A marvellous day to celebrate

Miss 8 is no longer 8 today!

She is officially 9 years old .

Happy birthday darling daughter..

From a wee baby

to a definitely-not-so-wee anymore kid, hehehe.

So, what did we do today to celebrate her birthday?

Well, obviously it started with her opening all her pressies.

This year, she received toys sahaja, hahahaha…

Some of the toys are definitely toys meant for boys but she asked for them and she loves them .

The Other Half kata, “Ahhh, the son I’ve always wanted…”

Muahahahaha….

And then I made lemonade scones for breakfast.

Sesiapa yang tak pernah cuba lemonade scones, silalah cuba because they are so yummy! Still gebu sampai ke petang without that ‘bitter’ bicarb after taste which you normally get with scones.

Lepas breakfast, we went to Hillarys for a whale watching tour.

Sekarang from Spetember to December, along the WA coast, the whales are having their seasonal migration from Antartica up to somewhere north of Broome.

So, memang sangat2 sesuai lah kalau nak tengok whales.

Dalam hati, doa banyak2 agar dapatlah jumpa some whales instead of nampak air laut aje, hehehe.

While waiting for the boat.

On the deck of the boat searching for whales.

She’s sitting a bit high up so senang nak nampak the whales.

Orang berdua ni surenya tgh gossiping about me, hehehe.

I was asking Miss 13 to pose with the ‘duckface’ tapi we all berdua tak tau mcm mana nak pose gaya duck face tu, .

And Alhamdulillah, memang rezeki the birthday girl, we saw quite a few humpback whales.

Not the biggest though, but enough to make us happy we’ve seen them in real life and ‘up close’.

Boats are not allowed to be closer than 50m from the whale and I pulak takde papparazi’s lenses so tu yang my photos semua jauh2 aje.

But the boat crew said that the whales weren’t active so we didn’t see them make jumps or any acrobatic acts like you see in National Geographic shows, hehehe.

But we did see them breached and also their flukes.

So happy when we could see the flukes.

Masa ni lah berangan2, alangkah best nya kalau ada boat sendiri, maulah every weekend we all pergi menjejak whales, hikhikhikhik…

Then balik rumah dah lewat, terus lah prepare stuff for dinner and also the birthday cake.

This is her ‘first’ birthday cake this year.

(Kalau she’s having a birthday party, there’ll be another cake I guess).

Maltesers cake.

Just a simple butter cake with buttercream ganache like icing with choc biscuit fingers and maltesers for deco.

It’s just a small 6” cake sebab yang nak makan nya pun we all aje kan, hehehe.

But sebab semua dah kenyang makan dinner tadi and minum bubble tea for afternoon tea, terus postpone potong kek to esok aje.

Mana tak kenyang nya, we had nasi goreng and sate with kuah kacang mahal for dinner.

Memang sedap lah meratah sate tadi .

Mince and mixer

I love beef mince because of its variable usage, easy availability and cheapness.

Boleh katakan, there will always be beef mince stock in the freezer.

Setiap kali pergi butcher, I will buy about 2kg of beef mince and then when I get home, I will separate them into 500g bags.

I will make sure I flatten them nicely into very flat brick shapes before storing them in the freezer.

Why?

Sebab senang nak store and senang nak defrost in this shape.

When I have the time or I know what I want to make for dinner way in advance, I will take the beef mince brick out to thaw in the fridge.

But, when I do not know what I want to make for dinner until an hour before and takde masa nak thaw it nicely in the fridge, microwave lah yang jadi penyelamat.

I just use the defrost button on the microwave and let it do its job.

In less than 10 minutes, I have perfectly thawed beef mince on a plate.

Senang kan .

Lepas tu, baru fikir nak buat apa dengan the thawed beef mince, hehehehe….

Like petang semalam, pukul 4.30 baru terfikir nak masak meatballs to go with the potato skins yang I’ve made in the afternoon.

So, I took out the frozen beef mince, put it in the microwave and defrosted it.

While the mince was defrosting, I made fresh white breadcrumbs, chopped up the onions. Semua ni I buat in my stick mixer which makes life so much easier for me.

I love my stick mixer so much so that when I dropped the bowl and put a crack in the bowl, instead of buying a new one (which The Other Half says I should be doing), I just fixed it by taping gaffa tape around the outside and it’s working fine.

No leak whatsoever!

I don’t know whether it’s called being a cheapskate or being resourceful . hahahahaha…

Malas nak beli the replacement bowl because I think it will only be slightly cheaper than buying a whole new set.

