Anis the Scarecrow

I don't really 'celebrate' Halloween. It's not in my culture (nor religion) and I don't really believe in it. I also don't like the idea of giving children cavities. I mean, how is it that you tell them "not too much candy" on other days, but then shower them with candy on this one day? No wonder they're confused.

Every year towards the end of October though, kids in KeyStage1 (ages 4 to 7) at my children's school gets a letter that they get to wear costumes to school on the very last day of the very last week. The idea of going to school in normal clothes itself excites the children, what more costumes! So for a few weeks in October, I get bugged with costume ideas and whines about why they cant go to school as this, or that.
I try to play it down, make them wear their normal clothes and tell them they are a librarian or an army guy in covert operation so they must be disguised in plainclothes. Last year Anis wore her lacy kebaya from bandung and I stuck a fake plastic crown on her head and told her she's a Malaysian princess.

This year Anis wanted to be a princess again, because (whine) "But Hanna's going to be a princess!!!!". I balked at the idea. I mean.. I dont want her to stereotype herself. I actually thought of getting her a hardhat and make her go as a drilling engineer. But I'm too lazy to go look for a small hardhat.
So looking at stuff I had around the house and her existing clothes, I suggested to Anis that she could be a scarecrow. She was excited enough to not bug me everyday with her "What can I wear? What can I wear?".

She went to school today looking like this:

The overalls, long sleeve t-shirt and hat were all from her closet.
I cut up square pieces from remnants of the baju kurung & dress I made her (I swear, I wont mention it again), and sewed them on the overall and tshirt with exagerrated stitching to look like patches.
I cut up strips from yellow plastic bag, tied them on rubber bands to create 'straw' bracelets for her hands and feet. The same strips of yellow plastic bag were also used to line the hat to make it look like it was filled with straw.
This morning I braided her hair, put some foundation on her face, and drew the scarecrow smile, eyes and nose.

She was so happy!
As I watched her walk to the bus, her friend Hanna was dropped off by her dad. I could hear her scream excitedly to Hanna, "I'm a scarecrow!!"
I hope she has fun in school.

Mee Kari Leftover

As you may or may not know, I have this habit of using last night's leftovers to make lunch for my kids and I. It's not only environmentally friendly (reduce waste, re-use), it is also economical and time-saving. I don't need to throw away food, I save money on groceries, and I cut my cooking time by at least half.
Every night after dinner, I would look at what i have left and plan for tomorrow's lunch. Sometimes I don't even plan, I just stuff everything into tupperwares inside the fridge, then look at what I have the next day, and try to figure out what to make for lunch. Most of the time, dishes turn into fried rice or porridges or sandwiches. Some time though, like today, I would hit the jackpot.
Yesterday I made goreng pisang (banana fritters) and had leftover batter. I fried the leftover batter into crunchy bits. I made fried chicken and vegetable soup for dinner and had some leftover. Looking at the fried chicken and crunchy fritter batter, I instantly thought of Lollies and had a craving for mee kari (curry noodles).

How to turn your leftover soup into curry gravy for noodles

1 pot of leftover soup (chicken/vegetable/fish)
5 shallots
2 pips garlic
half an inch fresh ginger
half an inch galangal (lengkuas)
2 tbsp curry powder
more water/stock if needed
coconut milk (1/2 cup, or more if you like your gravy thick)
meat/prawns/fish ball or tofu if there's not enough 'stuff' in your leftover soup.
salt to taste

Slice shallots, garlic and ginger into thin strips. In a frying pan, saute in a little bit of oil till fragrant.
Add a little liquid from soup, then add curry powder and galangal. Saute till a thin film of oil rises to the top (add more soup if it gets too dry).
Add into soup, add water/stock/liquid if necessary, bring to a boil.
Add meat and coconut milk, bring to a boil.
Taste and season as desired.
Serve with noodles (egg noodles, rice noodles or spaghetti) and garnishings (spring onions, bawang goreng (crispy fried shallots), sliced chillies, boiled eggs, fried chicken, sliced fried tofu, crispy bits) of your choice.

I had some fish cake and spring onions, and was too lazy to boil eggs and slice chillies and forgot I had bawang goreng, so here's what mine looked like:


Amacam Lolls, ada pass ka?

Happy cooking!

Relationship Realization

After my husband gently crawled over izani to snuggle up to me on my side of the bed, I realized something:
Just as he is my only source of comfort and pleasure, so am I his.

The Tunguska Treatment

My husband has this really bad habit of reacting to my anger instead of addressing it.
Instead of getting understanding and comfort, I would often get scolded for being angry. This of course, makes me all the more angry. Sometimes initially I would be angry at something or someone else, but when he scolds me for getting angry, I would start feeling angry at *him*.
I have told him so many times how this habit of his makes me feel. I feel like he is saying I have no right to be angry. I feel like he is dismissing my feelings. I feel like he is dismissing *me*. I feel unsupported and uncomforted when he's the only person I could turn to for emotional support and comfort. It makes me feel unloved.

When this happened again for the umpteenth time, I decided to give him the cold shoulder. (Coz expressing my anger would only mean I'd get scolded again, so what other choice do I have?).

Every morning we have this ritual we do before he goes to work. I 'salam' (something like shaking his hand) him, kiss his hand, kiss him and give him a hug and we say our "I love you"s.
This morning, the effort came mostly from him. I still salam-ed and kissed his hand (coz I want his forgiveness even if he's not asking for mine), but the kiss was not as passionate (just a peck) and he was doing most of the hugging. I didn't bother replying to his declaration of love, even almost replied "yeah... right". I just turned around and got back to cutting up vegetables for making stock.

As I was chopping the butts off the spring onions, I thought of what he was wearing to work. Coveralls, boots and he had carried his cardboard box of hard hat, nozzles, gauges and what not.
It occurred to me that he's going to the rig. That would take at least an hour or two of driving. I felt kinda guilty. I can't let him drive that long and that far with a heavy heart as a result of my behavior this morning. I don't even know where he's going off to!
I checked that he had not driven past my kitchen window, so I ran to the front door hoping to catch him. Sure enough, I opened the door to find him reversing the car.
I held up my hand, but he thought I was saying goodbye, so he waved back and turned the car to move forward. I held up my hand again, and he finally rolled down the window.

"Where are you going?" I shouted from my front door to him out on the street.
"Manifa", he replied, and put up three fingers, meaning 3 hours drive away.
"Drive carefully!" I said to him.
And he smiled a smile that even I could see from that distance.

I bet he's thinking "Sayang jugak dia kat aku" (She loves me after all).
Ces.
Ya lah.. memang lah sayang. (yes, of course I love him)

I'm still angry though.
*pout*

Homeward Bound?

The most common question we get during our raya open house rounds was
"Dengar cerita, Elisa dah nak balik, betul ke?"
"I heard that you were going home, is it true?"

Yes, it's true.
The last time we were back in Malaysia, Taufik made his annual visit to his old office in KL, and his former boss asked if he could come back. They wanted him back end of this year, but to be fair to his team in Saudi, Taufik negotiated a later date, most probably in July next year.

When we told everyone we were moving here four years ago, we were asked how long we were planning to be away from home. Our standard answer was "Sampai kaya, atau sampai boring" ("Until we're rich, or until we're bored"). Well, you can be assured that we are not 'kaya' yet. Even though our definition of 'rich' is very simple, i.e. be debt free (and not necessarily own lotsa stuff), we are still a long way from there.
So I guess you can say that we're moving back home because we're 'bored'.
Well, Taufik is, at least. Not that the work is not challenging, it is VERY challenging. Not that he's not up to the challenge.. it's just that... hm.. I guess he just misses home. He misses gardening. He misses his parents. He misses the weather.

If you ask me, I have mixed feelings about moving.
I am really going to miss the laidback, almost pampered life in the kingdom. I'm sure when I go back to Malaysia, I'm going to be expected to drive again. I know it means 'independence', but it also means 'commitments'. I would have to drive the kids to/from school. I'd have to buy groceries myself. I'd prolly have to do alot of stuff myself, and not be able to 'bermanja' with Taufik anymore.. :P
Having to drive would also probably mean I'd have less time for myself. Would I have time to bake? Would I have time to blog? (How in the world did I do it before? Especially when I was working? I have forgotten!)
I feel like I have not done enough travelling. There's still so much I want to see, within the kingdom and also within the region. I still have not been to Shaybah, Madinah, or gone dune bashing. I still have not been to Jordan, or Lebanon. There's still so many things I want to experience and buy...! Trivial things, really...

The main thing I'm worried about is my children's education. Will they be able to cope with the demands and pressure of the Malaysian Education system? Will I? Will they enjoy school as much as they do here? Or will they get bored and discouraged?
We checked out a few schools the last time we came back and most of them stress on academic performance, citing their achievements in nationwide exams. They told me to prepare my child for the BM paper from *now*, and not wait till they take UPSR. When I ask the teachers here in DBGS about the SATS exam, they all said the same thing - "It's just one little exam, we focus more on the total development of your child, so don't worry about it". I'm going to miss *that*!!!

Otherwise, I'm pretty psyched about coming home.
I miss my family. I miss my house. I miss being able to go to the mosque whenever I want. I miss friday lunch dates with my girlfriends. I miss burger special daging garing bungkus telur sayur lebih taknak bawang sos hitam. I miss being able to find food anytime I want. I miss being able to shop anytime I want. I miss taking the LRT. I miss looking at billowy clouds. I miss the rain.

Well, I still have 8 to 9 months to enjoy this place I've called "home away from home" for the past three and a half years... so I'm gonna make the most of it :)

Easy Peasy Bubur Lambuk (Mixed Porridge)

Every time I cook bubur lambuk (mixed porridge), I feel like that guy who cooked nail soup.
You know the story - a vagrant asks a miser to make some soup using only water and a rusty crooked nail, then he starts adding more and more ingredients to 'make it better' and ends up with a delicious nutritious soup.

