Too many idiots on our streets.....

This morning i saw a car did a U-turn on the one way road and drove against the traffic to avoid a road block by the police i just felt sick to the stomach thinking of what might happened. And then, as I stopped at the red light, i saw a motorcyclist with 2 toddlers and the wife across the road. The older kid sitting in front the father, and the younger one was in between the dad and the mum standing up. The kids had no helmets but the parents had them on. I just feel like screaming obscenities to the couple...how stupid can the parents be... Later in the afternoon, as i was making a U-turn, i stopped to check the incoming car from the traffic light, out of nowhere, came this Wira on the outer lane and the driver had to slam the brake so hard to avoid going under a long trailer. I just watched with amazement how little that guy value his life. He was so shaken, the car engine went dead and still not moving even after i reached the parking lot at the complex near by.

Enough about roaming idiots on our roads, just to share our menu for today. I fried rice for lunch today. i used birds eye chillies as the boys like it hot. I just pounded one red chillies with about 2o birds eye chillies with 3 red onions, 1 garlic, a bit of shrimp paste and coarse salt. Then i heated up 3 table spoons of oil, fried the anchovies till crispy and set aside. In the same oil, i fried the pounded ingredients until fragrance, put the rice in and mix well....then i broke an egg in, mixed it well....i threw in the fried anchovies, mixed and turned off the fire and lunch was served......my 2nd boy finished half and the youngest one the other half...i ended up eating bread ha ha ha....my eldest came in late in the evening, so he ate the curry puff i made for tea using ready made puff pastry.

Pleasant Sunday but hectic and painful Monday ........

On Sunday i hosted a late lunch do for a fellow blogger and baking enthusiast Boxhousestudio when she and the family came down to Seremban to send the oldest son to one of the boarding school near here. I served a simple dish of rendang cili api kerang, my version of spices fried chicken and fried cabbage 'bodo'(named by dear hubby ). The cold drinks were tropical juice mix with soda water . I only got 1 pitcher of that and i mixed mango cordial with soda water when the juice finished. After lunch we had Starbuck coffee from my coffee maker to go with banana choc chips muffins, blueberry crumble tartlets and pandan muffins(courtesy from my guest). She ordered fruit tartlets for the son, and i assembled the tartlets with her help and i used fresh peach, strawberry and kiwi. What i loved so much about this lunch do was how the boys so enjoyed the simple food that i served. I felt guilty not serving something more elaborate. They left for the boarding school just before 5 .00 pm . Thanks Boxhouses and i hope you ' tak serik' to come over again.

Spices fried chicken
Rendang chili api kerang(cockles)



Fruit tartlets
Monday morning i woke up with a very bad pain on my left back just below the shoulder blade. The pain was so bad if felt like i was getting a fever. Still gotta send the kids to school. But since the children are all familiar with the routine , I only need to do that. Thank God....but as my Angah was just started Form One, i needed to be with him for awhile and worst that hes in evening school. While sitting under the big mushroom in front of his classroom building before the students went into the classroom i wondered why theres a need for the classrooms to have curtains for the windows. The materials were torn apart and it looked so untidy . Later i found out that no school fees to be paid as yet , i left the school. Went home , had a short nap hoping the nagging pain would go away but it did not. I could not slept a wink, so i worked on decorations of wedding favors containers for my month end project. I keep all the ribbons and tools for this kind of work in this nice basket given by a fellow blogger the darling ms.hart. Thank you dear , just what i needed and the other things too.

Another what a week??........

