First of Ramadhan 1430

If you've read my blog in previous years, you'd know that my first day of Ramadhan usually ends in chaos. I would usually still be cooking when the adzan maghrib is called.
Well, guess what, this year I was all ready!! I actually got to sit at the table to break my fast :) yay!
What's different?
This year all my kids helped out.

I got Ilham and Ihsan help me make the samosas (Ilham made the potato ones, Ihsan made the cheese ones). I laid everything out on the kitchen table - the samosa leaves, a bowl of water (to soften the leaves and act as glue to seal the edges), the cheeses and curried potatoes at different 'stations'. I showed them how to carefully peel the samosa leaves, how to position the filling, ow to fold it into a neat triangle, how to seal it and how to arrange then neatly in tupperwares. I now have enough samosas to last me .. maybe 3 days.

Anis helped me peel garlic for the sambals (sauces) and bumbu (spices) for chicken rice. She also helped out in miscellaneous tasks as in taking out required ingredients from the frdige, and re-arranging the samosa in the tupperwares because somehow her elder brothers do not have the aptitude to 'arrange neatly'. She also helped prepare the salad to go with the chicken rice we were having, and helped me make air cincau (grass jelly drink).

Most suprisingly, though, was Izani. I guess watching everyone help out, he wanted to help out too! His motor skills are not adept enough yet for folding samosas, and it took him forever to peel one clove of garlic, so I got him to do something I knew he'd enjoy thoroughly. I got him to pound garlic and ginger with the mortar&pestle.
You should have seen him, sitting cross-legged on the floor, holding the mortar with both hands, just pounding away. After a few minutes of pounding while sitting down, he decided to do it while lying flat on his stomach. I kept asking him if he was okay or if he needed any help, but he said he was doing fine. At one point Anis asked if she could try pounding and he possessively said "No! I do it!". He did quite a good job, actually. I only needed to pound it a few times more to make the ginger&garlic finer, but he definitely did most of the work. While I did the actual cooking, he went upstairs and fell right to sleep!



At the dinner table, everyone was so proud of their work. They pointed out to Taufik which dish they helped make. (I had to point out to Anis which dish had her garlic in it).
Alhamdulillah.
Perhaps I could have them make murtabak today.
tee hee.

Ramadhan Kareem, everyone!