Nasi Lemak Sambal Tumis Udang

The last time I made/had nasi lemak was when I did the surprise bday party for Michael. That was 2 months ago and I was craving for it. So last week, I made them again. Fried anchovies, hard boiled egg and cucumber are a-must for me when I have my nasi lemak. Want some? ;)

So sweet

Quote of the day

"Regis is sweet and funny and confused. So he made me feel wanted and needed"

- Joy Philbin on being asked abt her husband, Regis Philbin, host of Regis & Kelly show on Friday July 27 show.

Owww... isnt that so sweet? ;)

Love (not) thy Neighbour

I may not be the friendliest ppl on earth but i do say hi, hello or at least a smile whenever i bump into our neighbours or the workers. Be it along the hallway or in the mailroom. Sometimes I wish Im more like my mom who would walk around the neighbourhood with my dad and actually get to know the neighbours. I remember when my mom came to PA back in Aug 2004 to visit us (and witnessed our nikah). It was Sunday morning and we were still in bed (Michael was still working night shift then) so she went out walking around the neighbourhood, went to a few garage sales and bought a few stuff. Me? I havent even been to any of the garage sales then!

Anyway, yesterday I had an incident with 1 of our neighbours. I dont exactly know who that person is but Im gonna call her "bitch" in this story. Im also assuming that its a, her. Before I start, let me just say that when it comes to laundry and/or clothes, Im a very particular person. I have my own "system" in washing, drying and folding them. Especially folding. I fold them in a certain way and will not be satisfied until and unless its done exactly that (my) way. Maybe 1 day I will tell the story when I was in UiTM but today its about the bitch neighbour.

There are 2 washers and 2 dryers in the laundry room on each floor. Unfortunately for the past 2 weeks, 1 of the dryers have not been working properly which left us with only 1 functional dryer.

So yesterday as usual 2 loads of laundry. With only 1 dryer to work with, I had to do them 1 by 1 (obviously!). When I was putting the 2nd load in, I saw that both the washers are already being used and somehow I had this feeling that that person is going to mess with my clothes in the dryer after she's done with the washing. I dont know why I felt that way since Iv never had any problem before but I did. True enough, 45min later when I went to the laundry room to pick up the clothes, they were all on the folding table and the dryer was being used with the time saying 32min left. My clothes were not just taken out from the dryer but they were taken out before the 45min were up! I was so furious. In my head i was already thinking of;

1. taking the bitch's clothes out and put them on the floor and step on them.
2. putting them into the dustbin (in the laundry room)
3. putting them into the rubbish chute (goes down str8 to the big dustbin in the basement)

But Im a good person/housewife/neighbour so I let the bitch go easily. I only opened the door of the dryer.

Chicken on a skewer a.k.a. Satay Ayam

I cheated. I know and im quite ashamed of it but hey! We live in an apartment and the only grill that we have is the electric grill, a x'mas gift from my in laws.

I use minimum ingredients to marinate the chicken. Ginger, shallot, onion, cardamom seeds, lemongrass, salt, sugar, honey and vege oil and tumeric powder. OK. Maybe not minimum but it did sound minimum when I was making them. :P

Just blend all the ingredients and marinate for at least 20hrs. You can do it in lesser time but I like to taste all the ingredients in the meat when i eat them thus the lonnnnngggg marinating time.

Shirley i.e. Meltingwok told me tht I can simply grill them on the electril grill that we have. Just dont forget to keep lathering them with oil and honey. Ialso made the ketupat and peanut sauce (not in pic).

Presenting... Darwisy!

My sis-in-law, Fara gave birth to a healthy boy, Raja Darwisy on 07-07-07. This is the only pic that I have of him courtesy of my Aunty Som. He is the 5th nephews&nieces that I havent met in person yet. :(

Kaiser SUCKS!

I am so mad at the so-called customer service at Kaiser Permanente. As some of you know, we're trying to get pregnant. My nightmare started the moment I made the phone call for my appointment.

Medical care in the US is so different from Malaysia. Although I have never needed a gynae then, I do know that if you're trying to get pregnant, you just go and make an appointment to see one. So after telling the customer service what I want (to get/go thru fertility treatment), I was finally given a date, a month and a half away from the day that I called. I was told that they would send me a reminder about my appointment. Did they? NO. Fine ......

On the day of my appointment, June 25, i found out that I was seeing a certified nurse midwife (CNM). (Can someone please highlight me if a cnm is a gynae? Im serious. I really need someone to tell me if there's a diff between those 2) Since Iv already done my paps smear 2 mths earlier so I didn need to take another one. All that she has to do is put my name in the computer to sign me up for the fertility class or something like that. (for that we parted with $30 for our co-pay) Iwas told that somebody would call me to set the appointment date for the class. Sounds familiar? Of course nobody called.

So earlier today, I called the customer service (her name is Angela) again hoping that THEY will do something about it or at least let me know what the hell is going on in their multi-million dollar facilities. I am not easily angered if I get the service that I expected. And that's the key-word. SERVICE. When I pay for a service, I expect that I would have to do the minimum and THEY, do the rest. Imagine how I felt when i was told to call the CNM myself to find out what happened to my appointment and that the call never came? I let all my dissatisfaction known to her. She, on the other hand told me to contact the CNM myself. Basically telling me tht its my duty to make sure that THEY give me a call so that I get the appointment that I needed. Does that even make sense? And to make my blood-go-upstairs even more, since I keep questioning her why I need to do all that, she rudely just said to me, "im going to tranfer your call to the doctor's voicemail now" and thats it. She just transfered my call. Anak haram sungguh! Pardon my language.

Dealing with the insurance/medical here is like walking in a maze. Its just so frustratingly frustrating. And I still dont know what is it that we have to do or need before we can actually get the treatment that we want. Or if even need any treatment.

Dapurku Masih Berasap

Its been a while since I last post anything about food. Doesnt mean that I havent been cooking though. Its just that Im too lazy to "present" my food. This is my Clam Fettuccine with light white wine sauce. My 2nd time making them thanks to the recipe that I got fr Rasa Malaysia.


Being lazy-me, I got the basic idea fr her foodblog and then made my own sauce. I just sauteed the thinly sliced ginger with some olive oil, add abt 1.5 cup of white wine and half-cup water until it boils. Add the clam and cubed tomatos, cover for about 3-4min. Uncover, add salt, sugar and pepper to taste and stir for another 1-2min. Pour on top of cooked fettuccine.

This pic is taken by Michael. Somehow, the way I arranged the dishes on my plate amused him. lol! No, I didnt cook the siput sedut. I got them in a box (frozen) from the asian supermarket. Its actually Viatnamese and tyer's pretty sweet to my taste. So what I did was just cut some thai chilis and add some salt when I reheat them. What you dont see in the pic is a bowl of my sambal belacan and a bottle of sweet soy sauce. ;)