Flags All Around

we choose to go western for our dinner tonight. we had grilled salmon with light lemon herbs sauce; no rice, dapat salmon sepinggan sorang pun dah kenyang. suka betul buat one meal dinner macam ni, all in one plate, the fish and veggies; cukup lengkap. dapur pun kurang berkecah. but the smell that comes out from the fish masa tengah grill tu memang a bit turn off my selera sebenarnya. it smells like ikan masin, busyukkk. thank God it doesn't taste like one ;-).

it was while sitting leisurely watching tv that we heard bunyi motor lalu lalang depan rumah. and sayup2 suara ceramah politik dari playground neraby. hmm there is no escape from being engulfed in the heat of the coming general election. banners, flags and flyers everywhere. budak2 sekolah yang tak tau apa marching keliling taman carrying flags, some who have bikes would carry the flags riding keliling taman. what i object to most is the youngsters being used to do such thing simply have no regard for their own safety. they'd ride their bike recklessly, they don't give a d*** ada kereta lalu ke apa ke. and those adults who ask (pay) them to do such pun satu hal, tak bertanggungjawab.

and tonight, i heard DSAI is delivering his speech. teringin nak dengar ceramah dia sebenarnya, but my two little kitten ni mesti nak menyibuk. hubby went anyway; will catch up with him later ;-). i was in my first year at uni when he (dsai) was removed from office. back then, he was very popular among young people, uni students. aku pun tak terkecuali teruja dengan auranya. we (me & my hostel mates) were ready to strike a march in reaction to his removal, if we were asked to do so. semangat orang2 muda lah katakan. well, anyway, everyone is entitled to their own opinion dan pilihan. there is no right or wrong in doing so.

and tonite, fahmi dengan mulut banyak soalnya, he blurt out satu soalan lawak. he asked me just now what is the thing yang boleh scroll(not his exact word though) ke atas ke bawah kat monitor pc ni. he assume that since 'benda' tu bleh gerak ke atas ke bawah, then it is a 'lift' as in the elevator yang kita naik tu. and before i say anything further to correct him dia dah terus tanya lagi "ada orang ke dalam lift tu, mama?"

I Forgot!!

i forgot that i was supposed to collect my money (owed to me) from the nursery. i paid them one month advance for january fee, but stopped sending the children halfway. so they were suppose to refund half of the fee back to me. which they promised to do so had i contacted the principal end of last month. but i forgot about it, totally. i check my phone calendar recently and i saw 1st february in bold; i don't recall anybody's birthday in february except mum's birthday towards the end and my niece's birthday few days before valentine's. so i click view, and there my reminder notes clearly stated that i was supposed to collect my dues. with technology invention to help human more efficient in handling daily chores, how can i still overlooked? oww... i'm getting old.

Homemade Beef Burger

we had homemade beef burger for breakfast this morning. hubby likes to have his homemade beef burger once in a while for breakfast.made of mince meat with plenty of ground pepper and a dash of ground basil, salt to taste and 2 tbsp of egg (beaten) so that the meat sticks together. shape and freeze overnight before use.

i gave fahmi & yaya a new haircut yesterday. yaya's hair is now 2 inches short, she look different, no longer will she look like a furious lion (dengan rambut ikal kembangnya itu). and fahmi with his new hair cut, i suspected that soon he would be furious with mama when he realised that he could no longer style his hair macam 'penyanyi hong kong' ( a term we use to describe his rambut terpacak). his hair is short, i didn't keep extra length on top to be styled. he'd soon find out... ;-)

we (me & hubby) planned to go out for a dinner last night, just the 2 of us. something that we do once in a while, away from the children. fahmi fell asleep right after maghrib, that makes our plan even easier. but yaya already had a nap in the afternoon; she was still bright and lively and demanding us to take her with us. the fact that her abang had already fallen asleep, she would be left with no one to play with, it makes her demand ferociously. she wouldn't take any reason. she won the battle. we went to chili's at bangsar.

just the 3 of us

Reunion

we rushed for my best friend's, shikin, wedding in seremban right after work yesterday. we never saw each other ever since our last day at school 12 years ago. we spend 6 years in primary school together and 5 years in secondary which means altogether 11 years of going to school together, children's friendship but it never end there. we were 17 back then, now we are both 29. age is really a factor, we both have changed, we were adults now. i didn't quite expect to see how different she looks now, i remembered how she looked like on our last day at school, she was the cutest girl in our class, small built with a cherubic smile, yess she's like a baby... we even treated her like a baby because she was the smallest, fairest and cutest among us. even describing her now brings a smile to my face. she's so angelic and i secretly admired her for being so angelic that i could never have such composure. i was tomboyish back then.

ohhh there were so much childhood memories i could relate, sweet memories. i really appreciate the fact that she tracked me down months before her marriage. eventhough we have not met each other for 12 years, she remember me and wants me to join her celebrate her happy day. the childhood friendship really mean something, the relationship we shared was a treasure.

i've been trying to trace her ever since we left school. i always wonder what is she doing, how is she doing etc. everyone just went their way after we stepped out of school. only a few remain in touch, by accident most of the time, it is either we went to the same school for stpm or the same uni. very little news i got about her from our circle of friends. i just hope that she is doing fine. alhamdulillah she is. now she runs her own 'mak andam' business, left by her late brother. i'm shocked to hear about her late brother (we went to the same school).

i knew she would be a beautiful bride one day, but i didn't expect her to be so breathtakingly beauty. i always hope i would turn out to be a beautiful swan on my wedding day, but a goose is always a goose. she's a swan, always. i hope she'd make a wonderful wife and mother.

ohhh i am soo touched by this reunion... sob...sob.

