Refreshed body and good food

Originally uploaded by ABumbleBee.

I finally got my body massage yesterday. So all those knotted nerves are now unraveled and all the trapped wind have been released. It doesn't sound at all heavenly or relaxing as you would imagine, like a massage from a massuese in a candle-lit spa room. This is not that kind of a massage. This massage is for the purpose of unknotting all the nerves in the body and putting them back in place. So pain is defintely on the menu. But I managed to get thorugh the massage and now I feel totally refreshed and relaxed. Although the smell of coconut oil is still linggering on my body. I was told that you are not supposed to have a bath after your body is given this kind of massage. So I'll just have to bear with it.

Today on the other hand was spent by going to OU and cooking. Before heading to OU, Shah, my sister and I initially went to the Per*dua sales office near my mum's house. This stop ws made because Shah and I have finally decided that I need a car of my own. So we wnt there to get all the necessary details and ask all the necessary questions. We'll pay a visit to their office again this Friday to pay the down-payment and settle all the forms. By end of March, hopefully, you'll be seeing me whizzing around town with my brand spanking new....Kel*sa (hehehe...sorry for the suspanse) I think this small, tiny car is just enough for me. I don't want anything bigger as of yet since I need to gain confidence on the road first.

The good food we had for dinner that night was cooked by yours truly. I made nasi tomato with daging masak hitam and bread and butter pudding for dessert. Mum made the accompanying salad for the main dish and custard for the dessert. I'm pleased to say that every one at the table were eating heartily. So all the slaving over the kitchen stove was defintely paid off.

P/S: I also spent the whole of Saturday and early Sunday morning reading the latest additon to the Shopaholic series. It was really funny and I enjoyed the read. It totally took my mind of work.

A girl needs all the TLC she can get

I was blog-hopping earlier this evening and one of my friends blogged about her recent massage session. That got me thinking of the regular urut session that I have with the makcik urut at my mum's place. It's been ages since I got a total body massage and my body has been sending me numerous signals indicating that it needs some tender (ironic since the urut sessions always leave me aching all over) loving care. I'm hoping I can get the makcik to come over soon or else my body will stiffen up even more. I guess once you've started receiving body masages you can't survive without it.

Another TLC session that I am in dire need of is a good facial. I need to bust out those black and white heads from my pores and get a luxuriously cooling mask slathered on my face. I've been eyeing one of those all-in-one sessions available at the Cyb*rview Lodge Resort and Spa. It involves a bath, scrub, facial and body massage. The session lasts for almost 4 hours and costs almost 500 bucks but it should be worth it. I just need to find the right time to go there. Even my husband said I should treat myself to one of those sessions.

Well, I guess I should stop thinking and start booking that session. But if any of you out there can recommend any other spas or sessions then do let me know ok?

P/S: Why do all these beneficial TLC sessions for a girls body involve lots of pain?

Bread and Butter Pudding

I also have a liking for bread and butter pudding. But when I was growing up, everytime I had bread and butter pudding, it was either quite dry or the base was slightly burnt. But when I was in the UK, while watching one of the numerous cookng shows (which I always watch), I watched Anthony Worrall Thompson make bread and butter pudding which came out looking all moist and warm and yummy. Of course, I didn't have time to copy the recipe so I got it online. As usual, I have editted the recipe below somewhat to cater for Muslims. The original recipe can be obtained here.

This is a picture of the bread and butter pudding I made.
Ingredients

50g/2oz sultanas
50g/2oz raisins
(or you can have 100g of raisins only or even have more than 100g if you like raisins)
14 slices of medium cut white bread
150g/5oz unsalted butter, softened
4 whole medium eggs
4 medium egg yolks
115g/4oz icing sugar
2tsp vanilla essence
450ml milk
750ml double cream
caster sugar, for sprinkling

Method

Butter the bread using 115g/4oz of the butter. Remove the crusts and cut each slice into 4 triangles. Arrange the bread triangles in 2 layers in a buttered shallow ovenproof or baking dish, sprinkling the raisins and sultanas in between the layers of bread triangles.

Gently push down the triangles into the dish. Reserve the remaining bread triangles for later.

To make the custard: whisk the eggs, egg yolks and the icing sugar together in a large jug. Add the vanilla essence, milk and double cream. Whisk together.
Pour two thirds of the custard over the bread and leave to stand for 45 minutes to 1 hour for the custard to soak into the bread.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Pour the remaining custard over the previously soaked bread and butter triangles. Finish with the reserved bread triangles, buttered side up.

Press the slices down firmly so that the custard comes half way up the bread triangles. Sprinkle with caster sugar and dot with the remaining butter.

Place the dish into a large roasting tin and fill with warm water so that it comes three quarters of the way up the dish. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the custard has just set and the top is golden brown.

Tiramisu

I first heard of tiramisu when I as living in London with 3 other Malaysian girls. One of my housemates made this Italian dessert and I fell in love with it. The original recipe for tiramisu includes rum as one of its ingredients but we've omitted it, of course, to make it Halal for Muslims. So try it out...

Ingredients:

2 packets sponge fingers
1 egg white
500g Mascarpone cheese
5ml double cream
sugar to taste
coffee

Method:

Make some espresso coffee (just enough to dip all the sponge fingers in) and set aside.

Whip the egg white until you get soft peaks. Then whip in the Mascarpone cheese and double cream. Also add sugar to taste and mix all until well blended.

Layer the dish with sponge fingers dipped in the espresso coffee. Then layer half of the cheese mixture on top of the sponge fingers.

Repeat another layer of espresso dipped sponge fingers and finish with the leftover of cheese mixture.

Sprinkle some cocoa powder and leave to chill in the fridge.

Note: Best made at least 2-3 hours before serving.

Kuih Cara Gula

Picture taken from glutton-island.blogspot.com.

