tired, food pics and b'day gal :)

well, i have been very busy these past days..busy apa tau..busy watching this japanese cartoon, bleach on youtube..hehe. habis computer ni i conquer..wahahahaha ..and then my arm buat hal..makin sakit pulak lah. and then tekak pulak dunno what to eat..main masak ajer and main makan jer..macam bayar niat pulak gitu. we went to kansas city last weekend and then sean pulak bawak i gi shopping..hehehe. but biasalah with the girls, it is more tiring then enjoyable. sebok i belek2 this baju...diorang pun sibuk belek2 baju telling me that this is nice and that is nice.

i made this kway teow soup for lunch just now. best hirop2 sop time hujan this afternoon. sarah tak minat the noodles, so she just drank the soup sampai tersedak sehh..sebab apa tau..i taruk cili padi many2. :)

ni pulak, apa balik :) alhamdullilah menjadi jugak lah kira..i found another recipe which is a lot simpler to follow. yang makan saper tau..only me...the girls of course tak suka anything with peanuts unless it is snickers bars. sean pulak i kasi try half..he said that this is not his kind of dessert. he said, kalau tak mamis and creamy and has tons of sugar in it, it is not his taste..leeerrrrr..told him, there're tons of sugar inside already...but to him tak manis..can like that...hahaha

anyway, sarina is now 9 years old. we celebrated her b'day nyer lunch last saturday. she chose to eat sushi..ni kan dia hantu sushi tau..she finished 9 nigiri ( yang single nyer) sushis..wahhhhhh...un-sangkerable betul lah. i thought she would eat like maybe 5 or 6..but nine..boleh tahan sehh. on her actual b'day, we had to go to wichita, sebab to we celebrated lambat sikit. and for her present, sean decided that he is going to get a microscope. but ni belum beli lagi..still looking around for something that is not expensive but still good lah.

ni after eating 9 sushis..still tak cukup...sarah nyer rice yang tak habis..she bedal :)

tak sempat nak amik gambar the good..dah lapar sangat..food datang jer terus ngap..hahaha. see how sarina kekenyangan..hahah. sean had udon while i had seafood and vege tempura..oh the tempura was soo goooood! yummmsss!

anyway, below , you can see how i make paninis. paninis ni kira italian nyer grilled sandwiches. it is very yummy and tastes better than the normal everyday sandwich lah . for the one i made below, i used fresh mozzarella cheese, with basil mayo and my own roasted chicken. i mmg tak minat sangat sandwiches ni..yang minat sean. kalau i, give me epok2 or mee dishes anytime..hehehe.

to make the basil mayo, i first buat the pesto sauce. i took a bunch of basil leaves growing in my garden, washed it, add some garlic and olive oil, salt and pepper and i kisar seme jadi macam paste. then i took some of it and just add the thing to the store bought mayo..dah jadi flavoured mayo kan :) better taste than the normal ones too. i sapu the roti on both sides with the mayo and put the rest on top.the cheese, chicken, the mushroom ( some wild mushroom that we picked ), onion, tomato and more cheese...hehe

dah jadi camni..i put them on the panini press..takder ini bende pun takper..leh buat kat atas daput, like i make sometimes, kalau malas nak bawak bende ni keluar. you toast it on both sides so the cheese will melt. make sure you put something heavy on top to press it .

this is my panini press cum griddle lah..boleh bukak so can make pancakes also..but i jarang pakai bende ni for pancakes. like i said, most times, i prefer using the stove top. make sure you press down hard eh :) kasi leper sikit :)

and once the cheese melts, voila..dah jadi dahhhh..tinggal siap nak makan jer :)

presenting my roasted chicken panini with basil mayo , tomatoes, fresh mozzarella cheese , wild mushrooms and onions :)

how can i not nag...and more photoblog :)

well, sekolah dah bukak pun. last thursday was the first day of school for sarina and i went and have sarah enrolled for pre-school last friday. guess they increase the fee for her school. $80/mth for three , two and half hour sessions per week. mahal seh..but then again, agaknyer kalau compare dengan singapore, sana lagi mahal eh.

there are only 4 ppl in this house..but kasut macam kat kedai sehhh..i felt like nak campak jer all the shoes into the garbage bag..susun2 berserak balik..i adalah suruh beli shoe rack...rack kemana, shoes kemana...ishhh!

