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.