3 nights’ dinners

Alright, dah ada yang dapat meneka berat tembikai dengat tepat.

Tahniah!

But, esok lah ye I announce the person’s name.

Malam ni, kita layan cerita lain aje eh .

Mana ada cerita gempak pun, our lives are not that interesting anyway, bukannya retis kan…

Hahahahaha…

Hari ni, setelah sekian lama bercuti, the girls started their Sunday school at the masjid.

And I pun start lah balik membaking pagi2 Ahad untuk bawak makanan for the kids to eat.

Happy I sebab I suka jugak membaking occasionally (bila datang mood) ni tapi banyak mana aje pun we all boleh makan sebab semua tengah berdiet.

Jadi, adalah reason sekarang untuk I membaking every week and ada budak2 yang nak menghabiskan.

But I terlupa nak ambik gambar the cake pagi tadi so you all layan aje lah ye gambar our dinners for the past 3 nights, hehehe.

Kan I dah bagitau yang I kena masak pizza on Friday nite tu…

So, I pun sebagai isteri and emak mithali, buat kan lah cheese pizzas for them but untuk I, I buat pizza lain yang tak banyak pakai cheese.

Sebab I dah muak sangat2 tengok cheese berlambak2 atas pizza tu!

I made for myself a bocconcini, semidried and fresh tomatoes and basil pizza.

Ini rupa my pizza sebelum dimasak.

And ini pulak rupa dia setelah dimasak.

I made it thin crust and very simple.

Sampai kan The Other Half pun tergoda habis2 tengok pizza I ni! hahahaha….

And then on Saturday nite, dah penat pergi rock climbing, we had a very simple dinner.

I bought rustic french bread and chicken burger patties at the shop and we had that for dinner, with salad.

My burger yang sangat sempoi, cuma bread, chicken patty and sandwich mayo sahaja.

I made green salad with added tomato, capsicum, oranges and bocconcini.

And then for dinner tonite, terpaksa lah tunaikan permintaan The Other Half nak kari.

Tapi instead of kari, I told him I nak buat rendang daging sebab dah laaaaamaaaaa tak makan rendang daging .

And he agreed with it.

And to make it even better, for the rendang paste, I guna bahan2 yang boleh dapat kat belakang rumah (kecuali lengkuas, bawang and garlic aje lah).

I used fresh red jalapeno chillis, halia, kunyit hidup, daun kunyit, daun limau purut, serai yang semua I petik kat kebun!

I rasa inilah rendang yang paling sedap I pernah buat sebab semua petik dari kebun!

hikhikhikhik….

And I buat grilled ikan kembong as well, untuk tekak I.

Makan pulak dengan ulam2an

Pegaga and kacang panjang petik kat kebun, tomato and timun beli kat kedai, sebab pokok timun masih belum berbuah lagi and pokok tomato baru nak membesar.

And then for after dinner sweet, we had some watermelon slices which also came from the garden.

Sangat lah happynya dengan hasil kebun……Alhamdulillah!

First time rock climbers

Today, we spent some quality time together as a family.

Selalunya The Other Half and I aje yang akan keluar ke kedai on Saturday morning while the girls stay at home doing their own sweet things.

Tapi pagi ni I paksa secara manja for The Other Half to agree to go rock climbing.

At first, punyalah liat dia nak pergi, macam2 alasan dia bagi…

Penat lah, nak spend time resting at home lah, malas nak drive to the city lah….

But I paksa/pujuk gak sampai lah dia setuju denganmuka agak kelat, heeee….

Tapi bila dah sampai kat tempat rock climbing tu, dia pulak yang beria2 memanjat tanpa henti2!

Ceh! hahahahaha….

First time for we all buat rock climbing ni….

At the first climb, ada lah jugak sikit takut but lepas tu, semua perasan macam spiderman aje!

Nasib tak pakai costume spiderman….. kalau tak, memang sebijik .

So, layan lah ye aksi2 we all meniru gaya spiderman, heeee….

First, kena pasang safety harness…

Then kena dengar taklimat by the staff, baru boleh panjat lepas tu…

He did the first climb while I was the anchor or in their term, belay.

making sure the carabiners are all properly fastened.

and then tukar2 pulak…

Look Mum! No rope! .

The Other Half doing the chimney climb.

And we got to the top, yeay….

The rope is basically only for safety reason. It doesn’t assist our climbing at all.

Memang guna kederat sendiri lah nak mendaki tu!

Adalah 3 jam lebih we all kat situ.

Bila balik rumah, semua lenguh2 tangan, lengan and kaki, hehehehehe…..

Malam ni gerenti tidur nyenyak sebab kepenatan .

Eating the same thing every week!

The Other Half dah mintak I masak thai curry and rice.

