Our usual Saturday rituals

I slept in again this morning, yeay, hehehe.

Miss 9 has been unwell and woke me up a few times last night so I had to attend to her.

So pagi ni The Other Half let me sleep in.

Bangun pagi tengok the dishes has been done by him .

Sayangnya, his repertoire didn’t extend to making breakfast, hikhikhik…

Lepas breakfast, seperti hari2 Sabtu yang lain, we all masuk kebun, bertungkus lumus bekerja kat kebun yang sekangkang kera tu.

And since he loves me so much ( well, it’s more to stop me nagging him actually!), he finally did what he had not been able to do since his accident.

For a week now, he has slowly regained some movements back in his dislocated finger.

So, I pun ambik lah kesempatan ni and begged him to do it…

The Other half memulakan project…

Still hard at work….

And the final resting place of the wall art.

Thank you Dear for putting it up.

Now that area looks much more cheerful.

Even The Other half pun agrees that the wall art is very pretty .

I love looking at the front garden through the side gate because it is such a colourful sight.

It can make my heart sing looking at all the pretty flowers in the garden.

And it also makes my heart sings looking at the first blueberry of the season and the growing grapes.

Banyak kali I kena pesan kat The Other half not to pick the bluberry until they are ripe and ready…

Can’t wait!

And we also tidied up the side garden some more.

We like white picket fences-type thing so I bought plastic fences to put around the side garden.

And also not forgetting some more solar lights! Hehehehe….

We put sugar cane mulch on the garden bed to tidy it up a bit.

Baru lah nampak cantik ala2 garden kat negeri Mat Saleh kan (even with the serai in it)!

Hikhikhikhikhik……..

We do use a lot of it

In this household, we love our tomato sauce…

Well, diaorang berdua love their tomato sauce on mostly anything and everything.

(The Other Half kata kalau dia dah makan tomato sauce, that means dia dah makan sayur sebab tomato tu kan sayur, hehehe.)

Miss 9 occasionally likes tomato sauce. She used to love it a lot until lately maybe sebab dah muak kot..

I pulak love using tomato sauce in a lot of my cooking.

So, tu yang bila I beli tomato sauce, tak main lah beli the 500mls bottle or the 250mls bottle or the 1l bottle….

I kalau beli tomato sauce, kena beli yang ini!

Hikhikhikhik….

Ambik kau, 4l botol tu, jangan main main!

But, tak lah we all guna botol ni letak atas meja, tak kuasa nak menonggengkan this bottle every time, berat weh.

We usually transfer the sauce into a smaller squirt bottle so senang nak guna.

Kalau takde beras kat rumah ni, tak jadi hal punya, tapi kalau supply tomato sauce habis kat rumah ni, memang boleh revolt lah, heeeee…..

Dah lah I ni jenis yang gemor bebeno masak chips and hidang chips for dinner, so memang mesti ada tomato sauce lah on the table.

Like tonite for example, I masak mac n cheese.

So, wajib lah keluarkan botol tomato sos letak atas meja kan.

Ini pinggan The Other Half, I yang ‘hias’ the tomato sauce on the mac n cheese.

Lepas aje selesai I ambik gambar, terus dia squirt some more tomato sauce on top of it.

 

Tak cukup tomato sauce banyak ni aje, hehehe….

Orang lain 4 litre makan bertahun2, we all kat rumah ni, 4 litre tu stock untuk beberapa bulan aje!

Nasib baik lah The Other Half tak suruh I beli tomato sauce yang dalam size tong dram tu!

He says he can’t see the resemblance

Since a few people said that air muka Miss 9 sebijik copy paste muka I bila dia berambut lurus, jenuh I went through our photo albums hari ni just to see betul ke apa yang orang kata itu.

The Other Haf said, "Really? I can’t see the resemblance at all….but maybe if they say so….”

Ayat tak confident langsung lah tu, hehehehe.

Ye lah kan, macam mana dia nak percaya….

Bini dia kulit flat white while anak dia tu kulit babycino…

Hidung wife dia kemek hidung jawa while hidung anak dia tu tak sekemek hidung jawa I tapi takde nya mancung, heeee…

Yang sama I rasa cuma part dagu and part pipi aje kan

Anak dia dagu tajam (tapi ada double chin)…. Bini dia pun dagu tajam and also double chin, hahahahah…

Pipi we all chubby sama2, heeeee…

Selama2 ni bila Miss 9 berambut kerinting, semua cakap sebijik muka The Other Half and tetiba bila dia berambut lurus, orang kata terus macam muka I, tu yang dia tergugat sikit .