The basic ingredients for my bubur lambuk is simple - water, rice (raw or cooked, the only difference is the time it takes to become porridge), fish stock, shallots and pepper, and a ladle of coconut milk. I might replace fish stock with pounded anchovies/dried prawns or a stock cube or actual fish flesh (pounded to a pulp) or even last nights leftover vegetable soup or even sayur masak lemak, but the other ingredients cannot be subtituted. What else I put in it depends on what I have in the fridge. If you want it authentic, put pucuk mmiding (a kind of fern shoot) and budu, but kangkung (water convulvus) would also do. I have put cabbages, potatoes, carrots, celery and ground beef in mine and the kids just ate it up.

Though this rice porridge is usually eaten un-garnished, I have picked up a habit from my pakistani friends - I brown some onion slices (until crispy or not, depends on how you like it) and add it to my porridge. Yum.

Easy Peasy Bubur Lambuk
(makes 6 servings)

Ingredients
1/4 cup uncooked rice or 1/2 cup cooked rice
4 cups liquid (water or stock)
3 shallots
half teaspoon black peppercorns
a handful of anchovies or dried shrimp
hard vegetables of your choice (cubed or cut into small pieces)
leafy vegetables of your choice (preferrably sliced thinly)
meat of choice (optional, minced or cut into small pieces)
one ladle coconut milk (roughly 6 tablespoons?)
salt and pepper to taste

Method
Pound shallots, peppercorns and anchovies/shrimp till fine.
In a huge pot, put in ground ingredients, rice and liquid, bring to a boil.
Let simmer, stirring ocassionally, till rice has fatten up.
Put in the hard vegetables and meat, if using, and cook till vegetables are tender. (add more liquid if it gets too thick).
Put in the leafy vegetables and coconut milk, stir to mix well.
Simmer till porridge is thick, add salt and pepper to taste.

If your kids don't like fried onions like my kids, serve it seperately as a side dish.
This porridge is also a good way to sneak in veggies into your children's diet ;).

p/s For my non-asian friends who uses the anchovies they put on pizzas, you might want to use only like half a tablespoon of it, and taste it first before adding more salt.

Easy Peasy Sausage and Cheese Croissants

Inspired by Kak Nora's lunch box efforts, I, the ever malas (lazy) bonda, ventured to make an easy peasy version of the sausage roll, using ready made cheese croissants (available at any bakery/grocery store, plain also can) and some mini sausages (look for it at your frozen food section. I guess normal sized sausages will do too).
I just fried the sausages, slit the croissants on one side lengthwise (do not cut through), squeezed sauces per the child's preference (Anis wanted ketchup, Ilham wanted chilli sauce, Ihsan wanted nothing), then stuffed the mini sausages (3 or 4, depending on the size of the crescent bread) into the slits.
Wrap the croissants up in wax paper lined foil, and campak masuk lunch box.

Habis Cerita.

This is the adult's version, with mayo, lettuce and chilli sauce

son sleeping solo

Taufik was still on holiday on saturday while the other kids had to go to school, so Izani got some precious one-on-one time with his ayah


Somehow I feel like Izani is growing up faster than my other kids. Perhaps it's because he has older siblings to teach him stuff. I think he talks faster and better compared to my other kids when they were his age, and he is also more physically adept (he can put on his shoes on his own, even knows how to switch and put the right one on the right foot) compared to the others.

What is most obvious at the moment is he is sleeping seperately from me at an earlier age than the others. If you can recall, it was a battle to get the older ones to sleep in their own room. With Izani however, he was the one who initiated the move.

One night, we were in bed, he asked "I wan seep, iham hoom". At first I thought he meant 'home', and I kept telling him we were home and that his abang Ilham is home as well. He kept insisting "Iham hoom!" till he was almost crying, when I finally realized that he meant he wanted to sleep in Ilham's room.

So we let him.

The first few nights, he'd be playing instead of sleeping. One night he even managed to convince all his siblings to wake up and watch TV. I woke up to find all four of them sprawled on the sofa in the TV room, and they all blamed Izani for 'making them watch TV'. I told them to be firm with Izani and say No the next time he asks. They also got nagged about it everytime they complain about being sleepy during the proceeding day.
He doesn't make them watch TV anymore, but sometimes he does bug them to play or read him a book, but I just told them to go to sleep and ignore Izani (for I know how they can sleep like a log and ignore distractions when they want to). Sure enough, after a while, Izani would fall asleep as well. It's kinda cute watching Izani pull up the covers up to his chin and repeat "goo nite bonda, i love you" after his older siblings.

So nowadays I have my bed and my husband all to myself. tee hee.
I can't help but feel sad sometimes, though. I miss having Izani sleep beside me. I miss getting a little hug from him in the middle of the night. I miss his tiny kicks to my back or tummy or face. I miss his squeaky snore. I miss him nuzzling under my armpit for comfort. I miss reaching out at night to hug his tiny purring body.
I gained a good night's sleep, but I feel like I lost my teddy bear.

*sigh*
Kids grow up so fast, don't they?

hectic hari raya

'Hectic' would be an understatement.

Juadah pagi raya, ketupat, ayam masak merah, kuah kacang, serunding daging, serunding ikan. Nostalgia betul

I made a list of my raya itinerary:-

First raya (Dhahran):
Abg Zaki & Kak Siti (laksa kelantan, nasi briyani)
Abg Azizi & Kak Ita (spaghetti, mee kari, home made banana chips)
Abg Riz & Kak Aida (nasi dagang, satay and ketupat)
Abg Ma'il & Kak Khamsiah (miscellaneous kuih raya and I got to bring home some ketupat bawang that Abg Ma'il woved with his own bare hands)
Abg Mat Shah & Kak Ana (nasi briyani johore, ubi rebus with sambal tumis ikan bilis, pizza)
Abg Affendy & Kak Zaleha (ketupat pulut just like cikgu munah makes, rendang ayam, mee udang power giler)


The only kuih raya I made - rice krispy treats (chocolate and peanut butter) and easy peasy kuih gunting from leftover samosa leaves

Second Raya (Ras Tanura):
Abg Harun & Kak Su (nasi minyak, lontong)
Abg Razali & kak Sue (er.. makan apa ya? i remember very nice kuih raya..)
Abg Zul & Kak Izah (ketupat, rendang, kuah kacang)
Azmi & Gee (mee rebus)
Samsudin & Jo (entah apa I makan pun dah tak ingat .. oh yes, Laksa Johor!)

Third Raya (home & Dhahran):
6 cars from riyadh came to my house for lunch (white rice, fish head curry, fried chicken and assortment of other lauk brought from riyadh)
Abg Bakar & Kak Faridah (nasi goreng kampung, laksa sudan)
Raja Azlan & Kak Zie (I ate tooo much!)
Abg Khairy & Kak Nas (I was so full, I only ate tit bits and kuih raya)

Fourth Raya (today):
Ashok & Kak Aida (yummeh mee bandung and I brought white rice, fish head curry, sambal tumis udang and omelletes as 'support dishes')
I have a dinner invitation from Haji Nawawi and kak Azizah, but I dont think I'll be able to make it.. :P


my tit-bit station - store bought banana chips and mixed nuts


It is no wonder that my tummy hurts.
Looking at the decreasing trend in invitations, I am expecting to do nothing tomorrow. :)

Krispy Lessons

Lessons Learnt from yesterday's session of making rice krspy treats -

1. You cannot add chocolate chips to your rice krispy treats. The heat will just melt the chocolate and all you have is messy, ugly looking treats that tend to crumble coz the chocolate get in the way of the marshmallows. (But they still taste yummeh, so don't worry, your kids will eat them up in a jiffy)

2. If you want too add other ingredients to your treats, try nuts or raisins.

3. A pizza cutter (the wheel kind) is a good tool to use to cut up your treats into strips. Pull the cutter towards you instead of pushing it. It's easier to apply pressure on the blade that way.

4. A knife still works best for cutting your strips into squares. A flat blade, tapped hard on the treats works better than a serated blade, because the sawing motion might cause the treats to break up.

5. Using pink marshmallows with white rice krispies creates pretty girly treats.

6. The cheapest rice krispies you can find is at the indian grocery store, sold in plastic bags, not fancy boxes.

7. Always make your rice krispy treats at the last minute, because they dont last long. They can keep long in an airtight container, but some will magically dissapear before Eid day. You are forewarned.

I want to ...

... be Yves Rossy when I grow up.

... get Anis's baju kurung over with coz I need to make cookies!! :(
but,

... take a break sometimes, so some of you might be a target for my sudoku fix. My apologies!!

... reply to comments, but don't really have time at the mo. Will get to it soon, ya?

... blog about 'Syawal in Trengganu', but again, (read above).

... wish all my muslim friends and family -

Eid Mubarak ya habibi!

Maaf Zahir Batin sekiranya ada salah dan silap, sengaja atau tak, sedar atau tak, kecik atau besar.. rest assured that I would do the same to you :)

Drive Safe, Celebrate Well!
Think of me when you're eating all that yummeh malaysian dishes!

Trying to thread

I have never learnt how to sew. Whatever sewing skills I have, I had picked up from my mom, who taught Home Science and used to sew our Eid clothes. She showed me how to do that criss cross stitch that keeps that flap that form the kurung's collar in place. See, I don't even know the proper terms.

Being an engineer by training though, I love to build things, and I decided to apply that passion into sewing. I took one of Anis's old baju kurung pesak and did some reverse engineering. I drew a diagram to visualize what the seperate pieces of the dress would look like and how it would be constructed. I measured Anis, calculated and wrote down the figures on my diagram and figured out how much material I needed. I brought material, then re-drew the diagram to find out where I should cut the material to minimize wastage.
I put my education to good use after all. It may not be an aeroplane, but it's close enough for me.

