moab, utah

edited: for my entry about singapore tu kan..i thought i dah reply to comments made by my abang, faisal, sweets, zee and lin. i guess, it didn't go through i guess, but i tak nampak pulak that it was rejected kemende..hehe. so sori hor..panjang lebar i tulis tau..so mintak sori hor...blogspot buat hal agaknyer.

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okay..baru found time to update. ingatkan nak buat semalam, but ehtah apa pulak i buat eh..oh yes..i was watching my dvds..hehehe. dua hari berturut2 i was watching this japanese anime dvds. best pulak nengok citer ni. anyway, last weekend was a lot of fun. ingatkan next week nak buat a trip like this, but have to wait for another weekend. we were supposed to go camping today but weather forecast said that it will be cold. temp in the low 30s. so postpone next weekend pulak camping kat wilson.

sean took this of sarina using her camera..nampak tak tu smudge.. tu keje dia dua beradik lah tu...dah nak kena beli itu lens cleaner.

anyway, last week we left for moab thursday evening. sean balik keje jer we left. i dah pack all the stuff during the day while waiting for him to come back from work. all was well. alhamdullilah, the weather from ellsworth through denver were sunny and warm. sekali tu kan..bila masuk the mountains jer..alih2 warning sign kat the signboard saying to watch out for icy roads...wahhhhh..it started snowing like crazy. i think from 8.00 pm gitu till 2.am baru sean stopped and we found a hotel that has vacancy.

the landscape arch..this is the arch that sean mati2 nak nengok...

what happenes was..when it started to snow badly, we stopped at one town trying to see if we could find a hotel room. but what we didn;t factor in was it was spring break and that all the family, college kids wuld be out and about as well. and these places that we stopped trying to look for a room, has been booked in advance because of the ski resorts. i had one experience that i didn't really care at one hotel..but i had a good one at a hotel which was like 30 miles away. no doubt there is no vacancy, but this front desk person actually called around to ask if there were any rooms available. such a nice man. anyway, we were lucky to find a room, 40 miles away. that was the only room left. talk about luck all because the person who had reserved the room didn't show up..hehe.

ni kan, sarah and i tengah tunggu sean dengan sarina go up and come down from the double 'o' arch. she said that she nak baring and sun herself and suruh i amik gambar dia..hehehe.. that and pictures of cactus..she is so fixated by the cacti all around us.

anyway, that was an experience..going up and down the mountains in snow and ice. well, the next day we reached moab..very nice place..but too bad it coincided with the jeep safari marathon that they had. the roads were littered with hummers and jeeps and all these big SUVs. talk about breathing in fumes..anyway, again we were lucky..as you can see, we never plan one..haha..takder make any reservations at all. and like in colorado, there was only one room left and that was the king and i said sure no problem. but of course, they jacked the price up too, by about $30 more.

tu dia sean and sarina sampai dulu kat arch ni. sarina dah pergi exploring by herself behind the arch itself.

so our activities over there..for a day and a half..all we did was hike to see all these arches. macam nak rak i bilang you. one time tu kan, we have to clibmb this almost smooth rock lah..so i needed a bit of a pull from sean. i belum ready lagi ada ker dia dah tarik i ..dengan penuh semangat nyer..habis i nyer lutut kena scraped. i terpekik..i said...wait...but dengan sekelip mata i dah ada kat atas batu tu. malam tu kan..habi satu badan seme sakit2..hehe. it was a long climb. mana lutut berdenyut..kena guris..mana tangan i sakit..well my upper arm. i pikir pumya pikir..camana boleh sakit kan..bukan nya i nagkut barang berat2...baring2..baru i teringat. i bilang kat sean, it was because he pulled me too hard. of course lah dia mintak sorry and then, he added that it was good of him to haul me up the rock lah kan..i said ye lah..mmg..but janganlah hauled me up macam guni beras ..kena haul me up dengan lemah lembut nyer...cewahh..hahahahahahhahahahaha. pastu kan dia cakap..tak sangka yang dia kuat ada power tarik i pakai satu tangan jer..hahahahahhaa.

