Our Monday

On the payday...the very first thing that I spent my money on was my car's battery. My car really understood when to bug the Mrs....! (*,*)
Dear hubby replaced the new battery by himself....good...tnx sweetie. Then we had our early dinner...
While waiting for the orders, the kids as usual will be wandering around the restaurant. At that time around...luckily not many people were in. They 'played' with the chalkboard...

Just look at Habibati...she was showing her funny face...

Habibi chose the Roti John and Chips....not bad....

My foodie....the Penang Char Kue Teow. I was quite frustrated because I expected some clams in it...but I found some mussels only! The taste of the kue teow was quite hot..I only ate a quarter and exchanged this with my hubby's order.
Now...this is my hubby's order...the Cantonese Noodles. This portion could be for two persons and I loved the taste. *thus I surrendered my kue teow to him* .
..( ^_^)...

We bought a new LG DVD player too, as the one we already have is not working well with the remote control. We hope this new one will last longer than the previous one...another previous...another previous one. The kids were very rough with the players...so from now on....they will not be free to handle the remote as well as the player...!

Then we headed off to the DVD's shop....the pirated ones of course...hahaha...

These were our girl's choice......we agreed....but....

........what about our boy's choice????


...............see below...........


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................boys will be boys...............


........................tadaaaa!.....................

I was not satisfied with this one as these movie collections were not really suitable for his viewings......but...he still want this DVD....! Maybe I will hide this DVD tomorrow....I hope he will forget about it....

All the way from Sabah

My Parent-In-Laws and my parents were on their holidays last week to Sabah. We had these gifts from them.

From my thoughtful in-laws....

From my dearest parents...

...*thank you very much*...

As Requested...

This is the recipe of the Vico Cake that I made few days ago. This is actually my version......why do I say that....because I have made some alterations in the ingredients according to my taste. This Vico Cake is declared as the family's favourite.

...(^.^)...

Ingredients :

250g butter
2 grade A eggs
1 spoonful of condensed milk
250g Vico
180g Nestum (original)
Some quartered Marie biscuits (I prefer to use the Tiger brand)
Oats and Nestum as sprinkles

Steps:

1. In a non-stick pot....melt the butter (with low heat).
2. Switch off the heat and leave it for a minute just to make sure the melted butter cools down in the pot.
3. In a bowl, mix the condensed milk and eggs and then put this mixture into the melted butter. Stir well.
4. At a medium heat, pop in the Vico powder and Nestum.....mix well.
5. Continuously mix the batter well until it does not stick to the wall of the pot.
6. Put in the quartered Marie biscuits and mix again.
7. Transfer the batter into a casserole or a baking tin and give a good press so that the cake will flatten nicely.
8. As we press, excess oil (butter) with come out thus we need to sprinkle the top of the cake with Nestum and some oats.

**To make the pressing easier...wrap the big spoon with plastic**

~~Have a nice afternoon tea with some Vico slices~~

The Blood Tests

Today, I had my blood sample taken....
For the result...I have to wait for another 2 weeks....
I hope the result of my thyroid, blood sugar and cholesterol levels will be within the normal range..amin..amin..amin...

The Testimony...

This morning when we woke up, the whole living room smelt different. I looked for the source of the smell and it came from the kitchen. So...there was a click on my mind that it should be the Kim Chi that I placed on the open kitchen cabinet. Yes...it was! @_@ I opened the glass jar and the strong smell of the leeks and onions was rather disturbing me. So I kept the jar inside the fridge.
After breakfast...I tried some of it...it tasted GREAT! I love the taste...there was a harmonious combination of sourness and hotness tastes and a little bit sweet. The cabbages were still crunchy too.
I had it again with some still-hot rice and it tasted very delicious....despite its strong smell. The colour of my Kim Chi was not appealing because I purposely did not add much chili powder as it should be. Maybe the next time I am making Kim Chi again...I would leave out the leeks. Ok...that's enough about my Kim Chi.

This morning, for the kids' breakfast, I made this onion prata (the ready-made Giant brand) with egg, cheese, mayonaise, tomato sauce and some fresh tomato slices.
They were very excited with the outcome...I knew it was mainly because of the 'face'....hahaha...
With little olive oil...pan-fry the frozen onion prata and put aside. Then break an egg and place a cheese slice on top of it. Then replace the prata on top of the cheese+egg. They will stick together well. Then garnish as you desire....

They loved it very much...as much as I did too...(^,^)...and will make some again...

My Very First Trial of Making Kim Chi

Frankly speaking, I am not a fan of the Korean series or artists but I am very curious about their popular and healthy food named Kim Chi. In fact...this pretty mommy CathJ is the one who has first told me about this foodie through her blog entry...(^^,)...

