Salam Dua Benua

Brownies, schnitzel and 42°C

2012-01-28T22:05:00.001+08:00

I don’t really mind the hot weather, even though I love cold weather more.

But I would rather have hot and dry weather than hot and humid weather.

Hot and dry, cuma rasa bahang panas perit on the skins but not suffocating nor draining the energy.

Hot and humid pulak will always make me feel so lethargic and suffocated with loads of sweating to boot! Tu yang bila balik Msia, sampai2 aje kat luar airport, rasa lembik and penat terus, hikhikhik… (padahal duduk aje for 5+ hours on the plane, tu yg tak larat aje kan, heeeee.).

I rasa kalau hot and humid, my sakit kepala lagi kerap singgah datang menjenguk. And my temper flares easily as well .

Today was extremely hot but unbelievably humid as well!

Rasa macam nak stay under the cold shower the whole day aje!

I had to do some shopping this morning and when I got out of the house at 8.30 this morning to konon2nya beat the heat, it was already 30+C and humid.

When I got back before 12, it was nearly 40°C. And it got up to 42.1°C max hari ni.

Tu yang no one wanted to temankan I bershopping tadi. They would rather stay at home in the comfort of airconditioning, hehehe.

Luckily, there wasn’t any stupid drivers on the road, or else memang dah lama lah kena kutuk dengan I.

(That’s why I suka keluar shopping pagi2 before 9 sebab tak ramai stupid drivers yang dah bangun masa ni, hehehe.).

I had to do some last minute shopping for Miss 8’s school stuff and I had to shop for the most important thing for us….

Coffee beans!

We were already on our last few coffee beans so by hook or by crook, kena jugak keluar beli the beans.

Mana boleh takde coffee pagi2, tak senang I nak buat kerja satu hari, hehehe….

For dinner tadi, The Other Half requested beef schnitzel and chips.

So, I pun buatlah beef schnitzel, makan dengan chips, salad and guacamole.

I normally used beef topside to make the schnitzel. Topside ni senang nak potong nipis and tak tough and rubbery.

We normally have schnitzel with tomato sauce aje tapi tadi we had it with guacamole and our homemade tomato sauce.

Double the kesedapan lah sampai tak sedar makan banyak, hahaha….

And for dessert, I made brownies which we ate with vanilla ice cream.

(I had to use up the egg yolks from the pavlova hari tu and I found this brownies recipe yang used up egg yolk. But I altered the recipe by using only 1 egg and 2 egg yolks. I still have 4 more egg yolks to be used up!).

But I made the mistake of using milk chocolate without reducing the sugar, so for me, the brownies was a bit too manis. Terasa macam my blood glucose level went sky high aje tadi with every bite, hikhikhik.

But everyone else said it was really really yummy!

They definitely have the Mat Saleh’s sweet tooth!

It is so green!

2012-01-27T19:42:00.001+08:00

When The Litle Misses saw tonite’s dinner, both of them blurted out..

“It’s so green!”

I pun tadi masa tengah masak and when putting it onto a serving plate terdetik jugak kata, hijau nya lah benda ni, hehehe…

But knowing that everything that made it green was natural and takde colouring langsung made it bearable lah.

I guess because I used so much of it, tu yang hijau sangat2.

Tadi for dinner, I made fettucine with basil pesto and sausages.

And I did use a LOT of pesto in the pasta tu yang hijaunya menikam kalbu sungguh! hahaha

My green pasta !

I made the pesto myself but kali ni cuma guna 2 cloves of garlic, a handful of roasted chashew nuts/gajus, loads of fresh basil, 1/3 cup of grated parmesan cheese and olive oil.

We have an abundance of basil in the garden so kena guna while it’s still around.

With pesto, you don’t have to use pine nuts, you can use any nuts you want. Even the pesto yang jual kat kedai in a jar tu pun guna a mixture of nuts jugak untuk jimat cost. So far, I’ve tried cashew and pine nuts aje and both tasted great. The Other Half kata if I didn’t tell him it wasn’t pine nuts, he wouldn’t have noticed. I think nuts like almond and cashew will make great pesto.

There’s a lot of pesto recipes out there yang guna other kinds of nuts. (But the pesto connoisseur will definitely say that only pine nuts can be used to make pesto and the taste is much superior. )

But tekak kita sendiri kan and ikut budget kita sendiri kan, apa kisah!

And I also made cheesy bread as a side dish to eat with the pasta.

I tried to knead the grated cheese and the dried garlic into the bread in the second kneading but the cheese clumped up pulaknya so ada some parts dapat cheese and ada some parts takde cheese, hehehe.

But my family didn’t care, they still ate it as though it was so good, hahahaha.

But sape yang suka their bread to be so lembut and kalau picit terus leper tu, won’t like our kind of cheesy bread ni lah. Sebab this bread is a bit rustic, jenis yang takde pakai bread softener or improver or any ‘softening agent’ and I uli sekejap aje. But kalau untuk makan panas2 for dinner, we love this kind of bread .

I sauteed some zucchinis and mushrooms as a side dish as well.

See, I told you it was green! I had to add the oven-dried tomatoes into the pasta to make it a bit more colourful, heeeee….

Happy Australia Day

2012-01-26T22:10:00.001+08:00

Happy Australia Day!

We spent the whole day at home sahaja, cuma keluar rumah untuk jemur kain and siram pokok.

Punyalah teruk kan, hehehehehe…

The temperature got up to 41.9°C tadi so that’s why no one wanted to go out.

Miss 12 kept on asking why can’t we go watch the fireworks in the city.

Pastu The Other Half malas nak bagi reasons why, he asked her to stay outside under the sun for a few minutes.

Terus dia tak tanya lagi dah lepas tu, hahahaha……

I tau lah yang the fireworks will be at night time so definitely dah sejuk sikit but you still have to go early masa tengah panas2 terik to the city to get a good place to watch the fireworks kan. Tak larat lah we all.

Since duk terperap aje kat rumah, The Little Misses spent a few hours going through the stationery boxes to get ready for school next week. Sekejap aje rasanya cuti Summer kali ni!

Mengumpul segala barang2 for school and ticking them off the list.

And since semua ada kat rumah hari ni and it’s Australia Day, I made an effort to cook breakfast lah tadi. Selalunya we all just breakfast toasts or cereal aje.

I made crepes with sauteed apples and cream.

Kalau Merdeka Day, I buatlah lempeng kelapa or cekodok pisang kan but since it’s Australia Day, kenalah feeling2 omputih sikit, hahahaha….

And then since its Australia Day, kenalah jugak buat the iconic OZ food kan which is pavlova.

I think last time I buat pavlova was a long time ago so memang everyone was eagerly awaiting it lah.

Setelah dibakar but sebelum kena make-up.

Orang lain make-up kan dia pakai strawberries lah, fresh blueberries lah, passionfruit lah…

But since I takde all of those fruits (the strawberries and the blueberries yg kat pokok kat kebun were still too small untuk dipetik), terpaksalah I guna apa aje yang I could find in the fridge and in the fruit bowl.

Dapatlah dragon fruit, grapes and bananas aje, hehehehe…. Still sangat2 sedap .

Miss 12 kept on saying, “I really want this as my birthday cake this year. I think I only want pavlova from now on as my birthday cake.”

My ‘true blue’ Aussie, hahahaha…..

But memang sedap gilers lah pavlova ni when you haven’t had it for nearly a year!

A scorcher of a day and some hot stuff in the garden

2012-01-25T20:32:00.001+08:00

Told you it’s going to be a scorcher of a week.

The temperature got up to 41.1°C at 2.30 this afternoon! And even now at 7 o’clock at night the temperature is still at 36°C. And they were only predicting today to reach 39 aje.

Esok is Australia Day and the BOM says it might reach 41°C. Sure rentung lah everyone yang akan berduyun2 pergi Perth city and pergi Freo untuk tengok the fireworks. Entah2 they are going to cancel the fireworks show esok malam sebab they are scared of it causing a major fire.

We all pulak are definitely spending esok indoors sahaja! Tak kuasa I nak jadi makin tanned!

Every Summer, memang I akan bertambah gelap sebab most days kena keluar rumah hantar the girls to schools and then drive around pergi mana2 so my forearms will be quite that much darker than the rest of the body, hahaha….

(Nasib baik bila tiba Winter, my skin goes back to ‘normal’ colour yang ala2 flat white but with a double shot of espresso, heeeee…..).

And when I wanted to take photos of my chillies pukul 7 tadi pun, it was still so hot. Nasib baik ada my nyonya kebun hat to cover kan, hehehehe….

I am really happy now sebab a lot of my chilli plants are fruiting presently.

From the mildest banana chilli to the really hot habaneros.

If I’m lucky, my habanero plant ni is the amazon chile roma variety which has loads of habanero flavours but without the heat. But if I am not lucky, it will be the orange habanero which is one of the hottest chillies in the world, hahaha.

This is the banana chilli yang so mild takde heat langsung tu. I am letting it ripen on the plant to see what colour it will change to. It has taken a long time banana chilli ni nak tukar kaler dari really pale green to yellow to this colour of a slight tinge of orange.

I think this is the Thai variety. So far they haven’t turned red yet. The green ones are not that hot.

The round purple chilli which I think is named filius. Some of the purple chillies have turned red though!

My hoa lat chilli yang I dah guna untuk buat macam2. They are hot but not super hot. But kalau letak 15 biji chilli dalam air asam(like I did last week!) meleleh jugak lah hidung and berasap jugak lah telinga orang yang makan, hahahaha.

Ini pulak chili api yang tumbuh ‘liar’ from the fallen seeds from last year’s plant. The plant is so small, around 6-7 inci aje but bearing fruits already.

This year I will make sure that none of the chillies go to waste like last year.

And since I am starting to use up the chillies from the garden, tonite’s dinner pun guna some chillies jugak.

I made beef and carrot stir fry with okra and bilis stir fry and telur dadar.

The beef stir fry I guna the green thai chilli. And the okra stiry fry I guna the hoa lat chilli.

Occasionally I like eating rice and stir fry with chopsticks, hehehe.

A speedy dinner for a hot night.

I’m hopeless at it!

2012-01-24T20:49:00.001+08:00

I really do not have the ability to take good photos using mobile phones!

I feel so envious of people who can take gorgeous photos on their mobile. They make it look so simple .

I don’t know how to keep the phone from moving and making the pictures blurry, I don’t know how to zoom and focus on it and most importantly, I really have lost the ability of taking photos by looking at the screen, hehehehe….

Dah bertahun2 ambik gambar guna the viewfinder window yang kecik tu aje. Masa guna point-n-shoot camera pun I lagi suka guna the viewfinder sebab I think I can focus much better using that.

So, bila kena guna camera or phone yang rely on the screen to see the picture you are taking, I jadi macam tak tau nak focus and tak reti nak pegang the camera tak nak bagi bergerak, hampagas betul kan!

Even Miss 12 took better photos on her iPod touch than me on the iPhone.

Orang kata iPhone has really good camera. Even on the apple website says….

With 8 megapixels and all-new optics, this just might be the best camera ever on a mobile phone. It just might be the only camera you’ll ever need. And if you think that’s amazing, wait until you see your photos.”

Sure lah diaorang nangis kalau tengok the photos I took on my iPhone, hahahaha….

The Other Half kata, “don’t blame the dance floor if you can’t dance.” (dia sangat suka peribahasa kalau tak pandai menari jangan kata lantai jongkang jongket tu yang direct translation to English, hehehe.)

Maybe I should spend a lot of time getting to know that camera on my iPhone kan and get to know all the functions sebelum gi merata2 ambik gambar banyak2, heeee…

For example, gambar yang we all ambik tadi masa tengah tengok the lion dance in the city…

Ini 2 gambar yang I ambik.

And ini 3 gambar yang The Other half ambik.

The clarity is so much better in The Other Half’s photos kan.

And ini pulak gambar yang I ambik guna my buah hati DSLR (but not of the lion dance though sebab I tak bawak the big camera pergi city tadi.)

So, kiranya memang I ni tak pandai ambik gambar lah kan.

Pakkal aje I ada DSLR, tu yang buat gambar2 kat blog ni nampak ‘cantik’ and menarik perhatian, hikhikhikhik….

Kalau I tak pakai DSLR, orang tak terliur punya tengok hotdog and salad ni kan….

I have to learn from the youngsters lah on how to take good photos using the camera on the phone kan .

Another hot January day

2012-01-23T21:50:00.001+08:00

I wonder how many people dah dapat temporary hearing loss this weekend from the dam dam dum bunyi mercun, hehehe.

I can still remember clearly when I was a kid, setiap tahun at Chinese New Year, we’ll be eagerly awaiting the lion dance troupe to come to our chinese neighbours’ houses.

It was such a marvellous sight watching them dance and trying to reach the angpow that they put so high up at the ledge of the roof.

But setiap kali after the lion dance had finished, setiap kali tu jugak lah my ears would be ringing non stop for a few hours and my chest felt like there was a drum beating in it, hahahaha…..

It was the loudest noise ever! (well sebelum I kenal heavy metal rock songs lah, hahaha . Tak kuasa I nak dengar heavy metal music you!).

I think they do have lion dance every year jugak kat sini but kat sekitar area Northbridge tak silap.

I thought of having a chinese new year spread for dinner tonite. Wontons and dumplings and spring rolls and roast duck and noodles and honey chicken and stir fried veges….

(verangan tak hingat, kalah restorannya menu! hikhikhik….)

But sungguh lah rasa tak laratnya plus malasnya I nak duduk berpanas lama2 kat dapur tadi so had to shelve that big dinner thoughts away, hehehe…..

So, I made roast chicken with crispy pan-fried diced potatoes and sweet potatoes, corn and salad.

Roast chicken is easy because you just have to marinate the chicken and then shove it in the oven until cooked.

The pan-fried potatoes pulak, I parboiled the whole potatoes unpeeled. Then biar sejuk and diced them up. Then spray some olive oil on them to coat. Sprinkle with rice flour+salt+ coriander powder+ paprika mixture. Pour a bit of olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Once it’s hot, cook the coated diced potatoes until brown and crispy.

The ‘black’ looking sticks in the salad is purple carrot. They are so cute looking! It tasted exactly like normal carrot but it stained your hand and fingers macam beetroot!

Another garden update for January

2012-01-22T19:38:00.001+08:00

Too tired this weekend to write much.

The weather was too hot and will be getting even hotter this coming week. They are predicting 40°C on Thursday and Friday!

Adalah yang akan melepek kat rumah aje on both days too nanti, hehehe….

And we spent quite a lot of time in the garden and in the shed and in the kitchen and in the bedrooms (tidying up the guest bedroom and Miss 8’s bedroom tau, not doing something else!) semalam and hari ni thus the extra tiredness…

So, instead of writing a lot and a lot, just layan the photos of the tanam2an lah…

We bought 3 citrus trees.

We bought a Eureka lemon, a Tahitian lime

and a Calamondin/Kalamansi.

Then we repotted them into bigger pots.

We are thinking of doing a gravel bed in the front lawn and putting these 3 big pots in the middle of the gravel bed. Konon2 nya nak try landscape our front lawn tu lah.

We all dah tak larat tengok the lawn getting browner and browner sebab tak cukup air so we want to replace some of the grass with gravels .

But bila nak buat tu, tak tau lah, hahahaha…..

And then I found some pandan plants being sold at the Sunday Market so I pun bought 1 pot.

Lepas ni boleh lah buat macam2 eh dengan daun pandan ni, heeeee.

And then I also bought a big pot of chives/ daun kucai. Selama2 ni I pernah cuba tanam kucai but sentiasa tak pernah tumbuh dgn subur nya. Halus2 kecik2 aje. So tadi bila terjumpa ada orang jual this big pot of already gemuk2 kucai, I pun beli lah.

We repotted both the pandan and the kucai into bigger pots, hopefully they’ll flourish.

