We had a small party at home on Easter Day to celebrate my eldest Princess 9th Birthday.  Initially we was supposed to have an Easter egg hunt too but too bad, the rain just wouldn’t stop.  There goes my Kinder Joy (Bye-bye $$$).

When I say a small party, I was trying to limit her friends to at least 6 person but later, the crowd just grew bigger and bigger and she even invited her Sunday School friends :S .  And I ended inviting my Sisters.  If you must know I have a lot of Sisters.  If invitation was extended to Sis 5, then Sis 1 and Sis 3 will be included too.(If not, later they don’t want to flend me then how?)    Then Hubby ask if he should invite his Siblings.  Aiyoh, make me feel bad only but how to fit all of them in our house?  SIL, if you read this, forgive me.  Next time round, ok?

It is very easy to think of a theme. Any teenager her age is crazy over High School Musical.  Sis 5 help me with the banner while I was busy whipping up food in the kitchen.

There are other food like the bolognese sauce, yam samosa, california roll, unagi kabayaki, tamago (egg sashimi), foochow red wine mee suah (for the adult).  Each time I pick up my camera, there are always someone calling me or something to be done and I kept on forgetting about the food pics.  What do you expect la.  ‘M’ is for mother and ‘M’ is for maid.  Organizing a party is not easy, ok.

No pix on the whole lots of Kinder Joy too as I kept on forgetting or was too busy.  Muahahaha!  What an excuse.  The kids was so disappointed as they was looking forward to the egg hunt.  To keep noise at minimal, after the kids ate, they was in our room playing PS2 (HSM game too).  It was so peaceful as now the adult can sit down and yak while digging in the fondue pot!  Thanks Selena for the fondue pot!  I know that was like one year ago since I received them. LOL.  I just melt the dark chocolate with cream and had marshmallow, ice-cream balls and strawberries digging into it.  No pix again.  I was darn busy serving guest.  Refilled the drinks.  Wipe the spills.  Clear the rubbish.  Serving ang chiew mee suah *wink*  Good thing my Sister’s maid help me with the dirty dishes or else my back will break man!  And the poor me gotta finish up all the left over.  The best diet pills also can’t help me this time.

The weird part  is where after the song was sung, the birthday girl was supposed to cut the cake.  I almost ask, “where is the knife?” but realised it was a cupcake.   So weird to cut them and so weird not to cut them.  So I go, “Ok, everybody just take one and eat”. LOL

Happy 9th Birthday Sweetie!

Sis was helping with the deco while I was busy in the kitchen.  Little MissTroubleMaker in action *rolling eye*

I will skip the cupcake recipe and go straight to the fondant.  But before I do that, I die-die also want to post up my double chocolate cupcake.  The fresh bake makes my kitchen smells heavenly!

The cracks on the cake tells that they are a bit dry.

Pre-made fondant can be purchase from bakery shops but they are so easy to made that you can save money by making it yourself and keep the bragging rights of having made it all from scratch, right?  There are many different type of fondant you can google from internet.  So I just pick one that is the simplest.

Ingredients:
15g powdered gelatin
60ml water
10ml liquid glucose or corn syrup
1tbsp glycerin
500gm icing sugar

Method:

Sprinkle gelatin in the bowl of water and let it soak for 2 minutes. Use double boiler to dissolve it for about 2 minutes.  Use a wooden spoon instead of a metal spoon cos the metal spoon will make your fondant turn black (not really black but your fondant’s colour won’t be snowy white).  Remove gelatin and add a tablespoon of glycerin.  Some recipe said it is optional but I think it’s a must if you want your fondant to be smooth.  Make a well on the icing sugar.   Pour gelatin in it and stir them into a dough.  Jeng, jeng, jeng, it’s showtime!

You need plenty of icing sugar for dusting as they are very very sticky and make sure you have a clean work top.  Knead your dough for few more minute.  Tips:  prepare the dough the night before so that they will be less sticky and easier to work on the next day.  Leave them in a zipper bag.  I did a mistake by keeping them in the fridge.  The next day, they are as hard as stone.  I have to cut them into pieces before heating up in the microwave again.  And they are so sticky I almost gave up!

You just need some creativity with the fondant.  I get this fondant mat from Michael’s (U.S.).  They produces very nice vines to your fondant.

And the process goes on for about 2.5 hours before I get this result.

