Nothing to do….

The Other Half had a very long weekend leave.

He took leave on Friday and today and semalam was Public Holiday so 5 hari dia cuti!

The girls pulak dah start cuti sekolah so 2 weeks ni memang lepak kat rumah aje lah.

But we didn’t go anywhere cos he just wanted to rest at home and potter around the house during his leave.

So, that’s what we basically did, nothing! (apart from doing the ParkRun and also going to the shops).

Which he said was a nice thing not to be doing anything, hehehehe….

But dalam tak buat apa2 tu, sempat lah jugak The Other Half tanam bunga .

Dia bercita2 nak tanam lavender hedge on the nature strip along the front fence.

I said to him, “you just better make sure that it is allowable by the Council or else we might have to pul them out again!”

He said, “yes, I know! Flowers are allowed, trees are not.”

But I rasa lavenders tu boleh jadi besar and quite bushy ala2 pokok kemetot kan!

Lantak dia lah, dia yang nak tanam so kalau dapat surat saman from the Council, pandai2 lah dia jawab and pandai2 lah dia cabut pokok2 tu nanti.

But we need around 8 lavender plants to fill up the whole row, giler banyak and mahal jugak lah kalau dah sampai 8 tu.

So, The Other Half said, “we just start with one for now and we can go to the Sunday market this weekend and see if they sell any that’s cheaper.”

Hikhikhikhik…..

So, semalam, he planted that lone lavender out on the nature strip….

I berdoa jangan lah ada sape2 curi our lavender tu!

We got the Lavender dentata variety sebab this variety will grown quite tall.

And today, the girls and I went shoe shopping at Harbour Town.

Ye lah kan, konon2 nak lari tiap2 Saturday so kena lah ada shoes yang sesuai.

The Other Half and shoe and clothes shopping memang tak ngam (unless dia lah yang nak beli) so we all bertiga aje lah pergi naik public transport .

Kalau Saturday ni tak lari lagi laju dari last week, memang lah!

Hahahahaha…

And tonight for dinner, I masak lamb kurma with sambal sotong and sayur goreng bertelur.

Selalunya kalau beli lamb, memang masak western aje. But malam ni tukar selera jadi kari pulak.

But I buat kurma so tak pedas langsung so semua boleh makan.

We liked it. Kena lah dengan tekak we all ni.

Dah tak pedas, kena lah buat lauk yang pedas jugak so tu yang buat sambal sotong aje.

The start of a long weekend

We had fun this morning.

Tiring but fun.

We registered to join the ParkRun community which is a group of people who run 5kms every Saturday morning at a park.

The best part is that it is free and you don’t have to be fit and athletic or a runner to join the group.

I’m not sure ada kat Msia or not but it’s everywhere around the world.

I think we were the only newbie group there this morning so The Other Half said, “I just dont want to be last ok!”

Hahahaha….

We let Miss 14 ran first but we stayed behind with Miss 9 sebab kaki dia pendek and she’s not that good at running, hikhikhik….

So we jogged, ran, sprinted but we mostly walked from start to finish.

Miss 14 finished about 7 minutes before us and we managed not to finish last, ada lagi sorang behind us!

Hahahahaha….

But we were so proud of Miss 9 because she didn’t stop at all even though she was so tired.

Even when The Other Half offered to give her a piggyback ride, she declined and kept on walking.

I said to her, it doesn’t matter if we finished last because this is our first time and we just have to improve our personal best next week.

Miss 9 was still smiling at this time, waiting for the start of the run.

We all berdiri kat belakang aje, bagi orang lain lari dulu cos sudah gerentinya we all takkan dapat finish first!

So glad we did it as a family .

Then balik rumah, tengok2 kebun….

Wellll……. I tengok kebun while he temankan I tengok kebun, hehehe.

Some of the rose bushes yang memang tengah galak berbunga. Semunya kembang semangkuk!

The cute row of snapdragons.

Some of the roses.

So, I had to deadhead some of the roses and cut some of the flowers to put in a vase.

Menceriakan sikit the loungeroom and the family room lah .

Sports carnival and bread making

This week is the final week of term 3.

And then starting from Saturday, the girls will be having a 2-week break.

We don’t have any plan to go anywhere, duduk diam2 kat rumah sahaja, hehehehe.

2 weeks will just fly by so quickly when you are having fun by not doing anything at home .

And yesterday, Miss 9 (who’ll be turning 10 very very soon) had a school sports carnival.

Luckily, the weather was just perfect yesterday after hujan 2-3 hari and hujan lebat again today.

But unfortunately, her rumah dapat tempat tercorot sebab most of the students in her house semua lebih kurang Miss 9, tak terer main sports and langsung tak athletics, hikhikhikhik…

So, layan lah ye some photos I took yesterday.

The colours of the houses. Green is Moreau, Blue is Nairn, Red is Gwai and yellow is Canning.

And hari ni since stock roti dah habis so I had to bake another loaf.

Everyone liked the muesli bread the other day so I made it again using whatever muesli I had in stock.

It’s a good way to use up all the little bits of muesli.

Semenjak dua menjak ni have been using Dan Lepard’s easy bread recipe as the base of all my breads.

