merdeka project

the initial plan was to go to the hair salon with mum to do some damages to the wallet changes to the hair i.e. colour and/or highlight. however the kitchen has run out of food stock, major food stock. the last time we went to the supermarket was the 3rd day of puasa and today is already the 3rd week so most stuffs have finished. i hope i still have time to do my hair before raya.
anyway, what is raya without raya cookies, right? as much as we know that we don't really eat the cookies, raya is not complete without them. be it store-bought or pre-ordered from friends and the like. i feel like something is missing if i don't have at least one home-made cookies on the table. it may not look as pretty as the store-bought ones, it may not look as fancy and colourful or perfect but it's the satisfaction and the feeling i get when i tell people that i made the cookies myself. it gives me a sense of pride. most people would be more interested to try the home-made ones as compared to the store-bought ones.
my must have cookies come every raya is chocolate chip cookies. it is really easy to make and the ingredients are very minimal. the recipes can be found everywhere on the internet, in newspapers, magazines etc. it's just a matter of trial and error. i do have a recipe that i've tried and tested before but like i said, it's a trial and error process. so this year i decided to try another recipe. there are not that much difference anyway but some recipes seem more reliable than the other.

chocolate chip cookies in the making.

the recipe said to put hazelnuts but there's none in the supermarket so i substituted it with almond nibs instead.

mix 'em all up.

roll them into small balls, about the same size each.

i may not have the most advanced cake mixer or the most hi-tech oven (all along i've been using our more than 10-years old 4-dimension microwave oven) but alhamdulillah so far my cakes and cookies turned out well (except for minor burns here and there due to the uneven heat). i only have two baking trays so i used this stainless steel tray (as in dulang bubuh gelas segala) as the baking tray. it's all about improvising. mind you, a proper non-stick baking tray is not really that cheap. so as long as it can go in the oven, what the heck!

first, i made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for my sis & bil in UK. one batch can fill about 1 plastic jar so there's not much left for home. since i am in the mood to bake, i made another batch, from scratch, all over again. i've run out of almond nibs so the second batch was without almond.

the house smells like Famous Amos. alhamdulillah the cookies turned out well. phew~ baking can be unpredictable sometimes. i've packed one jar to be sent to sis & bil. my bil loves my chocolate chip cookies so much that they 'fight' who gets to eat more. knowing that gives me a sense of satisfaction & happiness that i can't describe. you know that your effort is worth it when people appreciate your cookies.
i hope the cookies will reach them on time for raya and i hope it will reach them in good condition.
btw a friend on facebook wanted to order my chocolate chip cookies. i am excited and nervous because i've never sold my cookies to anyone before. how much should i sell them for? what if it didn't turn out well? what if it's not crunchy enough? will it be tasty enough? if you ask me, of course i would say that it tastes better than Famous Amos haha. hey, cut me some slack, will ya? who else to sing praises if not my own self? LOL. ohhhh when am i going to bake the cookies? will i be able to make it by this weekend? oh-oh!

on a different note, SELAMAT HARI MERDEKA MALAYSIA!

shoe shopping

it is amazing when you have set your mind to buy shoes (or anything e.g. top, dress, baju kurung, handbag etc for that matter) of a particular colour, it becomes the most daunting task. set your mind that you want a pair of purple shoes and you will never, ever come across purple shoes. or at least not the shade that you've set your mind to. same goes with baju. you want a yellow baju for a certain occasion and finding a yellow baju will be the most impossible task ever. you will see every other colour BUT the colour that you want.
who says shopping is a therapy?
anyway check out this giant capal!! found at Kompleks Kraf in conjunction with the Promosi Kraf Aidilfitri 2010.

if i am not mistaken, this giant capal costs more than RM1k. it is made of leather so go figure.

found your raya shoes yet?

supermarket sweep

the night before we had our berbuka puasa at home, mum, maid and i went to Jusco AU/Setiawangsa to buy groceries. thank god they have almost everything there so we managed to buy most stuffs at the supermarket itself. if you ask me, i don't mind using instant coconut-milk or kerisik as long as i don't have to go to the wet market. mum, on the other hand, believes that the taste won't be the same as compared to using fresh coconut milk. she went to the wet market in Datuk Keramat the next morning with dad to get the coconut milk and a few other stuffs. thank god she didn't drag me along LOL.

you see, it is so convenient to buy groceries at the supermarket. it is clean, air-conditioned, fresh and most importantly, it doesn't stink like wet markets. have you ever been to the wet market in Datuk Keramat? you will feel like you're in Indonesia, i kid you not.

we were lucky that there were not many people that night. semua pergi terawih kot...

see, kan convenient tu.

trolley pun ada.

ahh... the nicely placed goods, the clean air, the clearly displayed prices, what more can you ask for?

this was my maid. she has already gone back for good.

they are cheap too!

told ya they sell everything from nangka muda to daun pisang. tak payah ke pasar, kan?

these mangoes are from Taiwan. check out the price!

somebody must have changed his/her mind upon seeing the price of this mango. a whopping RM26 bucks for a mango? i'd pass too!

cooking made easy. everything is pre-packed & ready. no reason not to cook.

the fishes were fresh too. and of course you can ask them to clean for you.

they made it look so cheap by displaying RM0.59 per 100g. why didn't they just put RM5.90 per kg?

