Ramadhan Day 11: Spring has sprung?

Today is the 11th day of Ramadhan. Alhamdullillah, the weather is hot with mild wind today. I washed a load of clothes yesterday and today, opppsss not literally, the washing machine did that. And thankful for the sunny weather, the clothes dried up quickly. This morning atang and I had a bit of spring cleaning, eh dah spring ka? It is not until September for the spring to arrive, but it is getting warmer nowadays, I no longer have to wear jumper during the day, still need to wear pull-over at night, and still using quilts at night. Well, the kids kicked it away at night, I still pulled the quilts up to my head. I remember last year, somewhere in August, we thought that the winter was over, and it was time for spring cleaning. So I washed the quilt cover, jumper, changed the flannelette sheet, and stored them away. So confident that the winter has gone. And a few days later, it was cold again, end up I had to take out all the things that I had put away. So this year I will wait until spring to come, flowers blooming until I starts storing all the winter garmet. This time would be much easier, will put everything in the packing boxes, for give away and take home.

As I have mentioned in the previous entry, yesterday we went shopping instead of looking for used boxes. We went to DFO just to get new slip-on for my lil princesses. Each of them has a pair of slip-on for raya. For baju raya, hmmm not sure we will get them something new, because they still have several pairs of baju kurung from last year raya, some dresses and new t-shirts, so maybe we will buy when necessary. The shoes because yaya n adik don't have a nice pair of shoes to put on, and that was why we bought them each. Tak mo 'membrazir' (yaya slang of membazir). Although here the celebration boleh tahan juga, with open houses every weekend, tapi takkan sama like celebrating at home. So nak beli yang baru-baru pun macam kurang semangat sikit, plus I will definately busy after the eid, preparing for submission. I am more enthusiast with the submission than the eid preparation. Picture below shows yaya's n adik's raya shoes,

Raya shoes for lil princesses

Yesterday jugak was an election day for Australia. Tak tau pulak sape yang menang semalam. Sorry, malas nak ambil tau. Anyway, about iftar. A day before yesterday, that was Friday, mood malas nak masak tu datang. Actually I have no idea to cook, like I said in the Friday's entry. I was browsing through a few of my fav cyber chefs' blog until I saw encik Mat Gebu's sosej gulung rangup. I had a couple of instant pastry in the freezer, and I used them all, bagus2, habis kan semua, clear the fridge. Sausage puff for Friday's iftar.

Sausage wrap in instant pastry

Yesterday, since it was weekend, I spent my time in the kitchen and made mee kari. Our neighbour came and gave us mee goreng mamak.  

My neighbour's mee goreng mamak (she's penang mari)

For today's iftar, I going to cook nasi ayam, kuih, maybe kuih bakar kot. OK laaa...I need to fill up a form then packing some clothes that I am not going to wear anymore in the box. Till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana. 

  

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 5: Enthusiasm

Today is the 5th day of Ramadhan. The busy week starts again, need to concentrate more on my writing. Am sooo missing my parents dreadfully, so I need to finish this fast, pronto, rapido.... I can do it!!! I keep chanting this in my heart,"must submit in October, must submit in October, must submit in October". Friends please pray for me ya. Tawakkaltuwallah....

OK, I can't spend a lot of time here, so here a brief. Yaya is at school today, so that leave me with adik at home. Adik as usual la, when nobody else at home except me, she will spend the day watching TV, her fav movie selection or doodling on a piece of paper. Dah lame tak citer pasal adik new words kan. Her recently added to the dictionary is, "Kukumi" haaaa....macam burung cuckoo pulak ye.... What she is trying to say is "excuse me". hahahhahah... nak minta lalu, "kukumi", nak minta attention den jap, "kukumi mama".

So for yesterday iftar, because it was Sunday, so terlebih rajin sikit, I cooked bryani rice, beef kurma and acar darat (Mak' recipe).  Kuih?..hmmm still have leftover donut from a day before yesterday's iftar and cucur udang from the iftar with neighbour makan-makan, so heat them up laa...

Nasi briyani set (Atang's plate)

While Atang had nasi briyani, yaya, adik and me had soto ayam from our neighbour. Thank you neighbour :D.

Soto from neighbour

Weekend masing-masing rajin ke dapur masak macam-macamkan. Weekday, sorry la hehehhe... buka terus makan nasi campur yo, takde kuih-kuih nie :D. If I am lucky, we will have leftover...ahahah punye la malas. Like today, we still have beef kurma from yesterday's iftar, so I think I will cook sambal ikan bilis as add on.

