Dah pun Raya eve but memang lain sgt banding dengan Raya Syawal. Maybe if I was doing Hajj right now, terasa lah sangat2 Raya Haji ni but since I'm not, rasa macam hari biasa aje pulaknya. I might masak nasi impit instant esok for dinner, at least terasa lah sikit kan bahang2 raya jugak, hehehe. But kesian pulak kat other half tak dapat makan because he wont be here for dinner esok, he'll still be on the plane coming home. Oh well, only the Little Misses and I aje lah yang makan nanti :-).

Orang lain malam raya ni sure makan best, we all pun makan best jugak, burger and potato nuggets, :P. For the Little Misses, home made burger yang Mummy buat memang lah best nya food. I think they like that better than rendang ayam, hehehehe. Kalau licin pinggan, kira sedap lah kan :-).

We were so excited to wake up this morning because we would be going to a Malay wedding here for the first time as a family. Miss 5 tak pernah seumur hidup dia tengok a Malay wedding, last wedding yang she went to was when she was 1 month old and that was to a Mat Saleh wedding and Miss 9 I think so far baru pergi to a few only. The last malay wedding yang we all went to kalau tak silap was when my sister got married and that was 5+ years ago and Miss 5 was still inside my uterus, hehehe. So, obviously lah they were so excited to go to this wedding, we were excited as well sebab we know there'll be loads of food, hahahahaha.....


Another thing that made this wedding interesting is because it's a Cocos Malay wedding which is I think still steeped in the old adat kahwin orang melayu dolu2 :-). They had rewang ramai2 for the cooking of the food, sedara mara jadi penanggah ( I'm not sure if I'm using the right word here), pengantin lelaki kena bayar 'tol' before dibenarkan bersanding sebelah the bride, they still had throwing of coins mixed with beras kunyit for the kids and then, one thing yang I tak pernah tengok ever was, throwing of gifts for the crowds/ guests. Sape yang cepat tangkap the gifts, dapatlah bawak balik the gifts. Miss 5 was so shocked to see people throwing the money away and bila I pushed dia pergi berebut duit tu, she nearly cried because she was so scared, wehkehkehkeh. Anyway, dapatlah jugak dia 50 cents and Miss 9 dapat 20 cents :-). And I got a set of plastic containers because I managed to catch one of the gifts, seronok I, hehehehe....


We got invited by the bride who is one of the teachers at school. Miss 5 said, "I've never seen Miss M dressed like that and so pretty like a princess." I guess ye lah, setiap kali dia jumpa this cikgu kat school, pakai biasa2 aje and memang tak pernah bermekap, suddenly kat wedding tu, memang cantik habis, I guess she just couldn't believe her eyes. She kept on asking me betulke the person yang cantik sgt2 mcm princess tu her teacher? Kids, hehehe......

Siap ada 'Mak Andam' lagi and if I'm not mistaken, di import from Singapore you! :-) The pelamin was really simple but elegant. Masa ni the bride was waiting for the groom who arrived about 15 minutes later.

The bride and groom selepas upacara bersilat and berkompang. I have no idea what the other half was telling Miss 9 in the background.

This was at the dessert section after we've had our nasi minyak.

The Little Misses managed to get a bunga manggar each. Bunga manggar dia cantik sgt, flower ribbons on lidi. The kids also dapat gifts, a small gift bag with choc and lollies inside. The Little Misses really loved it :-).

The Little Misses infront of the wedding cake. Tak dapat rasa, dapat ambil gambar pun jadi lah kan, hehehehe.

Another view of the wedding cake. Siap ada miniature fountain lagi underneath the cake!

The gifts for guests, ceramic dish with choc hearts, so cute!

To Miss M & Hubby & Family, thank you for inviting us and we had a wonderful time at your wedding. May Allah bless and enrich your married life together.

A few more days to Eid-Adha but the other half won't be here on Sunday and Monday to celebrate together and I still have to go to work. Memang we all jarang sangat celebrate Raya haji kat sini unless it falls on the weekend. But the Little Misses have a free day on Monday tu sempena Raya Haji. Ye lah, sebab skolah agama kan so kenalah cuti untuk Raya but kalau skolah public, sekolah macam biasa aje. So, I have to take the Little Misses to work with me sebab takde sape nak jaga diaorang kat rumah on that day. This is the bad point of being 'sebatang kara' kat Perth ni but thank God for the invention of laptops and dvds to entertain them at work :-). Tak lah diaorang bored gilerr kat my work nanti.