Puaslah I cari my photos yang boleh ditayang and ada sikit resemblance dengan Miss 9

Entah lah….

I pun tak tau ada resemblance ke tidak…

But yang I tau, everytime I balik Msia, mesti orang ingat I ni bibik indon and Miss 9 anak Puan, kahkahkahkah…

Kat sini pun, a lot of times bila I jalan dengan Miss 9, mesti ramai jugak yang tengok we all atas bawah…

Bukan Mat Saleh yang tengok, the Asians yang tengok we all atas bawah…

The Mat Salehs tak pandang pun we all, hehehehehe….

Asians kat mana2 pun sama aje perangai kot, heeee… .

Pagi tadi, bila Miss 9 bangun tidur, most of her curls have sprung back overnite…

Sedih aje dia sebab she was meeting her school friend at the movie pagi tadi so dia nak lah her friend see her with straight hair at least once, hehehe.

So, I pun keluarkan el cheapo my straightening iron and tried to straighten her hair…

Sebab el cheapo kan, the best I could do was make her hair wavy…

Jadi lah kan, still different than curly .

Oh, guess what I found in the garden 2 days ago?

Our first zucchini flower!

Yeay yeay, tak lama lagi boleh makan zucchinis sampai tak larat, hehehe….

The transformation

It’s the second week of school holiday already and the girls say they want the holidays to last longer.

Typical lah kan (Mum diaorang pulak can’t wait for the school holidays to end) .

We are not going anywhere for a short vacation this holidays sebab The Other Half is very very busy at work.

So, kenalah berholidays kat rumah aje….

Miss 13 dari bangun pagi sampai tidur malam tak berenggang dengan her Mac.

Miss 9 adalah jugak variety sebab tolong I kat kebun kan, hehehe.

But anyway…

Today, we did something that Miss 9 has been waiting ages to do.

She couldn’t wait for today to arrive.

Punyalah excited dia!

Do you want to know why?

This is how she looked like this morning before the ‘event’.

And about 40 minutes after the ‘even’t has started….

And an hour plus later…

selepas begitu sabarnya dia menunggu (nasib baik lah boleh main iPod and Nintendo during that time, hehehe)….

Her posed look…..

Bila her hair dah lurus, baru lah nampak betapa teruknya I potong rambut dia in April hari tu.

Punyalah tak straight and beratus2 layers, hahahaha

Semua orang yang nampak Miss 9 with the straight hair says she looks so much ‘older’ with the straight hair.

Kalau curly hair, nampak comel macam budak2, hahaha.

A friend’s daughter was so kind to straighten Miss9’s hair using the GHD hair straightening iron.

But it took her so long to do it sebab Miss 9’s curls were a lot! Hehehehehe….

And 2 hours later after dah kena air sikit and dah main2….

Her curls have started coming back, heeeee….

The Other Half kata, “it’s freaky! I like curly haired Miss 9 much more!”

In my eyes, Miss 9 looks so different! But at the same time, it looks as though she’s had straight hair for ever! I’ve kinda ‘forgotten’ the curls she has, hahaha.

But, dapatlah Miss 9 merealisasikan impian dia untuk melihat diri dia with straight hair.

Sepanjang2 dia dah kenal hidup, tak pernah dia nampak rambut dia lurus, it’s always curly so when the friend’s daughter said yes when we asked her if she could kindly straighten Miss 9’s hair, punyalah suka and excited dia.

Miss 9 said, “I like my hair straight like this. It looks really different. My face looks different as well but I don’t think I want to do it again…”

Penat weh, duduk sejam lebih while someone played with your hair .

Yang sudah semestinya, Mum dia will never have the time to do it lah.

So, which one do you think suits her face more?

Pink salmon croquettes

A few nights ago, when I made potato skins and meatballs for dinner, I had a container full of cooked potato flesh.

So, the next night, I pun masuklah dapur nak buat tuna croquettes but bila selongkar2 pantry, tak jumpa pulak canned tuna.

But I found canned pink salmon instead.

So, I pun buatlah pink salmon croquettes instead.

Croquettes ni macam bergedil lah but instead of mince beef, I guna salmon and instead of just telur aje untuk balut the bergedil, I guna tepung, telur dan breadcrumbs untuk salut the croquettes.

