Vanessa’s 2nd birthday

Vanessa’s 2nd birthday falls on 05 Oct, but we celebrated it a day earlier. It was a cozy and merry event attended by close relatives and neighbours. As we are a small household, we do not have enough manpower to do all the cooking. We catered the main dishes from Kedai Makan & Minum Ching Fah. Mom’s cooked her sup soko (bamboo shoots soup) and hubby did the vegetable.

:) An aunty officiating the makan-makan session after the food blessing. The dishes (L –R): White rice; Deep Fried Chicken with Sesame Seeds; Sweet & Sour Fish ; Japanese Toufu with Salted Beans; Pork Chop in Stout Sauce & Baby Kalian vege. (In the pot) Sup Soko; Watermelon and Chilled Orange syrup drinks.

So what did I do? Hehe…I baked the birthday girl 2 cakes. Just the simple Vanilla Butter Cake and Pandan Butter Cake. Instead of buying one from the bakery, I was determined to bake them and decorate them as well. Begitu la semangatnya si Mama Mia…..hahaha…. I baked the cakes the night before and made the buttercream icing the next morning. In the process of doing all this, hubby had to bring Vanessa jalan-jalan di kedai. Otherwise, it there’s no way I can manage. LOL.

The cakes turn out a-ok. But in the end, it was hubby who got really excited to do the frosting and decorating. So, let him be. I did get to test my skill though. As you can see, we both need a lot of practice. LOL.

I had the kids gathered around to sing the Happy Birthday song. As she's too young to sing, Vanessa just clapped her hands. But when it was time to blew-out the candles, she chickened out pulak. Eventually, the other kids were more than happy to help her..hehe..

The verdict on the cakes? Finger lickin' good! (Or maybe I was a bit exaggerating there…hehe..) Anyway, both cakes were wiped-clean by the guests…no left over for tomorrow. :)

The event ended at about 6pm. And we all retreated to bed as early as 9pm. No humming any nursery rhymes that night cos the birthday girl fell asleep as soon as she hit the pillow. :)

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Shopping spree...Not!!!

As if you don’t already know this, the Malaysia Mega Sale Carnival 2009 is on-going. And I am dying to go shopping (I’m sure I am not alone in this). But since it is ‘bulan tua’…I hardly have the money to survive until the next pay day, let alone go for a shopping spree. Darn!

Last weekend, a friend and I were all set to go jalan-jalan at City Mall. Obviously, we cancelled it at the last minute. I mean what good it is to go window-shopping only to look longingly at those gorgeous clothes and shoes at discounted price, but just incapable of owning them? Argh! That is soooo heart-breaking! Neither of us wanted to be in that situation, so we thought better of it. *sigh* Another 10 days to go before pay day. ..*roll eyes*

So, to occupy my time, I decided to bake a cake. What else? But the family favourite cake – butter cake.Hehe…I’m merely a beginner, still learning my way through baking. Surprisingly, the cake turns out to be not bad. The texture was tender, moist and delicious. In short, everything was ngam to my liking. All at home love it and so does my neighbour’s kids.

Hehe…you are most welcome to try your baking skill. Here is the recipe which I got from BakingMum , complete with the easy steps :-

Ingredients :
200gm caster sugar
250gm butter
6 large eggs (at room temperature)
300gm self-rising flour (sifted)
1tsp vanilla essence
½ to ¾ cup of evaporated milk

Method :-
1. Preheat the oven to 160ºC.
2. Beat butter with caster sugar until white and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time and mix well. Add vanilla essence and evaporated milk and mix well.
3. Fold in sifted flour into butter mixture and mix well. Pour into greased and lined cake tray for about *an hour.

*I didn’t exactly bake it for 1 hr. After 50 minutes, I did the toothpick test to check its doneness, and-voila!-, a nice and yummy butter cake. :)

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Weekend mood...

Yey, its Friday again! Thankfully it is free and easy in the office today. I found myself glancing at the clock every now and then, another 1 hour and it’s time to go home…ketara butul tida sabar-sabar suda mau pulang ni…LOL!

Okay, in my last post, I mentioned about my new read, a book by Patricia Cornwell . No, no….I have not finish reading it. Err, well, I don’t think that I’ll be reading it any longer. Why? Because I have just returned it to its rightful owner, the library. As with the other Dr Kay Scarpetta series’ books, it is loaded with so many medical jargons yang memeningkan kepala. Well, I did managed to read through a few chapters though but *sigh* that’s as far as my brain can tolerate with those tongue-twisting, brain-squeezing medical terms. Simply put, I am really, really not in the mood and/or too lazy to layan them…menyiksa kapla otak ku ja. Hehe..maybe some other time la….

