More sewing on Independence Day

I fancy nasi kandar today for buka puasa, so kitchen closed! No posting of the previous days food.

Instead, i bury myself with fabric....sewing.

Ya, hujan2 ni tak tau apa nak buat, go blog-hopping and found something interesting in one of the 'houses' and this is the outcome.....

pleated shoulder bag

The inside

This lady provide tutorial for the bag and since i'm just trying out, I use fabric that i have at home. When it was done, i realized that it was quite monotonous with only one colour, so I add the flower.

I made the flower using felt and used safety pin to secure the flower to the bag. Can be removed anytime (not a nice one anyway) and replaced with any other contrasting coloured stuffs; brooches etc.

Am also learning to make a baby blanket. I managed to finish the blocks, seeing the guru tomorrow for more instructions

Let's go Crafting

I just can't ignore this other passion of mine. I want to share what i've done for the past weeks..... the complete version....

This one took quite a while as the flowers details were hand sewn, as well as the binding part.

And the one below was finished within 4-5 hours. I found this simple design, complete with tutorial-thanks

selamat berbuka puasa

What's for berbuka today? me? here are some pics of what i've had for 'berbuka'/iftar. One sure thing, masakan yang berkuah, kurang jalan

bak kata kawan hari tu:- dah berapa juz  mengaji?....

makan apa hari ni?

ya, selamat berbuka puasa buat kawan kawan semua...makan apa tadi?

Me? ni la nak habaq mai....

This short entry is specially dedicated to najwa because she called when i was preparing the dishes for break fast just now. Well nudge, nilah yang mak caq masak:-

Ayam(kuning) Bakar

Ayam - potong ikut suka, mck guna whole leg

Blend these to marinate the chicken:-

Shallot, garlic, ginger, lemon grass, bird's eye cili (cili padi), tumeric, salt, sugar & about 1 teaspoon cornflour.

Marinating.......

Kasi 'sauna' about 1 hr@170 deg, turn after 30 mins

Siap! Dengan air asam lagi

And...   Buah Melaka

Buah Melaka ni buat sebab teruja dengan kawan mck yang sorang tu. Mck guna air daun pandan saja sebab tu warna pucat sikit, tapi tetap sedap. Meh kita tengok camna kawan mck tu buat.

Jom Main Masak masak

Today is the last day for us to have meals during the day. Tomorrow, Muslim all over will observe the first day of Ramadhan. The solat sunat tarawih starts tonight and the predawn break will start in the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Selamat berpuasa to all muslim brothers & sisters.

I did a last catering service this morning & will stop briefly during ramadhan.

Today's dishes were fried bihun, 2 sweet treats (creme puff & chocolate cake), 2 savory (sardine roll & prawn fritters), coffee, tea & fruits.  

And last week, there was an order for lunch and I made nasi hujan panas (colored buter rice), ayam masak merah, kurma daging, kerabu timun/nenas, fruits and drinks.

Nothing special, just that I have a little bit more time and the internet is damn 'strong'.

Signing off - Makcikkantin  -

Jom Makan

This entry was in my 'save' for  about a week. I've to let this out as i have another entry on da way.....
Food is the main agenda in my sister-in-law's itinerary if she comes back to Penang. Picked her & her hubby from the airport ~9pm and soon as she stepped into the house; "jom pi pekena nasik kandaq...". Kayu Nasi Kandar is just a 3-minute walk from my house, so not a problem. No photo, dah malam..pi 'ngap' saja...

Next morning was a trip to Sg Petani to visit someone and we had rojak buah  and ais kacang mesin. As I didn't take any photos, i hope this one   can be of help to show how rojak buah looks like but ais kacang mesin......tak dapek den nak nolong. It is actually blended ice kacang with extra 'milo'(serbuk dia tau, bukan bancuhan). You can get this at Sg Petani Bus Station.

Dinner was mee udang, just so-so.......a better one is at Gertak Sanggul

Sunday breakfast was kuih tunjuk tunjuk (kat warung) je. 

