Pink Lilies

My house smells so good at this moment. The pink lilies that hubby gave on our anniversary are blooming with joy! Hehe.

The lilies he got this time are huge. Bigger than my hand. I put them in 2 vases; one in our bedroom and the one in the living room.

This is way better than store bought perfume!

My homemade white bread.

Tesco's "Heroes and Friends" figurine

We ( hubby and I) managed to collect all of them! Haha we are more excited than Marissa to be honest. Lol.

Ahhhh...so happy!

Our 3rd Anniversary.

Baruuuuu 3 tahun. What has 3 years taught me? It has taught me that you can fall in love over and over again with the same person!

Boo boo, You are still the same person I married to 3 years ago. You have never failed to make me laugh or cry. :p Here is to many more years to come Insya Allah.

Marissa's Milestone : Talking

Hmm bulan 12 genaplah marissa 1 years 6 months calculated age 1 year 3 months.

At this age, she has started to pronounce some words clearly. One of her very first words is Thank you. Tapi dia pronounce ada pelat sikit lah  but you know that it is Thank you. Every time dia ambil barang ke nak bagi barang ke mesti dia cakap thank you. However, this week dia tukar pulak thank you tu bunyi macam TATAP. Tatau apsal. I need to say more thank you from now on.

Cat, Cow,  Apple, Bird and Abang sangat jelas pronounciation dia. She knows that birds can fly so everytime we are outside, she would look up and point out at the birds. At this point, cats and dogs looks the same to her. Hehe. She would say cat whenever she sees a dog near us.

Dah pandai point out mana dia sakit and when asked what happened to it, sometimes she would say jatuh.  She has started to say daddy but most of the time its Da. No mummy yet though. 
Sometimes dia akan pronounce her name as aaaiissssssha..with heavy pronounciation on the S.

Other words are still rough on the edge. She babbles a lot and she likes to copy what i said. I need to be extra careful now as she is absorbing it like a sponge. Need to keep my mouth from swearing! Hehe.

Overall I am quite happy with a progress. Not bad for someone that had a hole in her brain. Good job caca!

"Count The Books Giveaway"! giveaway by Mama Liza!

Mama Liza is doing a giveaway contest that ends by the end of this month!

What will you win?

The first winner will win:

And 3 other winners will get some products from Phillips Avent:

How to win this contest? You need to count how many books are there in this picture:

Please visit her blog at http://lizayati.blogspot.com/ to see the terms and conditions!

Big Bad Wolf

We went to the biggest book sale this year; the Big Bad Wolf sale!

We went during business hours but there were still a lot of people around. However, due to the huge space, you don't really feel crowded at all. The sale is held at a big hall at MIECC The Mines. 

One section on the kids area.

We decided to just go for awhile as we didn't want to be stuck in the traffic jam. Hubby even set an alarm for 1 hour. Haha. Boy oh boy did we missed the alarm! We went crazy at the kids and cookery section. Too many books to choose from! I put Marissa in Boba but halfway through, she wanted me to just carry her. Ouch, my arms are still hurting since then.

We were there for 1 hour 30 minutes and then rushed back home. Alhamdulillah, the traffic was smooth.

Hubby dengan hasil tangkapan!

We brought along a trolley bag with us and that is a savior! We actually parked outside The Mines and walked to the MIECC. So this bag saved our lives. 

Books for Marissa. I have finished reading all of them to her though!

Our books!

We managed to spend around rm180 for all these books! Isn't it cheap? What a steal!

We did go for a second round though! Haha. 

Kelas Swissroll

This is a quite overdue punya post. I attended a class organized by Kak Rani from RaniCakes when I went back to Perlis a couple of weeks back. The class was conducted by another baker based in Penang( Tashyaroll's Homecakes) .

I was quite nervous to find out other participants were bakers as well but it  turned out that everyone was very friendly.

We learned how to make decorated swissroll! I have been watching the technique from youtube from weeks and now I get to see it personally how easy it is! The tip is you need to make the design first, bake it then fill up the rest of the batter to the cake pan.

