Happy New Year 2014

I would like to wish everyone around the world - Happy New Year 2014.
May 2014 be a wonderful year ahead for everyone.

For me, 2013 was a busy and fruitful year and I enjoyed the up and down for the entire year.   The biggest move for 2013 was that we shifted to our new nest and the renovation was also done recently.

I hope for a better year and more time for family.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014

Tang Yuen and Dong zhi dinner

Yesterday was dong zhi festival.  Get my 2 girls to make their own tang yuen for the family.  For dinner, I prepared the easiest meal, i.e. steamboat.

Maine is busy making tang yuen

Steamboat time !

Renovation update

Some of the photo of the renovation

The workers are busy fixing the top kitchen cabinet

Almost done with the front reno. Waiting for our gate to arrive and it is done !

Master bedroom wardrobe

Close up of the design of wardrobe

Winter Solstice Festival

I would like wish everyone Happy Winter Solstice Festival or 冬至快乐 which falls on 22 Dec.

This is a recycle photo which i posted in 2011.  These tang yuen were make by one of the colleague.

Since the festival falls on Sunday this year, I will make tang yuen together with my family and hopefully the weather is nice for us to have our steamboat dinner.

Renovation ongoing

Day 3 of renovation, progress quite satisfying.

Renovation Started

The contractor started their work this morning.

Bricks for the concrete wall.

Minor Reno

Minor renovation for car porch is starting tomorrow.  I can't imagine the dust that we going to live in.  Hopefully the weather is good so that it can be completed within the schedule.   According to the contractor it will take 2 weeks to complete (with good weather).  I will have to confirm with the auto gate contractor to come and take the measurement once the pillar is up.

Hope everything will go on as plan.  Finger crossed

Kindy concert & Year 6 Graduation

It is a long overdue post.  Maine's kindy year end concert was on 10 Nov and Cyn's primary school graduation is on 15 Nov.  Cyn did averagely well in her UPSR.  She scored 4As, 2Bs and 1C.

Cyn's graduation.  Cyn got 2nd placing in her class.  

Maine posing in her performance costume.

Last month of 2013

Oh dear !! 2013 is almost coming to the end.  This is the last month of 2013.
December will be a short month due to few public holiday and clearing of annual leave.

We will kick start our car porch renovation by this week and according to the contractor, it will take 2 weeks to complete.  Hopefully it can be completed within the schedule even it is raining season nowadays. The master bedroom wardrobe will also be up by next week.

Shall post more photos once it is done.

A great Wednesday

I am on leave today.  Just take a day off and this is part of my leave clearing activities.  It is a busy day for me but I think it is worth the tiredness for me.  I start my day at 8am by sending my little Maine to kindy then I went to TNB to submit my claim on the spoilt electrical items.

I left TNB, Jalan Meru at around 9.45am then I headed to AEON Bukit Tinggi to survey for my hb's birthday gift.  I have no idea what to buy for him and I did asked him what he wanted for his birthday but he just keep quiet.  Tough job.  I came back empty handed as I have to rush back to fetch Maine at 11.45am. After that we went and fetch Cyn at her school and it is raining so heavily.  We came back to our housing area to have our lunch.  The 2 girls are happy because today mum is their driver and they can enjoyed their lunch outside.

At 5pm, I start preparing for dinner as there few ingredient need to be done before hand.  By the time I finished preparing, it is already almost 7.30pm, what a fruitful day for me.  Too busy and tired to take photo today.

Cheers and happy Wednesday to all.

Sushi bread making project

Cyn was excited after she learnt how to make sushi bread from school and she insisted to make it for me to try.  She start shopping for the ingredient when we make our usual trip to the nearby hypermarket.

The ingredients needed are bread, cucumber, carrot, sausages, omelette, mayonise and seaweed.  Use a pin roll to flatten the bread, spread enough mayonise, lay the piece of seaweed and arrange the other ingredient (cut the cucumber and carrot into strip) and roll it like rolling sushi.  Cut it into 4 pieces. Done.

Since its look so cute and presentable, I make it for Maine to bring to her kindy during the children day celebration on 1 Nov.

This is the result.

Company Trip and Gala Dinner 2013

I mentioned about my company annual dinner in one of my post last month at Gold Coast Morib.  I was busy with the preparation as I am one of the committee member cum emcee.  I am glad everything was going on smoothly as planned and I am also happy peopl are quite receptive on my performance.  Besides that, I also took part in staff performance with the executive team.  

We performed a funny midget dance

This is our performance and we are the champion team.  How it works ?  It needs 2 person to form a pair and I acted as the hand (2nd from the right) and my partner (the front person) hand will be her pair of leg.  Need a lots of coordination.

A very interesting event and I really enjoyed so much during the whole show even I didn't get anything for the lucky draw.

For more scenery, go to my post here

Happy Deepavali

Happy Deepavali to all Hindus friends.  I know it is late but better late than never.

Image from google

It is November again!

