A Little Update....

This is the precious son of my niece, Siti.
He was born at 32 weeks, and weighed 1.74kg at birth.
We'd only managed to meet this little tyke on Sunday, and he was a little gem :-)
Here are some pics of him, just to share....




Firstly, ignore the text in the pic below since the dinner was actually on Thursday LOL LOL
I'm losing my mind, I think!!!

I made the 3 dishes since I was fasting, and it was the last of what we had in the fridge :-D LOL

Then, on Saturday, after our 'shopping blitz' at the Pasar Borong, I made the simple dishes for our lunch since the fern tops would not keep well, and hubby (I'm sure) was dying to have a taste of the so-called "crying tiger" (harimau menangis) chunk of beef he'd just bought LOL LOL

I made a simple marinade-cum-rub and grilled the beef for about an hour plus to make sure it stayed a little pink, just as we liked it :-D

GRILLED BEEF
(my very lazy way!!)

you need:
approx. 450g of beef chunk
turmeric powder
a bit of tenderiser
chilli powder
coriander
light soy sauce
dark soy sauce

how to:
rub in the marinade mixture into the beef chunk and leave for about 15-30 mins.
set the oven to about 120'C, and grill for about 1hr or so. check on the beef chunk on doneness.
serve according to preference.

note: u can increase the temp to maximum for the last 10 mins or so to 'crisp up' the layer of fat on the outside. leave meat to rest about 10mins before slicing up for serving.

Oh yeah, just in case anyone is interested, I'm also enclosing the recipe for my version of hoisin prawns. It's basically a cheat's recipe, but u can adjust, add or take out stuff u don't like and even change the cooking style a bit. Just a guide....

HOISIN PRAWNS

you need:
500g prawns, cleaned and deveined
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 Tbs hoisin sauce (store bought)
1 Tbs oyster sauce
a bit of water
salt & sugar, to taste

how to:
heat up oil in a wok and fry the garlic till fragrant and slightly golden. stir in prawns and fry until skin starts to crisp up. add in the combined sauces + water and bring up to a simmer. check seasoning and serve hot.

Ehehehe...and below is a pic of the cheeky pot, having her lunch :-D


Oh yeah... I have a couple more pics of this cheeky pot which I've not resized, so I'll probably upload them in the next entry.

Until then, keep safe everyone............





AM

Tengah Rajin

ahahahahhaa...

seriously though, I thought I might as well update a bit since Aina's already asleep, and I am ACTUALLY AWAKE!!!

this doesn't happen very often!!! LOL LOL LOL

for dinner tonite I made these simple dishes -- turmeric fried chicken and stir-fried peas & carrots.

since I don't think I've ever put in the recipe for the chicken, I'll do so in this entry just for the heck of it... I'm sure EVERYone knows this recipe, or at least their own version, but I'll keep mine here for my own record (i know... sounds kinda lame LOL)

Turmeric Fried Chicken

you need:
1 med-sized packet of chicken breast fillet, sliced
turmeric powder
ground white pepper
salt
1 large onion, sliced in rings
1 red chilli, sliced
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
1 knob of ginger, finely julienned

how to:
marinade the chicken with the turmeric, salt & pepper.

heat oil in a wok and add in the chicken slices.
fry until chicken crisps up slightly, then turn. as it starts to brown and crisp, add in the onions, garlic, ginger and chilli. stir until onions are soft. check seasoning; serve hot.

Alright... have to go catch up on CSI NY now... we'll see if I can update tomorrow nite... :-P




AM

The Cheeky Brat :-)

On Friday, after hubby picked me up, we went to HUKM to see my niece who'd safely delivered her son, a healthy 1.74kg baby boy.

She had a VERY scary story to share, whereby as Prof was finishing up closing her c-sect wound, she actually felt the first pinch of pain -- her anaesthesia was wearing off!!! No one believed her initially, and when she couldn't bear the pain and started crying, THAT was when they panicked and quickly administered a local. The anaesthetist apologised because usually the dosage was sufficient but due to some other complications and procedures, it took Prof longer than usual to close up.

