Wonderful reunion!!

My good friends from school days finally made it to my place last weekend. I have not met them for the longest time. It was wonderful to meet them ... after 22 long years. (okay now I'm feeling old).
To mark the special occasion (especially that Mun Keong and wife Wai Chui are now living in China), I've decided to cook something special. I started preparing the night before (thank god, niece Syida was on hand to help). Excited punya pasal. The menu of the day includes:

• Nasi Tomato
• Rendang Ayam
• Daging Masak Hitam
• Paceri Nenas
• Acar Timun
• Pulut Kuning
• Nasi Himpit
• Kuah Kacang
• Sambal Jawa
• Lontong Kering

As for the dessert (we also went overboard):

• Carrot cake
• Chocolate cup cake
• Fruit Trifle (courtesy of husband)
• Raspberry Vanilla Mousse
• A variety of fruits and the much dwindling biskut raya.

It was worth it! Thanks Guys!

Main spread

Dessert Station

Carrot Cake

Chocolate Cup Cakes

What a Raya!!! Alhamdulillah!!

Salam Hari Raya and Maaf zahir Bartin from us all here in USJ 17.

Phewwwww.... what a Raya! This year, for some reasons, we did not balik kampung at all. So its Raya in USJ this year and although it'll have been better if my mom and MIL can Raya here as planned, we still managed to pull off a fun Raya.
And I've been on cooking marathon since the last day of Ramadan to jamu the tetamu..... (and now on the eve of school day... suddenly I felt exremely exhausted).

Here are some of the dishes that came out of my kitchen this Raya ....

First Raya - My two brothers and their family came over and we had some serious makan-makan session....

Marble cream chesse cake, cup cakes, kek lapis and fruit cake

The First Syawal spread ... consisting of

Nasi minyak, dalca and jelatah

Mee kari..

And the compulsory lemang, ketupa, rendang ayam and also rendang tok

Fourth Day Raya - We decided to go kampung style... (on second day we went to Sg Buloh for raya and on the third day, well, we were doing absolutely nothing)

Acar telur and Kerabu Tauge

Ulam, Sambal belacan and tempoyak kacau

Kari ikan and udang goreng

and Gulai lemak nenas ikan masin

Eighth day - More guests came over and they were served with

kuih-muih Raya and cream cheese carrot cake

Rendang ayam Mak Nor (Mak Nor is my aunt who came over on the fourth day and I sempat tanya her of this recipe.... which incidentally I went a bit overboard with the cili padi heheheh)
and Butter prawns, which I absolutely adore.

My August Girls!

In our household, birthdays are huge. Although, we no longer hold big parties to celebrate birthdays (like we used to when the girls were smaller), it is something that all of us still look forward to in all our eagerness. Even when nowadays, birthdays are celebrated just among ourselves!
And August is particularly special as my two eldest daughters celebrated theirs this month. Alia turned 15 on the 10th while Asma turned 14 on the 24th. However, as this August is also a month of Ramadan (plus the recession, H1N1 and Alia's looming PMR), we decided to tone down our celebrations.
We went to New York, New York Deli in One Utama (their choice not ours) to have a combined birthday lunch earlier this month. On the day of the birthdays, it was just a cake and a simple dish at home. But really, it was still fun!

What a delightful wedding!!

My husband's cousin Yang Khairun (Yone) got married to Azri of Kuala Pilah last weekend. So we went up north to Penang to attend the reception. What a pleasant kenduri kahwin it was!!!! Yone the bride is simply stunning. The hosts and co-hosts (namely Ayah Anjang, Wan, Anom, Nasir, Meor, Rina and Cha) are forever gracious. And Azri is one lucky addition to the family.

On top of that, I must say that the decorations from the pelamin to bunga telur are also top notch - classy, practical and beautiful with a capital B.

For example, take this pelamin at Ayah Anjang's home in Island Glade (there's no pelamin at the reception hall in Tabung Haji, by the way). It's everything that a pelamin should look like - cantik sangat!!!! And I was surprised that this was not the pelamin 'created' by those people that my aunt engaged in the first place. Apparently, they came and erected ... er.. a "not so nice looking" pelamin. It was so dreadful that the bride's sisters Anom and Cha decided to redo the entire pelamin (they rushed out to buy the kain-kain) and put up this new 'masterpiece." Amazing.

