my first try.. snow ice.. cust service rather blant i'd say.. i have to ask a lot to understand what the product is.. when i went into the shop, no one was being welcoming.. took me some time standing in front of the parlour to be noticed and talked to.. when i asked the salesperson, what is snow ice.. she went "it's snow ice".. i was like what the fuck la.. very very bad service.. VERY...

but the snow ice was okay i guess.. RM5.90 for a shaved mango ice topped with choc chip.. i would love to try other flavors.. but i might try to look for other branches.. the one in kemuning sucks in terms of customer service.. change your salesperson please..

1. woke up real early today..

2. went to jusco to get a few ingredients for my lasagna..

3. my first lasagna..

4. it wasn't that hard to make. all these while i thought it would take such a long time and so much hassle to cook up a lasagna. hell, i was wrong.

5. three things : you gotta be sure of;
5.1 meat/chicken sauce (spaghetti sauce - i use mushroom+chicken)
5.2 cheese sauce
5.3 lasagna sheets (soak in water for a few minutes to moisten it)

6. How to make the cheese sauce?
melt 2tbsp butter in a saucepan (low fire)
add in plain flour 2tbsp
stir for 2 minutes
off fire
pour in 2 cups milk
stir well
then on fire
keep stirring till become thick sauce
add in cheddar cheese 115g (i used about 10 slices of the processed cheddar cheese)
off fire when all the cheese have melted

7. grease lightly your casserole dish. preheat oven to 180C.

8. pour in meat sauce FIRST. followed by lasagna sheets, meat sauce, cheese sasuce, lasagna sheets, meat sauce, cheese sauce.. it goes on and on till the top..

9. make sure the top is cheese sauce. IF you have Parmesan cheese, drizzle 'em all over the dish. i just use cheddar cheese.

10. cover the top with aluminium foil and bake for 25minutes.

11. after that, take off the foil and bake for another 25minutes.

12. delicious!! yummy!! didn't get to take a picture of it when it's done..
but this is it after a while..

it's a very tiring weekend. there was no rest. it was all work work and work. naah, i dont plan to blabber much about it, im here to blog for the first time sharing a recipe with whomever cares to read. i was straining my eyes on my laptop screen the whole day correcting proposal report and i suddenly had the urge to eat something sweet. so i went to the kitchen and this was what happened...


bubur nasik lemak manis

ingredients
(for rice porridge)
rice - approximately 1 pot / a lil less
garlic slices
water

gula melaka (half of the normal block)
coconut milk 125ml (half of the 250ml coconut milk you can get from hypermarts)
salt to taste

method
1. cook porridge whichever way u intend adding ginger to it (ginger slices is optional, add in if you want that extra gingery taste to the dessert)



2. in your pot, boil a cup of water and put in half a block of gula melaka.



3. stir on medium fire till there is no more sugar lumps. Then add in 125ml of coconut milk. And continue stirring.

4. stir and stir till everything unites (that's a funny term to use).. im out of vocab..

5. add in a pinch of salt to taste (add more if you feel like it)

6. stir a lil while and add in porridge. stir till they all UNITE.. (again! sigh)

7. then ur 'UNITED' porridge is ready.. a sweet dessert for your tummy..

1. kuih raye.. i bake and brought it back to kampung.. those itsy bitsy cookies were cornflakes crunchiesfinished on the 2nd day of raya. i'm absolutely happy. the less said, the better. i leave it to the taste buds of those who tasted it. the comments and remarks were lovely tunes to my ears.

baking/cooking shows on the TV (during Ramadan) were my favorites when i was a kid. i would spend my evening after school during Ramadan watching chef wan bake a cake or a hundreds of cookies, and that somehow cure my hunger pangs. LOL. i don't do that much often now that i have classes to attend and those shows seemed to slowly die. chef wan does not occur so much to me now that we have nigela ;) dont get me wrong chef wan, i just don't see much of you on TV anymore. i guess you have so many other projects out there. whatever it is, you're my idol since i was a kid. =P

i wonder, besides the reason of teaching people baking raya cookies and cakes, is relieving hunger pangs another reason for the existence of Ramadan cooking shows? =P

2. baju raye.. got a few.. baju kurung and kebaye.. they were okay.. but it does not really matter to me. i guess after living for 24 years now, i do not see the point of getting new shoes, new this, new that during every shawal. what's the point? if it only costs you half your monthly allowance. i'd rather get new shoes or new clothes when i need them or when i have the extra cash. but things were different back then when i was a kid. obviously. =P i understand somehow, if i put myself in the place of the "me" years back, the "me" that insisted on new this, new that each year. people are just going with the groove, the hari raya mood, the whole idea of a new you di pagi raya.

3. duit raye.. got so little this year.. getting older means getting lesser duit raya.. and sooner or later, i won't be getting anymore of it.. sigh..

what's the criteria used to determine whether a person is liable for a duit raye? still schooling? small kids running around in diapers? children chasing after the chickens and ducks under their granny's house? those still drooling and sucking on milk bottles? sigh unfair! LOL

and what's the criteria to determine whether one is needed to give out duit raye? working? OLD? wrinkles and sagging skin? white hair? rich? have children or nephews/nieces? past 25 years of age? what? what? what?

4. homework.. yea i bet those in college and schools would have this same thing to think about during this raya break.. or you don't bother? HAHA.. well, i got things that i have to settle before i go back to class next monday.. oh.. there's a question that i have yet to ponder. when can malaysia provide free education to its people? in future post, insyaAllah, will discuss my thoughts..

5. trip back to KL.. dung! there are all sorts of people from different walks of life, from different job scope, different ways of traveling, different schedule, different number of cuti raye days, different temper and driving manners. i just hope the trip back this coming weekend would be a smooth one. please God.

6. kampung.. i miss penang so dearly.. i admit living in big towns like penang, i grew up not knowing much of kacau dodol, the making of lemang and how to weave ketupat.. apetah lagi meriam buluh, teng-teng, galah panjang, masak lodeh.. raya in penang is - ketupat instant, kuah kacang, spagethi/macaroni, tomato soup, nasik tomato, bunge api cap kucing tu main dalam gate rumah yang kiri kanan jiran cine, kuih raye sume beli.. but raya in penang, though different, in our own ways, we enjoyed it.. with friends, close friends, malay, chinese, indians.. God, i miss them, i do.. so dearly.. sigh

7. i think the raya spirit is dying as we grow older. it's all about stuffing yourself till you fall flat the night after. or worse with a bad tummy ache the next morning. we have to tune our mind set back to the right track. i wont say much as i am in the same boat as many.

a morning fast project.. a celebration of a new life to be borne in a few moments..

im all excited..

and here are the cuppies..

due to the failure of

rainbow mango choc chip cuppies

i decided to re-do my mango cupcake..

and here are the results..

chocolate mango marble mini cupcakes.. yumyum!!

the much anticipated rainbow mango choc chip cupcakes which was a failure due to steeeewpid recipe which i follow without much question.

however it smelt pretty good, the colors are tempting (to me at least).. it looks gory and scary.. wuhuuu

hope the taste won't be much of a frustration.. gotta wait till berbuke to know..

right now.. tawakal a'lallah..

tomorrow.. insyaAllah another set of cupcakes.. altered recipe of course

banana almond choc moist mini cupcakes

1. fried fettuccine with chillie carrot chicken

2. yum yum!!!

1. vanilla choc chip cupcakes; topped with bright pink & yellow buttercream icing.. yummy~

2. this is my first set of cupcakes and i totally luv 'em.

3. can't wait to learn more on piping skills.