Anyway, she's VERY happy with baby Azri's presence that I guess maybe it was easy to forgive :-)

She's supposed to be discharged today but since both baby and mummy are probably tired and still adapting, I'll only bug her in a day or two :-p

Back to my cheeky brat....

After the hospital visit, we went to pick Aina and Ana from TokMi's. Aina was glad to see us I guess since she gave this HUGE grin as soon as she saw her Babah.... LOL

When we got home, she sat down and watched TV, asking me to put her red shoes on for her.


Pretty soon, she was restless and started to move around. She went to my camera bag..... and see what she did.....

She'd quietly taken out one of my lenses and put in her shoes in the compartment!!!! She then left the shoe there and continued to watch TV, as if proud that she'd kept her shoes safely... LOL LOL LOL

On Saturday, hubby went to work so that we could go see Mak on Sunday. Hubby wanted to bring Mak some crabs, so he went to look for them on Sunday morning.

He managed to get in touch with the man who caught the crabs and booked his next day's catch, about 4kgs. Needless to say, we had PLENTY to give out and share with others :-D :-D :-D

At Kak Nor's, where Mak was staying at the moment, I cooked a batch of Sweet & Sour Crabs, then for our own dinner, I just simply steamed/baked them in a pot with a bit of crushed ginger, smashed up garlic and a few pieces of asam keping.


The shells which had eggs, I just microwaved so that it wouldn't dry out.

I have a few pictures from my recent workshop which I'd like to share, but I need to resize them first for convenient uploading... We'll see......... :-D




AM

Smart Move...?

seems our ploy MIGHT have worked....

awhile back, someone left a very nasty comment in this blog, and that made me change my settings to moderate all comments.

anyway, hubby had a 'prime suspect' so to speak, and we decided to just go on with our lives, with me blogging about it, and see what happens.

in my last entry, i mentioned that i would be going away, and lo and behold, someone contacted hubby. she even seemed to know that i was away. anyway, hubby told me about it and we decided to see what will develop further....

since we've moved to our new place, there's no one there to spy on us, so the only way this person can keep up with our lives (so to speak) is to follow through this blog.

HAH!!!

what have you got to say for yourself now?

ANYWAY........ to move on to happier and cheerier things -- AINA :-D

* she's learning to speak, and currently her (discernable) words are mama, babah, mouh (Mickey Mouse) and duck

* she enjoys listening to songs, and will move/dance along

* she knows when she's being scolded, and will cry her heart out, giving the saddest face! yesterday, she even refused to acknowledge her Babah after he reprimanded her for playing with the TV switches/controls

* she now LOVES to immitate us... she'll wear her hat if Babah wears a cap; she'll 'talk' into the TV remote if she see's me talking on the fone.

* since staying with TokMi, and using the walker/wagon TokMi bought for her, Aina now loves to walk. She'll grab our hand and ask us to walk with her -- yep, she's still not doing it solo, but hey! at least she's enjoying walking... :-D

* she's VERY hot tempered and if something annoys her (a toy, her bottle, etc) she'll just throw the thing to one side! :-O


That's baby Aina :-)
I will see if I can update pics of her later.....





AM

Foodie Weekend!

T'was a VERY full-filling weekend for Aina.

We had a birthday party invite on Saturday, the same evening we had a BBQ at TokMi's place, and today we went to Lala Chong for lunch :-D

This is Aina, having her cupcake at the birthday party :-)
She had green and white icing all over her face!!! LOL LOL LOL

Earlier, I had put on a hat for her, since the party was at the poolside, but as you can see, she'd chucked the hat :-s



It's SOOO sad though that I missed pics of the yummy-licious lamb chops which we had at the BBQ, thanks to my Aunty Shita :-D :-D :-D


She came bearing lamb chops, sausages and potato salad. Mom prepared chicken, steak, seafood skewers, fried macaroni, and a salad. For dessert there was chocolate cake (from Cake Sense which my sis brought) and pudding and jelly :-) :-) :-)

Oh yeah.... Since I'll be leaving Aina with TokMi for almost a week, TokMi had gone out shopping! Aina's got a whole lot of new toys to play with -- a Thomas & Friends mini train set and a Fisher Price Walker-to-Wagon that can help Aina gain confidence in walking... On Tuesday, TokMi will bring Aina to Toys R Us for Aina to choose her favourite toy!!