But what impressed me the most were the bunga telur or rather the wedding favours at the reception which are really cute little boxes filled with chocolates. What made it so special is that these boxes were hand made by the bride's family. They recycled the many Hari Raya and wedding invitation cards still kept by my aunt, Wan. Just you imagine, banyaknya kad-kad yang dia simpan. Such a clever idea!!!
They managed to save on the boxes so much so they filled it with sweets yang sedap-sedap. Best sangat!
And of course the bunga pahar by Anom is outrageously elegant, as expected, though!!

Selamat Pengantin Baru Yone and Azri!!

Corn Muffin

For some reason, my husband loves corn muffin (especially that of a certain fast food variety). So the other day, I decided to make some at home. It was not the same recipe as the ones you may find at that certain fast food joint but it came out nice. The verdict: the husband loves it as he said the ones baked at home are less sugary - which in turn is suitable for us who aspires to eat a more healthy diet.

Ingredients:

275g self-rising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
1 tin cream corn
100 g brown sugar
50 g castor sugar
1 egg
50 ml fresh milk
75g butter


Method:

Preheat the oven 180 C
Line a muffin tray
Add salt and bicarbinate of soda to the self raising flour
Melt butter and side a side
Combine brown sugar, castor sugar , egg, fresh milk and melted butter
Mix the texture with cream corn
Add this to the flour and stir gently until the texture rather like batter in consistency.
Spoon the mixture into the muffin cases and bake .

Muffins are easy to make because they need a little mixing. Best eaten when it's still warm.

Love Notes from My Daughters!

I almost forgot about this whole Mother's Day thingy until the husband and daughters treated me to a dinner last Saturday night. That's because I am truly blessed with three amazing beautiful daughters so much so that to me, everyday is already a Mother's Day.

I wish for nothing but happiness for my three angels. And I could have not ask for anything else as the joy that they brought me everyday are simply phenomenally satisfying!!

As we normally don't really celebrate Mother's Day, it still came as a surprise that Alia, Asma and Arissa created hand-made Mother's Day card for me (no wonder they were huddling in their room this morning). And that means a world to me!!!!


From Alia:
Happy Mother's Day, Mere (apparently this is how the French call their Mak!!! hahaha ) Thank You for being so caring and supportive and always be there when I need you. For that I love you more than ever. Sorry, if I am not the world's greatest daughter, but I try to be nice Sorry, if I did not turn out to be a genius many parents wish upon their kids. Sorry, if I don't really like Science and Maths, but I do love other stuff. Last but not least, thank you for being the greatest mother in this whole wide world

From Asma:
Happy Mother's Day, Mak No matter how many time I disappoint you, I will make you proud, eventually. I will make sure that your pretty smile will always stays on your pretty face.

From Arissa:
Happy Mother's Day, Okasan (this is in Japanese) You are chibi!!! (Chibi is cute in Japanese)

Thanks my daughters (I didn't know I have a French, Malay and Japanese as daughters today, but I'm still happy...hahahaha)

Puding Kelapa Muda

Malays call it agar-agar but most would probably refer it as pudding. Well, it does look like a pudding anyway and not agar-agar (jelly).

I learned of this recipe from my sifu - Kak Joy (of Seri Ain Cakes in Taman Tun) and it has been a favourite in my family ever since. I even made these puddings as the main desserts when I was helping my aunt during her son's wedding reception. Not only this pudding look nice, it tastes good too.

Ingredient A:

5gm instant agar-agar (that would be jelly)

400gm water/young coconut water

30gm brown sugar

Slices of coconut scrape

Ingredient B

5gm instant jelly

400gm water

300gm coconut milk

300gm sugar

Pink colouring

Method:

Boil both Ingredient A and B separately

Line the coconut scrape at the bottom of the mould

Pour Ingredient B first into the mould. Leave the texture to set for 15 minutes

Then pour ingredient A on top.

Refrigerate it and then makan

Such gesture means a world to me!!!!

Okay, I don't expect that I'll be so thrill to celebrate my birthday as I was last Friday. Yes, who likes to turn 40 years old, right? And to top it off, my husband and daughters, apart from wishing me Happy Birthday, just went about the day as usual... you know busy with school and all. But a suprise was in store come dinner time. Apparently father and daughters are planning to throw me a birthday dinner. I was barred from the kitchen, which suited me just fine. Hahaha. And they did slave all over the kitchen to come up with these.....