Kalau pan fry the croquettes, ada kemungkinan besar they’ll break apart masa tengah pan frying tu.

Kalau nak oven bake, I guess boleh jugak tapi kena spray with olive oil sebelum membakar dia lah.

And like bergedil, they are much yummier if they are deep fried .

So, I pun deep fried them lah so anak2 and Dad anak2 akan kata my croquettes are yummy, hehehe.

And sebab dah ada deep fried stuff, kenalah ada salad to balance out the ‘badness’ kan.

I made lentils, capsicum and cucumber salad with panfried halloumi cheese.

We all jarang makan lentils ni so bila sekali sekala makan, memang sedap lah. I cuma guna canned lentils aje, tinggal tus/drain and guna, sangat lah senang nya kan.

And the croquettes ingredients are a canned of pink salmon, mashed cooked potato, salt, mustard, paprika and chives. Shape them into sausage shape then coat them.

First you coat them with flour, then dip them in eggwash (egg+ a bit of milk) and then coat them in breadcrumbs.

Leave them to ‘set’ for around 30-60 minutes in the fridge before frying them.

The Other Half and I had them with sweet chilli sauce, Miss 13 had them with tomato sauce and Miss 9 had them with BBQ sauce.

kalau nak makan dengan sambal kicap pun boleh aje, no worries punya, hahahaha.

Another garden update for the week

First off, thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and doas for Miss 9.

She’s chuffed that so many people wished her a happy birthday.

I haven’t had a good nite sleep for a few nightss now so pagi tadi after subuh, I was so sleepy.

Masa The Other Half left for work at 6.10, I could just say “have you got your lunch and bye love” from under the doona aje.

(sleepy sleepy pun masih jugak ingat pasal perut suami kan, hahaha ).

Selalunya I would accompany him for coffee in the morning and do some house chores before the kids wake up.

But pagi tadi, I bantai tidur balik sampai pukul 8 pagi!

Nampak sangat yang I was so tired and sleepy kan, hehehe.

Miss 9 said, “Finally you wake up. I’ve been awake since 7 but I didn’t get up since there wasn’t anyone around.”

Hikhikhikhik….Bagi lah chance sekali sekala Mum awaknya sleep in.

I can’t remember when was the last time I had a sleep in that late.

And bila bangun, terus masuk kebun and I spent 2+ hours there.

What did I do?

Planted the okra, the purple snake bean, the bok choys, Miss 9’s mini tomato and the kangkung seedlings, trimmed the wildly growing tomato plants, deadheading the roses, watered the plants and putting sugar cane mulch in the front garden!

The Other Half should be so proud of his wife! hahahaha….

So, layan lah ye the photos of the gardens I took this morning….

The last 3 rose bushes have finally bloomed so sekarang ni all the rose bushes are in flower mode.

Sangat seronok!

I think this is creamy pink colour kot?

Maintaining the rose bushes I reti, part the colours of roses, memang I tak reti, hehehe

The red, pink, cream rose.

The light purple rose.

Now, all the rose bushes along the side fence have all bloomed. So tinggal buat deadheading aje lah of the spent flowers.

 

And now, the vege garden pulak.

We are so happy when the grapes have started producing flowers. It’s basically 2 years old now so memang dah sampai masanya for them to start producing fruits.

So many flowers which we hope will produce loads of fruits.

Tak payahlah beli grapes this Summer, hehehee.

One of the basil plants.

This 2 plants are Miss 9’s mini container tomato plants.

She planted them from seeds and they’ll grow in this mini container until berbuah.

I have no idea how big the tomatoes will be sebab the container is pretty small. Tak sabar nak tengok size buah dia nanti!

And ini pulak another type of tomatoes, the black tomatoes.

We love the taste of the black tomatoes. Hopefully berbuah lah yang we all tanam ni.

And all the zucchini plants have started producing flowers so tak lama lagi memang hari2 kena makan zucchinis lah, hahaha.

One of the cherry tomato trusses on the tomato bush.

Punyalah banyak buah yang tengah membesar sekarang, more than 100 definitely!

tak sabar tunggu dia ripen.

And the cucumber plants yang slowly getting there…..

tapi kacang panjang masih tak membesar2 lagi.

Maybe because of the unpredictable weather kot, kejap sejuk macam Winter, kejap panas balik so dia nak hidup pun asik terencat aje kan….