amboi..amboi..amboi....

caught in the act...but she didn't mind it the least...:-)

kids will be kids and young girls will be princesses to their mummies ....


it's 1 noon., my cupcake deco is half way done, my fruit cake is still bare, so what am I doing updating this blog...it's not that i don't have anything to do right at this minute but i just need to take a breather.It's been a long night and there will be more long nights after this.

chocolate, green and white

choc moist banana cake

this is how it looks like inside, chocolate moist cake is sandwiched in between two layers of chocolate banana cake. Actually I was experimenting on these two cakes wondered how it would taste like if I mixed /combine these two and the outcome was rather good.A splash of ganache on top and in between the layers too.

Trial and error, testing---testing....I decided to call this combo: choc moist banana cake .

Aidil Fitri 2009

Salam Aidil Fitri.Marble cheese brownies for my mum and mum-in-law for Eid.











































1 Syawal , a very quiet Syawal morning, my eldest daughter and my son having ketupat and rendang






2 Syawal.... the journey back to hometown . After visiting mum in law and relatives in alor Star, we headed back to my home town to beraya with my parents. we started the journey at almost dusk and reached there at 12 midnite sharp.







3 Syawal


smile...you are on candid camera....Tok Umi wanted to have photos with her grandchildren.














Abah and umi with their cucus and two daughter









bilalah depa ni nak balik..... (perhaps that's whats on her mind, while lounging on the chair in front of the house)








4 Syawal di Taman Stadium...tak cukup di dalam, di dapur, bersila di depan pun jadilah...

satay...satay.....mari..mari...

happening...kereta penuh kiri kanan jalan di taman stadium that night...

4 Syawal- it's satay time!

5 Syawal

kanak2 riang...

Anak siapa ni.....

ayunyer.....duk bersimpuh atas katil,

my sweet moment

when I first saw her on TV,I was mesmerised by her, something about her made me glued to my seat and watched her spreading good words to mankind while quoting and singing the Quran verses melodiously and translating them in between.
She's truly one great lady and when a good doctor friend of mine smsed me asking if I would be interested to attend the program " An Evening with YBhg Dato' Dr Fatma Elzahraa" which was scheduled to be held on 8th August 2009 at the Holiday Villa here in Alor Star, I straight away replied a big "YES".

the program was a joint effort between Usahawati Negeri Kedah and the "Badan Kebajikan Wanita Kedah Kuala Lumpur/Selangor.This is an event not to be missed.

To be able to see her in person and be able to capture this sweet moment with her, is truly a sweet and memorable experience.I extended the invitation to a few friends and according to my doctor friend, the tickets were selling like hot goreng pisang! They even had to add in extra tables since the response was overwhelming. I'm sure everyone else wouldn't want to miss this great opportunity.

On that day, I went with good friends of mine, Yus whom I have only just known a couple of months back and how do you think we met? thru a blog, a blog of a friend ( also because of a Mothers Day chocolate cake and we later became friends too)and thru my carrot walnut cake . What beautiful things a cake can do to us, don't you think? Through my cakes, I get to know many beautiful and nice people. Alhamdulillah.

Yus offered to drive us to the venue and how glad I was because I was not really keen on driving the car up the spiral carpark .that's another story. Another good friend of mine , Nani, also went with us, the lady who has a daughter by the same name as the great lady speaker, the lady who ordered Power Puff Girls and Dorami cupcakes and cakes for her daughters whom I have known since my A-Level years. Another friend was also supposed to join us but it was unfortunate because she was down with fever and flu on that day.Hope you and your kids are feeling much better now, Jay..( her short name)Another friend of mine couldn't make it either but she bought the tickets for her mum and mum-in-laws and her granny and so they all went without her.

Saw YBhg Dato' entering the hall, with an aura that filled the room with great sweetness and warmth.The evening started with a brief introduction of the Badan Kebajikan by the Emcee and followed by the moment that we were waiting for. the topic for the day was about our heart ( hati or jantung). I wouuld like to share a few things that I managed to learn that day, afew short notes that I managed to scribble in my small notebook which I hope can be used as a reminder to me , now and in the future.

