Pots And Pans...

...for Aina :-)

On Thursday, I went to IKEA during lunch and bought Aina the small set of stainless steel pots and pans, which I think were part of the children's kitchen collection. The kitchen set costs around RM390, but I just bought the pots and pans for her since I knew it'd give her such a kick to have some REAL sets to play with instead of having to raid the kitchen cupboards and play with mine! :-D :-D :-D

When I got home and gave her the box, needless to say her eyes danced and sparkled with excitement, and she immediately took it all out to play.

She's always 'cooking' for us to eat, and she'll plate the dishes into her plastic plates and serve them to us. Memang sangat rajin anak Mama sorang ni kan??!

Oh yes, we did go on our little train adventure on Sunday, but that will be in another entry. Till then, keep safe......

AM

Weekend Activities

Babah has been so busy with work, but I insisted that we at least spend a few hours with Aina, take her out for a bit and DO stuff as a family. It was then decided that if Aina wakes up early on Saturday, then we'll take her for a little picnic. She's been mentioning "nic-nic" the past few days anyway, from watching her Mickey Mouse videos. Good thing she's not asked for a luau!!!! (It's also in one of the Mickey DVDs).

Anyway, come Saturday, she did wake up early so we decided to take her out. However, with the weather being so unpredictable these days, and grey clouds could be seen looming in the horizon, we decided to make it a short one just by the lake in Subang ~ the one near Holiday Villa, if you know which one I mean.

Just before arriving at the lake, we bought nasi lemak for the adults, and a piece of sausage for the tiny tot :-D Next stop was 7-E for drinks, then it was straight to the lake.

While having our picninc, Aina had fun watching the birds, enjoying the peaceful morning and seeing the trains pass by (the rail line was very close). Oh yeah, speaking of trains, that will probably be our next weekend activity with Aina.

Our picnic was cut rather short with the threat of rain, but then hubby wanted to go to GM Klang to get some stuff. We only spent about half an hour there as he was in a rush to get to work. Aina got colouring books ~ 6 books for R12.50, complete with stickers.

When we got home I prepared a quick, simple lunch since hubby was going in to work immediately after.

Sunday morning, we decided to go to the morning market near the Puchong toll exit, just to see if we could get some nice veggies. I was getting bored with the veggies available in Cold Storage!! It was a HUGE disappointment, and we ended up going to a shop somewhere in Puchong that had great fresh veggies and other stuff, and we also bought some fresh ribs and tenderloin. When we got home, I obvously rushed into the kitchen to prepare the ribs and got out the pressure cooker to cook the ribs. Our simple lunch consisted of stir-fried kailan (chinese broccoli) with garlic and oyster sauce and sup tulang, the extra-spicy sambal kicap being the perfect accompaniment :-D

That afternoon, I decided to finish a project I'd started for Aina, and never quite completed it for some reason. It used to be mine, a size 16, and now it fits Aina as a cute minidress :-) Thanks again very very much to hubby for the sewing machine which made the hemming super-fast!!

Yup. I know it's super-blurry. I will try and snap a pic of Aina wearing it soon. I was too lazy to take out the dslr, so I just used my fone camera again.... :p

AM

Happy Birthday, November Babies.....

...especially to the Queen, Mak :-)

This year, it was decided that we made a collection so that we could have this very special menu... :-D :-D :-D Yup, it was catered. Not the whole event ok, just the roast lamb and its side dishes of mashed potatoes, salad, garlic bread and a variety of sauces.



The kids were happily jumping on this platform while waiting for the main event, and we were so worried the platform would collapse!!


Two cartons of Barbican ~ strawberry and apple, to quench our thirst, together with home made ice kacang and fizzy drinks.



And here are the dishes that were contributed by various parties...

rojak buah and ferrero rocher chocolates
the BEST char kway teow

muffins, fried meehoon and mushroom soup

some leftover cuppies from a recent hen nite :-)

One of my nieces, waiting to pop :-D

She's due in December. Who knows, it might decide to make an early entrance and join the group of November babies :-)

Baby Humaira's birthday jelly cake, although the Barbie legs were in a very (scarily) weird position......

The 5kg vanilla butter cake for Nenek... the first round of birthday song :-)

then it was Humaira's turn.....

and Aina???? Well, she was excited to see the cakes and kept on clapping and singing "yu-yu" and cried when I took her away... in the end my wonderful sisters-in-law suggested that we indulge Aina and sing for her as well. Do you see how her face is bursting with excitement? You can actually see her face light up as if we turned on a switch!!!

I was a bit embarassed that Aina threw such a fuss. She just has a thing for cakes, and will even force us to sing "Happy Birthday" even if she sees a picture of a cake. You can imagine her excitement to see not one, but TWO cakes in front of her!!

Thank you very much to all who indulged Aina... it definitely made her week!!! LOL

AM

Clowning Around...

