Help... there's a hubby in the kitchen!

A moment in history...

In the 11-12 years that I have known him, I've never seen hubby so much as lift a pan, except when washing up. Gosh! I had to whip out my camera two nights' ago when he actually ignited the flame to fry an egg!

Woohoo! Good job! Well done!

Unfortunately it's resulted in a greasy kitchen floor which I need to clean up after this, on top of my pile of dishes and laundry. :P

But it's a start...

Pancakes!

I was browsing through the blogs and chanced upon this lovely pancake recipe. Made from buttermilk and baking soda plus powder, it resulted in a lovely fluffy pancake and with each bite you feel little bubbles bursting in your mouth. Truly light and airy. Maybe HK, you might like to try out this recipe? I believe it should give you the same result as the blinis, although I can't be sure as I've not tried those blinis before. ;)

Friends

I was very upset by someone yesterday. I'm one person who greatly values friendship. Friends mean the world to me. I have a handful of friends who've been with me since my primary school days, and along the way I picked up more in secondary school, pre-u etc. I'm so thankful for these friends who've stuck around. You know who you gals are.

When my daughter started going to playschool at around 2 plus yrs old, naturally I was surrounded by other mums. I got along particularly well with a certain mum and we both adored each others' daughters. We had common interests and became fast friends. We were very close. We spent Christmas, Hari Raya together and our girls enjoyed each others' company. It was very sad for me when cracks began to appear in our friendship. I often wondered to myself during those days if I had done something wrong, something which upset her. But after speaking to a couple of friends, I was enlightened by them that in actual fact, she was the one with the problem. Being the only girl in the family, she was used to having her own way, thus she was very possesive. She even told me once, after her daughter had left the school as she was a year older than mine, that she was jealous of another mum whose husband used to give us lifts home after school. That friendship gave me a lot of heartaches as I had invested a lot of trust in it. I was very affected when she shunned me without so much as a warning and left me in a very sad, wronged state. I shed lots of tears during that period and hubby too was aware of it. But the thing with hubby is, I daren't tell him too much bad things about a person as he takes it very personally. I guess he probably doesn't like to see me get hurt.

From that experience, I vowed that I won't make friends with the mums from school when my daughter started pre-school. I didn't want to get hurt so badly again. In the initial stage, I hardly went to school and only did so when she was bullied by a certain classmate when she was in nursery and I wanted to observe them in class. (Her school has viewing rooms with one way mirrors which you can observe through). There was a grandma who was there every day as her little boy has serious food allergy and it was she I first made friends with. I then got to know her daughter. Our kids were classmates for 2yrs. Through the 2-1/2yrs there, I've gradually formed some wonderful friendships. I guess I've been slowly recovering from my broken heart. I've made a couple of very good friends there and they are ever-so-wonderful. When hubby was in hospital they came to my rescue without my even asking them for help and I would say that it really touched me to know that there are genuinely nice people around. It renewed my faith in friendships again. And I am thoroughly spoilt by them. They always offer to come and pick me/us up when we are planning to meet, and I really appreciate that, although it isn't necessary. Thanks much J,B & P. The list goes on. As our kids have 1/2 a yr left together, we try to spend more time outside of school together so they can play with their friends and hopefully create some memories for them before they go on to proper school.

Likewise at swimming and ballet classes, I unwittingly make friends with other mums while we wait for our kids during their lessons. This incident yesterday involved a mum from one of the enrichment classes. I won't go into details as it is too long and complicated to relate. What pissed me off yesterday was that she (mum A) had made plans with another mum (mum B) whom I'm also close to and they had a meeting today at the latter's home. I was curious, as I had forgotten to bring something when I had met mum B and she told me to give it to mum A, that they would be meeting on Sunday. I kind of felt left out as the 3 of us are pretty close, so just wondering why I wasn't invited. Then I thought, well, maybe it was a gathering with their mutual friends and I didn't know them. So I didn't dwell too much into it. On the other hand, I tried to sound out mum A. Unfortunately for me, while I was rushing out to class yesterday, I again failed to bring the item. So I said it to mum A that I was supposed to bring something for her to pass onto mum B and she kind of tried to avoid the topic. I thought it strange. At the end of class, her daughter came up to her and said, 'when are we going to so-and-so's house?'. She was in a fluster and tried to cover it up and ran off without saying goodbye, and even left the note which the teacher had given out, behind. I mean, what's with her? Why did she have to be so ridiculously guilty and secretive? I honestly hate people like her. One minute they pretend they are your good friend and behind your back, you don't know what they say. She insisted on picking us up the day of the funfair even though I told her it's ok we'd make our own way there. Her hubby had rented a car and I suppose she just wanted to do something good to boost her own morale. It was clearly out of the way, and I'm not even sure her hubby was too pleased with having to do that favour. And her daughter has been acting weird too. I'm not sure if her mum has been talking bad things behind my back, as kids pick up all sorts of stuff from listening in on adults' conversations, but she didn't wanna look or greet me yesterday. I said it to her sarcastically, 'you don't like me anymore?'. Honestly, what is it with me that I attract these kind? And the other thing I hate most is that when something happens and no one comes and gets the truth from you but instead talk behind your back, not that anything happened in this instance. I was just quoting an example.