Now layan some photos of the roses pulak. Dah lama I tak letak gambar the roses….

And the phloxes…

Dah tamat tayangan gambar2 bunga from our garden .

What I did on a humid Perth day ^_^

2012-01-20T21:20:00.001+08:00

I rasa Perth ni kan makin lama makin macam Msia pulak when it comes to cuaca!

Pagi tadi hujan dengan ribut petir berlaga2. It made the temperature cooler a bit after such a hot few days and nights.

Tapi sekejap aje hujan tadi, pukul 10 lebih macam tu dah berhenti.

Lepas aje berhenti hujan, panas terik sangat2 with really high humidity.

Siap I berpeluh2 tadi while doing housework and haus sepanjang masa walhal punyalah susah nya nak berpeluh2 kat Perth ni selalunya even during Summer time sebab it’s usually a dry Summer with not much humidity.

Keluar jemur kain tadi pun berpeluh2 dah!

The girls kata macam balik bercuti kat Malaysia aje rasanya, hot and sticky everywhere, hehehe…..

Kesian the aircond, tak berhenti kerja Summer ni .

But panas2 pun, my oven still kena kerja jugak.

First, I used it to make scones this morning.

Miss 8 woke up early and I have some cream to be used up by tomorrow so I asked her to help me make this lemonade and cream scones using this recipe.

I rasa this is the easiest scone recipe ever and will always produce light and fluffy scones. Kalau I ada stock lemonade and cream kat rumah, I will make these scones.

Then, I made tomato pasta sauce sebab I have to use up the tomatoes. I used 1kg of tomatoes tadi but still ada about another kilo in a basket on the kitchen bench waiting to be used. I dah tak tau nak buat apa with the tomatoes. I’ve made tomato sauce, oven-dried tomatoes, so many salads, pasta sauce…

I used this recipe to make the pasta sauce. I know it is a recipe for tomato soup but people yang dah buat dia kata it tasted more like pasta sauce tu yg I cuba. And memang it did taste like pasta sauce! But I baked it in the oven for around 20 minutes so the juice is reduced a bit more.

I am just waiting for my chillies to turn red to make sambal nasi ayam penyet with the chillies and tomatoes . Buat lah stock untuk 3-4 bulan kan, hahaha…

And then for dinner, I made swedish meatballs with fries and salad.

Guna oven lagi untuk masak the meatballs and fries tu.

Lupa nak cerita, when I went back to Msia in December, I managed to singgah IKEA for lunch. And I tried their swedish meatballs because people said they are so nice.

My verdict- sedap lagi my meatballs! No joke okay!

The IKEA ones were unbelievably dry and the sauce was so bland and ugh. I tak tau lah whether it was just that day they overcooked the meatballs and terlupa nak season the gravy or memang everyday macam tu. Menyesal I took that. Kalau I tau, baik I makan salad dia aje kan, hehehe.

This is my version of swedish meatballs. I used this recipe but obviously using beef mince aje lah. And I added a dash of paprika to the mince mixture. And I baked the meatballs in the oven instead of frying them sebab malas nak berdiri panas2 kat tepi stove tu.

I baked them at 150°C (fan-forced oven) for 20 minutes. Kalau longer, they will be dry.

Then, I made the sauce using the leftover juice in the baking tray, 1/4 diced onion, about 100g of the homemade pasta sauce and chicken stock. Then let it reduced a bit and then masukkan the meatballs.Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the meatballs dah cooked through and dah sebati dengan the sauce. Add cream at the last minute. Season with salt and pepper.

My swedish meatballs….(lagi menarik dari IKEA punya tak? hikhikhikhi…habislah I kena kutuk dengan peminat tegar meatballs IKEA nanti)

We had it with salad (with more tomatoes and letuce and cucumbers form the garden).

I ambil 6 biji meatballs aje, hehehe….

The Other Haf started off with 7 meatballs but then added 4 more!

Ish ish ish…..

When life gives you kangkung….

2012-01-19T19:19:00.001+08:00

When life gives you plenty of kangkung….

You called your husband up and told him that tonite’s dinner will be nasi goreng with oven-baked wings and kangkung goreng belacan.

And you could basically hear him drool over the phone because that’s one of his favourite foods, hikhikhik…

(Eh kejap, apa aje food yang bukan one of his favourites ye? muahahahaha…. ).

So, I pun made nasi goreng cina (using that big chili hijau in the paste), oven baked wings (which I marinated in honey, dark soy sauce, kecap manis, garlic, sweet chilli sauce and sesame oil) and…..

Kangkung goreng belacan. I added 2 biji chili api into the paste you, hehehe. I cuma blend 1/2 bawang besar, 3 cloves garlic, a bit of halia, 2 tablespoons cili boh and cili api together.

Then goreng the paste and about 1cm belacan sampai semerbak baunya and jiran2 pun datang menjenguk (yo lah tu!). Pastu masukkan kangkung yang dah di basuh and goreng lagi sampai kangkung layu. Add garam and gula to taste.

Pastu, silalah hidangkan cantik2 macam ni, hahahaha .

Sampai Miss 8 kecur air liur tengok we all makan and asked for some kangkung goreng belacan. We told her it’s a bit pedas because of the chilli api but she still wanted to try it.

The first time she ate it, she quickly teguk air.

But then I taught her to eat the kangkung 1 leaf at a time so tak lah pedas, hehehe….

Look Mum, no more water!

But then she said, “My lips are all so hot and red. Is that normal after eating chilli?”

Welcome to the chilli eating world my dear daughter, heeeeee……

My Wednesday

2012-01-18T19:33:00.001+08:00

More photos, less words, heeee…..

The many different sizes of our tomatoes. Dari yang besar ke sekecik2 nya besar the nail of my ring finger aje .

Tea for two but no scones nor cream nor jam.

Jemput2 pisang aje but devoured hungrily by everyone.

Lunch for me, plain white rice and stir fried home grown okra (with bilis, tahu and telur).

(I was a bit more ‘adventurous’ today, I put 4 chili api in the stir fry! hahahaha. Next time I nak cuba letak the habanero chilli lah pulak ).

Dinner was the usual pizza but with slightly different meat, diced turkey thigh this time .

Where’s the salad?????

Malas nak petik, hehehehe….

What I did with the harvest from the garden

2012-01-17T20:48:00.001+08:00

For the past 2 days, I made an extra effort untuk bangun lebih awal to spend time in the garden early before the sun gets too hot.

(Subuh sangat lah awalnya sekarang so tu yang lepas subuh memang tidur balik. Pastu dah lah tengah cuti sekolah, tu yang lagi malas nak bangun awal, heeee….).

So, pagi tadi I started with planting all the broccoli and cabbage seedlings, the new tomato seedlings (which hopefully will be fruiting by the time our present lot of tomatoes die) and some bok choy seedlings.

Pastu watering lah pulak. I malas giler pagi tadi, I just used the hose and trigger system aje instead of guna the water from the rain water tank, hehehehe…

Then weeding and cutting the grass and harvesting the veges.

Dapat lah jugak I berexercise goyang2 kan lemak tepu in the body ni .

Dah lepas harvest the veges, kenalah buat something with the veges.

I made chargrilled eggplants and chargrilled capsicums.

Capsicum ni I grilled in the oven sampai the skin is blistered and black.

Then, let it cool before peeling the skins off. Peeling the skins off ni memang kerja yang leceh but it makes the capsicum tastes so much nicer with no hard texture.

Inilah rupa capsicum yang telah di peel. I used half of it to make pesto and the other half stored in the freezer.

And then I made chargrilled eggplants on the stove top.

Just slice the eggplants thickly and spray with olive oil on both sides and grill them using a grill pan.

Sedap dimakan macam tu aje or with pasta or any mediterranean dishes. I guess kalau nak guna terung ni untuk sambal terung pun ada ngam jugak lah!

And then I made tomato pesto using this recipe. Tapi I tak guna chilli sebab nanti kang tak makan pulak Miss 12 tu. And I used my own homemade oven-dried tomatoes aje, hehehe.

Rasa seronok sangat buat pesto ni tadi sebab guna capsicum, tomatoes and basil from our very own backyard.

The end product.

Sekilas pandang, macam sambal ayam penyet aje kan, hahaha.

Then, I used some of the pesto to make fettucine with pesto and grilled seafood mix.

I cooked the fettucine first, then drain it and mix it with the pesto. Add a bit of oil and the pasta water into the pan to make it easier to mix. At the last minute, pour a bit of cream and mix well.

See, I tabur the grilled eggplants on the cooked pasta as garnish .

The seafood mix tu I just gaul dengan dried garlic granules, dried mixed herbs and salt before grilling them on the stove top on medium high heat.

Everyone kata sangat lah sedap nya the pesto tonite, hahahaha…..

Pastu (either I banyak sangat masa hari ni or I tersangat rajinnya hari ni, hikhikhik), I baked a sponge cake (alah, from cake mix aje, heeee) and pear tarte tatin.

My pear tarte tatin using this recipe (but I punya tak secantik their photo lah, heeeee). Makan pulak dengan a big dollop of whipped fresh cream, sangatlah nikmatnya!

Esok, I kena masuk garden lagi awal lah nampak gayanya untuk buang balik lemak yang dah terkumpul after eating that tarte tatin n cream itu!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomatoes everywhere

2012-01-16T20:54:00.001+08:00

First of, so sorry sebab masih tak sempat nak reply to all the comments in the entries and in the chat boxes. I did read them but haven’t had time to sit down to answer them properly.

Lambat laun akan ku gagahkan diri ini untuk menjawab semuanya, hehehe….

I guess ejak balik dari bercuti, banyak benda yang nak kena jenguk especially the garden tu.

Baru aje kena tinggal 3 hari, dah jadi macam hutan belukar balik and all the weeds pun dah naik balik!

Pastu, dah lah panas terik sekarang ni so memang slalu2 lah pokok2 tu nak kena belai and kena siram.

Especially all the tomato plants, they are going through their dying phase so banyak lah daun yang kering and dahan2 yang dah kering. But fruit productions still tip top.

We are definitely up to our ears with tomatoes!

Next time we know not to have that many tomato plants growing at one time!

Hari2 berbakul2 tomatoes I terpaksa petik to avoid them rotting on the plants.

This are some of them destined for the oven. Oven dried tomatoes hari tu I dah freeze. Yang ini pun nampak gayanya kena freeze jugak lah so they will last longer.

And semalam for brunch, I made scrambled eggs with smoked salmon and grilled mushroom with tomato. Hari2 kena makan tomato to lessen the glut.

For dinner pulak, we had burger with chips and salad. Salad pun guna all the veges from the kebun including the tomatoes, hehehe.

Makan burger pun dengan the hot home-made tomato sauce .

Pastu, for dinner tonite, I made mee goreng mamak with jemput2 udang.

See, ada tomato jugak as hiasan, heeee. Sayur sawi dalam mee tu pun datang dari kebun jugak.

Yang dalam bag plastic ni yang I petik semalam. I haven’t used any of them yet but hari ni dah kena petik some more lagi.

I might have to make chargrilled eggplants and capsicums and freeze them as well (masa ni lah kalau bentang kertas kerja nak beli upright freezer, sure dapat green light terus, hahaha).

Chargrilled eggplants and capsicum ni pun sedap letak dalam any mediterranean type dishes. The taste ada oomph sikit because of the smoky grilled taste.

We have 2 different types of terung yang tengah berbuah sekarang, the big round ones and the lebanese variety. Tu yang suddenly there’s so many terung in the kebun.

Hari2 makan sayur yang sama aje sampai tak larat we all tengok rupa tomatoes dah!

Summer Holiday Part 2

2012-01-15T22:06:00.001+08:00

I was so happy sepanjang2 we all kat that remote place, we didn’t see a single snake!

But mata I sentiasa melilau looking for that creature lah especially masa meredah hutan belukar nak pergi ke this fishing place.

I suka memancing but I would rather do it at a place like on a jetty ke, atas jambatan ke, tepi sungai yang takde semak samun ke, kat tepi wharf ke…. Bukannya kat tepi sungai dalam hutan, hikhikhik…

But we did see the friendly emus and a few kangaroos!

Everytime I berdiri basuh pinggan tepi sink tu, one of the emus will come up to the windows ‘begging’ for food.

When we were having meals on the balcony, they would come to have a look…

Nasib baik diaorang tak pandai pajat tangga ketuk pintu nak masuk rumah kan, hahaha…

The Other Half says they are not that pretty looking but Miss 8 kata they are so cute, heeee….

Masa baru sampai that house pun, siap the emu buat welcoming committee lagi, hahaha

“Hellloooooo Cik Kiah! Tengah buat apa tu Cik Kiah? Kalau ada makanan dinner lebih2 tu, pass pass kan lah ke I ni eh!”

It gave me a fright the first time the emu came up to the window. Kalau muka ala2 George Clooney, ok lah jugak kan!

Masa ni we were having pancakes for breakfast out on the balcony, tanpa malu2 laju aje emu ni datnag bertandang. Suka lah budak2 dua orang tu. Ada 4 ekor emus at that time.

Trying to hand feed them.

Ini budak ada sikiiiiiit penakut, heeeee….

Binatang lain tak sempat nak ambik gambar pulaknya…

But we did see loads of sheep, horses, cows and a few camels along the way there .

Some of the cattle we saw.

Back to our usual Saturday

2012-01-14T21:47:00.001+08:00

Hari ni I did 2 loads of washing tapi 5 loads of folding….

Macam mana lah boleh bertambah agaknya tu ye?

hehehehe…. (nampak beno yang I ni malas melipat kan, sekali kena lipat, ambik kau, satu gunung terus!)

The Other Half pulak sibuk menyiram all the plants yang kena tinggal 3 hari.

And sambil2 dah dia kat luar siram pokok2 tu, might as well hang the washings as well kan, heeee…

All the plants survived kena tinggal in the hot weather for 3 days except our kesum . The kesum in the pot memang kering2 sekeringnya even though we did put it on the vege patch supaya boleh dapat the water from the timed watering tu. Maybe the water tak sampai ke tanah and the roots, cuma sampai ke daun aje so tu yang kering.

Takpelah, luckily kesum ni senang nak jaga, walaupun dah kering and macam dah nak mati, still boleh hidup balik.

And then while he was watering, suddenly dia masuk and asked me, “How big do you think the watermelons are?”

I jawab, “not that big cos a few days ago, they were still quite tiny.”

He just laughed and said, “come and have a look.”

Mak oi, besar jugak these 2 watermelons kan! I have no idea how I didn’t see them before padahal last week, I mencari2 jugak the melons.

Another 2 yang still tiny.

But I’m not sure berapa lama we all kena tunggu before we can eat them though.

And then, the eggplants and the bendi pun grew like wildfire while we were away.

So, tadi I had to use them up sebelum they became too old.

Luckily, The Other Half mintak kari so I buat kari daging and kentang letak bendi in it.

And I made terung goreng dgn bilis, bawang, chilli api and kicap.

I bagitau The Other Half yang I letak chilli api kat terung tu so kalau makan, tengok2 lah dulu sebelum main gigit aje.

Dia kata dengan macho nya, “I’ve already eaten the chili and it wasn’t hot at all.”

Which made me quite pelik lah sebab the chilli api was really really hot!.

Pastu, a few minutes later he said, “I took that back, I think that wasn’t chilli that I ate. Because I have just bitten the chilli now and it is damn hot!”

Hehehehehe….cuma perasan macho aje lah tu .

I cuma pakai 3 biji chilli api aje tapinya, hehehehe….

And since the weather was really hot, I made ‘virgin mojito’ for drinks.

We just crushed chopped up lime (with skin), sugar and mint. Add loads of ice cubes to it and then pour sparkling apple juice into the container.

Serve with a sprig of mint, very refreshing!

Esok, we have to pull out some of the tomato plants in the garden and then plant some of the seedlings into the newly built garden bed and some weeding….