Babah decided to take some pics of Aina while she was happily jumping and running around in our room. She'd occasionally stop to pose for Babah :-)


It's actually almost her bedtime, hence the jammies.... but she'll only go to sleep (or drop off from sheer exhaustion!) when she's ready to, and not before. It's getting to be quite a challenge to get her into bed these days...

Her expression!! A little drama queen isn't she?!?!!?

At home, Babah prefers it if I just let Aina's hair down and free like this because he says:

1. it's MUCH cuter

2. he loves to see her flip her hair away from her face/eyes.

I tie her hair up usually just so it doesn't bother her when she's playing.... :-D

This is one of the few occasions that I actually let her hair go wild!! LOL

Oh yeah... she's somehow linked the conical trees with ornaments to a particular holiday and when she sees the pics, she'll tell me "Mama, miss-mas". I really do not know where she picks most things up, but I guess the safest (and more accurate) guess would be the TV!

Ana recently reported to me that Aina had taken her WORDS book out to read with another girl who's already started kindergarten, and she was surprised that Aina knew more words to the pictures than the other girl. Aina actually can't wait to start to make friends and each time we pass by a kindy she'll point and tell me "Mama, friend!" and grin excitedly.

I am thinking of sending her to playschool, but we'll see how her 'sharing skills' develop before I make a final decision... LOL Since she's an only child (for now) she really has a problem with sharing and I am having a tough time teaching her. She is quite independent that she can go to the playground and ask for what she wants (if a particular toy interests her) and usually these 'conversations' turn into screaming rows with one or all parties ending up in tears.

I've told Ana to just watch and stay away because kids will be kids, and as long as no one is seriously hurt, leave the kids to play. They'll learn to sort things out emong themselves, and they usually end up being friends again. It is when the adults get involved that both kids and adults end up not speaking for ages and ages.... Ridiculous isn't it???!! I mean, who among us have never had that 'confrontation' at the sandbox, swing, etc. with both parties still being best of friends at the end of the school day?

So, it is best to leave kids play (and have the occasional 'debate) among themselves and we just keep a watchful eye to make sure nothing goes out of hand....

AM

Qalesha Visits Aina

Needless to say, Aina was jumping excitedly when she saw her Aunty Cicik and Qalesha at the front gate :-D :-D :-D

She started runninga round in circles and jumping up and down the sofa... LOL It was actually quite a hillarious sight!!!

Anyway, Aunty Cicik and family came for lunch on Saturday, after the other kids' swimming session at the club. They arrived while I was finishing the last dish i.e. veggies, which I only started cooking when she called to say she was already leaving the club.

As we were about to sit down for lunch, Qesha was sleepy and soon fell asleep.....



Not long after we finished lunch, with Aina contantly running over to Qesha, she eventually woke up....


..but she was still sleepy anyway! hahahahahaa..



Her most enjoyable thing to do these days, I guess... ehehhehe :-D



..and STILL yawning... poor Qesha...

Not long after that though, Qesha begin to fuss as it was her feeding time, plus she was still a bit sleepy from her interrupted nap.

Anyway, for my guests I managed to prepare grilled fish which was a huge one which hubby brought back from his recent fishing trip, a squid dish, mixed veggies and fried tempe.

Grilled Ikan Merah

you need:

Whole fish, cleaned and rubbed with a bit of salt and turmeric powder. set
aside while you prepare the sambal sauce that goes in and over it.

Sambal Sauce:

shallots

garlic

turmeric root

2 Tbs. pre-made sambal tumis (I used Nek Nak*'s brand ~ it's seriously
good!)

1/2 Tbs. tamarind + 1/2 cup water

how to:

blend the onions, garlic and turmeric till fine, then mix with the sambal
tumis. heat oil and fry the sambal mix till fragrant and slightly dry. add the
tamarind juice and season with sugar and salt, to taste. cool slightly then pour
a bit of the mix into the fish cavity, and spoon over on the outisde. grill
until fish is cooked through. you may save some of the sambal aside and spoon over the fish towards the end of grilling to keep it moist.

note: i know the pic above looks scary as the sambal looks black i.e. burnt,
but it's honestly not burnt, and the colour was a deep, deep red.

AM

PS: ahahahaha someone already noticed the brand of the sambal... eheheheh it's actually Nek Nor but a colleague was referring to it as Nek Nak, the character in a local horror-themed TV series... and I thought of using that just for fun... :-D :-D :-D

Fresh Fish!!

Yup!! Hubby went fishing again and this time he brought back a bounty of ikan tongkol and a few kerapu, ikan merah and God-knows-what fish which was *huge*!

So, since he came back on Monday, I only managed to cook the fish (one of the few we kept for ourselves) on Tuesday, for dinner.

I was prepared to steam the grouper a.k.a kerapu, but hubby requested for it to be prepared sweet & sour, so sweet & sour it was. However, since Ana had prepared the ingredients for steam fish, I adjusted the recipe to make it into sweet & sour, LOL LOL LOL

Hubby helped fry the fish while I prepared the sauce and prepped the veggies for our stir-fried veg dish.