To think that we had lunch a few weeks' back, and she had taken my girl for the rest of the afternoon, and now this is the way she treats me. But I do know she's not a simple person. I can't describe it. You just have to know her to understand what I mean. Unfortunately I have a knack for sniffing out people like her and how they work. Hers is a superficial kind of friendship. Let's put it this way, you won't want to tell her any secrets or they won't remain a secret anymore. She even said something about mum B to the teacher which she told me. Well, not being a b**ch, I won't be spilling the beans.

Nasi Lemak

This is one food item which I am very careful not to eat too often. In fact I hardly do. I know I will suffer when I wake up the next morning and have to put up with all the pains in my joints. Coconut is a great ingredient in dishes and I do so miss being able to savour it. But between that and the pain, the latter wins. I am naughty at times, like oh what the hell, just suffer for one day. I will do it on a day or week when I feel good and am not having an attack of the joints. The same goes with tofu, which I do so love, but can now only pinch a little here and there.

For this meal, all I did was cook the coconut rice, fried an omelette and sliced up some cucumbers. The rest of the accompaniments were bought. Fried shrimp paste chicken wings from Crystal Jade Kitchen; otah from Lee Wee Brothers (I usually go for the Mackeral Otah at Joo Chiat but I didn't bother to do so today); and ready ikan bilis sambal by Woh Hup. I served them on banana leaves which I was given months back and had them in the freezer.

The portion below was for princess. In place of spicy otah, I got her the non-spicy kids' version.

This was the sambal which I tried. It wasn't too bad.

King of the fruits

I have been tempted for weeks by the man who comes by in a truck every evening, shouting from downstairs "溜莲, 溜莲". It was getting on my nerves. The reason being I'm not allowed to bring the fruit into my household, and secondly, it isn't much fun eating it on my own. I've been waiting patiently for sis to come back for her holidays in a week's time but with every holler from the durian man, my resolve is weakening.

This evening, I was very lucky to have had the chance to finally taste it. What pleasure! But because we got it from a little makeshift stall, there wasn't much choice. I've been wanting to try the 'mountain cat', the new kid on the block. The durians this evening were nice, good as a starter for someone who's been deprived, but nothing to shout about. I've eaten far better ones.

I love durians which are creamy, thick and bitter, well, not too bitter. What is your preference?

Choconana brownies

What a name! Haha! I came up with these today. I guess it's a mix of disillusionment as well as boredom. There's a banana cake recipe which I've been trying out. The first time it failed as it turned out very dense, not like the one I tried at the funfair. A mum had made it and because it was so yummy, I asked her for the recipe. Mine turned out nothing like hers. So just this morning I tried baking it again. Everything was perfect till the cake went in the oven and goodness! I had forgotten to add the oil! Another failure. I wanted to try it again but didn't have enough bananas. So since I had promised to bake brownies for princess and hubby, I thought, hey banana and chocolate go hand-in-hand. *Ding* (lightbulb moment). So I experimented and came up with this creation. I have yet to try it as super full from breakfast. But I hope it's good. ;)

All you have to do is use your favourite brownie recipe and cut up a banana into tiny bits and mix it in then bake.

Slice & bake biscuits

I was looking around for a lemon poppyseed recipe and came across this one. I didn't really want a muffin type to bake the seeds with, so after going through the countless recipes out there, I decided to try this biscuit out. It's very versatile and has a lovely texture. It's not for those who love their biscuits crispy though. But it is lovely. I divided the dough in half and added chocolate chips. They were made for a special friend. :)