Ramblings of a Mami of Two

I am hungry. I have three more days to go, have only skipped one day so far. Bravo 2.0! Anyways, as the tradition goes for women during buka puasa, by 1.00 pm masing2 dah terfikir nak masak apa for buka.  Today i'm cooking nasi goreng sadin. Because I want to eat sambal sadin. I think my sambal sadin is the bomb. Sadin + piping hot rice + telur goreng + kicap. I am in sadin heaven. Here, since aku lapar, lemme share my sambal sadin recipe with you, with the hopes that my laparness will go away: Sambal Sadin Mak Hanisah Ingredients: 1 tin sadin Bawang besar (potong bulat) Bawang putih (chopped) Cili kering (blended) Kicap manis Tomato sauce Potatoes (wedged and fried) Method: 1. Fry all sardin. Remove from kuali. 2. Tumis bawang, bila layu masukkan cili, goreng sampai garing.  3. Masukkan kicap (dalam 1 tbsp) and tomato sauce (1 tbsp), goreng lagi.  4. Masukkan sadin + potatoes.  5. Serve hot.   Awesome ...

Alhamdulillah, all of my siblings gathered to bukak puasa at Mak's place today. Mak cooked my favorite gulai, I think the amount of rice I had today is more than what I have taken for the whole week. Everyone was here, except for my eldest nephew who's in Penang now, and Bancik who had to leave early because he wasn't feeling well. After a hugeee buka puasa, all of us did our Maghrib together with Abangah as imam, and everything was fine... Until we started Isyak. It was 2nd rakaat. Abangah sedang baca Al-Fatihah when suddenly we heard the voice of a second imam, reciting Fatihah at the top of his lungs. I smiled. Then a few seconds later the Imam went silent, and I heard a loud laughter dekat saf depan. Rupa-rupanya my youngest brother tak tahan geli hati and burst out laughing dengar suara second imam. Who happened to be, of course, si bertuah Hakimi. Habis semayang orang. Then okaylah lepas semua orang dah chill, we started our prayers again. Hakimi...

... that I finally, finallyyyy, saw Kimi and Ach both enjoyed my food. The same food. I know Ach has always enjoyed the food that I cook ( either that, or he's a good actor ), but for Kimi, I've always had to prepare different set of milder food. Eg: Ach gets ayam sambal, Kimi gets soup ayam. But last night, Tuhan turunkan wahyu suruh aku masak spaghetti aglio olio (sp?) ikut resepi sendiri... Mostly because i didnt know what to cook. But I was surprised to see both  of them ate like they had never eaten for the past 10 years!!! Kimi voluntarily kissed me on the cheek and said, "Thank you mommy masak sedap!" and Ach pun sama kissed me and said, "TQ Bie!". They finished their serving in 10 mins. It was a small serving tho. Eh? Ehhh? Since when did this happen? Why did this happen? I am so not used to this! I was overjoyed. The feeling could easily beat the feeling of getting a new job. Seriously. Haih, the joy of being a mom and a wife. The smil...

Initially, we had planned for a breakfast picnic party, 30 October 2010, at the Taman Metropolitan Kepong, to be attended by only family members, you know, because I'm a family person . But unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side, it didn't stop raining until 9 am so we had to abandon our initial plan and have it at Mak's House instead.  Theme: Kimi loves his blocks a lot. So we thought it's fitting to have a lego-themed party! We bought everything blue, red and yellow, even the snacks and jelly were in those colors! Ach went out of his way to get napkins, cups, fork and spoon and straws in those colors. Comel ok?   Raisins?! Ahahaha. You know I'm a freak when it comes to feeding my son. Jadi, all jajans and candies are banned from the party, hence, the raisins. Hehehehe. Cake : Baking has never been one of my best qualities, hence, to spare everyone the misery of eating my batat (poorly-risen) cake, I asked my boss (yes, you read that right, my Boss...

 Yeap, 64 and still going strong! That's my mom. Her name's Hanisah Idris, but for some reasons that my mom has narrated to us like a hundred times but i never managed to remember, she is fondly called Ara (after Zahara) by our relatives. Abah used to call her Ani. I call her mak. There was a time ( wayyyy back then ) that I tried to sound manja by calling her mama but tak  pernah melekat. Mak was born on 18 May 1946. She went to King George V School in Seremban. According to mak, she was a very smart girl in school ( ye, mak saya sebenarnya pandai puji diri sendiri ). To her cikgu's and friends' surprise, mak got married to Abah after she left school ( saya selalu cakap mak saya gatal sebab kawin awal teehehe ). Mak, in my opinion, is a very sopan and lemah-lembut lady on the outside but is a very-very strong lady in the inside ( why ohhh whyy god dont i get that from mak? ). When Abah passed away, I know Mak was very sad but I never saw her cry let alone wept or w...

When I was pregnant with Kimi, I had cravings for things that I used to love in the States. I wanted cheese pizza they used to serve at Union's Fathers, strawberry cream cheese, Shalimar's tikka masala and churros . Ngeh ngeh ngeh. Mengada2, I know. I got my Strawberry Cream Cheese, that's after ach pusing satu KL siap google cold storage punya outlets, last2 jumpa dekat The Garden's. Yang lain tak dapat exactly what I wanted, tapi dapat la equivalent of them. I didn't get churros. Even dekat US dulu pun aku makan dekat theme parks aje. After I delivered I totally forgot about churros, until last week, when we stumbled upon Molten Lava at One Utama's New Wing. And they make churros oo eemm ji. The churros are sold with choices of different dips, but we like our churros sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, just like the ones in Great Escape. Sedap. Tapi takde la sedap gila tapi comparable la. The dough macam liat2 sikit. Its crispy on the outside but soft (but bit lia...