Aina? well....

The fish dish.....

Sweet and Sour Grouper
(or whatever fish you like)

you need:
1 medium sized whole fish, cleaned
- sprinkle with salt and cornflour and deep-fry till golden and crisp.
drain well.

1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/2 inch ginger root, julienned
1 large onion, cut into wedges
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised
2 Tbs osyter sauce
3 Tbs chilli sauce
2 Tbs tomato sauce
1 Tbs white vinegar
1/2 cup water
1 tsp cornflour mixed with a bit of water, to thicken
1 tsp sugar (i used stevia powder to replace sugar)
1 - 2 pieces preserved plums (asam boi), sliced
coriander leaves and spring onions, for garnish

how to:
heat oil in a wok and fry the first four ingredients till fragrant. add in
water and mixed sauces. bring to boil. add in seasoning and cornflour mixture
and bring up to boil again. turn off heat and pour sauce over fish before
serving. sprinkle on garnish and ready to serve.

Since hubby brought back quite a bounty, I had to go round and ring the neighbours' bell to see if any of them would like some fish, ahahahhahaa. Good thing my neighbours were more than happy to oblige, or else we'd probably have to go sell the fish to the local market or mini mart near our place LOL

Oh yea... my previous post had triggered an interest in confinement recipes, so I guess I can dedicate some entries on it, but it may not be accompanied with pictures :-) Hope that is ok. I'll start with one recipe today.... I'll start with a simple tonic drink that can be consumed throughout the day :-) and also a drink that help cleanses the uterus.

Lemongrass Drink

you need:
1.5lt water
5 stalks lemongrass, bruised
2 pcs thumb-sized old ginger root, crushed
1 Tbs black peppercorns, cracked lightly
2 pcs. screwpine (pandan) leaves

how to:
combine all ingredients in a large pot and bring up to boil. simmmer for
about half hour, then turn off heat. cool slightly. you may add honey or
sugar/sweetener to taste.

Turmeric Drink

you need:
a handful of ibu kunyit
a handful of temulawak
a handful of old ginger root
2 Tbs black peppercorns
1 Tbs tamarind + 1 cup water
gula melaka

how to:
combine roots and peppercorns with a bit of the tamarind juice. blend until
smooth. pour into a pot with the rest of the tamarind juice and the gula
melaka and bring to boil. cook for about 5 minutes, stirring continuously. cool
and store in a bottle, and may be refrigerated. re-heat in the microwave before
consumption. the way i drink this is to pour about 1/2 cup (100ml) then add a
bit of hot water. you have to drink this warm. note to remember though, if you
are still bleeding heavily, place some protection on your mattress!! this
recipe really helps to cleanse the womb!

Anyway, I do hope this two recipes will inspire me to share more confinement recipes regularly! It's not much I know, and it's not even that difficult, but I just think that it is more fun to have the recipes accompanied with pics, ahahhahhahhaaaa...

AM

Aina @ Her Cousin's Wedding

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to Dr. Siti Amira Bashir & Fahmi Ramli on their recent wedding. Both are now happily (I hope!) honeymooning in Korea :-)

I've posted their wedding pics in my FB, and here I am sharing mostly pics of Aina at the wedding :-D :-D :-D


Here, Aina is with her cousin's young daughter.............. cute naa??


See! As if ready to give a flying kick...!!! LOL



The groom, obvious ly very much relieved after the akad ceremony :-p



And I'll bet this is the most bittersweet moment in any bride's life, right?
The moment you realise that you no longer 'belong' to your parents.........




a family snap with the happy couple............



This was at the reception the next day. The theme was lilac/purple so the whole family came decked out in the theme colour :-D :-p



Nope, Aina was NOT the flower girl. One of the flower girls gave Aina the bouquet to pose with. And...Aina being Aina.... you get to see the attached pics LOL



The clan pic was taken on the ground so to speak, as Mak's wheelchair could not be wheeled onto the stage. And even with the huge number you see, it's still not complete ok.... there are still some missing :-) :-) :-)



The third day, reception on the guy's side in Shah Alam.

Weddings (or any gathering for that matter) always includes lots of photo opportunities as the family NEVER misses the chance LOL

Anyway, it's Deepavali today so it's a relatively relaxed Friday and I go back to work on Monday. Not really looking forward to it after 2 weeks solid with Aina but admittedly, I was getting kind of bored at home. It's different when under confinement with a baby to care for, and yes it was fun doing things with Aina, but then well..... a break in routine once in a while is fine, so long as it's not forever!! LOL

Actually, I thought of sharing some confinement recipes here, but since I didn't ake pics before eating, I figured I'll put in the recipes later or at least find some time to re-do the recipes and then it'll be more fun to put in the recipes, ehhehhehehehheee....

Hope I'll have more time and stuff to update soon.






xoxo
AM