Cikgu showing us the technique to draw strawberry

This is the polkadot design. The polkadot has been baked for a minute then the rest of the batter is being added after that. That way, the polkadot stays in shape.

This is everyone's favorite. Rainbow swissroll!

 She taught us to make 5 different sets of designs plus the polkadot and we get to bring them home too. Look at these beauties!

I haven't had the time to try this at home but will do so on. I might take orders as some of my friends has started asking me about it. I want to make my own strawberry and blueberry jams first to be made as the filling.  I don't want to buy the ready made ones. It'll taste better isn't it? 

:)

Helmi

I lost a friend yesterday. A great friend. He was my colleague and my first partner when I started working with HP. We always had lunch together either with my other colleague or just the two of us. He is like a brother, a mentor to me.

He has been sick since Raya due to pneumonia.  We thought he would recover. Since raya, he has been going in and out of the hospital several times. Along that time, he was still working from home. I have been wanting to visit him but never actually find an ample time to do that. 2 weeks back I told hubby that we would visit him after I came back from Perlis.

I came back from Perlis on Thursday. The moment I reached back in KL, I immediately asked our Whatsapp group the update on Helmi. They said so far his wife hasn't given any update yet, but he was in ICU a week before. So I said to myself, I better go and visit him.

The next day, my ex colleague called around 9am saying that Helmi had passed away. It took me awhile to sink it in. I cried my heart out. They suspected that it was a cancer.  Yesterday, my news feed was full with condolences from everyone that knew him. Alhamdulillah, he is remembered as the nicest person we have ever met. He was the type of person that would go beyond anything to help you out.

Arwah dikebumikan di Kedah. He left his wife with a 2 year old daughter, Dian. His wife  texted me just now saying that Dian has been missing her dad since yesterday. She has been crying and having tantrum. Ya Allah,sayunya hati ni even a 2-year-old can sense it.

I have been blaming myself for not finding time to see him when he was sick. Rasa ralat sangat. However, my friend Abie said there is a hikmah why I didn't see him when he was sick. He had lost 20kgs since raya. All I could remember was the healthy him. The guy who loves her daughter so much.

You left us too soon. Allah loves you more Helmi.

Tips on becoming a housewife

I have several people asking me whether do we have enough to go by monthly once I quit my job. They also asked what should they prepare for if they want to quit their job like me.

To tell you the truth, I am not the right person to answer these questions! Why? Because I quit my job without much plans. I did it because of Marissa. However, I can list out a few things from what I have experienced throughout the whole year of being a housewife. It's not easy I tell you! Especially when you are living in KL.

Haha I wish I am like this!

1. List out all your debts. Minimize it to the maximum especially your credit card. Just have 1 credit card at least. We didn't do that and it's biting us in the butt. LOL

2. I unsubscribed my 3G line since I am mostly at home. We have WIFI at home so it wasn't an issue at all. I used to pay rm200 more or less monthly including the 3G subscriptions but at the moment my phone bill is only around rm40. It took me awhile to get used to not having any internet connections when I am on the go but on the good side, you won't see us playing on the phone while having dinner or hanging out somewhere. No anti social geeks at all! LOL.

3. Invest in a good, big fridge. This is the first thing I did when I quit my job. I cook most of the time now so it is essential to get a good fridge that can store a lot of food. Oh plus, we have the habit of buying a lot of seafood and meat whenever we're back in our hometown so I need a fridge that has a big freezer! If only the house is bigger, I would have gotten a deep freezer as well.

4. Once you have the big fridge, please cook at home! It doesn't have to be a big feast everyday. Just simple healthy meals. You will save a lot if you eat at home. You can control the MSG, the salt and only use fresh ingredients.

4. Buy only when you need it. Don't buy just because it is on sale. Think whether this is something you need. Whether do you need a 100 of these because its on sale or just 2? Plan your spending. Our focus is mostly on our daughter. So the expenses on her must be the number 1. Oh ni paling susah. Took us awhile to adjust to this.