Time flies. It is November again.  I just realise that I only have one post in October.  Another 2 months we will say sayonara to 2013 and welcome 2014.

Ok, a very quick post from my room. My birthday has just pass 2 days ago,  This year, I celebrate my birthday with my colleague.  We went to Shogun, Sunway Pyramid to celebrate our victory as champion in staff performance for the annual dinner recently.  It was success event.

As for my loved one, he has to wait to treat me on the next day.  We went to Paradigm Mall for lunch at Sukiya Restaurant, also a Japanses buffet dining.

This year, my birthday present is perfume from Lancome.  I simply love it.

Busy and leave

It is October and I am extremely busy now with work, ya! it is the last quarter of the year...there a lot of thing to be done.  Then there is company trip cum annual dinner 2 weeks from now. Need to stay back at least 2-3 days a week for performance rehearsal.  At the same time, I was asked to clear my annual leave. So, which one first ? Today, I take 2nd half off just to clear my leave.

I love November !! It is our birthday month ! Besides that, we will kick start our 2nd mini renovation for our newly shifted home.  This round, we will do top kitchen cabinet and bedroom wardrobe for master bedroom and also our girls' room.  We also planned to do the car porch.  Hope everything is going on smoothly as planned.  I hope to clear more leaves next month for reno plan.

Gold Coast Morib

Let's go holiday !!! but when ? I have to clear 8 days of AL before year end but my hb can't take leave so how to go holiday ?
Anyhow, I am going for company trip on 19 Oct 2013 for 2d1n.  I am one of the organising committee and I am also the annual dinner emcee. Few of the committee members visited the site on 11 Sept.

Another Coach ?

The other day my sister who is residing in Singapore asked whether I want to buy Coach bag or purse or not.  Should I get another Coach bag ?  It costs around SGD200.
Still struggling as my free Coach bag is still new

Cyn sitting for UPSR and after exam destress

Cyn - our eldest daughter is sitting UPSR 2 weeks ago.  After exam we went to KLCC Aquaria for a break. Since we have 3 days break during Malaysia Day holiday, we took the opportunity to go KLCC.  Since Maine never ride on LRT, we decided to take LRT from Kelana Jaya station to KLCC.

Let's enjoy the photos

Marble Cake

Last weekend, the mood of baking cake came back.  I baked the most simple marble cake using the butter cake recipe.  

Here is the simple recipe and this is the first cake I learnt to bake during my teenage year.

Basic Butter Cake

Ingredients :
250g Self raising flour
4 eggs (Grade A)

200g sugar
4 tbsp fresh milk
2 drops vanilla essences
250g butter (room temperature)

Beat the butter and the sugar till butter turns creamy, put in the eggs one at the time ,put in the vanilla essences.

Beat till fluffy and pale.then put in the flour and the milk and beat till all mixed well.

Then put in the cake tin and bake in oven for 1 hour or till cooked in oven 200C

Add in 1 tbsp of cocoa powder (for marble cake)

I brought some for my colleagues

4-day holiday is over

The 4-day holiday just over. 2 days PH plus 2 days weekend.  I had a enjoyable and relaxing holiday with my family.  We spend our time at our home sweet home.

I cooked kuah kacang and pork rendang to go along with nasi impit and ketupat palas on first day raya.  For pork rendang, I use the instant rendang paste from Mak Nyonya.  As for kuah kacang, I get the recipe from my friend.  For dinner, my mum cooked Laksa Sarawak again ! special request from my sister who fly back from Singapore for holiday.
On Friday, I make siew yoke.  I would said it is super easy to make and it is as nice as the one sell in chicken stall.  I like the crispyness of the skin and juicyness of the meat. Yummy !

Kuah Kacang and pork rendang with nasi impit & ketupat palas

Siew yoke in making. Forget to take photo after it was done.  The skin is so crispy.

Hari Raya Holiday

To all the muslim, Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. To those not celebrating, happy holiday and long weekend.
Today is the last day of working and we will off for long holiday.
Holiday plan ? no plan, will be in town only.  Since Cyn is sitting for UPSR in a month time, we are only going for holiday after her exam.
My sister is coming back for holiday and my mum is busy in the kitchen preparing food for her.

Picture from google.com

Coffee art

Coffee art....
Brew & Bread Cafe at Kota Kemuning

Teddy bear

Angry bird

Homemade breakfast - Tuna and cheese wrap

I usually only prepared bread spread with butter & kaya or nutella for my family especially since I joined this new company.  If no breakfast is prepared, Cyn will buy her own food in the canteen and Maine will normally still bring some biscuits or breakfast cereals.

Cyn commented once that she is bored of eating bread even I did alternate it with varieties of bun.  I think she is really bored of eating bread or bun !!!

I saw my colleague eating a very interesting breakfast one morning in the office and I asked her "what is that", she said it is Wrap !  Oh ya !! tortilla wrap ! why I never thought of preparing that for breakfast.  It is also easy to prepare.  I bought 2 packets of Mission tortilla wrap for AEON Bukit Tinggi, one is potato and another one is wholegrain.  