'Hati" , our heart is the most important organ in our body. It will make us who we are. If any of you are watching the Korean series " Summer Scent" which I had been following without fail, it's about a girl who received a heart of a girl whose boyfriend now falls in love with. Her heart was so strong that it totally changed the character of its recipient. She fell for him , of course, and he fell for her maybe because of the heart which was beating inside the girl, his girlfriend's heart who was missing and yearning for his love. I don't know how it ends because the last episode was on Thursday where she only just found out that her heart donor was actually the girlfriend's of the man he falls in love with. Can't wait for the next episode tomorrow night.

Back to our "ceramah ugama", about heart.

Ciri2 hati baik: yukminunabilghaiib......
untuk mendapat hati yang baik:
baca lah surah al-Fatihah 17 x daily
bacalah 5 ayat pertama di dalam surah Al-Baqarah
bersolat

Bad characteristics (nauzubillah):
1) riak
2)dengki
3)tak boleh memaaf
4) bakhil/kedekut ( in kelantan slang, "kupik" as YBhg Dato' said it )
5)sombong
6)berasa lebih dari orang lain

tuhan tak mahu tengok muka orang2 berikut:
-bakhil
- derhaka ibubapa
- mabuk arak

How to lawan syaitan:
1) banyak2kan sebut "auzubillahhiminasyaitanirrajim"
2) always berwudhu'
3)pasang/baca surah al-Baqarah di dalam rumah ( boleh juga pasang CD or cassette)
4)kawal mata ( you know what they said, "dari mata turun ke hati")
5)Baca 3 "Qul" sebelulm tidur dan masa bangun
6)jangan tinggal zikir, zikrullah/ zikir banyak2( esp read the Quran)
7) Attaubah( bertaubat)
8)Nak masuk rumah, bagi salam walau pun tiada siapa di dalam rumah
9) nak tutup tingkap or nak buka pintu, say with "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim"
10) Bila keluar rumah, bacalah "Bismillahtawakkalalallah"

How to fight nafsu:
1) Ilmu ( majlis ilmu ugama)
2)bersahabat dengan orang baik2
3)puasa banyak2
4)buat sunat tahajud

these are some of the things that I managed to write and hopefully practised. A lot more need to be learned. the evening went by so fast and her talk ended after more than an hour, which later was followed by the high tea and a muslimah fashion show with beautiful models wearing beautiful jubahs, kebayas and kurungs with matching and beautiful tudungs.

All good things must come to an end. the programme ended around six in the evening. Thank you hubby for babysitting the kids while mummy went out for a couple of hours with mummy's friends to attend this programme.Thanx Yus and Nani for the company , thanx Dr Mas for inviting me.I should thank the organisers too for organising this wonderful programme.Last but not least, thank you to the wonderful Dr Fatma for accepting their invitation and make it a memorable evening .

my kids' fav dishes

Despite the tiring and frustrating evening yesterday, I still , as I always do wake up early in the morning, be it weekdays or weekends. All the days are the same to me, I'd still do the same thing, the only difference is that I do not have to send my daughters to school on Friday and Saturday.



Why tiring and frustrating? Because we had to spend close to four hours at the hospital.


So I decided, this morning, that is yesterday, July 24th 2009,to make " serabai barat" or pancake fo my kids. It's been a while since I last made this pancake which i prefer to call it serabai barat instead because that was the name taught to me when I learned how to make it. It was a recipe taught during my secondary school during the "Sains Rumah Tangga" class. One of the few recipes which I still use every now and then.





It was very easy to prepare and somehow the easier they are, the lazier I am to make it. My kids love this serabai barat, I like to eat it with strawberries or rasperries jam, my son likes to eat it with butter and yesterday he discovered that it tasted much better with peanut butter.





I didn't take any photos yesterday because the serabai barat didn't turn out as smooth or as beautiful as it normally would. Maybe it was because I was still upset about yesterday's incident with my youngest daughter. I mentioned a little bit about it in my entry " Love Boat and Smiley family " in my cake blog at cekmekzue-zue.





I said to my eldest daughter and my son, it is soo easy to make that the next time you want to eat it, you can even do it on your own.