So now I'm sewing. By hand.
There were moments while I'm sewing that I look at the clock and think gosh I haven't cooked yet or looked at the basket full of laundry to be washed/folded/ironed or looked at my ignored kids or thought of the cookies I haven't baked for eid or when I get poked for the umpteenth time by the needle, that I think I'm crazy to be doing this.
Sewing by hand!! Just go buy a sewing machine for gawds sakes! but I think about how I've got to get ready and go out and go look for a sewing machine and then read the manual to learn how to use it and how during all that time I could be doing actual sewing, I would tell myself, Fergeddit. I'll just keep on sewing by hand.
I am malas (lazy) but rajin (not lazy) that way.

Body and collar done, sleeves and kekek done. Now need to put them together, then on to constructing the skirt.

Wish me luck and somebody please tell taufik to buy me a sewing machine for my next birthday.
tee hee

Kid Friendly Asam Pedas

I love asam pedas, but because I am allergic to belacan (fermented shrimp paste), I am often wary to eat it at restaurants, coz most often than not, they would put belacan in it. But I luuuuuuurrrve asam pedas.
I had some fish the other day and was bored with the usual curry, so I decided to try making asam pedas. Furthermore, I just brought some bunga kantan and daun kesum from Malaysia, so what better way to use them other than for asam pedas?
I browsed for recipes and found one that doesn't use belacan, here.
I didn't have some of the ingredients and I had to make it kid-friendly, so here's my modified version:

Kid Friendly Asam Pedas

Ingredients
Ground:
3 shallots, 2 pips garlic
3 pieces dried chillies (more if you like it spicier), cut up and soaked in hot water to soften
1/2 inch ginger
1 tsp fennel
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp blackpepper corns

3 tbsp oil
1/2 large onion, sliced thinly
1/2 tsp mixed spices (fenugreek, poppyseeds, cumin)*
2 stalks curry leaves
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp tomato paste
water (depends on how thick/thin you want the sauce to be)
1 tbsp tamarind pulp
1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 medium sized fish (or 2 small fish), any kind you like
1 large tomato, cut into wedges
1/2 bunga kantan (?)
as much daun kesum as you like
salt and sugar to taste

Method
In a saucepot, heat up oil and saute sliced onions, mixed spices and curry leaves till fragrant.
Add ground ingredients, turmeric powder and tomato paste, let fry till a little dry and oil rises to the top.
Add water, tamarind pulp and oyster sauce, bring to a boil.
Add in the rest of the ingredients (fish + leaves), let simmer till fish is cooked.
Add salt and sugar to taste.
Serve with steamed white rice.

Asam Pedas Ikan Kembung (yang tak berapa pedas)

* This mixed spices are the same ones I use to make fish head curry. You can find them sold in packets at Giant or any grocery store in Malaysia. Outside of malaysia, though, it can be quite difficult to find so you might have to mix your own based on the seeds/spices I mentioned above.
The list of ingredients is long, but when you look at the method, you'll see that it's pretty easy.
I added oyster sauce to substitute for the belacan flavour. It worked :)
Like all Asam Pedas, this tastes better after reheating the next day, because all of the ingredients would've simmered and melded together for a while.
I know a certain family in Qatar that eats their Asam Pedas with bread, pancakes or paratha. *wink*

Happy trying, and I hope I have inspired you :)

Ramadhan in Trengganu

I don't know how it is now, but spending Ramadhan in Trengganu was a lot of fun to me. Perhaps it was because I was a child and need not have to worry about what to cook for iftar. tee hee.

The beginning of ramadhan is marked by the sound of the cannon (from the top of Bukit Puteri?). The sound would usually be followed by someone or other saying "hoh! Esok Posa" (hoh, tomorrow we start fasting). I guess the end of the fasting month would be marked the same way, but I never know because we were always somewhere else, either in Merang, where my dad's side of the family lives or in Besut, where my mom's side of the family lives.

Iftar (the breaking of fast at sundown), during Ramadhan was almost always done with special fare, though not necessarily with Trengganu food. My mom's offering during ramadhan would include western dishes like Chili Con Carne, beef stew, these meatballs with peas eaten with bread, and spaghetti bolognaise, things she doesnt normally cook throughout the rest of the year. Once in a while we'd have malaysian food like rice and noodles, but it's those special dishes that we look forward to (and still crave for till now) every Ramadhan.
Hm.. was there any special food that Trengganu folks eat during Ramadhan? I'm not sure.. as far as I can remember, the food was great throughout the year, so I can't recall anything special for the month of ramadhan. Except maybe for Air Nira and Nekbat.
Air Nira is the nectar from palm flowers. Expert climbers would climb up a palm tree, cut a bit off the flower and hang a container of some sort to collect the dripping nectar. The collected nectar is sold by the roadsides at small wooden stalls, and my dad would not fail to stop if he sees one.
Nekbat are these tiny oval shaped cakes made of flour and eggs, I think, and it is usually served cold in clove spiked syrup sauce. They are cool, soft, creamy and sweet at the same time. Just the thought of them makes me drool. Unfortunately I couldnt find any the last time I went home.
The above 2 items are available throughout the year, but somehow we only have it during ramadhan, perhaps because they are considered to be quite indulgent food, and we could only have it as a reward for fasting.

I started learning to fast when I turned 7, I think.
Like all kids, I started fasting for half a day first, breaking my fast at noon instead of sundown. After awhile though, you get tired of the taunts "Posa yang yok, pagi pagi bukok puyok" (fasting you're not, early morning opening the pot) and you would try to fast for the whole day. Achieving this was okay when school is in session, but when the school holiday starts and we go back to my grandmother's place where all the other kids are also on holiday and they ask you to come out and play and you play all. day. long, it's quite a feat to keep yourself from breaking your fast. I must admit, there were a few times, after a session of rounders or deghghak (walking around) somewhere, I would come home and sneak a drink from the payyang koko (the brown earthen vessel) at the foot of the green steps of my grandmother's house (Sorry, Papa! *sheepish grin*). The cup may just be a chetong made out of rusty milk tin, and the water may just be un-cooked well water put there to be used to wash your feet before you come into the house, but at that moment, it tasted like the cool nectar from heavens.

I loved going back to my grandmother's house during Ramadhan. Aside from her ttuppat sutong (Stuffed squid) and the numerous friends I could play with, there was also Malam Tujuh Likur, probably the highlight of a child's life in the month of ramadhan. "Malam Tujuh Likur" is celebrated on the 27th night of Ramadhan. During this time, most of the houses would be busy preparing eid cookies and the night air would be filled with the sweet smell of baking. People would begin decorating their house for eid, by hanging lapu nynyeceh nynyembor (them twinkling lights), if you can afford it, or just the pelita, lanterns made out of milk tins filled with turpentine and a piece of rag or string as a wick. You'd get to try on your raya clothes for the first time. You'd get to walk around with your friends with lanterns, either the milk tin kind or the storebought paper ones with a birthday candle, to light your way while you deghghak meghata (walkaround everywhere).
Fireworks haven't been banned yet when I was growing up, so we would also light the skies up with them. There were the long thin ones that shoot multicolored balls of fire (together we would all count out loud how many there are), there were ones that would release a parachute at the end of the explosion, and then there were milder ones- like the hand held bunga-api (sparklers), or those shaped like a snake and would leave a crumbly ash in a coil when it goes out (macam ubat nyamuk). For those of us that can't afford fireworks, we would go around, lanterns in hand, and look for ppurong (Coconut shells). We'd stack them up on a pole (erected by an adult for that purpose), then when we've covered the whole pole, an adult would light them up in a tower of bonfire. Doesn't sound like much now, but at that time, it was like the best fire show ever. I guess there's a tiny closet arsonist in all of us.

I wish my kids could experience all this, but unfortunately the environment nowadays is different from what it used to be when I was growing up. I would never let them walk around in the dark on their own, unless it's in the compound.
ah.. the good old days. *sigh*

juvenile jiggy-ing

My kids dancing to the new radio:


I don't know what they ate to make them so hyper that night.
And Izani was just his normal cheeky self.

"Fantamorgana"

"Denial"

pegilah tidor.

Interesting Iftar

First, let me explain to you why I did not post the picture of my raspberry cheesecake:

1. There was no raspberry cheesecake. I thought I had bought raspberry topping, but it turned out to be strawberries in syrup (Note: Never shop while you're hungry, coz the lack of glucose affects your eyesight and brain capacity). There is nothing uglier than un-fresh stawrberries. It tasted okay though.
2. I had procrastinated so much (I played Sudoku!! *hangs head in shame* I think I have a problem. Dr. Phil help me), that I was late in baking the cheesecake. By the time the cake had cooled down sufficiently for me to slap on the whipped cream and arrange the strawberries on top, it was time to leave for my friend's house. I did not get a chance to take any pictures before it was all cut up and eaten.

So there you have it. No raspberry cheesecake pictures.

Yesterday we got an invitation for iftar with the folks at Sm1th at Le Meridian Hotel (again). Taufik had wanted to go to the Holiday Inn this year, and I was excited about it coz from the outside it looked like they erected traditional bedouin tents or something (or maybe it's just the entrance? *shrug*), but then Holiday Inn couldn't accommodate the whole office+families, so they bought tickets for Meridian instead.
Food was okay, same like last year. I ate lotsa salmon (so did Izani). I had these yummeh grilled eggplants, and a stuffed eggplant baked in tomato sauce and topped with mozzarella. I so want to eat that again, but i'm afraid if I make it myself, no one else would eat it, coz no one else in my house likes eggplants. Maybe I should try to make it at the next gathering, whenever that may be.

Just like last year, they had a lucky draw at the end of the evening. Last year we didn't win anything, so we weren't that hopeful this year. The prizes were mostly crap anyways (electrical items, lotions from a neighbouring spa), except for the final grand prize, which was one return ticket to Abu Dhabi. That never stopped the kids from being excited about the possibility of winning something though. Ihsan and Anis eagerly held on to their tickets and checked their numbers every time. Ihsan kept asking me, "if I win, I can go up there and take my present?" and I would exasperatingly answer "Yes....".