Tuna and cheese wrap recipe

Ingredient :

Wholegrain wrap

Lettuce

Cucumber

Mayonise 

1 tbsp of tuna

Cheese

Method :

1. Wash the cucumber and lettuce.  Slice the cucumber

2. Heat up the wrap on the non stick pan.  No oil needed.

3. On a flat plate, arrange the lettuce and sliced cucumber

4. Scoop in the tuna and put on a slice of cheese

5. Squeeze in some mayonise

6. Wrap and cut into halves

7. Enjoy your breakfast with a cup of white coffee. Yummy

I used this brand. Mission Wraps - wholegrain.
Picture from google

Tuna and cheese wrap

My breakfast

Yesterday I also prepared this breakfast but I used sausages and omellete instead of tuna.  I also add on a slice of cheese.  That's all for this week.  Tomorrow back bread day ....hahahahaha

Restoran Bak Kut Teh Ah Meng

I have been staying in Klang for close to 20 years.  Klang is famous of Bak Kut Teh and everyone staying here will have their preferred BKT restaurant.  For my family, our choice is always Restoran Bak Kut Teh Ah Meng which is located behind old Taman Sentosa KFC.

The only person who will take order is the lady boss and she will never go wrong with your order.  I have yet to experience that she forget to place my order.  They are also not stingy with the portion of meat and soup. 

Yesterday, we went again for our brunch.

Maine with her rice 

Cyn posing with her plate of rice with lots of fried onion

A pot of BKT.  We ordered for 3.5 person share which is more than enough to serve 6 of us

Sarawak Kueh Teow Tomato

Kueh teow tomato can only be found in Sarawak, my hometown.  My hubby and 2 girls have also fall in love with it.

This is not a very difficult dish to DIY at home and I use to do it during weekend and the girls will ask for more. 

This is my version of Sarawak Kueh Teow Tomato.

The recipe 
(source from Cynmainemum.blogspot.com)

The ingredients :
1 pkt Kway Teow - fried with black soy sauce (used the soy sauce from Sarawak) 

100g Sayur Sawi
100g Lean Meat
100g sotong
1 pkt fishballs
garlic
1 tablespoon osyster sauce
3 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 cups of chicken stock
2 tablespoon starch flour
salt to taste

1) Heat some oil in wok and fry kuay teow briefly on high heat. Add soy sause and mix evenly till all kueh teow are evenly brown. Remove from wok and set aside.
2) In the same wok, heat 1 tbsp oil and fry the garlic till fragrant.  Add in lean meat, fish balls & sayur sawi and stir fry till all the ingredient are cooked.  Then, add in the sotong. 
3) Add in the chicken stock and bring to boil
4) Now, mix the starch flour with water and cook till the gravy thickens.
5) To serve, place some fried kueh teow onto a serving plate, and scoop over the gravy.

Kueh Teow Tomato

Modern Satay Lok Lok, Bandar Botanic

There is this new restaurant opening at Ambang Botanic, Klang.  They have this RM1 per stick promotion. The promotion runs from 18 - 20 July.  We reached around 7.15pm and seeing many people were standing outside the shop waited to be seated.  One good thing is they used numbering system (but the manual hand written) so you will be called once it is your turn.  So you won't be annoyed by people standing next to your table while you are enjoying your lok lok.  We waited for around 20 minutes before getting our seat.

They also have clear soup which I believe catered for children.  Besides, satay lok lok, they also have bbq and frying corner.  Eventhough it is RM1 but beware that some of them comes in 2 sticks so it means it costs RM2.  The bill comes to RM67.20 for 3 of us which include Maine.  This include one can of 100 plus.

Manage to capture their signage while waiting for our table

Our choices

more choices

Clear soup and satay

The address is
20, Jalan Remia 5, Ambang Botanic, Klang

Sportgirl in action and Steamboat dinner

Maine's kindy had sport day last sunday in one of the chinese school hall.  It is a annual event for the kindy.  This is Maine 2nd year there and she is excited about it.

I got her ready by 7.30am and we had our breakfast before heading to the school.  We had our breakfast here.  She also participate in tug of war.  She said she is strong girl now.

The 2 sisters...

Getting ready for the event to start

All the children were given a medal, 2 pcs of cupcake & a set of playdol

That night we had steamboat for dinner at Shapa Steamboat BBQ Buffet. A newly open steamboat at Kota Kemuning.  It is steamboat and bbq.

They have ready cooked food and all the bbq stuff will be cooked by the workers.  We just choose our food and they do the grilling for us.  Food will be delivered to your table.  Less hassle.  However, the tomyam soup is tasteless.

Address :

Unit 4-28-1, Blok 4, No.14, (Persiaran Anggerik Vanilla, Kota Kemuning,)

Shah Alam,, Selangor 40460 

Phone

+60 3-5525 2199