sambal sotong with eggs

telur sotong membuak-buak sampai nak terkeluar...yum...sedapnya.
dari kecil, umi mesti masak sotong rebus dan umi akan pastikan sotong2 tu semua ada telur. Umi masak simple sahaja
sotong rebus, direbus je dengan bawang merah, serai, halia, lengkuas I think, tapi rasanya sangat sedap. rasa-rasanya ,masa kecil dulu umi tak pernah buat sambal sotong dan sekarang ni pulak, I have never made sotong rebus in this house
How I ate my squid when I was young, I would cut them into smaller rings and put them on my fingers, macam pakai cincin.then makan satu-satu, the parts with most egg in it, I would save it for last, saved the best for last..

I want to make the roses too!

"Kemana tumpahnya kuah kalau tidak ke nasi", so they said or for spaghetti bolognese lovers, where would the spaghetti sauce be poured into if not into the plate and onto the spaghetti! ...hehe........

My daughter, would always be beside me whenever I am sitting in my kitchen. I am like a magnet to her, she would be drawn to me the minute I put on the apron or place the bandana on my head, she knew that I was about to start on my cakes and brownies , and so on.
When she saw me taking out the cream chesese, she knew that I'd be making marble cheese brownies, if no cocoa powder involved, it'd be vanila cupcakes.
That night, I started rolling some fondant to make fondant roses for a sweet lady's order for fondant and buttercream roses deco for her cupcakes

Mama, can I have some too? Batisya nak buat roses jugak. I was making the white roses and so I gave her the light purple fondant for her to play with.Seen in the two pictures above was her trying her hands on making a cat as per the instruction in the book.

Batrisyia's handmade fondant roses. These were the ones she had prepared before starting on the cat, unfortunately she didn't finish the cat,maybe next time.

What was I doing when I was her age? I didn't even know or heard of fondant! let alone playing or making something out of it! never heard of buttercream or piping bags and nozzles either!
The closest I got to be involved with the baking was helping my mother with the cookies, the plain ones.Little did I knew that I'd be doing them now!

posted in dental office:

"Be kind to your dentist. He has fillings too."

from Reader's Digest,'Laughter the best medicine 'collection

gomol kelate gomol....

yellow and green everywhere, mostly worn as t-shirts and some opt for yelllow and green wig. Saw them as I was driving along JAlan Tun Razak going into Jalan Stadium, my car was moving rather slowly for there was only one lane left instead of the normal two. The other was used as parking for football supporters coming from all over for tonight's match.



it's the semi-final tonight,between Kedah and Kelantan, according to hubby dearest. As I was approaching the traffic light near my house, suddenly I saw red and white on my right, so many of them and suddenly, the state spirit in me was lifted. I felt like shouting at them, "go go Kelate go" or gomol kelate gomol! but that wouldn't be proper would it, unless I was in the stadium cheering them.



I am not much of a football fan except for the recent World Cup and this red and white team which had a not so nice experience/ incident in Selangor recently when they met with red and yellow theme, where both clubs were fined by the FAM for their supporters unruly and violent behaviour. I don't support such violent act. you can support your team all you like but please , no violence.

My house is not far from the stadium, in fact whenever a goal was scored, I could hear the loud cheering from the stadium.
I found out this morning that red and white team beat the yellow and green team. Yeay for Kelantan! and I supposed they are thru to the final.

Oh no! what's that smell.....

Today's lesson:
they say that you should never leave your baggage unattended at any time whenever you are travelling , at the airport, railway station, bus station or whatever mode of transport that you are using, for fear of people putting a little unwanted something into them
but today what I am going to say is:

never.....ever.....leave your cake unattended
trust me, and you will thank me for it....
actually this is a reminder for me
I learnt my lesson this morning.
The old folks used to say and I don't know if they are still saying it today in this borderless, IT era,
" Don't sing in the kitchen when you are cooking or you will end up marrying older men"
the reason being they are afraid that those girls will burn their cooking if they are busy singing their hearts out.Dunno if the saying is still used or not and I guess nowadays perhaps some ladies wouldn't mind marrying older men, for whatever reasons and it is not for me to decide or criticise. It is a matter of the heart( and money and security and many many other reasons ).
in fact, some prefer marrying younger guys...........


