Cook and Share a pot of Curry

Well, well, well... my friends are away having a super duper time (I hope!) in OZ.... tsk tsk... poor me....sad sad... But... since they are away.... I should document this for their reading material when they get home! Ya, ya... as if!

Gangs - read THIS and THIS.

Now, eventhough I'm not in Singapore and I didn't cook my pot of curry between 11 - 11.30am, I still feel strongly about this. One's gotta tolarate each other if one wants to live in a multicultural country (even like us Malaysia!!) I remember those days staying in Kajang, we had so many "interesting" neighbours; sights, sounds, smell... you get my drift... but we all still tolerated one another. I am sure, we ourselves were not that easy to tolerate as well. I recall our neighbour staying in our Rumah Kota in Kajang Utama even was rearing chicken!!

So yes, I cooked a pot of curry - though not one I'd normally (or ever) cook before. Dhal Curry. I am a fan of this - I'd normally ask for lots and lots and lots of this whenever I come across at Mamaks. There was an eating place in Uni which we frequented for breakfast daily and I'd laddle HEAPS on top of my choice of carb. SLURP!!! And if I have Nasi Briyani.... I'd just ask for a whole bowl to save the waiter numerous trips to refill my plate! :)

As I said - I never cook this before - so why do I choose to do it? Well, coincidently I was doing Creative Ministry with my youth and had them bake bread from a handful of flour + oil. So at the end of the lesson, they had their own bread with this Curry.
And so I did cook and shared my pot of Curry. Here's to a peaceful Malaysia (and Singapore)!

Start of something new...

30th July: Lun Bawang Food Fair - sales was such a big flop!! Things ended up down the drain (literally) or went below cost. Blah.

"The" school

But on that very same day, a gracious lady (hereafter referred to as Lady V) took interest in our little stall and offered us what seems to be a very interesting venture. She asked if we would be interested to cater for students in her school on Saturdays. And there's about 600 students each Saturday. So with much anticipation, Mom and I went to "have a look" on the 6th Aug (last Sat), to be told to give our price list for promotion to the kids and their parents. And would you believe the big blessing we have on our lap right now!!! It's incredible... we're setting up a mini canteen at the school starting this Saturday (13th)! Woot!!!

Orange butter cuppies with chocolate ganache made for the school's staff meeting on 8th Aug

Whilst this is a GREAT opportunity, I know this too will be like an endurance test... For as it is, rest like little known to me right now; even without this Saturday side and now, full dependence on Him is the only guaranteed source of strength.

I have to admit, I have a mixed feeling about the whole thing... but please pray along with us as we start this new venture... this is indeed the start of something new!

Egg Mayo sandwich made for the school's staff meeting on 8th Aug

¹⁴ The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

¹⁵ Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

~Exodus 33: 14 - 17~

Caught unprepared...

Last night a colleague was caught unprepared when her mom passed away unexpectedly. She was only 57. After a short series of "can't-be-so-serious-sickness", she left. What a sad, sad day... our hearts were so broken, what more to say her and the family... Karen, if you're reading this, am praying for strength for your whole family... for Amberly who didn't get to meet her Wai Po, for Ah Bell who will not have a play mate during the day time, for your lil' sister who's so far away, for your brother who will not have your mom there for the set wedding and especially for your dad; who had lost his life partner. My heart goes out to all of you...

Really, life is short. I sit and ponder today.... I guess I will never be prepared to loose either my mom or my dad.... ever.

Dear God... what can I say... how can I thank You... I'm blessed as it is to have my parents with me... but I'm not ready and I guess, I'll never be ready to lose them.... please give us some more time to be with each other on this earth....

p/s: Photo courtesy Jenkay's Collection... thanks Jane for this perfect photo of the 2 of them.

Lemon Butter Cake

I blame it on my parents. I blame it on the way I've been brought up. I blame it on the satisfaction it feels when the deed is done. You see, I have been brought up with the idea that when someone gives you something, it needs to be reciprocated - a container is never returned empty, a favored always returned, a treat always countered.

So when on one sweet day, whilst standing at the PA&AV crew console area (where he memang always hang out - the only kid there), Noel was given a lemon, this "teaching" was passed down to him too. He's got to "give back" to the lemon-giver. Well, shhh.... don't tell Noel, but actually, I was just looking for reason to make this recipe! So on a Saturday, Noel got down to business. He was incharge of shifting the flour and grating the lemon zest.

The cake was baked and left overnight, as it said to do in the recipe and I made a small cupcake just to try (incase it didn't taste nice enough to give away!). To my horror, my cupcake tasted so sickly sweet. However, it was so wonderfully lemony that I risked giving it away anyways. So mom cut the cake beautifully into 3 portions and I packed them for Noel to distribute. We didn't want to give a big portion to just one family (what if they don't eat simple butter cake? what if they don't like lemon? blablabla), so packed to give away some to other "PA/AV crew family" as well.

With 3 portions, I actually had 1 pack extra and since I was busy and couldn't find any other family to "deposit" the cake to, I brought back one pack and it became my personal office snack time treat. Boy, oh boy!!! Was I glad on my decision to give the cakes away anyways coz it.was.heaven. Fresh lemony tartness countered the just-right-sweetness and the crunch of the lemon zest on top of the cake made the cake burst with lemon flavor with each bite.

The families we gave the cakes to were pleasantly surprised and send wonderful texts indicating how lovely the cake was. The problem is.... I've now received a few packets of coffee from them as thanks and me being me, I'm now scratching my head for the perfect coffee bake!!!

Nightmare time is here...

Last round of exam in May, Noel did pretty badly. When I met with his teacher, apparently, her whole class did poorly as the exam was set by Zone and the school that set the papers this time are known to be tough ones. Unfortunately, by doing badly, Noel will also have to face the consequences i.e. spanking. Now, I've tried many positive ways to get him to work harder in school before this; motivating, rewards etc, but none worked too well, so last resort, spanks.

Spanking system was set before the exams. B = 1 spank, C = 2 spanks, D = 3 spanks and so on. However, when I calculated the total spanks, it came up to a whooping 21 spanks!!!! For the fear of having to rush to the hospital to patch up his butt checks, we recalculated starting with C = 1 spank, D = 2 spanks etc.... Ending up with 10 spanks in total.

It broke my heart. And his. Many tears were shed between the 2 of us. But I pray this will not break his spirit, but rather build him up. Anyway, exam week starts today again. We'll see how effective the spankings were...

Teacher's comment in his record book; roughly translated as - "Do more chinese and maths exercise. Good behaviour. Jia you!"

In trying to console myself...

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. Proverbs 23:13

Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them. Proverbs 13:24

Give Blood, Save Lives Part 2

A year ago (gosh, has it really been a year??!!), I blogged about not being able to give blood because I didn't have enough blood. A few blood donation drives came and went in the church throughout the year but there's always something that made it not possible for me to try again.

10th July came and I went this time, worried and telling a not-so-little-white-lie about my physical well-being, I passed through all the test, and the drawing of 450ml of blood, the resting, the getting-up-without-passing-out and yeay!!, I'm back to being a blood donor!! *dancing with joy*


See, my last donation date was 1998 - that's 13 yrs ago!!!! Gotta fill up this donor book moving forward!

note: They gave each successful donor a car sticker that reads "Don't hit me, I'm a blood donor". I've been cracking my head (still am) trying to figure out apalah kaitan???

Do you remember?

Anyone remember this game??? I was thrilled to come across this at a cheap store (this was RM1.50) and quickly grab to show Noel how to play it. We've been having great times playing this at least once a day and it feels good to be transported back to the easy and carefree childhood days. Oh, the simple joys of life!