It's a Gingerbread House! (Updated with some tips)

First I bought this:

It comes in a few biscuits in the shapes of different parts of a house, flat-packed;). After dinner, I had a lot of help to finally put this up. Even the 2-year-old was excited to be allowed to participate. Not so neat, but it does not matter.


One happy kiddo!

And 3 more!

The attack!


The aftermath:

Good easy fast less-messy fun for a very busy mom (and the kids haha). It costs only RM15, some leftover icing and colourful candies! But the kids needed thorough teeth-brushing last night;).

For muslim moms who are not sure of the emulsifier E471 used in the biscuit, I had asked the staff and they assured me that its plant-based. Still not satisfied I sent an email to the company in Sweden and received the answer in less than an hour. So efficient!

Try it, we will definitely do it again! Off course with different designs, and maybe more elaborated with grass and snow...can't wait!

Update
I add just a bit more to share some tips.

If you use melted sugar as the glue, please remember that it is VERY hot!
And it is hardened fast when cooled and you no longer have glue to work with;) ...unless you reheat again.

What I did was, once the sugar melted, I turned off the fire (to avoid the sugar to caramelise (sp?) too much and turn dark), I quickly dip the edge of the biscuit (where I want to attach to the other, you can also use spoon to spread). It may look messy on your house, but you can cover that later with icing. Once the sugar turned stiffer, I reheat again with a very low fire. I added sugar bit by bit (and didn't follow the instruction that says 200g in a go) and keep on doing this till the house completed;).

It is a bit tedious, what more when you have 4 eager kids aged from 7 to 2 fighting to look closer at what mom's doing, and in a tiny kitchen. Easier way is by using glue meant for food, I guess. The one for cake decoration, but I'm not very sure as I've never tried that.

But that's a lesson for the bigger kids, that sugar can be glue. Hubby just got back from golf when the kids were decorating. He asked "How do you put that up?" Bea2 almost jumped to explain. Mama just smiled.

I don't really like the biscuit, too much spice to me. For the next project, I will just use it as a template, and I will bake simple butter cookies.

There, hope that's useful for you, Sizuka and Madre!

A lil bit of this and that

For an Ikea freak like me, I feel happy just to walk aimlessly around the showhouse even without any purchase. But I feel happier if I return with a few flat-packs;).

November 19th is the first day of year-end/Christmas sale. And I must have their Baked Salmon dish and a peaceful meal alone. I went there just and only for that, but I had this delivered the next day!



No, not the kiddos but the Mamut cot!

Well, that's not our first cot. We had a playpen that we used as a cot. I hate it after a while as when the bed is at the lower height, the baby does not get good air circulation. It was never my idea to get it, it's hubby's! The girls used it for a while and we just left it in our old house when we moved. Now, I'm so glad that sister-in-law asked for it. I'm sure she will hate it too haha!

I'd been eyeing cots in Ikea but Mamut looks the sturdiest of all. Think Atef can use it till he is at least 3 years old. Adel is happy with an extendable bed, also from Ikea but it's a discontinued product now.
It was a surprise purchase as I found it in the As Is, heavily discounted for almost invisible few chips. I just love As Is!

I could just dismantle it and drive it in the MPV but I'm not very keen on re-assembled it at home. Was too lazy for that! And since I hate paying RM65 for the delivery charge for only one thing, I threw in a few more stuffs.

When I first designed the cabinets for the kitchen, I left a part of the wall bare as I just could not find a cooker hood that suited me, and I was not sure of the design. I had forgotten that I purchased a hood at a Teka warehouse sale a few months ago.

And I had this installed on Monday. We were not allowed to hack wall for ducting but we purposely designed the grille to have some space for that. Before this, we had only a ventilation fan, a small one that does not work well for my heavy oily cooking. Hubby just pulled the ducting above the cabinets and attached it's end to the fan with some modifications. So we have two ventilation systems now, the air from the hood is further driven out by the fan. And the hood has 1200 m3 suction power. I'm not sure if you can imagine it, but it looks ugly and that's why no pic is taken of that. And I will always try not to look up.
That's how hubby does it, functional but ugly DIY. It's ok to me, as long as a man can do some DIY, it's good enough;). And I'm not going to spend more on cabinets to hide it.

I wanted some color, that's why the Applad orange door. But now I have 3 colors, orange for the new horizontal cabinets and the beech worktop, white for the other new cabinet and now yellowish (due to accumulation of oil and dust) old doors. The good thing about Ikea is, for slightly over RM1k, I could change new doors for the entire kitchen....but, I'd wait for that. Sabar, sabar...