back to the topic at hand, i finally have had it. couldn't take it anymore. my living room was so messy since the school holidays. kemas2 pun looks like tak kemas..why because of the two messy monsters. actually i have 3 messy monsters and 5 hairy ones..hehehe. so that morning after sarina went to school, i decided to clean..., i mean, really really clean the living room. tolak furniture sana sini and sapu and then mop sekali. and look at what i discovered. i would have to say that kalau mess2 macam ginikan..only one person is responsible for it lah. boleh kasi i migraine tau if i have to deal with her...so anyway, just enjoy the pictures eh :)

okaylah..have to admit..that exercise thingy..is mine..nak taruk kat garage punyalah seksa..hahaha. padahal..bukanlah jauh berbatu2 kan :) sean nak taruk kat storage unit..i tak kasi..pastu i tak gunakan..bagus tak i ni :) but look at his telescope...suruh dia beli the cover, tak nak bukan nyer mahal sangat..sanggup pakai plastic from the grocery store..dah lah rumah ni small..dia pulak beli this bulky stuff. i tell you..sometimes kan..macam i nak taruk seme kat luar on the lawn and lelong2...

look at the mess under the couch..itu pringles nyer potato chip nyer can..i didn't know it was even there..and look..sarina said she didn't know where her other sandal had gone to..and serprais2..menyirap darah i you..and that box..that was the box of mini donuts that sarah got from a friend..guess where she threw her trash...

this coffee table kan...tak pernah takder barang..i clear it up..macam magic tau..alih2..ada bende..glass lah, pencil lah..napkin lah...and see..belen sarina nyer breakfast..before she went to school, i did ask her if she had put it in the kitchen..yes she said..i know she said..i know ke hapa...and that bug cathcer..sampai naik muak i asyik kena put it back on the shelve in their room. bila i berleter..ada jer reason. then si sarah pulak..dah kasi warning tak boleh play with anything unless she puts it back..ehh..macam tak register lah, that the mother dah naik loktang..hehehe...she makin keluarkan seme barang2 and then when i asked her to clean it up..ada ker she said that she cannot..reason, because she is too little..hello..too little..but you're not too little to take it out in the first place eh..

and then..see..the artwork..not only on the wall..on the pillow pun jadi jugak. i showed sean this morning the handiwork..he was laughing so hard. itu dinding yang i cat kan..when i pushed the couch aside..wahh...macam2 caricature ada...then jumpa pulak bantal ni...

dahlah, manusia2 kat rumah ni kuat menyerak kan..this cat..alamak...his hair is all over the place..rasa2 macam i nak shave off ajer..the carpet in the kitchen..kalau i vacuum kan..is nothing but his hair and sarina nyer rambut..agaknyer dua2 nak kena shave lah..hehe.

and ni lah muka budak yang responsible for most of the messes up there. and the artist responsible for the drawings on the wall and on the pillow. not only that..sometimes, i catch her drawing on her hands and legs..alamakkkkkkkk!

but then..tak sampai hati lah nak marah2 sangat :)...hahahahhaa. kesian dia..dari tuari kan nak makan asam pedas..baru friday i buatkan dia :) that is her second bowl of rice with asam pedas. i takder lada kering..so i just use lada merah..taste wise..is not bad, but it is sweeter for some reason :)

and ni pulak...mak bapak diorang nyer makanan..hahahaha. i saw a picture of masi campur at a food blog and for some reason...tekak pulak nak makan. so almost the whole day i masak all these lauk to make it nasi campur my style..hahahha. sambal ikan goreng with telur rebus belen2 , bergedil, ayam panggang ( this one simple recipe but so delicious...insyallah i will share the recipe :) and bende goreng :) i makan agaknyer too much of the sambal, that night..wahhhh..heartburn seeeeehhhhh. tak pernah2 kena, terkena pulak..hehehhe. so the next day..i makan banyak jugak..but not as much as the day before..hahahahahahaha.

more makan2, masak2 and hills :)

vanilla ice cream with chocolate sauce and cherry. as american as can be. ni sean nyer dessert.