5. Solat sunat Dhuha. Try to perform solat sunat Dhuha whenever you can and be grateful with what you have. Insya Allah rezeki tu ada.

Homemade Meatballs

This is the recipe that Chef Marina Mustafa shared with us during the cooking demo with Phillips. Sedap sangat! Kebetulan I have all the ingredients so apa lagi! The secret ingredient in this meatballs is raisins! Tak pernah terfikir pulak nak add raisins in meatballs sebelum ni.

 Ingredients:
250grams minced meat
1 cup chopped onion - fried lightly so it caramelized a bit.
1 egg
2 tbsp of chopped raisins
1tbsp of chopped parsley
1/2 tbsp of ground black pepper
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs
1/2 tsp of salt.

I substituted the parsley with coriander leaves. Sarah memang suka daun ketumbar. Penyedap rasa. I didn't add any salt since I wanted to make this for Marissa. Just add all the ingredients together and make a ball like below:

 

I don't have an Airfryer so I only pan fried it with a bit of oil in a pan and cover it with a lid. This recipe is definitely a keeper! This is how it looks like after it is cooked. Odd shape meatballs! Haha.

 

Breakfast Picnic at Lake Garden

We had a great morning at Lake Garden last Saturday. I made sandwiches and my cousin bought nasi lemak for our picnic cum playdate. This was our first time to the playground. It's huge! Marissa was so excited!

One part of the playground. There's more on the left side.

This is another part of the playground

 We reached there around 9 am. Just nice. It wasn't too hot and there were not many kids around. Marissa was so fascinated with the squirrels and birds.

Watching daddy feeds the birds

Macam boboy tak? haha

  

 We try to bring Marissa out to non crowded places.This is the perfect place for her. I don't know whether it is always like this or it was just our luck. There were people having a birthday party there as well but because the park is big, kids can run around freely! Sangat best!

World Prematurity Day

17th November every year is the Word Prematurity Day celebration. Do you know that 1 in 10 babies in the world are born premature?

Wikipedia explained that Premature birth is defined either as the same as preterm birth, or the birth of a baby before the developing organs are mature enough to allow normal postnatal survival. Preterm birth means giving birth to a baby before 36 weeks.

Premature infants are at greater risk for short and long term complications, including disabilities and impediments in growth and mental development.It is among the top causes of death in infants worldwide.

My daughter was born premature at 27 weeks with the birthweight 750grams. She had to be born early because i had severe pre eclampsia due to the hypertension. She is almost 1 year 6 months and alhamdullilah she is healthy. We still quarantine her when she is sick and that really helps. We still don't take her to crowded places as much.

She was in NICU at hukm for 80 days under the best prof ever: Prof Cheah. His team of doctors were very supportive to the parents. She didn't have much of complication except for 1 blood tranfusion and a series of apnea after that due to the infection from the tranfusion. She did have a prominent hole on her brain due to the lack of oxygen in the womb. However we did an MRI when she was about 7 months old and doctore said its not there anymore.

Looking back I am very thankful that she is fit and healthy to this day. Many of her preemie friends had to go through many complications such as ROP (retinapathy of prematurity) Pda, and hernia.

I didn't even know that Malaysia has a lot of premature birth cases until Marissa came into our life. To all mothers out there, please educate yourself about premature birth or even babies when you are expecting. Please read more of the risks of pregnancy as well. We do have a few support groups in FB.  It does help a lot to share your experience with the first time parents of premature babies.  You can search for JEWEL ( Miracle Baby Family United ) in FB.

INCIDENTAL COMICS: A Year of Parenting

INCIDENTAL COMICS: A Year of Parenting
It sure describes the best about me!

Mummy's Day Out with Phillips Avent

I attended an event by Phillips Avent last Saturday. My former schoolmate Liza extended the invitation to me and i thought why not? I haven't seen her for more thank a year anyway so it kind of nice to catch up for a bit.

I did have a great day! They invited a nutritionist dietician Mrs Indra to talk about nutritions during pregnancy and breastfeeding. I will talk more about that in my next post.