So, what book do I have in hand now? Le’t see, here are two books in totally different categories. One --- ROMANCE and the other--- BAKING. Yeah, that’s right…ROMANCE! Ahaks… I know, I know, I hardly read romance book, but this one is an exception. It is certainly not the type that is full of drama, love, betrayal bla, bla, bla… At the back of the book, it says that it’s a comical romance, laugh aloud blockbuster, deliciously witty satire etc. Now I’m only at the 3rd chapter, but I’m loving it. No regrets borrowing this one…hehe…Oh, nearly forgot the title, Azur Like It..(Azur as in Cote d'Azur, France) by Wendy Holden.

About the other book, well, it is just for fun…suka-suka saja. Found it on the Returned Book Cart. Flipped thru a few pages, looked at the colourful illustrations, I’m impressed..(not to mention drooling over the yummy-looking cakes hehehe…) that I decided to borrow this 360 pages thick hardcover, heavy recipe book. Mana la tau... among the 1,001 classic cake recipes in it, I might want to try one or two of the simple recipe…hahahha…macam la terrer bikin cake kan… ;p

Okay la, enough la me rambling …Enjoy your weekend ya ! :)

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Christmas Post Mortem - Part 2

The highlights continue:-

27 Dec ~ Attended Tome & Chelven's wedding reception in Beverly Hotel, KK. Both bride and groom are our (hubby & I) friends in UPM. Had a good time that nite. Well, the foods were so-so, except for the red wine. Don’t really fancy wine but this one is exceptional. It’s sweet and delicious, without the kelat or bitterish ( am not too sure if it’s the right English word) taste. The wine was limited so only managed to have a glass. The best thing about that nite besides being able to share the joy of the newly-wed couple, was that we got a chance to meet with other fellow UPMers. Apa lagi, so many story came up, works, personal etc. A lot of catching up to do, yet so little time to spend. *sigh* Man_D was supposed to come but she got an upset stomach pulak at the last minute..must be too much moginum the day before...*wink* Another dear friend, iLLa’s plan to chill-out and drink after that was almost spoiled...but we were determined not to let anything spoil the plan. So it was just the 3 of us, iLLa, hubby & I.

We went to D' Junction, Penampang after the reception. Surprisingly, the place was not crowded. Wonder where all the ppl go?! Maybe still holidaying in their kampungs. The live band’s performance was a blast. We managed to enjoy a few songs before they went for their break. Hmmm...during the break, we were entertained with ear-deafening music for 30 miutes or so. Felt my heart thumping against my chest! When the band came back, they did their version of Fall For You (originally by Secondhand Serenade), which was great..cheers! The crowd joins in to sing on the chorus, of course, we're no exceptional! Lurrveee this song...

A glance at the menu, under the "Alcohol & Beverages"..Oh my! What’s that? There were some cocktail with a VERY INTERESTING name, e.g. Slippery Nipple, Blow Job, Dirty Orgasm, 7 Sins. Of course, there are others but can’t remember. Probably the alcohol has flows its way into my system …haha..I’m not much of drinker actually. Whoever came up with the idea of naming them sure had done a great job. Won't fail to catch an eye!

Hubby ordered 2 glass of whiskey, while the ladies ordered 2 shots each of cocktails. Frozen Margarita and Rainbow Cocktail for iLLa, and Pina Colada & Long Island Iced Tea for myself. Too bad I didn't have a camera handy. It’s impossible to take a good pic with my cikai Hp under the very low lighting. So to not disappoint you guys, here are some pics...well the presentation didn't exactly look like these but more or less the same la. I liked my choice of drinks, but not too crazy for the margarita. The taste is too bitter for my liking...even iLLa was disappointed with it.

28 Dec ~ Went back to Keningau again. After unloading our luggage at my in-laws, we went straight to Sabah Agricultural Park, Lagud Seberang,Tenom. InobongProper had wrote about this park here. Arrived there around 4pm. Hubby was so determined to see the orchids especially the Orkid Selipar, that we work our way on foot. The orchid place was the furthest to go. Train was not in operation any more as it was already late. We only managed to see a few species of hybrid orchid. Need to go back as fast as we could before it rain. Hmmm…keciwa si hubby tida dapat tingu Orkid Selipar. Next time we come early la dear supaya dapat naik train,tida payah jalan kaki. Going around the park on foot is sooo tiring. He had to carry daughter some more …hehe.. I have no idea what type of tree is it?! Never seen it before.

29 Dec ~ Attended hubby’s cuz, Debbie and Freddy’s engagement. Congratulations to both of you. Off to Penampang in the evening.
So that’s whole story for the Christmas holiday and the long weekend. The end.

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