ni kira another one of my photoblog moments lah eh. nak citer what happened the past week..kira the same thing over and over again. we went on a trip to texacohill using the back roads again. banyak gambar, but nanti2 lah i upload. kalau the same thing over and over again..nanti boring pulak kan...hehe. so ikut mood i eh :) my mood dictates that i should talk about food since i am still in the foodish mode. takder lain asyik pikir pasal makan jer..nak tido kan..sebelom terlelap..mesti pikir pasal mee soto, kalau balik singapore, apa yang i nak makan..mana nak pergi..teruk jugak tau i ni..hehe. so here goes, some pics from the past couple of weekends :)

phad lad na via sri's silken tofu with gravy..hehe..sib baik i tak tertype 'grave'..hahaha

ni pulak, ingatkan nak buat sri nyer silken tofu nyer soup. but terpleot pulak..dah prepare2 pastu tu tah camana tah..macam nak try buat phad lad na...a thai kway teow dish with taucho and beef or chicken. i buat ni termasin sikit sebab i use the same amt of sauce but i halved the noodles nyer quantity..ni lah orang memandai2..hehehe

my cherry limeade :)

one of my fav drink kalau stop kat Sonic, one of the fast food chain, with my friends. gerenti i will get this drink. it is cherry limeade..senang nak duplicate kat rumah. you amik sprite, taruk dalam glass then get the jarred cherries with their syrup..taruk lah berapa cherries yang you nak..a spoonful or two of the syrup and the perah limau sikit..stir..and voila..very refreshing..better than say coke ke amende..hehe

look at the big blue sky :) click on this picture and you can see the expanse of the hill..you can also see the moon too.

ni pulak..gambar of texacohill. this place holds a spesel place for sean and i. the kids pun suka this place. we went here, when we didn't have kids yet. then we came here again when sarina was 2. came back when i was pregnant with sarah and sarina was 4. and the last time we went back before last week's was a year ago when sarah was 4. so kira macam ada pattern lah gitu. sri if you like all the other hills, you will definitely fall in love with this one. that day kiter pergi macam tak nak balik jer :)

sarina and her fav spongebob t-shirt ' whatever dude'..hehehe

sarah...errmmm..dunno what to say here..hahaha

the girls jumping on and off the truck...sean agaknyer tengah thinking about this song in his head..country road by john denver...NOT!..hahahahhahaah

pretty, pretty place. of course, can't compare this to being say kat mekah ke..madinah ke..but hopefully, someday, i would like to go there. i would like to get the 'invitation' too , to do what i needed to do lah. :)

anyway, wishing all of you a great weekend :)

it's a success....in taste lah..

shape tu..it is debatable...hahahha. okay ni kira tak puas hati nyer pasal kan..so i made another batch using a diff. recipe. got it from sweets and well, what can i say..i love this one more than the other, not just in how they turn out, but because of the taste too. so lemony and yummy. and you know, if kuih baulu kita, we put a bit of lemon zest in it, it will definitely be scrumptious too. even the shape looks like the pattern from the kuih baulu :) sarina didn't like the taste. for some reason she doesn't like any lemony flavour in any of her desserts. well nothing much about the recipe..easy to follow and upon reading it once, i see that there's no baking powder used..so was it light and airy..but like sweets suggested, i used about a teaspoon of ovalette..courtesy of cik sriberry eh..baik hati dia...hantar i 3 tubs of it :) takper sri..ni i makan kan untuk you okay..hehehehe. and also, sweets betul cakap you, about the mold. there were two kinds at this place where i got mine. one was half the price of the other and the more expensive one being made in france. i now know why it is pricier...because it is such a good pan. but like you, i bought only one ajerlah..but i bet i can use this pan to make other kinds of cakey cookies eh..hehehhee. sarah just came in to say that she loves the madeleines...i think she has eaten like 4 or 5 of them..there goes her lunch...

ta-dah!

my failure...

tulah..orang buat medelaines..i pun nak buat. ikut instructions betul2...but somehow, there's something wrong somewhere..is my oven too hot..it said to heat it up till 425 dengree F alamak..dengree pulak..patut lah agaknyer tak menjadi eh..hahahahhaa....degrees lah tu....i did that..then tak sampai the time that it asked for like 8 mins...dah smell like a bit hang loose gitu.. ( hangus lah tu..) then lower it to 400, still the same..alamak...ni yang macam nak campak jer buku ni tau..but takper..maybe i should try a diff. recipe. boring seh kalau tak jadi..anyway, yang suka makan saper tau..surprisingly, it is sarah..she loved the taste of the orange, chocolate and honey flavours agaknyer. sarina didn't want to eat it at all. boring nyer pasal kan..i amik gambar pun macam half past six gitu..hahahhaha

i am also wondering, how come mine naik macam kuih bolu ahh...ishhh..

sweets, here the recipe for the chocolate-honey madeleines...guess what, this is the second time i bought a cookbook from a well known chocolate inspired chef, and the first recipe that i tried dah tak pass..need to try a few more of his things lah. maybe..it is just me agaknyer..hahaha

ingredients:

