The meanderings of an old non-working momma

It's an ordeal trying to decorate a cake with your lil' one wailing and yelling in the background. The result? A very comot cake. But hopefully still tasty :P

Now he's on my lap, konon2 trying to type something on the keyboard like a budak kecik perasan besar. Huhu... He's even swinging his legs to the music like a big budak kecik, the lil tyke. Arghhhh... Tu la akibatnya tido awal. He's hyperactive during midnight, forcing his mother to 'play' with him (play what I dunno la, haha. Malam buta dah. Matahari pun dah lolap).

Next week he's getting his six-month shot. I dunno how this kid stands it but it gives me the willies just getting inject with a syringe every time for my three-monthly perancang keluarga. Huuaaahh... Lobang2 badan den.

Well. Guess I'll try and dodoi me big little boy. Ta!

It's a dead, tiring, and torturous week

It's been a couple of weeks since I last updated my blog. It's not as if I haven't anything to write about. To be honest, I've been pretty busy arranging some new-bought furnitures at home. Hehe...

About a month ago hubby's been talking about this simple yet nice dressing table he saw at a furniture shop. It's not too expensive, just right for a simple ol' non-working momma like me (I don't do make-up. Never have and p'bably never will. So it'll p'bably stay empty except for my hair brush and perfumes if I bought it, huhu). N'ways, he said it was 'just nice' and said he could picture me sitting on the stool, doing my hair in front of the mirror. Cewah... He also said he scouted out a few almari baju and kitchen counters, well within our budget, so to say. If there's a small coffee table we'll probably buy one too, he added.

So one fine morning (it was last Sunday) we went to Perdana Furniture shop in Tawau to look at these 'fine' things. As usual, when planned to buy three things we ended up with six instead. The other three? Well, we couldn't find a small coffee table that's not been 'attached' to a set of sofas (mahal beb beli satu set semata2 nak meja :p ), so instead we bought a Mickey Mouse cupboard for our clothes, two kitchen counters for my kitchen appliances, a desk for my hubby's PC, a dressing table, and an office chair (ala2 big boss punya).

As always, after buying new furnitures there's no other thing in our minds than to think "Mana aku nak letak sume benda ni?". Huhuhu... And so begins the tale of moving old furnitures about the house to 'accomodate' these 'newly-arrivals'.

Phewww... It's no joke man buying six furnitures at once. First, you got to scrub 'em clean. Second, you got to line 'em with paper so that it's much easier to clean them later. Third, you got to move 'em around till you're satisfied with the results. And it's not just new furnitures that has got to be rubbed down. The old ones needs to be scrubbed too to get rid of the Cicak Man's cousin's poop (paham2 jelah eh). And if that's not bad, you need to scrub the floors too to get rid of grime, dirt, and fallen Cicak Man's poop. Good grief. Just thinking about it makes me tired. So I guess I'll turn in now. Cheerio!

Resepi Sup Tulang dan White Chocolate Buttercream Icing

Hoy yeahhh.. Hoy yeahhh...

My small yet humble dinner 'party' was, if I might say so myself, quite a success.

I had some trouble earlier this afternoon like turning up with a poor, watery cempelang spaghetti sauce (my hubby made a stint, saying it had no taste at all. Huhu... Nak nangis je rasa tadi). But then I managed to fix it up by adding some more ingredients to it (like salt, for instance. I'm such a loser when adding salt to my dishes. I'm always having nightmares making them too salty to eat. Huhu...)

Like promised, Kak Su and family came round 9 pm this evening for dinner. I cooked up a couple of dishes, like the usual spaghetti sauce and kuah kurma. I also boiled half a kilo of tulang lembu for several hours till they're tender and made a sup tulang/steak bones, a Singapore recipe if I'm not mistaken. I found the recipe about a year ago and found it to be tasty. Yummy... Hehe... Kak Su siap tambah lagi bebbb.

I forgot to take a pic of the steak bones (very remissed of me) but here's the recipe in case you want to try it out yourself. The original recipe didn't exactly state how much of the ingredients were needed so I adjusted it myself. For the recipe, here it is.

Sup Tulang @ Steak Bones (don't remember from where)

Bahan2:
5 cloves of garlic
1 red onion
1cm ginger
3 tangkai cili kering ditumbuk
2,3 tablespoons of tomato sauce or just cillie sauce
2 tablespoon of tomato puree
1/2 kg of steak bones
1/2 a potato, boiled and blended in water for puree)
1 egg till soup thickens
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of sugar
dash of white pepper
oil for frying
1 tablespoon of rempah sup

Cara2:

1. Boil steak bones with rempah sup till steak is tender (about 2,3 hours. The longer the better).
2. Grind garlic, onion, and ginger.
3. Heat oil, fry chillie paste and grinded ingredients till fragrant.
4. Add in tender steak bones, tomato sauce, tomato puree and stock. Not too much as this soup is supposed to be rather thick.
5. Add salt, sugar, white pepper and zeal.
6. Add potato puree and stir till thickens.
7. Add egg, stir for a while and remove from heat.
   

Komen: It's finger licking good! You can eat it with french bread, nasi putih, or just by itself. Huahaha... Rugi kalau tak try...

Now, you might be wondering what happened to the dreaded, newly improved butter icing? Frankly, it was AWESOME! Not too sweet, nor plain, but quite nice. In fact, just the way I was hoping it to be. Haw haw haw... Mana tak nyer, guna cokelat putih dalam icing. Kayo gilo den... Kuang3... Ni kalo orang tempah mau up harga ni, gue pun tak selalu (this is first time) guna icing bercokelat putih. Satu bar cokelat putih pun dah berapa harga dia. Icing biasa pun bakeri cas mahal, huahahaha...

