Tuesday, 21 February 2012

Listening to both sides membawa padah….

I do not know why I keep on torturing myself.

I know I can’t stand it but I keep on forcing myself to face it…..

Everytime I make it, I will always push myself to just add one more, and then another one and another one…..

I really haven’t learned….

And tonite…..

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Padan muka I, terus dapat sakit perut lepas makan tu.

Dah lah sakit perut, I didn’t enjoy the meal at all because I couldn’t taste anything except the burning sensation in my mouth!

Tu lah, mengada2 lagi, perasan terer makan chili…

I even had to swallow mouthfuls of milk to stop my tongue burning, hahahaha….

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Ini lah culprit nya, sambal kicap gilers punya pedas I buat untuk makan dengan mee sup tadi, hehehehe….

Masa I potong the chillies, my ‘baik Angel’ side dah siap warning awal2….

“Cukup lah 5 biji tu, you mana tahan pedas. Nanti berjujuran air mata, meleleh air hidung you makan kalau letak banyak sangat.”

But my ‘daredevil Devil’ side kept on egging me on…….

“ Pfffftttt! 5 only! Macam mana nak panggil sambal kicap if you only put 5 biji chilli api. Sambal kicap kenalah kaw! At least letak lah 20 biji ke… Baru lah jalan!”

I had to listen to both sides kan so I letak lah 12 biji chilli api tadi…..

So, padan lah dengan muka I, berasap telinga, berjujuran air mata and air hidung masa makan dinner tadi…..

Dah 40+ pun masih tak sedar2 lagi, masih lagi listened to that daredevil side….

Hikhikhikhikhik…….

Monday, 20 February 2012

Too much of anything is not good ;-)

On Friday hari tu, I felt like eating so for dinner I made….

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Cubalah kira berapa banyak pizza (plus garlic bread) I made that night!

They are not small pizzas mind you. 2 family size pizzas yang memang kenyang makan 2 keping and 1 large tray size pizza.

(Ini bukan namanya nak makan, ini namanya nak mengketedarah! hehehehe).

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1 pizza of half-half beef silverside and roast chicken topped with mushroom, pineapple, roasted capsicum, oven-dried tomatoes and chilli flakes for The Other Half.

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1 pizza with beef silverside, capsicum and pineapple for The Little Misses.

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And 1 big tray of roast chicken, caramelised onion, roast capsicum and chilli flakes pizza for moi!

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And because of my over enthusiastic pizza making mood that day….

All of us had to have pizza again for lunch on Saturday and pizza again for dinner on Sunday night!

Itu pun ada lagi 1 slice of pizza left sebab semua dah tak larat nak makan pizza!

I think I am all pizzaed-out right now Sick smile.

Hikhikhikhik.

Sunday, 19 February 2012

Backyard Garden update number……..(choose a number yourself) ^__^

Tonite, just layan gambar our garden lah ye sebab I tak tau nak tulis apa Smile.

People might ask kenapa we all beria2 tanam segala macam benda in our backyards ni, berbaloi ke?

I guess for us, we want our girls to see greens everywhere they go around the house. We also want them to experience the joy of watching your plants grow and bear fruit and also to experience how fresh veges and fruits taste like.

The watermelon we had yesterday tasted quite different from the shop bought ones, it tasted ‘fresher’ we think.

(I still buy veges and fruits at the shops sebab there’s so many produce yang we all tak tanam, hehehe….)

Since it’s nearing the end of Summer, our vege gardens have changed a bit as well.

We’ve pulled out a few old things and planted some new things.

Our main vege patch now looks like this.

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I told you that the rockmelon plant has taken over the whole vege patch. It’s climbed over everything, the capsicums, the chillies, the eggplants and the okras!

We even have a few rockmelons growing hanging in between the capsicum plants, hehehe…

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The Other Half made this tepee-style climbing poles so I could plant……

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The snake bean aka kacang panjang seedlings. Yeay.

We love kacang panjang and I’ve searched for the seeds for months now until one day I said to The Other Half, “you know what. I might as well buy some fresh snake beans at the chinese shop and then harvest the seeds to plant.”

And I did just that Smile. I bought the oldest looking beans on display just so I could harvest the seeds. Alhamdulillah, the seeds bercambah and I got 4 snake bean seedlings now.

Our row of citrus trees with the apple tree and the kari plant.

My kari plant sekarang dah so gumuk! Seronok tengok Smile.

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We are planting the citrus trees in big pots because we are thinking of landscaping the front garden and putting these trees there. But entah bilalah we all akan ada masa jadi rajin nak spend the whole weekend (and a few weekends after that) nak landscape that area.

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A few of the apples growing on the apple tree.

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These are broccoli plants. I think we have planted them a bit too early. They are supposed to be cold weather plants.

Oh well, they are growing so I guess we’ll see how they turn out.

Another plot of vege garden filled with asian greens, turmeric, chillies, gingers and blueberry.

I think we have lost the redcurrant plant Sad smile. All the leaves have dried out and fallen off, tak tau kenapa.

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One of the no-dig garden beds pulak penuh dengan basils, celery, parsley, pegaga, chilli and lettuces.

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Another view of the ‘meriah’ garden, hehehe. Penuh dengan segala macam pots and garden beds and what nots.

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Ada kangkung, chilli, kucai, pandan, phlox, thai basil in the pots…..

Another raised garden bed. This one pulak I planted cabbages, some asian greens and cos lettuce.

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The 3 kunyit plants that I repotted from my kunyit stock to give to friends.

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And now…….

Jeng…..jeng…….

My neighbour’s backyard…

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Backyard dia lagi lah macam kebun peladang berjaya kan! Kalah kebun we all, heeeee…..