My first ever attempt in fondant, ok.

Of course can’t beat the work of professional.

Promise you won’t laugh, ok?

Jeng, jeng, jeng:

High School Musical cupcakes!

Someone’s birthday is around the corner *rolling eye*.

p/s:  Smells good.  Looks good.  But I never say they taste good.  wakakaka

Short Note: Never insult a photographer if you know nuts about photography!

Just some random shots I took during my Cousin’s wedding dinner in Pangkor.

For those that are getting married, make sure you buy this gold Phoenix tea pot. The colour is totally outstanding.

Good thing Cous is 5 months older than me. That safe me one yam char angpow. hehe…

The happiest time would be my 3 kids getting 6 angpow! Syok max!

Lots of bling-bling too.

Which one do you adore? I would say the purple germ gem.

Lots of clowning with my other Cousins.

She is one of them.

Food was good. The one I love most is the yam paste with ginkgo. The Hockkien called them Orh Nee.

I will try to make this one day. Looking at it make me salivating again. *slurp*

Sorry, no pictures of the Bride and Groom till I get the green light from them. Achelli, I volunteered to covered their wedding day this coming Sunday but I think I need more confidence, skills and better photography equipment like a 85mm lens or external flash. If you read this Cous, I am so sorry to ffk you last minute. Am really really sorry. But I will still attend your Bachelor’s night .

(Dang! Where is my guts.)

Ok, Cous wedding dinner and Grandma’s Birthday was pre-arrange on the same weekend so that we (from outstation) do not have to travel back to Pangkor twice. So, the next day we celebrated my Grandma’s 93th Birthday. Woot! Never underestimate my Grandma. At 93y/o, she can blow out the candle in one puff. Nak tangkap gambar pun tak sempat. Luckly left one lit candle.

Hubby’s boss think if I were to live till 93y/o, possibly that I could have 2 husbands. Very chim hor, nevermind. A little conversation with Son.

Son: Ah Chor (Great Grandma) got a lot of black spots on her face.

Mum: Yes. Next time Mummy old already will have black spots too *cringe*

Son: At what age?