But baru haritu aje kan makan nasi!

When I told him that kita baru aje makan nasi on Sunday siap lengkap dengan 2 jenis lauk for makan besar, and then we had rice again the next day for lunch.

Dia mesti akan cakap, “mana sama! itu nasi with chinese style lauk pauk. I nak nasi dgn thai green chicken curry…” (setelah di alih bahasa).

Samalah klu I buat nasi goreng ke, sushi ke, dia sure akan kata mana sama dengan nasi and kari daging….

For me, rice is rice, sama aje semuanya kan!

hehehehe….

Even though I know I guna beras yang berbeza2…

Basmathi lah, jasmine lah, normal long grain ones, koshihikari rice lah or arborio rice….

Tapi kalau dah beras tu, adik beradik jugak lah kan.

For The Other Half pulak, selagi dia belum makan nasi dengan kari for that week, walaupun dah makan nasi goreng and sambal or maki sushi or risotto or paella or nasi putih dgn lauk melayu/cina, selagi tu dia akan mintak nasi and kari!

Tak larat I kadang2, hahahahaha….

I rasa kadang2 muka I ni dah macam muka mamak aje sebab makan kari hari2 .

Kaler kulit dah nak sama, cuma tinggal hidung I penyet aje banding dgn hidung mamak yg mancung tu.

Tadi dia dah berbunyi2 jugak lah mintak nasi and kari but I berjaya pujuk dia to have it on the weekend instead.

So, malam ni I made him another one of his favourite dishes.

Mee kari laksa/ laksa nyonya/ nyonya kari.

adalah jugak lah kari2 nya walaupun jauh panggang dari api, hahahaha.

Since esok Jumaat, dah berbunyi2 jugak lah mulut2 tu mintak I buat cheese pizza for dinner esok.

I am sick of cheese pizza already!

Tak jemu ke you all! Makan cheese pizza tiap2 minggu!

Lengan I pun dah macam popeye sebab menguli every week!

kahkahkahkahkah….

40 cloves of garlic

The other night we went to parents info night for the PEAC program that Miss 9 has been accepted into.

Masa tengah tunggu the program to start, we all terdengar lah this lady behind us talking.

She was bragging about her son.

How clever and smart her son is and how he is so busy every nite going to all these extra curricular activities.

One night taekwando, another night footy, another night soccer and another night music stuff.

And he’s basically at the state level for each one of them judging from the way she bragged about him.

And their lives basically revolve around sending him to all these places until the other siblings felt left out.

And on and on she went talking about what the son can do and how impressed they were with his achievements.

We all yang duduk depan dia dah tak larat nak muntah!

Come on lah lady!

Every parent who was in that room all have bright kids or else they wouldn’t have been in that room listening to the PEAC information kan!

The kids who got into PEAC are the top 2 1/2% of all year 5 public school students.

Bukan anak you sorang aje yang pandai….

The Other Half pulak saje je mendajal, terus temberang cakap kuat2….

“I don’t know how Miss 9 is going to cope with having all these other students who are so much older than her in PEAC. She’s only 7 and yet so bright.!”

“I guess she’s going to do ok since her sister was only 10 when she started hight school.”

I teruslah elbowed him and said to him “kalau nak auta pun, agak2 lah, jangan lah temberang teruk2. People will think we have geniuses for kids!”

Hikhikhikhikhik…..

I guess doesn’t matter where you live kan, there will always be parents who think their kids are the smartest, the cleverest, the funniest, the brightest and the world revolves around their kids and them!

I don’t think it’s wrong to be proud of your kids’ achievements but to brag about it…….. hmmmmmmm……

I am so glad I wasn’t the one whe had to sit next to that lady, hehehehe….

Anywayyyyyy……

Malam ni I made roast chicken again for dinner

But a different type of roast chicken, a wet version.

I made chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. I ikut recipe ini but I olah sikit. I didn’t use that much liquid and I added celery and carrots to the mix. I also subs the white wine with apple juice+vinegar mix.

I betul2 guna 40 cloves of garlic you! I letak under the chicken, inside the chicken, on top of the chicken, hahahahaha.

But once it’s been cooked, memang takde rasa garlic and bau garlic langsung.

But I lupa nak ambik gambar the chicken inside the pot once it’s cooked.

Ada gambar yang dah dipotong2 aje.

It’s so meltingly tender and fell off the bones.

Makan dengan oven-baked fries and garden salad with croutons.

 

This recipe makes a lot of gravy so I had to reduce and thicken it a bit.

And bila nak makan, just tuang the gravy onto the chicken.

The girls tak komplen langsung about the amount of garlic in it so I guess they didn’t know it was there lah kan.

It was so darn hot!

Minggu ni kat Perth ada heatwave.

