Max Brenner!

This post is a little late, but I still need to thank my 3 lovely sisters who are in Brissie at the moment! Last week mom went to the Land Down Under to visit them, and look what she brought home for me! A chocolate fondue set from the Max Brenner shop!!!

A packet each of dark and milk chocolate chunks and a fondue tower for 2

I still haven't decide when I'm gonna devour them yet. Well, I'm suppose to share it with my hubby, but I think I might just hoard it for myself and worry about that ill-fitted pair of jeans later.

Thanks Sis!!!

I Love Holiday Season

No, frankly I think I should hate holiday season. It's always time where I stuff my face silly, and skip my dance classes. Which of course translates to extra pounds in unwanted areas because I'm simply adding on calories to my body without burning them off properly. Wait. I do burn them off, all this laughter with family and friends are good cardio exercises! ;) Hey, I just found a reason to eat more!!! *grin*

Fat One BBQ Steamboat Truck

Well, yesterday we had a nice family get together (well, YS invited some of her friends too, since she hasn't seen them for a long time). Ophie also invited her family to join us and unfortunately, TW's family couldn't come because of other commitments. In all we had about 30 ppl and thought it was a good idea to bring in a steamboat truck *drools* For days we pondered on what should be on the list of food in the steamboat session, and knowing the glutton among us *ehem* we almost ordered enough food to serve 70 ppl!!! Thanks to the good advice of Fat One steamboat, we reduced our order to quite a reasonable amount (approx. 400 sticks of seafood/meat/vege).

Extra orders for those not into steamboat and for the x-tra hungry ones

Mom was still worried that we won't have enough to eat, and decided to order some fried mee hoon and fried rice too. At first it still didn't seem enough, but by the end of the day, we were shocked to see how much we have overestimated our ability to chuck in food. We only managed to clear about 50% of the food on the steamboat truck and probably another 30% of the extra orders.

Just like the stuffs you see in pasar malam - only difference is
we get to choose what goes on the truck

It was nice too that they have some bbq sausages and meat to go with the steamboat, and also a pot of boiling tomyam soup to go with our favourite fried fu chuk and oyster mushrooms. Just thinking about it makes me hungry again. Fret not, we still have leftovers from yesterday's feast in the fridge to clear! These nice folks from Fat One Steamboat helped us packed all the left overs nicely, together with all the extra peanut sauce, sweet sauce, chilli and even the tomyam soup!

Birthday cuppies for my cuz complete with yoga poses :)

Also coincidentally my cousin's birthday falls on the Xmas eve, so we decided to surprise him with some cupcakes, made by yours truly and assisted by my 2 beautiful assistants YS and SS, along with our guest decorators Mr. Goo and Joseph... hehe...

We had a splendid evening, with our family members and friends, complete with scrumptious food and lots of laughter. Lovely :)

A Weekend of Food and Fiesta

Last Saturday our farmyard members decided to host an early birthday celebration for TW. Of course it was just an excuse to get together and stuff ourselves silly again. We had a nice dinner at Tong Tong, a restaurant just of 5 minutes walk from my place and after that we had a nice homemade mango ice cream (by yours truly of course) and a cake cutting session :)

That's us trying to blow the candle together
(though I really looked like I was about to suck in the cake)

Sunday it was Father's Day... and this time we thought we'd have a steamboat session, something we haven't done for quite a long time. From the morning I started to prepare the tomyam soup and porridge. Mom got the fresh ingredients from the market while I got the frozen stuff from Giant supermarket. WL on the other hand bought his favourite pork slices from the non-halal section at Tesco Extra.

The table ready for our steamboat session

Everything seemed to be in order at first. I had the table nicely set, we had plenty of food to put into the 2 pots, one for porridge and one for tomyam soup. I had an induction cooker that we could use and mom had another. We were happily getting ready to start when mom's cooker started beeping non-stop and giving funny error codes on the screen.

No matter what we did, the cooker would not stop beeping, and wouldn't even heat up. *sigh* In the end we had to make do with just one cooker and swapped the two pots whenever the other reached the boiling stage. After the dinner we had some durians by TW's family...and some pineapple from Ophie's family.