ingatkan nak post gambar ni tuari..but didn't do it. this is my fishball and chicken hor fun..yummmms!..hehe..again, ikut tekak i lah..hahhaa

anyway, it was fun. badan sakit2 takper....sebab it was a load of fun. and of course, this trip was not expensive at all. for a budget traveller..these are the places that you can go for cheaps here..if you drive a fuel efficient car lah..hehe. as usual for more pictures, please go here :)

kepada sesapa yang ada banyak telur ayam ke, itek, ke..ataupun angsa..hehehehehe...kalau dah mati akal camana nak prepare telur..try this recipe. i got this from one tv show kat sini..actually the cook is an australian chinese lady. pakai telur itek lagi sedap dari telur ayam. what you do..goreng telur just to garing kan the bottom. kena pakai banyak minyak sikit lah...then keuarkan..and tabur sikit oyster sauce, salt and white pepper,sliced chillies ( i pakai lada padi) and sliced green onion. can eat just like that jer..atau makan dengan roti or makan dengan nasi with other lauk...this is one of sean nyer favourite dishes :)

memories...

ingatkan nak tulis pasal the trip to Utah..but maybe besok lah insyallah.

for now, i nak tujukan this song to cik sriberry yang tinggal kat pandan. dengan ucapan..tengah buat apa tu?..niari masak apa ah? :))))))))

parent-teacher conference and my gardening mood :)

well, we had our first parent teacher conference here in ellsworth. the times that they provided, apa lagi i lah yang kena pergi and talk to the teachers. sometimes kan..entah eh..macam malas pun yer..but i know that it is good lah. just wish that sean would go sometime too. time kat hiawatha, even when he had the opp, he tak masuk sebab, he is paranoid about meeting his patients. this time, it is not convenient for him.

a collage of the back yard and the side of the house where i will planting more herbs and flowers once the weather permits. cam dah tak sabar lagi lah, nak go out and work the soil..hehe. i dah pester sean to make the raised beds sebab nak tanam leeks, the weather has to be cool. baru boleh germinate..hehehe

to sum up kan...sarina, the teacher and i had labelled her : the kamikaze test taker..betul..when the teacher was explaining kan..all i can think of apa lah anak i ni..took the test kamikaze style..tak tau takper asal amik test sudah. i am talking about the reading test. here kan...bebudak ada test score for reading. books that they borrowed and had read, they will be tested on knowledge and the works lah. so when i saw the test scores..alamakkkkk....4/20 for harry potter. this book kan.dah berapa kali i bilang kat dia that she is not ready to read..but one week tu..aiikk..bawak balik lagi buku ni. so when the teacher asked me, if she had read...i bilang that teacher..yeah she has been working on this book since she was in 1st grade..hahahahahaha. dah lah tak abis baca..bilang lah eh the teacher no, ni tidak...main amik test jer..aisehh..but still not bad lah..she got a B for that subject. she did very well alhamdullilah.

my seedlings that i started from seeds. tak sangka cepat tumbuh..the tomato seedlings lah yang panjang2 tu..you can also see my basil nyer seedlings. ada banyak lagi..ni nanti balik nak kena transfer to a bigger starter pot.

sarah pulak..her teacher and i labelled her as drama queen.asyik not feeling well ajer..but the funny thing, according to the teacher this feeling of not being well, only happens when she has to pick up the toys at the end of the day...apalah...sarah, sarah... alhamdullilah..now she can write her name...spelling betul..but letters dia some backwards some senget..hahaha. she has one more preschool year to go..hopefully by then it will be okay insyallah :) yerlah..mana i nyer singapore kiasu nyer mode masuk kan..abis..hahahahaha.

the daffodils at the side of the house. i think whoever planted this really know where the sun light hits the most. but i can also see more places where we can plant more daffodils this fall insyallah.

well, we will be gone tomorrow night till sunday. sean decided that since mak dia tak expect kiter for easter..yeay!...we will be going to Utah..insyallah. so we'll see..nak confirm..takut jugak lah..like what happened last year..nak pergi louisiana..in the end ended up in tulsa OK..which is not bad..then the end journey..ended up in a tow truck...hahahahaha..sebab our car died on us..hahahahah. kalau i mmg i can laugh at it..but kalau remind sean about this kan..wahhhh...sensitive abis lah..hahahahaha...terluka hati dia sebab kereta kesayangan dia buat kerenah..hahaha.

the tulips at the front of the house. best nyer..i thought this place only has roses and daylilies jer..but yeayy!..my fav flowers adalah. next year insyallah nak tambah lagi :)

spring break is here!

well, it has begun. biasalah kan, weekend we are always away. last saturday, we were up in hiawatha again but this time, we got all the patients records..yeay! dah tak yah nak kena pergi sana almost every other week. it is all in the garage..mmg kalau nak ikutkan hati nak ajer mail all of those out..but due to various reasons, we have to keep it for 7 years lah. leceh sehhhhh!

