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?

Blogging Bug

this is what happened when i have free time. my fingers so itchy i can't stop updating my blog. the result; 2 entries in one day. meaning; there were many many things happened recently that i didn't have time to sit down and capture it in my blog. but the brilliant invention of digital camera makes it possible for me to capture these and save it for when i have time to deal with it.

Caramel Pudding

i made this just now, after dinner. ignore the funny shape, my 'loyang' dah uzur.

Spinach Frittata

made this a week ago.

when bibik left i stop cooking, so i cleared all fresh supplies from the fridge. i stock up 20 eggs instead; i don't understand myself why i bought 20pcs of eggs as if we eat egg that much, which we don't actually.

but well, i have to get rid of those eggs before it rotten. by accident, i was blog hopping actually, i bumped into these recipes made from eggs. very simple recipes, but very yummy.

for the spinach frittata i add new ingredients, ikut selera sendiri; my own version of spinach frittata. it is so good you can eat it on its own.

and the caramel pudding is the easiest recipe i've ever tried. and the result is fantastic!

before i type the recipe here, allow me to say that the credit should go to the person who created caramel pudding & frittata. since i dunno who created both, the credit should go to the person/her blog where i found these recipes, but since i don't have the permission to link her blog here, so i'll just say thank you to zaza of cooks & crafts.

caramel pudding

3 sudu besar gula (hanguskan dalam loyang hingga yellowish & ratakan, let it cool+keras)

1 tin susu pekat manis (opposed to the fresh milk i normally use)

7 biji telur

1 cawan air

beat eggs well, stir condensed milk hingga sebati, finally mix well with water. tuang dalam loyang & kukus for 45min or until an inserted stick comes out clean. best eaten chill.

spinach frittata

satu pokok green spinach

3 biji bawang putih, smashed

5 biji telur

1 biji tomato, diced (i prefer sliced, kurang berair)

lots of ground pepper

salt to taste

i add dried mix herbs McCormick (oregano,basil,rosemary etc)

1 slice cheese, shredded

whisk together eggs, ground pepper, salt & mix herbs. in a frying pan stir fry garlic together with spinach until softened and pour egg mixture into frying pan. quickly add sliced tomato and shredded cheese. do not stir, put on medium heat and cook until the top almost set. adjust your heat, don't burn the bottom. when the top almost set, transfer into a preheated oven, under grill funtion to finish cooking the top or til the top become golden; the cheese won't melt though.

best eaten fresh & hot!

there's something wrong with the spacing, it just drives me crazy adjusting the spacing. grrr!

Year End Goodies

this supposed to be my year end entry but somehow it was delayed.

these are my year end goodies, complimentary from my boss's wife. a remarkable lady who treats people fairly and equally regardless of your age, rank or title. rasa segan juga because eventhough i've left my previous post (no longer involve/assisting her in personal matters), but she never fail to bring back goodies from her overseas trip for me. sometimes rasa nak menyorok bawah meja. hehe orang lain yang pegi shopping, i'm the one yang benefit from that shopping trip. ;-)

dior lips pallete, laura ashley's summer collection & a pair of pyjamas. pyjamas! pun orang belikan. patutlah hubby jealous! ;-)

not that i didn't buy anything with my own hard earned money during last year's year-end sale. bought new akemi bedding set (70% off!)in soft purple which is going to replace the brown bedding set next month. there's more that i wanted to buy, but have to set my priorities. ehm never mind tunggu sales CNY pulak. hehe...

Poor Baby

in my recent entry i mentioned that fahmi is down with cold & cough. well, yaya too catch cold and cough; transferred down to them by their mama.

i took leave yesterday. the actual reason was to teach the new maid on house chores. but it so happen that both of them were down with cold & cough, so basically i was doing both, teaching the new maid & minding 2 sick children.

fahmi is getting better now. but yaya is getting worse, i hope it won't take so long for the bug to go off.

i reached home at almost 8pm tonight. my heart ache finding yaya lying down on the sofa, looking tired and weak. carried her upstairs with me, put her on my bed while i perform maghrib prayer. she was coughing all the time while she tried to get some sleep.
before i took my shower, i rub some black seed vapour on her feet and put on her socks; a tip i got from email on how to put away bad cough. it is effective on children as well as adults.
alhamdulillah, the cough goes away, and she sleeps peacefully.

poor my baby...

The Birthday Luncheon

the whole family, except my youngest brother gathered for a 'small' luncheon at manhattan fish market to celebrate fahmi's birthday. at first we thought that with the children around it's gonna be a very chaotic lunch, but alhamdulillah it turns out that the children including mine were all well-behaved.


the little fairies















my pink angel



the birthday boy, sengih dapat makan fish n chips (just like mama)


birthday boy dikerumuni bidadari


whoops... bidadari berjaya kick birthday boy out dan membolot kek diego! girl powerr!!! (emm this is still considered as well-behave okay)


birthday cake... emmm yummylicious. mak2 budak & bapak budak semua kecur liur


self potrait senyuman (more like grinning eh?) orang yang dah kenyang...


the birthday boy is now down with flu & cough & slight fever... dek kerana ciuman charlie's angels semalam. 'jantan terhagnat di pasaran' is back! ;-)

Hoorah! Fahmi is 4!!!

we decided not to organise a big celebration party, and opt for a simple birthday luncheon with our family in seremban. but i and my itchy hands could not stand doing nothing for my boy. so, me & hubby stayed up until late last night, preparing for fahmi's birthday surprise.








i asked hubby to blow some balloons while i baked my carrot cake in a small loaf pan and let it cool overnight. came morning i sprinkle it with icing sugar and a dash of colourful chocolate rice on top. found only one piece of candle in the kit cab, jadilah tu for a last minute prep, lit it up and sing Happy birthday for Fahmi.

the birthday cake

the birthday boy with his crayon













we decided not to go for a big celebration party, and opt for a simple birthday luncheon with our family in seremban.

Fahmi's stats

height - 105cm
weight - i think he's 16kg now ( his last weight was 17kg, but now he's stop taking formula milk he had lost at least one or two kg)
he talks so much, ask a lot of questions, curious about things around him, always demanding an answer for every question he had about something
i know i can depend on him for certain things. between him & yaya, he listen to our command better than yaya, he can accept reasons while yaya would throw tantrums the minute we say no. he's the most reasonable one. he's fahmi - 'kefahamanku'...

he, being my first born, i have a very high hope for him.

When Mama Not Watching

when daddy is working

and mama's not watching

the two little kittens are up to mischief

they're playing hide and seek...

oh ya, btw it's not to late to wish everyone Happy New Year!!! i never have a resolution, not then and am not going to start now.