A Homemaker’s Diary

This year celebration started with lampu ketupat..heh! We bought 2 sets at Jusco, one is the LED set and the other one is the typical lampu cepat terbakar with ketupat at the bottom of the rows.

Like last year’s tradition, we managed to balut about 1.5kg ketupat palas (sadly, daun palas we bought semua kenit2, tak lebar which make it hard to come out with big ketupat). This year the acara balut ketupat was done 2 days earlier from the Aidilfitri, reason being we were afraid that with a clingy son, it would be too packed to jam all the cooking tasks on Saturday.

I cooked nasi berperisa on the Raya morning itself (all the rempah and bahan were prepared the night before), and I made the acar timun the night before and kept in the fridge. Hubby cooked rendang with my supervision and I cooked kari daging as cicah ketupat on Saturday evening..(nasib baik Raya was on Sunday as expected..huhu!)

I got my balang kuih raya at last..heh! Very tempted to buy all those crystals or kaca bergaya ala Queen Anne but I guess until our son is big enough and we have a bigger formal dining table, these will do for now..janji kuih raya sedap..haha! Oh, samperit bunga was made by Hubby..delicious!!

For me, even with ala kadar Raya, I enjoyed the festive time with the family and the memories of first Aidilfitri with our beloved son. On second day of Raya, we went out and spent good time in Aquaria, siap masuk Fish Spa tau..hehe! Will blog about that later if I have time..hehe!

The celebration started with all the cooking (although I did not manage to snap any pictures..huhu) I totally forgot to take the Raya feast pictures and only realized that when I was cleaning up all the dishes at night.

We successfully made our first time ketupat palas this year and the feedback from those who ate them was generally good. Next year we might be doing more compared to 2 pot susu of beras pulut we made this year. SIL brought some of the ketupat home together with my rendang ayam.

Even my nasi daging got good response from my aunt who asked for the recipe. We did invite few friends over but perhaps most of them were busy with family gathering. Later in the afternoon we went to SIL house and had her usual Raya lontong.

The sad part during this Raya was I fell sick during the second day..came down with cold and fever and since the panel clinic was closed, I have to make do with Panadol for the night. We went to the clinic on the 3rd Raya and now as I am writing this entry, I’m feeling better except for the stuffy nose.

So how’s your Raya celebration this year?

We went to the Curve and Ikano yesterday after the 4D scan at Vision College. Thought of trying the RM15.90 IKEA buffet but at 6:30pm the line to the cashier was like very, very packed..dah la tak boleh bayar dulu and book meja..ish tak kuasa la nak put up with such crowd..tu belum berebut nak amik makanan lagi..ended up having bukak puasa in Colonial Times..even Waroang Penyet was fully booked.

After that we went to Tesco nearby, why there were so many Indon, Bangla and all these foreigners nowadays? Fortunately there were few things like bamboo blind, plastic place mat, alas meja that I wanted to buy kalau tak, tak berbaloi je memenatkan diri.

Check out my new alas meja. The nicer one we bought at Jusco Equine, couldn’t find a bigger size for the dining table so have to use the green plain one bought in Tesco. But since Hubby has brilliant ideas to stack the cloth place mat underneath the plastic cover, cantik la sikit alas meja green plain tu..hehe..

I’m off from the kitchen for now, nak pegi beli santan some more, senduk lagi (baru je patah time kacau pulut..huhu) and some chicken for ayam masak merah. Will update the picture of my raya feast after tomorrow…selamat hari raya, peeps!

For this Hari Raya, I’m done with all these preparations:

1. I have cleaned the old plastic, decorated containers and filled up with Raya cookies.

2. I’ve decided to cook nasi daging, ayam masak merah, kari daging, rendang ayam and acar timun for Raya dishes instead of the simple bihun goreng.

3. Will go to pasar borong on Sunday to buy beef and other ingredients to cook those dishes.

4. Hopefully there will be stalls selling lemang on the eve of Hari Raya, so that we can have lemang with my rendang ayam.

5. I have cleaned the room downstairs so that whoever coming will have place to solat.

6. I need to clean the toilet downstairs, scrub the sink and brush the toilet floor in case anyone need to go to the loo..heh!

7. Hubby needs to get ice from 7 Eleven and buy KFC for Niece (she’s fussy with other people’s cooking) since SIL and the rest of her family are coming on Raya morning.

Emmm..what else do I miss here..

Hubby took 3 days annual leave in conjuction with our wedding anniversary. The initial plan to stay in Cameron Highland was not carried out because we were so lazy to send the car for service. Then another plan to stay at Colmar Tropicale was down in the drain as well after reading such bad reviews on the Internet by those who have stayed there this year.

So instead of going anywhere for the anniversary, we decided to go out and shop..heh! But before that, on the day itself I got this bunch of red roses from Hubby…I love roses so much..heh! The day after we went to Mid Valley because I wanted to see the newly opened The Gardens. Oh, we watched movie Mr Magorium’s Wonder Emporium in Mid Valley GSC and had supper at Carl’s Jr. I bought books and some magazines at MPH.

Then the next day we went to The Curve, another book spree at the Borders and then more shelves shopping in IKEA. Now I have a neat craft corner in the living hall, easier to get supply during my craft classes.

I have another day to spend with Hubby but I think I’m done with all the real shopping and window shopping. We walked around the shopping malls until my legs hurt..heh! Oh, I got a skincare set of Biotherm from Hubby and in return I bought him Azzaro Chrome perfume. I have used the products for one year about 3 years ago but switched to few other brands. Now I think I will stick to Biotherm until my oily skin problem could be resolved before I change to anti aging products..huhu..I’m getting older by day now, (who doesn’t, right?), heh!

To Hubby, thanks for being a wonderful partner, complementing my life in every ways possible and I hope we will have many years ahead together. I love you, muah!