Mama's Little Model :-)

Aina wearing a dress Mama made :-)

It's a bit droopy on her, even though before making the final stitching I'd already tested it on her...

Haaaiihhh.... she's TINY!!!

Aina was in the mood of becoming a duck and so she was 'quack-quacking' the whole time I was trying to get a decent picture of her in the dress ~ LOL

She didn't really eat during dinner, so after her argument with Babah about the TV channel, we went out to the nearest 'Golden Arches' for a plain beef burger. Aina eats it without ketchup, pickles & onions. She asked for ice-cream but since I didn't want her awake till all hours I told her they'd ran out, so she had to wait till tomorrow, ehhehhehee...

Mama and Babah shared a box of 6-piece nuggets, which Aina hijacked the last piece :-)

She finally went off to sleep at almost 11pm, after having her bottle. Tomorrow we'll be spending the morning at TokMi's. Original plan was to go to IKEA but since a neighbour had invited the family over, we might have to make some adjustments....

Have a good weekend ahead! :-D

Cheers!

Swimsuit Model?

Seriously?? LOL

This is what happens when a 2.5 year old goes to the wardrobe to take her favourite nappy, and finds her swimsuit instead...!

And, as soon as she had finished 'wearing' her suit, she said, "mama, swimming hotel....." read: Mama, let's go swimming at the hotel!! LOL LOL LOL


The hotel idea I believe started when we took her to one on New Year's Eve. And that notion has stuck with her since then.

adorable? i think so!!

I really didn't know what to say when I saw this, except run to grab my camera!!! :-D

It's a good thing I managed to retrieve the suit safely without any incidents!! :p

I guess I really do have to take her somewhere to swim... or maybe Babah can pump the pool we'd just bought.............?

Cheers!

More of Cheeky Aina

See!!!

Cheeky right??!



All these pics were snapped while getting ready for dinner. These days, she LOVES to mug for the camera, but thank God most of the time it isn't too bad LOL





The lighting is a bit "urrrggh!" because the built-in flash conked, and I was too lazy to put in the speed light :-p





As I mentioned in my previous entry, I still have a small bag of belimbing in the fridge so I came up with this very simple dish.

sambal sardin dengan belimbing

Sardine Sambal with Belimbing

you need:

3 - 4 pcs belimbing, halved lengthwise

1 small clove garlic, minced

3 slices ginger, julienned

2 shallots, sliced finely

1 - 2 tsp. sambal belacan

1 small tin canned sardines in tomato sauce

how to:

heat oil in a saucepan and fry shallots, garlic and ginger till
fragrant. add in the sambal and belimbing. when the mixture starts to simmer,
add in the sardines together with the tomato sauce and simmer gently for about 5
mins. Check seasoning and serve hot.

Braised Pumpkin with Spinach

This is another simple recipe that I prepared for our dinner.

Braised Pumpkin with Spinach

you need:

1/4 small pumpkin, cut into large chunks

small bunch of baby spinach, cleaned

1 fresh red chilli, cut roughly

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 large onion, sliced

2 Tbs, dried anchovies, washed

salt, sugar to taste

how to:

in a medium sized pan, place all ingredients EXCEPT SPINACH, and
add enough water to cover. bring up to a boil and simmer over medium heat till
pumpkin is tender. stir in the spinach and bring up to a boil before turning off
heat.

Anyway, I have some funny pics of Aina which I'd like to share, but maybe tomorrow. Tonite, my face is already practically hitting the keyboard!!! :-p

Cheers, everyone!

Cheeky Aina :-)

She looks all grown up in this pic....


When I got home yesterday, she was getting ready for her bath. I cooked while Ana bathed her, but Ana came down alone as Aina wanted to stay upstairs to watch TV. It was her favourite Pororo on TV so obviously that was more appealing that Mama in the kitchen, LOL



Ana told me that earlier, Ana had gone to take her wudhu' and when she came back into the room, Aina had hidden under her blanket and peeked out and yelled "Surpriiisse!!!" Ana laughed her head off!



Aina LOVES to play hide and seek and sometimes after dinner while we're watching TV she'll ask me to close my eyes and she'll go hide somewhere and giggle excitedly when I start calling for her... ehehehhee. And when she huddles behind a couch or behind the TV and you ask her what's she doing, her reply would be "hide and seek, mama!" :-D



And last night, after cooking I made my way upstairs to call her down for dinner, and the little imp was hiding quietly under the comforter! She giggled like crazy when I went looking for her, pretending not to know she was right there... :-D



I took out the camera to take pics of our dinner, and Aina posed and said "smile!" so I knew she wanted me to snap her pic.