First, sift the flour with cream of tartar. Add sugar.


Use the "gaul dan ramas" method when you add the butter into the flour mixture until it becomes crumbly like bread crumb texture.


Make a well in the middle and break an egg and pour 150 ml milk into it and beat gently. Don't over do it.


the batter is ready.


Heat the pan, if possible a flat one. Do not put too much oil, just enough so that the batter will not stick to the pan.

Pour about two tbsp of the batter and wait till bubbles start forming on one side before flipping it over. You will have smooth surface on one side and bubbly surface on the other. that's how it should look like. Plese cook this on very slow fire , if not you will burn it.



For lunch, I made " spaghetti goreng " ( fried spaghetti ), my husband's version, with a hint of curry flavour in it.

to top it off, I made chocolate mousse for dessert.I prefer to eat it with cream on top..

"dunno know what i'd do without u"
"ditto..."

cucoq jagung

It was raining heavily outside, the DVD is on, they were playing Transformers on when I brought up a plate of fresh from the kuali cucoq jagung, the smell, the crispiness, the taste of the sweet corn was heavenly. they also had a couple of packs of pop corn and a few packs of crispies to munch while watching the movie.

We watched Transformers 2, Revenge Of The Fallen last weekend and the Transformers mania is still in the air for everyone in thefamily so we decided to watch the 1st one again.

This cucoq jagung was very easy to make but sometimes the easiest one to make is the one that we seldom make. we finished two plates of cucoq jagung in less than a few minutes. didn't know that cucoq jgung could taste this good. Perhaps, it was at the right place at the right time. The Tv room, with good movie accompanied by the heavy rain outside, but i guess it's the fighting for it that made it so special. I was a bit surprised because even my son ate it. he wouldn't normally go for this kind of food.

My simple version of the cucoq udang:

Ingredients:

flour ( with bicarbonate soda)

egg

water

sweet corn

spring onion

salt and sugar to taste.

Make a well in the flour ( with a bit of bicarbonate soda and a pinch of salt ), pour some water, break an egg in it . Mix well. then add sweet corns from a tin, chopped spring onion and your cucoq jagung batter is ready to be fried. Heat some oil and take about a tablespoonful of the batter into the pan and fry till golden in colour.Done.

Enjoy the cucoq jagung with a cup of hot tea.!

cekmekmolek

Cekmek molek, a traditional malay kuih, made from sweet potato ( keledek, or ubi stelo as they said it in Kelantan) originated from the state famous for its hand drawn batik, wau bulan, makyong , menora, gasing, beautiful beaches, keropok lekor, budu, etc..etc..yes, we are talking about Kelantan , which is also famous for its extremely sweet delicacies like the taik itik, jalamas, lopat tike (lompat tikam), netbat, puteri berendam, akok, just to name a few.

Said to my daughter who was watching me preparing this cekmekmolek this evening,
"you can just blog in to see how this is done when you are away from home furthering your studies in a university somewhere, UK maybe, US, or our very own universities here in the country, cos I am going to put in step by step on how to make this cekmekmolek.

I forgot to take a pic of the very first step. You need to boil the sweet potatoes in a pot filled with water, enough to cover the sweet potatoes. just add a pinch of salt will do. Boil till it becomes tender. Strain the water and peel off the skin and mash it like in the picture.

then, add some flour to the mashed sweet potatoes just about right.

mix till it sort of becomes dough like, but quite soft as compared to the dough for cookies.

take about a spoonful, make a small well to fill with sugar and wrap it up.

not too much sugar, just about right.

shape it to look like these.

fry them in hot oil but very slow fire.

be very cautious of the hot sugar inside. I like to eat it hot but have to be extremely careful ,if not it might burn your lips.

done! ready to serve for your afternoon tea with a pot of Ahmad strawberry tea to go with it.

Happy cekmekking!

Daging masak Dendeng

One of my favourite recipes. why? simply because it tastes good and I can remember the recipe by heart...well...sometimes I do have to refer back to my good old recipe book for confirmation.


How did I learn to cook this dish? Daging Masak Dendeng is originated from Perak, if I am not mistaken, to me doesn't matter where they came from as long as they taste good, it's fine with me.