Aina's Mini Train Set

For lunch on Sunday, my sis (Munirah, who's studying in the UK) wanted to try Salted Egg Yolk Crab (since we only ever order Chilli or Sweet & Sour crabs), and the best I've ever had was the one in Morib. Unfortunately, Mom and Dad weren't keen on going all the way there just for crabs, so we decided to try the one at Lala Chong.


For dinner, we kept it simple -- pasar malam!! LOL LOL LOL

Anyway, I'll see if I can take pics of Aina with her walker-wagon thingy.

Oh yeah... this set of Aina's pics on her 14th month mark.






AM

I'm A MOTHER FIRST

above all else....

THAT is something that must be made clear.

It doesn't mean I am less committed at work, it simply means I am more committed to a greater responsibility that has been entrusted upon me by Him.

There are times when it all seems a wee bit overwhelming, but then again, I play back my (current favourite) theme song in my head, and I feel much better.

(btw, to those who don't know my FB, and therefore don't have access to my Notes there, it's Miley Cyrus' "The Climb"!!)

Next week, I have to be away for about 4 days, from Tuesday, so Aina will be hoarded off to her TokMi's from Sunday onwards. There'll be a 'do at Mom's place this weekend, so after spending the night there, Aina will be left there till Friday.

Anyway, it's Rejab.

Meaning, time for payback and "extra point's" fasting :-D

Alhamdulillah, I've managed 4 days to date, and yesterday I had a craving to eat homemade chapattis!!

After going thru the basic recipe with a dear friend, I went home and made about 6 med-sized pieces, which I had (3 pcs, 2 pcs went to Ana and hubby had the last piece) with some leftover dalca -- TOTAL BLISS!!!

Oh yeah, beofre you people think I am such a mean wife, leaving my hubby only ONE piece, please be informed that hubby has Arabic classes on Wednesdays, and last week he had dinner before coming home. That's supposed to be the routine every Wednesday, but yesterday the cafe was closed, so he had my leftovers.

The simple recipe for my chapattis:

CHAPATTI

you need:

1 cup atta flour

a bit of salt

HOT water

how to:

mix flour and salt in a large bowl and slowly pour in the HOT water. USE A SPOON to stir and combine the mixture until you get a really sticky pile of goo. I pour out the mixture onto a floured surface (using the atta flour), then using my hands, i rolled and kneaded it around a few times and left it to cool a bit for about 10 mins. add enough flour so that the dough can just aboutroll of your hands without leaving too much dough stuck on you (hard to explain!), then divide it into smaller pieces to make the chapatti.

flour your work surface before rolling out your chapattis. i used 2 pcs of grease proof paper to help roll out the dough, to ensure it'll not stick anywhere.

heat a non-stick pan or griddle (i just used my usual non-stick pan) to a very high heat, then place a piece of the chapatti in it, and watch till the edges start to curl a bit. turn over. the dough should puff out a bit. let it cook for about a minute or so, then take it off the heat. keep chapattis warm in a dish left in a warmed oven.

p.s. I do NOT have a rolling pin so my chapattis were dreadfully ugly -- lopsided, oblong shaped, distended pieces of roti!!!

(Hence, no pics!!!)

I also made some pumpkin fritters i.e. cucur labu.

