Bread and butter pudding

It's been awhile since I last made bread and butter pudding......I made this one today using wholemeal bread......but this one didn't turned out as nice....I think because I didn't put enough sugar.....was short of milk as well.....so I had to add more water.......but I managed to top it up with fine brown sugar...so it tasted good when I ate it......I even add in some dried black currants in it...I've always love to have them in my bread and butter pudding, they somehow taste better with them. Some people love eating it with ice cream or custard.....but I love eating it with strawberry yogurt.....something someone taught me years ago.....but the yogurt has to be cold, otherwise it will not be too tasty. I don't even have a proper oven to bake the pudding....I used a steamer pot instead hehehe......I had to improvise! Will try again someday to perfect the taste :)

Goodbye umbrella....

I lost my umbrella today.....sob sob... :( I went to TM Point, Pandan Indah to settle my bills and hanged my umbrella right beside me at the counter....when I was done with the bills, I forgot to take the umbrella home with me..........darn it! I didn't realise it at first, then when I did I went back to look for it....and it's GONE!!!! I can't believe it....even the TM employees there didn't notice it....how can they not notice that big umbrella by the counter! At first I just couldn't accept the fact.....felt sad losing it....after all it was my favourite umbrella.... Then I told myself, why be sad.....why stress myself..... it's not worth it. I hope whoever took/stole it will benefit from it and take good care of it...that's all I can say..... Goodbye my sweet umbrella........huhuhuhuhu......... :(

Sivaji The Boss......

It's Deepavali day today.........and what better movie to watch than Sivaji the Boss...... :) Saw this movie tonight...........fuyoooooooooooooooo!!!!! Best giler! I've been a fan of Rajinikanth ...like forever man! Can't help but love his style..... In this film, I noticed that he didn't smoke at all....did he quit smoking already?? Didn't know that......but anyways, it's great that he didn't in this film. He took candies instead hahaha.....and did tricks with it too....so cool! I've always loved seeing him do tricks with the cigarette but this candy trick is great as well.....and also the trick he did with the coin really was fantastic!!! Unbelievable!!! I don't think that it was a camera trick though....I really think that it was real. I really loved this film for it's message, it's humor (Oh God it's sooooooo funny!) and the really fantastic tricks, screenplay was good as well........there was never a dull moment....I wouldn't mind watching this film again. Too bad I didn't get to see it at the cinema though sob sob..... :( it would have been much better than watching it from a small TV....

Majlis Sillaturahim + Jamuan Raya

Aktiviti membakar lemang..........sampai pening kepala bau asap! Walaupun bakar kat bawah tapi asapnya sampai ke hingga ke tingkat atas sekali.....haiyaaaa! Busuk sangat pening kepala aku.....diaorang tu tengah siapkan lemang petang semalam untuk jamuan raya hari ni.....seperti biasa, aku tak pernah join hahaha.....anti sosial betul aku ni hahaha.....apa nak buat.... :D Masa time start jamuan tu.........fuyooooo, siap ada band lagi! Bising yang amat sampai nak pekak telinga dibuatnya......diaorang nyanyi lagu raya, lagu cintan cintun......kebanyakannya penyanyi yang syok sendiri hahaha........suara yang ntah apa2 ntah.....aku cuma seronok masa diaorang pasang lagu raya nyanyian Aman Shah.....yang tu best laa.....and ada juga lagu Sheila Majid.....errrrmmm apa ntah tajuknyer, tak ingat. Lagu Pelangi Petang pun ada! Waduh! Takde kaitan dengan majlis pun...hahaha......apa2 pun, bila cukup masanya, majlis pun tamat.....semua dah kenyang makan......padang pun bersepah dengan pinggan polisterin merata tempat.....kesian kat makcik2 cleaner esok nak mengemasnyer....selalunya macam tu la kat tempat aku ni.....time aktiviti2 macam ni....memang happening....pastu bersepah! Itulah dia masyarakat Malaysia.....hahahaha......

Cucur kodok......

Made these today using the ripe "pisang montel" (bananas) hehehe.......they were too ripe to eat raw....so I had to cook it.....didn't want to make banana pancakes/lempeng......prefer the cucur kodok better... :) It's so much cheaper making them myself.....buying them these days can be a bit costly..........5 pieces for RM1.00! God! Not enough to satisfy my hunger hahaha.......I can make more than 5 pieces with RM1.00 of bananas, that's for sure! Anyways, they taste better when you make them yourself.....coz they are made with LOVE hahahaha........ :D

What was I thinking!!!