mum and maid choosing watermelons. seriously, how on earth can you tell whether the watermelon is red, juicy and sweet? is there a way to know? is there a special method to determine the inside of a watermelon?

we shopped until the supermarket closed. haha if dad were to follow us, there's no way we can take our own sweet time at the supermarket. he would say, "selagi tak tutup kedai, tak habis beli barang."

balik time.

something for raya

I have not done my raya shopping. i don't know why but i don't feel the mood to shop just yet. but then again perhaps it is because i have yet to actually go to shopping malls, look at baju raya (except for when i went to Shah Alam Court and i just browsed through the ready made bajus at Plaza Alam Sentral), shoes, handbag and the like. or maybe it's still to early? kalau tak last minit, tak sah, xde thrill lah. i don't buy a handbag every hari raya, neither do i buy shoes for every baju. as much as i'd love to, somehow i hardly wear those shoes after raya, especially fancy & bright coloured shoes, which are uncomfortable to say the least. the shoes will be left to collect dust in my shoe rack. kalau ikutkan nafsu & perasaan, memang semua nak beli. kalau baju hijau, kasut nak hijau, baju pink, kasut pun pink. you get the drill.
on a slightly different note, it may not be Christmas but i've got a present for raya, yeay! actually, i won it in a contest. lucky me. i didn't intend to buy perfume but when i get one, it's like a bonus, right?

I am so gonna smell nice this raya.

where did i win it from? i won the perfume from emmagem.com. check out the winners' pics here. all i had to do was submit a picture of myself and give a brief description of what i was wearing in that picture. i guess luck was on my side and i won.
now let's see what other contests there are to enter...

6th day today

Today marks the 6th day of Ramadhan. Time flies…time really flies. On one hand, I wish the time would move slower because I’ve a lot of things to settle and do while on the other hand, I wanted the time to move so fast because I want certain things to happen by a certain time. However, time is beyond my control and there is nothing I can do about it but go with the flow, embrace every moment and at the same time not be swept away and get distracted by the happenings.

On top of that, Ramadhan has been great so far. I’ve managed to perform 3 nights of terawih prayers. On the fourth night, I had to miss terawih as I had to bring Mum and the maid to the supermarket to buy groceries as we had a buka puasa on Saturday whereby we invited relatives to buka puasa at our house. Come Saturday morning, we were busy in the kitchen preparing food. We had:

• Ayam kurma
• Gulai nangka masak lemak
• Sambal petai & udang
• Rendang ikan tongkol
• Ulam2-Kacang botol, timun, pegaga & daun selom with sambal belacan
• Keropok ikan

As for desserts, we had:

• Crème caramel
• Fruit cocktail pudding
• Bubur kacang hijau

For drinks we had:

• Sirap bandung with cincau on the side (we put the cincau in a separate bowl because some people may not like cincau and it will be thrown away. to avoid any wastage, we did not mix it in the drink so whoever wants cincau in their drink are free to add the cincau themselves)
  
• Sirap limau
• Teh O

Relatives who came brought foods like:

• Bubur lambuk
• Mee goreng
• Macaroni goreng
• Pandan Cake
• Air tebu
• Buah kurma

I may or may not have missed something.

Unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the food except for my crème caramel in the making. Come berbuka time, I was busy eating and making sure everything is in order. Normally boyfie would be the one taking pics but he lost his handphone on Thursday when he and a friend was robbed in TTDI. (which i will write in another post, insyaAllah). So now he’s using my back-up phone, which has no camera.

ingredients for creme caramel

it has to be covered with cling film or else water from the steam will drop on the caramel

fruit cocktail pudding

As of today, i have yet to berbuka outside. after the 1st week, i guess i shall start surveying for places for berbuka then. i don't intend to go to hotels as the prices are exorbitant, except by invitation. ;) any suggestions?

you are here again!

Alhamdulillah, Ramadhan is here again. Alhamdulillah, we are still alive and we are able to welcome this holy month. May all of us be blessed in this holy month.Time sure flies like [insert a decent word here]. I can't think of a word that is not gonna lessen my pahala hehe. As of now, I am sleepy *dua leepy. Seriously, the drowsiness is one of a kind. It's not like the normal daily mengantukness. *sigh* And it's only the first day. *dugaan*
This morning I had to go to Shah Alam for a winding up petition. On the way back, the sky was bright, the weather was hot and I felt like it was the longest drive from Shah Alam to KL ever!


I took the NKVE as I don't want to be stuck at Federal Highway (which will definitely lessen my pahala puasa). Since the weather was hot, despite the air cond, I felt sleepy like [insert a decent word here]. There were many cars and lorries but that did not help in making me alert on the road.

See, lori pun potong I.

I even almost fell asleep a few times behind the wheels, I kid you not. The songs on the radio does not help either. They played 1-2 songs and played 10-15 minutes [exaggeration added] of annoying-sounding advertisements, mostly on makan2 stuffs, minuman, berbuka, sale and the like.

I stopped here for petrol but how ironic that the McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts' signage was captured most.

dugaan...

I took pics along the way while driving to lessen my mengantukness though I know it is equally dangerous.

Anyway, I am glad that I can go back at 5pm yeay! No way I'm staying back!

::Selamat Berpuasa::Selamat Berbuka::Selamat Berterawih::Selamat Bershopping::Selamat Beramal::Selamat Segala-galanya (dah malas penat nak fikir)::

*the plural of sleepy which according to my own dictionary, simply means double the mengantukness