Baked my MCB, marble cheese brownies, so happy with the design, very simple cos I planned to write a birthday message using fondant alphabets later on today .
Leaving the MCB in the oven, I set the timer for about 25 minutes, went upstairs to check my e-mails, to do my morning blogwalking ,visiting my cyber friends and I got carried away, especially if I visit my Ontario friend whose humour and wits always brings smiles and make me see two moons ( like he always put it ) after reading his entries. Today , this morning was no exception.

Not only that, I received a call, a customer ordering some cupcakes and me, as usual, would be too absorb in my conversation when it comes to cakes and cupcakes. After ending the call, I went downstairs to check on my MCB but the smell coming from my kitchen was not too promising, it was not the usual nice cheesy aroma which I got from my baked marble cheese brownies, but it was a strong burnt marble cheese brownies smell and to my horror, it actually was burnt! it was much darker than the usual colour that I liked it to be.There is no possible way that I am giving this to my customer tomorrow.

I wasn't singing in my kitchen, nor was I listening to any music from either the radio or the TV and I for sure am not afraid of marrying an older man cos I already have a man in my life and yet I still burn my MCB! there goes one block of expensive Philadelphia cream cheese, one block of butter, amongst other things, fortunately I still have a few blocks of cream cheese and butter in my chiller and I would have to make another one, of course, nothing but the best for my customer.

lesson's learned, hopefully.

How do I......

Can love be so hurtful?

How can something so beautiful and yet be so painful?

love and hate

beautiful and painful



how do I
get through one night without you
if i had to live without you
what kind of world would that be
oh and i need you in my arms,
need you to hold,
you are my world, my heart, my soul,
if you ever leave, baby you will take away everything'
good in my life,
and baby
how, how do i live, without you,
i want to know
how do i breathe without you,
if you ever go,
how do i ever, ever survive,
how do i
how do I.......live.....

last scene from con Air and I cried everytime I hear this song.what can i say, i'm a softie.....

Ouch! It hurts!

ouch!That hurts!It's not like I had never cut myself before, many , many times, knife cut , A4 paper cut, broken bottle cut, cut which I didn't know from nowhere and I'd just put a plaster over it. Actually what I wanted to show was how deep the cut was but it seemed like my car got the centre stage here and not my finger!remind me to take some photography lesson

it looks kinda weird....

but yesterday, the cut was deeper than usual, small but deep...I was making my cookies. the green tea was already in the oven and I was going to start on the semolina which required minyak sapi.Minyak sapi didn't come in blocks like butter but it came in a can. Somehow, on that fated day, yesterday, I tried to lift up the lid ( silly and careless me tried to lift it using my finger instead of spoon like I normally do) and in a split second, I could feel the sharp blade cut into my finger.

Ouch! that was deep!Blood started tricking down nonstop. I quickly grabbed the First Aid box in the toilet and took out some cotton wool to stop the blood from coming out. After awhile, it did and I put on the acriflavine lotion ( or the ubat kuning which I knew from I was very young, luka aje, ubat kuning)

Arrest than green can! Guilty! As charged. looking innocent and schmuckly there.

Just a word of caution to me and everyone reading this, please..please be careful with canned items. I threw this can away and took a new tin of minyak sapi for my cookies. don't want anyone to become Raja Bersiong ( just in case traces of blood was in there )after eating my cookies:-)

Lesson learned. Whatever you are doing, focus and concentrate, especially when dealing with sharp objects. Don't let your mind drift elsewhere. I guess, my mind was elsewhere when I tried to open the can and look what it got me.

reminds me of the song 'cuts like a knife' by rockwell

Acara Lompat Dalam guni or was it lari Dalam guni?

should I run or should I jump? My teacher taught us to jump in the guni but I saw all those kids running...... so which is it?

jump Batrisyia, jump!

or was it run, Batrisyia run!

I wasn't sure and a bit confused too. I thought it was an acara lari dalam guni but I saw other kids ran in their gunny sack, so which is it?