So we were listening to the guy announcing the winning numbers, and he said "Four, Wahid, Two, Sifar", but the mixture of english and arabic numbers confused us and I thought it was 4127. We waited for the announcement again but somehow the guy went on and on about the rules and regulations for entering the lucky draw for a car pulak dah. At taufik's table, one guy had 4119, the other had 4121 so taufik thought, "the winning ticket must be among us". I asked him what the winning ticket was and he said "4120".
I asked Ihsan what his ticket number was and he said "4120!".
"4120! You won, Ihsan!" I said excitedly.
"I won? So I can go?" , he was equally excited and unsure at the same time.
"You won! Go!" I urged him, coz they were about to pull another number.

You should've seen the way he skipped to the stage and take his prize. It was just a small portable cassette recorder FM/AM radio thingy, but he held it like it was gold. He brought it around everywhere he went. He only put it down when he went to get more dessert (He said my cheesecake was better than the hotel's cheesecake. *wink* such a charmer), and even then he asked me several times, to seriously, look after his radio.

We went home and tried it out. Ihsan was so happy as he danced to Sultans of Swing in the living room.
We pointed out to him that maybe this is Allah's way of rewarding him for fasting for 15 days straight.

"What's a 'cassette'?" he asked me. :D

*rolls eyes*
I feel old.

Not a food post.

I thought it'd be good to take a break.
Plus I'm gonna make a raspberry cheesecake today, so I'll save that torture for tomorrow. *mwahahaha*

Let's talk about mundane things like politics and tv and such.

I didn't get to catch the democratic convention on TV, but I did get a glimpse of Rudy and Sarah talking at the Republican Convention.
It was chilling.
It was like watching a devil worshipping cult movie or something, especially when they were chanting "Drill baby Drill".
You citizens of america better make your choices carefully.

What in the world is going on with my country lah?
I dont understand why you keep voting for these ***holes when they are so obviously ***holes.
*geram nih*

I saw Spiderman 2 for the umpteenth time and only recently noticed something - that receptionist chewing gum and refusing to pay for her pizza order because it was late, she's Bones!

During Ramadhan, MBC4 shows Americas Funniest Videos instead of Oprah. My kids and I are hooked! We sit together and laugh our ***es off at the really funny videos. Izani loves anything with animals and babies so he enjoys it too.

I really should take a break from Sudoku and return to catching up with my tadarus.

My husband is on Facebook. *horror*
but he doesnt have time to maintain it, so I had to help. *leeerrrrr*

I'm gonna go mandi now.

Homemade Naan

It's Saturday and it's weekend for the rest of the world, so I guess it's safe for me to put up a food post, no?

I made my own naan yesterday!! I am so proud of myself!!
I got this recipe book, Malaysian Favourites: Best Recipes from Noted Malaysian Cooks
from Kinokuniya (RM45.90) the last time I went home and had been eyeing the naan recipe ever since. On Thursday I got some leftover thick beef curry from an iftar gathering with the folks from the Malaysian Embassy in Riyadh (where I also met Neeza from Jubayl *grin*), so I finally had an excuse to make some!
In the span of 3 weeks, I had slowly slowly bought the required ingredients - yeast (in small individually wrapped packets so that they don't go dead on me so quickly), ghee, flour (I bought 3 1kg packets in anticipation of having to make lots and lots of prawn fritters) and only yesterday did I ask Taufik to stop by the mini market after friday prayers and buy me a cup of yoghurt.
The recipe wasn't that complicated. I guess the only tough part would be the 15 minutes of kneading it required. With good yeast and good mixing or kneading, however, you will be rewarded with fluffy naan ;)
(Recipe modified a bit from original coz I dont have a kitchen scale).

Naan

Ingredients
2 teaspoons dry yeast
250ml lukewarm water (just a little bit more than 1 cup)
4 teaspoons sugar
3 tablespoons yoghurt
4 tablespoons melted ghee
1 teaspoon salt
3-4 cups all-purpose flour (I will explain)

Method
In a big bowl, dissolve dry yeast in half of the water. Add sugar, mix well, and set aside for 10 minutes till mixture gets all bubbly and frothy.
Mix in yoghurt, melted ghee, salt and remaining water.
Add in flour into the mixture bit by bit, mixing and eventually kneading until dough forms a stiff ball and does not stick to the bowl or your hands (I used roughly about 3.5 cups at this point). Continue kneading* for 15 more minutes.
Preheat oven to 220 deg C or 440 deg F.
Cover bowl with a clean, dry cloth and let sit in a warm dry corner of your kitchen for about an hour, or till it has doubled in volume.
Divide dough into two, then 4. Divide each quarter into another 4 and form balls (So you eventually get 16 balls).
Flatten each ball with your hands or a rolling pin to form thick discs the size of dessert plates.
Place in the pre-heated oven for 7-10 minutes or till edges are golden brown.
Remove from oven and keep warm under a napkin.

I served my naans with yesterday's thick beef curry and a plain salad of chopped lettuce and chunks of carrots and cucumber. The naan was just slightly sweet, salty and creamy (from the yoghurt i guess) and goes well with the spicy curry.

*Kneading
I am not an expert in kneading, so what I do is fold the dough into itself and push with my knuckles as I go. Repeat until tired.

Baking
To simulate the conditions of a brick oven, I used a Pizza Stone (bought at Stokes, Mall of Dhahran for about SR60 or so) and baked my naan on it. Put the stone in a cold oven before pre-heating to avoid cracking. Flour your naan well before placing it on the hot stone (Do not add any oil). The result is a naan with a crunchy crusty bottom, and a soft fluffy top, just the way my children likes it.
The original recipe instructed me to brush the tops of the naans with ghee and sprinkle it with chopped garlic before baking it, but since I didn't want to get any oil on my pizza stone, I omitted that ingredient/step. You can try it if you want.

My only complain is that these naans are really only best eaten while warm. When it's cold it tends to get quite hard and chewy.. :P
Haven't tried reheating yet, coz I didn't have any leftovers. I had some leftover dough though, and have kept it in the freezer for later use. Will tell you how that turns out.

Now, if only I could figure out how to make Shrimp Sizzler, then we wouldn't need to go to Mughal Restaurant anymore...

Happy trying and tell me how yours turn out!

Extremely Easy Peasy Cheese Samosa

It's so easy it's almost like cheating

Really. I mean, the ingredients can be bought ready-made at the stores. All you have to do is wrap them up, then deep fry.
But here's the recipe anyways. I'll add some tips/notes at the end of the recipe just to give this post some substance.

Easy Peasy Cheese Samosas

Ingredients
1 500gram packet of ready made samosa leaves
3 round boxes of cream cheese wedges
Some water for sealing

Method
Cut cheese wedges into half lengthwise (so you get a thinner wedge).
Take a samosa leaf carefully so as not to rip it. Put a halved-wedge at one end at a 45degree angle, fold into a triangle. Keep on folding the triangle until you reach the end of the leaf. Seal the final end by rubbing some water onto the leaf.
Heat some oil for deep frying. Deep fry the samosas until golden, drain on a paper towel. Let cool slightly before serving to avoid burns from hot cheese.
Can be kept in a tupperware in the fridge/freezer for one week.
Makes 48 (4 dozen).

Samosa leaves -
Not all samosa leaves are created equal. Some tend to absorb more oil than others and some has a slightly bitter aftertaste. You've really got to try them out to find one brand that you like. I like 'BintiAlBalad' or something. I fry them in really hot oil. It usually results in ugly blistery samosas, but they're crispy and I'd rather have ugly samosas than soggy ones.

Creamcheese Wedges -
You know which ones I mean, right? They usually come in round boxes and contain 8 individually wrapped cream cheese in foil. Though some brands offer flavoured cream cheese, I found the plain ones work best. The picture above shows what the cheese looks like unwrapped.

Timing -
I make my samosas in advance (a lot of them) and keep them in the fridge till I'm ready to fry them. This keeps the cheese inside it cool and won't seep out when you fry them. (Incidently, also try to fold the triangles as tightly as you can so that you don't have holes).
Fry at least 45 minutes before serving so that the cheese inside has sufficient time to cool down. There is nothing worse than getting your tongue burned by hot cheese.

This is really my children's favourite tit bit for iftar (breaking fast), only second to cucur udang (Prawn fritters). I have to make sure they get at least 4 each. I end up frying 2 dozen per day, so 48 pieces doesn't stay very long in the fridge. :)

Happy trying :)

Panic! not at the dancefloor

Today was my first day as the bus monitor ever since the school year started. It being Ramadhan and me having to wake up at 3am to prepare sahur for everyone and only go back to sleep at 4:15am after fajr prayers made me worry if I could wake up again at 6:15am. On other days, Taufik would be the one waking up the kids and I'd wake up at 6:45 to prepare Anis' lunch box and braid her hair. Today I have to get myself ready as well.
My anxiety had me dreaming that I woke up late, didn't shower or brush my teeth and dragging my kids in their jammies to the bus. So the moment some sunlight seeped through the curtains of my bedroom window, I shot up and checked the time on my handphone. I saw it was 6:45am. 6:45!!! Dayumm my alarm didnt go off!! Or it did and I didnt hear it!! Or maybe I heard it and I switched it off in my sleep!!!
ohmygod ohmy god ohmygod I ran to the kids' rooms and woke them up in a frenzy. "wake up wake up wake up we're late we're late you've gotta get ready for schoool! Anis you just brush your teeth and wash your face and get ready and go down and have breakfast Ilham and Ihsan you have time to shower (coz they are skipping breakfast)". I half-screamed instructions as I myself reached for my toothbrush.
Ilham woke up hair all disheveled looked at the clock with one eye and said "It's okay, we still have time"
"*You* still have time. I have to get ready and then make anis' lunch" I dismissed him , and added "Go go go!! GO brush your teeth!!".
While searching my wardrobe for a decent outfit, Taufik asked me from under his pillow "What are you late for?"
"I'm the bus monitor today, remember.. it's already 6:45!!" I answered.
"It's not. It's 5:45. Cuba tengok jam betul-betul", he said (asking me to look at my watch carefully).
No. Way.
I went to look at my watch and lo and behold.
It *was* 5:45. Not 6:45.
oooops.
"You guyyyssss...." I grinned sheepishly at the boys who just came out from the shower, "I made a mistake. It's still early.. Sorry!".
God bless my kids, they didn't complain a bit.
They put on their uniforms. Ilham combed his hair then got back in bed. I heard Ihsan turn on the computer. I heard Anis get in the shower and taking her sweet time, then after awhile, I heard her switch on Cartoon Network.
Me, I went back to bed, of course.
Only to be woken up at 6:15 by my alarm.
heheheh.

