bakes & cakes 11

I made this 'key lime' pie sometimes last year using our normal limau nipis. Had a hard time trying to squeeze the juice and in the end only managed to get 80ml instead of 100ml. I also used condensed milk from Indonesia. The taste was awesome..it was something that I have never tasted before, tangy, sweet and creamy at the same time. Don't think that I'll be making any of these soon though, as I'm the only one that enjoyed it.

It would taste better if the dough was baked a little longer

Another keeper recipe from here . Kek kukus asam manis, Just using normal cake ingredients + haw flakes and steam it. I only made 2/3 of the recipe but still use 100g of haw flakes.

I made this twice and  the second time I brought it back to kampung. My mom and grandma loved it and mom requested this for raya.

Macarons with hazelnut filling. Looks hideous but taste yummy. It was probably because I did not mix it enough till it has a 'ribbon' effect.

Green tea cake...requested by Alia. Made cream cheese frosting to go with it. Alia & DH seems to like this cake.

casa del rio

I just realized that i have not posted anything on our short one night stay in Malaka last September. DH had to give a talk and were given a room in casa del rio. I've always wanted to stay in this hotel since the last time i went for a river cruise at night and saw this hotel along the river. It looks so beautiful at night, kinda like what you see in the movies. this is the hotel  from across the river.

our room.. a ' window' separating the bed and bath

our welcome ' kuih' onde-onde, there was also a book- ' kebaya tales' in the room... things that are typically Melaka

the view from our room..that is not a swimming pool..but the nice thing is that you can see the river from here...at night you sat on the veranda and you saw the 'river cruise boats' going to and fro from one station to another. The hotel even expect you to spent your time outside the room as they provide you with candles and mosquito coils to light up if you are planning to spent your time outside. I even fell asleep lying on the sofa outside...

after checking in we went to take a ride in Tamingsari... nice view of the city from the top.

 then we went to Muzium kapal

 the hotel swimming pool was under maintenance that day so they directed us to the swimming pool at the casa del rio suites.

 at night we had pizza from the hotel restaurant....best pizza I've tried so far...

 we ordered 2 pizzas.. we will definitely go for this pizza again next time we are in melaka

 at night we walked to Jonker street ... went thro the usual stuff and Irfan wanted  to buy UNO cards... only here it was named CNUNO :) .. we stopedp by a small coffee shop along the street and started to play the cards.. only after some time we realized that Irfan just opened up half the stack...haih... no wonder la tak de kaler yellow and green...

 the next morning we managed to use the hotel's pool...if you go to the edge of the pool and look down, you'll see sungai Melaka. We ordered another pizza here ;)

after checking out we went to Melaka monorail... This is just a short ride between 2 stations along the river, mostly for tourism purpose rather than local transportation.

 the view fromthe  monorail station

 another view.. we didn't managed to take the night cruise as there were too many people queuing up for it. some other time may be. I've taken the cruise both during the day and night and i would always recommend you to take the night ones..the whether is nicer and the lights make the cruise more lively.

JPO 2012

During the school holidays we made a trip to Legoland. Of course we stop by JPO the day before. We went together in 2 cars with my in laws.

 trying to recreate 2011 pose..see how tall Alia has grown compared to last year in the photo below

 Dec 2011 photo

 Most probably at the end of this year she'll be taller than me

with our shopping stuff.. i only bought a VS perfume this time....I've already bought most of my stuff online during the black friday sale and was still waiting for the item to arrive during this time. After all the price here is still more expensive compared to online purchase.

we had froyo supper that night

cuti @ banding

Last month we went to banding lakeside inn, a place where DH wanted to go. It's about 40km after Grik. Before reaching Grik for our lunch, we stop by Lenggong to see the Perak Man,  at the Lenggong Archaeological Gallery.

at the entrance

one of the many items displayed

after lunch we check in to banding lakeside inn..lake view room

a much better view from our room.

 Petang terus turun jeti for rafting activity. DH and Alia trying their hand at rafting.

the next morning we took a" ranforest lite" package to explore Belum.

 Started our journey to look at rafflesia.

after 15 minutes of trekking/ panjat bukit sampai pun...tapi rafflesia dekat cerun bukit. Irfan tak confident nak panjat. i took this photo with one leg behind Irfan, just to make sure he didn't accidentally slip down.. gambar tak clear

 masa nak turun DH has to teach Irfan where to put his foot as some places are quite steep and others are slippery, masa nak naik bukan main terer lagi.. as we were the first to go among 8 other boats, we were also the first to reach down and waited for all them before our next destination...

Kampung Chuweh.. a orang asli village in Temenggor with  a population of 32

Alia with orang asli kids

some of them are quite camera shy

papa trying sumpit

view of our boat from the village.

next destination...sg enam base camp for waterfall

our second check point here.. we had our lunch here.. after 10 mins trekking from 1st check point. Jetty to first check point took about 20 mins. after lunch , another 10 mins trekking to the waterfall, with 3 streams to pass. this is the first experience for the kids in the jungle, alia was excited while Irfan was a bit apprehensive at first, but in the end he did enjoyed the trip.

 going back... waiting for everybody else at the first check point

 kepenatan...we started at 9 am from the hotel and reached our hotel again at 5pm...if this a lite package i cant imagine the real ones. sampai hotel mandi, solat, order room service and by 8pm i dah zzzzz.

big bad wolf 2012

 the damage this year

 the kids...i gave them a budget of RM50 each...carik buku yang mana nak...we started with irfan, then alia, then I chose a corner for them to sit, browse through their books and stay put. it's my turn to look for my books.

 my haul......in my excitement i bought a book that i've read before....it's the mary higgins clark, ..i have most of her books and i can't remember whether i've read it or not till i saw the identical title on my bookshelf......haihh..;-(.......any takers?

my sister-in-law kirim books for her kids, particularly dora, thomas and bob the builder books. the kids had fun choosing books for their cousins. i didn't really browse the non-fiction part....kids are waiting in a corner somewhere, remember? would love to go again and take my own sweet time there..

bakes & cakes 10

 dulce de leche using condensed milk imported from indonesia..courtesy of my maid, more flavourful and not as sweet as using our condensed creamer. This was made ages ago but i have another batch in the fridge made from 'chocolate condensed milk'.

 i saw this butterscotch chips in jaya grocer...and straightaway bought it and googled for choc chip recipe.

 and ended up with shortbread butterscotch chips cookies. I also made another batch using my mom's shortbread recipe and add butterscotch chips. Preferred the latter because it's crispier. i still have some of the chips stashed in the fridge, will make another batch of cookies..if the kids OR myself did not eat it on its own...You gotta try this chips....it good even on its own, infact i think it's better to eat it straight from the bag ;)

 first attempt of making cheese tart..you'll noticed that there were 2 sizes of tart shell here... because i started with the small ones, and i only have a dozen of those. Looking at my dough i figure it took me about 5 mins to fill prepare the shell, 20 mins to bake it, another 10-15 mins to cool the tart before i can knock off the casing, and start to prepare the shell again...the thought of 4 cycle of those really put me off and i started to use a bigger silicone tart case (even though it's more difficult to shape the dough) and managed to finished the dough all at once!

the bigger tart is more satisfying...more cheese to base ratio ;)