While I'm excited about my kitchen, I'm a bit worried that Atef is not feeling well. Think he caught the bug from Bea3, who had only slight fever and cough. I never exprienced any kid that get sick at this young age. I drove to an A&E at 5am on Monday. His temperature goes up every 8 hours. Last night it went up to 39.1 degrees C. Off to the A&E again as I also could not distinguish noisy breathing (due to phlegm) or wheezing. The doc said he would be fine but asked to return if the breathing gets noisier and if I detected wheezing. I talked to the doc with my eyes closed as I was just so sleepy. Returned home at 1.30 am.

Today, I just spent the day with the boys. Hubby sent the girls to the kindy for Children's Day party and he's off for golf *rolls eyes*.

Atef's temperature still fluctuates but he looks a lot better today. He is having a good time that mama would jump at his slightest squeal *sigh*. I had to cancel a fieldtrip yesterday and Alhamdulillah for the postdoc and Masters students, at least I got something done today in the office.

And finally, I would like to share with you that we've just had our first bloom in the house. After 3 dead plants here and a few others in the old place, hubby said I should give up already. But a few weeks ago, Bea1 and Bea2 persuaded me to get some mini-roses, yes also from Ikea. I thought it would wither away with the falling flowers but no, I saw some buds. And yesterday, one of them opened up nicely....lovely! I just have to keep it alive.

Thanks for reading;) and happy holiday!

What I got myself into today!

I have a journalist friend who has been bugging to make a story out of me for years. Stories of a lady geologist, a mother, a breastfeeding mom, a blogger mom, stories from my work/research. Most of the time she wanted to put pics of me and the kids. My excuses are "Tak mau la glamor2 ni!", "You can find someone better", "I can't let reporters write about my research before a proper publication", "Husband tak bagi la..." or anything you can think of;).

Today, she was just desperate and needed someone to do some cooking demo. And I couldn't think straight and had ran out of excuses. So, in between work, fetching/sending Bea1 from/to schools, I had her and a photographer at our home. I mentioned that I have access of eggwhites in the fridge and a Pavlova was what I made

It was kind of amusing that for someone like me who normally just 'campak-campak' stuffs when I cook, was told to act for the camera. And it was really time-consuming.
It was only the second time I did Pavlova and I'm still experimenting. Anyway, my friend said ok as long as it looks good. And I think it can still be improved.

I love everything with cream on, so as the kids. And now, it's Pavlova no more;)

This is how it looks before the attack!

Pics are those from my camera only. The demo will be out in an insert of a major daily next week, according to my friend. For all that I did, it's better be published, or else my friend sure kena...*evil laugh*

And regarding what I wrote earlier, I was just being frank and casually said that I just envy my colleague (muka tak malu hehe). Earlier, another professor also suggested that I should go too. The lord replied and wrote this:

I noticed that the Air Asia flight last Saturday was only about 60% full. If you feel like a bit of winter?s chill, you could try for a late cheap ticket and join the tea-party at the House of Lords !


He either can read my mind, or also thinks it would be once-in-a-lifetime experience for people like me or reads my blog *shudder*.

Hubby would let me go but very reluctantly, and he just killed it off by reminding me it's Eid's time. Anyway, at the temperature of 2 C I couldn't think properly in Bristol, and was in delirious state at -8 in Budapest. So, I will continue trying to avoid winter.

Some other time, maybe!

I'm green with envy!

And the green is the greenest of green!

I have been running around with my colleague, the PhD student this past few days. And that also means putting other important things on hold. She is preparing her trip to London and Leiden next week for a month, and due to some urgent matters, I have to be on my toes getting things done too for her.

She will be working in the British Natural History Museum and Museum Naturalis in both cities, with the British lord (who managed to her grants for this trip), and I just received a forwarded email. The lord just came out with a programme of part of her stay there.

To be able to work with people in the museums is enough to make me green and in between the work in the museums, I saw "Tea in the House of Lords...". To me, that could be once in a lifetime experience!

And luckily for her, kids are big enough and can be trusted to be left with the husband. But I'm sure they would miss their mom. And I will be making more samperit, that they really like. Hope it would cheer them up a bit before the mother leaves. The mom has asked me for the recipe twice but I'm sure she does not have the time to do it. She is just as ambitious as yours truly;).

She promised to send me emails on every little detail of her work and finding while she is there, I just can't wait to get some results from her.

But, I'm still green....!

School term is almost over

And yes that means Bea1 will enter Standard 2 in less than two months. I remember how jittery I was at the beginning of the year when she started Std 1. Time sure flies fast and it is not bad at all.

I promised to get involved in educating her, and I did just that. I did because I think any mom should do that and frankly I don't 100% trust the school;). And please don't say that I should send my kids to private school. For some reasons (money definitely one of them), that is not an option for us.

Anyway, I'm trying to avoid of having that "my-kid-is-doing-well-because-of-me" feeling. Bea1 did well throughout the term. No, I'm not referring to grades that she got, or her place in the class. She is developing and absorbing and looks happy with school and friends.