"I'm Sorry"

When I visited my friend one day, she kept going on and on about her husband's recent overseas trip. He was presenting a paper in a city which she considered to be very romantic and his co-presenter, a lady, went together with him. She couldn't go because she was working. She said she wasn't worried about his fidelity because the lady is married, and my friend knows the lady quite well. She said she wasn't jealous of the lady spending time with her husband, but she kept saying that she imagined him taking pictures of her and her of him, at places where she wished she could visit herself. And she kept asking me "If you were in my shoes, how would you feel?"
Her husband, who is by nature a man of very little words, just kept a straight face throughout the conversation, only letting out a little smile once in a while when Taufik or I would jokingly tease my friend about her 'jealousy'.
She incessantly brought the subject up, as if unsatisfied and searching for something, a right response perhaps.
If her husband had asked me what a right response would have been, I would have told him to say "I'm Sorry".

I know many men would be shaking their heads right about now.
When I was invited to talk about John Grey's "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" on the now defunct cyberjaya.tv morning show when the book celebrated its 10th anniversary, I had told the hosts (mokciknab, Che' Mi and Che' Kem), that the best thing that a man can say to his female partner to foster good relationship is "I'm Sorry". Che' Kem and Che' Mi almost jumped out of their seats and vehemently dissagreed. "But what if you didn't do anything wrong?" Che' Kem argued.

See. There in lies the difference between men and women.

Men sees "I'm Sorry" as apologizing and admitting fault.
Women, on the other hand, sees "I'm Sorry" as apologizing and assuring feelings.

It doesn't really matter who is at fault, when a woman feels hurt, they need someone to validate that feelings, so that they themselves feel validated. They want to hear "Yes, you have the right to feel that way, and I care for you enough to make you feel better". An "I'm Sorry" (especially if it's from the man that made her feel bad in the first place), does exactly that. (It's either that, or an "I know exactly how you feel!!" from another woman, but wouldn't it be better if it came from the man in question?)

Now, if you have a husband that has not read the book (or this post)(or is just plain blurr), how in the world do you get him to say "I'm Sorry"?
It took me quite a few years to learn to do this : Just ask for it.
Before I learned how to ask, all I did was seethe and pout and feel miserable. Then I picked up the courage to just say, "look, all I wanted to say is my feelings are hurt (or I dont feel loved) by (whatever), and what would make me feel loved now is an I'm Sorry from you".
You'd be suprised as to how quick you'd get that "I'm Sorry".

Try it, and tell me if your relationship doesn't get better :)

I want to watch this

I want to watch this, but I'm not a resident of the U.S. or Canada.



How now brown cow?

Easy Peasy Nasi Tomato

We had bought a leg of lamb on Thursday and I had marinated it that very afternoon, not remembering that it was my birthday the next day. Ninuk reminded me by asking if it was for my birthday dinner, and I was wracking my brain for ideas of what to eat the lamb with, when Rozanne, in her birthday wish for me on TheBookOfFace, asked me for the recipe for Nasi Tomato. Lightbulbs went off, Nasi Tomato and Roast Lamb it is! I also decided to make some pajeri nenas to provide the obligatory kuah (gravy) for any rice dish we have in this family.

So this post is not only to show off tell you about what I had for my birthday iftar, but to also share with you (especially Rozanne) my recipe for an easy peasy nasi tomato (tomato rice).
My version of tomato rice does not use ghee or evaporated milk because I don't like it when my rice is too rich. Some recipes also use pandan (screwpine) leaves to add aroma, but since it's quite difficult to find that here, I also omitted that out. The result is a very light but tasty tomato rice, that went very well with lamb and pajeri nenas (a sweet, thick, pineapple curry).

Easy Peasy Nasi Tomato (Tomato Rice)

Ingredients:
2 cups rice (washed and drained)
Enough water to cook rice*
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cube chicken stock OR salt to taste
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small onion chopped fine
2 cloves garlic sliced very fine (mayang)
one 2inch cinnamon stick (kulit kayu manis)
one star annise (bunga lawang)
2 cardammom pods (buah pelaga)

Method:
In your rice pot, mix rice, water, tomato paste, sugar and stock/salt.
In a seperate frying pan, heat up oil and saute onions, garlic and spices till onions are slightly brown and spices are fragrant.
Transfer fried ingredients into the rice pot, stir to mix well and let rice cook as usual**
When rice is done, garnish with roasted almonds/cashews, crispy shallots and chopped coriander.
Can served with most curry dishes, chicken in red sauce, pajeri nenas, mixed salad or any type of acar (mixed vegetables in a simple vinegar+sugar dressing)
Serves 4 adults comfortably.

Notes:
* I used the normal thai rice, but you may use basmathi rice if you prefer, so the amount of water required may vary. I am old fashioned and still use my finger to measure my water so cant really tell how much I actually used.
** I still cook my rice on the stove, so usually I let it boil on high uncovered until the water level recedes to the very surface of the rice, reduce the heat to low, give it a good stir, then cover the pot. I let it steam itself for about another 10 minutes then check if the rice is done by taking a few grains and pressing it in between my fingers. If it's thoroughly tender, then it's done, and you can take it off the heat. Electric rice cookers tend to undercook any type of rice dish that has tomatoes or milk in them, so if you're using one to prepare this dish, check often and keep switching on the cooker till your rice is done.

Links to related recipes:
Pajeri Nenas
Kid-Friendly Ayam Masak Merah (Not spicy Chicken in Red Sauce)

Happy trying, and don't forget to tell me how yours turn out!

Wishing Space

Here's a space, just in case you want to wish me anything today ;)
I'm just humbled to still be alive and still be a practicing muslim.

Famous Ahy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Eversince rotikacangmerah promoted her brother's cookies on her bloglast year, I had been drooling over these cookies. Reading her describe it, (and she does have a way with describing good food), you get the impression that it's the best chocolate chip cookie in the world.

So, when I was back home for the holiday,I decided to order some to bring back to Saudi. 'Some' is an understatement. Ahy said one 'batch' yield about 8 packs, with each pack containing 50 cookies. That's 400 cookies, ladies and gentlemen, and I ordered them ALLLLLLLL.

The very moment Ahy passed me the cookies in IK3A, we (Dory, to be exact) had opened one tupperware right there and then, next to the pine shelves. The aroma that wafted out once the lid was pried open (we were that gelojoh) was a telling preview of the chocolatey goodness we were about to taste.
The moment I bit into one, I had to agree with rotikacangmerah, it was one of the best chocolate chip cookies in the world.
The cookie had crunch, it had the slightly chewy oat bits, and it had the gooey chocolate chip bits. It wasn't too sweet, yet sweet enough, just the way I like it.
My only complain is that they were small, and it made it too easy to eat!!
Ahy had put the cookies in 2 huge tupperwares, and 2 days after I opened the one tupperware, that huge tub was empty!

That was why it took me awhile to put this post up. I had hesitated for a loooong time from breaking the seal of the last remaining tub of cookies. I knew, once I opened it, I (or the kids) would be tempted to eat it. I finally opened it coz it is impossible to tell you about how yummy they are without showing you how yummy they look.
Even Izani couldn't help drooling over the cookies while I was taking pictures. I was so scared that he would jump all over the cookies, but fortunately he did not. He did ask "I want, cooties, please?" over and over again, though.
For his patience, Izani was finally rewarded with some ;)



Ahy is accepting orders for Eid, so if you're interested to try some of these delicious cookies, do give him a call at 012 314 2353 , or email him at farhi_rosley@yahoo.com.
If you cant reach him there, also try emailing f4527_r@yahoo.co.uk

1st Ramadhan

Yesterday was the first day of Ramadhan.
Ilham and Ihsan woke up for sahur, and they were quite okay even though we kept having to prod them to eat and not sleep at the dinner table. After awhile they were awake enough to finish their food and have some tea. We went over the 'rules' for fasting, what they can and cannot do. I told them to try their very best at controlling their desire to eat/drink. This is after all, the ultimate test against yourself. I also reminded them that fasting is not an excuse not to participate in school activities. Just make sure you eat right during sahur and do not over-exert yourself during play time, and you'll be fine.
We prayed fajr together, and they went back to sleep.
I had to drag myself out of bed at 6:15am to wake Anis up first, coz she's the only who needs to have breakfast, and only woke the boys up 15 minutes later. They were so happy they got extra sleep time coz they don't need to have breakfast. Ilham yippeed that his schoolbag is lighter without his lunchbox. (And I yippeeed coz I only had to prepare one lunchbox!)

The kids came home in good spirits. Ilham and Ihsan were tired, but they were proud of themselves for surviving. Ihsan was happy he could hang out at the sand dome playing card games with the other fasting kids during lunch break. Ilham asked me if he batal puasa if he killed an ant. Ihsan said he almost drank some water but remembered that he was fasting.
Reminds me of how grown up they've become. I remember a time when Ilham would reply "Ilham tak kuasa" while sucking on his milk bottle when I ask him if he was fasting.