Yang lebih membanggakan, Kak Su siap tapau balik lagi. Huahaha... Oh senangnya dalam hati...bila orang makan makanan kita rasa hepi... Hoy yeahhh... Hoy yeahhh...

Here's a picture of the cake after it's been more then half eaten:

The after look

And here's the cake before it was cut and eaten:

The before look

It's weighs about 500g and I used a small baking pan. The top layer I slathered some chocolate ganache and topped it off with a generous amount of chocolate rice. It was rather thick so I halved it and spread some chocolate ganache then stuck it together, making it a very chocolatey cake. Yummy... Naseb baik icing tak manis sangat, kalo tak ada yang patah gigi. Huhu...

Because I'm a very generous person (konon la tu :p ), I'm pasting the recipe of the newly improved chocolate-butter icing below.

White Chocolate Buttercream Icing (by yours truly)

Bahan2:
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup icing sugar (diayak)
1/4 cup or more white chocolate yang dicincang halus

Cara2:

1. Beat shortening till fluffy.
2. Add butter, beat again till fluffy.
3. Add sugar then add vanilla essence.
4. Add white chocolate a bit at a time and beat at high speed till it's white and creamy. If you want it to hold its shape add more chocolate or more icing sugar.

If you're interested in ordering a cake I'd be happy to be at your service (if you live in Tawau and kenal my hubby la. Susah nak anto yang jauh2). To guarantee a not so comot cake you might want place your order a bit earlier though. My Taufiq is when he's good, he's very good. When he's not, he's very loud. Huhu... Tapi hari ni alhamdulillah, baik sangat dia. Mak pun tak penat nak masak untuk orang. Cayang bucuk mak yang wangi ni. Muuaaahhh...

Maybe when I have a new oven I'll try other recipes. Meanwhile, you have to put up with my one and only kek cokelat kukus :P Ciao!

The newly improved butter icing

Huahaha...

Tomorrow I'm going to invite some friends over for dinner for the first time since I married. Huhu... Debau-debau gak hati ku ini. Hope nothing gets burnt or anything or tastes cempelang. Sometimes my tastebuds just run away from me when I'm feeling a bit under the weather, especially now it's always raining. Hingusan le memanjang.

Muahaha... Made a butter icing for the third time using the same ingredients as the last but omitting a cupful or two of icing sugar and replacing it with white chocolate. Looks kinda appetizing, but I haven't tasted it yet with the cake I baked yesterday, 'cause I've been saving it for tomorrow's dinner party. Huhu... Fuuh fuuuh... Bior la sodap dan jadi icing dia.

So here's what it looks like with the newly improved icing:

White chocolate icing

Amacam? Lawa tak? Believe it or not, it took me TWO 1/2 days to decorate this cake. It's dugaan besar having a kid who's always demanding us to play/berborak/kendong/menyusu/etc him everytime we want to do something really important. 'Nways, the cake weighs about 500g+-, and I made two batches (the other I served it for some guests who came for Raya Haji. Didn't take a picture of it but it was decorated quite simply. All my guests were kids, by the way. Huhu...)

Oh yeah, the day before Raya Haji a friend of my hubby's ordered a cake from me. Naturally, I was quite suprised and rather nervous 'cause I never had any experience in selling anything. Bab bagi orang saje2 makan tu ada la. Haha... So I made the usual moist chocolate cake and got two batches (my pengukus was an old periuk nasi and couldn't fit a baking pan more than 8 inches so I had to use a smaller one). After a lot of stopping to layan Taufiq and preparing for Raya Haji I managed to decorate the cakes around midnight till 3 o'clock. Huhu... Mamai gak dibuatnya.

P/S: So sorry Kak Ti if the cakes were a bit comot2. Mata dah kabur dek tak cukup tidur 2 hari. Huhuhu... Otak pun dah tepu dah sampai tak pikiaq macam mana nak tapau balik. Ya ampuuun...

And here's what they looked like before being eaten:

1st Chocolate cake

2nd chocolate cake

Yawnnn... I think I'll go beddy-bye now. It's late and there's a whole day of work in front of me. See ya later aligator. Ciao!

My Kid Just Tiarap By Himself

I never knew why people, especially women, go completely ga-ga over babies. Be it the tot's cute or a newborn who's as shrivelled as a month-old apple left in the fridge. Until I found myself going completely bonkers over other momma's babies a few days ago, at my hubby's friend's house-opening night.

I had always thought people go ga-ga on purpose. You know, like mengampu si emak baby. But now that I have my own baby kid I find it was a natural feeling to be ga-ga over them. It doesn't matter if it was your own kid or someone else's. Must be because of the motherly feeling deep inside ourselves. Truth be told, before I was married I never did feel more than a little bit bemused over these holy terrors. Then suddenly I have two nieces who're the most Terror Twins in the whole of Malaysia. They're the cutest things imaginable, but also the most hyper-active, terror-screaming, big brown-eyed, adorable two-year olds I've ever laid my eyes on. And they also have the curliest, loveliest hair I absolutely envy ;p

Mayday! Mayday! Omigosh! Just as I'm typing this my Taufiq just did a tiarap all by himself! And he ain't screaming (yet). Huhu... That's my boy! He's taking some deep breaths to angkat his kepala (which is pretty heavy I guess. It's bigger than his butt anyway, huhu...)

Yikes! Look at the time! Gotta go, me babe's smelling a wee bit smelly 'cause he ain't got his bath yet due to getting up late. Till we meet again, adios!