Oh yes...before I forget, the Bazaar Ramadhan organise by the Malay Student Association of Queensland (Persatuan Pelajar Melayu Queensland, PPMQ) has already started since last Saturday. Same like previous years, the Bazaar opens on Saturday and Sunday, from 3 to 5pm, but the location will be announce each week. Last weekend, the Bazaar operated at Guyatt Park. Hope they will still continue at the park, I think it is most convenience for everybody.  Tak sempat lagi nak pergi, actually, we don't know what to buy yet. Tengok la one day I will go down and take some pictures. OK laaa... till we meet again. Selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

p.s. Welcome to new readers and followers to my humble blog. Thank you for reading bebelan ntahapahapantah of mine nih...hehhehe.. For those who want to link or add my blog to your blog roll, please inform me ya, so that I can add you too. Thanks again, happy reading.

yours truly,

Ramadhan Day 3: The tamar mission

Alhamdullillah, today is the 3rd day of Ramadhan. Today we have a mission, to find tamar, the kind that arabs usually eat with milk when breaking fast. This tamar is very special, because the tamar was soaked in the tamar juice and then pressed. Last year an arab post-grad student sadakah this tamar to muslims student at my office. That's how I came to know about this tamar. I was told by a colleague that you can find this tamar at some butchers around Brisbane, so we are heading there soon. I will post a picture of the tamar in the next entry.

It was so nice yesterday, having iftar with friends. The kids especially were happy. The adults were happy too, with the eating and catching up with each other.

Iftar Day 2

Iftar Day 2

I am off from cooking today. Someone is craving for Nando's today. Layan aje laa... it his special day today...hehehhe... oohhh but I want to make donut today, a request from the birthday boy. Ok then, till we meet again, selamat berbuka, biar sederhana.

yours truly,

Beef stew

Yaya was helping me with the lunch (cum dinner) preparation. Ringan sikit keje den. Our freezer is almost empty, we only have some pieces of chicken, some beef and one ikan kembung. We already had 3 chicken meals in a row this week, so I decided to cook the beef. Malas pulak nak goreng sayur kan, and that's only leave me with one option. A soup/broth, a complete diet in one meal. ahahhahaha... And so I cooked....eh terlupa I have a sous-chef...

What did we cooked sous-chef??

This beef stew is my sistah's recipe. I tried to find the recipe in my hard drive, but couldn't locate it anywhere. I knew the ingredients, but not sure how much and whether I have everything. Anyway, I cooked it based on how much I can remembered it. So here is the recipe:

My sistah's beef stew:

Ingredients (sesedap rasa aaa):

Beef cut into cube. I used gravy beef (ada tulang-tulang sikit)

2 brown onions, diced

3 garlic, diced

Carrots, potatoes cut by yaya (hahahha... I mean cubed)

1 tomato, cubed

Mushrooms, green peas

1 cube of knorr's beef stock

3 tbspoons of olive oil

Water

4 tbspoon of all purpose flour (plain flour) mix with a little bit of water

ground black pepper and salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat the oil than saute the onions and garlic until translucent.

2. Add in the meat. Mix well.

3. Add in diced tomato and water, enough to cover the meat.

4. Cover the pot, and leave it until the meat is tender under medium heat.

5. When the meat are tender, add in the carrots, potatoes, beef stock, and pepper and salt to taste.

6. Lit it simmer under low heat, until the potatoes are cooked.

7. Add the flour mixture, mushroom and peas. Then let the gravy thicken.

8. Serve hot with plain rice or better with some garlic bread or toast.

adik said...."mama....ngok.. buah buah" and pointing at the carrot peeled by yaya.

And I said, "bukan buah la dek... sayur"
"ooooo...aaaa yoooor..." adik replied.

Adik insists that we called her "baby adik" everytime we called her dedek/adik/thirah....

"bibi adik laaa...bibi adikkk..." she would say while patting her chest.

yours truly,

dapur ku berasap kembali

Salam kengkawan and friends,

How is the first week of the new year so far? Good...alhamdullillah. We too had great days so far, hopefully the rest of the week will be the same. However, the weather in Brisbane was the opposite, been raining and cloudy for a couple of weeks now. We only had a sunny day last Saturday.

OK OK...am not good at making introduction. So lets cut the story ya... with the kids back with us, my so long partially occupied kitchen now fully functional. Errr actually it started the same day my sistah and family arrived. And now I have a kitchen helper....opppsss helpers (thirah can help a bit) to help me with the washing and cleaning, well I just trust them with a small job. Nothing over special, except for some dishes that I have never try before.



