Thursday, September 29, 2011

It's Your Graduation

“Mama, my graduation is on now, it will be for two days, and I don’t know who to invite”. My medic princess wrote. It is sad because rightfully hubby and I should be there to cheer her on, to celebrate this big day of her life, this day when the title Dr. will be written on a scroll for her. After all she had run more than just a marathon, she had jumped more hurdles than I could have anticipated, she had been haunted by crazy piers and supposedly model superiors, and she only deserves the best on her graduation.

I called her and we spoke at length, we laughed, we teased each other and I gave her my recommendation of the invitees. I also told her on the dos and don’ts for graduation day celebration; I am against bouquets and bears, and over dressing, as I have seen some people attending graduation dressed liked a bride and being buried with bouquets that had more colored wrappers than flowers. I told her to stand tall to her profession and be elegant like her mama always (he he he, I always think that I am, but who else will think of you as elegant if not you yourself right?).

I was very happy that we had the mother and daughter talk in preparation for her big day. I miss her so so much and love her nuts, I could not be more proud of her. She wanted to stay in a five star hotel, spoil herself in hours of spa, and just chill till her heart content. You go girl, just do what you want for the celebration, I will be holding you in my heart and praying for you all the happiness be bestowed.

I am sorry again that I will not be there to see you walk on that stage, smiling as you receive your scroll, but I will fly some balloons and tell the world that my daughter is out there and ready to serve the nation, and she has made me one VERY proud mama.

I love you Alia.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Intrusive

I feel that dreams are very intrusive of anyone’s sleep. It is especially so, if you remember going to sleep with a very nice foot massage and crime investigation on TV, while the rest of the house was pitch dark. While you are in your slumber, your mind goes wondering or some say your soul, and along the way of that movement a track of events were created.

Suddenly you wake up, sometimes in anger, sometimes your eyes wet in tears, sometimes you were laughing and sometimes you were mumbling things that does not make sense at all. And you open your eye, as much as you try to force yourself to sleep immediately, it will not happen. You were curious to put all the puzzles of that particular dream together, you try to remember everything, every places that was there, every faces that you saw and most of all what the dream was all about.

And you stay wondering for a moment longer in the darkness wondering again and again, and squeezing every inch of your brain to back track the dream, trying to analyze the meaning or message of that dream. You get more frustrated not knowing whether to believe in your dream or to just let it go.

Today I had a dream, it was a choice of a piece of diamond and an opal…………………………. And I am still wondering of such an intrusive to a peaceful slumber.

Is it worth putting an answer to the question mark?

Who’s That Girl?

 
 
 
 
 
 
 My once little angel is a big big girl, and made it to the school volleyball team.  I am ever so proud of you darling.

Monday, September 26, 2011

Impromptu chocolate cake

Last Saturday, I wanted to surprise hubby with his favorite chocolate cake, just to discover that I do not have any cocoa powder.  Frustrated and not willing to go out to get it.  I searched the larder and found that I have some dark cooking chocolate.  And guess what, that is exactly what I used to make the cake that got the thumbs up from Chef Diva upon her arrival.
 
1 1/2 cup cake flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
 1 cup raw brown sugar, 1 1/3 margarine
 Dark cooking chocolate (as much as you like)
(melted)
 Three large bio eggs
 1 1/2 cup milk (since I don't have any milk in the fridge, I decided to use the powder milk (diluted in cold water) instead)
 
 Blend the raw brown sugar and margarine till really fluffy
 After eggs and milk being added (at the stage of adding in the flour, I changed to the old method of folding in the flour, instead of blending them together)
 Add the melted chocolate using the fold in method also
 Mixture ready for baking (bake for at least 45 minutes)
Fresh from the oven
Thumbs up from Chef Diva

Chef Diva Is Here

 Chef Diva arrived………………………. Yea, yea…………………. I am one happy mama
 
 
Snuggling wherever she can smell her mama, my poor darling

Rack Of Spare Ribs

 
I went to the butcher and saw this beautiful rack of spare ribs and I could not resist it. So I bought it, a whole rack of it, only to arrive home, while still admiring the beautiful freshness of the ribs, suddenly strucked by the reality attack. How do I could a rack of ribs in the oven?

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Vegetable Dalcha (My Version)

The ready Dalcha
 This is the oil that I used for the Dalcha, only two tablespoon and not more
 Lentil with skin is high in fiber, folic acid and low in fat (do not soak the lentil, just rinse it a couple of times)
 
 Onion, garlic and ginger is a must
 Pound all of them together 
 Three tablespoon of curry powder
 Since I do not use any coconut milk or Ideal milk for my Dalcha, it was replaced by loads of tomatoes.  I mixed the normal tomatoes with some cherry tomatoes.  The taste is simple unique and very nice
 One piece large potato
 Two cups of fresh French beans
 I love this baby carrot, therefore, I no longer use fresh carrot for most of my cooking
 
One medium size Indian aubergine

Friday, September 23, 2011

Pound Cake - My Own

 
 
So I guess all of you will know what Pound cake is all about, very easy to bake cake where all the ingredients were in total proportion of one pound each. However, like I always emphasized baking is all about creativity, so as long as you know you have the right ingredients, do not be afraid to add or minus.

Having written that, today I make my own creativity of Pound cake. Surprisingly, it turns out to be excellent and the cake does not even last more than a day.

I love my Pound cake at breakfast time, evening tea and after dinner, of course with my favorite Apricot jam.

Massage

Went to the hospital today, to make my appointment for physiotherapy which I have been delaying for more than a month now. The walk to the hospital was good but as you know I can get easily distracted by grocery shops, and mind you they have far too many here that it can almost got me astray.

Anyways, the staff at this hospital have always been fantastic people, though 89 percent of them do not speak English, but it helps when they actually try to explain things instead of rolling their eyes and pushing you to one side.

When the receptionist told me that my therapy was massage, I could feel the smile forming on my face. First it was just a emmm………. Hemmm………….. kind of smile, not too sure if I was hearing her right. Then she repeated the massage word and my smile just refused to leave my face. I hope it will be the kind of massage that I am thinking of and not anything that will make me miserable.

So, ok I am going to be pretty busy next week and yeah besides the first session all the other sessions will be in the morning, very early in the morning indeed. By the way to make sure that you will not miss your appointment, the hospital requires you to sign a form that you are aware and responsible not to be tardy. I am not sure if there will be a penalty to a no show.

I hope someday I will not be so illiterate in this country, may be………….. one day.

Butter (Margarine) Cake

My not so successful Butter (Margarine) cake, I guess it’s because I have changed some of the ingredients to make the cake not so rich and as low in fat and calories as possible.  It was nice though.  I did this on Wednesday
 The end product
 The measuring cups
 Cake flour, salt and baking powder mix
 Baking tray greased
 Raw sugar and margarine before blending
 Three bio eggs
 Three bio egg yolk
 Soya Milk
 Raw sugar and margarine blending
 In comes the egg one by one and followed by the egg yolk
 The final mix
Ready for the oven