 

Lets talk about something that I love: cooking! They invited Chef Marina Mustafa to do cooking demo using their products. she showed us how to fully utilize Phillips products and oh i am in love!

She did 4 recipes:
 1. Meatballs using the Phillips Air Fryer

2. Homemade tomato sauce using Phillips Avent Steamer Blender

3. Vegetable Paella using Phillips Viva collection Electric Pressure Cooker.

4. Mint and Beans dip using Phillips Soyamilk maker.


My favorite is the Phillips Avent Air Fryer ! The meatballs came out very moist, juicy and delicious. I am definitely putting the air fryer in my wishlist.You save a lot of cooking oil and our food is a lot healthier too.

How does the air fryer functions?

Using Rapid Air technology, the Airfryer circulates hot air around a metal mesh cooking basket, requiring little or no oil as it fries, bakes and grills. The starfish design on the bottom of the Airfryer facilitates air circulation, ensuring your favorite foods cook evenly. 

It is definitely  the healthier alternative to deep frying! 

    

The bloggers that attended the gathering!

 

H.E.A.R.T.S

Have you heard about this program? This program Housewives Enhancement and Reactivate Talent Scheme was created earlier this year to cater to the needs of current workforce. It is to train the housewives that decided to go back to work in various specialized skills.

I have been looking for a program like this and suddenly a friend pointed out on FB about this program. This program is organized by Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) or in bahasa Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad. It is fully funded by the government. When I saw the post of FB, I quickly signed up for this program. That was in July! I haven't heard from them until November.

So last week I got an email asking to attend a briefing and Interview for the program. It was held at the PSMB building at Bukit Damansara near my old workplace HP tower. Puan Shamsinar, the person who is overlooking this program said that it took her awhile to go through all applicants and filter out who is eligible for the program.

Basically, there are about 10 programs that you can choose from:

• Script Writing

• Website Development and Maintenance

• System Application Development

• Social Media Management

• Research

• Certified Project Management

• Consultancy / Train-the-Trainer

• Software Examiner

• Graphic Designer

• Business Process Contact Centre

I chose Certified Project Management. That is the only one that is relevant to my previous work. Social Media Management is the most sell out program out of all. Puan Shamsinar did go through each programs in detail and according to her the training will be conducted by various training companies in KL and it will only take about 5-10 days.

To apply for this program, you will need to be:

• Educated homemakers/housewives or single mothers (Diploma and above) who have stopped working to become full time homemakers/housewives

• Aged between 25-60 years old.

• Malaysian citizen

In the website, they stated that you need to be 30-50 years old but Puan Shamsinar said they have made some changes over time. 

The briefing started around 9am and by 10.30 we were ready for the interview. The interview only took about 5 minutes and you can ask her any questions regarding the program. Don't be scared about the interview. She only asked some basic questions regarding yourself. If you are qualified for the program, their listed training companies will call for the training. I hope I do get it!

If you are keen in participating in this program, please log on to www.hrdf.com.my. It is an ongoing program so you can apply anytime. Check out their FB as well. There will be more programs next year as they have received a new budget for this scheme.

Simple Naan Bread

I made this probably around 2 weeks back. I wanted to use the rest of the yogurt in the fridge and I thought why don't i try making naan bread and tandoori chicken. i thought it was going to be hard.

I found this recipe online. I forgot the link. +'ll update it soon.

Ingredients: 

1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast - i used the mauripan instant yeast.

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar 

1 cup water (warm) 

1 teaspoon salt 

3 cups all-purpose flour 

6 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter or unsalted butter) 3 tablespoons yogurt 

* ghee (clarified butter or unsalted butter) - i used unsalted butter

Directions: 

1. Mix the yeast and sugar into the warm water in a large bowl and let sit for 10 minutes. 

2. Add the salt and flour into the liquid followed by the ghee and yogurt and mix until it forms a dough. 

3. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic. 