I must admit......I've been inventing my own recipes like crazy lately...some turned out great and some not so great hahaha.....especially this one that I made today. WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!!! It was very close to HORRIBLE! After I finished it, I almost puked! :P Usually I would cook anything that was available in the fridge.....and today, the materials I had were limited and I had to finish the salads I had bought last Sunday. The Romaine salad was still in good condition since I wrapped it up nicely to protect it from being wilted. I was thinking of having the pasta with some eggs and salad....but since I had the eggs for breakfast already, I couldn't take anymore for lunch, yikes! So I was thinking of something else to replace the eggs.....so I thought perhaps sunflower seeds could substitute the eggs somehow....again....WHAT WAS I THINKING!!!! I toasted the seeds and added them in the cooked pasta which I had mixed with butter and black pepper.....then I added the chopped romaine salad in the bowl together with the pasta and toasted seeds. The first few spoonfuls were fine until suddenly it didn't feel so fine anymore.....maybe it felt fine in the beginning because I was so hungry at the time hahahaha! LOL! Although sunflower seeds are wonderful to munch on when toasted, but never ever will I mix them in this recipe again......Oh well.......... ;)

Mukhtar Mai.....

Mukhtar Mai.........today I learned about this courageous lady named Mukhtar Mai....I read an article about her in the Readers' Digest. She was brutally raped in her own village in Pakistan. What can I say.......it just breaks my heart after reading it....what happened to her is beyond my comprehension.... :( Where is the justice.......?

Designing a Diwali card....

My first Diwali card :)

The process..........

Today I tried my hand in designing a Deepavali or Diwali card.......first time in my life!! Didn't know what to do....what motif, what colour etc etc etc...........then it just hit me....Indian fabrics! Yup, I do love them a lot.....and I went to choose what colours of paper I had that would suit the sequins I plan on using to decorate the card with. I also decided to use the oil lamp as the main motif....it's very symbolic....thriumph of good over evil. For the oil lamp, I had to make my own template for it ....drew up a simple pattern of the oil lamp on a plastic sheet and cut out the pattern...pretty easy hehee...... For the light, I drew it freehand on the yellow paper, cut it up and paste it on top of the lamp.

Since I didn't make any wordings as part of the decoration on the front of the card, I decided to just put a small square tag inside that would match the square pattern on the front of the card that has the oil lamp in it. And I stamped the wordings..."Happy Diwali" using my old trusted small size alphabate rubber stamps....very simple huh? Yup....indeed it is.....nothing to it...hehehe....I must say, I'm pretty happy with how the card turned out in the end..... :)

Whole wheat pasta........

I'm loving this new pasta I bought recently......it's whole wheat fusili! So more fibre! :) I was really surprised by it's taste....and it doesn't take that long to boil it either....compared to the usual refined wheat pasta I have eaten before....which take much less time to boil it down. I'm ok with the taste probably because as I add in the sauce for the pasta, it will blend in together nicely and you won't feel much difference in the taste. But you would definitely feel much fuller after eating a bowl of it. The refined wheat pasta won't make you feel as full. So in other words, it saves you a lot of money hehehe! Because you need not have to eat that much. :) It doesn't really cost that much in comparison.....in fact the pricy ones in the stores are actually the ones that are organic type. Those are double the price of the usual amount we normally pay for a packet of pasta.

So I made this pasta dish today, using the whole wheat fusili.......with a sauce I created myself....it doesn't even have tomatoes in it.....just chopped up some celery and carrots as the main ingredients.....I made sure that it has extra gravy so that it won't be too dry when eaten with the pasta. Once in a while it's nice to change the recipes and try something new other than the usuals.... But I sure do think that if I were to add in some cheese on top of it, it would be extra delicious hehehe...... ;) Yum!

Benefits of eating Celery...

So....here are some facts about the benefits of eating celery which I found in the net....very interesting indeed. I eat celery a lot lately.....glad to know that is has a lot of good benefits to my health :)

According to Hippocrates (the father of medicine), celery calms the nerve – perhaps because of the high calcium content. It will reduce high blood pressure too. The super-food is filled with Vitamins A, B and C, as well as loads of potassium and good sodium. The vegetable is filled with sodium, however this is not table salt were talking about, the sodium rich veggie is essential for keep arteries and veins running smooth and limiting the chances of varicose veins.

It’s good on kidney and will help eliminate body’s waste through the urine.

Celery clears uric acid from painful joints and may help the treatment of arthritis and rheumatic problems. It is used in aromatherapy and other traditional way of healing like Ayurveda. In Japan, rheumatic patients are sometimes put on a celery only diet.