Malasssssssssssnyaaaaaaaa…………………………………….. .

Summer Holiday Part 1

2012-01-13T20:26:00.001+08:00

We’ve arrived safely back at home this afternoon, Alhamdulillah.

But I am feeling so exhausted sebab tak cukup tidur.

The first night tak tidur sgt sebab first night on a strange bed so couldnt get comfortable and also the ‘weird’ nature sounds around the house from night to morning weren’t helping either.

The second night tak cukup tidur sebab selepas dinner, The Other Half and I melantak 1litre of pure coffee creme ice cream sebab nak kena habiskan before we all balik pagi tadi.

(Dah mengantuk tapi the brains still ligat berfikir from the caffeine and also ligat berfikir mcm mana lah nak get rid of the fat from the ice cream tu, hikhikhik…)

And then sampai rumah seperti biasa after a holiday, kena buat laundry. But I only did 1 load since it’s weekend tomorrow and the weather is predicted to be sunny the next few days, baik lah I buat laundry sambil lenggang kangkung esok2 aje kan, tak payah nak rush buat today .

We went to a place about 320kms southwest from Perth.

The place we stayed for 3d2n, Nyamup village (not nyamuk but Nyamup even though banyak jugak nyamuk kat Nyamup ni ).

Pemandangan masa nak masuk ke village tu.

Our cabin.

It was a remote village where you can’t drink the tap water(you either have to use the rainwater or bring our own water supply for drinking and cooking) and you need a big satellite dish to get TV reception, hehehe. But ada aircond, ada hot water system and also ada indoor toilet (thank goodness for that!). We thought we were going to get a cabin with an outdoor toilet.

We didn’t do anything much apart from going for bushwalks, lounging at the cabin and trying to fish for marrons. It was definitely very trying indeed!

I didn’t know what a marron was supposed to look like and where you can find them but obviously The Other Half knew about them and was very excited to go looking for them at the dam/river.

But sekor marron pun we all tak jumpa, heeee (not that I know what to do with it if we find it ).

On the way to look for marrons and fish.

Barang2 yang kena ada kalau nak pergi memancing .

Digging for worms for the baits. They didn’t mind doing it. I will only go near worms if I really have to.

Dua orang ni aje yang beria2 nak pergi fishing. Miss 8 and I lagi suka duduk kat cabin in the cool airconditioned room.

waiting and waiting and waiting…..

We all pun kenalah jugak waiting and waiting and waiting kan. (You know how they say families who do things together stay together, hakhakhak.)

Muka dia ceria sungguh sebab dia yang over excited nak memancing ni, heeee…..

The next day pun pi mancing jugak but Miss 8 and I tak larat nak stay lama2 cos it wasn’t fun and it was in the middle of a jungle so we all balik cabin dulu and let the others memancing to their hearts content.

Punyalah boring we all duk menunggu, I main games and Miss 8 buat crossword puzzles, hahahaha…

Dah bosan buat crossword puzzles, main panjat2 pokok pulak.

And then in the afternoon, we went for a walk to ~~try and find mobile phone reception~~ stretch our legs. It was really quiet because we didn’t see any single person on our walk tu.

And we were so happy to see the bars on our phones after 30 minutes of walking, hahahaha.

(gaya aje lebih masa ni, hehehe).

Dapat lah I lepas gian tengok blog and FB sekejap and dapatlah The Other Half check his emails sekejap. Jadi lah kan, hehehehe….

Esok I sambung lagi ye….

On the way home

2012-01-13T12:13:00.001+08:00

We've done our 2 nights communing with nature and everyone seemed to enjoy it a lot. We saw the compulsory wildlives there so cant wait to reach home now, hehe.
Layan our obligatory in-car photos ye.
See you guys later at home :-)

Halfway there

2012-01-11T12:39:00.001+08:00

Stopping at the playground to stretch our legs and also to have our fix on our last chance to communicate with the outside world, hehe.
Another 120kms to go to reach the remote village. Kalau kat Msia, dah pass thru so many states kan, heeee.
Dont worry, we are still in WA :-).
No nice photo to put up in this entry, only some photos of us (kalau bole upload lah since i'm using iPhone 2 update this entry.

Quick trip

2012-01-10T21:52:00.001+08:00

Kalau tengok gambar dibawah, agak2nya berapa lama lah tuan tanah nak pergi merehatkan diri ye?

Cubalah teka….. hehehehe…..

Macam nak pergi berbulan2 aje kan, hahahaha.

Padahalnya cuma nak pergi 3 days and 2 nights aje .

We all nak pergi somewhere remote yang memang sangat2 remote sebab takde mobile phone receptions, takde TV reception, no drinking water except from the rainwater tanks, the nearest convenient store is about 20kms away (the nearest shopping centre precint is around 200kms away, muahahaha).

Thank goodness there’s a kitchen, beds, dvd player, electricity and hot water though!

What we do know from the info sheets is that there’s a lot of wildlife (like kangaroos and emus) around including SNAKES (during the hot Summer weather), a lot of trees and a dam.

Oh ye, they also have an outdoor toilet. (Again???? Oh man! wildlife and outdoor dunny certainly do not mix! hehehehe…).

Tu sebab lah, we have to bring everything with us (minus the kitchen sink) especially food for 3 days and 2 nights.

So, tadi I dah pre cooked the sausages and I have also made fried rice siap2 for dinners at that place.

Esok malam, makan pasta with stir thru sauce and sausages and on Thursday nite makan fried rice with telur goreng.

Lunches just makan sandwiches aje or scrambled eggs, senang…

Tak kuasa I nak masak nasi briyani dgn kari daging, acar and ayam goreng! hikhikhik….

We are also taking along our kindles, the iPods loaded with games and stories, the Nintendo DS, the iPhones loaded with games, books and dvds. These are good for entertaining ourselves at night time. Nak jalan2 kat luar dlm gelap malam2, takut weh!

Hopefully, The Little Misses will have loads of fun there exploring everywhere. While The Other Half can relax fully and I can find some peace to start healing…..

Before I forget, I have finally managed to put things on the wall rack that The Other Half had lovingly installed for me in the kitchen.

I am going to accessorize it a bit so it doesn’t look too cold and clinical but nanti2 lah lepas balik dari bercuti ni.

I know, I know….pots and pans I semua tak berkilat sebab I tak larat nak menyental, hehehe…..

One day in the future bila I tak malas, I will sental it with the stainless steel cream…… In the meantime, biarlah dia kan .

So, I wont be blogging until we get back.

My own DIY man ;-)

2012-01-09T21:38:00.001+08:00

The reasons why he’s not a carpenter .

Nowadays, most of the furniture sold comes in a flat pack.

So, someone has to be able to read the instructions and be the main DIY guy. The Other Half dengan penuh konsentrasi membaca the instruction leaflet.

Luckily, (after being married to me for so long and after being told off by me so many times for not reading instructions properly), he is now able to spend a decent amount of time reading the instrcutions before starting his DIY project, hehehehe.

Macam manalah nak jadi carpenter, baru start DIY, dah duduk ‘melendot’….

Baru setengah jam mula project, dah terbaring sakan! Hikhikhik….

Siap bentang tikar lagi tu so senang dia nak baring2 sambil nak screw the nuts .

But, tak kisah lah kan terbaring ke, duduk ke, berdiri ke, asalkan the end product looks like the picture on the box, hehehehe…

The very proud man testing his ‘creation’ .

And pagi tadi and tengah hari tadi, we had our cups of coffee and tea sitting on the ‘Jack n Jill’ seat while looking at the garden…a peaceful thing to do .

Nasib the tomatoes….

2012-01-08T21:17:00.001+08:00

So many photos but not so many words…

(Actually I malas nak menulis sebab tengah giat nak main Swipe Four on the phone sbb nak beat The Other Half’s score, hehehe.)

Layan aje lah ye gambar yang I took today.

Remember a few days ago the story about my home made sundried tomatoes….

Well, I made a second batch which took forever to dry under the sun because it hasn’t been that sunny the past week.

And then semalam, while it was drying nicely, guess what happened?

Miss 8 accidentally knocked it off the chair and everything fell onto the grass!!!!!!!

Tak terkata dah I masa tu bila tengok all my half dried tomatoes scattered on the grass…

Rasa nak nangis ada, rasa nak tergelak pun ada, rasa nak tarik2 rambut pun ada, hehehe….

Nampak sangatlah yang memang bukan rezeki I nak makan home made sundried tomatoes ni….

So, I dah malas, I made a new batch and dried them in the oven at 50C which took about 8 hours!

(tinggi lah bill electric I bulan ni, hahaha.)

The end result?

Jadilah jugak oven-dried tomatoes ni. I am going to put them in a jar filled with olive oil in the fridge.

Now, layan gambar our ‘ladang’ ye!

This is phlox which Miss 8 planted. I don’t know what the name is in Malay.

One of the roses.

Our watermelon plants growing ‘wild’ trying to conquer the driveway. Daun aje banyak, but buah sebijik pun takde lagi, citt!

Our habanero chillies growing slowly and steadily .

I said to The Other Half ynag I nak try buat pickled chillies guna habaneros ni. Adalah nanti yang terus masuk toilet with diarrhoea lepas makan chilli tu, hahaha.

The capsicum.

Lama jugak nak tunggu dia tukar warna ke merah ni.

Assortment of lettuces and basils and a lone ginger in between. Nasib baik ada jugak ruang untuk the ginger leaves come out. I have forgotten completely yg I tanam ginger kat situ, tu yang I pergi plant the lettuce on top of it, heeee….

Sape mata tajam, cuba lah cari the ginger, hehehehe…..

We are going somewhere in a few days time so The Other Half angkut all the pots and put them close to the main vege patch so he can set a timer for the watering. Tak lah mati kekeringan our plants bila kena tinggal nanti. Once dah balik nanti, we’ll put them back at the right places.

And our dinner tonite, nasi goreng cina pakai perencah adabi with ikan goreng and sambal kosong. I didn’t use any veges from the garden though sebab malas nak petik, heeeee…..

Letak udang and telur in the nasi goreng, terus jadi tambah sedap .

Veges galore

2012-01-07T21:48:00.001+08:00

Sejak ada ‘ladang’ kat belakang rumah ni kan, setiap kali I kena remind myself untuk tidak membeli segala macam sayur2 an kalau pergi grocery shopping.

Sebab kadang2 mata ni biasalah kan, nampak sayur yg macam best sikit aje, terus nak beli….

And setiap kali nak masak dinner or lunch, I akan make sure akan guna sayur2 or herbs from my own backyard.

So, since I balik dari M’sia haritu, I belum lagi lah beli apa2 sayur pun kecuali taugeh( tak kuasa I nak merendam kacang hijau untuk buat taugeh, hehehe), corns, bawang, garlic and potatoes lah. Sayur2an lain sama ada dah memang ada dalam freezer or dalam pantry or the chiller bin or just petik dari ladang.

On Friday night, I made pasta bake. Dalam minced meat mixture tu I letak diced tomatoes, diced eggplants, diced banana chillies and shredded basil. And then makan dengan salad yang ada mixed lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and sugar snap peas. All the veges I petik dari ladang.

Kalau I tak guna the veges tu, memang nanti binatang lain lah yg akan makan sampai habis berlubang2.

But I dah tak larat nak hari2 masak eggplants aje, hehehehe….

Malam ni pulak, we had lamb chops with roast potatoes, corn on the cob, steamed carrots and sauteed silverbeets. Makan pulak dengan home-made tomato sauce.

I marinated the lamb pieces in olive oil, chopped garlic, chopped rosemary, lemon juice, salt, pepper and honey.

Cuma silverbeets and rosemary tu aje yang datang dari ladang tapinya. Ok lah kan dari tak guna langsung, hehehe.

And then for dessert, we had bubur pulut hitam.

But pulut and santan kelapa tu kedai mari ye! Tak de lah I nak buat sawah padi tanam pulut or tanam pokok kelapa untuk harvest santannya, hahahahaha…

The Other Half and Miss 8 love bubur pulut hitam. I haven’t made it for them for so long, tu yang buatkan untuk diaorang.

I tak makan sangat cos it reminded me of the kenduri tahlil for my Abah. We made bubur pulut hitam untuk orang yang datang tahlil tu……

Entry Friday night yang merapu ^_____^

2012-01-06T20:52:00.001+08:00

Last night we went through old photos that we’ve got stored in a big plastic box.

(Ini semua semata2 nak cari the photo of me yang pakai the same baju kebaya tu lah.)

And while I was going through the photos, Miss 12 and Miss 8 pun ikut sama lah belek2 gambar2 lama sambil gelak2 sakan tengok their parents’ old photos and their baby photos, hehehehe……

And I found a photo of Miss 8 when she was only a few months old…

She really didn’t have any hair masa tu. I rasa jauh sangat beza muka dia from when she was a baby to now kan just disebabkan the hair!

Ini pulak gambar tadi, dengan rambut serabai dia.

Pipi still tembam bagai di pam2 though with double chins, hahahaha….

Lain pulak kisah Daddy dia….

Dolu2, masa dia kecik2, punyalah cantik rambut, blonde gitu and so fine….

Agak2nya ramai lah Mak2 yg nak buat dia jadi calon menantu masa tu kan disebabkan dek kecomelan dia?

(Muahahahaha, gelak guling2 I sambil taip ayat kat atas tu, heeeee……)

Tapi sekarang…..

Still comel gak (lagi lah muahahaha) tapi kemana lah agaknya menghilang rambut dia yang blonde itu ye?

Kalau lah The Little Misses dapat his blonde hair genes, kan ke best…

Baru lah masa tu memang sampai mati pun orang2 yang tak kenal tak kan percaya yang diaorang anak2 I, hikhikhikhik…..

Apasal I buat this entry?

Saje je nak pekena The Other Half, hahahaha…..

While I pulak, dari dulu sampai sekarang masih maintain comel!

Wahkahkahkahkahkahkah….tak nak kalah

11 years ago and today

2012-01-05T21:43:00.001+08:00

I spent the whole afternoon kemas baju2 lama yang tersimpan bawah katil and baju2 Winter yang masih lagi tergantung kat wardrobes.

Summer dah nak habis, I baru aje siap simpan baju Winter in storage, hehehe….

(Whoever invented the vacuum packs for storing clothes, memang patut dapat award from me sebab the vacuum packs really help a lot when you don’t have a lot of storage space).

And masa I tengah kemas2 all my old baju kurung and baju kebaya, I found this old baju kebaya saiz S.

I said to Miss 12, “can you try this on? If it fits you, you can have it to wear to Sunday school or at Hari Raya time.”

This is how she looks like in my old kebaya, hehehe….

And the photo kat bawah ni pulak was of me and Miss 12 about 11 years ago wearing the same kebaya masa Hari Raya…

Baju raya Miss 12 yang maroon tu Nenek yang jahit. I asked her to buat seluar with baju kurung instead of kain sebab it would be much easier for her to run around with pants instead of kain. Pastu, sebijik macam budak lelaki so kenalah I ikat rambut dia so nampak macam Amoi sikit, hehehe….

(Ini gambar scanned and dah di edit guna Windows Paint tu yang macam hantu kak limah aje rupa I, muahahaha).

I used to be nearly as slim as her a loooonggg time ago…

I don’t know what happened to my body after that time! Sekejap kurus, sekejap lagi bagai di pam2.

I rasa kalau I belek2 gambar dulu2, mesti ada gambar I yg kurus and gemuk in the same years. Awal tahun kurus, akhir tahun gemuk or awal tahun gemuk, akhir tahun kurus, hehehehe….

Memang tak consistent langsung kan!

Sekarang ni sejak akhir tahun tahun lepas and dah masuk awal tahun tahun ni, badan I sedang di pam2 semula, hahaha…

Macma mana lah tak di pam2, setiap kali balik Msia, mesti naik berat bdan!

And tonite’s dinner wasn’t helping either!