my carrot cake . i just baked it in the form of cup cake. cooks faster :) and i have to say, i loved it. the different textures in it, like the chewy raisins, the crunchy nuts and the pineapple and not forgetting the carrots itself. topped with tangy cream cheese frosting..hehehe.

we also brought back tubs of my pinggan mangkuk that was left in storage. my desktop pulak, kena tukar the motherboard. called up tech support and they quoted this for repair. $199 for 12-15 days of repair, $239 for like 10 days of waiting period while $269 for about a week's worth of wait with 3 mths warranty. hah! what?!!!!....i checked online and the motherboard cost only $58... even if we had to buy the sound card and the video card it will not cost that much still...so sean decided that he is going to rebulit the system himself.

look at the moist cake.

we are in full swing of our hiking adventures. we went hiking on friday and yesterday. i like these new trails that we found. it is hilly and really provided with a bit of a workout. the one on friday was terok sehhh..even sarah wasn't up to it. i was a bit dehydrated at the end..bagus jugak lah i can recognise the symptoms. want to hear a ridiculous but funny story..it involves sean and sarah..sarina and i are just by standers. sean got a bit upset that sarah was hampering his workout. yerlah sarah has her own pace jugak kan. but then, sarah stopped at one point and simply refused to move. sean decided to just move ahead and said that sarah will follow.

dah lama i tak masak this dish. nengok sri nyer ukoy nyer dish kan , teringin pulak nak makan chicken adobo. basically it is this tangy dish made with vinegar and soy sauce, simmered with sliced onions, chillies ( ni i yang pepandai add lah nak kasi pedas sikit...hehe) , garlic and bay leaf. makin lama you simpan this lauk..makin sedap tau. made it two days in a row..this is a filipino national dish :)

i looked at him and said to myself..lantak lah. so after we have walked like 20 feet gitu..we still did not see sarah..i just looked at sean and said, ' this is sarah we are talking about. she is still standing where we left her.' and i started laughing.. so sent sarina to drag her our way..while waiting we can hear sarina trying to herd sarah..hahahaha. i heard sarina ' move! go!' and i heard sarah ' nooo!!!!...i don wanna!'..sean apa lagi..wahh muka dah merah...jalan laju seh..and then shortly i saw him dragging sarah along...lermerrkk...takper so long as everyone is moving okay aper. so sarah dah ter sot set sot set..crying...then she said that something was in her boots. so i stop again to check it out.

my kitchen now smells of hari raya..semalam tekak nak makan kueh ni..so buat lah..but i feel that something is missing gitu..like needs more umpph..need to find a better recipe i think..hahaha

by the time i got done putting her shoes and socks on, i heard sarina sking me if she should pick up his things..i said what things..she said daddy's things. and when i got up..what do i see..itu kiddy carrier and his hiking pole was tossed aside and there he was walking ahead...alamak..i told sarina to not pick it up to teach him a lesson kan...but then kelakar pun adalah..so i suruh sarina pick those things us... nearing him jer kan..i dah tak tahan seh..ketawa sekuat2 tidak...that was such a ridiculous behaviour...agaknyer kalau kiter lambat sikit jer kan...abis dia nyer coat and t-shirt dia dia bukak and lempar kat tepi sekali..hahahaha...when i dekat kat dia kan..apa lagi i start berleter lah..hahaha...


*happy sigh*..a typical day for the fay family hiking adventure..hahaha. told him asal buang kat semak..buang kat cliff kan lagi bagus..hahah..to which he said that he has no time to entertain my sassiness..hahahaha. tak tau pulak kenapa sarah buat hal...sunday nyer hike she was all for it. happy ..and she found a couple of dried mushrooms and declared herself a good 'mushroom founder'.

my first ever apam balik yang i try. since i tak tau how the consistency of the batter should be, i buat jer lah..tasted great but the batter is almost pancake like..well not so soft and gebu but not quite the way it should be..i don't know what i crave more actually...the apam itself of the taste of the sugar and peanuts between the layers..hahahah

sarah and her asam pedas

everytime when i asked her what she wants to eat..she'll say rice with asam pedas. i guess she takes after me..haha. both girls now want to eat only that. used to be sambal also can..now they don't want that. curry used to be her fav too but i think she dah jelak lah. but not sarina. lauk lemak cili padi still orait..both can take it. but asam rebus kan..definitely not sarah nyer peberet. sarina on the other hand loves it.