He uses the ‘less kneading’ method so sape2 yang takde bread machine and tak nak lengan jadi mcm lengan popeye from extreme kneading, his recipe is marvellous.

He uses the sponge method where you make the sponge first and then the rest.

But for my bread, I added 1 teaspoon of bread improver to his recipe so jadi lagi naik.

And he says to have the bread dough slightly wet and sticky still.

I still have mine a bit sticky but maybe not as sticky as his kot.

And make sure your hand and the kneading board are a bit oily when you want to knead the sticky dough or else it’ll stick everywhere!

Sebab the flour measurement is just a rough guide.

The amount all depends on the humidity, the temperature, the condition of the flour and macam2 lagi lah.

And my bread today.

The muesli I used had nuts and sultanas and currants in it and cinnamon and honey so the bread smelled extremely delicious!

And you have to remember to soak the muesli in hot water first and then let it cool before mixing it into the sponge.

Or else all the nuts and fruits and oats wont be nice and soft in the bread.

The Other Half kata dah macam bread from Baker’s Delight aje, hahahaha.

Miss 14 and The Other Half love this bread, just with salted butter…

Another baking day

I ni bila rajin, sangat lah rajin nya…

But only rajin part2 masak aje, part2 lipat kain, gosok baju sentiasa malas!

Tu sebab sekali I gosok baju, mau berjam2!

hahahaha…

Hari2 ni hari rajin I membaking sebab hari ni I tak keluar ke mana2 apart from jadi supir.

So, I made cream puffs and sicilian orange cake sebab tergoda tengok gambar friends kat IG.

Sebelum buat cream puffs, I berguru dulu depan laptop tengok Joyofbaking buat her cream puffs.

Dah habis mendalami, baru lah I masuk dapur and Alhamdulillah menjadi.

Dah habis buat ni, I buat pulak the orange cake.

I used this recipe for the orange cake.

And for dinner pulak, I made Msian’s popular breakfast, nasi lemak.

I buat 2-3 lauk nak cater kat tekak2 orang rumah ni.

My plate ada sotong goreng kunyit and telur goreng aje as the lauk.

But dalam sambal tu ada ikan bilis so dah cukup banyak lauk tu dah, hehehe.

Of rain and baking

Hari ni hujan selebat2nya throughout the day with strong winds.

With a bit of tiny hails and thunderstorm pagi tadi.

And a lot of damage to a lot of houses from the storm last night.

A block of flat siap tercabut parts of the roof because of the storng winds.

Alhamdulillah, our house is still standing.

This coming week pun akan hujan setiap hari.

Macam mana lah baju nak kering weh!

I jemur bawah undercover area pun akan basah sikit balik bila the winds are so strong sebab bila angin tiup dgn kuat, the raindrops will fall nearly horizontal lah so obviously lah akan ditiup masuk bawah undercover area tu.

Masa ni lah rindu sangat nak tengok matahari balik, hehehehe…..

However, semalam we had some sunshine throughout the day, enough to dry the washings which made me feel so good.

See, I’m a simple woman, minor things like this can make me happy!

hahahahaha…..

And since it was a sunny day, I pun made it my baking day .

I made a loaf of bread, a tray of brownies and a tray of raspberry marshmallow slice.

Loaf of bread tu was for dinner, brownies tu for Sunday school and the slice tu for our afternoon tea.

Sejak beli tepung 25kg ni, The Other Half selalu mintak I buat roti sebab dia kata rasa roti fresh takde tandingan.

I said to him, if he tells me 4 hours before he wants it and if I have the time, boleh lah I buat roti .

Kalau hari2 buat roti, maulah I kena pergi kedai beli tepung roti lagi soon!

Hikhikhikhik…

And the two sweet things, choc brownies and raspberry marshmallow slice.

For me, the slice is way too sweet sebab ada marshmallow and jam and ganache on top.

But yang bertiga tu said, “No they are not sweet! They are so good! Don’t change a thing!”.

And hari ni, I had to make another loaf of bread so we can have bread for breakfast and lunch esok.

Orang2 kat rumah ni especially Miss 14 can live on bread and butter happily every single day for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Dia tu kalau tak makan benda lain pun dia tak kisah asalkan ada bread and butter.

Macam orang melayu lah kan, ada nasi panas, telur goreng and kicap pun dah cukup!

Hahahahaha….

But I pulak tak boleh lah mengadap bread hari2.

So malam ni I made pasta with fusion pesto, chicken pops and salad.

Kenapa I called it fusion pesto?

Sebab I used garlic, sundried tomatoes in oil, pine nuts, olive oil and taucu to make the pesto.

But I tak guna banyak lah taucu tu, just a little bit for added oomph and saltiness.

I rasa kalau guna banyak pun tak jadi hal but all the flavours kena seimbang lah kan.

Kalau Mat Saleh, sometimes they use their wet anchovies in pesto but I really cannot stand the taste so tu yang tukar ke taucu.

It’s obviously nice sebab Miss 14 didn’t say anything at all, she finished it all up!

And when you sprinkled parmesan and chilli flakes on it, it tasted even nicer!