Beef tortilla and delicious tomato salsa

A gourmet burger - really high end spread you know

and a strawberry cake.. mostly done by Asma and Alia

What a birthday!!! Sometimes you don't need fancy celebration to make your day... this seemingly simple birthday dinner was simply delightful and it means a world to me!!! Thanks with lots of love!!!

Percuma: Majalah i-Dapur

Introducing Majalah i-Dapur. Ini sebenarnya sebuah e-majalah (as in ebook) dan Insya Allah akan dikeluarkan setiap bulan ini. Matlamat kami ialah untuk berkongsi kisah-kisah kejayaan terutamanya kejayaan mereka yang berniaga dari rumah. Semoga kisah-kisah sebegini akan memberi semangat dan inspirasi kepada kita untuk terus berusaha mencipta kejayaan.
Majalah i-Dapur secara khususnya akan membincangkan perihal bagaimana kita boleh mengoptimasikan rumah terutamanya dapur kita baik dari sudut bisnes mahupun penggunaan seharian.

Insya Allah ia akan dipenuhi dengan pelbagai cerita bisnes dari dapur, tips-tips dan petua-petua menarik.Majalah ini juga akan menitipkan informasi, tips dan berita terkini tentang perniagaan dari dapur dan rumah. InsyaAllah.

Malahan sekiranya anda juga ada perkara-perkara yang boleh dikongsi bersama-sama, bolehlah anda emel kepada kami agar boleh kita siarkankan untuk edisi yang akan datang.

Di dalam edisi bulan ini, kami memberi fokus terhadap perniagaan kelas memasak. Perniagaan sebegini boleh diketengahkan dengan memberi pendekatan dan penampilan yang boleh menarik minat orang ramai dan yang bagusnya ia boleh dijalankan hanya dari dapur atau rumah anda sahaja.

Apa yang penting ialah kita perlu mempersiapkan diri secara mental dan fizikal sebelum terjun di bidang ini. Bisnes dari dapur bukan sekadar main tangkap muat sahaja. Oleh itu sebelum memulakan langkah pertama kita perlu tingkatkan pengetahuan, kemahiran dan pengalaman. Iringkan dengan doa dan tawakal kepada Allah sentiasa, kami pasti anda akan berjaya mencipta kejayaan yang diimpikan.

Harapan kami semoga anda mendapat manfaat dari majalah ini. Kami juga mengalu-alukan pendapat dan pandangan dari anda.

OH ya majalah ini percuma sahaja. Untuk dapatkan satu cuma emelkan pesanan kepada majalah@duniadapur.com. Sharing is Caring!!

By the way, I was featured in NST (Tech&U) a couple of weeks back. Huyooo. Hahaha. Thanks Ana.

Earth Hour Dinner

I know there are many people out there who think Earth Hour is a ridiculous event (why, there's even Anti-Earth Hour group in Facebook).

But I support Earth Hour. To me Earth Hour is just that. It’s one hour, 60 minutes of life. I am fully aware that turning off your lights for those 60 minutes will not stop the glaciers from melting. It won’t save one endangered species on the brink of death due to Global Warming, but it will send a message. And I support that message. Earth Hour is a symbolic gesture.

And on that note, we at home decided to "celebrate" Earth Hour with a candle light dinner. Okay, its my husband's idea to get the kids to be more aware of the issues. (And before anyone comments about the greenhouse gasses or whatever effects that the candles released, thus negating the effects of turning off the lights, remember, its symbolic.)

Anyway, we decided to do it rather formally and what do you know, it was quite fun having dinner in semi-darkness and without the fan spinning at full speed above. And we decided to go for something different... as you may see from the menu below:

Appetiser

Green Peas Soup - sedap ler pulak

Main course: Marinated grilled lamb and roasted vegetables

The dessert: Chocolate caramel vanilla and sweetened strawberry

(P.s: Sorry gambor tak clear... maklumle ambik dalam gelap)

All about a person my daughters call Bapak

I've been tagged by Wanshana on facts about my husband. She tagged me earlier on somethimg else but I think I’ll do this first. Sorry ye! I'll get to that one later.

