Slow Cooker AND pressure cooker!!

Go on- roll your eyes everybody! LOL!
OK - yesterday I spent the WHOLE afternoon - looking and 'belekking' the stocktake sale home appliances section.. in three super/hypermarkets. I have come to a conclusion that you can't really compare slow cooker vs pressure cooker. So I am going to get both!
{there's a word for this desease I heard you say?}
Slow cooker - I can cook all night long [when the power-rate is cheaper] and binggo - the meat can fall off the bones one!
Pressure cooker --- (i) because it is on sale (so is slow cooker BTW!) (ii) because Lydia, Shireen, Hafizah, etc etc has it (iii) Meat can fall off the bones too!

I must throw away my breadmaker - to make room for the slow cooker. Still good as new. Can probably sell it at flea market [sections on local newspaper]

Hopefully today I can go out earlier to grab - one of these. One by one because I am on scooter!

There's no cure for these 'desease'.. except for 'retail therapy' wakakakaakakaka

Slow Cooker

I am wondering if any of you my readers have slow cooker? I kind of like the idea that you put everything in the morning - and by the time you come home - it's ready!

Should I invest in the slow cooker? I don't want it to turn out like my other gadgets.. like breadmaker {this is Hisham's fault} , pie maker (how much pie can one handle?) although I still use my George Foreman Grill (yeah once in the blue moon - or shall I say red storm!) LOL

Guess what these are?!

Living in a 'foreign' land, My diet changed a bit. I still eat malaysian food but have to improvised with the ingredients.

"Australia is the most multi-cultural country on earth". True ... if you are on the mainland 'and' in one of those "big smokes". Not so true for us 'Taswegians' - This is the only 'foreign' land that I've been to and can't find 'chinatown'?! What do you mean NO chinatown?!

If I find something remotely resembles what I had in Malaysia (or Indonesia) I get excited easily. The problem is - only ME get the excitement.. GRRR

I found this little gems called okra (frozen) in the Asian Product shop. In Malaysia - my mum cooks fish curry probably on every other day. The favourite veges to go with her fish curry is 'ladies finger' (or bendi or 'okra') This okra probably originated from middle east. Not the same as the 'ladies finger' that I was used to, which look more like these:

-pic published without permission-

Nevertheless - tastes the same. So I was so excited to put them in my fish curry! Also that day I made some 'sambal belacan'.. Fish curry and 'sambal belacan' are match made in heaven.

But my kids just picked them out - hence they are on the table! UWAAAAAAAAAAAA....

Arty farty kids

"River down through forest". I thought it was good effort!

Aminah had this idea of c reating art work using dried leaves - to be used in her job (as interpretation ranger).

Kids enjoyed helping her out. The art work not only confined to a piece of cardboard - it went to their faces, shirts and trousers too!

Malam Raya - The night of Eid

All the time I was thinking : "accidents" waiting to happen!

who's gonna get singed first?!

Itsy bitsy kerosene lamps from Auntie Jijan (Thanks Jijan)

- Accident-free but mummy was totally 'kaputed' after the event.

Low key Eid

Saturday afternoon, at sunset we drove down the road Longford way, about 10 or 15 minutes to find a perfect place to look for the crescent. Hisham's moonphase software says visibility about half a percent and we had about 40 minutes gap between sunset and moonset. Waited anxiously because I really want to see this new moon to just have the same 'Raya' with fellas in Malaysia.

But... no - we couldn't see it. too low and too small. Although we knew it was there - but we just couldn't see it. So it's Monday for us. So it is a bit of anti-climax for me. But I want my kids to sort of know this occasion. They couldn't care less about new clothing. I bought them earlier on and it's already worn! The night of Eid we had some sparklers for kids, even then it was an anxious event for me. Don't touch! Don't stay close! Be careful! Arrgh! I tell you - by the end of the two packs I bought... I was exhausted! But kids had fun offcourse... little buggers.

I thought this Raya, let's just go out and have a meal outside... Hisham sort of suggested to keep Aladdin off school for Eid... naaaah. I made some biscuits so that Aladdin can take it to school to share them with his friends..He didn't want to take them. The highlight was really celebrating Aladdin's first successful Ramadhaan. He fasted almost the whole month. So we decided to reward him - with whatelse?????
TOYS
aarrghhhh.... I wish he has more passion on other things..

looking at Myers catalogue for kids... they were choosing their toys.. I thought OKAY.. toys but choose a more educational ones... LEGO... warning to other parents.. they ain't cheap!
...but promise is promise... I kinda talked him into not choosing expensive ones.. one with three numbers I said.. So last night was spent figuring out how to put things together and the whole family was involved. Offcourse O had to drop his parts all over the floor and lost some of them!
---aarrgh
photos later.