My Batrisyia jumped or hopped at first , then decided to run half way, then
jumped again and finally..........

what the heck, just run! out of the guni.......

though you are not the champ this time dear, but you are still "The Champ" in mummy's heart.

love you heaps.....

JANUARY TO APRIL BABIES' BIRTHDAYS

Chocolate cake with ganache and colourful sugar sprinkles scattered on top and cololurflu smarties arranged on the sides.

Happy Birthday to January , February, march and April babies of the pra classes at my daughter's school. Her teacher ordered the cake the celebrate the kids' birthdays. How sweet and thoughtful of the teacher. I was informed that each quarter, the kids will be celebrating their birthdays and by doing this, at least each one can experience the birthday celebration with their friends.

I made this MCB, complimentary from Zue's Oven since my daughter was one of the birthday babies.

birthday kids with their cake, eagerly and patiently waiting for the green light to cut their cake.

the cake was shared with the birthday kids from the other class too. love is sharing!

it's makan time! umi prepared laksa for the kids. kek ada, MCB ada, chiffon cake ada, keropok goreng pun ada. seronok budak2 ni. kalu hari2 biasa, makan satu jenis sahaja, but hari ni extra special.







Thank you Cikgu and Happy Sixth birthday Kids. Semoga menjadi anak2 yang soleh dan solehah.

GARFIELD

"I hate Mondays" was his favourite phrase.
Lasagna was his favourite food
Jon was his master
Odie was his mate, ( for bullying)
Nermal ( he hated this cute little cat)

Me....... his fan! and so are my kids!

I started reading Garfield during my Uni years. His books were readily available and was affordable too for students like me. I normally bought them at WHSmith in Ilford where my friends and I would sometimes go during our free time. Ilford town was the nearest town to our place. My first house as a student was in Windsor Road, only walking distance to Ilford, where I shared with three other Malaysian students. We rented the place from a nice Pakistani landlady called Jamila .

Now my kids like to read Garfield too, especially Ameer. Even my six year old Batrisyia loves to look thru the books . Tsara likes to read thicker books, like the Mr Midnight books , Harry Porter or the Twilight series .


These are just the few collections that I have and my son has started to collect them now.I used to cut the cartoon comic strip in the papers ( where did I put them?)Perhaps, if and when I have the time I would bind them nicely and make a book out of the paper clippings for my kids to read.

I love reading, I have read most of Sidney Sheldon's book from 'The other side of midnight" to "The sand of Time" ( I think there are a few more newer ones), a few of Stephen King's novels; Misery, Tommyknockers, just to name two, Jeffrey Archer Kane and Abel, Prodigal Daughter, a more romantic books by Danielle Steele and many many more.

I still like reading but have less time to do them now. I must try to make the time because when I read, the satisfaction is overwhelming, something that could not be achieved by watching the novel turned movie version on TVs. the feeling is not the same. Whenever I started holding a book, its difficult to put it down and the story would transport me into its world. I could imagine how the place looked like and made me feel as if I had been there, it shows just how great these writers are.

I remember reading "Gone With The wind" and they have made a movie out of that novel and it's nice to be able to actually visualise the characters , to actually see Rhett Butler and Scarlet O'Hara on the big screen, such a handsome and beautiful pair, unfortunately, "Frankly my dear, i don't give a damn".Ego vs passion and ego won , I think. How did it end. Did they end up together? Did they live happily ever after?

Nowadays, I have added a few more writers and more books in my collection, a different kind of book, neither mystery, nor horror but more delectable in another sense. I am talking about cake decorating books by Martha Stewart, Debbie Brown, Peggie Porschen, Mich Turner and a few more. These people are talented too, with their beautiful and intricate cake collections and they are so inspiring. Not to mention, my cookbook collections. Let's not go into that. I would go on and on about books because I have so many books at home, books from my students days, my working days and now my stay at home days. Books and magazines are everywhere in the house.

Reality calls! house chores to do. I'll leave my books for a while. Happy reading everyone! Reading is good, reading is educational, reading is fun, so keep on reading!