So Hot

It’s sooo hot these past few days. The weather was very dry with no rain. And my body beginning to react to the hot weather. My lips started to crack, aduii pedih sib baik lately ni I’ve been using lip gloss, no lipstick and it helps to give extra moisture to my lips, takdelah teruk sangat cracked nya. tekak rasa kering so I drink lots and lots of water yet immediately after that mulut semua kering balik. My eyes are sore and dry, my body ached and I gets tired easily walaupun sekadar duduk dalam office. I even postpone my site visit coz i don't think i could stand the hot weather. Am already dehydrated sitting in this fully aircondition office apatah lagi kat luar sana. But I read somewhere that working in a fully air condition place is even worst, sejuk di dalam tapi panas kat luar, lagi senang dapat sakit.

I asked the kids to drink a lot of water too. They are the most hyper ones, they use a lot of energy and with the hot weather they’d sure lost lots of body fluid. But how can I confine them from going out of the house? Especially fahmi who keeps on bugging me if he can go out for riding even di tengah hari panas! But I could not take the risk, let them cry or climb the wall; I’m not going to compromise when it concerns their well being. They’ve just recovered from cold and cough; I couldn’t risk another bout of fever or anything of that sort.

but the hotness doesn't stop me from hibernating in the kitchen. we had grilled chicken breast with white mushroom sauce last night. like its namesake, the recipe is made of chicken breast. the rest of us had grilled chicken breast on our plate except for hubby doesn't like the meaty part, never was and never would be one, so for him i replaced the breast with deboned drumstick.

grilled chicken bed on a bed of potato salad & white mushroom sauce

i marinated the chicken with pepper, italian herbs & salt. coated with extra virgin olive oil and grill til golden. in the meantime while waiting for the chicken marinate, i prepared the chicken stock (for the sauce), sliced white button mushroom, prepared potato salad (cut into 6 halves, mix with ground parsley, pepper, salt & lightly coated with olive oil), arrange garnishing on the plate and sementara meng gril chicken, i made the mushroom sauce. it was my first experiment with this recipe which i pick up from a cooking programme on tv called a'la carte. i didn't actually follow the recipe 100%, i don't know whether the full recipe was given because i missed the first 10mins. but i observed the chef while he's cooking and decided to reproduce.

fahmi enjoying his lot

and wallah... it is worth every sweat, in fact no sweat at all, as it was a very simple dimple recipe but the result is fantastic. the ingredients that i used to marinate the chicken was very simple, yet the chicken taste so good and soo succulent you can even eat it on its own. tambah seronok when you have children like mine yang cukup suka mama dia experimenting with recipes. fahmi is definitely a smooth talker; cukup terer buat mama dia kembang semangkuk dengan ayat2 power dia. would definitely consider putting up this menu when entertaining friends. tapi bila ye?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Here's the recipe, khas untuk diana.

chicken breast, cleaned
ground pepper
1 tsp ground mix herbs
salt to taste
olive oil

gaul semua kecuali olive oil & perap ayam for 20mins. panaskan frying pan/grill pan, sapu ayam dgn olive oil dan grill til golden brown. kalau agak2 kering letak sesudu butter. bila masak belah dua, susun atas plate.

bahan untuk sos:

2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp flour
white button mushroom (hiris nipis)
1/2 onion (diced)
2 clove garlic (mince)
2 helai daun bay
2 tbsp mix herbs
2 tbsp ground pepper
1 cup milk/heavy cream
1 cup chicken broth (atau 1 ketuk chicken cube dissolve dlm 1 cup air panas)
1 keping keju
salt to taste

melt butter in a sauce pan, tumis garlic with mushroom & daun bay(jgn sampai garlic hangus). masukkan flour, kacau for about 3 mins, masukkan onion, mix herbs & pepper. let it simmer, lepas tu masukkan air rebusan ayam, bila mendidih masukkan susu or heavy cream. sambil kacau let it simmer for about 5mins, sampai agak pekat. masukkan garam & keju. ready.

untuk potato salad pulak. kupas kentang, rebus sampai empuk. drain, potong 6 bahagian atau kurang jika potato kecil. letak ground pepper skit, garam & ground parsley serta olive oil. gaul semua.

Holiday & Weekend Frenzy

holidays and weekends means i can indulge in to my cooking frenzy.

asam pedas ikan pari on friday

chicken chop for today's lunch

Wheels On D Bike

apparently... the kids favourite sport

Esok Hari Mengotakan Janji

yup... hari mengotakan janji to make spaghetti for hubby,
and to bring fahmi out for pizza! which i would very much like to escape, but he's been humming like a bird "jomla makan pizza..."
cannot stand his humming, so let's eat pizza tomorrow.
but mama paling tak suka pizza hut, so what i'll do is since i need to get myself a pair of new pants, i'll let hubby indulge in to fahmi's request while i go shopping with yaya.
that will settle everything, rite.
oh yeah, juga hari mengotakan janji for hubby for he promised fahmi that he'll buy fahmi a new school bag. his books are now bersusun atas printer in the computer room. that is sooo not proper.

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.