I made pizza atas permintaan orang2 kat rumah ni so untuk membuatkan I rasa tak bersalah makan pizza, I made sure my plate was 1/3rd filled with salad

All the sayur for the salad except the avocado came from our kebun. Nak makan salad, tinggal petik aje kat vege patch, hehehe….

Flowers from the florist and veges from the patch

2012-01-04T21:57:00.001+08:00

What I noticed since a long time ago kat Australia ni, bila ada kematian, people will send flowers to the bereaved as a symbol of condolences.

And petang tadi, we all satu family dikejutkan dengan bunyi door bell..

And this was what we got when we opened the door…

A really gorgeous bouquet of flowers, lilies and orchids.

The card that came along with it said, “sincere condolences for your loss.”

It was sent by the The Other Half’s workplace when they found out my Dad has passed away.

Why do people send flowers to the bereaved?

I am not really sure why but I think flowers are given for their warmth and comforting nature. And I think it also helps to brighten up the sombre mood during bereavement. But I know it is the Aussie culture.

They are really gorgeous, the lilies and the orchids, though I wish the reason behind it could be different….. .

Maybe I should try pressing the orchids and the lilies so I can keep them longer as a memento.

Semalam I did say that I was going to use up a lot of the sayur from the ladang in my cooking kan.

So tadi for dinner, I masak nasi and lauk pauk with loads of veges

I made kari daging with bende/ okra which came from our kebun. And in the kari, I also used daun kari and tomatoes from the kebun.

Then I made pajeri terung with terung from our garden.

Pastu, makan pulak dengan cucumber slices whcih also came from the garden.

So, I dapatlah guna terung, okra, tomatoes, cucumbers and daun kari that were freshly picked for dinner tadi. Memang seronok sungguh!

And then The Other Half kata, “Now, if only we reared some chickens in the backyard, I could have said the fried chickens came from the kebun as well!”

Urkkk….I cannot imagine The Other Half sembelih ayam, maulah agaknya ambil masa seminggu nak kejar ayam pastu ambik masa sehari nak sembelih ayam sebab gabra, hahahaha….

Only noodles and cactus

2012-01-03T21:17:00.001+08:00

Hajat hati nak buat sun dried tomato tak kesampaian.

Actually, nak buat dah tercapai. Bangun pagi tadi I dah siap2 sliced all the tomatoes and arranged them on a tray.

Pastu, I pergi jemur atas ampaian baju. Dalam hati I terdetik jugak masa tu, “Kalau lah ada angin kuat, mau lah jatuh gedebuk this tray onto the ground….”.

And then, betul firasat I tu, memang kuat jugak the winds yang bertiup petang tadi.

Bila I balik from the shops, I saw all the tomatoes bertaburan kat lantai….

I think baru aje kot dia jatuh sebab most of the tomatoes dah half dried but tak dapat I nak selamat kan because the lantai is quite dirty….

Nak buat macam mana, dah bukan rezeki we all nak makan home made sundried tomatoes.

Nasib baik lah tomatoes kat pokok tu berlambak2 lagi so boleh lah I nak buat lagi esok esok…. But I will make sure that I jemur dia atas meja yang solid instead of atas ampaian baju, hehehehe.

So, instead of nak makan sundried tomato dari ladang malam ni, kenalah tukar menu dinner ke mee hailam guna joi choy dari ladang .

But mee hailam I pucat habis pulaknya, hikhikhik… Kuah dia mula2 banyak sgt2 but once dah masukkan mee, tiba2 terus hilang the kuah, tu yang nampak kering semacam aje kan, hehehe!

I guna recipe Cik Mat yang ini. Memang sedap! Tapi I takde sos abalone so tak guna lah. The Other Half pun makan bertambah, heeeee…..

Malam ni guna joi choy dari ladang, esok I kena masak dinner yang gunakan eggplants, tomatoes, okra, lettuce, a lot of herbs and cucumber pulak sebab all the plants dah ‘bising’ suruh we all petik and masak.

But….apa yang I boleh masak ye? Mau lah tension budak2 itu kalau main dishes semua sayur based, hehehe.

And ini pulak untuk Kak Kasihredha yang nak tau macam mana rupa cactus yg keluarkan bunga kat bawah tu. I think it’s a cactus but kalau silap, sorry lah ye .

I bought this plant in August tak silap and sampai sekarang I belum lagi transplant it into a bigger pot. I rasa Kalau dapat masuk a bigger pot, sure dia dah membesar cantik kan.

I suka this kind of plants, tak jaga betul2 pun dia still hidup membesar bagai johan!

The end of a long weekend

2012-01-02T21:29:00.001+08:00

I went to kelas mengaji pagi tadi and while I was away, The Other Half did this in the kitchen…

He put up a metal rack with hanging rod on the wall.

Sebenar benarnya I dah lama asked him to build me a wall rack in the kitchen sebab kitchen I ni tersangat lah terhadnya the cupboard area. The old owner of the house ni I rasa jenis yang tak suka masak and tak suka masuk dapur sebab their kitchen area is just so tiny with not enough cabinet and pantry space to put anything.

I pulak jenis yang selalu masuk dapur so I amatlah sukanya kalau ada extra pantry and cabinet space in the kitchen so I boleh sumbat segala jenis barang2 in them.

But The Other Half is not a DIY kind of guy when it comes to anything that needs to be drilled to the wall. Dia seriau kalau2 tersilap drill termasuk ke dalam paip air or ke the gas pipe or the electrical wiring in the wall, hehehe.

But sebab sayangkan bini, dia cuba jugak buat tadi, heeeee….. Alhamdulillah menjadi .

Now, I have more space in the kitchen and also in the laundry area (he built a wall rack in the laundry as well, yippeeee.)

But bila dah dapat the rack, I tak tau pulak nak letak apa on the rack, hahahaha…

The Other Half pasang rack hari ni, I pulak buat home-made tomato sauce hari ni!

But I didn’t use all 4.5kg of the tomatoes to make the sauce, I cuma guna around 1.5kg aje.

(penat weh nak meng ‘peel’ off the skins of the tomatoes one by one!).

I used this recipe for the tomato sauce. But it was a bit too hot for me sebab of the cayenne pepper. Next time I buat this sauce again, I will omit the pepper.

Merrily bubbling on the stove top. Lama weh nak tunggu dia pekat. After dah masak, I blitzed the sauce in a blender so it’s all smooth.

You have to use overly ripe tomatoes to get the rich colour. I tak tau berapa lama this sauce boleh bertahan since I didn’t use any preservatives.

Esok I nak start buat sundried tomatoes pulak, heeee……

And for dinner pulak, I made parmesan and garlic bread, angel hair pasta with olive oil and sundried tomato and chicken cacciatore.

The bread tu I used pizza dough recipe of flour, olive oil, salt sugar, yeast and water. But instead of rolling it thin, I buat bentuk dome and then I sprayed olive oil on the surface and tabur grated parmesan and garlic granules on it just before baking.

The pasta pulak, I sauteed diced garlic, diced sundried tomatoes in olive oil until softened. Then I add the cooked pasta to the garlic mixture and drizzle loads of olive oil on in and mix them all together. Bila nak makan, I grated some parmesan cheese on top and carik2 some basil leaves on it as well.

The chicken cacciatore I loosely followed this recipe. But I didn’t have mushroom nor red capsicum so I used diced eggplants and banana chillies (from the garden) instead. And then I added my home-made tomato sauce along with the pasta sauce and added some chicken stock and a bit of sugar to enhance the flavour.

It was heaven to eat pasta and bread after 10 days of eating rice daily, hikhikhik…..

Don’t get me wrong, I love rice but I also love pasta .

The first day of 2012

2012-01-01T21:10:00.001+08:00

A relaxing Sunday of pruning, weeding, picking the harvest from the garden and cooking for me. While The Other Half did all the dishes, the laundry, the folding (with Miss 12’s help) and the watering.

Hmmm, baru kena tinggal 10 hari, dah pandai lipat baju, hahahaha….

But since The Other Half’s just sprayed all the plants with caterpillar spray on Friday, I could only harvest the tomatoes today.

I got 4.5kgs of tomatoes tadi (and there’s still a lot more tomatoes left in the garden)!

When I showed Emak the tomatoes on Facetime, she asked me to turn them into sun-dried tomatoes sebab sayang kalau terbuang tak dimakan banyak2 macam tu.

(Yes, I baru aje tau guna Facetime ni sebab baru aje dapat phone yang boleh ber Facetime, heeeeee).

But it’s been cloudy today so kalau I jemur tadi, memang tak kan kering lah. I have to wait until the temperature gets up to more than 35⁰C for a few days baru boleh jemur the tomatoes under the hot sun until really dry. Sun-dried tomatoes are so good with a lot of things especially pasta!

And I spent some time with the roses as well. Dead heading the old wilted flowers, pulling out the grass around the plants and taking some photos of the flowers.

It is really soothing to the soul looking and caressing the pretty roses.

And my cactus has also produced some tiny flowers!

So tiny but still comel.

And since it’s Sunday and dah lama tak masak for the girls and The Other half, I cooked both lunch and dinner, hehehe.

I made nasi goreng ayam and karipap for lunch which they devoured macam dah lama tak makan nasi .

And I made sausages, mashed potato with gravy and salad for dinner tadi.

The Other Half said, “God, I really missed your cooking! It is so nice to have you cooking for me again. Everything tastes so nice.”

hahahaha……sian betul laki I tu kena jadi tukang masak terpaksa while I was away.

Bukannya masak yang canggih2 pun, just sausages witth kawan2 dia aje but it did taste great sebab I dah lama tak makan western dishes and the girls and The Other Half dah lama tak makan masakan yg I masak, hehehe.

Goodbye 2011

2011-12-31T20:50:00.001+08:00

This will be my last post for 2011. A year filled with a lot of happiness and one very big sadness.

Thank you once again for all your kind words, thoughts and encouragements. I really do appreciate all of them. Even though I haven’t had the opportunity to meet most of you, it means a lot to me to have such a wonderful group of blog readers.

I have arrived safely back in Perth leaving Malaysia with mixed feelings.

I was happy to get on the plane this morning knowing that The Other half and The Little Misses would be waiting for me with open arms full of love. But I was also feeling very sad nak tinggalkan Emak kat kampung.

Bila I keluar rumah pagi tadi nak pergi ke airport, masa salam and peluk Emak, I was wishing that Abah was still there standing next to her for me to peluk and salam as well. Sedih tak terkata . Last time we came back to Perth from Msia in October, he was there to hug and salam us with his usual sad face sebab nak berpisah dengan the girls and I. Little did I know that that would be the last time The Little Misses hugged Atuk.

Masa kat Malaysia, I felt like he was still nearby sebab kubur dia tak jauh dari rumah. And bila2 boleh nak pergi lawat kubur dia. And I could see and feel his ‘presence’ everywhere around the house in his kopiah on the sidetable, his shirts and pants that were still hanging on the ironing rack, his shoes and thongs in the shoe cabinet, his very much loved-pagoda singlets buried in the washing pile….

When I was on the plane pagi tadi, I felt like I was leaving him behind even though I know it does not matter where he’s buried, it’s the memories and the prayers that will keep him close to me and alive in my heart.

The rest of us whom he left behind have to keep on living……

And when I arrived back at home, this is the sight that greeted me….

My kebun has turned into a jungle in 10 days!

Everytime I look at the grape vines, I will get a lump in my throat. The grapes were bought by Abah when he came here last year. He wanted us to plant the grapes so we will always have something to remember him by.

The tomato plants are on their last legs. They still produce loads of fruits but they have started to brown off.

Some of the cherry tomatoes.

The basils are growing splendidly as well.

The chillies .

And I found this ‘fruit’ on the pavers underneath the shaded area. This plant grew out of the homemade compost we put on the garden bed. We thought it was a cucumber plant at first but this cucumber doesnt look like the cucumber we normally have. It looks a bit like an apple cucumber but with a darker skin. I guess we just have to wait until it ripens to cut it open to find out what it is eh .

We suddenly have an abundance of eggplants!

The garden was waiting for me and so was the kitchen but I still don’t have the ‘energy’ to cook up a storm….

Maybe I will feel differently tomorrow once I have fully rested and once The Other Half and The Little Misses start pining for my cooking .

Have a wonderful 2012 and hoping 2012 will bring a lot of happiness and joy for all of us.

We are coping

2011-12-27T01:57:00.001+08:00

My family and I are so touched by the doas, Al Fatihahs, prayers and thoughts that have been coming our ways since The Other Half put up the sad news on the blog.
Thank you very much from the bottom of our hearts.At times I still fervently hope and wish that it's just a bad dream and I will wake up from it. But I know it is not to be so. I have accepted the fact that Abah is not with us anymore but it is difficult to get used to that idea.

Maybe I should explain what happened to him.He went in for a major surgery, to replace 2 of his valves, to repair 1 valve and to undergo triple bypass. He had valvular heart problems for a long time since he was young due to Rheumatic fever. He had been on medications since 6 years ago. The meds helped at first but since last year, his heart had been getting worse. So, we (the family and the surgeon) decided to operate on him so he could have a better quality of life.He wasnt sick though, he was just a bit weak with breathlessness at times. He could still do all his usual daily routines like going to the Masjid at every solat time, drive around to visit his rellies and friends, take Emak everywhere, go to the shops and a lot of other things.That's why we opted yo have the surgery, so he could do more things with his life like going travelling with Emak, coming to visit us in Perth without me being so worried about his heart all the time, spending more time at the masjid and watch his grandchildren grow up.

Unfortunately, his heart was too weak to cope with the 8-hour long surgery. His heart started bleeding which couldnt be stopped even after a second surgery to fix the bleeds. It was the worst time in my life when the surgeon came to tell us that there was nothing else they could do except pray for a miracle to happen. And the chance of a miracle happening was very slim. My heart just broke there and then knowing that we were going to lose him.

The last time we chatted and laughed with him was on Thursday night before the surgery. He seemed so happy being surrounded by his children and grandkids and was even able to skype with The Little Misses and The Other Half. We didnt say our goodbyes then because we were hoping to see him laughing and smiling again post op.

Unfortunately, that wasn't to be the case. Allah loves him more and he died without regaining consciousness. His bleeding was too severe to be stopped. The surgeons tried everything. We whispered our goodbyes and our heartbreaks to him in between the al Fatihahs and Yaasins recited. I hope he was able to hear my whispered goodbyes and love. I also hope he had forgiven all my wrongdoings from birth till now.

I am so grateful that I was able to be with him this time. Eventhough it was short but I saw the smiles and the happiness on his face on that Thursday night. I will keep those happy memories alive in my heart. He had been a big part of my life for 41+ years. I was hoping he could have been in it longer.....

Sad Day

2011-12-24T13:23:00.001+08:00

Dear all, sadly Mynn’s father passed away a short time ago. Though the surgery appeared to be successful unfortunately he did not recover. Please keep him and the family in your thoughts and prayers. We will all remember him with great fondness. He was a quiet, thoughtful and deeply religious man who loved his family dearly. He will be greatly missed.

May Allah have a place for him in Jannah. Al Fatihah.

Matt

I’m leaving….

2011-12-20T21:57:00.001+08:00

There won’t be any more gardening posts for the next few weeks until tahun depan…

There will be very infrequent updates in the next 10 days (unless I have wi-fi and I rajin nak update about what’s going on or The Other Half ter rajin nak update for me.)

I will be going back to Malaysia all by myself esok for 10 days. The Other Half and The Little Misses will be left behind to fend for themselves…

Sob sob sob…sedih jugak rasa hati ni even though cuma untuk 10 hari.

Selalunya it’s The Other Half yang pergi outstation terbang ke mana2 tinggalkan we all ber tiga kat rumah for a few days.

Kali ni, it will be me yang tinggalkan diaorang so it feels a bit strange.

I will be going back sebab Abah I will be undergoing a major heart surgery this Friday, insyaAllah. And I want to be there when that happens and also during post-op care.