So, here goes -

1) He’s sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
E!entertainment, America’s Next Top Model. Hehehe, okay, he follows The Amazing Race quite seriously.

2) You’re out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
He prefers ulam over salad. So the dressing must be a sambal belacan

3) What’s one food he doesn’t like?
I can't think of any.

4) You go out to eat and have a drink. What does he order?
Drinks- Kopi ais, Ice lemon tea
Food – depending in his ‘perut’, full, half full or empty. Mee Goreng Mamak.

5) Where did he go to high school?
ACS Kampar

6) What size shoes does he wear?
A 10

7) If he was to collect anything, what would it be?
Books.

8) What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Scramble egg sandwich

9) What would this person eat every day if he could?
My Rendang Ayam

10) What is his favorite cereal?
Cornflakes. And .. er .. is Nestum a cereal too?

11) What would he never wear?
Anything that does not fit him

12) What is his favorite sports team?
Malaysia punya pasukan bola..boleh! But seriously he's not into sports la except sometimes he would watch tennis on the sports channel.

13) Who did he vote for?
PAS

14) Who is his best friend?
Me

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn’t do?
Ungkit-mengunkit hal-hal yang dah lepas. Uhuh, I can't help it... but usually he will ignore me la.

16. What is his heritage?
True blue Perakian. Perak and Perak. His parents are second cousins.

17. What is his favourite colour?
Blue

18. What is his habit?
Menyakat anak-anak and he has to read before going to bed

19. What is he proud of?
His family

20. Lastly, do you think he will read this?
Of course, definitely!

Okay I'm supposed to tag others as well. So i tag
Yah (Drama Mama),
PB and
Mumsies.

I love baking.... just lovin' it

I don't really remember when exactly but my 'love' affair with baking started when I was still schooling. Some even find my fascination with baking a little weird. I simply love baking (and cooking la sekali). And of all things baking, I love baking cakes (over cookies and breads and others).

Somehow deliciously beautiful looking cakes always attract my attention (and yes, Mawi's wedding cake at Palace of Golden Horses was glorious, no?). And ever since I was young, I always wanted to be able to bake and decorate cakes.

I love baking so much that I've already spent thousands of ringgit attending baking and decorating classes. And I'm still learning.
My first cake recipe (and the only recipe I knew for quite sometimes) was given by my college mate back in early 1990s when I was in UiTM. It was a chocolate cake. During holidays, I would baked the cake at home. It turned out quite okay, I guess. In fact, I baked one during my surprised engagement ceremony (another story for another time) as one of the hantaran.

So when I got married, I would baked that cake often, especially when people came visiting. A few friends even ordered the chocolate cakes, to my surprise, of course. But I wanted to know more. I wanted to be able to bake like a pro.
So when I received an offer to do my Masters in the UK in Actuarial Science, I declined. First, I could not imagine studying the subject for another three years but more importantly, I've decided that if I'm going to continue learning, it has to be something that's related to baking.

So I enrolled into one-on-one baking classes. It took me almost two years to complete the whole course, from beginner's to advanced levels. In between I also attended other classes, baking and decorating. And I was happy as slowly but surely, my 'repertoire' increases. Suddenly, my family (especially the husband) have moved on from forever requesting chocolate cakes to carrot cake and tiramisu.
You know something, watching people clean up cakes that I bake give me immense pleasure. Baking de-stresses me. I guess it's a bit like karaoke for many people. Since I can't sing to save my life, I guess baking is my karaoke.

Over the years, I've baked many cakes for friends and families. I've decorated cakes for hantarans. But still I don't see myself as an expert. I'm still learning.

Having said that I must say that baking is not really an easy thing to do. And I understand why many people view baking as tedious and difficult process. I guess it's true to a certain extent. One wrong move and you'll get one unedible cake. And worse still, you'll be the laughing stock of your friends and family.
Because of that, I've spent the last one year, trying and experimenting with cake recipes to make baking an easy peasy task. In the end, I've managed to come up with quite recipes that are easy to bake. As easy as 1,2,3.

I've compiled 15 of those recipes into a mini e-book... which is given free for those who purchase my Dapur - Lubuk Duit Anda e-book. For more details of the easy bake recipe click HERE