The crying birthday girl
My 4th daughter, Syafiqah, enrolled in a kindy for the first time this year. She's 4. On the first day of school, I took leave from work and sent her to school. I was quite confident that she would be ok since we have been sending her to nursery all this while. And she was ok. She obediently followed her teacher inside. I remained outside the gate while she went to her class which is located on the upper storey of the kindy.

Seeing she was ok, I went back home and went to the school again before school ended. We have arranged for her to go back by bus and I just wanted to make sure she got into the (correct) bus safely. But I don't have to worry about her getting into the wrong bus since the school has their system to avoid that. So, there I was, outside the school's compound, trying not to be seen by her and at the same time observed her getting out from school.

Muka macam nak nangis. I can see that she was looking for me.


2nd day of school, I was back at work. Hubby reported that Syafiqah cried when he sent her to school.

3rd day of school, it was her birthday. I didn't apply for leave from work but I felt pity for her thus I sent her to school and, again, she cried. She refused to go inside unless I followed her. When I tried to sneak out, she started crying. Thus I stayed with her and celebrated her birthday there. I have already bought a cake to be shared with her friends at school and prepared food packs for the kids.

I got her a nice angry bird cake.

Despite the lovely cake and me being there, she looked so distressed and unhappy. What a traumatic experience for her, I suppose.




The teachers and the 4-year-olds singing the birthday song.

Blowing the candles. I think the kid who sat in front beat her to it.

The principal, Mrs Sheila, cutting the cake. 

Comot masing-masing. Ada yang kena baju. Sure the moms bising bila tengok baju anak2 kena kek... Mujur it was a Friday so school uniforms dah memang kena basuh.  Quoting Breeze tagline, 'Biar terkena kotoran, demi pengalaman'. He he... Peace moms!

After staying with her in school and making sure she got back to the nursery, then only I went to work. Phew....

Later, we celebrated her birthday and the birthday of Syahirah aka Angah at home. They share the same birth date.

I got another angry bird cake for Syafiqah


and a Spongebob cake for Syahirah. She's 10 and is catching up with me in terms of height (and waistline too...).

Throughout the weekend, I slow-talked with Syafiqah and made her promise not to cry again at school, and that I will buy her toy if she don't cry. Monday came, and the drama started again. Isk..isk..isk...

Anyhow, I'm proud to announce that now she goes to school tear-free and is so excited in her showing her artwork from school. Alhamdulillah. And yes, I kept my promise and got her the fishing toy that she wanted. Let's just pray that I don't have to write a sequel to this story next year.:)
The Alexis experience
RCK strikes again last month. This time, the rendezvous was at Alexis, GE Mall. It has been quite a while since our last meet and it was timely indeed to have another lunch date. Besides, Linda Omar, who resides in UK, was back in town for a while.

Us... Sitting from left: Zaira, Mas, Hemy (yg bukak kasut tu....), Sheila and Linda. Standing: Yus and yours truly.


The food.

Appetiser. Deep fried school prawns. Macam rupa udang geragau pun ada jugak...


I had carbonara.


And cranberry soda. Macam secoet je dia punya cranberry...


Yus had seafood spaghetti.


Mas had pizza.

Sheila had the lamb dish.


Hemy ordered garlic bread and button mushroom. Seddapp... Tak tau berapa banyak Hemy dapat makan sebab jari-jari yang lain pun tumpang sama.


I think that's why Hemy also ordered lasagna. Dia dah tau kawan2 dia macam mana. But again, looking at the portion size of this dish, tak tau Hemy kenyang ke tak.


Zaira yang slim melim itu had Caesar's salad and her daughter had Laksa Sarawak, no vege. Hmm...mcm familiar je script no vege tu...:)


Linda had Tumeric Rice.


Can guess la kan which ones lidah melayu yang dah jemu makan nasi and which one lidah melayu yang rindu nasi. :)

And of course, we had mouth-watering desserts.

Pavlova. 


Blueberry cheese cake.


Chocolate mousse.


And apa ke nama ni ntah... lemon meringue pie?? 


Sensational lunch definitely, and ber'sen-sen' la jugak bil dia. Masing-masing hulur duit and we ended up having extra money which everyone refused to take back. Thus, tabung RCK is launched for future RCKs... Oh btw, RCK stands for Rombongan Cik Kiah. But Alexis kot... Cik Kiah kena upgrade sikit and tukar nama jadi Miss Kay...;)
Masterchef Malaysia?
This is a recipe sharing entry again. While I'm at it, I'm sharing 2 recipes in this entry. Bread pudding and steamed moist choc cake. I got the recipes from the net.

Recipe 1: Bread pudding

6-7 pieces of bread
Butter
650 ml fresh milk/evaporated milk
3 eggs
Sugar (agak-agak dalam 6-7 sudu)
1 table spoon of vanilla essence

Pre heat the oven (170 degree Celsius).
Prep the baking tin. Spread butter evenly on the bottom and the sides of the baking tin.
Spread butter on the bread. Cut each bread into 4 pieces.
Placed the cut bread into the baking tin.
In another container, beat sugar and egg until the sugar is dissolved. Add in milk and vanilla essence.
Pour the milk mixture on top of bread.
Put aside to allow the bread to absorb the milk mixture.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Vanilla sauce (to go along with the bread pudding)
300 ml evaporated milk
8-10 table spoons of sugar (ikut sesedap rasa)
Corn flour (pre-mixed with water)
2 egg yolks (placed in a separate bowl)
Vanilla essence

Simmer milk and sugar in a pot.
Add in corn flour (letak sikit je, if not, pekat sangat)
Scoop a ladle full of the milk mixture and add into the bowl containing the egg yolks. Mix thoroughly.
Pour the egg yolks mixture into the pot. Add in vanilla essence and mix.
The mixture is prone to lumpiness so for better results, sift the mixture.

Sorry, no pic. I remembered taking a pic of the bread pudding but that was aeons ago. Now could not find the pic. I may have accidentally deleted the pic.

Recipe 2: Steamed moist chocolate cake

250 gm butter
1 cup castor sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1 cup warm fresh milk
1 1/4 cup self-raising flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder

Grease a baking tin with butter and flour.
Heat steamer on a stove.
Sift flour with cocoa powder.
Beat butter with castor sugar and brown sugar until fluffy.
Add in vanilla essence and mix.
Add in eggs one at a time and mix again.
Add in milk and flour alternately and mix thoroughly.
Pir the batter into the baking tin and cover with aluminium foil.
Steam for 1 1/2 hours.
Once cooked, let it cool on a plate before decorating it with chocolate ganache.

How to make chocolate ganache:
150 gm cooking chocolate
1 table spoon condensed milk
1/4 cup hot water
1 table spoon butter

Cut the cooking chocolate into small pieces and put them into a bowl together with condensed milk and war water. Heat the mixture the double boiler way. Turn off the stove and add in butter. Stir until the butter melt.. Pour the chocolate mixture onto the cake and decorate ikut kreativiti masing-masing.

This is the outcome. Very the comots.


I had enough batter to make these too.

Sedap kalau dah disejukkan dalam peti ais.

The bread pudding is my eldest's favorite. Once, while having the bread pudding, she mentioned, 'Kenapa mak tak masuk Masterchef Malaysia? Kalau masuk, mesti menang.' Ha ha... first round pun tak lepas kot. Anyhow, to be the Masterchef for my kids is good enough for me. :)