Bubur asyura, as requested by yaya. She said to me one day,"Mama, masak la bubur macam wan"....errr bubur apa tu...so I went on the internet, and visited my fav internet chefs. I got this bubur asyura recipe from MamaFami's. I boiled some salted eggs to go with the bubur, and since atang is not a fan of any type of bubur, I prepared beef in soy sauce (daging kicap) for him. Thirah will just made do with anything :D

One day I cooked nasi ayam. Got some leftover chicken and chicken soup. So I just boiled a pack of compressed rice (nasi himpit/kampit). Shredded the chicken, lettuce and pour the soup over the cooked compressed rice. Kira ala-ala soto laaa....hehehehe

And tonite, out of ordinary, I was in the kitchen again, preparing for a special day. I baked my first chocolate cake. Baked this with love....hahahaha... for whom ya.... I shall not reveal that now.... tungguuuuuuu

Whatever it is, the kids are happy. And I couldn't be better.

yours truly,

I bow and say "Thank You"

Remember that "misteri blog ini" entry? I did requested some of you to do the tag (for those who have not done it ye...and for those yang belum tu...ehem ehem huhu). Anyway it has been awhile since I last visited my friend's Jas blog. So when I was reading her blog today, I came across the homework I left her, and answering question no. 5, she wrote....

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5) Apakah pendapat anda mengenai blog kepada pemilik blog yg tag anda ini?

It covers a variety of topics. Maturity is evident from her writing. Unlike my blog that is. I especially like the entries where she covers cake recipes. How I wish she's near so that I can taste a bit hehehe

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What captured my attention is the word maturity...well (ku terasa macam tua sangat la jas) I hope she is referring to the content ya, but not like orang tua membebel wakakakakkaka...because I do membebel in here from time to time. Anyway was flattered at the same time.

Actually the pleasure is mine. Writing is a passion, and I thank all of you for visiting and reading my rambling ya. Terima kasih banyak-banyak. I gained a lot of new friends from blogging. Hope the friendships do not end here, and hope to see you, my friends in the real-world.

And about the cooking bit....hehehe... like I said, I cook to soothe myself :D. Plus we don't have anything to do/go in the weekend, and the kitchen is equipped with an oven. So with all these reasons I work myself in the kitchen, to put my mind away kejap :D. Don't know if I will be the same back home (no oven kat rumah laa). Tapi kalau dapat share makan-makan memang seronok kan.

Wokeh, I was fasting yesterday, and for iftar I prepared blackpepper beef, a recipe given by my friend Gee. Thanks Gee for the recipe, something new, and delicious, mmg rasa kuah steak laaa, daging pun takde rasa macam kering tau.



So, have a great weekend ya. Am sure need to work on weekend, but am looking forward for the premier of Harper's Island on Sunday. Terngiang-ngiang suara budak perempuan tu, "one by one...." hehehe. But I read the review, it is beyond expectation, hope I have different opinion.

Sweet and sour beef

Bored with all this fruit picking stories ekkk... sorryyyy... couple more entries to go.. But today I will skip the Stanthorpe's stories and back to the mundane story of cooking.

I have no new baking project last weekend. Only baked a banana cake for atang's lunch box. This time I add a handful of raisins into the mixture, just to improvise a bit :D.

And this is not a baking story (duhhh!! I just realised the title gave away already, silly me). Anyway, yesterday, I was fasting, have a few more days to replace my uzur day during last Ramadhan. Soon the Ramadhan will come and stay again ya... Time flies. So for yesterday iftar, I cooked Daging Masam Manis aka Masak Merah. I got the recipe from Kak Liza's blog.

Ingredients (my DIY ya..hehehe improvise based on what I have in the kitchen. Again this is more like approximate measure (agak-agak la ya)):

About 300gm of gravy beef, thinly slice the meat
150 gm tomato ketchup (about 3 tablespoons)
150 gm chilli sauce (about 3 tablespoons)
20 gm tumeric powder (about 1 teaspoon)
cooking oil for frying
I add 1 tablespoon of chilli paste aka cili boh (kasi pedas sikit)

Then slice;
1 brown onion
3 garlic
Ginger the size of ur thumb
1 carrot
and some sweet peas

For garnishing;
1 red chilli
1 green chilli

Method:
1. Marinate the meat with the tumeric powder for a little while.
2. Heat the oil and saute the chilli paste. Then add in the meat, and fry until cook.
3. Add in the ketchup and chilli sauce.
4. Mix in the onion, garlic, ginger, and salt and sugar to taste. Stir well.
5. Then walla....ready to eat (sodap makan paneh2 kan). Served with hot rice, and omelet.



So, sweet and sour beef for dinner tonight?

Black Pepper Mushroom Steak

Remember, one of the last week entry where I wrote about a Halal butcher at Stone Corner. At the butcher, we bought some steaks, and that night I prepared Black Pepper Mushroom steaks.

I marinated the steaks meat with Master Food Smokey BBQ sauce. I washed and cut some potatos (without removing the skin), and baked them together with the steaks. Then I boiled some carrots and broadbeans.

And for the sauce, I improvised the recipe I got from Kak Liza's website. Ala, improvised ikut apa yang ada kat dapur laa...ahahahhaha....

Amacam, Black Pepper Mushroom Steak tonight?!