Was traveling up and down Sban - KL until last Thursday. FIL still in GHKL. He was complaining of chest pain on and off. The doctor said the operation might be postpone. So on Friday, BIL and MIL went to KL as that they could bring the FIL home and of course dear hubby would meet them in the hospital. I didn't get much words from any of them until hubby reached the house after 10 pm that Friday night. He told me that the doctor had checked with the IJN specialist who attended to FIL's case and they decided to do the operation on Saturday. That morning, we went to Shah Alam to send Diwali cookies, we didn't know the time of the operation. Received a call from SIL that it would be at 11.00 am, so we couldn't see the old man before the ops. We went to Taman Kencana to send rendang for my sis's Raya Open house. We went to an open house do in Balakong. Then went to the GHKL to see my FIL. He was doing fine but he has to stay in the ICU for a close monitoring, Only 2 persons could see him at one time and i took turns with my boys. The hubby was with the father the whole time we were in the hospital.



On Sunday, both hubby and i tided up our neglected house. I vacuumed, he mopped the floor, i cooked, he attended the outside of the house. A few of hubby's office people came over to the house on Monday. I cooked my signature rendang, baked cheesecake and mini choc cupcakes on Sunday and fried chicken, fried cabbage with sotong on Monday itself. MIL cooked beef salai with belimbing masak gulai chili api.



Our guests had lunch and had cheesecake slices, the cupcakes for desserts and Lavazza coffee to finish off the lunch. I had the chance to show off the cupcakes on the cupcakes tree which i bought a few months ago from Wilton. The cheesecake mostly i made upon request hence there was no picture of a cut cake before. But here, i can show the cut cake for you to drool ......I didn't take picture of the guests though.....

Pizza for dinner......

Bake this pizza awhile ago, following one of my favorite cooking book by Chef Wan, titled "Sedapnyaaa.... Hidangan Kegemaran Chef Wan". I love most of the recipes in this book. I followed the recipes exactly and the pizza came out very delicious.....look here of my earlier apprehension of making pizza. Pizza seems to be everyone favorite in my house.

A slice of pizza

With the recipes i got 2 pieces of very large pizzas, and of course it went very well with very cold coke he he....discretion needed here......

Hectic weekend......

A simple sardin dish for dinner on Thursday night. Just need some sliced big onion, sliced ginger, sliced of 2 garlics and 2 red chillies. Fry all the sliced ingredient and throw in the fried sardin. I washed the sardin and fried them, gotta be careful while doing that as the oil would splatter all over the place. And squeezed lime juice on this dish and juice from 2 limes should be wonderful to have this dish with hot white rice ....

From the many glasses on the table, you all would know how long we were yakking away there. The waiter had collected empty glasses and dishes twice before this photo was taken.......

I received an email from a good friend of mine who is a Singaporean but working in the States, saying that she would be home soon. Then last week she called saying that she would be in KL from 27th Dec until the New Year. One of the guys was kind enough to take time to organize a get together on Friday. At 5.00 pm that day i left Seremban for KL and hoping the driving would be a breeze.....ha ha ha what a wishful thinking....lucky i was against most heavy traffic but still got caught on MRR as I had to fetch dear hubby. Managed to reached hubby's office just after 7.00 and off we went to Pelita Restaurant near KLCC the designated meeting place. We were reminiscing old times and updating latest happening as a few of us had not met since 1989. Though the hearts were willing but the bodies were screaming fatigue as most of them went to Pelita straight after office. The meeting officially ended at 1.00 am but there were a few of the gang just continued until almost 3.00 am as i was told the next day....


Saturday morning, woke up a bit late and had tose for breakfast. Went to meet the guy who supposed to do up my kitchen cabinet and paid deposit. Baked chocolate cupcakes with chocolate butter icing topping for an engagement gifts on Saturday evening. After having to attend 2 kenduris and met another friend for coffee in Seremban 2. The tummy was so full and the eyes were small pining for the bed but gotta will myself to bake the cupcakes. However, once i started to look for the ingredients, the eyes were wide open and the mind was working extra for the presentation of the cuppies. Lucky it was requested just simple design as i am not at all good in decorating cakes. Once completed, took a short drive to deliver the cuppies and hoping that it would arrived Kuantan safely.