Sepanjang I kat sini everytime dia sakit masuk hospital, I was never there to lawat dia or to look after him. Luckily I have siblings and in laws who help my Mak to take care of him in his time of need.

This time, I want to be there sebab it’s a major surgery and I can accompany Mak I to look after him during the day when everyone is at work. So, maybe I akan berkampung lah kat IJN tu.

(Luckily lah kan around IJN tu penuh dengan food courts so every break time, bolehlah I sample all the foods sepuas2 nya ikut selera I instead of terpaksa ikut selera The Little Misses or selera The Other Half, hahahaha…)

Lagipun it’s school holidays sekarang ni and Christmas and New Year holidays for The Other Half so dia takde lectures or consulting jobs so he can look after the girls. And The Other Half wants me to go back to be with Abah.

So, the whole day today I’ve been quite busy. The house is dusted and vacuumed and mopped, the toilets and bathrooms scrubbed and cleaned, the outside area is swept, the washings done and folded.

(In 10 days time when I get back, I just hope the house will still be in a clean condition, hehehe.)

The dinner menu for the 10 nights pun I dah written down for them, heeee. The Other Half kata lagi senang dia nak masak dinner this way sebab he doesn’t have to perah otak fikir what to cook every night.

But what I do know is that a lot of the dinners will have chips/ fries in it, hehehe.

(I just hope they remember to eat vegetables though because I didn’t put that down on the menu list.)

He said, “as long as everyone is fed and no one dies of starvation, that’s good enough!” .

I think Miss 8 lah yang will suffer lebih2 sebab dia tu kan tekak melayu abis and definitely the Dad won’t be cooking anything Malay, hahahaha……

Semalam pulak I did the shopping to stock up the freezer for easy convenient food like sausage rolls and meat pies and cheesy puffs. Tak lah anyone kebulur for lunch kan .

I yang nak naik flight but I jugak yang kena make sure orang yang ditinggal cukup segalanya.

Ciri2 ibu and isteri mithali kah itu? Wahkahkahkahkah…..

(But if you ask The Other Half, he would say itu ciri2 orang yg obsessive yang tak percaya laki dia boleh jaga anak2, heeee ).

It will be a bit sad sebab I won’t be here untuk our wedding anniversary on Thursday and on Christmas Day.

(Luckily I dah buat trial run masak turkey hari tu kan so boleh lah The Other Half masak turkey for Christmas Dinner nanti.)

Tu yang for the past few days, I masak nasi lemak lah, masak kari lah, masak egg benedict lah….sebab nak kena tinggal kan dia, hikhikhik….

And malam ni I masak pasta pulak. Even though they will be having mac n cheese while I am away, I still masak pasta tonite (sebab I yang nak makan ).

I made beef goulash makan dengan fettucine and bread. I loosely followed this recipe. I added sliced carrots, used fresh diced tomatoes and added a bit of sugar and omitted the wine. I was supposed to add cream at the end but I completely forgot. Rasa dia still sedap though .

I definitely will not be eating pasta or any western food (apart from KFC, hehehe) kat Msia nanti!

P/S Can Kak Kasih, Kak Zai, Nora (from the Top 10 members widget), JieJ and Cheq Sue email your addresses to me at lemongrass@y7mail.com by tomorrow. Ada a small token menanti anda berlima, heeeee…..

Bananas and eggs

2011-12-19T21:22:00.001+08:00

I was quite busy hari ni with a few errands to do.

Pagi2 lagi Miss 8 and I dah terpacak kat the shopping mall. Kat sini kalau dah nak dekat2 Christmas, the shops will be jam-packed with shoppers by 10 o’clock and a lot of the shoppers will be in a grumpy mood.

(I dont know why but a lot of people get grumpier as Christmas gets nearer. Maybe tension fikir pasal hadiah apa nak beli, berapa dollars nak spend per gift, nak masak apa for Christmas lunch and dinner, nak jumpa the in-laws and sanak sedara yang menggeramkan jiwa).

So, pukul 9 tadi we all dah sampai kat the shops and by 11.40 we all dah sampai kat rumah balik and all the errands done .

So, tu yang sempat lah nak buat kuih for afternoon tea tadi.

Sekarang kan pisang dah murah bebeno so every time I nampak pisang murah, I surenya akan beli sebab nak melepaskan gian tak dapat beli pisang for nearly a year, hikhikhik.

So, bila dah banyak sangat pisang, banyak lah pisang yg over ranum kat dalam fruit bowl tu.

Jemput2 pisang dah selalu sangat buat semenjak dua menjak ni. Apam pisang I malas sikit nak buat. Banana cakes pun dah selalu buat and takde sape nak makan sangat in this house.

So fikir punya fikir, I pun buat donut pisang.

I takde recipe. I cuma ambik the main ingredients yang I slalu guna untuk buat donuts (minus the egg) and then I campur kan pisang lenyek. So, tadi I campurkan tepung gandum, susu tepung, margarine, salt, sugar, yeast, warm water and pisang lenyek in a big bowl. I agak2 aje the measurement and uli sampai the dough tak lembik sangat. Let it rise until double in size.

Then gelek on a floured surface and tekap dengan acuan donut.

Let it rise for the second time and then goreng dengan api sederhana until golden brown.

I golekkan the donuts in cinnamon sugar (I just used caster raw sugar+cinnamon powder) and siap untuk dihidang.

You can see the brown flecks associated with pisang ranum on the donuts.

Miss 12 loves donuts and when she first bit into it, she said, “it’s got banana in it! Still yummy though.”

Then for dinner, The Other Half kata dah lama sangat dia teringin nak makan eggs benedict so I pun buatkan lah dia tadi poached eggs on toast with hollandaise sauce. I don’t like making this dish because you have to do everything at the same time and to stand at the stove top whisking the sauce and have to make sure everything stays warm and served warm.

Nasib baik The Other Half tolong whisk so boleh lah I buat scrambled eggs on toast for the girls and poached the eggs while he was whisking.

I dont like it that much because I rasa macam too much butter in that sauce (ini pun I dah kurangkan the amount) and too many eggs but The Other Half loves it.

No more garden photos, only food!

2011-12-18T20:13:00.001+08:00

After few days of just gardening updates, I pun dah tak larat tengok garden tu, hehehehe….

I might as well tayang gambar the foods lah pulak kan or else people might think this is a gardening blog pulakkan!

The girls and I went to a pool party at a friend’s house last Friday. Luckily the weather was excellent for them to jump into the pool and for the Mak Mak to borak2 and makan2.

It was as usual a potluck party with the hostess cooking a few things as well.

Some of the spread on that day. Ini pun ada a few people yang belum sampai lagi so memang lagi banyak kuih muih and lauk pauk terhidang once they got there. But masa tu I dah start makan so malas betul nak ambik gambar lagi, hehehe.

I buat pizza for the kids to eat and also serimuka as dessert.

Both very easy to make so tu yang I volunteered nak bawak these things .

Obviously malam tu I tak masak, cuma makan toasts aje while The Other Half makan the stuff yang I tapau kan.

Semalam, The Other Half kata dia teringin sangat nak makan nasi lemak so I pun buatkan dia nasi lemak.

I buat ikan goreng as lauk but the ikan bawal was too big to put on the plate! Heeee…

The sayur terung and okra goreng ni came fresh from the garden. Goreng dgn bawang, bilis and kicap sungguhlah sedapnya .

Then for dinner tadi, I made savoury mince with baked eggs.

I used the banana chillies, tomatoes, fresh oregano leaves, fresh basil leaves and fresh parsley from the garden.

I just diced the onion, garlic, tomatoes and banana chillies tu. Finely sliced the fresh herbs.

Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil until wilted. Add a teaspoon each of cumin powder, coriander powder and paprika and cook for a few more minutes. Add the beef mince and cook until it has turned brown. Add the diced tomatoes, chicken stock powder, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste and let it simmer until all the tomatoes have become mushy and the liquid has reduced to half.

Put the mince mixture in an oven-proof glass dish and break as many eggs as you want on top of it. Bake it in 200°C oven until the egg white is cooked and the yolk is still runny.

Makan dengan home-made parmesan & garlic bread, bean salad and roast potatoes.

I guess when you dip a piece of bread in runny egg, everything else will taste nice too kan .

And then for dessert, we had fresh fruits.

The gorgeous Summer fruits of peaches, plums, cherries, strawberries and figs.

We love figs but they are so difficult to get and so expensive as well. Yang jenis ni we found at the Sunday market tadi for $5/kg saje! So, beria lah we all makan sampai puas tadi, hehehe.

An update for gardening lovers aje ^___^

2011-12-17T22:02:00.001+08:00

I know dah a few days jugak I buat updates yang berkaitan dengan our garden and gardening.

I guess sometimes I malas nak letak entries pasal what I cook for dinner sebab kadang2 I malas nak masak dinner so masak scrambled eggs and toasts aje or maggi goreng aje.

Tu yang nasib baik ada garden so bila I malas masak, boleh tayang gambar garden, hehehe.

And malam ni, I nak buat a special update on one aspect of gardening.

A blogger, AbbotCottage, asked if I can explain to her macam mana nak buat garden bed and the tanah used untuk buat garden bed ni.

We all ada 2 jenis garden beds like I’ve mentioned before, the no-dig garden beds and the normal raised garden beds.

The no-dig garden beds ni basically you can build anywhere, on any types of soil, or rocks or even concrete pavement like what we did. So, kalau rumah you all takde tanah tapi ada laman concrete, still boleh jugak tanam sayur.

If you want to read more about it, ini ada a few links, here, here and here.

The raised garden beds that we have are constructed on tanah. The vege patch yang besar was already here when we bought the house. Then we built another smaller one about a month ago.

And today we (as in The Other Half) built another one along another fence wall. But kali ni the area is much smaller than the second one.

This was what we used (you need) to build a raised garden bed.

1. An area to pun the garden bed.

Kecik aje area ni, about 1.5m X 0.5m. We all ingat cuma nak tanam the pak choys and the bok choys and kangkung kat sini. Vegetables yang takde akar tunjang yg besar.

2. Kayu kayan nak buat garden bed tu. We all guna treated pine palings and jarrah pegs. Make sure kayu yang you guna tu are treated so tak reput bila kena hujan and matahari and tak kena makan anai2.

And don’t forget the drill machine .

3. A good-looking man to build it for you while you just sit under the shade and sip icy coke, muahahahaha…

kalau the good-looking man nampak tension aje sebab the screw he used was not drilling correctly, make sure you bagi kata kata perangsang kat tepi tu instead of just sipping icy coke, heeee….

Or you can always bawakkan a glass of icy coke for him to drink sebab tengah2 panas kena buat garden bed kan, hehehehe….

(kalau you all nak hire my man ni boleh aje but labour cost dia sangat lah mahal nya mah, hikhikhik….)

Once it’s done, make sure the good-looking man carries the newly built garden bed to the right place and set it in place nicely.

Set it at the right place and then hammer the jarrah pegs into the ground.

Until the pine paling sits nicely on the ground without any gap.

(sebab this vege bed sangat kecik and rendah, we didn’t bother to put another pine paling on the 4th side yang against the wall tu. Kalau your garden bed besar and tinggi lagi, kenalah letak the wood on the other side as well to avoid the soil causing a lot of pressure on the wall.)

4. The things that go into the bed

The first layer is compost. Selalunya we all guna our own home-made compost tapi we’ve just used our compost the other day so yang dalam compost bin tu tak ready lagi. Kenalah beli compost at the shop.

In goes the first layer.

The second layer is the potting mix. Potting mix ni dah ada wetting agent in it, a bit of fertiliser, tanah.

My tugas cuma meratakan the layers aje .

Make sure you ratakan the mix nicely.

If you takde potting mix, cuma ada tanah aje, after you dah tabur the tanah, boleh lah tabur some fertilisers on it atau Dynamic Lifter to give your soil the extra boost. Kalau takde, just baja tahi ayam pun boleh, hehehe.

Then add the third layer which is mulch. Mulch ni tugas dia untuk retain moisture, keep the weeds from popping up and keeping the soil a bit cool. Mulch ni boleh dapat from many sources. Yang we all guna is from sugar cane. You can use shredded barks, straw/hay, shredded newspaper, grass clippings.

After the mulch has been spread evenly, you can water the garden bed. The Other Half put a bit of fertiliser in the water so it will make the garden bed extra ‘juicy’ for the seedlings .

Then let the garden bed settles down a bit for about a week before you plant anything. But don’t let it get too dry in the meantime though.

So, this is how we built our garden beds. Lain orang maybe lain cara dia but so far this seems to work for us.

And before I lupa, this is the flower (from the previous update) on its plant.

It’s the flower of the mint herbs. Cantik kan rupa dia .

Another garden update (tak laraaattttt…. :-))

2011-12-16T07:57:00.001+08:00

It is quite good sebenarnya when The Little Misses tak payah pergi sekolah ni sebab I can also take leave from tugas pagi2 of getting them ready for school and jadi Mak Supir.

So, boleh lah I spent that time in the garden instead.

But I wasn’t doing anything exciting in the garden pun, only those fiddly chores that you have to do whether you like it or not like weeding, watering and deadheading the roses.

Every time we all water and fertilise the vegetables, I rasa all the weeds pun bersorak gumbira ria jugak kan sebab diaorang pun dapat tempias the water and the food. Luckily lah the weeds bukan jenis yang deep rooted so senang lah nak pull them out tadi. Kalau nak the plants hidup subur, kenalah rajin buat weeding kan, heeee….

Watering pun satu kerja yang I tak berapa suka. Sebabnya we all guna rain tank water which is at the side of the house. Kalau nak water the garden and the pots, I kena hook up the long hose to the raink water tank tap and then tadah the water from the hose into watering cans to avoid water wastage. Then I kena carry the watering cans around the house to water the plants. Penat weh nak tunggu the cans penuh and then nak hangkut the cans! Each watering can boleh isi 9 litres so kadang2 it takes 10 cans to water all the plants so bayang kan lah betapa muscly nya my biceps and triceps after that! hehehehe.

People slalu tanya how come our sayur gumuk2 belaka and semua menjadi.

Actually, banyak jugak yang we all tanam tak berapa menjadi especially yang direct from seeds. I guess we didn’t use the right seed growing soil kot, tu yang semua tak kuasa nak bercambah.

But since we all guna the greenhouse and The Other Half started using coir + really good potting mix as his seed raising soil base, the result is unbelievable. All the seeds dah bercambah and tengah galak bercambah. We are so happy.

The cress, the mustard and the snow pea sprouts. Lepas ni boleh makan salad hari2 .

The marigolds, carnations and sunflowers.

(Entah bila dia jadi Mat Bunga, muahahaha.).

The bok choys and the pak choys.

My most prized possesion (apart from all of the chilli plants ) are these 2 tini bean plants. They are not the usual common garden beans, they are kacang botol. The Other Half pernah cuba tanam them dulu but tak berjaya hidup. These beans I yg tanam and Alhamdulillah, dah bercambah. Happy sangat2!

The Other Half is so happy bila every morning dia pergi jenguk his green house, more seeds have sprouted!

(Now, I yang pening kepala nak fikir nak tanam kat mana lah all those seedlings! We haven’t got any more rooms in the garden for them.)

And another thing, The Other Half ni rajin membaja, he will do it every fortnightly. And this is the baja yang we all guna sejak dari dulu lagi, Seasol concetrate which is 100% seaweed based and Australian made and is really good. Kalau you all nak tau more about it, just go to this link.

(He bought the 10l bottle and then bila nak guna, he’ll mix it with water to dilute it and then siram. Because it’s a concentrate, you dont need to use much.)

But since it’s seaweed based, every time lepas dia habis membaja, I akan rasa nak termuntah sebab bau hanyir laut+ikan! Urgh!