I had wanted to go grocery shopping with the bus, but I had a cold so I scrapped that plan. That decision left me in quite a dilemma : I had wanted to make prawn fritters but had no prawns. How now brown cow.
After procastinating by playing sudoku and watching Monsters Inc over and over again with Izani, I decided to take a walk to the mini market and get me some frozen prawns. It's not as good as the fresh ones (frozen prawns tend to shrink and become tough when cooked), but it'll do.
Ihsan helped me pound dried shrimp, Ilham helped me make air sirap, and Anis was the official taster. Ilham helped me decide on making chicken rice for iftar, coz my brain was dead.
So that's what we had for the first iftar of the year - sub-standard prawn fritters, and chicken rice.
I have NO idea what to cook today :P

On the taddarus front, due to my annoying cold, I only managed to muster 23 ayats of Al-Baqarah in between frying up fritters. Shameful. I hope I'll do better today.

How was your first day?

Selamat Merdeka dan Ramadhan Kareem

mercutanda
Selamat Merdeka
Today is Malaysia's 51st Independence day.
So why do I feel that even though our nation is 51 years old, we are still acting pretty immaturely?
You know what I'm talking about.
There's name-calling, taking away someone else's toy just coz you dont like him/her, throwing a tantrum when you think someone's gonna talk bad about you, swearing to god you didn't do something... I am just waiting for someone to chant and jeer "Ayok, tak tayor, balik rumah makan sayor" (or something to that effect).
Grow up.
Perhaps one day we'll be grown up enough to not need parties and fireworks to celebrate our own birthday.
A good present - abolishment of tolls? Reduction ( a real, substantial one) in fuel prices? a trustworthy government? - would do.
eh, but i digress.
Selamat Hari Merdeka, Malaysians :)

Ramadhan Kareem
Tonight is the first of Ramadhan!
Ilham and Ihsan are excited coz they get to "wake up in the middle of the night an eat". I've got tempoyak, sambal daging and plenty of eggs for emergency lauk. I bought a Malaysian cookbook, just in case I suddenly crave for something.
I again, will attempt to finish reading the Quran within 28-30 days. This year I will read the regular Quran and not the tafseer, coz I find the translation distracting and slowing me down, though I feel that defeats the purpose of reading the Quran in the first place. But i just want to be able to say "I managed to khatam my Quran this year!"

I would like to take this opportunity to ask for forgiveness from all who read me, just in case I've written or said something that hurt your feelings.
I would also like to wish you all a blessed and peaceful Ramadhan, may Allah widen our path and award us with opportunities to do more ibadah than we did last year.

Insya-Allah.

Kalau beli kueh kat pasar ramadhan tu, ingat2lah kita yang jauh dan terliur ini..

My Kids' Holiday

Today is the first day of school.
Finally, some time for myself .. :)
Now I have time to tell you about how our holiday went, and don't have to wrestle the computer away from people who wants to play runescape.
Let's start with how my children's holiday went, shall we?

10 out of 14 cucu-cucu kustamang

They were really happy to go back this year coz mokciknab's kids were around. I almost didn't recognize Adam coz he looked so different from the last time I saw him. He's taller and leaner now.
We picked up our nieces and nephews whenever we can and had sleepovers as often as we could. You should have seen the ruckus we made every time we took the whole bunch of kids out for a meal at a restaurant. Everyone would take a second look at us and I am sure they were wondering whether all of them were Taufik's and mine coz they do look almost alike.
There was only one air conditioned room in my house so when they were sleeping over there, everyone crammed into that one room. Macam duduk setinggan.
My kids enjoyed themselves very much, though :)



Ilham is really curious about the dynamics of relationships nowadays, especially that of my parents. He had a lot of questions about why my parents are together but not together, why he has a step-grandmother. He absolutely adores his Ki and Wan Shereen, but he's just curious as to how it all happened. Sometimes when I get tired of fielding his questions and am scared that I would accidently let my guard down and he could see my residual bitterness, I would just tell him to ask Ki himself. The last night we were in Malaysia, he did. According to Taufik, he sounded a little rude and got told off for it (by Taufik). I hope Ki knows that he's just asking out of curiosity and not malice.
I wonder if he's old enough to understand the complexities of human relationships.



Ihsan just wants to have fun. And what fun he had. Both he and Ilham got to snorkel for the first time in their lives. We were actually worried how he would do since we had only been swimming in concrete pools before, and not in the open ocean. I buddied up with him while Taufik was with Ilham when we went to our first snorkelling spot, which was near a lighthouse and the water was relatively deep. He struggled a bit at first, trying to get used to his flippers and life jacket, but after a while he was okay and enjoyed himself immensely. He counted how many Nemos he saw. We also got to swim with turles! Ihsan would patiently watch the turles eat sea grass and the moment it showed signs of surfacing for air he would be the first one to chase after it. For his efforts, he got to touch a turtle's flipper. (Actually, you're not allowed to touch the turtles.. *sheepish grin*). The next day we went snorkeling without life jackets (in shallower waters of course) and he was doing quite well. Maybe next year we could try scuba diving ;)



Anis had been complaining about not finding things in her room and she sits really close to the TV when watching it, so we suspected that something was wrong with her eyesight. So one of the first few things we did when we got back home was getting her eyes checked. Turns out that her right eye needed 1.25 lenses and her left 0.5, so we ordered glasses on the spot. She got her glasses a day before we drove back to Alor Setar.
She had wanted pink plastic frames but her brothers said she looked like Betty Suarez so she decided on something that was similar to Taufik's glasses. That didnt stop her brothers from calling her Ugly Betty for a few days, often reducing her to tears. I told her that I think she looked really cute and smart in glasses. Don't you think so?
Taufik taught her how she should always have her glasses on so that her eyesight doesn't deteriorate and how to take care of her glasses. She's quite good at it too, she always finds a table or some kinda ledge to put her glasses on when she goes to sleep or shower.



Izani just wants to try and do everything his older siblings do.
When we got Anis glasses, he wanted one too, so we had to buy him a cheap pair of sunglasses (which he eventually broke). When his brothers climbed trees he tried that too. He even tried to snorkel, but gave up when he discovered his head would get wet (Somehow he has this fear of getting his head wet, which makes bath time a scream fest).
One of the other first few things we did when we got home was go see the dentist. Ilham had a tooth extracted and the doctor gave him a gauze to bite on to control the bleeding. After Izani got his own teeth checked out, he didnt want to get off the chair and pointed to his brother and said "I want I want". We finally figured out that he wanted a gauze to bite on, just like his brother, and the friendly dentist obliged.

More stories later :)

MyPhone

wah 6 days flew so fast.. I have no excuse for not blogging, but heck if I'm not gonna try to give some.
My internet was unstable. I had laundry to do (I dont understand why I always have loads of laundry to do after a long holiday. It's as if I did not do any laundry at all when I was where I was). I forgot I was lactose intolerant. Correction - I thought I had gotten over being lactose intolerant, but I was wrong. (I drank fresh milk and suffered headaches and diarhea, i dont know how to spell that word, for 2 days. too much info, I know). I had to finish 21 sudoku challenges! (berpinau mata).
I was malas.

aaanyways.

My Phone.
As I mentioned in my previous post, my old phone got stolen.
We were in Paka (Trengganu) sleeping at a friend's house (a very lovely house, lotsa windows, no grills, wooden floors, huge backyard filled with fruit trees and a view of the river mouth and south china sea) and I had charged the phone in the kitchen on the first floor and when I woke up and went downstairs I found both phone and charger gone. Someone(s) had broken into the house through a window with a broken latch and took what was easily reached and disposable. Also missing was a bag of duku, and I think a bag of instant keropok that my aunt Loni gave, coz I couldnt find it anywhere.
I wasnt really bummed that my phone got stolen. It was a really old Motorola E398, and the battery/charger was going all wonky anyways. I had to charge it everyday to keep it alive. Taufik had said that we should buy a new phone.
I was bummed, though, that with the phone, I also lost pictures of my kids when they were younger, especially Anis when she was chubbier and curlier, and everyone's phone numbers!!! (Last year Taufik accidently threw away my SIM card, so I kept all my numbers in the phone instead of the card, so now I have nothing. Nothing! except for maybe a few numbers that Taufik had kept in his handphone)
So if you're reading this and you have my Saudi number, please do sms me your number so that I could keep in touch with you.
And also because i lost everyone's numbers, I was not able to contact some people that I had wanted to meet up during my holiday. My apologies!!! (Especially you Farah.. dah beranak ke belum?)

anyways.

My NEW Phone.
I hearrrrtttttttt my new phone!
It's a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic, in red. Taufik chose it for me. I had wanted a different phone, but I am glad he forced made me buy this one.
I had just transferred PearlJam's Lost Dogs, Riot Act and the avocado album into the phone. I had also transferred some bootlegged songclips I had stored on my computer (like Stuff&Nonsense that Eddie did with Neil Finn at Karma Club).
I can now rawk to PearlJam while I cook in the kitchen. woo hooooo!!
awesome!
All I need now is either a headphone with longer wires coz the ones I have are really short and keep coming off my ears when I have the phone in my pocket and I bob my head, OR .. get me blootooth headphones. oh yeah...
hey hey I have a birthday coming up, maybe that's what i should ask for *wink*

More tomorrow or whenever I finish uploading pictures into Flickr.

almost over

Well, my 5 week malaysian holiday is almost over. It felt like it went like a flash.
Tonight we're gonna have a dinner with half of my family to celebrate mokciknab's birthday . 'Half of my family' - coz my mom is away to help tulisje with her new baby, The One Who Does Not Blog is away in Bangkok, and Mimi is down with chicken pox (hey hey go wish her get well soon!).
Tomorrow I've got to wake up early to get the kids ready and have breakfast and get in the cab at 9am to reach the airport by 10am and check in for my 12:15pm flight.
I'm almost done packing, except for the keropok (fish crackers) and ikan bilis (dried anchovies), and I just remembered that I didnt buy any udang kering (dried shrimps). :P

Actually, there are many many things that I wanted to buy but ended up not buying for one reason or another. C'est La Vie.

aanyways...

Just thought you'd be happy to hear that I'll be returning back to my regular blogging schedule in a few days ;)
See Ya!!

Bloggers Gathering 16th August ...

... has to be cancelled...!

