Mama Jom Kita Pegi Makan Pizza!

yesterday, when i'm about to leave the office i received a call from fahmi, asking me if we can go out to eat pizza. btw, he didn't know how to dial my number, but hubby did using the house phone. for a second i thought he really did dial my number on his own, mama's dreaming! of course.

out of sudden he mentioned pizza and i'm surprise because we are not a big fan of pizza. pizza had never make it to our toplist. as i recall our last visit to domino's pizza, fahmi threw up segala isi perutnya sebaik saja selesai makan. berjelanak muntah dia atas meja & lantai. i was so embarrassed of the incident that i ban domino's or any other pizza restaurant from our list since then. and everytime we passed by the same outlet kat carrefour subang, me & hubby would exchange look & ketawa bila ingat balik. tobattt!!!

now, out of sudden dia nak makan pizza? this sudden craving for pizza must be triggered by the latest pizza hut commercial, must be that one coz he keep on mentioning 'ada ayam panggang'. hmmphh talk about advertising influence? inilah akibatnya kalau selalu biarkan anak tengok tv. nak dikasi tengok dvd jer, player pun dah berkarat. what to do? switch channel apapun ada advert kan.

this is what i'm afraid of, as my kids grow older (especially if they grew up watching telly like 12 hours a day) they'd become affected by the commercials. and they'd start asking mama & daddy to buy this and that. not to mention kadang2 ruang tamu jadi macam battle field bila we have to fight with the kids which channel to watch. yaya likes to watch dunia baru, puteri & kaisara... alah all the gedik2 series tu. cartoons tu dah semestinyalah, not that i object to their watching cartoons because what they watch are normally the educative blues clues, go diego go. except for power rangers, ultraman and all other rangers that i objected to but they watch anyway.

tapi bab tv commercials yang payah ni...

btw, have you read this today? pregnancy impairs memory, says australian study.

Strawberry Jam, Wrecked Bike & Daun Selom

we started the morning with a light breakfast. i made chicken chop for lunch yesterday and went to McD for dinner, thus breaking my vow to follow a healthy diet, so i decided not to indulge in to hubby's request for pasta for breakfast. so we had white bread with homemade strawberry jam (which i made yesterday) this morning. fahmi had been asking me when i can make the jam for him as it has been quite sometime since i last made them. and that's all we had, well for the 3 of us (me, fahmi & yaya), hubby decided not to go along with my healthy diet plan and had a plate of blackpepper sausages, fried egg & bread. which he prepared himself as i refused to be held responsible later for his bulging tummy.

but later for lunch i put my hands up in a note of surrender when hubby indulge heartily in to two helpings of nasi & his favourite gulai ikan tongkol!

after having our breakfast, me and hubby went our for a 'site visit' .... ;-). we left the kids behind walaupun yaya meronta-ronta want to come with us. ku pujuk2, give them some chocolates (hee teruk mama ni!), i moved my car from the parking to make space for them riding their bicycles, they'd be occupied with their bicycle while we were out. but i didn't expect to come home later finding yaya's bicycle in the drain and fallen apart. for a second i thought the chocolates that i gave them earlier must have given them so much energy that they ride with a force sampai hancur basikal tu. errr... by the way itu kerja fahmi bukan kerja yaya. or maybe it's a hint that we should buy her a new bike. lagipun lately ni dia dah pandai kayuh bike abang.

this is the pokok ulam selom that i have been nurturing for 2 months now. penat jugak nak membesarkannya, lebih2 lagi bila ada 'orang' yang suka skip watering the plants, not only skipped watering them, but even lied to me when i asked about it. well, no point cakap pasal tu, the 'orang' no longer with us anyway. apapun aku dah buktikan that pokok selom ni boleh hidup dalam pasu. and who says ia hanya boleh hidup di kawasan berair je? and please sesapa yang tanam pokok ni, don't wait for the pokok to grow bigger baru nak makan ulamnya, coz i think ( i have to prove it first of course) it will grow bigger kalau kita petik pucuknya.

Little Purchase

i had a business appointment at pusat bandar damansara today. as i arrived early for the appointment, i went to kafe 2 musim at the ground level for a drink. had a glass of hot barley, lega skit sakit tekak. it was while sipping the hot barley that i saw a small gerai located at the walkway between block A and B selling branded kiddies bajus.

am tempted to go near and take a peek. saja belek-belek the bajus, who would have guess the small gerai selling bajus from the range of branded item i.e. carters, old navy, oshkosh, tks... and to my surprise they even sell calvinklein kiddies denim jacket!!! wow. harga pulak? most item selling from rm15 and above. errr i didn't ask the price for the cK denim jacket, takut demam! hehe

anyway, i grab 5 tees for my kids.

carters blue tee, carters yellow nitegown & tks romper for yaya

yaya suka motif handbags ni... eiii sooo girlie

talbot kids yellow tee & blue old navy tee for fahmi.

all the above were priced at rm15 each except for fahmi's old navy tee selling at rm20. it was an unplanned purchase but well they both in need of new clothes to replace their worn out baju siang. it was already quite sometime since i last bought them baju. if i recall correctly, the last purchases was during my mad f.o.s shopping spree sometime in august?

Roasted Chicken

as promised. i made these for lunch today.

Rosemary & Blackpepper Roasted Chicken

1 bird chicken

1 tbsp dried ground Rosemary (i use Italian mix herbs i.e. rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, marjoram)

1 tsp black ground black pepper

3 tbsp black pepper sauce ( i use PAWADA blackpepper sauce only)

2 tbsp olive oil ( i subsitute with cooking oil)

3 cloves garlic (kisar or tumbuk halus)

salt to taste

marinate chicken with all the above ingredients for 45mins to 1 hour.

lightly grease your baking tray and grill the chicken for 45mins to 1 hour under 220degrees. or until the meat fully cooked.