The good thing with this Seasol, you don’t have to wait to eat your vegetables after fertilising, straight away boleh guna the sayur (but still kena basuh dulu, hehehe).

Lihat lah dunia, my hoa lat chilli finally dah berbuah…

(Kaya lah I lepas ni, hahahaha…..)

The round purple chilli pun dah menunjukkan hasil.

The joi choy. (I rasa macam sama aje dengan all the other choys… heeeee).

Our strawberries are fruiting a bit late this year but I guess better late than never kan.

One of the apple hybrids have started to fruit but I tak tau jenis apa yg ini. Nampak mcm granny smith aje kan.

Now…can anyone guess what flower this is?

First time I tengok bunga ni keluar, so pretty but so tiny!

The names of the flowers, the produce from the garden and the choc in a box

2011-12-14T21:55:00.001+08:00

Akhirnya the last day of school went smoothly even though pagi tadi I was a bit kelam kabut nak make sure everything was wrapped nicely.

(dari pukul 5 pagi I dah kat dapur but tak tau lah I buat apa with the time, we got out a bit late for school today.)

Mana tak late nya, masa tu lah I baru terhegeh2 nak siapkan 2 boxes of treats for Miss 12’s teachers sebab dia kata dia nak bagi some gifts for 4 of her teachers. 2 teachers I dah belikan Maltesers gift boxes so 2 lagi tu yg Ikena buat boxes for them.

And then I thought of baking some muffins pagi tadi for the sweet treats hamper for the staff room so tu yang buat lagi lambat. Pastu, pagi tadi jugak I baru nak basuh all the dishes so lagi lah lambat, hahaha…

And then Miss 8 kata dia nak bagi some gifts for her sports teacher, the retiring librarian and her music/ choir teacher so lagilah I kelam kabut pack up a few things for them. Nasib baik all the goodies ada banyak extra so senang lah sikit.

The choc boxes for Miss 12’s teachers. Miss 12 was so happy when she saw these cute boxes for her teachers and she said her teachers loved them as well.

(I know my chocs tak secantik the shop bought ones and tak secantik the pros, hehehe.)

Chocolates are so cheap here especially nak dekat2 Christmas ni and I know it is way easier to just buy the chocolates like Lindt gift boxes, Ferrero Roche and all the other types but I love making these things for them.

Ooh, before I forget, I nak tunjuk kat you all our new hasil in the kebun…

The okra/bendi. Yang tak bestnya about okra ni, cuma sebiji okra aje yg boleh dipetik on each plant at a time because they mature at different times. We all cuma tanam 4 okra plants aje so macam mana lah nak kenyang kan, hikhikhik…

And I masak the bendi tonite for dinner. Terpaksa campur dengan beans to bulk it up, or else memang tak cukup lah nak makan, hehehe.

I masak okra n beans with coconut stir fry, ikan mullet goreng, daging masak kurma and acar mentah. Korma tu nampak hitam sebab I masak dlm oven so kaer dia jadi lain pulaknya .

The Other Half tak minat kurma sbb dia kata rasa kurma ni ‘bland’ tak menyengat macam vindaloo or rogan josh. I said to him takpelah sekali sekala masak ikut The Little Misses taste yang tak makan pedas.

Miss 12 and Miss 8 makan dengan begitu berselera sekali sebab makan something yang tak pedas yang bukan masak kicap! hikhikhik….

Our eggplants. Kejap lagi, boleh lah we all harvest the fruits kan.

We call these banana chillis/ banana peppers here. And chili ni kan yang orang buat solok lada tu? kalau makan yong tau foo ada solok lada ni, sedap weh .

And before I terlupa lagi, these are the names of the flowers in this jom main teka teki post.

Unfortunately, takde sorang pun yang dapat teka dengan tepat but ada a few yg dpt teka sipi2 aje .

1. Bendi (most people got this right)

2. Terung/ eggplant (again, most people got this right too).

3. Thai basil (ditto).

4. Strawberry (mentang2 lah semua pernah pergi Cameron Highland kan so bunga strawberry ni sangat lah dikenali ramai, hahaha.)

5. Cucumber/timun (senang sangat yang ini ).

6. Celery (no one guessed this. Yang sipi2 guessed parsley.)

7. Apple (No one guessed this either. Kat dalam kebun I ada pokok apple hybrid and one of the hybrids tengah berbuah and berbunga sekarang which I think is the granny smith variety kot.)

8. Green basil.

9. Blueberry

So sorry ye sebab takde sape yg dapat meneka dengan tepat. Takpe, next time kalau I buat teka teki lagi, boleh cuba lagi

Treats for the teachers

2011-12-13T21:45:00.001+08:00

Esok is the last day of school for the year.

Then about 7 weeks of Summer holidays. We have a few things planned already so hopefully it’s not going to be a long boring holidays lah for anyone kan .

And as usual, at the end of the school year, I will make something for the girls’ teachers. But this time, I only buat beria2 for Miss 8’s class teachers aje sebab Miss 12 ada too many teachers over the year so tak larat weh nak bagi semua, hehehe. She’ll be giving chocs and a bit of my home made treats for some of her favourite teachers though.

Last year I pening kepala fikir macam mana nak wrap the basket hampers. Tahun ni instead of baskets, I just guna a wicker plate aje so lagi senang nak wrap, hehehe.

I made 6 different types of sweet treats for the teachers this year, nothing savoury at all macam last year.

I made pudding truffles using this recipe. But I malas nak decorate dengan glace cherries so I just drizzle white choc over it aje. The taste is marvellous (according to The Other Half lah)!

And I made choc fudge using this recipe but I guna almond instead of walnuts. and also buat butternut snap choc tartlets.

Then I made florentine slice but I added a bit of cornflakes and craisins to the mixture. Bila dah masuk dlm goodie bag, tak nampak pulak rupa florentine slice ni, hehehe….

The other 2 sweet treats are cranberry and white choc shortbread, and as usual I tambah pistachios and guna milk choc instead of white choc. And almond biscotti.

And instead of baskets, I guna wicker plate aje lah this year so senang sikit nak wrap esok pagi, hehehehe…

Banyak kerja I nak buat esok pagi…

Nak wrap the hampers, nak goreng karipap sebab Miss 12 nak karipap for her lunch and also nak bagi her friends some and then nak buat guacamole dip for Miss 8’s class party at lunch time.

Each kid can choose what to bring from the list of dishes/food that the teachers have written down. And Miss 8 chose to bring a dip suitable for veges/chips so she wanted me to make avocado dip for her.

Nasib baik she chose an easy peasy food so senang lah I nak buat .

Summer rain

2011-12-12T21:20:00.001+08:00

It’s raining cats and dogs here at the moment.

It was really heavy with a little bit of hail earlier in the evening which was a lot of fun to watch.

We all pulak, bila tengah hujan or bila the BOM predicts nak hujan, we love to see the radar view at this BOM link. It is so fascinating to see the progression of the rain cells and also the intensity of the rain.

Masa we had that really heavy rain and the hail tadi, our area was covered with the colour red on the radar.

And The Other Half pun will look at this radar every morning before he cycles to work. Kalau nampak yg hujan lebat giler will be coming soon, dia terus lah tak jadi nak naik beskal pergi kerja, terus lah naik public transport. He said he doesnt mind a little bit of rain when he cycles but bila hujan lebat giler, he can’t see anything sebab his glasses will be so wet and fogged up, hehehe.

And masa hujan lebat beria tadi, The Other Half said, “You should take a photo of this flooding.”

Macam ni dia panggil flood, hehehehe…..

(kalau kat Msia, ini namanya lopak air which is normal after setiap kali hujan, heeee…).

And bila hujan, mestilah asik rasa lapar aje kan so I masak loads of baked potato for dinner tadi.

I parboiled the whole potato first, then cut them in half and put them on an oven tray. I drizzled some olive oil, sprinkled some salt, paprika, cumin powder and turmeric powder on the potato halves.

Bake them in 200°C oven until they are brown and tender about 30-40 minutes. And then sprinkle some grated cheddar/ colby on the potato and bake them again until the cheese has melted.

Serve the baked potatoes with salsa, sour cream and sweet chilli sauce.

A little bit of meat on the side wouldnt go astray .

And then kalau still lapar lagi, boleh makan Summer fruit salad with a little bit of yoghurt.

Summer because ada cherries, watermelon, mango and bananas.

Garden update which normally follows the weekend

2011-12-11T21:05:00.001+08:00

Our house has a front yard and a back yard (and the sides as well).

I guess that’s what all bungalows are like kan, hehehe.

In the front garden, on the left side of the driveway is the grassy lawn area with rose bushes along its 2 edges.

(saje je tayang some of the rose bushes, hehehe.)

On the right side of the driveway pulak is a small strip of tanah/ garden area.

The previous owner used to plant roses here but we all cabut cos there was just too many roses, tak larat we all. So, we gantikan and planted seasonal veges there.

Last year, we planted capsicum and zucchinis there.

This year, we put a bed of dried grass on it and planted some watermelon seedlings in a pot. Once the seedlings dah membesar, hopefully akan menjalar atas the grassy bed lah.

Our watermelon seedlings.

Along the same strip, we have lemongrass bushes and lavender.

And in the back garden pulak, we have 2 separate main areas of vegetable gardens/bed. Separated by a patch of lawn.

Kalau ikut The Other Half, dia nak aje penuhkan the back area ni dengan raised garden beds along the back wall….

The main vege patch yang dah sedia ada masa we all bought this house.

The main vege patch dah penuh dengan tomatoes, sugar snap peas, silverbeets, capsicums, different types of chilli plants, okra, eggplants (the lebanese and the big varieties) …..

and also daun kesum yang we all tanam inbetween the vege patch and the back wall (sebab dah tak tau kat mana lagi nak tanam the kesum, hahaha).

Punyalah happy nya daun kesum to get a big space all to itself.

The second vege area where we put the 2 no-dig garden beds and also the raised garden bed(against the back wall), the greenhouse, all the pots and planters and a table for The Other Half to do his semaian.

Our grape plants pun tengah galak berdaun sekarang ni. Every so often The Other Half has to tie them to the shaded roof woden bit. Hopefully in a couple of years time, the grape will cover the whole area lah, redup sikit kan .

Tengoklah our cucumber plants ni, sampai dah ke lantai diaorang menjalar, hehehe….

His greenhouse with all the hasil semaian. I have no idea kat mana lah we all nak tanam all the seedlings ni sebab I rasa our backyard ni dah jam-packed dengan plants.

(We keep the seeds in here masa Summer ni just so tak hilang moisture sebab Summer kat sini sgt lah kering nya).

Can’t wait to use it fully masa Winter nanti so bolehlah I semai benih chilli, cucumbers, zucchinis awal2.

The raised garden bed (against the back wall) yang dah ada blueberry, redcurrant, 2 chilli plants, a row of snow peas and a row of joi choy (I have no idea which one joi choy ni). At the back end of the bed tu, in that balck pot is our mint.

And last but not least, our latest penyeri in the back garden. It’s just behind The Little Misses’ rooms so when they open their blinds at night time, they can see them…

Solar-powered dragonfly lights. I think they are so comel!

Eclipse and turkey

2011-12-10T21:27:00.001+08:00

Masa I tengah tulis this entry, the lunar eclipse have just started here.

Miss 8 beria2 nak tengok so we are letting her sleep a bit later than her usual bed time so dapat lah dia tengok a bit of the eclipse.

(cukuplah tu kan. Kalau nak tunggu sampai the full eclipse, I pun dah lama berdengkur masa tu, hehehe).

Malam ni I pun nak tidur cepat sebab esok nak bangun pagi nak bake something to take to the last Sunday school session for this year. Lepas tu, semua akan bercuti for 7 weeks sempena Summer school holidays kan.

The whole today dah busy buat other things so tu yang tak sempat nak bake anything.

Pagi2 lagi dah pergi menjelajah Bunnings. We bought some more seedlings and seeds and seed-raising mix and another pot of chilli. This time it’s a habanero chilli plant.

(I tengah giler tanam chili sekarang ni! Penuh dah kat belakang rumah tu dengan chillis plants, hahaha.)

I bought a greenhouse for The Other Half the other day sebab dia beria2 nak start raise seedlings in it. So, tu yg dia beria beli seeds tadi.

I pulak dah tak larat nak tanam from seeds sebab rasa mcm lambat sangat nak bercambah. I lagi suka beli seedlings and then terus tanam kat vege patch and then a few weeks later, dah boleh tuai hasil kan .

Esok, I’ll take some more photos of our crowded vege patch and vege beds ye. I have no idea dah nak letak kat mana the seedlings yang The Other Half semai tadi yang bakal bercambah in a a few weeks nanti.

Memang dah takde tempat langsung unless we build another vege bed lah.

Kalau ikut The Other Half, dia nak aje get rid of the front lawn and ganti dengan pretty raised vege beds.

I told him, kalau nak buat vege beds kat luar tu, alamatnya kena lah pasang fence sebab surenya akan ada makhluk2 yang teruja nak mencuri all the sayur and fruits kan, hehehe.

Actually, I sibuk tuai the cherry tomatoes tengah hari tadi and I made oven dried tomatoes and also tomato relish from it.

This is the tomato relish I made. I used this recipe but I only guna about 2 tablespoons of brown sugar instead of 100g. Sedaplah jugak for my taste yang tak berapa suka makan chutney nor relish ni, hehehe.

We had turkey for dinner tonight sebab sekarang turkey tgh murah sebab nak dekat2 Christmas kan.

I used Steggles turkey thigh (the blue coloured Steggles brand not the red one sbb the blue one is produced by Baiada) yang dah siap rolled and deboned in a box. They sell it in 1 kg box kat Coles/Woolies/IGA in the freezer section. It costs $10/kg box at Coles which is really murah lah sebab daging semata.

Everyone loved the turkey, memang more moist compared to turkey breast lah.

I forgot to put cranberry sauce on my turkey, hehehe.

The Other Half kata bolehlah dia masak ni for Christmas lunch nanti sebab tinggal masuk oven, let it cook and then slice it nicely. Anyone can do it! hehehehe…..

Jom main teka teki

2011-12-09T12:38:00.001+08:00

Untuk sesape2 yang nak tengok the video clip of Miss 8 dancing, sila lah ke sini ye.

Sambil dia menari, sambil tu dia menyanyi the song (untuk lebih menghayati all the moves kan, hehehe…).

Kat Perth public school ni, in term 4, the students will be taught dancing lessons for 1 session a week for 8 weeks. Dance ni is just for the end of year school concert performance. They only teach the dance moves for the song they’ve chosen for the class. And you have to pay $20 for the lessons for the term which is cheap lah kan.

Sambil dancing, sambil exercising kan .

And a good news we heard yesterday, Western Australia has finally made the move for Yr 7 students to start high school in line with the rest of the country.

In WA ni, primary schooling is from Pre Primary (which is the year after kindy) to Year 7. High school pulak starts from Year 8 to Year 12 (where the students sit for the big Tertiary Entrance exams untuk masuk Uni).

Tu yang Miss 12 baru masuk high school this year sebab she started Yr 8 early this year.

But nanti in Feb 2015, when it’s Miss 8’s turn to enter high school, her year will be the first batch of Yr 7 to start high school. At that time Miss 12 will be in Yr 12 which will be her final year of high school. Miss 12 will only be 15 nak masuk 16 y.o masa tu but dah final year of high school, poor her, hehehe.

So, dapatlah the two girls be in the same school again in 4 years time, hikhikhik….

Enough of that, hari ni kita main guessing game jom.

Sejak ada macro lens, I suka ambik gambar bunga (but definitely hasn’t changed me into a minah bunga yet, hahaha).

Jom kita teka what are the flowers in the photos below!

Semua bunga ni memang comel lote aje and found in our garden. But we all definitely tak tanam the plants for the bunga, hehehe….