Celery also helps the kidney an acts an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant. Another benefit of celery is the fact that you can eat a lot of it without thinking much about your waistline. Celery actually has almost zero calorie.

So some celery a day may keep the doctor away! :)

Fried rice.......

This fried rice I made was not so bad ;p...........it had tones of onions and garlic, some chopped carrots and capsicum as the main ingredients.....I love those two vegies a lot.....they are good and good for you! Added eggs in it and that made the fried rice taste good....plus with the coriander leaves to garnish, you can never go wrong.....it tastes good with fried rice....in any fried rice for that matter :) Honestly! I think I will keep this recipe and make it again! :)

Making bracelets.....finally!

Oh yeaaaahhh........it does look like what you think it is.....a bunch of funny looking bracelets! hahaha! I just got myself a roll of stretchy strings from my craft store and started on making bracelets of my own. The first thing that comes to mind when starting to make the bracelets are.......which type of beads and what colour should I use....plus...will it match any of my blouses??? LOL! hehehe! So in other words, in the end all I could think about is whether or not it will match any of my blouses!! The reason is because if the bracelets don't look good enough, then I will be the one who has to wear them! hahaha! I can't be selling something that doesn't look good right?! So off I went to my "pathetic wardrobe" and checked out what colour beads I have that would match my blouses.....hmmmm let's see, I have Blue.....Black....White....Red......hmmmmm........and the list goes on and on.....by the time I'm through looking at my blouses, I got pretty dizzy hehehe.......I just can't seem to make up my mind what looks good on what....decisions, decisions!

Unfortunately, most of the beads I have available are seed beads :P....so I can't make any bracelets with those....especially not with the stretchy strings. So I tried it out using the medium sized beads that I have available in my collection....Sometimes something that seems so simple can be quite hard to do.....in my case that is. I'm probably the only one who thinks that this project is hard to do....LOL! It looks pretty easy to make, so how hard can it be right? Wrong! Just trying to tie up the string of beads was quite a challenge for me.....and to make knots look neat was another problem. But I tried my level best to do this project....and now I have a bunch of bracelets for me to wear! Ha!! Can't wait to try them on when I go out! hehehehe! :P

Potato and carrot soup.....

Aaaahhh....my lovely potato and carrot soup! :) Can eat it with rice......or can pour it on pieces of lettuce.....delicious :) Am trying to be at least 80% or 90% vegetarian....for health reasons....but it is hard to do.....if I could be even 50% vegetarian...it would be a miracle! hahaha! Well so far since the Eid I haven't touched any chicken or beef yet......have had a piece of fish the other day though and that was it. I do take eggs....so at least there's something from the animal that I am eating other than just vegetables these days hahaha! :P

Brisk walking.....

Today I went to the Permaisuri Lake Garden for some serious brisk walking.....with my aunt :). I have been meaning to do this activity for the longest time.....I did do it once before Ramadhan, also with my aunt.....and now after all the festivities, we are back on the track! :D The lake garden here is just so great.....it's a really huge place and with the big lake there, the air is so fresh in the morning. Just standing by the lake and take a deep breath in....eyes closed and just relax....so good!

We went brisk walking....up the hill, down the hill.....and walked and walked and walked...for 40 minutes. Then I felt like my legs were going to give way! hahaha! We decided to relax by the lake, and take a breather. I watched so many people walked by and see how others are doing their activities there......with the tai chi, aerobics (that was so funnnnnnyyyyyy!!!!), father and son playing the badminton....and so much more....oh ya I forgot to mention....there were some Chinese folks pulling out some grass off the ground, including it's roots! It seems like they were going to boil it later and consume it as a health drink or something. Not really sure what it's benefits are though. Should have stopped by and ask them....well, I would probably do that the next time I go there hehehe! There were also some people exercising in front of the trees and bushes.....I think I know why....to get the negative ions and energy from the trees....it's really good to do that.....but I am too afraid to do so, in case some snake or creepy animal suddenly jump on me if I get too close to the trees hahaha! Phobia! :D

It was great to finally be able to do some brisk walking there after all these years......I'm staying so nearby the lake garden and yet never got the chance to go there every weekend to relax and unwind....and of course exercise hehehe!

Ayat - Ayat Cinta.........