I first ate this kuih (Malaysian dessert) when my grandmother made it for me. I fell in love with it instantly. Pop one into your mouth and you will taste a soft texture with liquid sugar oozing out slowly with each bite you take. So be warned, you will have to eat it all in one go or the sugar will squirt all around you and make such a sticky mess. I only learned how to make this kuih when my mother-in-law came to visit us in Nottingham few years back. Anyway, to cook it requires a special cooking mould (I will post a picture of it one of these days). So, here comes the recipe...

Ingredients

12 pandan leaves (to extract pandan juice)
1 cup flour
1 whole egg
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup of coconut milk
salt
1/4 bowl of cooking oil
1/2 bowl of sugar

Method

Chop the pandan leaves finely and place in blender. Add some water and blend. Pour the blended mixture throgh a seive and try and squeeze the remaining pulp of pandan leaves to extract as much juice as possible. Set the juice aside.

In a mixing bowl, add into it the flour, egg, water and coconut milk. Add a pinch of salt. Then whisk the batter until well blended. Pass the mixture through a seive to extract out all the lumps.

Then add the pandan juice into the batter mixture to turn it green in colour.

Leave the batter mix to rest for at least 15-30 minutes.

To cook the kuih cara:
Place the kuih cara cooking mould onto the stove and heat it up. Brush some oil onto it. When hot enough, pour the batter mixture to fill 3/4 of the mould. Then add 1/4 teaspoon of sugar into each mould filled with batter. Cover the cooking mould to let the kuih cook. When the batter has set, scoop out the kuih cara.
(Tip: wipe the cover of the cooking mould now and again to prevent the evaporated steam to drop into the setting batter)

Note: If necessary, the pandan juice can be substituted with a teaspoon of pandan essence mixed with a little green colouring.

The visit

It's the eve of Chinese New Year. Shah and I (well more me than Shah) spent today cleaning up the house and making it presentable for the visit tomorrow. The visit from my in-laws. It'll be their first time spending the night at our house since we got back from the UK (1 year plus ago). I just want every thing to be nice and cozy. Most importantly clean and tidy when they arrive.

This morning, as usual, we headed for Al*manda for breakfast. On they way there, we passed a traffic light and Shah said he saw his brother's car stopping at the light. He asked to if their car plate number was W*H 140 and I said yes. So, we immediately knew that they were also heading for Al*manda. They even tailed us all the way there. We even parked the cars beside each other. Breakfast was roti canai with lamb curry as always. it was fun watching Sofea (Shah's niece) eating her roti telur and then watching her run around the food court once she was done eating. I can't wait to have one of my own. (Sigh)

We parted ways after breakfast. Shah's brother, wife and Sofea headed towards Carr*four while Shah and I went to A*ssino. I needed to get some single-sized bedsheets for Shah's parents visit. Then, we went to Carr*four where we bought some pillows and food. I then bought a VCD of "The Devil wears Prada" which I watched the moment we got home. I really loved the clothes, shoes and handbags in the movie. Oh how I wish my office has a room full of designer items for me to pick and choose as I wish, anyday. Just like what Stanley Tucci did for Anne Hathaway in the movie. God, how I wish I have millions of dollars to splurge on bags, shoes, clothes and more.
Oh well, enough daydreaming. I've got to get back to sprucing up the house for Shah's parents visit. Toddleloo....

P/S: I managed to transfer my classic template to the new blogger template with widget features. I've always wanted to have my archives presented in a collapsible list which is available as a widget in the new blogger template but I also wanted to maintain the same rainbow and teddy theme. Now I have them both. I'm so happy!

While waiting...

While waiting...
Originally uploaded by ABumbleBee.

While waiting...

Updated on 13 February 2007:

The picture above was taken after Shah did his MRI scan. While waiting for the results we had lunch at the St*rbucks cafe. It took almost an hour for the results to be ready. Then we headed back to the ENT Specialist's clinic and he gave the all clear, i.e. nothing abnormal with the brain, eyes or ears. So it must mean there is something not right with the inner-ear liquid. So Shah's just got to do some exercises in hope the the liquid will correct itself. The exercises were instructed to Shah by the physiotherapist and after that we headed home.

My abang is unwell..

It all started eigth years ago. Before Shah was my 'abang'. After rigourous and exhaustive testing, Shah was diagnosed with vertigo. Intially it was very bad. He could not even stand on his feet or even sit up. Everything, to him, seemed to spin. It must have been very scary. But Shah took it all in his stride. Back then, he just had to bear with it and leave his family, his safe place and travel to the UK to pursue his degree. Unfortunately, his vertigo didn't subside within a day, a week or a month. He beared it for years. Slowly the intensity of the spinning sensation subsided. He managed to pursue his degree (and even higher), enjoy life in the UK and carry on working. Ploughing through all the while with the sickness paying a visit once in a while.

Unfortunately last Sunday, it returned full force. He woke up from sleep with a bad spinning sensation and he couldn't get up from bed most of the day. He could not lecture because the slightest movement of the head brought on the effects of vertigo. He got a referral letter from the GP to see an ENT specialist. So today, we payed the ENT specialist in P*ntai Medical Centre a visit. He confirmed again that Shah has vertigo. But he narrowed it down to positional vertigo or more accurately Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV). There is no magic pill that can get rid of BPPV. He'll have to take the physiotherapy route. And to be safe, the doctor also wants Shah to undergo an MRI scan to overrule any other causes for the spinning sensation. So, next Wednesday we'll be visiting the hospital again.

I am worried for Shah. I hope I am doing all that I can to ease his pain and I pray to Allah that this time around he will get better much much faster. Hopefully the sickness will go away for good. Please pray for Shah's speedy recovery too ok? We'd really appreciate it and thank you with all our hearts.