Bunga 1:

Bunga 2:

Bunga 3:

Bunga 4:

Bunga 5:

Bunga 6:

Bunga 7:

Bunga 8:

Bunga 9:

The first person (with a valid postal address in M’sia or OZ) yang dapat teka all of the flowers dengan betul kat comment box for this entry, will receive a small gift from me .

So, jomlah main teka teki!

The dance after the singing

2011-12-08T22:03:00.001+08:00

Malam ni we went to Miss 8’s school concert.

We saw her singing again and then we saw her dancing…

The Other Half cakap, “I rasa kan, tak payah lah kita hantar dia masuk Dance Academy school tu ye sebab mau lah kot bertahun2 hantar pun tak lulus2 lagi.”

(setelah di alih bahasa!)

Hikhikhikhikhik….

I rasa kalau kat Msia and dia kena menari tarian lilin or zapin or ulik mayang….mau nangis lah cikgu dia hari2, hahahaha…

So, thank goodness dia lagi suka menyanyi dari menari kan .

(I’m just being mean actually, she wasn’t bad at all, hehehe.)

They danced to the Dinosaur rap song.

Tu yang kena pakai sleeveless tshirt, denim shorts and a cap ala2 rapper kan.

Some of the dance moves.

(nanti kalau I rajin, I will upload the video onto youtube but the quality isn’t that good sebab we were quite far and ada a few people sitting in front of us yang kept on moving their heads so The Other Half couldnt take proper video, heee…)

But we were happy to watch her danced tadi because she looked like she was really enjoying it which is what matters most kan .

A simple dinner requested by her

2011-12-07T20:54:00.001+08:00

The Other Half had dinner out with his friend tonite.

This friend is one of his good friends masa high school dulu and now lives in Sydney so bila they happen to be in each other’s hometown, memang they will try to meet up lah.

I pulak malas betul nak keluar jumpa this guy sebab kene seret the girls as well. So, I told The Other Half to pergi sorang lah so they can chat to their hearts content kan.

And bila dia takde for dinner, I pun tanya lah The Little Misses what they want for dinner.

Miss 8’s answer, “I would love to have noodles and chicken soup Mum. Remember you made it once before?”

Miss 12’s answer, “I don’t know.”

Miss 12’s answer will always be either I dont know or burger or sausages or chips. So typical of her yang memang tak minat main dishes sangat ni (she can live on desserts only!).

Miss 8 pulak will always be a variety of things sebab memang dia suka makan, hehehe.

I pun bila dia kata nak noodles and soup, terus lah terfikir alangkah sedapnya kalau dapat makan the mee soup with sambal kicap.

And I found some chili api (yang tak mahal sangat tu, hahaha) in the fridge.

Jadi lah mee soup sempoi tak cukup bahan makan dengan sambal kicap

Kalau dah ada sambal kicap, mee soup tak cukup bahan pun still rasa sedap sangat!

Miss 8 bila nampak the noodles and chicken soup terus senyum lebar and said, “This is exactly what I asked for. Yumm…I love chicken soup and noodles!”

Siap tambah second helping tu lagi! Muahahahaha…..

Miss 12 pulak I baked some frozen sausage rolls and chips for her and she was happy, hehehehe…

After the rain

2011-12-06T20:45:00.001+08:00

Untuk Lurpak yang teruja nak tengok the rest of the videos of the kids singing, I dah upload ke youtube the videos and whenever your ears want to hear their dendangan, ini link Santa Claus is coming to town and link Christmas Boogey woogey.

I tak sanggup nak upload ke blog sebab kesian kat you all kena dengar their singing, hehehehe….

I think Miss 8 loves being in the choir sebab the music teacher is so enthusiastic. Every time any music group or a class does a performance at the school or anywhere, she will be standing in front of the group doing all the moves and looking so animated and enthusiastic.

We all yang menonton semalam pun terikut2 sama tapping our feet and menyanyi .

(And until now, I’m still humming jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rocks! Can’t get it out of my mind!!!!!)

And as predicted by BOM, we had a downpour today. It started raining from last night and basically only stopping about an hour ago.

Semalam our rain tank was nearly empty sebab we’ve been using the rain water nearly every day to water the gardens. Susah jugak hati sebab once it’s emptied, kenalah we all start guna tap water sepenuhnya untuk water the gardens.

Luckily it rained today and our rain tank pun dah nearly penuh again .

And our veges, roses, flowers, trees got a good soak today as well.

I know, I dah selalu sangat tayang the tomatoes but memang sekarang ni all of them tengah galak giler berbuah. Hari2 I kena petik and still berlambak lagi yg merah2 kat pokok tu.

Miss 8 pun hari2 bawak cherry tomatoes in her lunch box for fruit time, hehehe.

Our bendi/ okra dah mula berputik but tak tau lah whether akan jadi cantik ke tak. So far, we all memang takde luck with bendi ni.

One of the eggplant plants. Most of them dah berbunga.

the capsicums getting bigger.

During Spring and Summer, pokok kunyit cantik berdaun .

One of the anak kangkung yang i dah repotted to a bigger pot. Happy aje dia sekarang sbb dapat membesar dengan aman, heeee….

So, since banyak veges kat kebun tu, malam ni I masak sayur silverbeet for dinner, hehehe.

We had beef tortellini in creamy pesto, sauteed silverbeets and bread for dinner tonite.

The beef tortellini ni kedai mari, bukan buatan sendiri, hehehe.

Jingle Bell rocks

2011-12-05T20:21:00.001+08:00

This afternoon, we went to watch Miss 8’s choir group performed at the shopping centre.

It was quite fun actually sebab all the shoppers and the shopkeepers took time out to jenguk2 and stop to watch them sing.

But mostly, the area was filled with the choir members families aje lah yang excited sangat2 (including us, hehehe.)

They sang 4 songs. Christmas boogey woogie, Jingle bell rocks, Santa Claus is coming to town and Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

Not only that, they also had to sing at 2 different spots in the shopping complex. Padahal bukannya besar mana pun the shopping centre tu, hehehe.

By the second session, dah ramai budak2 yang tak larat nak nyanyi but not our daughter yang masih lagi so enthusiastic menyanyi dan menggayakan the moves, muahahaha…

Layan lah ye one of the videos of them singing that we took today.

Miss 8 said she was imitating the music teacher’s moves, tu yang beria2 she moved her arms around, hikhikhik….

(lepas ni boleh lah dia join Australia Got Talent kan, muahahahaha )

And ini pulak dinner we all yang cukup sempoi sebab I malas nak masak tadi, heee….

Vegetables frittata with home made cheesy garlic bread (but using shop bought tiger bread ).

The BOM predicted that there’s going to be thunderstorm with heavy rain and possible hail tonight.

It will be fun to get the rain after a scorcher of a day!

Busy week before the holidays

2011-12-04T20:36:00.001+08:00

Miss 8 was so chuffed people think her gingerbread cookies are cute, hikhikhik…

Now she wants you to try figure out what this Teddy bear is doing!

We think this teddy biscuit is so comel, hahahahaha.

When it’s nearing Christmas time here, memang most people will be making gingerbread men/ gingerbread biscuits (macam kita buat tart nenas lah masa Raya, hahaha).

And I pun usually will bake them too just because we like eating them and icing them.

Esok pulak, Miss 8’s choir group will be performing their Christmas songs at the shopping centre near her school. We can’t wait to watch her sing, heeeee. And luckily lah they are not singing any religious songs.

She’ll be wearing a Santa hat with her choir uniform (Nasib baik lah we all cuma kena provide Santa hat aje which you can buy everywhere. Kalau kena provide Santa costume, mati lah I nak menjahit nya, hahahaha.)

This coming week will be a busy week for us. Dah nak cuti sekolah, baru lah busy dengan macam2.

Miss 12 will be going on 2 school excursions to Gingin and to Great Escape in Hillary. Miss 8 will have the choir performance tomorrow and EduDance concert on Thursday and her Mini Golf excursion next Monday.

(And I pulak will be busy with making the food baskets for the teachers….kalau rajin lah, hahaha.)

And tonight for dinner, I made Phad Thai which is basically Thai style kuey teow. But instead of fresh kuey teow, they use the dried rice noodles.

But I cheated a bit, I used the instant phad thai paste.

I made prawn and tofu phad thai. Then tabur coriander leaves and chilli flakes on it. Bila nak makan, squirt a bit of lime juice into it.

And I found some leftover roast chicken pieces in the freezer. Might as well use them to increase the protein content kan .

My very own junior baker ;-)

2011-12-03T19:08:00.001+08:00

We had a lazy pottering-around-the-house-day today.

(It was too hot to drive around looking for things for our next garden project so postpone lah dulu project tu until next year kot, hahaha.)

Miss 12 went to a friend’s birthday party so tinggal lah Miss 8 sorang2 kat rumah..

I kesian tengok dia tak buat apa2, I offered to make gingerbread biscuits with her.

Teruslah dia happy sangat2 lepas tu, hehehe.

Layan lah some photos of her making and decorating the biscuits ye.

I used this recipe to make the gingerbread biscuits.

After the mixing of the ingredients, came her favourite part, kneading the dough.

Bersungguh2 penuh konsentrasi menguli.

Make sure your fingernails are all short and clean ye adik2, hehehe.

After putting the dough for half an hour in the fridge, now it’s cookie cutter time.

I did the rolling while she did the cutting.

After everything is done and the cookies baked and cooled down, it’s time to ice them.

All iced! (with my help because it was taking her too long nak habiskan mendeco satu adunan tu, hehehe.)

When Miss 12 came home from the birthday party, she was so impressed tengok creation adik dia. And Miss 12 yang tak suka the shop-bought gingerbread biscuits couldn’t stop eating the gingerbread biscuits yang adik dia buat tadi .

Makan makan lagi….

2011-12-02T19:10:00.001+08:00

How has your Friday been?

Mine was really good with loads of makan2…

(kata nak kurus balik but every week asik makan2 aje, how lah kan, hehehe. Takpe, next year’s resolution wll be to go back to my old slim me.)

I felt like eating so I cooked a few things….

Only a few things aje kan, hahahaha .

I made tepung gomak inti kacang hijau, kuih sagu, pulut serunding, masalodeh, cream sponge cake, keropok lekor (frozen kedai mari), sweet bread and laksa.

Oh ye,not forgetting, cendol as well.

But dont worry, I didnt eat all these by myself saje. I had a few other sahabat yang bersubahat sama melantak, hahaha. Bila ada kawan melantak ni, tak lah rasa guilty kan nak makan banyak2, hehehe.

(pengsan I kalau I managed to eat all these sendiri2, cari penyakit namanya!).

Bila The Little Misses balik from schools tadi, they were so happy sebab ada banyak kuih on the table unlike their usual afternoon tea of biskut kering and milk aje, heeee…..

Garden update (number 643, hahahaha :-P)

2011-11-30T20:31:00.001+08:00

Let’s go harvesting…

There’s a lot more where they came from!

I made tomato salsa and tomato-based enchilada filling with the tomatoes yang baru dituai ni. Miss 8 and The Other Half just ate the cherry tomatoes raw off the plant.

Lepas ni, I tak tau nak buat apa lagi dengan the tomatoes, hahaha.

Our rose bushes have finally grown so many flowers after sakit berminggu2…

So many colour everywhere…

Unfortunately for me, I tak boleh nak potong the roses bawak masuk rumah because I seem to get quite a bad hay fever reaction to it this year. My nose gradually starts to stuff up bila duduk dekat2 the roses ni until it is so difficult to breathe through it.

So, terpaksalah I biar them kembang and layu kat pokok aje…..

The hydrangeas in the pot. I’m not sure whether the purple flowers are turning pink or the pink turning blue. We just have to wait and see .

Title-less Tuesday

2011-11-29T20:47:00.001+08:00

Tu lah you all, macam mana lah I nak buat sambal belacan and sambal tomat kaw kaw sekarang ni kan…

Baru you all terkejut tengok betapa tak munasabah nya harga some sayur kat Perth ni kan, hehehehehe.

Kangkung is $10.99/kg, okra/bendi is $16.99/kg, daun limau purut beberapa helai dah $2.50, serai kecut2 yang besar jari kelingking $1 for 3, kalau serai gemuk2 $1 sebatang, daun ketumbar $17/kg but still ok lagi sebab beli pun sikit2 aje.

Now you know why we want to become peladang berjaya tanam segala benda kalau boleh, hahahaha….

On a completely different story….

Miss 12 has been involved as a Front of House team at her school for a few months now. What it means is that they’ll be called whenever the school requires people to be the ticket collectors and ushers and a few other things for their stage productions.

And the Front of House team ada their own ‘uniform’ which is white collared shirts, black pants/skirts and black shoes. Memang sebijik waiters and waitresses lah the uniform kan. I guess the students look more formal that way.

She used to wear black pants but all her friends semua pakai black skirts so obviously she wants to blend in lah a bit. And now since she’s got her hair cut short, lagi lah dia nak pakai skirt so people can see that she’s a girl, hahahaha. So, we got her a black skirt.

She’s already got a pair of black shoes but since tak sama macam her friends, we bought her another pair yang lebih kurang what all the other girls wear.

(Bila diaorang ni makin besar, they try so hard not to be that different from their friends kan.)

Nasib baik lah she’s as tall as me now so bolehlah dia pinjam my black stockings to complete her attire tadi .

She’s all grown up, hehehe….

But the more grown up she is, the less she looks like us kan!

I tau lah masa dia baby, I hari2 tiap2 petang dok tengok cerita cina kat TV3, takkan lah boleh kenan kot? hikhikhikhik…..

She’s a bit like the rose nowadays… pretty but very thorny!

Kalau silap handle, tercucuk ‘jari’ kita, hmmmmmmm…..

Mind boggling????

2011-11-28T21:10:00.001+08:00

Have you ever seen a photo or something that makes your eyes terbeliak and go ???

I have (banyak kali dah, hehehe..).

And pagi tadi, I saw something that made me do just that…

And nasib baik lah sekarang ni semua handphone ada camera so dengan segeranya I pun ambik lah gambar nak tunjuk kat you all (mentang2 lah ada blog, semua nak tayang kat blog kan )…

(but at the same time, I ambik gambar sembunyi2 sebab takut kena marah dengan tuan empunya kedai, hahahaha).

Jom kita sama2 beliakkan biji mata tengok gambar kat bawah ni

Can you see apa yang membuatkan mata I terjegil tadi?

No….not harga the fresh lime….

No….not harga the red chillies….

But…harga the hot chilli or chilli api itu!

$69.99!!!!!!!!! (It was not a typo error tau and neither was it $6.99/kg).

I rasa harga ni macam betul2 tak munasabah kan. But I guess there’s a few other food yang mahal macma ni jugak. I think pine nuts pun lebih kurang jugak harga dia with this chilli.

(I boleh beli satu soft leather handbag or a basic breadmaker or a square corelle set or a few Tefal frying pans or a few pieces of Royal Doulton with that money!)

So, bila I nampak how much the chilli costs, I pun terus lah zoooom ke Bunnings (my favourite store, hehehe).

And this was what I bought which I straight away planted in the new garden bed…

Puas I cari the seedlings for the normal chilli api tapi tak jumpa so I pun belilah this ‘black pearl’ chilli, hikhikhik….

The label says that it’s one of the hottest chillies but we’ll see once it has fruited whether it’s pedas or not.

(cepat lah kamu membesar bagai johan so I boleh jual you for $70/kg jugak, muahahahahaha…)

And sambil menanam, I menuai…

dapatlah hasil ini tadi…

a couple of shallots, some cherry tomatoes, some sugar snap peas and some kangkung.

So, tadi i masak nasi goreng guna kangkung, shallots, the peas and the tomatoes!

Sedap betul rasa kangkung ni tadi sebab dah lama tak makan kangkung, hahaha….

Junk, swingball and eggs

2011-11-27T21:19:00.001+08:00

Weekend ni adalah weekend mengemas rumah sedunia .