Blackpepper Gravy
Do not throw away the juices that comes out from the chicken. Pour into a saucepan, add 2 tbsp butter, let it melt under medium heat. Add 1 tbsp flour, mix well and let it simmer for 2 mins. Pour 1 1/2 cup warm water, mix well for 2 mins. Add 1 tsp mix Italian herbs, 1 leaf dried bay leaves (for flavour), 3 tbsp blackpepper sauce or 2 tbsp black pepper sauce and 1 tsp ground blackpepper and salt to taste. Mix well and let it thicken under medium heat for 6 mins, stir from time to time.
you may remove the bay leaf immediately. if you prefer stronger flavour, leave them in the gravy.

Grilled Potato
5 potato (cut into strips)
1 tbsp olive oil ( i subsitute with cooking oil)
1 tbsp ground dried basil
1 tbsp hungarian paprika powder
salt to taste
mix all the ingredients, spread on a baking tray. Grill under 200degrees until golden brown.

and the result of today's marathon cooking, my oven is now will have to be put to rest due to over utilised. sob... sob... there goes my baking frenzy.

She Did It!

i hardly had the time (read, make time) to sit down with my children teaching them how to read or write. consequently both of them who are now 4 and 3, doesn't know how to write properly and while they can count 1-10 both in english and malay, they could hardly make it from A to Z. i am ashamed for that. we (me & hubby) were both fairly educated parents but we neglect giving our children early education.

until recently, we sent fahmi for his smart reader english tutorial class after endless attempt to teach them at home turn disaster (that includes scolding & crying). we blame it all on office workload. so, no more arguing with husband about who should do the teaching at home, the convenient & more practical way for working parents nowaday is by sending your children to attend classess, even at the early age of 2. provided you can afford the $$$, of course. which is affordable in fahmi's case. pay rm50 for registration, rm80 for monthly fee & rm42 for books. unfortunately for yaya coz mama & daddy decided not to register her for the tutorial yet because if she were to join, then she'll be in the same class with fahmi. that, we want to avoid if we want fahmi to have full concentration in his class. i am not sure if she is ready for the class, and afraid that she's going to be the centre of distraction not only for fahmi but also effecting everyone else. kesian dia, mama doesn't have faith in her.

but i think i am wrong, she proves me wrong. yesterday while attending to fahmi doing his homework (yes, he already have a homework eventhough he just went to the trial class last saturday), yaya as usual wants to menyibuk. so i gave her a colour pencil and her book and they sit seperately doing their work. while fahmi had to start with 'A', i choose randomly the alphabet for yaya and purposely asked her to trace 'y' (for y.a.y.a). i know its very simple, all she has to do was to follow the dotted lines to complete a single 'Y'. but the fact that i hardly let them or teach them how to hold a pencil let alone write ABC, came as a surprise when she finishes her 'y' ummph very well (ok, maybe 'well' was a bit too high compliment).

and when fahmi claim that he's tired and doesn't want to complete his 'A' (i've lost words of encouragement at his lack of interest to continue, so i let him stop), yaya continues with 'f', and when she finishes 'f' she asked what else she can do. yeah 'y' is quite easy coz it is an all straight line alphabet, but an 'f' with curve and straight line is something that i don't expect her to be able to do nicely, but she did! she did it.

and just now, she did 'h'. hmmm... again fahmi has a competitor. that'll provide him a good sport.

i promised fahmi that i'll cook roasted chicken for lunch tomorrow; he's going for the CNY advanced replacement class in the morning. see if i can make it in time when he gets back from his class. if i could make it after all. ;-)

Handbag Tag

tagged by sally. though i'm not a handbag person but it's kind of fun playing along with this tagging thing.

first let me say again, i'm not a handbag person, so i don't have handbags for all occassion. i'd normally use/stick to one handbag till the handbag worn out or the straps falls apart or till 'somebody' bought me a new handbag then only i move to a new one. yes, the part that 'somebody' bought me a new handbag is very true for the past 3years. before the old one rosak, the new one comes, one after another. so i've stopped buying my own handbag. although recently i was tempted to buy my own after seeing someone carrying her new LV to the office, but i give it a thought and uhh, i'll pass. i could spend my money for other more important things. pendek kata, i won't regret or panting over handbag.

so this is the handbag that i'm using currently. my bronze liz claiborne handbag.

this is the first branded handbag i've ever own ( i don't count my carlo rino hantaran as branded). it is of smaller size than the one i normally use. my preference lies to the big handbag with lots of space, yang macam tote bag & yang cheap okay. so that i can put everything in one bag, keep everything termasuk sampah sarap!(the bills, receipts, atm chits) hahah kalau hubby do a spot check to my handbag, he's sure going to membebel panjang lebar. ;-)

okay, what's inside my handbag?

my benetton purse of 2 years which i got from credit card points redemption.
silky girl lip gloss, de bella UV foundation stick, secret foundation cake, lip liner, nail cutter, keys, portable harddisk, glasses casing, business card, pierre cardin pen (a gift on my gradutaion), saving books, my buruk nokia & sampah saraps!

Bee Zee

busy...
i've been busy. busy filing up the forms. busy looking for reps. busy looking for best rate. busy compiling documents. busy doing submission.
everything i do this week are all involve filing up forms, submission, payment and receipts.
what a bee zee bee i am this week. and perhaps for a couple of weeks to come?