Back in the 90s, student days , I was staying with a friend, a friend who is kind enough to let me stay at her place because we went to the same college., a very sweet and humble girl and a good cook too! I learned this dish from her and I especially like her other dish called, "makaroni masak Lemak"


How to make this Daging Masak dendeng?


First, you need to boil the beef ( after cut into cube ) until the beef is almost tender ( please keep the "air rebusan/ beef stock "( water used to boil the meat ) for later.


Meanwhile you can prepare the ingredients for marinating the beef. You need the following: ( note you can easily remember them the way I did, I pair them according to type):


red chillies and dried chillies


shallots and onions,


jintan manis and jintan putih ( cumin and fennel seed)


ginger and galangal


salt and sugar


a bit of belacan ( shrimp paste)





grind or blend all those .


Before marinating the beef , pound them a little bit to make it tenderer, then only you marinate with the blended ingredients. Add a bit of black sweet soy sauce. Leave overnight in the fridge preferably.



Once that you feel it is marinated enough, bring it out, heat some cooking oil and fry the beef a little at a time. Put aside.



Heat enough oil in yet another pan, fry the balance of the marinated ingredients ( which you blended earlier) until it is fragrant. Add the beef stock and some black sweet soy sauce, salt and sugar to taste. Add the fried beef into the sauce and cook until everything is done. Ready for serving .



what

what is left of it. Thank you Aina for showing me how to make this daging masak dendeng. really delicious, spicy ( because of the cumin and fennel seed,) all the right ingredients in it.

Michael jackson dalam kenangan

Went to Micahel Jackson's "BAD" tour concert in 1988 at the Wembley Stadium. All great songs in this album from BAD to Dirty Diana, Smooth Criminal, Remember the time, Black or White just to name a few.His songs, his music videos never fail to impress me, especially his moon walk, how did he do that? Not to mention his THRILLER album which sold million copies with songs like Billy Jean, Beat It, Thriller,etc...He's brilliant, superb, outstanding singer and performer.

we went there quite early, kononnya nak get good seat tapi once the pintu masuk was opened, everybody rushed inside and me, being a small and petite me ( barely 36 kg then ) was squeezed and pushed inside with my friends.Once inside, what a big stadium! nak duk depan and berdiri kat dalam stadium di tengah2 padang tu, rasa2 tak kot, sebab they were all big tall people and surely I couldn't see and tak mahu berhimpit and berpanas so we decided to take the seat which was rather far away from the stadium, but at least taklah berhimpit. It was Summer and you can just imagine lah, kalau musim panas tu macamana. To make matters worse Iwas having a bad headache that day ( of all the days, why chose hari Michael JAckson's concert to have my headache!)

I couldn't really enjoy the concert ( because of the headache )but it still felt good, having being able to see The King of Pop live on stadium even though could only see him on the big screen. He was so tiny on that big stage .( from my seat lah)

Got some memorabilia from the concert, bought meself the scarf ( just the scarf, other merchandise were a bit expensive, masa tu student, beli ticket pun gagah kumpul duit...). These were some of the memories that I had with MJ, well, shared with thousand other fans on that day.

My admiration for him didn't just stop there. i looked forward to seeing his music videos whenever they were shown on TV or MTV, I never get bored seeing his dance moves, especially the moonwalk. He invented the moonwalk, didn't he? I especially like the dance in Smooth Criminal video. In fact I like all his videos and songs from Beat it to Billy Jean from his THRILLER albums which sold millions of copies to his BAD album. I even bought his BAD album but in record and my turntable is broken!( er, hubby's turn table , which he bought masa kat UK dulu) sekarang orang tak dengar turntable dah, orang main MP3, ipod lah and that jazz....

Gonna miss his ohh and auwww and aahh in his songs, his trademark and his dance moves. I told my friend DDI, in her blog that while I was driving home this morning after sending my daughter to school ( replacement class), and the DJ played MJ's song, suddenly I felt sebak, tears welled in my eyes. I like him, yes but I didn't know that he touched me deeply! I thought I must write something about him, I could say that I am his fan, not fanatic though, just like I like Bryan Adam but i am just one of his million fans out there who felt his loss, because it was so sudden.

