.

Kalau majlis melayu, ok lah kot I buat bubur pulut hitam.

Ini majlis Mat Saleh yang still so young.

Not many Mat Salehs like the texture of pulut and I dont want to ruin her big day so I think I’ll skip that suggestion, hehehehe.

I think I’ll stick to western desserts yang not so complicated to make Cos I am HOPELESS when it comes to decorating.

They have already asked for my mini cheesecakes with strawberry coulis.

Sebab they loved them so much the last time they had the cheesecakes at our friend’s birthday party.

And they want another dessert to go with it.

And the birthday girl requested something chocolatey.

I’m thinking of making black and white cake pops/ cake balls or something with oreos in it or meringues dipped in dark choc or black n white meringue swirls.

Other than that, I’m stumped for ideas.

Any good suggestions?

I still have a month before the big day but I have to email the person with dessert ideas.

Lainlah kalau I ni memang dessert maker kan, surenya idea bertimbun2, hehehe.

Kalau setakat untuk makan sendiri, boleh lah I buat, tak cantik sangat pun takpe.

Nasib baik lah untuk 60 people aje so tak lah gabra sangat.

Lain lah kalau diaorang mintak I buatkan swedish meatballs like what we had for dinner last night.

Yang ini gerenti I boleh buat dengan senang hati sebab tak payah decorate bagai!

The only leceh part is panfrying them on the stove top sebab mercik2 sikit.

But you can always pop them in the oven for a healthier less mercik version.

But rasa dia lain sikit lah, yang panfried version sudah tentunya lagi sedap.

I used this recipe as my base.

But I increased the allspice to 1/4 teaspoon and I added 1/4 teaspoon of paprika to the mince mixture.

And I also chopped the onion and the garlic in the food processor so they are a bit finer.

We had the swedish meatballs with creamy sauce and parmesan mashed potatoes, with a side of salad.

For the sauce, you can follow the above recipe or you can do it the way I made it.

Use the same pan that you use to cook the meatballs WITHOUT washing it.

And DO NOT throw away all the leftover stuck bits of meat and oil in the pan.

They are the best bits that make your gravy/cream sauce tastes oh so amazing.

Creamy sauce recipe:

-To the pan, on low heat, add about 3 tablespoons of plain flour

- stir it into the oil and crunchy bits and cook for 2-3 minutes until everything is combined together nicely and the flour is cooked.

-if there’s not much oil left in the pan after frying the meatballs, you can add some butter to it before you add the flour.

-if there’s too much oil in the pan after frying the meatballs (which will happen if you use mince that has a lot of fat in it), you might need to drain the oil a bit or else the sauce will be too oily.

-then add some liquid to the pan, around 1 cup. You can either use beef stock, chicken stock or water.

- I used water but I added powdered chicken stock to replace the salt.

-stir and cook until the sauce has thickened a bit.

-add 1/3 cup of cream and stir some more.

-add 2 teaspoons of worcesteshire sauce and taste. If it’s not salty enough, you can add chicken stock, beef stock or salt.

-let it simmer for about 5 minutes and it’s ready to be poured onto the meatballs.

 

Some people put the meatballs into the sauce in the pan because they want the meatballs to soak up the sauce.

But I prefer pouring the creamy sauce onto the meatballs on top of the mashed potatoes.

You can put as much sauce or as little as you want .

I still think this is much better than the IKEA’s meatballs!

Habislah kena lahar! Hahahahahaha