Kat Perth, every council has their own ‘hard rubbish collection’ day. Basically, segala barang2 yang besar/junk yang tak boleh muat masuk dalam rubbish bins boleh kita letak kat luar untuk diaorang kutip during the hard rubbish collection day ni.

(but adalah a few things yang diaorang takkan kutip like paint, building materials, tyres, hazardous materials.)

So, our hard rubbish collection day is next week, tu yang weekend ni we all busy mengemas rumah getting rid of all the junk that we have accumulated over the years.

Punyalah banyak gilers junk we all kan, hahahaha.

From broken elliptical machine, broken desks, broken bike, broken chest of drawers to old CPUs and old computer screens and old TVs. The TVs are still good but TV bagak zaman tok kaduk dulu tu. Nak bagi kat orang pun orang tak nak sekarang ni sebab LED and LCD tvs are so cheap sekarang.

A lot of these stuff have been with us since we were in Adelaide lagi, so memang kira dah lama sangat2 lah kan, tu yang dah patah lah, rosak lah, grotty lah .

But, tak sampai pun sejam we all letak the stuff outside, about 1/2 of the stuff has been taken by people already.

I guess some people junks are other people’s treasures kan .

And while the adults were busy mengangkut ~~harta karun~~ junk, the kids were busy jugak…

Busy playing!

I just bought this swingball tennis game on Friday for the girls.

And since Friday, they’ve been at it non-stop everytime they are at home.

At first, lagi banyak gelak dari pukul bola….

But after 2 days of playing, dah bertambah lah the hits dari the misses.

It’s amazing how such a simple game can bring so much fun, hehehe.

And for dinner pulak, I made spanish sausage pie. I loosely followed this recipe changing here and there to suit our tastes and what I had in the fridge.

I didn’t use and pastry as the base. I sauteed onion, garlic, mushroom and diced tomatoes on the stove top until wilted. Then I added sliced cooked sausages, diced cooked potatoes and a bit of paprika, salt and pepper. After everything is well mixed, I poured a bit of bottled pasta sauce to cover it up a bit.

Then I cracked 3 whole eggs over the mix and shoved the whole pan into the oven and baked it at 180°C for about 15-20 minutes until the eggs have set a bit.

(you have to make sure your frying pan can go into the oven before you shove it in the oven though ).

The yolks are still very runny which The Other Half and Miss 8 love so much .

Then, you can either have it with bread or like us, with cheesy garlic bread and a bit of fries to mop the gravy up.

The cheesy garlic bread I made a few days ago.

Salam Maal Hijrah

2011-11-26T21:35:00.001+08:00

Hopefully this new year will bring a new beginning for all of us, changing all the bad things to good and making us a better person.

What did I do today?

Nothing much! (which was really fun, hahaha)

I had the house to myself cos The Other Half and The Little Misses went painting the whole morning.

I ended up just lepaking depan PC cari idea on what to bake for the end of year goodie bags for the teachers at school.

Kalau boleh, segala benda I nak buat. Tak boleh tengok something nice and yummy, terus I rasa teruja nak buat to give them.

But I know myself. Angan2 aje lebih but nanti I will end up doing something simple for them, hahaha.

So since dah melepek tengok recipes satu hari suntuk, I pun tried my hands at making fudge while everyone was away this morning.

I guna this recipe to make my fudge.

I’ve made fudge before and slalunya I made it in the microwave. I’m not that good at fudge making, my fudge tak se smooth yang jual kat kedai tu. I think it’s because I’m impatient, couldn’t be bothered waiting for the fudge to reach the stages slowly. And even though I ada candy thermometer, tak pernah kisah nak guna while I’m making it, hehehe.

But tastewise, the fudge has always tasted yummy, hahaha.

But I takde seasalt flakes so I just guna seasalt biasa aje. I takde white choc so I guna milk choc aje. And then I pergi pandai2 tambah chopped macadamia on the fudge.

So, kiranya my own version of salted caramel and macadamia fudge lah kan!

Pastu, I tried to clear the fridge and found a bit of leftover mashed sweet potato. I buat keria balls haritu but tak guna habis the keledek so tu yang ada lebih.

Then I pun buat roti keledek….

Jangan tanya the recipe sebab I pakai add aje all the ingredients.

I guna yeast, air suam, telur, margarine, susu tepung, gula, garam dan tepung gandum.

And it turned out ok. Rasa macam roti biasa. I guess sebab I tak guna banyak keledek so rasa keledek dia pun so subtle.

(My breadmaker tengah sakit, the bread pan’s sealant dah tertanggal so I tak berani guna cos takut leaking all the liquid masa tgh menguli. So sekarang ni kalau I nak buat roti, semua kena guna tulang 4 kerat untuk menguli. Tu yang malas aje bila The Other Half mintak I buat pizza now ni, hehehe.)

Cuma kaler dia aje lah yang kuning oren semacam, hehehe.

And then for dinner, I made sushi.

I found some soft shell crabs in the freezer (dari zaman to kaduk dulu, hahaha) so I goreng it for the sushi filling. For the kids, I buat crabsticks aje but I dip in batter and then deep fry so lagi sedap rasanya.

I also hand rolled some of the sushi.

Actually, bila fikir balik…. I did do a few things today, not nothing much!

Heeeee…..

weekly garden update, again….

2011-11-25T21:37:00.001+08:00

You know it’s Spring going to Summer here in OZ when I start updating about our garden weekly.

Actually, I masak pizza (again! ) tonite since it’s Friday nite so tu yang lagi baik I tayang gambar garden dari gambar pizza yang entah ke berapa ratus kali kan! (hahahaha, exagerate tak hengat!).

Walaupun I dah tayang gambar garden beratus2 kali jugak (again, exagerating mode on, hikhikhik) tapi gambar garden sentiasa baertukar ikut musim so tu yang I rasa tak bosan tengok.

So, let the photos do the talking…

The red currant and the blueberry bushes in their new home. Our other blueberry is the ‘Nelly Kelly’ variety and this time we bought the ‘brigitta’ variety. Dah beli baru tau yang this brigitta variety will grow to 2 meters tall! Kenalah cari tempat yang sesuai for it later, hehehe.

Weekend ni we thought of buying a raspberry plant and another variety of blueberry.

Some more cucumbers growing. One of the easiest plants to grow .

One of the no-dig garden beds. We’ve got strawberries, cucumbers and 1 tomato plant in there.

The strawberries yang tengah growing but haven’t yet produced any fruits.

Our kangkung yang tengah galak membiak, hehehe.

Lepas ni kan, adalah orang tu buat jualan kangkung kat depan rumah! hahaha

(Kangkung kat fruit n veg shop tu I think diaorang jual around $6/kg tak silap.)

Some of my money-producing chilli plants, hahaha .

Buah tomato yang dah kuning, lambat gilers nak merah….

Our Thai basil yang tak mati2, hehehe.

One of the capsicum plants pun dah mula berbuah.

One of the rose bushes yang sekarang ni nak makin sembuh .

And finally, our ‘pet’ ladybird .

Tak larat dah you all nak tengok kebun we all kan, hehehe….

How much was it again?

2011-11-24T21:28:00.001+08:00

The temperature got up to 37°C tengah hari tadi, panas terik with dry wind in the morning and so humid in the early afternoon.

Bila panas macam tu, I takkan lah spend time in the garden di tengah2 hari buta.

I spent time in the garden later in the afternoon instead…

(Nasib baik lah dinner malam ni semua masuk oven aje and dah sahih nya bukan jenis yang cepat geseng so bolehlah I spent a bit more time in the garden petang tadi, hehehe.)

And I was so happy when I saw this thing in the garden!

My first chilli! Walaupun masih hijau, tapi hati I sudah berbunga2…

You nak tau kenapa?

Disebabkan dek receipt ini….

(Sesape yang ada magnifying glass, silalah jangan malu2 n segan gunakan ia sebab obviously the ink kat receipt machine at the fruit n veg shop tadi sudah nyawa2 ikan, tu yg halus samar2 aje tulisannya!).

Cuba tengok item nombor 3 itu, berapakah harga sekilo red chilli?

$19.95 sekilo !!!!!!!

I beli 3 biji chilli aje tadi and harga dia dah $1.20, maunya tak tercekik.

(chilli api lagilah, $25/sekilo, hahahaha).

Tu yang hati I sangat gumbira ria bila tengok pokok chilli I tu dah berbuah, hehehe.

(But until chilli I tu berbuah banyak and merah, takdelah I nak buat sambal tomat or sambal belacan or chilli jeruk or chilli hiasan ye!)

Nasib baik orang kat rumah ni semua tak mintak sambal belacan hari2, hikhikhik….

And the dinner yang I masak tadi pun cuma guna chilli sauce aje untuk pencicah nya so selamat chilli I 3 biji tadi, hahahaha….

Our dinner tonite was roast chicken pieces with chips, bread and green salad. The tomatoes and the cucumbers in the salad came from the garden.

Roast chicken kalau tergeseng sikit takpe, lagi garing kulit tu, lagi sedap rasanyakan, hahahahaha….

So, you all rasa kan….

boleh kaya tak I nanti kalau semua pokok chilli I (around 10 in total) itu berbuah?

Kahkahkahkahkah…..

Our usual Wednesday errand

2011-11-23T20:27:00.001+08:00

Every Wednesday is my petrol filling day…

Since I ni budget conscious/ cheapskate kan and Wednesday is the normally cheap day for petrol kat Perth ni, tu yang I fill the car up every Wednesday.

(Kat Perth ni, petrol price turun naik and sometimes the difference between the cheapest [etrol day and the expensive petrol day can be up to 15-20 cents a litre. Tak lah banyak mana but kalau tangki kereta tengah kosong masa tu, sakit lah jugak nak membayarnya .)

But, itu pun selalunya the car’s tank cuma half empty aje. Sangat2 lah jarang nya the car tank will be less than 1/4 empty everytime I fill it up unless I tak isi minyak for 2 weeks.

It’s not because the car is so fuel efficient, it’s just that we don’t travel anywhere that much anyway, hehehe.

Everyday cuma guna the car untuk hantar and ambik the girls from school, occasionally going to the shops yang close-by aje, running errands here and there, occasionally sending The Other Half to work. Weekend pun we all jarang keluar except pergi masjid on Sunday.

Kalau I cuma keluar hantar and ambik the girls aje that day and tak melencong ke mana2, the car will only do 30kms aje/sehari. Itu pun dah kira banyak lah sebab our house is out of the girls’ schools boundary.

Kalau pegi sekolah yang dalam boundary aje, lagi lah maybe cuma buat max 5kms/day, hahaha.

So, the car only travels around 480kms-500kms in 2 weeks. Tak banyak kan!

Tadi, I filled it up when it still has slightly more than half a tank left and it only needed about 28 litres to fill it up.

Jadi, kiranya kereta I tu cuma guna 28 litres aje lah last week kan!

Memang nampak sangat2 lah yang we all ni tak jalan ke mana2 and takde social life langsung, hahahahaha.

ish….ish….ish……

(but we like it this way, hahaha. Nasib baik dapat laki yang satu kepala dengan I yang lagi suka memerap duduk rumah dari bersocial dengan orang…)

Hari ni was quite hot here, it got up to 36°C.

So, I pun masak benda simple aje..

Seafood laksa guna marinara mix and instant paste.

Togel aje sebab I ingat nak letak daun kesum and silverbeets in it. But I terlupa pulak yg The Other Half baru aje sembur caterpillar poison semalam on all the plants so I kenalah tunggu at least 3 days before it’s safe to eat teh leaves again.

And I buat kuah banyak but kuah dia tiba2 hilang sebab dah kena sucked up by the tofu, hehehe….

3 more weeks to go

2011-11-22T22:09:00.001+08:00

Dah nak end of school year ni, makin banyak program kat sekolah kan.

Miss 8 lah yang banyak programs, Miss 12 so far senyap aje, hehehe.

So far, she has lining up, Disco Night, EduDance end of year concert, choir Christmas show and SupaGolf excursion, all within 2 weeks.

(Kecik2 dah pergi school excursion main golf. I dulu cuma pergi lawat museum aje! ).

Last day of school is on the 14th of December which is in 3 weeks time.

Lepas tu, the girls will be on holidays until end of January.

Lama gilerrsssss kan! hahahaha.

Dah start doa dari sekarang that all of us will survive the Summer break without anyone trying to strangle each other, heeee…..

I masak mince roll tonite but sambil masak sambil berkebun (tolong The Other Half prepare the garden bed nak tanam the berries) so our dinner ended up slightly burnt, hehehe.

(Tu lah, nak sangat jadi super woman, multitasking bagai kan dah geseng!)

Ini rupa our mince roll yang geseng itu…

Makan dengan coleslaw and roast sweet potatoes.

Ini yang paling ‘cerah’ antara yang ter’geseng’ itu.

Tapi tak lah sampai tak boleh makan langsung, still ok aje, cuma rupa lah yang kurang memuaskan. Definitely tak boleh lepas quality control, hehehe.

But I think our dinner on Sunday nite, memang lulus tests quality control.

I made fettucine alfredo-style with broccoli and beef silverside.

I sauteed diced onion, beef silverside, chilli flakes and broccoli until masak. At the same time, I masak fettucine until al dente.

Then, bila the silverside mixture and the fettucine dah masak. In a jug, mix together about a cup of cream, an egg, some grated parmesan, some salt and pepper. Whisk it until all combined. Then add the cooked fettucine into the pan yang ada ada silverside tu, then add the cream+egg mixture into the pan and a bit of the pasta water and mix them all together until the fettucine is all coated with the cream+egg mixture.

Serve immediately sebab kalau dah sejuk, nanti tak sedap.

Sangat simple nak buatnya. The longest time is waiting for the water to boil and the pasta to cook, hehehe. After sepetang berkebun on that Sunday, tu yang best masak macam ni because it didnt take me long to get dinner ready on the table .

Another way to use tortillas

2011-11-21T20:59:00.001+08:00

I ni jenis suka tengok recipes, sometimes tu a lot of recipes at one go.

So, bila I masak, I akan ambik ideas from a few recipes, cedok sini sikit, cedok sana sikit and then godek2 ikut what’s in the pantry and the freezer and ikut my mood.

And most of the time, I memang tak kan write down what I’ve added in the dishes because memang tak sempat nak tulis apa2 kalau tengah masak tu, hehehe. And slalunya I pun bukannya ikut exact measurement (unless I’m baking lah where I will follow measurement sebab takut tak jadi.).

And so, bila a dish turns out really really sedap, memang slalunya I cannot recreate the exact same dish again lah sebab dah terlupa what I added in it in the first place.

(Macam mana nak jadi Nigella the Domestic Goddess macam ni kan kalau tak boleh nak recreate the dishes, heeeee)

Masa tu lah baru tension abis, hehehe.

The next time I nak masak the same dish, I kena godek2 recipes again.

Like this dinner we had on Saturday night.

I think it’s called enchiladas but I am not sure if true enchiladas look like this.

I was looking at a few recipes that use tortillas while I was cooking, and cedok this idea and that idea and made this. Tu yang I’m not sure if it’s enchiladas or not, hehehe.

I made cooked tomato-based mince beef filling (a bit macam bolognese sauce) but with added mashed red kidney beans and grated carrot, wrapped it in tortilla bread into parcels. Put them in a baking dish, pour hot salsa from a jar onto the parcels (because I had a jar of salsa in the pantry), scatter some grated colby on it and then bake them in moderate oven for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and the bread is a bit brown at the edge.

Bila nak makan, add a dollop or two of guacamole on it.

( I asked The Other Half to make the guacamole sebab I nak solat masa tu and he said he doesn’t know how to make guacamole. I gave him avocado, sour cream, pickled chilli, salt and lemon juice and told him to pandai2 lah mash them up together until they taste nice, hahaha.)

And then gaul everything together, and suap masuk mulut….

It is so much yummier than just plain ole wrap! .