I was just about to start baking in the kitchen yesterday morning when my daughter said to me. "Mama, Michael Jackson dah mati". Where did you hear the news? "It was on TV", she just saw it while clearing the dishes in the kitchen sink.Ajal maut di tangan Tuhan. It didn't wait one minute or even one second if it is one's time. If he is a Muslim convert just like the news been telling us and I hope he IS a muslim, may he be blessed with the others.

Life goes on for the rest of us and hopefully it will be filled with goodness ,kindness and happiness and his memory will live with us through his brilliant and memorable songs.

.

have a break...have a kit kat...cuti-cuti

MALACCA - 9th June 2009

HOLLANDS CAFE

Inside Holland's Cafe in M'cca. we had been walking for like forever and our legs were kiling us and there was no sight of a muslim restaurant or cafe around that area.( rasa macam kat oversea pulak susah nak cari restoran melayu, or maybe it's us who didn't know if there were any in that particular area ) we did find one but it was closed! We decided to get back to our car and drove to Mahkota Parade , wherever that was , we need to find our way there first ), when we suddenly came across this cafe.it's called Holland CAfe, so we decided to ask if they serve halal food cos we were truly starving at that time and thankfully they did. So had our lunch or maybe high tea because it was way past lunch time,made ourselves comfortable there since we were the only customers at that time and we had the service all to ourselves , so we ordered beef lasagna, meat kroket ( the dutch specialty as recommended by the lady ), black pepper chicken pizza and Holland coffee which contained 20% coffee and 80% milk.

While waiting for the food, mama sempat gak pi one of the shops nearby which sold Kebaya Nyonya. I thot I must have one of those since I am in Melaka and got myself one green nyonya kebaya to be worn with green batik sarung. All these happened on the second day of our trip.

how we ended up in Melaka?


it's the school holiday but mama's schedule is very tight for the first week with weddings and kenduris and so mama decided to block the second week of the holidays, not to take any cake orders and Abah was also available...well...made himself available for the kids..so, the question is, where shall we go? locally, that is. a few options: Penang, KL, Kelantan? No theme park; be it water or land , cos it's the school holidays , for cying out loud, and most probably, well, surely these places will be packed with holiday-goers. we have been to most places be it on our own or office trips,Genting, Cameron, Langkawi, Danga Bay, A Famosa , Lost World, Bukit Merah, the Carnivall , etc....so we were totally clueless as to where we were heading as we set off for our journey on that particular Monday afternoon .

So, we decided to settle mummy's things first which were to look for baking stuff and books. went to one shop in Puchong, seronoknye tengok all the gadgets. At first, I just surveyed the items first, second round, baru start ambik things needed and suddenly heard the shutter being pulled down. It's only 6 pm! It seemed that the shop closed at 6pm. I rushed with my things and being the last customer to go out but I did managed to get a few things which I couldn't get back home. Okay, that's done. Went over to the nearby cafe where my hubby and kids were waiting for me and had kuayteow goreng there.

Where to next? It's still early, so off we went to KLCC, where the books were. I was looking for cake decorating books. Got myself a few books . , one of the books was by Martha Stewart, "Wedding Cakes", a gift from hubby for me. very expensive too, but I think it was worth it. this woman is so talented, with baking, cake deco, organising, house-keeping, crafting, you name it, she can do almost anything. Belum apa2 lagi, dah bertambah barang kat bonet kereta tu. itu baru first day, belum pun check in lagi.

Our eldest did mention that she wanted to go to the museum in Malacca and so on the second day, we decided to go there. The last time we went to Malacca was when Batrisyia was barely two months old. I had just finished my confinement period and had a few days left before I had to start working ( after the sixty day maternity leave ), so we decided to go for holiday , that was in the year 2004.