Anyway, malam ni instead of just showing you my dinner, I'm going to show you how to make lasagne. Well, not really step by step method but a few photos on what you need to make it.....


These are the 3 main things you need to make a good beef lasagne. First, lasagne sheets obviously, I just used the instant ones so you do not need to cook the sheets before baking it in the oven. Second, you need a good bechamel sauce or white sauce and last but not least, the meat bolognese.




Then, on a lightly sprayed baking tin or pyrex container, put the bolognese sauce first, followed by the lasagne sheets, then some more bolognese sauce to cover the sheets. You don't have to put loads of sauce, just enough to cover the sheets. Then pour the cheese sauce over it. Then repeat the same steps until you've used up all the sheets and all the sauces. Make sure the cheese sauce is the last one on top. Pastu, kalau ada extra grated cheese, you can sprinkle them on top of the cheese sauce to make it more cheesy. Like the other half said, "you can never have too much cheese!" :-). Nasib baik lah bini dia and anak2 dia pun suka cheese jugak so takpelah letak banyak2 pun. I pity my arteries though......


Then bake it covered with alfoil for 30 minutes at 180ºC. Pastu, put up the temperature to 200ºC and bake it uncovered for another 20 minutes or until brown. Kalau your oven is a bit bengong and temperamental like my oven, you might need to brown it a bit under the griller.


Pastu, your lasagne is ready to be served with green salad (to make you feel better about eating all the cheese :-) ). Senang kan!


I know a lot of people out there dah tau macam mana nak buat lasagne but let me 'pretend' to be Nigella sekejap minus the boobs and the hips and the bum, hahahahaha.......

Tomorrow at Miss 5's class, there's going to be a picnic lunch followed by a 'graduation' ceremony for all the pre-primary kiddies. There's only a week left of school before the end of the year/ summer break for 7 very looooong weeks ;-). They wont start school again until early February so kiranya memanglah lama giler, especially for the parents! Then Miss 9 is going into Yr 6 and Miss 5 is going into Yr 1. My little girls are all grown up now, sob sob sob.......


Miss 5's got a cousin in Malaysia who's also going into Standard 1 next year but she's turning 7 in February.The differences in the school systems between M'sia and OZ make it possible for these 2 cousins to be in the same 'year' at school walaupun 2 tahun beza umur, hehehe....... But Miss 5's cousin dah pandai membaca and mengira dengan lancar while Miss 5 boleh baca books for her age aje and boleh buat addition up to 20 aje ( sebab she only has 10 fingers and 10 toes only), hehehe. The primary school here (for public school anyway) is until Yr 7 so kiranya setahun lebih lah dr M'sia and high school is from Yr 8 until Yr 12 which is 5 years. Miss 9 ni she jumped a year so tu yg muda lagi dah nak masuk Yr 6, she's the youngest and the smallest in her class lah kiranya :-).


So, for the picnic lunch esok, all the parents have to provide a pot luck plate of food and I got 'rostered' to bring a sweet thing. Ingat nak buat eggless cupcake sebab ada classmate dia allergic to eggs but rasa malas pulaknya lepas dinner tadi nak buat cupcakes and nak decorate lagi.


So, I made caramel popcorn in ice cream cones. It's the first time I made it and it is really really really yummy. I had to stop the other half from continuously 'stealing' the popcorns sebab nanti sure lah tak cukup nak bawak pergi lunch esok kan! The smell itself was heavenly, the taste memanglah sedap but I can just see all my fat cells having a wild party around my thighs when I was eating it. Sape2 yang kurus and nak gemuk tu, makan lah banyak2 ni, surenya akan double in size in no time at all, hahahahahaha



After dah lama perap the resipi for pesto, malam ni baru lah ter rajin sikit nak tulis resipi nya. Jangan marah ye sebab lambat bagi resipi :-)

Basil pesto

Ingredients

• 45g (1/4 cup) toasted pine nuts

• 1 1/2 cups fresh basil leaves (tak tau lah nama dia dlm bahasa melayu but I guna a mixture of basil, mint, parsley, coriander kalau you tak nak the basil taste to be that strong)