And while a friend already said 'Tak dapat no 1 lagi, siappp!" to his Standard 1 kid, I still can't bring myself to explain what the numbers mean to Bea1. I'm a little worried that she would get pressured. Or maybe at this stage she knows that already, I never asked;). Am I being too protective. But once she showed that she was having a peer pressure already. Peer pressure at 7 years old!

Anyway, I still want to take some credit. I still think that all the practises/reading that we did together has complemented what she receives in school. And I also can't help it but to blame myself when she didn't really do that well in Pengetahuan Ugama. The reason was while her hand-writing is better than mine, I'm not patient enough with her Jawi writing. So I didn't really go through the subject with her. My bad:(.

And that also does not mean I spend a lot of time with her, just everyday I try to make sure she finishes homework and after each test, we went through the sheets again.

At the beginning of the term, I remember she memorised my phone number. Thought of some day, I might teach her to use the public phone. But before I did that, she surprised me one day and it was so good to hear her ecstatic voice from the other side. Then, she called me every recess and the moment she finished classes in both schools.

Think I could go on and on about my complain on the education system. But now, I change my mind, the system is ok but maybe not the people who are implementing it. For example, Bea1 was already asked what colour change happens on a tree if it is not being exposed to the sun. All are given in textbook but no experiment...yilek, nothing! I don't know if they would do it later on, but at this stage think kids are required to memorise. The same with the box with a hole (it is about light, they put some objects, and see through the hole with the lid on and off), taste (Bea1 knows bitter gourd is definitely bitter but she got confused with seawater and mango, ripe mango of course sweet, she said;)).

And one question that I would ask the teacher come the Open Day "Does this mean that all the experiments must be done at home, supervised by the parents (kalau macam tu buat apa saya hantar anak saya pegi sekolah...cikgu buat apa ya????).

Luckily, we had some withering plants at home that I have shown to my girl.

One of the teachers once boasted that the school set a higher standard for the students. Even my babysitter agreed with that when she looked at Bea1's test papers. I still can't assure myself if that really is a good thing.

Am not going into that any further and I'm still grateful for a year full of adventure for Bea1 and myself;). Now, I start to get jittery whenever I think about2011 when Bea2 will join her too. And in 2014, Bea1 in Std 6, Bea2 Std 4, Bea3 Std 3, Adel Std 1 and Atef in kindy....pengsan!!!!

But being a muslim, one thing I must remember Allah will provide;).

Doing it the 5th time around

I mean expressing breastmilk so that I could continue giving the best food to my baby while I'm away. And that includes stocking up, a lot of sterilising, fighting for space in the freezer, worrying about not enough stock and a lot of expressing-and-nursing simultaneously.

Actually I got tired when I even think about it. And it is almost like a must that I do it as long as I can. In my case till I got pregnant again, or till it actually hurts my boobs to keep on expressing.

That's why, with new pregnancies, I felt a bit relieved that I have a reason to get some 'rest' before doing it all over again in about a year's time.

And I must talk a lot about it too. Thought hubby normally does not really listen to my ramblings. I was surprised one day when he said, he told a female colleague who just got a newborn, that she needed stimulation to get the milk out. I quoted him "You need stimulation...get anyone to do it for you!". I almost yelled "Hey!!!...not just anyone la...the baby, of course!".

The moment I heard anyone having challenges to express, I'd volunteer to help, even to strangers. Breastfeeding and expressing consultation for free;). Not to say I'm an expert but hey, I'm doing it for the 5th time!

I used to have storage in plastic bottles, later thanks to a mom for her brilliant idea, I used ice-cream plastic bags. Now, thanks to Chanel, I have proper storage in breastmilk bags.


With Atef, I started leaving him at the babysitter's when I have about 60 oz in the freezer. During Ramadhan, I cut down on expressing due to just being plain lazy. At one time I had zero, yilek, zilch stock. Now I have about 9 oz and I'm working on to build that up.

Fortunately, I don't need a lot of stock as I see my baby during lunch (or anytime I like when I got no class and urgent matters;)). And it's me who make my own schedule for trips etc. Lovely job, I have here;).

I only use one breastpump for all 5 kids. I only changed the main body once as it cracked. Overall, so far I only spent about RM400 for it. RM400 to feed 5 kids for over a year each. Tell me which husband/father would not get proud of that;).

I know most of you may have heard and read about this over and over;). But in case, young moms are here and need help, just give me a holler. Or just find extensive explanation in mymomsbest.com, a place we the experts used to hang out;).