On Sunday i cooked beef curry, fried french beans with egg and papadom. For the curry, I used 5oo gm beef, 4 potatoes, a few sprigs of curry leaves, 3 tbs curry powder mixed with 1 tbs chilli poswder, 1 tsp each ground cummin, corriander, fennel seeds, tumeric powder and a bit of water to make a thick paste. Blend 1 big onion, 5 shallots, 2 garlics and 1 inch ginger. 100 gms thick coconut, 1/2 cup tamarind water. Heat up 3 tbs of oil and sautee the curry leaves, one star anise, 5 cm cinnamon stick, 3 cloves , 3 cardamom about a minute. Add in the blended mixture and fry until fragrance. Put in curry paste mixture and when the oil floats dump in the beef. Stir for a few minutes until the water dries up. Gradually pour in the tamarind water and coconut milk and let it boil until the meat tender. Add in the potatoes and cook until the potatoes soft and salt to taste. Then off the fire and enjoy it with white rice or bread. I like to eat left over curry with lightly toast bread......hmmmm yum yum


Almost tea time i noticed the banana that my sister gave me last week has ripen nicely and just screaming to me to be fried. So i mixed 2 cups of rice flour, a bit of salt, tumeric powder and 1 egg beaten and a bit of water for the frying batter. Make hot coffee chap Hang Tuah and had the hot fried banana( pisang goring) with hubby and the kids......oohhh what a weekend....

Ouucchhh.....it hurts...and yummy lunch i cook in mum in law's kitchen

I went to bed as usual last night. Brushed my teeth , washed my feet and dabbed some lotion for my dry hands. Woke up in the middle of the night when i felt sharp pain just below my ankle as i was turning to my side. I continued with my sleep thinking the pain would be gone in the morning. But that did not happen, in the morning when i woke up and got down from the bed ouchhh....the pain hit me. Oooo ...sh*t...i could not walk without having something to hold on to.....duhhh. Went to the clinic and was told to get the leg to rest .....sheeessssshhh.....


But still got to eat maa.....so with the help of my mother in law i cooked crab chili padi with pineapple, fried chicken and fried bok choy( i think ).

Lunch dishes on Sunday

Syawal just ended and so were the many open houses. We were eating Raya food on all weekends during Raya right up until last Saturday night . So on Sunday lunch the gulai chili api daging, rebus pucuk ubi and the sambal belacan tasted heaven to me. The papadom and bulleyes fried egg were for my youngest son. Not to say the Raya food was not tasty, just that when eating the same food almost daily for about a month, you tend to get tired of them right??

Simple lunch for the kids.....

I am touched by a bug of flu since yesterday. Kinda irritating with stuffed nose, headache and coughing. Still wanted to go to the kitchen but did not feel like being in there for long. And I decided to just make hot dog rolled in bread for the kids. What i did was just roll the bread around the hotdog, dipped in the eggs and rolled the bread on the breadcrumb and fried in oil....while doing this i got an idea that these rolled thingy would be good as finger food for a party if i slice the fried rolled into 1 inch thick and just put the toothpick on each cut...should be good with tomato ketchup or chili sauce...what do you think??

Today's lunch of Coney Dog - 14 Aug 2007

Something simple and fast for lunch. I adapted a bit the recipe from below link to suit the boys taste which is hot and spicy...

I need
250 gms minced meat - i used chicken as the store ran out of beef
2 big onions finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
1 tablespoon of blended dried chilli
1 cup tomato sauce
1 cup water
black pepper
salt
2 tblspoon of cooking oil - i used olive oil

Heat the oil, sautee the onions, garlic, chilli for a couple of minutes, add in the minced meat and stir thoroughly, add in the water. Add in the tomato sauce, black pepper and salt. Leave to simmer until all the water dry out. Boil the hot dog for 2 minutes in boiling water, take them out, slit the hot dog bun in the middle, pour like 2 - 3 spoonful of the coney sauce and enjoy them dripping out on to the chin.....

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Coney-Sauce/Detail.aspx