b3 b0rn.. c0nf0rm, b3 si|3nt .. di3

i’ve been receiving tonnes of junk email – that comes with the territory of having multiple work and personal email address. at work, i have 2 (one – my own company email, second – my client company email). personal?

lemme how many email accounts – hotmail (defunct), yahoo (used to be rocketmail), gmail, own (faramir.net), celcom.net.my, streamyx (never used), maxis.net.my (defunct too) – talk about baggage.. people hv emotional baggage.. i have internet baggage.

anywho, back to the point of this entry. so one of the more welcome junk emails are from the ppl who gives you servings of ‘Chicken Soup for The Soul’. not only do they provide the inspiring/touching/touchy-feely stories about humankind (and animalkind sometimes..) – they’ve also provided me with additional mailers containing recipes. some interesting, some definitely no-no (contain liqour or porcine)

me.. being a wannabe wife.. blom ada own house cannot just cook whatever i like la kan.. so i keep archiving those i deem worthy of me trying. but then, i’m losing all those emails in the ever-growing archive file.

so i hv decided to place them in my blog – under it’s own category. for future references, of course!

my future home gonna be so unwired technologically that i’d be able to just call up this blog from me own kitchen as reference for whipping up meals for the family.. howszat for ur mummy of tomorrow?

so gonna start of with a chicken recipe.

me other plan is – once i do get around to actually trying these out – i’d update it with prolly photos & review on the outcome. if it sucks – it may be more likely due to my haplessness in the kitchen and not the recipe itself. but practise makes perfect aye?

just hope i don’t accidently give amir & kya food poisoning

of books
went to kinokuniya yesterday. had a list of 6 books that i planned to flip thru b4 deciding whether or not i would buy. one of them i struck out of my list after reading the first chapter.

tried searching for the rest using the kino navi but it is so darned annoying hving to use that touchscreen of theirs – so i gave up after using it to search for 2 titles.

ended up leaving the store with 3 books (only one of ‘em was in my original list) and this photo. i saw the cover and wandered ‘what de heck??‘. it looked familiar – then it hit me – dan brown’s angels and demons – translated to malay. very funny la the title. as it was placed near the payment counter and i’d already paid for my purchases when i noticed the cover – went back in line just so that i could get the shot

of food

this, my friends, is what my parents called my ‘sambal tipu’. why sambal tipu? coz i cheat a bit when i prepare it. but hey, maggi even made a commercial of the method i used in enhancing the flavor (“takde ni, tak sedap mak”)

recipe:
a.shallots
b.garlic
c.belacan (whaddya call ‘em in engrish aaa..? i forgot)
d. chilli paste
e. sugar/salt
f. tamarind juice
g. anchovies (of course!) – make sure these are fried until crunchy
h. maggi (or knorrs’ .. whichever rocks ur boat) chicken stock cube/granules
i. onions (sliced & diced)

how to:
1. pound a + b + c until all mushy (the proportions i let u figure out for urself)
2. heat up some oil in ur trusty wok and saute the mushy lot until fragrant
3. put in the chilli paste – make sure the whole lot is cooked well (it should turn into a darker shade of red – be careful not to leave it too long until it’s burnt)
4. sprinkle a bit of the chicken stock at this point (this is the part that my parents claim as cheating)
5. then put in a pinch of salt and also a dash of sugar (in my family’s case – it’s more than a dash – 1-2 tbspful is normal – jawa you know)
6. add some tamarind juice to the whole mixture to taste (or u can substitute with apple cider vinegar – i had to once.. ran out of tamarind)
7. finally mix in the fried anchovies + sliced & diced onions. (prolly onions first)

and walla!! u’ve got the sambal tipu. i dun mind the name – amir likes it enough. the rest of family too. dunno though whether my liberal use of chicken stock would result in us growing larger boobs (due to the hormones injected to the chickens that is)

those who have lived with me know that i could do without having rice as part of my daily staple. i can survive on bread, fish fingers, cereals, salami, honey, dairy (butter, milk and cheese) and peanut butter (not in any particular order). breakfast can be toast with butter and honey AND peanut butter. lunch can be salami slapped between toast – don’t forget the cheese – and grill this. dinner.. can be toast again. or salami toast. or cereals. whichever.

but since i bunk with my family, of course we have to have rice on our menu. i normally don’t cook. that’s mama’s absolute zone ehehehe.. i ‘help’ out sometimes. but on weekends, especially when mama and papa attend wedding invitations, head for that quick trip back to tg malim or just visiting relatives and my clan don’t tag along, i will end up having to cook.

today’s one of those days.

thank god mama has decided on the menu. i just execute

now i understand why ayu would sometimes end up with a bad mood if my brothers don’t help looking out for their nephews – adam and haikal. children will almost always call for you when you’re in the midst of a task. but when you’re just sitting around doing nuthin, they can usually fend for themselves and play with their toys.

kya knocked on the kitchen door – it’s closed since the menu involves a lot of frying and chillies – at least 5 times throughout my tenure as the resident chef. andy’s supposed to entertain her as per my instruction but of course he had to be in front of the pc playing ragnarok.

‘mamaaaa….‘ knock knockk ‘mamaaaaaa.. intuu ‘kakk..’kakkk intuuu ‘ and then she’ll start shrieking coz andy tries to pick her up from near the door and i’ll end up having to stop and try and figure out what she wants.

thus a 1 hr session turned into a two hour cooking spree.

kya’s finally asleep. amir is also asleep. andy’s infront of the pc, still. and i came across this while prowling the web before taking a shower (need to get the smell of cooking offa me)

interesting things you can find, if you prowl often enough.

okay. off to my shower.

it’s a public holiday smack in the middle of a work week. yippie!

and i woke up at 5.40am. when on a working day, i’d be damned if i could wake up earlier than 6.40am!

my body clock have gone haywire. must be due to all those unnecessary late nights during my uni and unemployement days.

kya still asleep. amir at work. rest of the family have only started to stir. heard the front door being unlocked – prolly papa checking out his beloved morris mini (or is it minor?). it has been a thorn in mama and ayu’s side since forever. ayu – due to the embarrassment she had to endure picking up the exhaust pipe that suddenly decided to detach itself from the rest of the car, mama – due to the seemingly wasted good amount of money papa insists on spending on either repairing, touching up, renewing coverage / roadtax for the lil green/blue car that don’t go nowhere.

me? i’ve used that old heap of junk for at least 1 year. papa, after i got engaged, ceremoniously handed me the keys to the mini for my use after having to observe me riding pillion on amir’s bike. aiyaya.. i’ve even managed to get my shoes mangled in the back wheel of the bike. me legs like to go a-swinging while riding – i sing when i ride pillion. go figure.

spent at least RM 1,500 on repairs as it was about to fall apart when i was awarded use of it. handed it back to papa when i got married and got me own set of wheels. and it’s been sitting around, occupying various parking spots within the compound and opposite of our house for the past 3 yrs. no wonder mama’s so miffed about the car.

oi. need to get me some breakfast. will post later. if ever.