Prepare yourself for a slight shock... Taken in the ' Doing the Karen Cheng ' style After over eight years searching, I found my man, Rahman. The hairdresser at Valentino's who first cut my hair in this style back in 2001 . I went back a few months later to get a trim, but he was no longer there * sob *. Then recently, (thanks to a tip from my dear aunt) I found him again. He has now set up his own hair studio in Bull Creek. So anyway, after I psyched myself up a bit, I finally did it. Just in time for summer!

One my of my favourite Saturday morning treats, is to have a long leisurely home cooked breakfast. Which is a nice change from weekend breakfasts of cold cereal and milk or a couple slices of bread and nutella eaten hurriedly... or on the g if we are really running late (which happens most of the time). Besides the classic eggs and toast, which I sometimes try to jazz up in the frying pan , or in the oven , or sandwich them in between muffins ... lately I've been enjoying a big bowl of oats porridge, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with raisins on top. I don't like to use the instant oats packets, but I like to use original rolled oats, as it ends up with more texture and bite. Just boil about a three quarter cup of rolled oats in about one a half cups of milk or water, or a mixture of both. Keep stiring it while is bubbles and cooks so it doesn't stick t the bottom of the pan. Enjoy with honey or sme sugar, and you can add any toppings, like raisins, bananas, strawberrie...

I made lontong (sayur lodeh) for dinner last night. This was one of my favourite dishes from my mum's kitchen. Could never have it often enough. I never made lontong on my own before. I only had a rough recipe my mum sent via email some time ago and my memory from observing my mum to guide me. The ingredients require a little bit of preparation beforehand, but the cooking part is fairly straightforward. Ingredients 2-3 pips garlic, chopped finely 2 pieces shallots (or quarter red onion), chopped finely 2 tspn tumeric/kunyit powder 1 inch belacan 1 quarter cabbage, shredded roughly 1 handful long beans, sliced diagonally 2-3 carrots, julienned 1 potato, julienned 2 ½ cups coconut milk 1-2 cups vegetable/chicken stock 2 pieces beancurd, sliced into small cubes Foo chuk (beancurd sheets) Tang hoon (glass noodles) 2-3 tbspn tamarind water or lime juice Heat oil in pot, brown garlic and shallots/onions until fragrant. Add tumeric and belacan, and fry a minute or two. Add cabbage, long b...

There's a park near our house which hubby and I pass by every morning on the way to work. Now that spring is here, the place is just covered with these beautiful wild white flowers... they look exactly like the lilies we saw at Empire Retreat in Yallingup This afternoon, we took a short walk around the area... I had tucked a pair of scissors in my jacket thinking of taking a few cuttings home. There were so many of them, I'm sure just taking a few snippings would not be missed. Here they are sitting prettily on the dining table... Don't they look gorgeous! So glad spring is here!

Four days from today marks exactly one year since I first found out about my miscarriage ... August 8th, 2008. Which I remember because it was also the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. Some of the people I care about will probably have some concerns as they read this... Is she in depression? Or going through an emotional breakdown? Maybe unable to let go of the past? I assure all concerned parties that I am perfectly fine. I have not been keeping track of that day all this time. It's something that I just happen to recall as I was scrolling through my calendar for the week ahead and that date just flicked across my phone screen. It is a very significant date... 08/08/08. One year. I never imagined time to fly by so quickly. How precious is this thing - time. But in between the moments when we do pause to marvel the preciousness of it all, the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes, seconds, are like a watch in the night. Because it seems only just the other day when that sig...

Early on Saturday morning, the second day of the big spring clean , hubs heard a noise outside. Peering through the upstairs window, he saw dark figure rumaging around inside the skip bin outside the house. I got up to continue our cleaning work. As we walked outside with more loads of stuff to toss out, this spastic indian dude popped out and looked eagerly at the bundles we were carrying... " Jangan buang ya, saya mau ambik! " So we left the bundles by the skip bin for him to sort through which ons we wanted. Anything he found useful, he piled onto his little makeshift sidecar attached to an old scooter. And thus we got acquainted with the Amazing 'Karang Guni'Man! I had always heard of the 'Karang Guni' man but never met one myself. Apparently you don't have to look for him... he finds YOU. You could almost class his guy as some kind of super hero... he patrols through the streets looking for 'treasure'. He has the strength of ten men, well at l...

This recent holiday back to Malaysia (and short detour to Singapore) was great. We chose not to pack it full to the brim with itineraries and excursions and plans. We just wanted to chill, relax, eat all the yummy foods we missed, spend time with close family, and be pampered by mum and dad. Sounds very uneventful, right? Well actually... allow me to share one of 'interesting' things we got up to while we were there. We found out not long before our trip that hubby's dad had to go in for surgery for hernia. He then subsequently had to go for a second surgery to treat an infection that surfaced following the first one. I guess this trip was well timed so we were able to see him. He has been recovering steadily with the wound healing well. We took te opportunity to do something special with him by taking a (partial) family photo with him... I think he was very proud and happy and I'm glad our trip was well timed so that hubby's youngest sister could also be there. We ...

Here is the recipe for the homemade prathas I made yesterday Ingredients 1½ cups plain flour ½ tablespoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt ¾ cup water ½ cup ghee or vegetable oil Sift flour, baking powder and salt together into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre, add the water in and gradually incorporate with the flour. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and let it rest for half an hour, covered in plastic wrap. Divide the dough into approximately 6 pieces. Roll a piece of dough out to 3mm thick disc. Brush oil or ghee over the top. Make a light incision from the centre to the edge. Lift the dough and fold inwards at the incision until you have a layered cone. Hold the cone pointy side down, then use your other thumb to push the outer layered edges into the centre of the cone until you have a ball. Repeat this process or the remaining pieces of dough. Cover the dough balls with a clean, damp kitchen towel and le...

I am aware that I've not updated this space for a while. Been stressed out a bit lately... not sure why, but I've just been feeling very tired and down recently. Also I must confess that Twitter has been a little bit absorbing... ^_^ Anyway, I thought I'd kickstart a new post with one about food... here's a couple of things I've experimented lately... Homemade roti pratha. Will post up the recipe shortly. I think the homemade version is so much healthier as I can cut down on the amount of oil or ghee... and nothing serving up curries and sauces with hot, fluffy, rotis, fresh from the skillet. And with the assistance of my trusty breadmaker ... I made up these cinammon rolls. Super nice! Hot and fresh from baking, and I can be as generous as I want with the cinammon. We were at our investment property the other day to inspect the place after the last tenant vacated. We discovered that the garden, although not the prettiest one, had already a few well established frui...

Following the success of my Arab Cookies or Kuih Makmur ... this afternoon I decided to attempt making some sugee (almond) cookies They look quite cute with the little cherry pieces on top, but I think the kuih makmur tasted nicer. Recipe is roughly as follows: 70 grams butter (softened) 150 grams ghee Approx 1 or 1½ cups plain flour 1 cup ground almonds 1 teaspoon bicarb soda 1 teaspoon vanilla essence 1 teaspoon almond essence Glazed cherries for decoration Beat butter, ghee, sugar, vanilla essence and almond essence in bowl. Add flour, ground almond, bicarb soda and knead until it forms a soft slightly crumbly dough. Roll dough into marble size balls, place onto a baking tray and flatten slightly on top. Decorate with slivers of glazed cherries and bake at 170°Celcius for about 15 minutes.