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