A Homemaker’s Diary

After so many weeks of planning to bake a lemon cheesecake, I managed to do so last night after a shopping trip to Carrefour. I finally bought a kitchen scale, to make sure all my baking ingredients are accurate in weight. :)) Though in my baked cheesecake recipe I only have to weight 190g of caster sugar. Will try other recipes that require many weighing tasks so that the kitchen scale will be used to the maximum potential..hahaha..

Oh..I also bought a carton of whipping cream as required in the recipe. Few weeks ago I’ve made a cheesecake which has Digestive biscuits as its crumb with mixed fruit jam as topping. Since hubby said he prefers baked cheesecake like the one we bought in La Boheme Jusco, I’ve decided to try to bake one. I don’t have a round baking pan so I used the meatloaf pan. It was hard to cut the cake nicely. Perhaps next time I’ll buy a 9-in. non stick springform pan or one with a smaller size.

This is the close up look of my lemon cheesecake. I need to practise more with my oven so that I know how to control its temperature. I think the heat in the oven was not even since my cake was too brown on one side.

Overall it was a really enjoyable experience to try my hands in baking. Although my cheesecake did not look that good in presentation, but the taste was so yummy. Very creamy and cheesy, a Secret Recipe almost like taste.

Anybody wants to have a slice? Give me a visit then….

Berpusing-pusing atas katil cuba melelapkan mata teringat cerita apa yang boleh ditulis di blog, entah tiba-tiba teringat semangkuk duit syiling tepi rak TV. Ada satu tong sampah mini yang juga berisi syiling sebelahnya. Agak-agak kalau masukkan dalam akaun BSN ada berapa ringgit nilai syiling tu? Kali terakhir masukkan syiling ke dalam akaun kena tunggu float 10 hari. Suami memang suka pecahkan duit, asal bayar apa-apa mesti guna duit kertas, tiap hari balik kerja berlambak syiling dalam poket seluar..dia keluarkan letak atas sofa. Merata-rata ada syiling sebab dah tak larat lagi nak jadi pengutip syiling. Mangkuk syiling pun dah penuh, tong sampah mini merangkap tabung tu pun dah penuh. Kena tebuk botol bedak Johnson kosong la pulak untuk jadikan tabung…hahahha…macam oldies kan nak simpan duit dalam botol bedak kosong.

Bercakap pasal semangkuk syiling ni mengingatkan MQ kisah lama masa sibuk buat persiapan untuk melangsungkan perkahwinan. Macam pasangan lain kalau boleh bila nak kawin ni mesti nak segalanya yang terbaik, tapi sebab masa tu baru lagi dapat kerja jadi apa yang dihajat kena la tengok kemampuan diri juga. Yang penting mestilah cincin kawin, MQ jalan-jalan mencari cincin idaman. Ada banyak yang memikat hati, tapi bila tengok harga…alamak..tak mampu rasanya nak minta cincin semahal tu. Masuk Habib Jewels, ada satu cincin emas kuning berbatu berlian 3 butir. Kebetulan masa tu ada sales, lepas diskaun, dekat RM1000. Dalam hati berkenannya cincin batu 3 tu, tapi RM1000 tu dah boleh buat belanja tambang dan tempat tidur rombongan suami. Kawin orang jauh kena lah belanja lebih. Rombongan yang datang kena juga dihulur, sekurang-kurang sediakan tempat tidur. Belanja kenduri sebelah pihak suami pun memang semua suami yang kena tanggung. Tak tergamak rasa hati nak minta yang lebih dari kemampuan suami. Kata orang perkahwinan ni satu perkongsian, bukan takat suka dan senang saja yang kita kongsi, pahit kelat hidup itu yang selalu buat pasangan mengalah.

Akhirnya MQ ambil keputusan pilih sebentuk cincin. Harganya lebih murah dari 2 bentuk cincin yang rombongan lelaki hantar untuk merisik dan bertunang. Tapi nilainya lebih tinggi dari ribuan duit hantaran yang suami bawak dan belanja kenduri berpuluh ribu yang emak MQ habiskan. Kenapa? Sebab cincin batu satu yang tenggelam itulah tanda sebuah perkahwinan yang MQ impikan sejak lebih 6 tahun usia perkenalan. Bayarannya guna duit syiling yang selama ini suami tabungkan. Lepas syiling float 10 hari dalam akaun BSN, cincin batu satu itu pun selamat dibeli. Suami merungut juga kenapa pilih cincin yang murah sangat, macam tak bernilai pula. Kan ke cincin kawin ni..apa salahnya berbelanja lebih…Tapi nilai sesuatu benda bukan terletak pada harganya, nilainya pada memori dan kisah yang tersirat, pada sentimental value nya.

Dan setiap tahun MQ akan masuk Habib Jewels bila waktu ada sales, bukan nak membeli, tapi tengok ada lagi tak cincin berlian batu 3. Kalau boleh biarlah cincin batu 3 tu jadi hadiah anniversary 10 tahun perkahwinan. Kenapa? 3 stones tu melambangkan masa lalu yang kami lalui dengan susah payah untuk sampai ke tahap kini, masa kini yang penuh kasih sayang, dan tahun-tahun mendatang yang sentiasa membahagiakan hendaknya. The past, the present and the future.