Last night I saw one of the few beautiful films I believe ever created...."Ayat-Ayat Cinta" which literally means "The Verses of Love". I was attracted to watch it after looking at the trailer on TV3...and also the beautiful song that was sung by the talented Indonesian singer Rossa. I have always loved her singing :). The film was based on a best selling novel written by Habiburrahman El Shirazy. Ayat-Ayat Cinta is a beautifully potrayed Islamic love story.....it is a tale of a virtuous Muslim protagonist who overcomes all obstacles of life maintaining pure ideals...

I actually cried watching this film.....hehehehe lol! How the story was told, the cinematography, art direction, the script .....was all so beautifully done.....can't help but love this film.....However, I don't think I will watch it again if they air it again on TV....one time is enough, because the ending of the story is very very sad......can't bear watching it again. But for those who have never watched it before, I would strongly recommend them watching it, definitely worth it!!! :)

http://www.ayatayatcintathemovie.com/

Pasembor.....out you go!

This picture was probably taken a few months ago......at the food court in Sogo......and probably the last time I ever had one of those delicious pasembor. I just love it.....but sadly to say, I will never be able to eat it again sob....sob......this and perhaps many more dishes that I won't be able to eat anymore......not to mention the drinks too! Coffee, tea and etc etc etc......arrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!! All this pantang larang due to my health problems....I gotta get serious about it and start thinking of new recipes, new delicious salad or fruit salad to eat.....and take more and more plain water everyday. Gosh, just saying it seems so easy....but actually doing it can sometimes be like "Fear factor"!!!! Hahahaha! Sometimes the things that I should eat just doesn't seem tasty enough for me to swallow. Oh help!! Gulp!

Years ago when I was living in Alor Setar I was able to do it somehow......then when I came to KL, somehow I couldn't be as strict or as disciplined as before. I know what I have to do....it's just that it is so difficult to actually follow the correct or shall I say healthy eating habits. I have from time to time managed to cut off certain foods that was harming me.....but there are plenty more in the list that needs to be eliminated. Hopefully by end of this year I will be strong enough to let go off all of it! Chaiyo! Chaiyo! :)

Pasta dish.......

This is a pasta dish that I made today....which I have grown to love for the past few weeks now....it's a simple vegetarian pasta dish comprising of tomatoes, parsley, herbs, garlic, salt and pepper.....that's it. It's just so simple to make....like a 30 minute dish. I just don't have the time or energy to cook up something that will take more time than that these days. I got inspired to actually do pasta dishes from the most wonderful lady on TV......Rachael Ray!!! I just love her to bits! Her cooking methods are so easy to follow and we can improvise.....whatever suits our taste. She just makes every recipe seem so easy to do and fun! She's just so full of energy and bubbly....makes me happy just watching her show every morning from Monday till Friday. LOL!

Here is the link to her website www.rachaelray.com

You could watch the videos of her in the kitchen....with her guests on the show.....get some great tips.....and recipes too! It's just so much fun :) Her studio is so colourful and cheerful too. The colours of orange and green reminds me of the celery sticks and carrots hehehe......even her kitchen utensils are colourful! She somehow makes cooking fun to do especially when you have all the fun stuff around. :) Oh well, I just make do with what I have available at home and use my imagination! LOL!

Natural remedies.....

I decided to create another blog today......as if I have so much time in my hands that I needed to have another one hehehe........but, honestly I had thought about it for the longest time and I wanted to have this blog so that I could share the other things that I do other than making cards or bead work for that matter. It could be anything....does not necessarily have anything to do with craft or art.....just anything that I do with my precious time....in this precious world of mine.

So for the first post on this blog....I want to blog about what I am so into these days. It has something to do with health. I am so into natural healing...natural remedies....I wanted to find ways to heal any health problem that I have using the natural way. Probably because I got kinda fed up with the conventional way of curing. We go the doctor, he or she would prescribe to us the medication needed....we go home and take the pills accordingly. Sometimes it works....sometimes it doesn't and therefore we go again for another visit. But if we know how to heal some of the simple health issues ourselves, we could help save our kidneys....and also some money... :) I do believe that we must know how to care for our body and mind too. These things are important for us to know....we should make it a point to learn them. Find out what works for us, what makes us look good, feel good and happy. If I knew all the things that I know now when I was younger, probably I wouldn't have so much of health problems now. But of course, I believe that it is never too late to start living right. Our body can heal itself, given the right nutrients and proper exercise....plus the positive thinking. Take out all the negative thoughts out of our heads and hearts. And God willing things will turn out right in the end.

Here are some of the websites that I have been visiting and getting much benefit from lately. Do check them out if you are interested in natural remedies.....

http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com/

http://organicpassion.info/about/