Sneak peek of the Squares

This was one of my earlier projects - Still not finish! The idea is to have simple design - squares and rectangles but use multi bright colours. My inner square is 4x4 inches with 1 inch border. At first, the rules was the combinations must be unique - no two squares + borders are the same - but towards the end, I don't worry so much about unique squares. I have finished all those squares - 144 squares! + 576 rectangles! It was FUN I can tell you... At one one stage, Hisham banned me from touching my Janome - because once I get going, I just couldn't stop. Addictive I tell ya!
I have joined 1 big row {with backing and wadding) I thought this quilt will look nice on the sofa - sort of compliment the coloured window. I finished the backing as well - so this is going to be double sided quilt. Backing with cotton poplin with frangipani and leopard design. It is nice.
So the 4 squares are joined together, then joined again with 4 of the same. I call this a 'panel' - so one panel has 16 squares, I then quilt them (just straight diagonal lines. Then I joined the panels together with the 'cheetah' fabrics.

I am still not sure about the borders - I know it will be simple since I can't wait to finish this colorful quilt. It makes the room more cheerie don't you think?

Bahang Raya Sudah Terasa

To my non-malay readers, I translate the topic as "The heat of Eid is felt" (bad translation-heheeh)

I can imagine the scenes in Malaysia and Indonesia, the city folks starting to scarper outwards to their respective hometowns. Mayhem on highways. The hard core city folks will enjoy calm traffics for days to come. Everybody is tired and excited at the same time. Most people are ready with their new clothes and $$$ and biscuits and cookies and menus.

It is all very very festive ambience. I have to admit - I do miss celebrating Eid (or Raya) with families and friends in Malaysia.

My Raya in Tassie has been a low key events. I wanted to make the raya as festive as I can for my kids but normally my energy somehow depleted and my "couldn't-be-bothered" attitude reigned. As much as I miss the chaotic exited energized overwhelming overflowing food and beverages of the festive time, I do appreciate my quiet Eid... hehehehehe

SELAMAT HARI RAYA to EVERYBODY

Some consideration when choosing quilting as hobby

I have always wanted to do quilting. I sort of know it cost a lot but I don't know how much is a lot. Seriously it is made from 'reja' , so it can't be that much... (WRONG!)

But as a hobby you can make it 'cheap'. Having said that, a lot of nice intricate work... you would want to start it of with good quality materials in the first place anyway.

Another aspect of it all is TIME. How would you put a price on time?

This is one of the quilts I saw at the show. At a glance - it looked like a difficult quilt. It is not. Time consuming surely. The choice of color are brilliant (I think).
The size is about 80 by 70 inches [I found that they don't use metric system in quilting]

.. but fabrics can be puchased in metric and offcourse 'fat quarters'.

Here, good quilting fabrics are about $24 a meter (average). At Spotlight (hypermarket that sells fabrics), I can get $15 and below. Best time was $2 a meter sale (very seldom). BUT I can't really choose my color with that price. I just bought what I can and then think of a project.
So I maybe could make the top part of a quilt for less than $20...

A proper quilt has three layers : top, wadding and backing. wadding and backing between $10 to $30 a meter. You would need about 2-3 meters depending on your quilt size.
These 3 layers are then 'quilted' together. This is the actual 'quilting' in quilts.
Most 'quilter' just do the piecing and have their pieced top professionally quilted.

Profesional Quilter - they use long arm machine normally charges between $3 a square foot.

Roughly - It will cost about $200 for Queen size ($150-$200) - depending on how intricate you want it quilted. This part that I haven't mastered. I can't quilt for peanuts. I just sew straight lines [my straight lines not even straight]

It's OK because my kids don't really care about those lines. All they care about is the picture.

Not many people prepared to sell their quilts but you can still buy them if you have a lot of money. I am talking AUD$500 to AUD$1000 - simple ones.
So how much in RM??? for quilts??? - I don't think so!

I saw a lot of quilts from china recently. They are about $70-$200 (AUD). I thought they wasn't bad but I haven't bought any (yet) ---- still thinking.....

Before I was involve in quilting, I went to this one quilt shop, there were a lot of nice quilts on displays, I asked "How much are the quilts?". The looked at me and said they were not for sale - The way she looked at me was enough to make me scurried off from her shop! Two years later I did a class with the same woman (luckily she didn't remember me and my 'innocent' question)

I rephrased my question to her (well she has hundreds of them - surely she wouldn't miss one) : I asked her if she would be prepared to sell any of her quilts. She said she would probably sell her ugly ones for about $500-$600.