4 large eggs
1/2 cup plus 2 tbs granulated sugar
1 tbs light brown sugar
grated zest of 1 or 1 1/2 orange
1 1/2 cupsof all purpose flour
3 tbs dutch processed cocoa powder
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
10 tbs of unsalted butter
1 tbs honey
softened butter and flour for the molds.

batter:
combine eggs , sugars and orange zest, beat till thick and fluffy. about 15 minutes.

combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking poder and salt and sift into another bowl or wax paper.

combine butter and honey and nuke till butter melted and mix well. can do this in a small pot on the stove too.

remove butter and once cooledm stir about a tenth of the egg mixture into the butter to make it lighter.

next, gently fold the dry ingredients into the egg mixture gradually.

fold the butter mixture into the batter until well combined and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days.

baking:

heat oven to 425 degrees F ( too hot for me..turned it down to 400 still too hot). butter the mold and put batter into the pan till the top. and bake for 8 minutes and 2 minutes more if it has not firmed up yet.

there you have it :)

covert, ks and my gun toting husband :)

well, i figured with all the pictures accumulating, might as well. put it up, yes. this one was the trip that we made..tak tau bila lah..dah lupa but it was like 2 weeks ago maybe or even less. my memory is not serving me well..plus did i mention that this keyboard sux..hehe. anyway, covert is this ghost town like about 30-40 miles away from us. and the person who bought this town, yes...you can buy the town if you want..is working with sean at the prison. this dentist comes up once in a while if there were enough ppl he has to do surgery on. but since, sean has been doing most of the surgeries, he had not come up lately. so we went to check it out and it is really pretty cool.

tengah driving2..i suddenly saw this lucious dark green patch amongst the light green or baked part of the pastures..

the blue hills..can you see it? the slate or whatever it is from afar looks somewhat blue

one of the couple of abandoned houses still standing

we took the backroads to get there and came across some fantastic looking landscape here in kansas. where in the west you have red hills...kat sini you have the blue hills. wait till you see the picture okay. this was the most fun that we had riding on this old pick up truck. we were out for almost half the day. i'll just let the pictures do the talking okay. sebab tak ada event yang interesting aside from the sceneries lah.

our .45

our old .22

on another note...you know..it took me 5 years to discover sean nyer pyromaniac nyer side kan..this time..it took me another 5 years to find out that sean is actually a gun nut. yes you read it right..gun nut. he bought a .45 calibre gun. ermm..i forgot the name pulak..let's see it is from Springfield Armoury. so guess what we did then...of course lah..family shooting outing..hahha. the last time i shot a gun was with the .22 about 5 mths ago maybe...and now i have to get used to the handling and feel of it as well as the noise..boleh pekak sehh. so i shot the .22 but i got bored though..i shot the .45 once jer..but the recoil was too much for me..hehe. no interest lah..but sean said that i need to practice sometime. so what did we end up doing..while bapak pretend jadi koboi kan..the girls and i were happily shooting pictures of the surrounding area..dapat jugak amik gambar bunga2...and nice pictures of the girls really. but that's not all...guess what he wants to get next..he said that if obama becomes president certain semi-auto assault rifle will be banned..so dia dah planning dah nak beli satu end of this mth..alamakkkkk...i dunno what to say apa dah...dah nak jadi ted nugent agaknyer..hahaha. but he did say that this is a sort of investment because for some reason, guns do not lose it's value..if anything, it gets to be more expensive at resale...we'll see.. as usual for more pics pls go here :)

kakak, apa lagi lah..lari2 macam no boundaries gitu..

she was happy just to be able to touch the flowers and the small grasshoppers :)

wild sunflower by the roadside

backdated activities and laksa goreng :)

the best $13 investment...they had a great time playing with this in the back yard :)

well, another week has gone by :) this week, we have been doing a lot of driving. sean is into this new thing of taking the truck and driving on the back roads. i think i have mentioned this before yes? anyway, this entry i will talk about our camping trip, the first ever for this year..i know..so lambat kan..and summer is almost over..and also our trip out in western kansas. but before that, let me tell you the story about this laksa goreng :)

sriberry's laksa goreng :)