I kesian betul kat tourists yang datang Perth minggu ni sebab panas ya amat!

Dah lah panas, pastu banyak lalat pulak tu (which is usual during Summer).

I yang dah menetap kat Perth for 7 years ni pun find it very very hot and bleugh.

Mana tak nya, this was the temperature outside the car while I was waiting for the girls to come out of schools this afternoon.

Abaikan lah ye segala habuk on the dashboard tu. Lama giler we all tak lap, hahahaha.

It was 42.5C!

Giler nya panas!

Bila panas2 macam ni, I slalunya akan bawak a bottle of juice/ cordial with loads of ice when I pick the girls up for them to have in the car.

Walaupun kat sekolah tu ada water cooler but it is still nice to have ice cold drinks in the car kan.

Memang weather kat Perth selalu macam ni, bila dah nak dekat masuk Autumn, lagi giler2 dia panas.

Even pukul 7.30 pagi tadi pun the temperature dah sampai 30C.

So, what did I do when the weather was so hot?

Well, apart from siram all the tanaman lah kan and a little bit of shopping to cool me off (hahahaha).

I did some sewing .

Bila takde guest nak datang, we convert the guest room to store room+ironing room+clean washing dumping room+sewing room.

Bila ada guest, convert balik ke guest bedroom.

Ala2 magic gitu!

hahahaha…..

It’s nice sewing in this room sebab boleh bukak the window luas2 and tengok the green garden.

And since it’s so hot, malas nak makan yang berat2 sangat so I made sausages with onion and apple gravy, steamed veges and homemade bread rolls for dinner tadi.

Believe me, that amount on my plate was very filling.

The second week of school

Dah kenyang makan limau?

I tertunggu2 jugak jiran sebelah datang hantar limau, tapi sampai la ni tak nampak bayang dia.

Hehehehe .

Tak main lah limau ni kan, kat belakang rumah ada anggur and blueberries, lagi high class, kahkahkahkah….

Tadi we all ada parents infor nite for the PEAC program that Miss 9 is enrolling in this year.

And tak boleh bawak budak2 so nak tak nak terpaksalah tinggal kan the girls at home by themselves.

Alhamdulillah, everything was ok. And the meeting didn’t go that long.

So, I kenalah masak something that can be reheated by Miss 13 in the microwave when it’s time for dinner.

The Other Half and I dah makan awal2 sebelum pergi meeting tu.

The best thing to cook that can be reheated easily is obviously pasta lah kan.

I made rigatoni bake in creamy tomato sauce with meatballs.

Makan dengan salad and bread.

Buat satu ‘loyang’ so banyak leftovers for everyone’s lunches esok and a bit extra to keep in the freezer for emergency.

I made a lot of meatballs as well, guna 1kg beef mince.

And I store some of the baked meatballs in the freezer jugak for future use bila tengah malas and tak tau nak makan apa.

 

I love it when my plate has some greens on it.

Baru lah seimbang makan macam ni kan.

Baru puas hati I makan kalau ada benda kaler hijau ni, hehehe…..

But I sorang aje yang rasa macam tu.

The Other Half and the girls tak kisah langsung kalau takde sayur on their plates.

Lagi diaorang suka!

Makan besar…

Ramai lah ye yang makan besar hari ni.

Kat perth ni pun ramai yang makan besar since Chinese New Year happened to fall on a Sunday kan.

Even one of the asian grocery stores dekat2 area rumah I pun tutup hari ni!

Selalunya, diaorang memang open 7 days a week.

Orang lain makan besar, we all pun teringin jugak nak makan besar.

Tapi orang lain makan besar beria2 dengan all the delicious ingredients, we all makan besar just guna apa aje yang ada dalam freezer, dalam pantry and kat kebun sebab malas nak keluar beli barang.

Hahahaha….

The temperature went up to 39C today so memang tak sanggup lah nak keluar.

It will be 41C for the next 3 days!

Nasib baik lah our freezer slalunya quite well stock and kebun pun penuh dgn sayur kan .

So, this was what I made for our ‘makan besar’ tonite.

I made honey chicken, prawn taucu and stirfry sawi and shiitake mushrooms in black bean sauce.

Besar lah jugak kan sebab ada 2 lauk!

Hahahahaha….

We love honey chicken but I malas nak buat selalu sebab kena celup batter, pastu goreng…

Banyak lemak weh, tak boleh makan selalu.

I cuma letak 1 biji fresh chilli aje in the prawn taucu but The Other Half kata pedas, hehehe…

Kalau sambal guna cili kering, dia kata tak pedas while I kata pedas.

Tapi kalau masak guna fresh chili, I cakap tak pedas sangat, dia kata pedas.

Funny kan .

Memang makan besar sebab semua kekenyangan lepas tu .