(I ambik gambar ni curi2 you all! Punyalah I made sure no one could see me. Memang sebijik macam Peeping Tom, hikhikhikhik…)

The Other Half kata kalau I kena tangkap dek neighbour ni tengah dok sekodeng kebun diaorang, dia tak nak tolong I, muahahahaha…..

P/S I am sorry I belum sempat jawab any of the comments in the previous few entries. I have been really busy lately, tak sempat nak duduk lama2 to sompose the replies. But I will do it soonish. Thanks for still commenting ye! Smile.

Saturday, 18 February 2012

The inside story ^__^

So, I finally kopak opened the watermelon, yeayyyyyyy, hahahahaha Smile with tongue out

And is so thankful that the inside is as good as the size.

Like I told you, it is the variety with seed so The Little Misses were a bit hesitant to eat the watermelon, hehehhe.

Ye lah, selama2 ni I selalu beli yang seedless aje so bila diaorang nampak all the black seeds, terkejut lah sekejap and terus tak tau whether nak telan or nak buang the seeds Smile.

But it was so so juicy and sweet as well. Not unbelievably sweet but sweet enough for us to makan tak berhenti, hehehe.

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That’s the biggest knife I have in the kitchen, hahahaha.

That rockmelon came from our garden as well but so tiny.

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Punyalah berdebar2 masa potong ni sebab takut sgt the inside is rotten (tak larat betul I ni kan, hahaha.)

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Taaaaadaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!

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After we’ve eaten some of it.

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The rockmelon is not that sweet but ok lah for a wildly grown one.

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Not bad eh for home-grown fruits Smile.

Next year boleh tanam watermelons again.

Thursday, 16 February 2012

By comparison…. ^___^

I still haven’t got the courage to kopak open the watermelon, hehehehe….

The Other Half and The Little Misses dah suruh I potong but I said to them, tunggu lah weekend ni… Smile.

And if you still don’t believe the weight of the watermelon and the size of the watermelon, here are some more proofs.

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See! It’s bigger than Miss 8’s head! And her head is not that small either.

(I should have asked The Other Half to put his bald head next to the watermelon kan, baru lah betul2 boleh compare, hahahahahaha).

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I love you watermelon but I can’t wait to taste you Open-mouthed smile.

Semua orang still rasa teruja sangat2 sebab tak pernah we all dapat tanam tembikai sebesar ini, heeee.

Last time we all tanam tembikai, we tried planting the seedless variety and it didn’t grow well at all, hehehehe….

Yang this one, I think ada biji kot. Dah lama tak makan tembikai berbiji Smile.

Nasib baik takde sape curi the tembikai sebab the watermelon plants are outside our house, in the front garden. Kat sini mana ada pagar so sape2 yg lalu lalang boleh ambik but Alhamdulillah sempat jugak tunggu dia masak.

And for dinner pulak, I made chicken and prawn potstickers/ gyoza. Makan dengan mee kering yang kena curah dengan kuah panas tu.

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I carik2 roast chicken flesh on it and celur some bok choi.

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Sayang nya, I takde the sizzling plate so mee we all ada yg still rangup and ada yg soft.

Seperti kata The Other Half, “9/10 for effort but 6/10 for outcome of the noodles. But I love the potsticker dumplings!”

Hikhikhikhik…. next time kena tunggu ada sizzling plate baru boleh buat lah Smile.

Wednesday, 15 February 2012

It’s finally ready

We would like to welcome to the world our new ‘baby’ in the house….

Our first watermelon harvested from our front garden Smile.

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Beratnya mengalah kan baby baru lahir aje!

(Macam berat Miss 12 when she was 3 months old, hahahaha….)

Punyalah jauh lari from the weight I assumed the other day kan, hehehehehe….

Ingat tak my post a few days ago about our rockmelon and our watermelon.

Well, tadi I jenuh mengoogle cari ‘how to find out if your watermelon is ripe’.

Manalah we all tau bila nak petik kan so once I’ve read all the tips on how to assess the ripeness, I pun pergi lah tengok our watermelon itu.

The watermelon ticked all the ripe assessment boxes so I pun dengan hatiyang sungguh teruja, terus lah pi potong that fruit from the plant.

Punya lah giler berat I mengangkut bawak masuk dalam rumah, hahahaha.

And when I put it on my kitchen scale, it showed ‘Err’ which means error so maknanya lebih berat dari 5kg lah tu.

Pastu, teringat our bathroom body scale.

When Miss 8 and I saw the numbers yang tertera, punyalah ‘whooppedeedoo’ we all happy sakan, hahahahaha…..

But I tak berani nak kopek open lagi sebab kalau dah belah, mesti kena habiskan cepat2 kan Smile.

I rasa, berat kulit aje kot ni, heeeee…..

(Arwah my Nenek dulu slalu buat sayur dish from kulit watermelon part yg putih tu but I tak sempat nak belajar dari dia macam mana nak buatnya).

Nasib baik lah semua orang kat rumah ni suka watermelon so taklah I sorang2 kena habiskan 7.4kg tu kan Open-mouthed smile.

For dinner tadi, I made ricotta, feta, chicken and spinach pie.

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I was a bit malas to make it into tiny little pies so I just made it in a cake tin. Senang kerja!

I used puff pastry for the bottom layer and the top layer. I guess if you use filo pastry and not put chicken in the filling, it will be like the Greek spanakopita lah kan.

But I didn’t have any filo pastry and puff pastry was way easier to handle anyway.

Bila nak makan, just cut it into slices macam potong kek.

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We had it with ratatouille and garlic bread.

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I cuma makan 1/8 aje, itupun dah cukup kenyang.

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The Other Half makan 1/4 baru kekenyangan

tu yang dia kena kayuh basikal pergi balik kerja hari2 so badan dia tak membelon semula from eating too much food, hehehe.