gambar i took from kak za nyer site..hehe.

one thing i know..sarah loves to eat. she takes after me. sarina likes to nibble on her food. sarah ..wahh..nampak sedap bila nengok dia makan tau. but it has to be spicy..kalau tak spicy she tak suka sangat. and the kaler must be red...she wants lots and lots of asam pedas. tuari i masak kan lah diorang asam pedas. kesian..after a week of not having it. yelah, sekali masak satu periuk..then it will last for days. i pulak kalau ada asam pedas..wahhh..gerenti makan like sarah..lots and lots..hahaha. camana nak kurus. anyway, i masak lah ..then semalam buat salad and chicken scallopine ... diorang makan sikit jer. then pergi sarina nyer violin lesson..balik lesson jer..both girls cakap masih lapar..nak makan nasi and asam pedas. then suap lah diorang makan..mak dia tumpang sekaki lah..hahaha. wahh...lepas makan kan..sarah said that her mouth is hot..yelah..pedas apa..hahahahaha. start melalak..i think this time..i have put too much of the dried chilies from thai lah..the cili padi kind :) but i bet you nanti kan karang mesti mintak rice and asam pedas lagi..hahahha.

my pseudo vegetarian asam pedas. i used only the ikan bilis powder from knorr and no fish sebab we don't eat the fish if i put it in.

anyway, i found something new, well for me lah..online. i takder photoshop on either computer..the cd is in the storage unit. so found this website while reading Times magazine. it's called picnik.com and i loved it. but the bad thing is..it is always crashing my system lah. need something that would not do that often. anyway, i am liking it. as you can see, i love the polaroid frame. hehehe..nanti2 leh experiment lagi lah eh.

carrot cake and cloudbusting

well,i finally made the chinese carrot cake. boleh lah tahan sedap dia...ni ikut tekak i lah. anyway,sakit hati lah pakai ini laptop...that time my 'k' nyer key yang rosak..now my spacebar pulak..lahhhhh.. so i will photoblog okay. :) for more pictures, please go here :)


anyway, yesterday was a beautiful day. the sky was clear and the clouds are so pretty. decided to take picturesof those...hike semalam macam nak rak..hehe. tapi takper..mintak2 kurus badan. get this..sean switched his diet by just eating granola bars for breakfast and lunch kan..he lost 10 pounds in a week...he eats only dinner...i pulak..workout and this and that entah lose weight entah tidak..hahahahahha

alamak..server error pulak blogspot. anyway, just go to my mutliply lah banyak gambar kat sana. nanti bila boleh upload i will upload kat sini pulak okay :)

okay..dah upload some dah :)

singapore is not the place i used to know anymore...

sad but true.....years from being away ...the social changes that's going on there...it's not the same place i left behind almost 10 years ago....i don't know. it is still home yes..but it is not the same. everything is different. the people, the places..even the govt.

okay, what really got my goat or rather,the point i am trying to say or get to is the stupid singapore seen site...the stompers. yeah..i can see the benefits...it is to create an awareness of sorts..but day in day out..what do i see...just some ppl who simply cannot mind their own business. yes, the part where this woman let her son pee in the mrt..i thought that is a legit posting.... lost pets..cruelty to animals..yeah they are all legit..

but someone eating on a bus ... let's see...chicken rice too expensive and portions are small...someone hanging their bras on the stairs railing...who cares? anyway, i guess i am just upset with this one particular post where they showed this oriental woman killing a kitten by stepping on it's head. apparently, this is not done by a local nor does it originate from local scene. i know in life, nothing is always fine and dandy, and i hope that this psychopathic woman will get what she deserves..just like that marine who took a puppy and threw the thing over a cliff, this one was from cnn and they found it on youtube. i think, i am done with singapore seen. it's more like a tabloid than anything else and i don't know why on occasion i go there. i guess , in a way, it is one of the free online places that i can get news on singapore. used to be the stupid straits times online was free..now we need to subscribe to it. which is fine. i don't mind paying, but not like $70 per month just to get the online version..talk about scalping.