Haha! I also don’t know la Son. I don’t even know if I can live pass 80y/o.

~~~***~~~***

On an unrelated matter to the title above, while in the ferry from Pangkor to Lumut, guess who I met on board?

EAT FIRST THINK LATER!

No, not you. I mean her nickname is Eat First Think Later. hehe. She is one of the famous food blogger. Do check her out ok? I mean her blog. *rolling eye*

*Back dated and brief post*

My Dad celebrated his 70th Birthday last many many weekend ago.

All went as usual. We had 10 course dinner in Unique Fisherman, Cheras. Location: after Leisure Mall. Food was good. We came here specially for their penis Geoduck Clam (pronounce as gooeyduck) since my Eldest sister has been bitching about this penis elephant trunk Geoduck thingy we thought we must try at least once. And of course the way my Sister elaborate the penis Geoduck size really make us so curious.

Live penis Geoduck. hehe…

To savour this, I am not sure if they even remove the yellowish skin from the penis Geoduck. It was then sliced into thin pieces.

You can either eat them raw with wasabi or blanch them in hot water aka steamboat. I would preferred them raw. They tasted something like sea cucumber and is really good!

This is the look of the shell.

Dad have this habit to say out loud his Birthday wishes. He don’t make a simple wish. He always include all of us, his Wife, his daughters, his son-in-laws and grandchildrens.

But there is this one wish that make all of us rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-out-loud. What is Dad’s special wish this year? He hope that our little Sister will get hitch this year! All of us was woo-ing so loud.

On an unrelated topic:

Ahem! And I had something new to show you guys.

My.New.Curl.

Previously I had a very long waist length hair and now, the hair stylist had them trimmed 3 inches shorter and she layered them wayyyyyyyyyyyyy to much! I really hate it! Just because she like it, doesn’t mean I will like them. And she have the courage to say, “I thought I wanna change your hairstyle a bit.” You say fuming mad or not?

Without her Daddy around (1st time) during her birthday is emo enough for the Mummy and this teenage daughter of mine decided to add in more emoness early morning. *haiz

Daddy called home from States in the morning to wish her a “Happy Burfday” and of course she is more than happy but can’t control her EMOtion. Her voice started to choke and that sleepy eyes of hers slowly turned watery and red. Of course when Mummy see this, she can’t control her EMOtion too. I think my daughter has my gene. Both of us is quite EMOtional type.

Since Daddy is not around, my Sister was kind enough to bring us out for dinner in TGIFridays. Awww….. see, I have the greatest Sister in the whole wide world!

And yes, I heard you, “TGIF again ah?” lol. We really love their yummillicious food and all the crazy stuff they chanted for the Birthday Girl.

But you know what? (S)he is (s)o (s)hy, (s)tunt, (s)peechless and her eyes starting to (s)well again.

You can tell by looking at her in the picture. Watch that guy in red. He has got all sort of action. Now look at my daughter, she just stood there like a statue and that smile is just so fake. Luckly the bunch of crazy guys notice it and quickly ended the session. So emo can die! I gave her hug so that she would feel better and told her TGIF is not her type. She is just too shy! (I was supposed to say EMO but didn’t want her to rain again). So there you go, a emo birthday for her to remember.

Baby Princess started play school early of this year. At the same time, I’ve enrolled her in Sunday School too. I’m so glad she love both of it. Everyday, she will ask if tomorrow got school or not. And her tomorrow will never end with Sunday School. She has grown more talkative and her speech was excellent. Sometime Most of the time she will go babble, babble, babble and we have to ask her to stop.

She is getting mischievious by days. At times, I find her antic amusing but most of the time, she is really a trouble maker. She has this ability to charm people. Most of the time, I will fall into her traps. She conversed less in Mandarin ever since she stopped going to the babysitter. Which, is a bad thing la! She used to communicate in full Mandarin with Aunty, but now, Aunty is complaining that she don’t understand a word what Baby Princess is talking.

Coming to her speech, her once upon a time Ki Ki Kau is now clearly heard as Mickey Mouse. *rolling-on-floor-laughing* Lello is now Yellow. Winnie the Pooh is still Winnie Pooh Pooh which I think is cute . Sometimes, she calls herself Monster Truck and at times, she thinks she is Transformers. This is when she will fight with her brother cos both of them wanted to be Autobot. errr… that’s all the progress at 3 years old.

We almost celebrate her birthday in TGIF if not because of Cheng Beng. So this year, we have different picture compare to the previous year. You know, I am so glad I have wonderful Sister-In-Laws. They are just wonderful peoples (not because of the birthday cake they bought. They ARE really nice people.)

According to chinese calendar, today is 15th day of the 8th lunar month where chinese celebrated Mid Autumn Festival (Traditional Chinese: 中秋節; pinyin: zhōngqiūjié) and my Little Boy’s Birthday (pun intended ).

Son’s actual date (according to angmoh calendar) falls sometime last week. We only have TGIFriday in mind since the place and their foods is child friendly.

Just the Three of us

Don’t ask me why we always have to go TGIFriday to celebrate Birthday. Could it be the food? The environment? The people? Their soprano singer? Their Reggae Group?

Yea! I like the last one. Their Reggae Group and who don’t?

