Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Biskut Raya

Finding time to bake is hard but I just got to do it.

On saturday while hubby went out for a few hours with Adel and Bea3, Bea1 and Bea2 played by themselves (after being convinced that they could help later) and Atef not asleep but just behaved very well, I managed to make around 280 pieces of almond london. Thanks to the experience of helping mom with her buah melaka or onde-onde every Ramadhan when I was little;). I can't believe how fast I was.

I let the the girls help with the sprinkles the next day. I had to put up with some chaos as the big boy also wanted to be part of it.

Ours are in pink paper cups, and decorated with white, pink and red sugar instead of almond nips and don't look really neat;).


I hate peeling pineapples and everything about making jam but since the tart is just popular, I forced myself to peel 3. Such a boring thing to do.

Only managed to do around 70 pieces. We went to my brother's place on Sunday for buka puasa and half of them gone. The rest would only last till tomorrow, I believe. I still have jam for about 150 more. Will do it soon.

I hope to make something that involves sprinkles again, just for the girls hopefully on Friday;). Thought of snapping a few pics of the girls doing it on Sunday but I was just too lazy. Anyway we caught someone sleeping on his job!

For that, sentimental mama must run to get the camera while praying dearest son would not fall off the chair. Think my boy just had chocolate overdose;).

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

More on hospital stay and some shortbread

Actually I'm still shocked by the action of some people protesting over something by kicking some poor animal's head. That's the reason for the delay in updating, seriously. It killed my mood right away, wish I could share what I really feel about it, but I could get carried away, I might speculate things, I might need more time to do research before I write something that I would regret later.

Anyway, I have decided that this humble blog was created just to share anything about parenting a bunch of kids;).

So let's move on...

Two cots and a bed in a two-bedded room. We had to squeeze in a single-bedded room for the first night before it is available.


They don't really look sick, do they?

Presentation of food is very good but the taste...well what can I say about hospital food.

Of course kids easily get bored. Adel would ask me or hubby to follow him around, to walk around the ward about 5634 times a day!
Bea1 found the CCTV and figured out how it works. She figured out the locations of the camera and took turns with Bea3 to do some 'performances'. One danced and sang, they other watched "rolls eyes".



Time for the medicine. Adel was fine with the drips but hated the neb, and it is the other way round with the girls.


The medicine, antibiotic, prebiotic that they had to continue taking at home....I got overwhelmed by the amount

... hubby created the schedule and pasted it on the fridge, so that no one got confused.


We had another check-up yesterday. Bea1 is officially asthmatic. So we need to watch out a bit. Luckily doc said we don't have to ban any food, just be careful when she shows any sign of allergy. She has to use the inhaler for 3 and is taking Singulair for 2 months respectively. She has stopped sneezing in the morning now, I have no idea how long it will last. She did fasting well on the first 3 days, stopped due to the hospitalisation and today she said she wanted to continue on Friday since she has finished some of the medicine. Awwww...my girl just knows how to melt my heart.

Anyway, my dad, a sister and a brother are astmatic. My sister-in-law just told me, one of my nieces also is. So, we are one big happy asthmatic family;).

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I move on to another topic now;).

I was hoping to embark on kuih raya project with the girls during the school holiday but due tothe hospitalisation, it had to be postponed. But they begged me to do something. So Idecided on something very simple, a shortbread recipe with only butter, brown sugar and flour. To get a good result, I believe the butter must be good.

I would like to share with you what I think is the best now:

Been using in for a few months now. It is American, it comes in 4 sticks and handy if you always follow American measurement. It is RM9.99 for about 450 g and that's not expensive compared to the other imported ones. I just read that American butter is graded such as AA, A, B...and so on. AA is the best and I'm glad that my judgement is right!

Anyway, for the shorbread recipe I added some rice flour to get crispier texture and salt (as my butter is unsalted). Since I have girls helping out, they must put some colours on it.

Simple but my girls prefer it over the famous ole Danish cookies;), I mean those sold in the round tin.

Now kids are up, running and kicking, I really must find the time for serious biskut raya baking.

Oops...I have forgotten to wish my wonderful beautiful Muslim readers. Ramadhan Kareem to all, let's make it better than the previous ones.