Ikan Siakap (barramundi is it?) Tiga Rasa

Kerabu Belimbing

Kerabu Belimbing

you need:

1/2 cup belimbing buluh, sliced

1/2 cup cucumber, sliced or diced (your preference)

1 med-sized red onion, sliced finely

1 Tbs. dried anchovies, washed and deep-fried till crispy

salt, sugar to taste

1 - 2 Tbs. thick coconut cream (I used from the box)

1 - 2 Tbs. grated coconut, optional

sambal, to pound:

3 red chillies

1/2 tsp. roasted belacan

a little squeeze of lime

how to:

mix all ingredients and stir to combine well. leave to stand
about 15mins. before serving.

There's another small batch of belimbing left in the fridge, and those will probably be used for sambal and asam pedas for today and tomorrow. We'll see... ehehehhee...

Till then, cheers!!

Averrhoa Bilimbi

....or more commonly known as belimbing buluh.

Not many people like this fruit, but to those who love it, it is definitely most precious when one can get hold of it. Thank God for me, it's right there in Mom's garden so when it's in season, we can harvest basket loads of it. Mom's tree is not big, but when it bears fruit, there's an abundance of it!!

So, since I'd gone to Mom's last weekend, and thanks to Aina who was climbing the window grilles overlooking her garden (which was how we saw that the fruits were ready for picking!), she gave me about a large colander full of the fruit.

And so our dinner menu the last two days has incorporated the fruit into our dishes. Only the truly brave can eat this fruit raw, with a little salt. I've done it a few times, but it's not my most favourite thing to do, so I usually cook with it.

On Monday, I used the freshly sliced belimbing in my sambal belacan, and savoured its tangy freshness as is. Yesterday, I tried out a recipe known as Sambal Hitam Pahang. This is my first time attempting it. I'd heard of it, and was curious to try it.

daging goreng kunyit, pucuk keledek goreng pedas, sambal hitam & ikan pekasam goreng

Sambal Hitam

(my version ~ after numerous versions read in the internet)

you need:

a small bowl of belimbing, boiled in its own juices until dry
and browned, then pounded slightly

2 handfulls ikan bilis, washed and pounded slightly

pounded finely:

a handfull cili padi

5 small red onions

1 small clove garlic

2 - 3 Tbs kicap manis

salt, sugar ~ to taste

how to:

heat oil in a wok and fry the pounded ingredients till fragrant.
add in all other ingredients and cook until slightly dry. check seasoing;

ready to serve.

Laying in my fridge also is an abundance of ikan pekasam in a few version ~ from small little ones to good palm-sized ones. And so, with the belimbing available these few days, adding the pickled (?) fish to our dinner menu is only natural and inevitable :-D

Ikan Pekasam Goreng

you need:

1 large fish or 3 -4 small ones, washed and patted dry GENTLY

sliced red onions, quantity is up to you

sliced cili padi, quantity is up to you

a bit of oil for frying

a squeeze of lime

how to:

heat oil. i use a small amount since i was using the small fish. the fish will breakdown while frying so you basically have to dish it all up and serve it kind of like a mish-mash :-) anyway, place the fish in the hot oil and use a low heat. when you see the fish starting to crisp up on one side, turn it gently (as much as you can) and add in the red onions and cili padi. when the onions are soft, turn off heat and scoop the whole thing into your serving plate. squeeze lime juice over it and enjoy with a (large) plate of hot steaming rice.

On our recent grocery-shopping trip to Tesco, we also managed to get some sweet potato shoots. These are delicious in a simple spicy stir-fry dish.

Spicy Stir-Fried Sweet Potato Shoots

you need:

1 bunch sweet potato shoots (pumpkin shoots can be used too)

pounded coarsely:

2 - 3 red onions

1 clove garlic

3 - 4 fresh red chillies

salt, sugar to taste

how to:

heat oil and fry pounded ingredients till fragrant and slightly
dry. add in the shoots and cook until just wilted. check seasoning and serve
hot.

Hubby actually came home late last night but since he knew I'd prepared the dishes, he asked for his dinner even though it was already past 11.00pm. I obliged, but gave him only half portion of his usual serving since it was so late :-)

Anyway, tonight will be our last dinner incorporating the belimbing since I'd distributed almost half among my neighbours and friends. If I remember to snap pics, then there'll be another entry on that tomorrow :-)

Till then... Cheers!

My Little Miss Helpful :-)

Aina.
My very own Little Miss Helpful (??).
Or is she??
LOL LOL



These days, she'll come into the kitchen when I start cooking and insist on helping me. We'll pull the wooden step bench to the counter so that she'll be able to see 'help' me, and she'll start to help me stir stuff or arrange stuff, or pick up stuff, or wash stuff.... it can be QUITE stressful actually, with knives and hot pots and flaming stoves within reach!! :-s



But, I figure that if I get her interested and organised from now, then later when she starts schoool, following instructions should not be too hard, should it?



