HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO HUBBY AND ME!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAK!!!

Yesterday 2nd September , hubby and I celebrated our 20Th wedding anniversary. This year our anniversary was indeed very special because it fell during the Ramadan month. Every year we would out for dinner with the kids especially because my eldest Shak shares her birthday on the same day. This year to my surprise, hubby had other plans. He decided to cook for iftar! I was a little sceptical at first especially when he told me he is cooking fish. After some persuasion I finally agreed but I told him to please have a back plan, in case the food did not turn out well, the kids would not have anything for breaking fast. So he quickly checked the number for pizza delivery as plan B.

We started the day with a trip to the fish market and bought the fish fillets and vegetables. Later in the afternoon hubby was googling on the net for last minute recipes!! I was getting quite nervous. I thought he already had a menu in mind. So when I asked him what is he doing looking for recipes, he coolly said that there is another item on his menu and he forgot to look up the recipe!! By this time it was already 4pm. Another three hours to iftar and here we have not started on anything.

Exactly after Asr prayers hubby announced that he is heading for the kitchen, and I followed suit. First he prepared all the vegetables for grilling. Then he cut up tomatoes for the soup. The fish which was already cutup only needed washing and marinating. For the chips we cut up some potatoes. Yup I couldn't stop helping poor hubby.And finally the mystery item which he was googling for recipe was couscous. It was prepared in a flash.

The final product was:

Pan fried oat and breadcrumbs crusted fish fillets
with Grilled aubergine, red and yellow peppers in spiced olive oil
with onion and garlic flavoured couscous and a tangy homemade sauce.

For the kids especially my son MS and Sofi there was homemade potato chips.
Although it was also Shak's birthday, she did not get to enjoy her father hard work because she had gone back to college.

So the final product is these photos. The food? Well what can I say. It was excellent. I guess all of us including my kids did not think their father can cook so well. He actually produced a very healthy nutritious meal and all of us enjoyed it very much.

I would like to say a million thanks to hubby for wanting to cook for me and I wish us both A Happy Anniversary May Allah swt Bless us and our Family and give us many more years together. Amen

And to Shak, Happy Birthday again!! I know she is having a great time in college. What with the surprise birthday cake that she got from her good friends at 12 am and so many wishes and gifts.




SPICY TOMATO SOUP WITH SOUR CREAM


THE FINAL PRESENTATION (but oops, hubby forgot to pu the chips and couscous on the plate


BREADED FISH BEING PAN FRIED


IN ACTION!!

MerDeka !!!! MerDeka !!! mERdEKa!!!

Tonight on 31st August 2008, we are going to celebrate our nation’s 51st birthday or Independence Day. 51 years ago, while we were still called Malaya, our first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj, led a delegation of ministers and political leaders of Malaya negotiating with the British in London for Merdeka, or independence along with the first president of the Malayan Chinese Association (MCA) Tun Dato Sir Tan Cheng Lock and fifth President of Malaysian Indian Congress Tun V.T. Sambanthan. It was decided that the official proclamation of Malaya independence would be made on August 31, 1957, at Stadium Merdeka (Independence Stadium), in Kuala Lumpur, and we are then named as Malaysia, until today.

Thus my kids and I being the patriotic lot decided to paint and express our love for our country through our art. Here are the pictures:)

Artist Extraordinaire

My family and I had just came back from Kuala Lumpur after visiting my eldest Shak whose in college there.Since it is still the school holidays and hubby is also on leave, we decided to do painting with our two other kids MS and Sofi. My children just love painting and sometimes they become very competitive and try and out do each other. Most of the time it is fun watching them but other times it can go out of control and they will end up quarelling. This time I decided to let everyone to choose whatever they want to paint without a specific title. The end result was quite amazing. Hubby Ak painted a night scenery,my son MS who is so into the Beijing Olympics, painted the logo, Sofi decided on a daylight scenery and I chose Batik design. Here are the pictures of the painting.