Halfway through the dinner I had to take a photo ...cheeezzze

There were also a plenty of leftovers. I had porridge enough to feed 3 persons and half a pot of tom yam soup. Fortunately for me, that'll be my breakfast, lunch and dinner for the next 2 days :P

Happy Mother's Day

This year I thought I'd surprise mom with a photobook I made using Provocraft Yourstory, a new toy I got from ebay. It took me almost a week to complete the photobook of approx 18 pages, with all original hand drawn pics and illustrations. I used Inkscape, which was surprisingly easy to use with my Wacom tablet. Then I printed them on double-sided glossy photo papers, and bound them nicely in a hardcover album cover.

Here is a small excerpt from the photo book:







So glad to see that mom really liked it... :D

Happy Mother's Day to all mommy's and mommy-to-be out there :)

My First Cricut Project

Happy Birthday Ophie

A birthday cake for a new mommy

It's my sis-in-law's birthday today, so I decided to bake her a cake. But she is still in her confinement, and supposedly eggs are not allowed in her diet until much later. So I searched the internet for an eggless chocolate cake. The result was nice and moist and not to mention super easy to make!

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
3 cups white sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 cup vegetable oil
3 cups water
3 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons vanilla extract


PREHEAT oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan. In a large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, soda and salt. Add sugar and mix together. Add oil, water and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Pour into a 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 1 hour or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

* I only used half the recipe and a 9x9 inch pan. Also I added some chocolate chips on top of the cake ...yummy!

Promotion Without Increment

Thanks to baby Lucas, I'm officially promoted to "ku che" or aunty status. A promotion that comes with no increment but a possibility of burning a big hole in my pocket. There are just so many things that I want to buy for him... :P I'll have to be a little bias with my opinion though.... coz he is really really cute!!! Cuter than any other babies I've ever seen... he he he..

Although I'm very happy for my brother, I can't help feeling pressured by both our family members and friends about having one of my own. I personally do not think that this is something to be rushed. When the time comes, it will happen.... until then, I really hope that I can get a peace of mind. Thank you, ありがんとう, 謝謝, Muchas gracias, Nandri, Grazie, Merci, Terima kasih, Danke.

Happy New Year 2009!

This year's countdown was special, unforgettable, and it all took place in Pantai Cheras Medical Centre, room #2006. Dad was hospitalised the very next day we got back from Penang due to suspected dengue fever. Later we found out that it was not dengue but an unknown viral infection. We couldn't bear to let him spend the eve in the hospital alone, so we transformed his room into a party place, with balloon characters to make up those who can't be there (e.g. my sister in law, Ophi & Mr. Goo), along with Stitchie, Weewee, Polar, Bunny, Archer & Lucas (my future nephew).

An almost complete family photo

The hospital was probably not the best place to do a countdown, but at least the whole family is together (well, almost). All I wish for in 2009 is everyone to be happy and in their best of health. It is going to be an exciting year with a new family member joining us soon!!! :D

*Dad was discharged on the afternoon of 01-01-2009.

2009 New Year's Eve

The plan was to have a BBQ party right at home. With every family member home for the holidays, what else could be better than ushering in the new year together! Everyone was excited and had interesting ideas for the night ... until dad has to be hospitalised this afternoon for suspected dengue.

Mom is with dad in the hospital, and by the looks of it, he would probably have to do the countdown to 2009 there too. Sis have postponed their flights till next week just to make sure dad is alright before going back to Australia. The last time I had dengue in 1993, I was out from the hospital after 3 days. Hopefully the second blood test tomorrow shows a more positive outcome and that he can be discharged sooner. Will see what the doc says tomorrow.

Hot, hot, HOTTT!!

After spending a week in the Land Down Under with a temperature between 14-25 deg C most of the time, the weather back home really didn't make me feel welcomed :( The moment I stepped into the house it felt like I was walking into a giant oven. Why am I complaining? I've never been quite a fan of cold weather anyway.... *sigh*

The past week has been a great bonding time with my sisters, Yi San, Yin San and Sean San. They took really good care of me during my stay and made sure that my welfare (especially my stomach, he he he) is well taken care of. Not to mention that they never failed to remind me to spend more money (ehem...with instructions from my darling hubby). My used-to-be-little sisters are all grown up now.... *sniff* *sniff*

Thanks sis!!!! Also to Wei Yong and Joseph for being my part time chauffeur. Big huggies to all of you :) See you all soon back here in Malaysia!