The recipe was inspired by MaDiHaA, but I didn't even check her site for the recipe. I just used approximately 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of mashed up pumpkin flesh, and worked from there, adding only sugar and an egg, apart from water to achieve the desired consistency. LOL

Since my fitters weren't sweet at all (I just added a sprinkling of icing sugar!), I ate them with the dalca -- VERY YUMMY!!!!!!!!!

Aina now seems to be adjusting into 'toddlerhood' at her own pace.

We're not forcing her into anything, and have decided to let her do things as she feels comfortable.

She now enjoys seeing Mickey Mouse appear on TV, holding her own Mickey doll close to her and hugging it!

She LOVES to watch Pocoyo.

She still adores Pooh Bear.

She loves to play with her masak-masak set which her Mama got for her, and it's left in her house (i.e. the hot pink tent) so she goes there to cook on a daily basis LOL LOL LOL

AM

Long Overdue :-)

I know I've not been updating much lately, but I've really been busy.

I finally managed to hold a little 'do for relatives and neighbours a few weeks ago. Although I would have LOVED to invite a whole bunch of people, this will have to wait till Raya :-)

No pics, but I was really happy that Mak made the (really great) effort to come all the way here from Gombak. I heard she suffered though that evening, as her body was aching from all the travelling and so she could not sleep :-s

Anyway... here are some pics from our recent trip to Penang. Not many pics as this was a strictly "eating" trip so we concentrated more on FOOD :-D :-D :-D

This is our favourite place for baked crabs and prawns. Although this is among the more pricey places to go to, the way the crabs are prepared is unique and there's no other place (that I know of) that serves this. It is located in Tanjung Tokong.


For dinner, we had ikan bakar at the place opposite Seagate, another favourite place for us :-D



This was for the first day.

On the second day, we had nasi minyak for breakfast, then left for Sg Petani (my Uncle's place) for lunch. After lunch, we headed for Bandar Baru, to my grandmother's place. What else.... it was time for durians and rambutans, all fresh from the trees :-D :-D :-D

Dinner was at Nasi Kandar Beratur, next to the Kapitan Kling Mosque in town.

Third day, we had roti canai & murtabak for breakfast before leaving for KL. Our early lunch was at Tapah R&R, our favourite stall which served chicken rice, mee kicap, kway teow soup etc.

Oh yeah... a few weeks ago, I made these..........

Poppy Seed & Date Muffins

you need:
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla essence
1/2 cup honey
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup chopped dates
1 cup finely grated carrots
1 Tbs poppy seeds

how to:
In a bowl, beat the oil, vanilla, eggs and honey until combined and slightly fluffy. Sift together the flour & baking powder and fold into the egg mixture. Gently fold in all other ingredients, careful not to overmix. Pour into lined muffin trays and bake in a pre-heated 180'C oven for about 12 - 15 mins, depending on your oven.

On Thursday, this was our simple dinner:

Simple Sour Prawn Soup
(no idea what to call this impromptu dish!!)

you need:
10 - 15 large prawns, cleaned and deveined
1 small piece galangal, bruised
1/2 large onion, sliced
1 large garlic, sliced
1.2 inch knob of ginger, sliced
2 - 3 pcs kaffir lime leaves
1 piece asam keping
1 Tbs fish sauce
a bit of sugar, to balance the sourness

how to:
In a pot, pour in about a cup (200ml) of water and add in all ingredients EXCEPT prawns, fish sauce & seasoning. Bring up to a rapid boil and leave to boil for about 5 minutes. Add in the fish sauce and prawns and cook until prawns are done. check seasoning; ready to serve.

p.s. you may add a few bruised cili padis as well if you want to make it spice. I ran out, so that was left out :-)

Oh yes... this is Aina's new 'house', which she's very fascinated and contented with... I can leave her here when I go off to work, and she wouldn't even bat an eye. Otherwise, she'll be crying as soon as she sees Ana!


And yeah... Aina's FINALLY standing, BUT she's still not confident enough to take a step anywhere!!

She loves mimicking us, and will event immitate sounds that she hears. Her latest hobby? To climb all the grilles in the house!!!!






AM