My other half has asked for rice again! I told you he's worse than me when it comes to eating rice. He said he really felt like eating a spicy dish and he wanted indian curry. But since I"m the chef and I don't feel like indian tonite, I told him I would do Nasi Lemak instead. He loves the sambal in Nasi Lemak and usually I have to make a lot of sambal because he likes to drench the rice in it. Even I don't eat that much sambal! I feel like I'm married to an Asian sometimes :-).

We would normally have Nasi Lemak with all the trimmings which are hard boiled eggs, fried ikan bilis, sliced cucumber and fried peanuts. I do miss having it with fried paru though...

Tonight I added fried tempe as an extra. Unfortunately, living in Perth, we could only find the frozen tempe which is a far cry from the fresh ones but beggars can't be choosers! I've heard from an acquaintance that there's someone in Perth who makes fresh tempe but I haven't got a clue who this person is. I should investigate this matter further because it would be so good to taste fresh tempe again.

Finally it's pouring in Perth, Alkhamdulillah! After nearly 2 months of dry summer weather, it rained today...A mad scramble around the house this morning looking for long forgotten raincoats and umbrellas to wear to school. I nearly forgot which one was the wiper button after not using it for so long...The roads were all flooded and traffic was really slow, imagine having a flash flood in Perth, that would be so cool! (well the kids think so anyway). We didn't have to turn on the aircond today either which is a first this summer.

Since it's Chinese New Year today, I thought of doing something vaguely oriental for dinner. I still have frozen spring rolls and wontons in the freezer taking up space in the already jammed packed freezer. I had no idea why the freezer was so full, but after much inverstigation which means taking everything out, I found the culprit. I found a big bag of frozen meatpies and also sausage rolls which must have been in there since December! We like our meatpies but I guess we sort of forgot that they were waiting there to be reheated and eaten. No wonder the freezer was so full. So, I had to change my dinner menu and had to postpone our chinese new year celebration to this wknd...

Tonite's dinner was truly aussie with meatpies and chips with baby spinach salad and sauteed portobello mushroom on the sides.

I discovered a button on the camera today that makes the photos I take look so amazing. We've had this camera for more than a year but I've only just found out about the 'macro' button today. I feel like an idiot for not using this button since I started this blog. My dishes could have looked much yummier and much more appetising if only I had pushed the button! Well having a background in foodstyling would have greatly helped as well...but since I don't have that, I just have to rely on my ability to push the right button when taking my next photos.

For tonite's dinner, I wanted to make curry and rice since we haven't had it for a while now. My other half has been asking for curry for a few days already so I guess I should make it. He's worse than me when it comes to eating rice and curry. He's quite happy to have it every other day unlike me who's quite happy to only have it once a week. With my malay background, I guess I should be wanting rice everyday but that's not the case...

Whenever I cook curry for dinner, I have to make another dish for the kids because they don't eat chilli and we like our curries fiery. Normally I just make for them either chicken soup or 'masak kicap'. They love it so I'm happy!

Tonite's dinner is beef curry made with home made curry paste (indonesian style) using our very own chillies and lemongrass! I know they'll be useful one day ;-).

I woke up early this morning because miss soon-to-be-9 wanted sushi sandwich for lunch just like the ones she saw on Taste website. And since I'm 'ibu mithali' aka supermom, I said okie dokie and made it for her lunch. She was very impressed when she saw it this morning and she said it was delicious. She did not complain about the carrots in it, what a surprise. I guess it's a healthy enough lunch so I don't mind if I have to do it every morning.

To a different story, when i was cleaning out the fridge today, I found a carton of sour cream that's nearing its used by date. I wonder what sour cream will taste like way past its used by date? More sour? My other half suggested stroganoff but we've just had pasta and noodles and we are not used to eating stroganoff with rice. Flipped through my piles of cookbooks and found a recipe for a banana cake using sour cream. What a match made in heaven since I've also got some bananas in the fridge. That solves the sour cream problem! But a whole cake would be wasted in this house since there's only 4 of us and miss soon-to-be-9 doesn't eat cake that's not drenched in chocolate and my other half is on a diet. I guess I can always take it to the kids' school tomorrow and give it to the teachers, they always appreciate a cake for morning tea.