Driveway

Hisham got a truckload of gravel last week. No more muddy driveway (for now anyway).

-$340! (auccch!)

Next big project is to put shade all over the back of the house. UV in Tasmania is extreme in summer months.

* Australia has one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world

* 10 times more than Americans

My humble ones

After I finished my pink quilt (the learning one) I made this zebra one for Orion. Hisham got the zebra panel from the market and I got that orange and green (from Intang's suggestion) and made his. It was without any design, I just add on as I went. Turned out good. I love the zebra pattern as the border. For backing I use fleecy material. (no wadding and backing- just straight on to fleece). Fleece is cheapest for me, easier - two layers instead of traditional 3 layers (top+wadding+backing) - I just quilt straight lines - free hand. so it is not the squarest quilt ever.

This safari one was chosen by Aladdin. Already has a nice border around it.

So I just incorporated it with my 'safari colour' just simple rectangles and triangles. Not my best work as you can see

lots of puckering at the back. So was O's. Fleecy materials are light and they wash well! warm and cosy too!

This is the back of 'quilt-as-you-go' technique quilt. I like this quilt. big - easy and effective. Looks a bit like 'islamic' design said Hisham. Backing - same fleecy material - but I quilt one block by one block then joined them with the new trick Mel taught me (she was the one who suggested fleece as backing - she is very clever)

This is the front side. Quite a big quilt. I share this quilt with Rohan. No borders as you can see. I just bind it straight away. I think it will look better with borders.

So this 3 quilts plus one for Joan - and one my pink one.

5 finished quilts - in less than 1 year! Although workmanship was (probably still is) very bad- I am happy with them.

My block of the month (expensive one dahling) is close to finish. I've done all the 12 blocks - now a matter of putting them together, borders and bind.

The question is - should I go with fleece again - or have it quilted - professionally ($$$$$$) It is an expensive hobby!

Selection of colours matters

All same patterns! I noticed that the quilt looks a LOT different from real ones and on photos. How odd?

My fav. one in these (live) was in the last picture, that red, black and white. On photo that same one is my least fav. Weird eh?

Similar but not the same

These two are from the same design. But I like the black/yellow colour scheme. And if you guys can recall the quilt I made for Joan, (green and brown, below) actually using the same technique but different arrangement. I think I want to make one like this black and yellowish..... when? In the fullness of time! wakakaaka

Hisham's fav at the quilt show

me? i don't have any fav. I love them all.

Quilt Show

Quilt Show on Saturday - Was a family event (although I didn't want it to be). Kids enjoyed some of it. I can see people wearing the white gloves got very tensed whilst my kids running around - I can't have a good time worrying they going to touch those quilts. Aladdin can understand but Rohan and Orion has memory like a fruit flies. No no don't touch ! exactly 1 second later - touch!

hiyaaaaaaa

Hisham saw some quickly and took the children with him and they waited for me in the car while mummy then took her own sweetest time - drooling over those quilts.

I want to take more pictures but after a while I would rather enjoy the quilt without having to worry if I have enough light or when these people going to move so that I get better shots!

Here are some of kids favorites

Tumpi

Project last weekend. I used:

1 kilo rice flour

1 table spoon coriander powder

2-3 table spoon cumin, aniseed - whole mixed with coarsely ground

1 can of light coconut milk + water

mung beans - soaked 3 hours

salt to taste

Verdict : Not that good. The first few batches were OK - but then I thought they are quite thick, added some more water - hancus! middle still chewy whilst too 'garing' around the edge.

I had to put them in the oven to dry roast - it helped but still not 100% good.

Orion loves it - But the mung beans could used with longer soaking. Rohan also likes it

Both of them have green poo poo now!

Aladdin are still fasting and after iftar my 'tumpi' is last on his list - maybe not even on his list.

I still want to try rempeyek (or is it tempeyek)?

Other comments:

1 packet of 500 gms rice flour yield a lot of tumpi - About one 10 L container.

Takes a looooooooooooooooooong time to finish that batter! aaargh!

Chicken Salad

One of Iftar's menu last week.

I used:

1. Smoked chiken breast - thinly sliced

2. Avocado - in chunks

3. Semi dried tomatoes

4. Micro salad mixed (that green stuffs - some sprouts mixed)

5. Cucumber

6. Coarsely ground pepper

7. Spanish Onion

8. Spring Onion

...'entah apa lagi'

Dressed with Dijonaise.

Yummo. But heavy gila!