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we didn't go straight to M'cca but made a stop at the L*w Y*t Plaza to download some games , or something ( i dunno much about their games )to our kids DS and PSP. By noon, we made our journey to the land of HAng Tuah and Hang Li Poh and all the other "Hangs'"

We finally went to the museum, about half an hour before closing time!

before entering the museum.

had an ice-cream first...

whoa.a... sampai dua ice-cream.....perhaps the other one belongs to Kakak....

macam duk Holland lah pulak, with the windmill at the background...

love the view behind us, a narrow alley with trees crawling up the wall....

inside the museum

my hero with the patung hero....

peek ..a..boo...

My three Angels, not Charlie's Angels ya... ( my other angel is behind the camera)

After the museum tour in less than 45 minutes, we decided to leave Bandaraya Melaka Bandaraya Bersejarah and headed back to KL. After less than two hours, we reached Bukit Bintang area where we had our dinner of nasi ayam steam and kari kepala ikan. Feeling knackered and full , what more do we want but to put our heads on the pillows and to doze off into the dreamworld!

the next day, we decided to head home or should we go back to see Tok Abah and TokUmi. but before there one final shopping spree at the C*rve and IK*A.By evening, we finally left KL after stopping for satay kajang at the R&R, bought some for Tok Abah and Tok Umi cos we finally decided to go back to my hometown for a while, even it was just for one night cos I had to leave back to Alor Star on Thursday .

Arrived at Abah and Umi's place around midnite. Everybody at home, abah, my sister and her family except Umi were asleep. Umi waited for us. Everybody is tired..esp the driver, my other half...i only bawak sekejap sangat, from the R&R to a place (forgot the name of the place ) before we made the exit at Kuala Kangsar thru to Grik ( timur) to the East West highway.

Blur image of this elephant ( taken while driving ), spotted on the side of the road along the timur barat highway on our way back. We think this was the same elephant that we saw last night.perhaps he or she couldn't find her way back and was still lingering there trying to sort out where he or she could or should go. Poor thing, his habitat has been invaded, so where else could it go?

It's been quite some time since I last went back. the last time was for my youngest brother's wedding ceremony in January. So good to see them again. Umi bought macam2 for breakfast, from nasi berlauk to nasi dagang, to pulut pagi and roti goreng. All my favourite food. then went over to my sister's place off Jalan Telipot where we left our kids to play with her kids, their cousins while we went to another shop to get the stuff for my "keras tangan" project.

Nama je cuti tapi semua tempat pergi berkaitan dengan Zue's Oven. What to do, it has become part of my life now, but hey, I 'm not complaining cos am enjoying every minute of it despite the number of sleepless nights, the back aches, etc...it was worth it. Never before have I felt this good about something. It's a very satisfying new experience.

had "Nasi kak Wok" for lunch at my sister's place before we headed back to Abah and Umi's place before leaving for Alor Star.Umi was busy preparing dinner for us. She made us kari kepala ikan, ikan merah and goreng ikan kerisi ( my favourite when I as young ) and insisted that we brought them back untuk makan on the way or back home. That's Umi, she would cook our favourite dish everytime we come back, for me, she would either make sup ekor or sotong rebus or that ikan goreng tu, for my hubby, asam pedas ikan keli, same with my adik-beradik yang lain, She would go all out to make their favourie dishes.Abah, would normally go to his kebun and get the pisang rasa for me but not this trip because he wasn't feeling too good, baru lega from demam the last few days. Love Abah and Umi soooo much. unfortunately we can only stay a while, balik jus nak bersua muka, nak lepaskan rindu yang tak pandai nak diucapkan melalui kata2. We left just before 6 pm and arrived Home Sweet Home around 10 pm.

Subhanallah..teramatlah cantik, magnifique...breathtakingly beautiful sight to behold. If only i can capture this sight on canvas.this view was taken just after we passed the Puncak titiwangsa. We have always loved the trip to and from Kelantan because of the view.

we missed the actual sunset but this is still as beautiful .

It was quite a tiring trip but it was rather fun and worthwhile trip. Now that I am back, berasap baliklah oven at Zue's Oven for the black and white theme engagement cakes and cupcakes were waiting for me.

Back to reality, school holidays is over. Kids back to their routine, me and my baking , hubby and his work. Dunno when the next trip will be or where we are going. I just want to be thankful and grateful for what is bestowed upon us, syukur alhamdulillah.