okay...this laksa goreng i tell you, is so sedap.com :) i ikut resepi si sri lerr..saper lagikan. but the story behind this was, when i saw the picture on her blog, i was so like slurrrping my own saliva. it looked that good. then kan..a couple of days ago..i kept looking at the picture until malam tu i sampai termimpi2 you...that was how powerful the picture of that laksa goreng was tau. and so the next day, die die must make it and i did. wahhhh..abis masak jer...tak menyempat tunggu sejuk..i senduk satu mangkuk and duduk depan tv . makan sambil watch some show lah..wahh..nak kata i ni pelahap tak lah..gelojoh pun tidak...but because of the dish..wahhh...i mencekik macam tak dapat makan berminggu2...makan punyalah pelahap..sampai terbegik sehhhhh...haahhahahahahahahhahahhaa....*lap air mata..ketawa banyak sangat nih*....i terbegik sampai sarina jadi so concern..tanyer i..mommy are you okay..are you going to be alright...alamak..orang tengah terbegik..cari air..dia boleh tanyer whether i am okay or not..of course lah i am not okay kan...i just waved her aside and reached for thr glass of water...wahhhh..punyalah lega...she asked me again and i said that i was alright..just went down the wrong chute jer..hahahaha. after that..i continue makan lagik..hahahha..tu ajer citer laksa goreng i ni..hahahhaha

can't remember what she was telling me..banyak gambar sarah kat camping trip ni...why no pictures of sarina..sebab kakak sibuk gi swimming..satu hari suntuk kat dalam air..hehe

okay..next up was our camping trip about 3 weeks ago...punyalah panas. temp was in the low 100s. and then angin pulak wahhh...very the strong. but good for gerry yang suka kite surf..kiter berenang pun very difficult because of the huge waves..macam rasa2 kat ocean pulak...hahaha. this trip, for the first time, the girls slept in their own tent. they were excited, until night came and they had to go to bed kan...ingatkan it will be okay, but nope..siap kejap2 mommy this..mommy that..last2..they asked me if i can stay in my tent and wait for them to go to sleep...lerrrr...but tu takper..

diekni so very active lah...very fit..tak macam i dengan sean..hahhaha...

the second day kan..the ranger came to our site. tak pernah2 ranger datang visit for 5 years of camping there..this year diorang pulak buat hal. they said that there were too many tents on our site. we can only have two, but then, sean said that the girls' tent are only so small..then this ranger, which happens to be a woman, changed her story..oh it is not because of the tent..it is because , we are camped to near the common area...then sean asked, was our tent near the common area..now, this site 51 and 52..we always book them. and they are tiny, esp 52..satu tent pun entah muat ke tidak..so when sean was told that yes, we have to move our tent...that was when all hell broke loose.

see..happy kan diorang..but at night..alamak..boleh buat i macam nak terpekik jer..sib baik kat camping site..malu sikit mak diorang nak jadi tarzan betina..hahhaha

imagine a 6 '3" guy, 250 lbs, with a bandana on his head ( kak za..maintain eh..maintain..hahhaha) dark glasses and face smeared with suntan lotion suddenly turned red in the face and was barking at me..telling me that we are packing up to leave the site..hehehe...wahhh..seme panic sehh..termasuk ranger tu..haha. i pulak tengah cuci pinggan and pots that we used to make lunch..my fried tanyer..whether we are really leaving...i senyum jer and said..no i don't think so..hahha. then the ranger told him that he didn't have to move the tent. dia buat dunno jer..habis bantal2 busuk seme terkeluar tent and he shoved it onto the truck...hahaha..but in the end, pandai gerry pujuk kawan dia...tak jadi sean nak balik..hahahahahhaha. anyway, tu lah the highlight of our camping trip. :)

our tent, the green one while theirs, the blue

then a couple of weeks later, or even a week after that, we went on a trip out to western kansas. sean wanted to show the girls where he was born and now that the girls are older, they would certainly remember this trip. so we went to dodge city and from there went to hugoton. one of our best road trip in kansas, excluding today's..itu nanti2 i citer eh :) insyallah. anyway, this was the trip where we went to the big basin state park and came across jacob's well.

we so love this place..can watch the turtles the whole day

a place where there's a natural sink hole and it provided a sanctuary for the red-eared turtles. the pictures that you guys saw on my animal planet nyer edition. it is here also that we cam upon the open range, where the cows are free to roam about with no fences keeping them off the road. again..tu lah gambar lembu2 yang cantik molek :) this area is also known as the red hills..i guess you guys can see why kan :) definitely, we will go back to the big basin park, just because i'd like to see the wild bison roaming the prairie and take a picture of them :)

the red hills :)

bottom of the well...macam panjat bukit gitu..hehe

well, i better get to bed..i know..this seems to be like an abrupt ending kan..but badan i sakit2lah..hahaha..the whole day duduk dalam truck..gallavanting again.. :) insyallah..will write about this trip soon too :) have a great week ahead :) as usual..more pics here :)

the sunset