Okay yang ini bukan milk tea tapi ada rasa macam nak tulis jugak. The one that we went to is the one in Tesco Setia Alam. Ini memang a must eveytime we visit our new house. Kiranya kalau pindah nanti memang ada potential nak gemok gila aku ni asyik bantai donat je. Back to the mini donuts, in my opinion, these are among the best donuts i have ever tasted. FYI, I dont like the dunkin-donuts cakey types of donuts. I dont like complicated donuts like boston creme or mango filled something something or durian donuts. Donuts, to me, are best served original, that is sprinkled with sugar. Glazed pun ok. And donuts should be light and airy. (gaya2 donut selalu jual kat carrefour's bakery section). The best so far is Krispy Kreme donuts followed by JCo / Big Apple, tapi itupun yang served fresh from oven, bukan yang dah displayed lama and eaten sejuk. Kalau sejuk it becomes yucky. Too sweet and too lembek. Mini donuts sedap sebab its bite sized, and most important of all the dough itself i...

I am going to sing lots and lots of praises to this awesome human creation since this is the very reason Ach and I became bubble tea addicts. The milk tea does not taste like tea or the usual teh tarik mamak, it tastes more like vanila flavored milk with a hint of jasmine tea. I said jasmine because the tea smells and tastes very-very wangi! Its creamy and sweet but not too sweet nor too creamy that you feel full after 3 sips. The amount of ice cubes put into it is just right, they dont melt immediately making the tea tasteless in five minutes. The tapioca pearls, oo emm ji. They're not like ordinary tapioca pearls. These are special ones. They're chewy but not too chewy that they become rubbery, they're sweet but not too sweet. They taste and and smell like jasmine too, just like the tea.You know when you take a sip of bubble tea, you expect to sip the pearls together tapi you're not too sure how many you could get? Every piece is like a surprise. With this one, every ...

FYI, both Ach and I are die-hard fans of pearl teas. They are commonly known as bubble tea, for the black bubbles. Even tho we like to call ourselves die-hard fans, tapi kami ni takde la sanggup nak pusing merata Malaysia semata2 utk cari milk tea yang best. So back to the story, whenever we go to any mall, we'll make sure we find kedai bubble tea. Confirm ada. Sedap tak sedap different cerita. Btw, i forgot to mention, there are many flavors of bubble teas, from fruit juices and hazelnut to cappuccino. But we are two simple, conventional people, we both like to stick to the natural milk tea. Start dengan Little Taiwan Pearl Milk Tea @ Alamanda, Putrajaya. It costs us RM5.90. Can get cheaper tapi considering its location, maka haruslah mahal sikit. That kedai fella started by scooping the bubbles into our plastic cup, then he added ice cubes (lotsa them) and then finally he poured the pre-made teh susu. Lepas tu dia seal (sorta laminate the cup macam air mineral kecik2 tu) our pl...

Celebration #1 - Ach's *ehem ehem* Birthday We didn't do much. Somehow due to some constraints, this year's celebration is a bit subdued. But fun nonetheless. Anyways, as usual I like to celebrate any events by cooking . This year I made lontong for breakfast. Ach kata sedap. Yeay. Then I tried to make coconut candies, because Ach said he loves them. Unfortunately, the candies tak jadi because they wont harden. Lembek je macam wajik. Or dodol. Kesian. Then we went to The Apartment for dinner. I think this is the only place where you can experience eating in a bathroom (tapi takde la sampai ada toilet bowl. Shower head ngan tempat gantung towel ada la ). Cozy and very accommodating to kids. Nice food that are reasonably priced, nice ambience and friendly staff. They even got Kimi a balloon when he cried. Awww... you want to mengorat mommy you mengorat the son dulu okkk??? Btw, he had peking duck (blegh), steak sandwich (awesome!!!) and fish and chips (absolutely finger li...

Thanks to (*$%# we had to celebrate father's day a week late. Well, shit happens especially when you've sold your soul to the devil (read:B*&^%$) for luxuries like coffee bean and salon hair-dyes. Lets proceed shall we? My plan was to make the whole weekend as a "weekend filled with home-cooked and home-made goodness, all made with love". Translated to: I dont really have money to take you out to some fancy restaurants or relaxing weekend getaway or buy you some complicated gizmos so you'll just have to settle with what Ive planned for you. =) I started with chicken mushroom pie on saturday. This is how it came out: I think it looks a bit bleghh but Ach said it tasted good and I have to agree. Totally awesome for a first timer! Teehehehehe. He ended up eating almost half of the 10 pieces that I made. That afternoon we went back to kampung sebab his mom buat kenduri yassin. The masak-masak continued the next day when we got home from kampung. I made grilled ...

Isnt it nice that my birthday and mother's day are barely a month apart? =D I get two celebrations ( tho not necessarily two presents ) two months in a row. Yeay. Awesome. Btw, last week was my birthday. Initially, it felt like just any other day, if not worse. Pagi-pagi I rushed to KLCC to make sure KLCC's hall 3 was OK, then rushed to Bursa Malaysia to get some report on CSR, all the time wearing a pair of torturous heels. I even forgot it was my birthday until ach wished me that morning. But... Ach made it all ok by taking me to dinner at Max. @ iHaus. It's actually a showhouse time siang turned restaurant at night. Mula mula masuk I was VERY intimidated by the setting inside, kerusi mahal yang amat cozy, marble tables, the-all-stainless steel kitchen.. yeap you can see the kitchen. cantik. And the menu... my first thought was.. " nate beghuk ape derang serve nehhh??? " Thats because I couldnt even pronounce them. Tah ape ape. Example: Meli-Melo of Mushroom wit...