We took Ache & Jani to this Padang 'Broom' to sample Penang's delight - pohpia, laksa, cocoq udang etc etc....

Padang 'Broom' is actually a name given to that place located at Jalan Brown; 

The "Broom'?? Ohhh this is a little bit of history.....Dulu dulu kan kaaa, bila orang putih mai buat Pulau Pinang ni rumah depa, nama nama jalan ni semua boh nama tok nenek depa....jadi nana & nani chek apa ni tak berapa tau nak sebut nama nama omputih tu , so "Brown" jadilah "Broom". 

Itu dulu, lani mamak, mami, nana nani semua pandai cakap omputih dah! And there's also a padang nearby, hence the name "Padang Broom", begitulah serba sikit  ceritanyaaaa 

Ok lah, so much of the cerita, now let's see THE FOOD that i captured thru my 'hp lens'. 

The Pohpia (nala gedebak you @ RM1/pc)

The Cucoq Udang (top left, the small bowl is the dip=kuah kacang)

The Laksa (chinese style, small bowl one, big bowl oso got)

The Drinks (left-apple asamboi, right-limau asamboi, toptwo-ciccau, almost hidden with blue camca- orange juice {omputih saja minum ni kot?} )

The 'KL'ians-enjoying their meals

They still have time for 'siesta' before their flight home that same evening!

Have a good day!

Convocation.....

Alif, my eldest son, graduated from USM with a degree in HBP (housing building & planning - interior design) on 12th August. (macam dok advertise pulak....manalah tau kan kot2 ada orang nak offer kerja )

It was another family outing...sort of. Adil skipped class that day to be at the occasion.  

Never a serious guy, we couldn't get him photographed 'decently' even on that day & neither could we....as seen here....tak payah cerita banyaklah no, layan gambar dah le.

Congrats Alif....he's waiting for entry to further his studies, meanwhile freelancing & now away in Johor/KL doing photography for an architecture firm.

Oh ya, must story jugalah sikit keprihatinan universiti dalam menangani wabak H1N1. Before entry to the main hall, everybody had to go thru a temperature check. Those who 'passed' had a green round sticker stuck to their outfit; obviously those who failed cannot enter the hall.

mak, alif, bapak

mak, bapak, alif, adil

mak, bapak, alif, emmy, kak pijah

alif with coursemates

alif with his closest buddies

Ladies Day Out

The day will be remembered for a very long time definitely. YES it was a long-planned outing & only materialised on 6th august 2009, due to our commitments, being a wife, mother, guardian.....

At 9 am - Dolly, Noraini and myself took off from Penang after a heavy breakfast of nasi lemak/teh tarik @ Kayu Nasi Kandar. There must be only one driver & dolly was.....

dolly at the driver's seat

Arrived Tambun @ ~ 11 am  to fetch another 'che kiah' - Yati.  Eh 'che kiah' doesn't sound so good in this trip story, so i say we are the 'lopez' lah, feel sexy sikit hmmm.

We chit chat a bit with Yati's hubby, Suhaimi (nak tinggal kan..kena buat baik sikit) and after 'pesan-ing' suruh jaga ayam&itik, we headed to our destination, exchanging stories along the way, only Noraini seemed mellow-she slept. 

Oh ya, me forget. I also have to bribe my abang troy with goodies, so he didn't feel so 'kena tinggal'. I left him with many kinds of chocolates/wafers & drinks in the comfort of our room! And I am pretty sure Dolly & Noraini did the same - anybody would.

We reached Cameron Highlands  about an hour and a half later and checked into a 4-to-a-room Rainbow Hotel. Not a problem to check into any hotel during weekdays I suppose, infact we got at least 60% off the room rate.

at the lobby

two 'lopez' posing in room

After settling down, went out for lunch at the food court - a 3 minute walk from the hotel. Yati had rice (perempuan melayu terakhir nih, kena cari nasi juga) & the other 3 'lopez' (he he-sexy) settled on bihun sup & fresh orange.