SO SO SO SO SO Sorry!!
Tapi macam susah aje nak coordinate :P
Dah lah i susah nak online.

I will be in KLCC besok (thursday the 14th) during lunch time. Sapa nak jumpa boleh call kosong satu nam, nam kosong limer mpat tujoh tujoh smilan.
The rest of the days ada kat Kelana Jaya kot. Kalau rindu sangat telefon lah.
AHAHAHAHHAHAHAH

*tunggu tepi talipon*

eh sat nak habag.
telefon i kena curi tau... so I lost semua orang punya numbers.
kalau rajin, sms lah nombor yang tertera di atas so that i can store your numbers.

incident kecurian tu, kita story mory lain hari ya?

btw, I balik Saudi on the 21st, so tak boleh join shopping2 on 23rd.
:(
Tapi i dah borong satu munawarrah before balik kedah itu hari. *huge grin*

cant write long

Sorry for the silence. My internet was down since thursday afternoon and it was only up yesterday and I've been trying to play catch up with my emails since then.
You'd think with the internet down, I would've been able to settle packing and cleaning and stuff before, but aarrrgghhhh
I still need to scrub the stove, mop the kitchen floor, and clean out the fridge.
It's 9:14am and I am leaving at 2pm.
Enough time? I hope so.
Thank God I've got my packing done. Almost. Still need to saran wrap some fresh dates.

hey hey
so what's up with the blogger's gathering?
I'm still up for August 16th, up to you if you want brunch or tea. Let's make it simple, we can meet at some park or something. Makan kacang and play ball or whatever..
Can somebody help me with this? *Looks at Nina and grins*

gotta go.

Transfer is completed!

YAY!!!

I am done transferring stuff from http://elisataufik.efx2blogs to here.

Now on to izani's blog!

2006 is done!

I have successfully transferred posts from 2006 over from efx2 to blogspot.
Phew...!
It all had to be done one by one! Itupun I did not even bother to update the links, so if you find broken links, I'm sorry.
And nad a.k.a mamarawks, sorry for the confusion, the post you commented on was one fo the old posts I transferred but forgot to change the date :P

I have go cook some giblets (pedal ayam) now.
Tomorrow: Posts from 2007!

Why in the world did I write so much???

p/s you might find some interesting culinary posts there. I guess I should start displaying my categories, eh?

kitchen window

A few weeks ago I told myself I would try to take at least one photo a day to sharpen my picture-taking skills.
So far I've only managed to take one picture a week, more like it.

Anyways, here's my kitchen window, from the outside and inside.

Those flowers are fake,
but their color provide enough cheer for me while I'm cutting up chicken or draining pasta or washing the dishes.
Worth the 9 times SR6 (SR54) that I paid for, and I don't even have to stress or worry about them dying on me when I go on my vacation (or forget to water). The only care they need is a little rinsing now and again to wash off the sand/dust, especially after a sandstorm.
It also makes my kitchen window unique when you look for it from the street :)

Good Behaviour Chart

About a year ago when Ilham and Ihsan became old enough to do chores, I decided to put up a Star Chart as a reward (thus motivation) system to encourage them to complete their chores. Each chore that is completed well (keyword: 'well') will be rewarded with a star, that could be converted into money that could be spent on anything they want, be it books, toys, trinkets on our travels and what not.
For disobedience (i.e. not listening to me, disrespecting, hitting), I used the naughty-spot/time-out method.

As three of them got older, I think they have outgrown the naughty-spot method, so to keep their behaviour in check especially during the school holidays when tension runs high and opportunities for conflict is aplenty, I have decided to introduce the Good Behaviour Chart.

left: Star Chart, right: Behaviour Chart (click for a bigger image)

Each of them gets an initial 10 points on their chart (Because I believe that they are essentially good). For each bad behaviour (Starting a fight, hitting, not listening/ignoring instructions, screaming, etc), one point will be crossed out. The person(s) with the most good behaviour points at the end of the week will get a reward: They get to choose where we eat during the weekend.
We have only been using it for a week plus, and last week Ihsan chose to eat Roti Telur at Madina Restaurant. This week so far, nobody has gotten their points crossed out yet, but it's only Sunday so we'll see.
I think so far so good. My kids have started to think twice before they do anything, and it only takes a "Do you want a point off?" from me to keep them in check.

Oh man.. now that I've written that all down, I think I sound like some military matron...
*hangs head in shame*

My Holiday Schedule

Here we go again, another trip back home!
Here's my tentative plan.

Click for a larger image
Aside from the arrival and departure dates, the makan2 at Sabrina's on July 20th, the KLCC trip on July 21st, the kenduri (wedding reception) on July 26th, the trip to Besut-Perhentian-Merang-Kemaman-Kuantan from August 3rd to 10th, everything else is not really set in stone.
So if you want me to pencil you in, tell me.
We're planning a trip to Kuala Gandah to look at elephants on Sunday August 17th. You're welcomed to come with us if you want.

---

LET'S HAVE A BLOGGERS GATHERING!
Tentative date?: Saturday, August 16th (First day of school holiday), but am open for other suggestions. Please check my calendar for availability.
Suggest a place! Previous gatherings were held at Putrajaya Taman Wetlands (2005), FRIM (2006) and my house (2007).
Suggest menu! Previous gatherings were always potluck, but no harm in changing it up a bit.
Looking forward to hearing from you :)

Too Many Ideas

My mom-in-law has this phrase "Banyak akai", which is actually "banyak akal", which literally means "too many ideas". It is often referred to a child who can't seem to sit still, which is exactly what Izani has become.

I am sure Ilham, Ihsan and Anis were as crafty as him, but perhaps I was not as aware of it because I didnt spend the whole day with them. Therefore, I was also spared the frustration of having to clean-up after them and closely monitor them to make sure they don't get into another mischief.
I can't leave Izani alone for even 5 minutes. I went to the toilet this morning and came out to discover he had ripped off the box cover of a borrowed CD. While I was downstairs cooking and his older siblings were engrossed in Hanna Montana, he had thrown all his hot wheels (and something else, we dont know what) into the toilet bowl and flushed it. Because the toilet got clogged, Taufik decided to throw away all of my kids' small toys (poor kids!). I give him a bowl of cereal to eat in front of the TV because he wanted to watch teletubbies and I go make my bed and the next thing I know, the whole living room is covered in cereal. The other day I had to use a tweezer to take a spring out of his nose!

Now Izani's current obsession is taking off his clothes and diapers.
HORROR you know !!!
It started with just him learning to take off his clothes. He'd be running around with only his diapers on and I'd be chasing him yelling "shame shame boy! shame shame boy!". It turned into a game. Then he started pulling the diapers down a bit so that his dickie would stick out. It was funny at first. But then he learnt how to rip open the tabs. He'd be sitting quietly and the next thing I know he'd be nekkid!
He'd still be watching TV, or doing whatever, but he'd be nekkid. The other day I had to wash the sofa coz he had an 'accident'. I will not go into details for fear no one would want to come to my house or invite me over.
This morning.
This morning was the last straw.
He had actually ripped open the seams for the diapers (don't ask me how! Coz the seams are like sewn or something! It boggles me!) and the gel stuff came spilling out.
Eyyyyew okayyyy?????
And do you know how difficult it is to clean up those gels thingies?? I cant wash it out, coz they absorb water. It's like filled with pee and yellow and all so I can't possibly touch it. It's like, really tiny and gets into carpet piles and sofa crevices.
*shudders and screams in disgust*
By hook or by crook, I had to clean them up. I used the small broom thingy and also a vacuum cleaner then sprayed disinfectant all over the place.

While I'm typing this up, I've gotten up and checked on him for, like, 10 times. Last I checked, he was fiddling with the red, white and yellow audio/video connectors on the TV. When he saw me coming, he dropped what he was doing and ran to the sofa and buried his face in the cushions.

Other mommies are making their house safe for their kid. I have to start thinking about keeping my house safe from my kid.

Pening bonda...

cheeky little devil!

Transferring....

If you're wondering why I've been so quiet these past few days, it's because I've been a little bit busy.

No,
not with playing sudoku or trying to beat CK's pathwords score or playing scrabble with my siblings (and sibling in law *wink*).
Come to think of it, "The Book of Face" as someone on manon's blog calls it, has been taking over my life a bit, and if i could remember who invited me to it, I would probably curse him or her. But actually it's kinda fun coz as i said, how else could I play scrabble with my family? I would invite my dad in too, but a parent's curse are potent, so I don't think I want to take that risk.

urm..
where was I?

oh yeah.

I have been busy transferring my old posts from efx2blogs to blogspot.

okay whine*slash*explanation coming up.

I dunno.
I love the people in efx2, but you know things are getting a bit weird in efx2 with keith being so quiet and spambots filling up my comment alerts and some of my favourite people moving away and stuff.
So yeah, I'm thinking of moving.
and I figured, even if I decide not to move, I'd have a backup and wont lose all my posts like i did when modblog went down *shudders*. All those memories.. down the drain *wipes a tear*.

So anyways.
That's what I've been doing.

The House in Batu Buruk

Having finished reading Growing Up In Trengganu by Awang Goneng, I am inspired to write down my own memories of my home state. I will be posting these writing under the category/labels "Trengganu Jam".
I only really lived in Trengganu till I was 8 years old, because we moved away then, but we always went back to Trengganu during the school holidays. So I guess you could say that I did grow up in Trengganu, coz a lot can happen (and did happen) to a child during the holidays. Even though I actually spent more time out of Trengganu than in it, in my heart, I had always been, and always be a Trengganu girl.
My memory is a little bit like swiss cheese when it comes to my life as a child in Trengganu, so bear with me. Perhaps some of you can correct me or help me clarify the blurr bits.

I will start with my earliest memory, living in a house in Batu Buruk.

