A Homemaker’s Diary

I bought 4 medium chunks of tapioca on Sunday, boiled all of them into ubi rebus and ate with my sambal bilis.

But since I didn’t eat much of the ubi kayu rebus, I kept them in fridge until today (Tuesday).

I think I overcooked the tapioca since they were over mushy. So the best thing and the fastest way to turn them into something edible again is to fry them in oil.

For this recipe, I pounded 4 garlics, rub the tapioca with salt and fry in hot oil.

As I was rushing to take out the fried ubi kayu from the hot pan, the flame from the stove burned my kitchen paper towel..huhu! I was panicked and tried so hard to extinguish the burning paper. I can’t put the plate full of fried ubi kayu in the sink and used running water to douse the flame. What I can do was to blow the fire out..huhu!

Luckily the fire subsided once it reached the part where the paper was soaked in oil from the fried ubi kayu. So much adventure and challenge for trying to come out with ubi kayu goreng for tea..huhu!

I gave some to my neighbor via her Bibik and in return got a container of rendang daging..rezeki!

I am not a good baker..isk..I can bake but the outcomes sometimes are total disaster (not up to the standard that I wish for..huhu). But every now and then, I managed to bake simple dessert like cheese cake for SIL and butter cake for Hubby. For dinner and lunch, I could manage to bake fish, beef and chicken (or is it considered as roasting? I am confused between all the cooking terms and glossary)

Regardless of that I still have interest on Holiday baking recipes like cake, cupcake, tart and pie..only that I wish I have the time and chance to really practise and learn the right methods. I am really bad when it comes to bake cookies, the last festive cookies I tried to make came out all wrong. Luckily Hubby seems to have the talent for that, so he was the one baking all our Hari Raya cookies..hehe!

I am a visual person so watching baking lessons on video online or on cooking program on TV could really help me learn a thing or two. My favorite shows are Sugar by Anna Olson and Chef At Home by Chef Michael Smith. I also found a website - ivillage.com that has a very great pictures of food and video about cooking.

I am currently browsing their Easter menu - their Roasted Potatoes and Carrots with Citrus does look yummy even though it’s just vegetable. I guess with nice presentation, even the most boring food could look tasty on the screen..heh!

Oh, for those looking for ideas for their Easter basket goodies, what do you think of this “egg”?

Nice, huh? These eggs are meant to be cracked. (How else to show off the decadent chocolate insides?) The shell, yolk and white are made from solid dark and white chocolate. It is sold as set of 2 for $40 at Dean & Deluca.

Coming back to the baking story, I hope by the time my son is old enough to understand the joy of birthday celebration, I would be good enough in baking his birthday cake or cupcakes to be sent to his playschool..in the mean time I do have to practise more..few more years to go!

Even since our son has been (and still is) super clingy to me, it becomes so hard for me to cook these days. And being in this housing area is a big mistake since all the kedai makan we tried sucks! huhu..there are times that I yearn for home made meals and since there’s no one else to cook for me, I have to train Hubby to do the cooking..heh!

So up till today, Hubby has managed to cook sup daging, ikan sweet sour and goreng bilis with bawang and caipo..(masak nasik tak kira la kan..hehe) of course he cheated here and there like the time he cooked sup daging and the sweet sour using the leftover that his sister brought on Sunday..but still, it was a great effort on his side. Imagine coming back from work, terus masuk dapor masak..I know how tiring it felt during my working years (and that time I only cooked on weekend, 1-2 times in a month)

I hope this clingy phase will soon be over..I miss having the chance to cook whenever and whatever I feel like eating..nevertheless I take it as a life experience and the inconveniences of raising a son. To Hubby, thanks for being my chef!

After so long searching for this tiny packs of Heinz Jam, I finally found them at Jusco last night. I seem to be having problem finishing up jam in big bottle, especially if I buy St.Dalfour, sure end up berkulat coz I forget to put the jam back into the fridge..heh! So when Hubby brought home this tiny pack from his meal in the flight, I was telling him, nak cari jam kecik2 mcm ni..senang nak mkn dgn roti sekali sekala…

Feel like having breakfast in the hotel pulak..heheh..I am still waiting for the butter to be thawed a bit before I put the bread in the toaster..actually dah bosan asyik breakfast cereal, so change the menu to butter and bread pulak..pukul 1 pm kira breakfast ke..hahaha..

Today strawberry jam, tomorrow can try Plum jam..see how it taste..sedap ke tak..heh!

I was blog hopping last night, in an attempt not to fall asleep, konon nak practise because I plan to see the gynae for check up early Friday morning. However after Subuh rasa mengantuk pulak. So while I was blog hopping and Googling here and there, I found a fotopages with recipe for cucur udang and kuah kacang…nak makan cucur udang mcm tu!!! huhuhu..

Told Hubby today about that, he asked nak beli kat mana, kat mana ada jual..kat tepi hi way Penang ada la..even that was like how many years ago, giler betul la..wouldn’t it be much easier kalau teringin nak mkn KFC ke, Kenny Rogers ke..anyway, I told him, NVM bila2 I will beli the senduk besar and make my own cucur udang. The kuah kacang shouldn’t be a problem because I’ve tried that during our open house 2 years ago.

If there is one thing I gain from this pregnancy, it’s the new skills masak benda2 baru, anak aku ni nak suruh mak dia jadi chef kampung kot..all the cravings are lauk pauk authentic kampung, yg susah nak jumpa kat kedai2 biasa. Those 2 big bottles of acar limau I made is still in the process of letting the rempah meresap into the fruits. And the terubuk masin I’ve fried a bit last night to eat with sambal udang.

Today my menu will be nasi goreng sempoi like SIL cook, goreng keropok keping and the leftover sambal udang. Oh, I will fry some pieces of chicken as well as additional lauk for the nasi goreng merah..heh!