But membazir pulak rasanya beli a whole new set sebab the other smoothie/soup bowl, the soup attachement and the stick are all in perfect working order.

But the only problem is that, I can’t see what’s inside, hehehehe…

Kalau nak buat breadcrumbs in large amount or nak chop other things in large amount, I use the food processor.

Anyyywaaaayyyyyy, back to the beef mince and meatballs …..

Then I put the breadcrumb, the chopped onion, the beef mince all in a bowl.

Lepas tu, baru lah I add benda2 lain depending on my mood.

Semalam, I add  tomato sauce, BBQ sauce, worcesteshire sauce, chicken stock powder and paprika.

The amount of each ingredient I selalunya main agak2 aje…

Then, I kepal2 and shape them into balls, tak besar sangat and tak kecik sangat. Senang dimakan punya size, hehehe.

Then I arranged them all on a baking tray which has been lined with baking paper, and spray olive oil on the balls and bake them in the oven at 190C for around 20 minutes.

If you want to pan fry them, you have to put them in the fridge for about 30 minutes first before frying to firm them up so tak pecah2 masa you pan fry them.

But kalau masuk oven, lepas kepal, boleh terus masak.

Tu yang by 5 o’clock I dah boleh masak the meatballs and by 5.20, the meatballs were ready.

Yang mengambil masa nak buat was shaping it into balls aje.

Senang kan!

Oven-baked meatballs with cheesy potato ckins, bread and salad.

The cheesy potato skins I ikut recipe ini. But you might have to bake the potatoes longer depending on the size and type.

The flesh of the potatoes I nak guna untuk buat tuna croquettes malam ni .

2 more days Mum!

Miss 8 is getting pretty excited sebab her birthday is just 2 days away!

Hahahaha…..

Hari2 tanya I apa hadiah yang I bagi untuk dia sebab tak sabar dia nak tau…

Tak laaaraaaatttttt…. .

birthday kek pulak, dah laaaamaaaaa dia bagitau I dia nak kek apa so senang Mum dia ni nak prepare awal2 lah konon2nya.

Luckily she only wants maltesers cake which is so easy to make.

She wants butter cake salut dgn choc icing and covered with loads of maltesers.

And we are lucky sbb maltesers are so cheap here so kalau nak cover the cake with maltesers ala2 Mount Kosciuszko pun no worries, hikhikhik.

Birthday dinner dia still belum request lagi…

Susah kot nak decide dinner apa yg paling best since dia jenis yang semua dishes yang Mum dia masak dia suka, hahahaha…

Macam last night, I buat spaghetti with garlic and chilli breadcrumbs with semi dried tomatoes.

As usual, she loved it walaupun pedas2 sikit for her.

What I did was sauteed the chopped garlic, then add dried chilli flakes and finely chopped semi dried tomatoes in a pan. Then add fresh white breadcrumbs and sauteed until brown.

Towards the end of cooking, add diced fresh tomatoes and cooked broccoli and salt and pepper to taste.

Add the drained  cooked spaghetti to the pan and some more olive oil and gently mixed them together.

Bila nak makan, tabur grated parmesan and olive oil you think it’s a bit dry.

We had it with mixed salad and chicken breast burger.

A very simple dinner tapi sedap .

You can grow them anywhere

As you all know, we like to plant things.

Sometimes, the more the better walaupun we know we haven’t got any where else to put the plants, hehehe…

And everytime I go to any kedai yang jual seeds and seedlings, I will stand infront of the seed display and will search for new seeds and pretty looking flower seeds that we can plant.

Therapeutic sebenarnya planting things ni walaupun sometimes the seeds tak bercambah or the snails manage to get to them overnight and eat all the young leaves.

And bila mood menanam seeds dah datang, I will plant all kinds of seeds using all kinds of containers, hehehe….

Sampaikan kat sini pun I boleh tanam …

Ini dalam bathroom The Little Misses.

I plant the seeds in a takeaway plastic container lined with egg carton.

I love snowpea sprouts buat ulam and in salad. They taste the freshest when baru petik and terus makan (as normal lah kan).

But kalau I tanam kat luar, the soil tends to get too dry so easily sebab I slalu terlupa nak siram.

So, I tanam dalam rumah but there’s no more space on the kitchen bench/countertop to put the seed container so I pun letak lah in the bathroom tepi bathtub which has a big window with plenty of sunlight. No one uses the bathtub untuk mandi pun so memang a very good place to put plants.