well, to me, singapore seen, acts as a reminder to you out there and to me too, that when i do go back there..i have to be very careful..lest i be photographed doing something , like wiping my nose in public and be accused of being unsanitary. or talking to my husband and kids and be accused of having a fake accent..yeah..that's it...trying to be a fake.. most of the ppl there are worse than fakes...they try so hard in trying to be cool...but the sad thing is..they don't know the meaning of the word cool or how to be cool...to me, being cool means being an individual, not afraid to be different...last i saw..there were a lot of lemmings there. okay, i think i am done venting.


disclaimer: this entry has got nothing to do with any living person/persons or any living things for that matter...nor has it got to do with the dead either...it has only got to do with lemmings :)

aching all over..

okay..so i was inspired by makchique..and i started working out..well this is only my second day jer lah..hehe and last night i had to take 3 ibuprofen..badan sakit ler...and then just now did some more and okaylah..not as bad as yesterday's but still aching..heheh..so we'll see how i fare eh.

this past weekend we were away as usual..spent the night in eudora and hiawatha. noami nyer b'day in hiawatha on saturday and went to pick up our pick-up..hehehe...so now kalau nak angkut2 barang dah senang lah..we can use the truck. we brought bac with us, sarah nyer box springs for her bed, my dishwasher and odds and ends lah..

on our way home weather turned freaky i tells ya! left hiawatha at 70 degrees...midway abilene, salina, temp dropped suddenly. it turned cold and started raining. figures doesn't it. the moment ita angut barang2..weather turns bad..macam dah expected gitu..so the stuff at the back of the truck got rained on..basah my dishwasher and the boxes and sarah's box springs. after the rain..it turned to sleet...heard that 70 miles away from us, there was a severe thunderstorm warning till 8.00 pm. we just got the cold icy rain and strong winds blowing.

anyway, my 'k' key on this laptop is not working properly..so if you see words that are misspelled and missing the letter 'k', you know why eh..hahaha. the girls are driving me nuts. these past few days asyi bergaduh jer lah..and sarina is really getting to me...her constant nagging is so annoying..oay, so i know i sounded like that..hehe...but i think she sounds more like sean...always compplaining..sarah pulak..so cengeng..kejap2 melalak..then followed by yelling..alamak...one day someone gerenti kena kompang on the bottom from me tau..

anyway, today is cooking day...wake up pepagi jer..tekak nak makan sambal..so it was a toss between sambal lada padi and sambal ayam..but in the end sambal lada padi won lah eh...heheh. masa sayur masa air for the girls. sean pulak requested this chamorro dish called kelaguen. i got this recipe while living on saipan. it is their most famous dish i would say and i love the taste. it is like kerabu ayam but eaten with their tortillas. made from coconut milk and shortening..not very calorie friendly , the tortilla that is..hahahahhaa. but kalau takder the home made tortilla, the ones that you find in the grocery store pun boleh lah. zee, ask dan if he likes this dish :)

this cili came all the way from saipan. it is so good and pedas sebab they use cili padi..best alau makan dengan cup noodles and just taruk this paste sikit. i used this paste in my kelaguen.

my peberet sambal..sambal dot dot dot..hahaha

anyway, here's the resepi for it. three parts to it..first first kena panggang the ayam dulu. i love this simple marinade and it makes delicious BBQ tau..over there, for the beef short ribs, they use 7-up in the marinade..so there's the tangy sweetness to it. second of course buat the tortilla and the third..putting everything together. so here goes:



for the chicken:

baking in the 400 degree oven

1 whole chicen cut up into 8 pieces
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, diced/chopped/minced
1 cup vinegar/lemon juice
1 cup light soy sauce
1/4 cup sugar
salt and pepper to taste

put everything together and marinade for 8 hours...but i just did it for like 4 hours. baked in a 400 degree oven till done. delish i tells ya! oh i sapu minya sikit before baking to crisp up the skin.

dah masak...golden in colour and so crispy :)

for the tortilla:

5 cups flour
1 1/4 cup coconut milk
1 cup shortening
1 tsp salt

mix all the ingredients and knead until smooth. divide into portions and cook them in an ungreased hot non stick pan. kira macam masak roti prata lah.


to make the kelaguen:

the kelaguen

1 1/2 cup grated coconut
6 spring onions minced
juice of 1 lemon
fresh chilies, pounded into a paste ( depends on how hot you want it to be)
salt and pepper
chopped cooked chicken ( i used the 2 chicken breasts and the two thighs for this batch)

the fully assembled dish :)

well for dessert..apa lagilah..perfectly perfect chocolate cake with frosting..dah lama tak buat kek ni yummms!

my chocolate cake :)