4. Place the dough in a large greased bowl and cover. 

5. Let it rise for 90 minutes. 

6. Punch the dough down and knead it for 10 minutes. 

7. Divide the dough and form balls.

8. Roll the balls out. 

9. Brush both sides with ghee and fry in a pan until golden brown on both sides.

You can use a mixer if you want but i only knead the dough using my hands. I used the magic grill pan (pemanggang ajaib) to grill the bread. The result? Awesome! We had a little picnic at ttdi park and the bread  was still soft when we reached there. Must be due to the yogurt.

Red snapper fish soup

Ever since our 2 weeks 'vacation' in Labuan, we fell in love with red snapper fish soup. We had it almost every other day. I tried to make it at home every once in awhile. It's good but not as good as the one in Labuan. I wilk make more research on this until I have perfected this recipe.
Ingredients:
Red snapper
5 cloves of shallots -thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic -thinly sliced
2 inches of ginger - thinly sliced
1 stalk of lemon grass
1 stalk celery stick
1 tomato - cut into 6
Adabi fish soup spices packet (sup bunjut)
water
1 whole sour plum
You can ground the onion,garlic and ginger if you like but i prefered it sliced.
Sauted the spices in the packet ( consist of 1 bay leaf, 1 cinnamon stick, aniseed, cardamon and bouquet garni). Leave out the bouquet garni. Sauted it together wit the ginger, shallots and garlic.
Add water, celery stick, lemon grass and bouquet garni. Bring to boil and add in the sour plum.
Add fish and salt to taste.
Garnish it with chinese celery and done!

Homemade Chicken Stock

I love making my own chicken stock. It does make cooking easier, faster and healthier than using the shining wrapped chicken cube. I have tried several recipes but I love the one from Jamie Oliver's recipe.

Ingredients:

2 kg raw higher-welfare chicken carcasses, legs or wings chopped
½ head garlic, unpeeled and bashed
5 sticks celery, roughly chopped
2 medium leeks, roughly chopped
2 medium onions, roughly chopped
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
3 bay leaves2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
5 sprigs of fresh parsley
5 sprigs of fresh thyme
5 whole black peppercorns
6 litres cold water

I usually substitute the fresh herbs with dried ones and added whole Chinese celery ( daun sup) as well. Put everything in and cook it for at least 2 hours. Once cool, I will transfer it to small containers and freeze them.


For the chicken, i used leftover roasted chicken from a few days back. I kept it in the freezer. 
Roasted chicken does gives a richer flavour to your stock. I don't even have to add any salt in it.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Everyone has been talking about the great benefits of Apple Cider Vinegar. We decided to get one two after reading a lot about it.

Hubby was not feeling well a few days back. 
His tummy felt bloated so i gave him 2 tablespoon of acv mixed in a glass of water. oh i did include a bit of honey because it smells quite bad. 
He felt better after awhile.
Don't drink it without diluting it in water okay
?

You just have to bear with the smell a bit.
I read that you can onclude it in fruit juice too. 
Below is some of the benefits of acv.

Evernote: Food

This is my current favorite app on my phone. Evernote: Food.

Check out the tutorial for this App:

Isn't it awesome?

There are 4 tabs on the app but it can do so much with all these 4.
The first tab is Explore recipe. You can do a quick search on the app to find any recipe but if you can't find what you want you can search it on the web as well. Once you have found the recipe, you can clip it to your Cookbook which is the second tab. Once you have clipped the recipe on your cookbook you can easily access it without any Internet connection.

That is a good thing for me because it's hard to get any connection in my kitchen. So by clipping the recipe, I don't have to be scared of losing the recipe again! Above picture is an excerpt from my Cookbook. I am a fan of Jamie Oliver so there are a lot of his recipes there. :)

You know when you stumbled across and article or a picture of a restaurant on Instagram and you said I need to try this place one day and the next day you forgot where the restaurant is? That happens to me a lot. I still haven't recover from the pregnancy brain I had a year ago. Pfeeh.

Anyway, the third tab is Restaurant. You can search and clip the restaurant and you won't forget about it ever again. It even has a map tagged with the location. Easy peasy!

And the last tab: My meals. Who doesn't love taking pictures of your food? Need I say more? LOL

Get this app guys!