I'm getting her to stir muffin batter, spoon the batter into the trays and she's even helped make pizza so I guess she's well on her way :-)



She spends most of the time going through my baking drawer. It's where I keep muffin liners, baking trays, whisks, etc. and I usually just let her familiarise herself. Recently, I wanted to make steamed fish, so I mixed the sauces in a small bowl and wanted a small whisk to stir it all up. I went to Aina's little corner and 'borrowed' her mini whisk which I'd gotten for her from IKEA. The little minx chased me all the way to the kitchen, screaming that it was hers and she wanted it back!!! LOL LOL LOL



It's perfectly fine for her to ransack my cabinets and drawers but I can't even borrow her little whisk??!!? Haaiiihh.... We, Ana and I, had a good laugh about it though, because it was just too funny!!! She actually ran after me from the sitting hall to the kitchen, the whole time going "No! Mama... No! Mine... Aina punya!!". LOL LOL LOL



Oh yeah, on Friday, I nearly got a heart attack when I saw her sitting on my kitchen floor, Ribena cordial bottle in hand. Why? Because she'd opened the bottle and was drinking the cordial STRAIGHT OUT OF THE BOTTLE!!!!! UUUrrrggghh!!! Imagine how sickeningly sweet that was??? Her face was also a bit scrunched up so I guess even Aina thought it was too sweet! I grabbed the bottle from her and told her that I had to mix it first, demonstrating to her what should be done.



Anyway, so far we've not had any serious mishaps, and maybe one of these days I'll get Babah to snap pics of Aina being my Little Miss Helpful, then you can all judge for yourselves :-)



Cheers!

Chinese New Year 2

It's the second day of New Year, and as promised, we're taking Aina to Toys R Us today. Yups, she's been practically chanting in our ear that she wants to go there, and since Babah is free today, might as well get ot over and done with. She's been browsing the Toys R Us catalogue and telling me what she wants "mama beli, baby nak"!!



And so, decked out in her Tesco-bought cheongsam, Babah made her pose for a few pics while I organised stuff to bring and got ready to leave.




The poor thing was even given props for the 'photo shoot'!!! LOL

And her posing session did not end at our front gate, as Babah saw the stage set in the concourse level of the mall, and decided to get Aina to pose there as well!! LOL LOL

We'd arrived IOI Mall a little early, 5mins. to 10:00am to be exact, so we had some time to kill before the store opened. Turned out that the toy store only opened at 10.30am so we went to ACES Hardware to kill time. Aina had fun going through the plastic containers, but she kept them all back where she got them. I bought some seeds to plant, herbs. I chose coriander, sage, dill and marjoram. By the time I finished at the cashier, the toy store had opened its shutters. Aina grinned all the way to the store!! ~LOL

After testing almost all the items at the "Learning" corner, Aina finally steered away only to find the skateboards and scooters section, where she insisted that she wanted a skateboard!! Yup, a SKATEBOARD!! It was a very firm "NO" so Babah steered her towards the "bubbles" area. She finally settled on buying a bubble-blowing battery operated gun which set us back by approx. RM20.00!!! ahahahhahaha.... compared to all the other stuff she asked me to buy in the catalogue, I had no complaints that she ended up with a RM20 toy!!! LOL LOL

I asked her what she wanted for lunch, but she said "No, mama.... tak nak. Balik!" Ok. She was anxious and impatient to try out her new toy. We remembered there was a J.Co there so we bought her donuts, which she happily agreed, while me and Babah had our lunch at Wendy's.

Aina, enjoying her Oreo Donut while we were having our burgers :-)

When we got back, she immediately ransacked her shopping bag to get her toy. Needless to say, she wanted to test it out. And so, Ana took her out back to play since she couldn't possibly blow the bubbles indoors.

a mini 'fight' with Ana resulting in a temper outburst!

She was so engrossed playing, I managed to sneak off upstairs to change and finish Aina's dress which I'd cut out ages ago....

For dinner, since Babah was off to help prepare for tomorrow's event (Mama and Aina decided not to go for fear of spreading germs! Bad enough we were going tomorrow!!) I made a simple dish of fried rice with shrimp and peas. Then, I had the sudden hankering for a bowl of hot soup.

And I managed to get that in 5 mins. flat!! And since I didn't have time to grab my camera or my phone, I had to google this image to accompany the simple recipe :-)

PEA & CORIANDER SOUP
you need:
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 cup hot water
1/2 tsp. chicken stock granules
2 tsp. lemon juice
salt, pepper to taste
a handful of chopped coriander

how to:
place the peas, water, lemon juice and stock granules in a pot and bring up
to boil and season with salt and pepper to taste. as soon as peas are tender,
add in the coriander and turn off heat after 1 minute. process with a hand
blender until desired consistency, and serve hot!

The soup definitely qualifies as comfort food, and now I have something to add to my list of midnight express snacks :-) Honestly, I was inspired by Nigella Lawson whose programme I was watching earlier, only she used fresh pesto in her pea soup. I think you can actually use chinese parsley, spinach or any other personal favourite you like and experiment. This is definitely a satisfying and healthy item to have at hand :-)

We have an event tomorrow, and hopefully my cough would have subsided a bit by then....

Cheers!