Tiring, yes but any mom would keep on doing it for their babies. It is like having to read Peter and Jane series over and over. Thought I would puke doing it the second time (with Bea2 now) but seeing her got so excited with her new 'skill' is all worth it. Thought of just leaving it to the teachers but it is a routine now that she must plonk herself besides me before bedtime, with P&J in her hand.

And this is the healthy breastfed baby, doing some acrobatics!

Samperit or Dahlia

Ok I know Raya is over but please bear with me. And I know you can just google and find hundreds of post about it. But this is my 'adventure' in finding the right way to bake Samperit.

But first, Samperit or Dahlia? I guess both are of the same recipe but different shapes. The one with the flowery shape is called with both names but the long, with grooves on top is definitely Samperit.

Previously it was always ignored by me. I thought it was just some kuih made of butter, sugar and flour.

Someone that I consider an expert at baking said she got her samperit to taste good but she was not happy with the look. I wondered, how hard can it be?
Then during Raya, my sister showed me the most beautiful and tasty samperit I have ever seen and eaten. She reminded me that it is also called Dahlia, made with mainly cornflour and we used to make a lot of it when we we were younger.

Then I have a little "walk down memory lane" moments. I used to be assigned to cut the cherries into tiny, I mean really tiny as they were just expensive. And how I just loved that. Now I can relate to what Bea1 feels;).

So, I just got to make my own. The look of course is determined by the mould, and we must not get the dough to rise. I have made it in 3 batches, using 2 sizes each of closed and open star nozzles, and two samperit mold that the babysitter lend me. I was not satisfied with the look on the first two batches but they tasted yummy. Hubby said he promised a staff in the office some kuih raya for a favor that she did, and I guess my samperit was representable enough and I brought some to the office raya party. My Iraqi PhD student brought home some, and she told how her kids raved about it.

I finally had it close to what I want the third time around. But with Adel keep on asking to eat the raw dough, I didn't get all of them to be nice. At least,I found Wilton 6B is the most suitable for me, so far.


As not to get the dough to rise, I didn't even sift the flour. I only add the soften butter bit by bit till I get soft dough, that I could just pipe it from a piping bag.

The recipe basically is for a part of cornflour (always use good quality one, I used Brown and Polson), you need about 1/4 of plain flour, and 1/4 of icing sugar (depends on how sweet you want it), egg yolk (when mixed with the flour and sugar, enough to make it like breadcrumbs) and finally the addition of butter (good quality also), just enough to make it soft dough.

I just use my fingers to mix, and I just love using piping bag for cookies. It makes shaping the cookie faster. Now, I officially include Samperit as a must-have for raya cookie baking;).

Seriously, baking is like a therapy and challenge now, not something that I do when I have free time. What a minute...I, where got free time wan?;)

A restaurant in the apartment

The kids love to play "masak-masak", and sometimes they pretend running a restaurant. But before I bought the play kitchen, they never had something this extensive. With the other toys and stuffs available, they come up with this:


At the back, castle tent is the restromm. That's a relatively very huge restroom for a restaurent;). The piece of white paper is a "tandas" signage. A peek through the door would show a chair in there as the throne;). On the kitchen high "cabinet", small books from the Ladybirb series are used as plates. There are also rolling pin, baking pan and a few other from the Ikea Duktid series.

That's Bea2 busy running the kitchen. Besides the two toy containers is our old TV stand, that I just so want to trash. They use it as an area to place the food before serving.

Food can be from anything...wooden blocks, parts of an aeroplane, small pieces of paper that they tear, rice/spaghetti from the kitchen, I mean MY kichen *sigh*.

The easel is where they paste the menu of the day;). And you can see more food waiting to be served. On the table, the purple thing is an activity table but without the legs. It is a cash register. Bea1 used to beg me to buy one, but the only thing I saw costs over RM100. With this, she stopped asking.

And on your right are the table and chairs for the customers. When they are really at it, each would take specific role: chef, cashier and waitress. Adel is always persuaded to be the customer. And he always can't sit still and that's frustrating to the girls;). The waitress is always Bea1, as she is the only one that can take proper order. And yes, it is with the right spelling in a small booklet.

A lot of time, they involve the parents too by coming to us and asking what we would like to have.

That part of the apartment is the messiest BUT frankly I love it when my kids play that way. So I don't really mind. They spend a lot of time here, and that always mean peaceful time for me to do my stuffs and no fight with papa over the TV remote
*rolls eyes*.

I plan to give this area a good paint and get their toys to be more organised but it stays as a plan for a long time. It really does not matter and the kids do not complain.

A few things are missing from my kitchen but I don't really mind if they don't touch my baking stuffs. And you may guess that 99.9% is Ikea in that restaurant.

And I even love looking at them playing. And I knew it, the purchase of the most expensive toy (the kitchen) is all worth it. Who knows one day, they decide to really operate a real restaurant and mama23beas can goyang kaki already...haha!