Their staffs are a friendlier lot. Even the kids are comfortable with the place and son thinks their uniform looks super cool and funky. He insisted to camwhore with one the staff wearing a deer antelope by pulling his arm all the way across his shoulder and down to his chest. Well, I hope Daddy is not jealous when he see this. After the photoshoot, Mr Deer gave him a hard pinch on his cheek. I heard him saying, “Aiyoh, you are so cute!” That’s my son. He is very friendly. Sometimes too friendly *worry*.

Little Boy ask for Bumble Bee. We tried looking for it in Toys ‘R us, Parkson and Jaya Jusco but they have none. We bought him Lightning McQueen instead and still cost us a bomb!

Have you ate a mooncake today?

Play a lantern today?

Camwhore kau-kau today?

Happy Mid Autumn Festival to all

After meeting up with Chiwiland, we went to Pangkor Island. That is where my Mom’s hometown is and where my maternal Grandma is residing after she got married to my late Grandpa. Fyi, Grandma is a Penang lang.

Tip: If you plan to go Pangkor Island, remember this. At the Lumut jetty, ferry operator is selling the tickets at Rm10 for tourists and RM6 for Pangkorists.

Not many people know about it. More like a hush-hush thingy among authorities, but my Mom warned us beforehand that we should pay for the tickets at RM6. I mean, we are still a locals and these people hike up the price to earn from tourist. So, what happened was…. my Mom went and bought the ticket.

“Sepuluh ringgit.”

“APA SEPULUH RINGGIT. ENAM RINGGIT!”

Of course, the ticket seller was caught by surprise and was dumbfolded.

We made a stop at my Grandma’s house. As usual, my aunt had prepared a big pot of asam laksa. That was our favourite! Maklumlah, ikan kembung (mackeral fish) originate from Pangkor. And… and… do I have to add? Aunt uses the traditional way to cook the stock, i.e. by using charcoal and clay pot! Syok 99!

During our younger days, we used to stay over night at my Grandma’s house. Nowadays, you know… our family members have multiplied by 4. There is no way to accomodate so many of us plusssssssssssss I CAN’T SLEEP WITHOUT AIRCON!

Off we went and checked in at the hotel near the beach. Woohoo! Suaku city people like me love bitches beaches.

I have sea phobia; sudden drop + big wave + swept by wave + drowning. It all happened again when we recklessly assumed one of us is watching the kids. I’m sorry baby. But when unexpected things happen, please don’t blame the other to make yourself look innocent. Ok? But, didn’t I tell you to play at the beach and not in the water???!!! Huh! Huh!

We had fun digging a hole and burying Baby Princess in it. At the beginning, she was smiling and laughing with us. After sometime of wiggling, she found out that she can’t move any of her body part. She was wailing for help. All we could do is continue laughing and mummy is so bad to camwhore with her. lol

Beach isn’t complete without going for a stroll for seashells. And I stumble upon this right before my big toe.

I have seen and picked star fish but not this type of seashell with an engraved star on it. Overall, we found 4 of this. Isn’t God creation marvellous?

I waited whole afternoon……

… where art thou?

By the time I finish writing this post, it turn out more than “Pangkor Island Trip cum Grandma’s Birthday”. lol

So, Grandma is turning 93y/o this year. Still going healthy and strong.

Typical chinese with typical red eggs.

Dinner so-so only. Nothing much to show off but I’m sure this is attractive!

Mantis prawn in steam egg. The taste? Really nothing to shout about. This is not my usual food angle. They look a bit crappy to me. What to do? I’m sharing a table with my other cousins and they can’t wait to dig into this dish.

The whole night I have been bribing my kids with this,

“Who did not finish the rice, tomorrow cannot sit fast-fast boat.”

“Who is naughty, tomorrow cannot sit fast-fast boat.”

“Time to sleep. Don’t talk. If not tomorrow cannot sit fast-fast boat.”

So, be good ya? Tomorrow I bring you go sit fast-fast boat

In conjunction with the Agong’s (King’s) Birthday last Saturday, Hubby suggested we eat out at The Lobsterman in SS2, PeeJay. You think he’s too patriotic issit?

Alamak, photo editing skill a bit cacat today. I have a bad hair day for the above pic. Thought wanna diversified your attention to the lobster. This is not the biggest in the whole wide world but I’ve never seen such a H.U.G.E lobster before!

Do order a charboiled if you wanted to taste the authentic taste of lobster meat. That night, we had:

• Lobster in XO sauce. It is something similar to kong pou stir fried.
• For the kids, they had Lobster and seafood rice. To be corrected, the kids had the R.I.C.E and adult wallop all the lobster!
• Lobster with fruits yogurt
• Two serving of salmon pasta
• Garlic escargoat
• Two serving of Charboiled lobster (the one in the pic)

… and so all the food is gone now, and the red wine too. What are we waiting for? Dessert! We ordered gelato. It came as Green Tea Gelato. We can’t argue right? We should have ask for their flavour. I gave that a miss cos Green Tea gelato or green tea ice cream is not my cuppa tea.

… and so….

… errr….

….errr, I am dem shy la!

… how to put it la….

Nah, read for yourself!

Shy la. Just shy. So old liao wanna announce to the whole wide world that it’s my birthday. To add on to the shyness and paisehness, this New York Cheesecake was from Ms Anonymous! I can’t revealed mia name. Thank you BIG-BIG Ms Annonymous . When the waiters and waitresses brought out the cake, they was singing the international birthday song. And you know the line where they go… “…Happy Birthday to XXX”, they pause a bit and was looking at the name on the birthday cake. Hubby quickly tell them “Jessie”. I almost fall off my chair laughing!

So now you know the Agong and Queen share the same birthdate