• 2 biji bawang putih, halved

• 60g (3/4 cup) parmesan cheese, grated

• 100 mls olive oil

Cara Membuat nya

1. Di dalam food processor, place toasted pine nuts, bawang putih, fresh basil leaves and grated parmesan and blitz them until very finely chopped and mixed well.
2. Then with the motor still running, pour the olive oil slowly in a steady stream until all the oil is mixed well with the basil mixture.
3. Now the pesto is ready to be served on toast or mixed with pasta or smeared on grilled meat or chicken or lamb.
4. Kalau ada lebih, you can freeze it.
   

The other half pretending to be a nature's photographer :-). Kira cantik lah jugak gambar dragonfly tu kan sebab we all cuma guna a 5.1 megapixel camera aje pun. When we bought the camera more than 2 years ago, masa tu kiranya masih canggih lagi lah but now dah 'ancient' technology! Bila tengok camera murah2 in the catalogues, rasa nak beli aje yang lagi canggih but what's the point kan, bukannya rosak pun camera ni cuma ketinggalan technology sikit aje lah :-). Tengah global recession ni, baik simpan duit tu kan or guna buat beli my kitchen toys, wahahahaha..... So far, on this Fuji finepix camera, we've taken 4368 photos on it since we bought in in August 06. Banyak kan? hehehehe, I guess yang buat banyak sgt tu sebab since I start blogging January this year, every nite kena ambil at least 5 photos of our dinner. Itu baru aje dinner you, tak termasuk lagi all the other food that I cooked and baked and concocted :-) and all the other photos of everyone and everything and also don't forget the movies. On top of that, we've got 2 other cameras yang we use as well. Nasib baik lah sekarang ni semua digital aje kan, kalau tak, memang lah kopak nak membayar setiap kali nak develop the photos! Kira nya berbaloi lah beli this camera sebab we've already got a very good use out of it and hopefully we'll be able to still use it for a very looooong time :-).



This is the first photo we took on this camera, masa ni Miss 5 was about 2 yrs n 10 mths old. Her hair dah curly habis at that time, macam Medusa aje, hehehe..... But her face hasn't changed much since that time :-).

Our dinner tonite, I spent a few minutes trying to arrange all the food in a stacking tower form, alah macam kat restoran high class tu lah, tapi asik merundum jatuh aje my tower. Maybe sebab I'm not a building engineer or an architect or a chef kot, tu yg my tower tak boleh berdiri tegak cantik aje. The base tak cukup kuat or teguh nak support the whole structure kan, hehehehehehe.... Last2, since my tummy was already making loud protesting kelaparan noise, I abandoned the idea nak hias cantik2, just tuang kuah and took some photos!

Masa ni lah I wish we had a DSLR camera sebab it was such a perfect night to take a picture of the smiling night sky. This is the best we could do with our digital camera. But believe me, it was 100X better in real life! The cresent moon with 2 planets above it (jupiter and venus) above it, tersangatlah agungnya ciptaan Tuhan yang Esa.........

Ini gambar yang we all ambil sendiri but kalau u nak gambar yang lagi cantik, dah banyak keluar kat net. You can go to news .

Stayed at home hari ni sebab Miss 5 ada stomach bug so kept her at home. She was still a bit weak after throwing up after every meal the whole day yesterday. Yelah, badan dah biasa makan banyak setiap hari so bila takde sustenance satu hari, lembik aje lah. Alhamdulillah, hari ni dia dah ok sikit and dah mula makan balik without throwing up. Had no idea where she got the bug from sebab everyone else was ok, oh well.....

Thanks to all my blogger friends for the ucapan takziah. The other half's flying off to Melbourne this weekend for the funeral. Mat Saleh ni tak macam Islam the funeral, it doesn't have to be as soon as possible so sempatlah sedara mara yang jauh nak beli plane tickets to fly over for the funeral. Even though he's not an immediate family member but he was still a close relative so terasa jugaklah the loss walaupun sedikit.


Anyway, life must go on for the living so tonite's dinner was a very simple bolognese sauce with fettucine. Simple sebab I just added mince and mushroom to a bottled sauce :-). The hardest part was nak bukak the jar lid aje, punyalah ketat, hehehehe.