Lari dalam guni Champ

face of the "Champ" ...for lari dalam guni......:-)
she would show the little trophy to anybody who comes to our house and this evening, when I was talking to my sis on the phone, she

whispered to me, "lari dalam guni" ...okay, okay , I got the message, you wanted me to tell aunty that you won first place for that event , okay, I'll tell her and I would even put a photo of you with your trophy.....:-) Everybody say Cheese.....

Batrisyia and her classmates who were involved in the "hari Cergas Minda " last 14th April. they represented their school in the " Lari Dalam guni"
and a few other events too. guess what, they would be representing the district after this, so the teacher said. Wow! My daughter, representing the district?

That reminds of my childhood.......let's walk down memory lane a bit, shall we, humour me okay.....

the year was, in the 70s,the bellbottom years, the DJ Dave Uji Rashid, Hail amir era, in a small village called Pulai chondong, there was and I think still is, a school called SKPC, my school, I think 1977 or 1978, can't remember much but I do remember that I represented my school not for tracks but for short play competition, that was when I was in Std Six, story telling, ( now you know how old I am....ancient! ) when I was in std 5, ceramah ugama, was it Std 4 or 5?, that was during the primary school days, what about during my secondary school era, hmmm let me think...I was in the 4 X 400 metres relay, you know, lari berganti-ganti, kena tukar baton tu, I represented my house, rumah kuning or rumah Mahsuri and I am proud to say that we always won first place among the houses.those were the days,now, i can't even run the 100 metres, I think.

Suddenly i am remebering something, I think I won the first place for table tennis or ping pong during my uni days when we had a friendly match among us, the malay students there. I guess i was the best among the worst....hehe.....

Batrisyia's turn to receive her trophy

proudly, this mother of hers stood there, with her canon EOS 1000D, looking like a pro....I said, looking like a pro but not necessarily a pro....:-) taking the picture of her daughter receiving the trophy...... being watched by other students and teachers ( perasan....) what the heck....I am just being ....... a proud mum.......

jejak kasih.....Srikandi di Utara

orang duk sibuk nak ambik gambar, sibuk plak dia cakap on the phone.....:-)

side view is a no, no,....barisan depan, barisan 90s, yang belakang to 70s and 80s. bagilah yang muda2 duk depan, sat gi kalu geng 70s and 80s duk macam tu, silap2 takleh bangun, but never fear..... our Kak Normah is here!, our ex-warden ...

still the same people but different view, background.

maju, maju, maju segera maju,

berbaris menempuh rintangan,

TF maju bersama maju,

mencapai cita-cita dan harapan ibu pertiwi...

kamilah penuntut TF,

mendukung cita2 yang suci,

bergerak maju cita dituju,

di bawah semangat dari urat nadi,

Srikandi TF.........

nostalgia....

Thank you to Kak Fid for FBing me and informed me of the event and Lynn for smsing me to join. Thank you Kak Fid, Kak Orchid, Kak Ija dan semua2 yang terlibat menjayakan mini reunion ini.

gotong royong

me, not in the photo, but my JK old Beetle is.....:-)

jackets and blazers for sale!

more input, pliz....

input, more input....
Number 5 said to Stephanie, from the movie, "short Circuit"
I think that's what Batrisyia is asking for now, more input, she's so hungry for knowledge that she would ask me to teach her how to spell, how to count, at every available oportunity, even when I was baking and cooking!
Mama, what is 1 + 1? what is 2 + 3? and the questions goes on and on and from what I know, based on my readings and findings that kids absorb knowldege as early as they are in the wombs!the early years of their lives is the most crucial and the most perfect time to teach them things, that's why I tried my best to entertain her every time she comes to me even when at that time, I was already half asleep on the sofa!

"She's so much like your wife", hubby's friend commented .

I guess he's right. When I look at her, she reminds me a lot of me when I was young. So I said to my hubby, if you want to know what I was like when i was young, just look at her, what she does, how she speaks, how she is when she sulks, when she insisted on something, that's me..alright.She would get away with almost anything....

.After I had finished drawing on the MCB, it was her turn to draw

According to Batrisyia, it's a drawing of her and Adam, holding hands in the rain, Adam, hubby's nephew's son who's in Damansara but whenever we meet, these two are inseparable.