From what I can recall, the wooden house we lived in in Batu Buruk was either painted white, or a very pale green. I remember it had a long corridor that led from the living room to the other rooms and the kitchen at the back of the house. I remember this because I once roller skated down that corridor and could recall the sound the wooden wheels on metal shoes made on the uncarpeted wooden floors. Along the corridor there were long doors that open out, with railings to prevent naughty little kids from falling out. I remember sitting by the doors, with my legs dangling outside through the railing, watching birds on the pokok terajang and the next door neighbours' brick house with the lovely dahlias.

I must've been about 4 or 5 years old, because I know I haven't gone to school yet then. I spent most of my days sitting at home waiting for my KakLong (eldest sister) to come back from school and show me the latest thing she learnt. When she comes home, I'd follow her around, sometimes to watch her play, sometimes to her Qur'an lesson, where she'd also bring the day's leftover rice and dried out coconut scrapings in a plastic bag to a neighbour's house that has a lot of chickens. The neighbour would give us some coins, and we would by tit bits from a small store, also on the way to the Qur'an lesson. Our favourite were these plastic packets that sometimes had fish crackers, sometimes candy canes but always a golden bangle (which was of course, not really made of gold). We'd break the bangle and straighten it out and use it as a glamorous pointer for our Qur'an lessons.

Weekend mornings I'd follow my KakLong to buy roti canai at the shop on the main road. We'd walk across the huge field in front of our house, through some bushes, then up a slight incline where we would emerge at a small lane at the side of the roti canai shop. We'd go to the front of the shop to make our order. Sometimes we'd bring with us some eggs, to be added to our roti canai. While we wait for our order to be fulfilled, I'd watch cars pass by and look beyond the other side of the road listening to the sounds of the South China Sea waves crashing onto the beach of Pantai Batu Buruk. When we got our order, we'd walk back the same way, sometimes bumping into other people who use the same path to get their roti canai.

The field in front of our house was a curious little thing. Once it rained really hard for many many days, and filled our whole compound with water, including the field. When the rain stopped and the rain receded, the field did not dry up. It became a pond instead, and there were even fish in it. It really amazed us then how fish could've gotten in there. My sister and I made up theories that maybe there were fish eggs that had been lying dormant in the ground and all that water had coaxed them out. Somehow it never occurred to us that fish might have been swept into the field during the rain, and was trapped there when the rain stopped.

I don't remember watching any TV when I was living there. Most of the time we were playing outside in some rok (bushes). We picked mmuting (kemunting - something like berries), played tag or just walked around and theorizing on how ponds got filled with fish. Children are left to their own devices most of the time and we were allowed to roam free, with or without shoes. We knew to come home when it starts getting dark and we hear the azang ggarek (the call for prayers at dusk). Once, I missed my cue to go home and I reached my front door only to find that it had been locked. I had to duduk ccokkoh (sit doing nothing) in the dark by the door, listening to the noises of the crickets and ungodly creatures outside and the noises of preparations for dinner inside. I was finally let in, with a lesson learnt for life.

When I started going to kindergarten, we moved out of that house to another house in Bukit Kecil.
Every time we drive on that road leading to Kuala Trengganu via Batu Buruk, I would peer behind the buildings by the side of the road and try to identify that house. Unfortunately I could never tell which was the house I had fond memories of.

Sole Survivor

I've tried to nurture many many plants in the hostile saudi environment.
I have tried basil, rosemary, lavender, various flowering plants, japanese roses .. all of them died. Some due to lack of water when I went away for holidays. Some due to too much water when I got overzealous and thought I could counter the dryness with lots of water. Some due to the extreme heat outside. Some due to lack of sun (when I decided to bring them indoors to escape the heat). Boring tulll .. dah lah pokok kat sini mahal.(I am frustrated coz plants are expensive over here)
I know there are many books out there to tell me how to take care of plants in this extreme weather. I have read them in bookstores (read:I sneak-read them without buying), but none of the tips worked for my plants. (Perhaps I need to buy the books and read them properly instead of trying to remember as much as I can. tee hee.)
This is my only surviving plant :

That's the kalanchoe plant that went missing a few months ago.
I had been keeping it by the kitchen window before, but it has grown bigger so I moved it into a bigger pot and now it looks nice enough to be in my living room. I water it every other day and put it by the sliding door every morning to make sure it gets enough sun.

My kitchen window sill is decorated by a row of fake flowers in small pots (Daiso - QR/SR6 per pot). These are more my style. They don't need watering and can withstand the heat :)

Note: Taufik has been better at keeping his plants alive. He has a jasmine tree and a frangipani tree on our front porch. He also has these really hardy creepy leafy plants that could live out of just a bowl of water. They now sit on either side of my kitchen sink.

2 movies and 1 dramatic end

I caught The Prestige on the movie channel a few days ago.
I had seen promos for this movie and was intrigued by the story of rivalry between two magicians (plus the fact that it had Hugh Jackman *and* Christian Bale *and* Michael Caine). It was indeed a story about rivalry between two magicians, but it was also something more. From the get go, this movie was intriguing, and it stayed intruiging to the very last second.
Apart from The Usual Suspects, not many movies could keep me engaged and make me go Wow in the end like this movie did. I spent the next two days going over each scene in my mind, picking up clues in hindsight.
I have to warn you though, that the movie's time-line is a little askewed, coz there were many flashbacks within a flashbacks. Just get that straight and you'll have no problem.
I was also surprised to find out that one of the characters was David Bowie ;)
I would definitely recommend this movie.

I also saw Becoming Jane, which made me cry a bit. Such a lovely story. Made me feel how lucky I am to be able to end up with a person I truly love.

In other news, I have had a dramatic but successful end for my efforts on weaning Izani! Yay!! Read about it on the bonda blab blog - Wean or Lose?.

kerr-row-poke

A few days ago I responded to my friend June's wondering about who eats porridge for breakfast. I told her that I am one of the people who eats rice porridge for breakfast, even if I'm not sick.
My innocent respond led me to crave for porridge (as every little thing often make me crave for something or other... ). So when I had some leftover vegetable soup, I decided to make rice porridge with it.
Smelling the softening rice on the stove reminded me of when I went to visit my sister in Jakarta. I followed her out to get some breakfast one morning. We stopped at one of the many streets in Menteng where I saw there was a small crowd of people in front of a big mansion, crowding around a van. There were also a few huge luxury cars parked along the street.
I discovered that the man in the van was selling rice porridge. He'd pack porridge with some soup , and together with a pack of krupuk (crispy crackers) and some other condiments (I can't remember what.. i think there were crispy fried shallots and chopped parsley or something). His assistant would sometimes take and bring orders to the parked luxury cars. My sister said the porridge seller is doing very very well, coz he owns one of the huge houses on the street. We had porridge with krupuk for breakfast that morning and it was pretty yummeh.
That memory prompted me to fry my own stash of krupuk, to be eaten with my porridge.
I said "krupuk" (kerr-roo-pook) because I meant the Indonesian version, which is usually made of rice flour and vegetable flavours like onion or garlic. These, and the orange shrimp crackers or white fish crackers, can be found easily in the supermarkets here. The Trengganu "keropok" (kerr-row-poke), which is made of succulent fish and sago flour and is often greyish-brown due to being rich in fish, I treasure like gold and save only for special occasions (like when I feel like eating nasi kerabu or guests are coming and I have nothing else in the larder).
From my visit to Indonesia 2 years ago, I realised that just like the folks in Trengganu, the indonesians really love their krupuk. Just like we folks in the east coast of Malaysia like to use our fish crackers as spoons for our fried noodles, the indonesians use them as condiments for their fried noodles. They even have "mee keriuk", and instant fried noodles which comes with it's own small packet of crispy krupuk in the packaging.
Perhaps that's where I got my habit of having to have something crunchy for me to eat all the time. Like eating cheetos with my fried noodles. Afterall, my family do have blood from Indonesia flowing in us.
That also explains why my kids inherited the same liking to anything crunchy and crispy...

Izani and his basket of krupuk

Easy Peasy Spinach Filo Pie

It's more like a filo 'lasagne' than a 'pie' coz the ingredients are all layered up, but instead of using pasta sheets, I used filo pastry sheets (which are much much thinner), so I am reluctant to call it a lasagne.

This recipe involves quite a few ingredients and steps - the spinach filling, the bechamel sauce, the construction using filo pastry and cheese, and then the actual baking. Since the filling and sauce can be made in advance, however, plus the fact that the filo pastry can be bought from a store, the actual 'making' of this dish was quite easy and quick.

Easy Peasy Spinach FIlo Pie serves 8

Ingredients

Filling
200grams spinach, frozen or fresh, chopped up and wilted.
200grams cream cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Sauce
1 clove garlic minced
1 shallot minced
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chicken stock
optional - chopped up smoked turkey breasts
salt and pepper to taste
Body
1/2 pack small filo pastry squares
50 grams butter, melted
200grams shredded mozarella cheese

Method

Filling
In a bowl, mix cheese and spinach well, add salt and pepper to taste.
Sauce
In a saucepan, saute minced garlic and shallots in butter till slightly golden. Add the flour and stir until it's golden brown (This is called making the 'roux', a thickening agent). Add in the milk and stock and stir till thick. Add in the meat, if using, and salt and pepper to taste.
Body
Preheat oven to 375degF/190degC.
In a pie pan or casserole dish, arrange one layer of filo pastry squares at the bottom (it's ok to overlap). Brush some butter, then arrange another layer of filo. Spoon 1/3 of sauce over the bottom, then spread 1/3 of the spinach filling. Sprinkle 1/4 of the shredded cheese, then repeat the previous steps - one layer filo, brush with butter, 2nd layer filo, sauce, filling, cheese, until all the filling and sauce is finished. Arrange filo pastry squares that has been brushed with butter to form a lid, preferrably diagonally so that corners stick out like flower petals. Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.
Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the edges of the filo pastry is browned.
Let cool before serving.

You would need a fork and knife to eat this coz the edges is kinda crunchy but the middle is kinda chewy.
My kids didn't like that they could still see the spinach, so maybe next time I'll mince them finer.

Happy Trying! :)