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

Dunia Dapur 2.0

Pada bulan Oktober 2008 lalu saya telah melancarkan e-book Bisnes Dari Dapur melalui Dunia Dapur.Com. Saya akui memang masih banyak kekurangan baik dari segi ebook tersebut mahupun laman web Dunia Dapur.Com. Hasil dari itu saya telah berusaha untuk memperbaiki mana yang kurang dan dengann bantuan profesional Sabri dari SaifulSham.Com .... kini laman web milik saya tampil dengan wajah baru yang lebih segar. E-book yang ditawarkan juga telah diberi nafas baru dengan tambahan maklumat yang lebih terkini sesuai dengan suasana bisnes di Malaysia.
Versi baru ini juga menampilkan dua pakej berlainan.
Bagi Pakej Regular, anda akan menerima Ebook Rahsia Buat Duit Dari Dapur beserta 3 Bonus hebat iaitu Tujuh Idea Hebat Bisnes Dari Dapur; Koleksi Resipi Kek Mudah Cepat dan Kuiz Kendiri Keusahawanan.
Bagi Pakej Premium anda akan menerima kesemua e-book dan bonus seperti di atas beserta dengan ebook Koleksi Penyata Kewangan (sesuai untuk mereka yang tidak mahir dalam hal-ehwal perakaunan).

Doa Dari Kami

Tumpah juga air mata
pabila insan yang
Aku tahu
Aku kenal
Dihina dan dicerca
Oleh manusia yang berhati busuk

Namun bangganya diri ini kerna
Kekuatan dan pengorbanannya
Persis khalifah Islam yang agong
Lantas aku mengesat airmata ini

Aku tahu kesusahan yang kau tanggung
demi membela nasib rakyat
Biarlah apa pandangan yang lain

Kami menyanjungimu
Kami sentiasa mendoakan
Moga Allah s.w.t memberkatimu
Harapan kami tidak akan pudar

Old Table New Look!

The above is my husband's old study table. If my calculation is correct, the table is already 30 years old. Apparently my husband and his two brothers each own similar table back home at my MIL's place. I've always been impressed by its hard-wearing finishing.
Last weekend, when my husband went balik kampung to send his mother, I've asked him if it's alright for him to bring back his table. I'm so eager to embark on a DIY project, dah lama tak buat anything, anyway.
Despite my husband's grumbling as the table, although small, is quite heavy (and he has to haul it all by himself), the sturdy table successfully made its way to USJ17 that day.
After a quick trip to Ace Superstore to buy the necessary, the girls and I went to work. Our aim was to transform the table to become a new worktable in our living room.
We started off by sand paper the wood and removed the table top made of formica. Can you imagine that? Yes, the top was covered with formica! Very 60s. Then we painted it all white.
As expected Asma stayed on to help till the end, while Alia and Arissa dissapeared mid-way. And oh yes, the husband was never in the picture. He was surfing the Net dengan selambanya while the ladies of his life were covered with paint.
But I like the end result. Simple yet elegant.

Sotong Masak Nyonya

Sebenar cerita saya tak ingat dari mana resipi ini saya dapat. Most probably dari 703 kot. Apapun, memasaknya tidak sesusah mana dan hasilnya is like yummy! Apatah lagi kalau sotong memang kegemaran, like in my home. Oh ya... hari ni sukatan main agak2 aje ya.

Bahan-bahannya:
Sotong (dah tentuler kan?)
Bawang merah
Bawang putih
Cili merah
Cili sos
Sedikit sos tiram
Sedikit tepung jagung
Daun pudina
Garam dan gula ( mesti)
Sedikit sos ikan untuk bagi kick

Cara-caranya:
Kisar bawang merah, putih dan cili. Sampai hancur, kalau tak ... kisar lagi!
Tumiskan bahan-bahan ini sampai satu dapur dah berbau.
Masukkan cili sos dan sos tiram (ini ikut suka lah ya).
Masukkan sotong dan tambahkan sedikit air (oh ya! jangan lupa bersihkan sotong ni dulu ya. Janganler pulak masukkan sotong dengan dakwat2 dia sekali... menangis mak mertua nanti)
Bancuhkan tepung jagung (dalam dua sudu besar) dengan sedikit air dan masukkan ke dalamnya.
Akhir sekali masukkan sedikit daun pudina, garam, gula dan sos ikan.
Jangan masak terlalu lama. Ditakuti sotong akan liat.
Dah pun siap!

Farewell 2008

It's already 2009. And the school will reopen soon. It's back to normal routine for many of us.
It has been a bouncy 2008 for us at home. And I'm quite exhausted. Really. The school holiday has been one long and tiring 'break" for me. From the very first day of the holidays, about one and half month ago, streams of relatives came over to enjoy their year end break. And it has been a cooking marathon for me.. non stop. Not that I'm complaining.

I enjoy having my family over. Apart from the usual suspect like my sister's family, niece and nephews from Cheras and Lumut and my brother in law's family from Shah Alam, who came over memeriahkan suasana during Hari Raya Haji, we also played host to a few others. For instance two nights ago, Pak Halim (my mom's cousin) and family came over for dinner.

At the same time my husband's cousin Iza and family also came. Iza lives not very far from our place (like5 minutes away) but we hardly saw each other. In fact the last time we met was more than a year ago. We used to be very closed many years ago ... before we succumbed to busy routine of our own.

But the most "enjoyable" tetamu during this past month would be Ayah Anjang and his family (my husband's uncle who lives in Penang). They (which include Wan (the wife) and children, Anom (too bad husband Nasir could not make it), Meor (and wife Rina plus a handsome Adi), Yone and Cha) came over for lunch and stayed on until night time. We ate and chatted non stop.

Of all my husband's relatives, I'm particularly very close to them. In fact, my husband's cousins used to lepak at our place before they got married. Those good old days. Naturally they are especially very close to my daughters.

For their visit I decided to cook something special and the result was my very own Chicken Roasted Berempah.

Before roasting the chicken

Ingredient;
1 whole chicken
100 gm dried chillies (blended)
3 cloves of red onion (blended)
2 cloves garlic (blended)
Cumin powder (serbuk jintan manis)
Cardamon powder (serbuk buah pelaga)
Coriander leaves
Oregano
Olive Oil
Butter
Salt and sugar to taste

Method:
Marinate the chicken with the blended ingredients as well as the cardamon and cumin powders.(overnight)
Upon roasting, cover the chicken with butter and olive oil as well as salt and sugar.
You may roast the chicken together with potato and carrot.
Also sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and oregano beforehand.
Roast for 30-40 minutes at maximum temperature.

To serve, put the chicken onto a plate of salad, tomato and lemon. Then its makan time.

Anyways, I wish everybody Selamat Tahun Baru 1430H and 2009M. Enjoy!!