It has been more than 2 months since I bought this book. Usually back then in campus, I managed to finish reading such book within 2 nights. Now that I’m married, it took me 2 months, with the rate of 5 pages per day or sometimes not touching the book for the whole week. Sigh….now I wonder if MBA is a great burden for married woman like me. If fictional book like this took me 2 months to finish it, what about those thick text books…I might never even finish them, I guess…But if I dont follow up now with my plan to further studies, I might not even do it at all.

So people, my advice to you is to pursue your goals and dream when you have the guts, time and energy to do them, with less commitment and responsibilities, no mountain is too high to climb.

My next list of reading is a Malay novel, Mahligai by Salina Ibrahim. I have not read a Malay novel for so long, hubby said perhaps this novel will kickstart my writing effort. Will try to write a Cerpen (short story) and send it to women magazine, see whether I still have the talent. It was in 1997 when my short story was published in Jelita magazine. Since I was not paid any honorarium, I stopped writing. Though occasionally when there was any writing contest in campus, I did take part and won. Those RM80, the prize money was really something that time.

My wish…once in a lifetime I want to have at least one novel penned by me. Should I send my manuscript to Alaf21 or Creative Enterprise? My dream, my wish….will I get it one day?

Dah lama berminat nak pegi Woon Hua Trading kat Balakong ni, dia macam gudang jual bunga plastik, bunga latex and silk flowers, ada org kata bunga2 dia mcm kat SSF, ntah la SSF pon tak penah sampai.

Ingat nak beli dlm 50 inggit je..sekali bila nyonya Woon Hua tu kira..arrgghhh..RM261.70..ha? kata dia, cukup kan la 300 nanti leh dpt membership card, dpt 10% diskaun…emmm…300 kalau dpt 10% disc dah tinggal 270 tu…ishh..nak beli lagi ke aa…kata nyonya tu lagi bunga ros yg aku pilih tu tak cukup utk digubah, tambah lagi 2-3 batang…sebatang 12.50..pandai betul dia ek…tapi mmg pon tak cukup utk merimbunkan gubahan dgn bunga ros 2 batang je tu…

Pilih2 tambah lagi, dah sampai RM310.40, lepas tolak diskaun 10%, ok la…ni semua sebab beli pasu kayu 2 buah tu la..harga satu sampai 40-60…seb baik mmg cantik…lagi pon kalau tak beli pasu2 tu nak cucuk bunga2 tu dlm apa plak kan…tak pe suami kata..alang2 menyeluk pekasam biar sampai siku…kopak la kalau selalu..hati rasa nyesal lak plak beli bunga..terbang 200++, tapi bila tgk bunga tu, cantik plak..

Balik rumah terus tak sabar nak gubah..hehehe..(bukan gubah apa pon, cucuk2 je dlm pasu tu bagi nampak rimbun)..rasa macam nak enrol masuk kelas gubah bunga pulak…nak tanya la Cik Sharnas Razni, florist yg selalu masuk Wanita Hari Ini buat kelas tak kat Putrajaya…suami kata kalau ada bakat pegi la, kalau tak buang masa je…nanti la difikirkan…

Satu lagi gubahan tu bunga2 tropika, asyik tunggu heliconia kat laman tak berbunga2, beli je la heliconia plastik, ada bunga sundal malam jugak, dgn halia bara merah…(eh halia bara ke nama dia)…dah lepas snap gambar semua buat kira2 baper cost lepas gubah sendiri…yang ros tu RM137.75, yang sundal malam tu RM153.50, suami kata ok lagi tu dari bunga yang dah siap gubah dijual around 200..save lagi la kat upah tu…

Takat cucuk2 dlm pasu boleh la, kalau suruh buat gubahan canggih2 boleh ke menjadi…overall seronok la dpt pegi Woon Hua, kalau duit byk dah borong dah orkid2 latex dia, pokok2 gantung dia tu…nanti nak pegi lagi la…nak pegi lagi..nak borong lagi..kopak la laki aku….isk isk…

I won’t cook, I won’t clean the dishes, I will not even bother to eat anything until my husband come home from work. What happened to me? It’s simply my hazy lazy day. It must be because of the blackout last night. Spoiled my chance to watch CSI NY. Never mind, I can always download the episode 116 using BitTorrent. God Bless the IT advancement…or was it because of all the stupid dogs which could not stop barking at the old lady who simply wanted to enjoy her morning stroll in front of my house. An interrupted morning sleep made me a mad wife. Or maybe because of the Court Mammoth guy who kept phoning my house number, chasing after a guy named Huzaimi whatnot..who used to use this same Telekom number. Why can’t Telekom give me a “virgin” number? hahah..never mind with all the excuses, I will just enjoy my lazy day, spending hours after hours in front of my PC, chatting with my girl friends, one after another. Had one cup cake and orange juice, chat and chat and chat. Jump from one blog to another, strangers after strangers. 15 minutes before my husband reached home, took my shower and out for dinner. Being a homemaker was never a bad idea!