And bila I nak makan, just ambik a few shoots aje.

And since dah tanam sprouts in the bathroom, might as well letak another indoor plant in there as well kan so adalah kawan the sprouts, hehehe .

The Hypoestes freckle face plant.

Is it pokok puding in Bahasa Malaysia?

And malam tadi, for dinner, I had some of the snowpea sprouts buat ulam.

Sedapppppp

Nasib baik takde sambal belacan, or else memang tak cukup sepinggan kan, hahahaha…

Our flower garden update

Terasa sangat strange pulak bila tak letak photos of our garden and tak buat update about our garden during the past weekend.

We did spend time in the garden doing so many things on Saturday and Sunday tu but tak sempat pulak nak ambik gambar to put up on the blog.

The ‘major’ project we did was cleaning up the side garden on the front of the house and preparing the grounds for planting.

Since, The Other Half still tak boleh pegang cangkul and rake and yang seangkatan dengan nya, I lah yang betul2 jadi minah kebun that Saturday morning.

It was hard work, let me tell you! Hahahaha…. .

But the end product was well worth it.

The side garden is going to be used for our watermelon plants.

Before the makeover, penuh dengan weeds and grass clippings and what nots. After the makeover, we’ve put sugarcane mulch on the soil (we still need another big bale of mulch sebab tak cukup haritu) and we’ve planted the watermelon seedlings in the black pot.

Bila the watermelon plants grow, dia akan menjalar along the bed.

We all siap letak white plastic fence edgings lagi tu konon2 utk mencantikkan that area. I’ve also bought some more solar lights to put there .

And mana boleh tak letak photos of the flowers and the vegetables kan.

If you guys want to know, we’ve got 11 rose bushes in the front garden. These rose bushes were planted by the previous owner so by the time we bought the house and moved in, memang dah mature lah the roses so tu yang agak senang for us to maintain.

I’ll show you all of them ye.

See, 11 rose bushes you! So far, takde yang mati lagi under our ‘care’, hehehe…

Sejak we all letak pots of flowers along the path to the front door, I love to look at them and also to ambik gambar.

I suka sangat2 with the Asutralian paper daisies ni so I bought another plant to accompany the first one.

This is the Sundaze Bronze.

The ‘old’ Sundaze Flirt.

The other day masa I tayang the roses, the pink ones and the white ones haven’t bloomed yet so this time dah kembang mekar, baru lah boleh tayang kan

And bila dah tiba musim bunga berkembang, inilah kerja I every few days…

Deadheading the spent flowers. kadang2 bila rajin, I will put them in a vase but most of the time, I let them bloom fully on the bushes and bila dah layu, baru buang.

Nothing new

So how did the sleepover go?

It went alright I think.

We went to bed at 10.30 and didn’t hear them at all, hehehehe…

Even Miss 8 whose room is the closest to the ‘timebomb’ slept soundly through the night.

But the girls said they made a lot of noise last night so it was a good idea putting them all in that back room .

Miss 13 said that some of them fell asleep after 1 and some of them couldn’t fall asleep including her until after 5.

Luckily lah today is school holiday and also public holiday so bolehlah semua sleep in.

What did I make for breakfast for them and us this morning?

I made 2 batches of scones with cream and strawberry compote and also 2 batches of pancakes.

The Other Half kata nasib baik lah dia and Miss 8 makan the scones dulu sebab the girls demolished the scones tak tinggal crumbs pun. The pancakes pun were mostly gone.

I guess after a night of tak tidur, mestilah lapar kan.

I didn’t cook anything for dinner tonite sebab Miss 8 and I dah kenyang from a birthday party do that we went to this afternoon.

The Other Half and Miss 13 tak ikut sebab Miss 13 qada’ tidur so The Other Half stayed at home with her.

I ate so much at the birthday party, makan nasi lemak, sate, rojak, BBQ, so many desserts.

The Other Half and Miss 13 kena paksa makan leftover pizzas for lunch and dinner, hahahaha…..

Tak kuasa I nak masak dinner when there’s so much pizzas left.

Tu lah, sape suruh I maska pizza banyak2, kan dah kena makan pizaa pagi petang siang malam, heeeeee…

So, bila tak masak dinner and still ank update blog, kenalah I go thru my food folder.

I cooked this dinner a week ago.

Oven baked crispy wings with bean salad and sauteed potatoes+sweet potatoes.

And this one pulak I made about a month ago.

Chicken burrito in a bowl.