@ Brincang food court

bihun sup pucat (cilinya kat mangkuk kecik tu)

Went up to the room at the top of the stairs again (macam title lagu Kenny Rogers pulak!) before traveling towards Tanah Rata.

Look see look see, we stopped at a strawberry farm to tengok2 and sempatlah menjamah strawberries topped with cream & chocolate drizzle (@RM10). 

sweet, sour, creamy strawberries

Lagi jalan.....stop pulak tengok2. Mana boleh tengok saja...tangan mesti gatai punya. Bought some goodies:- jam, dried fruits, tea etc.

Note: There are lots of shops/stalls along the road selling these items.

some of the goodies

loading..loading....

Lagi jalan......we stopped to check on fresh strawberries. Thought of buying on friday on our way down & was told by the lady.."oooo esok lu tak dapat ini price lagi tau, orang ramai..." obviously the price would go up on friday. Lots of other stuff on sale; fruits, vege, flowers etc but we only borong strawberries, kalu sorang dah 5-6 packets, 4 of us?....

colourful flowers on sale  

Getting dizzy from shopping spree...we drove to Strawberry Moments, a cafe ala ala secret recipe, nak buat apa lagi...to enjoy the foodlah. This cafe is near our hotel actually, jalan pun boleh.

Unfortunately, there's nothing much there except for strawberry strudel, was told that fresh cakes come in every saturday...so we were 2 days short.

   Strawberry Moments (red signage). I 'import' this pic from tamciakpo.blogspot.com-tq

 the normal spread that was absent during our visit (pic from tamciakpo.blogspot.com)

By this time, Noraini has already 'charged-up' (by the cake/chocs probably). It was near maghrib, we went back to our hotel. We were greeted with a very heavy downpour and you imagine the 'lopez' taking ~ 75 meter sprint from the parking lot to hotel. Oh no, we travel light with only one tudung, one jeans....grrrr. 

Dinner was steamboat at "Fauzi Tomyam", an eatery also a 3 minute walk from the hotel. Yati & I felt a bit cold whereas Noraini & Dolly were ok. The steamboat and teh tarik warmed us up. Gelak pi gelak mai, time to go back.

Continued our chit chat in the room, this time with pepsi, nuts, chocolate & sweet corn as dessertsNsnacks.

It was during these 'sembang-sembang lopez' that terms like inspector gadget, serial killer, secret agent came up.....we do feel like charlie's angel though...

We sembang sampai one by one zzzzzzzzzzzz, supposed i was the last one to doze off.  It was again drizzling outside, we left our window open (not that cold anyway)

Dolly/Yati on one double bed & Noraini/me on the other.

Lepas subuh? Tidur lagi...no washing to do, no breakfast to prepare, no schedule to meet...

Breakfast was bread & half boiled eggs, downed with (again!) teh tarik. After two hrs of 'sembang lopez', we cucimata/flush duit buying t-shirts at the shop nearby. No photos here as my camera mogok kot & forgot to bring my phone along. And its time to checkout!

On way down, Mck pulak pening sikit....stop at a roadside shop to rest....& shop! (nama pun shop kan). Last minute purchases....as usual, the dried stuffs/jam/juices etc etc.

noraini, yati, dolly & mck posing...thank you abang apek yg tolong snap photo ni

Belum last stop lagi tau.....we stopped again to buy rebung/petai at the roadside. He he mck ni, pening/sakit perut pun sakan lagi....

Rebung&petai were our last purchase in CH. Weather was good, cloudy but not raining as we drove down, still talking & talking.....

Dropped Yati at her place & we drove to Taiping where dolly visited her son @ MRSM & we had our late lunch @ KFC.

Arrived Penang safely at about 7pm, thanks to our F1 driver (phewww-boleh lap peluh kat dahi tau-u know what i mean...)

Pst pst: already discussing our next don't-know-when & where trip.

Conclusion: It was a very memorable trip together, being in the company of people you're comfortable with (apart from your family)