Now, sour cream problem's solved, I have to think about dinnner next. We had chicken last nite and mince the nite before so I guess we are due to have sausages very soon i.e. tonite. I don'tknow what to do with sausages since I didn't grow up eating them. The first time I had sausages was when I first came to Australia as a student at a BBQ. I had no idea how much Aussies love their barbies! i wanted to do something different than the usual sangers and mash so after some deliberation, I decided on baked crumbed sausages with tortilla bread, corn, sauteed mushroom and salad.

The little misses started their first day of school today. The house was unbelievably quiet without them. They had a good day at school, no complaints and no tears. So many new faces at school today, it took a while trying to find their classes. Little miss 4 1/2 has a brand new teacher. You know you are getting old when your kid's teacher looks to you like they should still be at school! Miss 4 1/2 is a bit sad because some of her good friends from kindy is in a different class, but knowing her I know she'll find new friends soon enough. Miss soon-to-be-9 is happy with the teacher she gets and hopefully she'll do well this year too.

Tonite's dinner was very simple. It has been quite humid here in Perth for the last few days but today was a bit worse. I didn't really feel like spending time in the kitchen when it's hot and humid. I'd rather stay as far away from the stove as possible! That's why tonite's dinner was a very simple noodle salad with roast chicken. Sometimes the simple things in life taste really good!

Last day of summer holidays for the little misses. It's been 7 weeks of pure bliss...Not! I don't think I'll ever win the 'mother of the year' title but I don't think I'm the worst mother either. We had our fair share of fights, tantrums, fun times during these 7 weeks. I know I've been telling everyone that I can't wait for school to start but truthfully, I will miss their presence in the morning. They are not as bad as some other kids I know of. They played well together most of the time with only occasional quarrels and arguments. Anyone would if they were couped up together for 7 weeks!

So today I've been busy baking things for their lunch boxes. I made pizza scrolls and cupcakes to freeze so the little misses can have them when they feel like something different for lunch. And on top of that, I still had to cook dinner! I have been a busy bee in the kitchen today...

I wanted to make a dish for dinner that I can freeze and use it up to make the little misses' and the other half's lunches. What better than meatballs! I made a big batch of meatballs which I baked instead of pan fried since we are trying to eat healthily (don't know how long it'll last though!). And I sneakily put minced carrots in the meatballs. I freeze half to use in sandwiches and wraps and used the other half in tonite's dinner, Spaghetti and meatballs. Little miss 4 1/2 loved the meatballs so much that she kept on asking us to top up her meatballs. She wasn't interested in the spaghetti at all. Little miss soon-to-be-9 finished her dinner without any complain which was a good sign and they still had rooms for dessert! They haven't stopped playing since this morning so I guess they must have needed the energy.

The final wknd before school starts, yipppeeee! I can't wait for Monday to arrive. I was going to spend today making and baking a few things to freeze for the kids' lunch boxes but you know how it is with good intentions...Maybe I'll feel more enthused tomorrow to do some baking.

Same with dinner, I haven't felt motivated to cook any interesting dishes for the last few days. I guess when the other half is trying to lose some weight, I have to think hard about dinner to make sure that it will be low in fat, well balanced and most importantly has to be well liked by the little misses. I'm not running a restaurant!(as told to the little misses repeatedly). With that in mind, we went for the easiest and well liked by everyone...chicken and vegetables stir fry. My other half had his with brown rice while we philistines had ours with jasmine rice. And since it's still summer here Down Under, we finished dinner off with summer fruits stack with yoghurt. I'm going to eat a huge amount of mangoes this summer since we wont see it again until next summer...I just love the sweet taste of mango, I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I were given the chance. Luckily the little misses love their mangoes as well so happy days for me and them.