23rd, 24th, 25th Ramadhan

I was not able to update my iftar's photos for the past 3 days...I didn't know why but I was so sleepy and tired after Iftar, today I am ok..maybe it's because the school holidays has started and 'raya' mood is in the air...but today we decided not to cook today and had 'Nasi Kerabu' from Ramadhan Bazaar. 

Here are the pictures from the previous iftar...

On 23rd Ramadhan, we had crab curry...

... and spinach with chilli

On 24th Ramadhan, we had ikan tenggiri masak asam... I'm not sure what do we call this in English hahaha

On 25th Ramadhan, we had nasi lemak with sambal goreng kacang and sambal tumis udang

FYI...I cooked this one :)

Well, I also received a bad news just now...Mr.B's 9 months old cousin has passed away today at Penang General Hospital because of brain hemorrhage. Innalillahiwainnailaihirajiun...Three weeks ago, my family and I went to visit him at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and it was so sad to see his condition undergoing life support treatment. At that time, he was suspected to have brain tumor. I really hope the family will be strong on the passing, just a few days before Eidul-Ftri. Insyaallah..tomorrow morning, my family and I are going to pay our final respect to the boy at Pulau Mertajam.

22nd Ramadhan

We had chicken today...Mr.B prepared a scrumptious dish...yummeh!

chicken cashew nuts

While I prepared this...this was my first attempt...Mr.B said it was good...alhamdulillah

chicken pot pie

I'll make it again...insyaallah

Ramadhan is leaving us

Oh my...Ramadhan is leaving us...we have about 9 more days to perform our fast and tarawih...I feel so sad...but I'm thankful to Allah for giving me a blessed and meaningful 20days of Ramadhan...alhamdulillah thank you Allah...

I couldn't update my blog yesterday as I was busy marking the Trial PMR paper...I've finished marking just now...yeay...yes! I could celebrate Eid ul-ftr peacefully then...but I'm not satisfied with my students' performances...their results are quite disappointing...I got to do something with them before the school holidays next week...

Ok...enuf with work! Let's talk about food...Yesterday, Mr.B decided to cook fish...(this is because Aqeel loves fish)that's why today, Mr.B went to Pak Tam's stall at Tikam Batu (his uncle is a fishmonger at Tikam Batu) to buy more fish. Our freezer now is full, I think it will last until Eid ul-fitr.

ikan tiga rasa

I made choc chip muffin, as requested by Aqeel, actually he requested two days ago but I managed to make for him yesterday...

choc chip muffin

I used Nigella Lawson' recipe...you can go to this link for the recipe ; Nigella Feast

Today...Mr.B made fish curry....fish lagi...but sedap!

fish head curry / kari kepala ikan

for Aqeel...Mr.B added spanish mackerel (ikan tenggiri) in the curry...he finished a bowl of rice today...alhamdulillah

kambing lagi

We had lamb again! I'm not really a fan though...I'll get sick sometimes after eating lamb like getting headache or tummy discomfort...but I still ate it today, cannot eat much la ... 

I couldn't finish the big portion of lamb together with the extra side dishes...

   grilled lamb with cold potato salad , macaroni n cheese

While Mr.B was grilling the lamb, I prepared the cold potato salad...this is also my sis's fav dish... betul tak Lurve?
and very easy to make too

cold potato salad

Ingredients :

5 medium sized potatoes, boiled until just tender (add  a pinch of salt)

1 medium sized onion, diced

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 tablespoon fruit salad dressing

1 teaspoon black pepper

Cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces, then mix the rest of the ingredients until evenly coated, chill the potato salad in the fridge

And here's what I made for my kids...

 mixed macaroni with chicken soup

So, these were our iftar menu on the 18th of Ramadhan. 

Have a great day peeps!

Nuzul Quran

I am not working today. It's a public holiday in Penang for Nuzul Quran. Early this morning, around 8 a.m., I went out to clean the compound with the help from my girl and another little helper, an eager one indeed hehe...

presenting, Charlie...my lil' helper...he is named after Charlie Caplin, as you can see, he has patches on the lower part of his nose that resembles Chaplin's moustache. He is about two months old and is the only kitten alive at the moment (from 7 kittens that didn't survive).  He was abandoned by his mother, which I'm still figuring why...because, she is still around just that Charlie cannot be near her. In the end, Charlie is adopted by Fifi, that brown cat in the picture.

what on earth are you doing? I wonder why he is so fascinated with the plastic bag...

having breakfast from leftover sahur

take a look at the clean compound...no more dried leaves....I'm so happy!

my dragon fruit plant...I'm so surprise to see it is still standing...I wonder will it survive?

Today...for iftar...I prepared 'asam pedas ikan merah' 

I followed the recipe from TryMasak

but I made some changes to a few of the ingredients for example, I decided to cook ikan merah,  I used only 1 liter of water instead of 2 liters, and only one tomato. I also added more asam keping, salt and sugar. 

I made this one too...

kerabu jantung pisang

do you know that, I took a longer time to prepare this kerabu than cooking the asam pedas! 

I have to cook the jantung pisang for about 15 minutes, then prepare the ingredients such as

3 onions, chopped

10 birdeye chilies, chopped

1 bunga kantan, chopped

1 tsp of kerisik

1/2 of jantung pisang, chopped

some dried anchovies,advisable to cook without oil and pound well

2 tbs tamarind juice

some salt and sugar

combine all together and your kerabu is ready! 

baba n nyonya

On the 16th of Ramadhan, Mr.B decided to cook something different. After watching a cooking show on tv, here's what he prepared. 

ayam berempah baba dan nyonya

While I only did this hehehe...

There was no pressure preparing it as the salad was from a 'Ready To Eat' one. It was a combination of Caesar Salad and Italian Rocket Salad. I combined them both because I liked the patterns of the leaves from different types of salad and they also looked so tempting. Actually, they tasted better when combined as I could use the roasted Croutons from the Caesar salad and the fresh Balsamic dressing from the Italian Rocket Salad. As you can see, there were no baby tomatoes.  I used all of them for my chicken spaghetti bolognese the other day hehehe...

Ocean Catch

Yesterday,on the 15th of Ramadhan, we had fish for iftar. 

Mr.B decided to make 'ikan pari bakar' or can we call it grilled skate wings or BBQ stingray hehehe...I told him I was thinking of cooking 'daging masak hitam' but we didn't have any beef in the freezer. So, ikan pari lah...

the stingrays were grilled on banana leaf with a mixture of lemon juice, kaffir lime juice ( limau purut ) olive oil, ginger, black pepper, turmeric leaves (daun kunyit) and lemongrass (serai)

When you have 'ikan pari bakar' you must have the air asam ,the gravy! It's a must. This was prepared by me. Mr.B loved my air asam :) It's a simple one to make; we need 

20 birdeye chilies (cili padi), chopped

2 medium sized onions, chopped

2 tablespoon dried shrimp paste ( belacan ) 

2 tablespoon tamarind juice ( asam jawa )

mix all together and there you go...it's ready to be eaten with ikan pari bakar

the fried mackerels were for Aqeel... He had two bowls of rice with these! I was so surprised to see he ate so much rice and fish. Alhamdulillah...at least he had extra energy and wouldn't be tired fasting the next day.