My friends ask me to go to the Korean or Japanese restaurants but still I would like to make it myself. Then...I have come across this website of Dr Ben Kim...the steps are pictured clearly and precisely. Have a visit ya...to see the ingredients and steps...
The salted chinese cabbage...it sat for at least 4 hours before I mixed it with the leeks *but Dr Ben Kim wrote 'green onions' in his recipe and I suppose it would be the chinese leeks*
The chilli powder that I mixed wth warm water. I have to decrease the amount because my tummy can't stand the high degree of hotness....(@_@)....
All blended up ~ a cup of water + apple + pear + ginger + garlics + onion.
The anchovy sauce

I placed the mixture into a glass jar and let it stay at room temperature for 24 hours. So..this means I have to wait till tomorrow morning to see and taste the outcome. Oh..I just can't wait..

Our Beautiful Saturday Morning

It has come to the weekend already and half of the school holidays has passed by. I feel great to be a full-time housewife and mommy to my darling kids. Since my good mood was at its peak...I made a Vico Cake for my family. The best thing about this cake is that we do not need an oven nor a cake mixer !
Do you notice a 'crater' in the middle of the cake *giggles* done by the kids while I was tidying up the bedroom. They just could wait to eat the cake and took a spoon to poke it. This cake would be best eaten when it is already cool or at room temperature. Habibati said...she loved the MILO smell of the cake...but it was actually VICO...^_^...
They were enjoying the cake slices while watching their favourite Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Soon after that...Habibi took the local newspaper and sat on the sofa comfortably..."reading" the current news....(*,*)....

I tiptoed silently....got myself at the back of the sofa and snapped this picture from above. I just couldn't help laughing after that when I saw this and when he caught me...we laughed together...(^^,)...

Our Simple Afternoon Tea

We had some banana fritters. I love the taste of the over ripe 'pisang kapas' when they are deep fried....their natural 'sweetness' comes out. To enhance the taste of the fritters.....I usually add some cooking oil into the batter which is made up of the wheat flour, water, a pinch of salt and a pinch of tumeric powder.
We also had 'keropok amplang' from Sabah. We love to dip these keropok in chili or tomato sauce. The Sabahan people must know these keropok well...(^_^)...
Habibati had a weird taste when she dipped her panda biscuits into the tomato sauce! She said it was very delicious. She even likes to eat sandwiches filled with tomato sauce+mayonnaise+STRAWBERRY jam @_@.....hahaha

My Classic Marble Cake

This time I am totally satisfied with my bake when compared to my previous Rainbow Cake. I think I would use this recipe *I got from my mom* as the basic recipe for any cakes that I would love to make in the future.

This time I wanted to make it into marble cake...so I just divided the batter into 2 portions and add one of it with some chocolate emulco and cocoa powder....easy right?

The recipe :

227g Anchor butter
12og castor sugar
5 Grade A eggs
3 spoons condensed milk
300g Prima cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 spoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon chocolate emulco

Steps:

1. Beat butter and castor sugar until it is fluffy and white.

2. Add in egg one by one.

3. Then, add in the cake flour + baking powder and the condensed milk.

4. Divide the batter into 2 portions, one portion add with choc emulco and cocoa powder.

5. Then...bake in the oven with 170-180 degrees.

~enjoy every classic slice with a cup of hot coffee~

Our Very Own

Habibati is a soft-spoken girl but she also is a bad-tempered girl. When she is angry....she would shout aloud and cry buckets. However...it is always easy to soothe her too. We choose to switch into the silent mode and ignore her for a while. Then when she is a bit calm...we give her our cheeky smiles and she would eventually come to us to say sorry and exchange kisses and hugs. That's her......our very own Nur Humaira Habibati. Ummi & Ayah love you deeply baby...(*;^)...

Visiting the Malay Technology Museum

This visit was not our planned activity actually. When Ayah drove along Jalan Kota Batu which was by the riverside of Sungai Brunei.....then Ayah had an idea to bring us to the museum. Unexpectedly...it was open for public even on Sundays. The entrance was free of charge and there were no visitors at that time.

Habibi and Habibati were at first felt uneasy and a bit scarred....*so was I*. My imaginations ran so wild that I remembered about the movies "A Night At The Museum 1 and 2".....@_@....

Now...I better stop chattering...enjoy the following pictures....
This lady was called 'padian'....selling fruits and local products...paddling her small boat from one house to another.I looked like a preggy mommy with that white T-shirt.....(^,^)*hope* hope*hope* ....but the truth is that I am gaining more kgs.... :(
Habibi touched the stuffed chickens and ducks...
They sounded "oink" "oink" when they saw this animal ...hehehe...at first they thought these animals were alive.

These are the pictures of the historical artifacts that attracted my attention. I wish I could own all these antiques...
The above man was doing the brass-smithing...
I think those who live in the Borneo Island know about 'sago' flour that are gotten from the Rumbia trees. The sago flour can be made into 'ambuyat' and other local cakes and desserts. Traditionally, the grated sago were crushed using feet...as shown above...hehehe...now...I'm thankful to the modern technology...the sago is processed using modern machines already (^_^)
Ayah was trying to untie the knot of the rope from the rattans....one of the traditional games.

The kids were happy playing the handmade traditional toys...

We ended up our visit my signing the visitors' logbook.....we will bring the kids again when they are bigger enough to understand about the history of Brunei.