phaNtasmagoria: Nuances of Life

2007



2008
The breakdowns were still happening. My laptop remains a loyal help (i bring at least 3 bags everyday-laptop bag,handbag& me lunch bag), & i remained a loyal 'form-filler' for item breakdown..!





Oct2009
It's the same form of problem the whole time. Lucky the person in charge has changed & a more concerned-person i noticed. Some improvements but they couldn't last long due to financial issue. Iza told me it's the motherboard that's of no use anymore. So, it was not till the last couple of weeks of the 1st semester that i heard the good news. Hopefully, i'l be able to display it's new look after this ;)


p/s: I've been the butt of jokes of anything related to 'memoboard'/'noticeboard' at the office ever since!?

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Emak gave me a plastic full of roselle buds, about 30 of them maybe. She bought them at the Pasar Tani & thought I might want to make me some roselle cordial back in MT.

Worrying that they might turn bad if left in the fridge for a long time (I’m feeling so lazy lately) I decided to brew them in the night. Perhaps I could bring them to work tomorrow for my colleagues. It’s been food always being brought to office, so let’s bring drink for a change ;)

1. Clean the buds/petals first & throw away the round seed inside. Breaking them apart at the same time.

I found out that a certain species has soft but sharp hairs on them, particularly the one that my mom bought here, big & round ones. If they got stuck in your fingers, just pull them off under running water, though the act does seem like you’re pulling imaginary thorns (they were so tiny & almost invisible, u could only feel them when you put your fingers together, which signals that they are already stuck there! :p )

So try to buy/find big & longish roselle buds as my youngest sister and I noticed that these are the ones that do not have such prickly hairs at all when we made them during last eid. We got them from a relative’s house.

2. Boil 1 ½ litre of RO water, stir in ¾ or 1 kg of sugar along with the roselle bits.

3. Brew for half an hour.

Roselle’s colour & flavour are quite strong, so you can drain the first brew and repeat the process with the same roselle bits. Otherwise, brew once for abt 45 min. Keep the cordial in a bottle in the fridge so you can easily fix up a roselle drink whenever you want later :)

The drained roselle can be kept in the fridge also & serve along with pancakes/scones/pudding or even on its own.

I made roselle drink for the office for 2 days in a row. Kept it in a 2 litre tupperware in the fridge for anyone’s access. Didn’t bring any on the next day, which was also the last day of working before the 1 week break. But SHAH came in front of me with a glass in her hand asking if I brought any, unfortunately…

Still have another bottle of the concentrated brew at my place. Roselle drink anyone?

p/s:Did u know that roselle is another species of hibiscus?

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Kihkih… "Life is an open secret "– indeed!

Jgn marah ye Lat...

Too lazy to cook but really wanted to eat something decent. Managed to drag myself to fix this;



1. Steam cut potatoes & carrots for about 20 minutes (depends on the size)
2. Arrange chopped nuggets/sausages, halved cherry tomatoes (chopped garlic sprinkled on them) on a baking pan.
3. Cut in some butter/ margarine & put the pan in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. – grill the tomatoes separately if you’re afraid they get burnt alongside the sausages in your oven (Lazy me just cook them together since the sausages were thinly sliced - purposely).
4. Once done, mix them together with the carrots & potatoes adding mayonnaise & some white pepper.Hmm, something that I can make again n again… Comfort food indeed!

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• The ‘original recipe’ plus diced celery /& japanese cucumber/zucchini.
• Or add also steamed potatoes cut into cubes for a heavy salad.
• Mix well

I’ve been reading on recipes using cauliflower. There’s a simple cauliflower soup of which you blend the steamed cauliflower, pour into a bowl, sprinkle spoonful of olive oil & spring onion for garnish & voila!

I remember my ex-housemate, an Indian girl, taught me one of her family’s fav teatime snack made by her mom; Fried cauliflower. So simple yet surprisingly so delicious! you just need to;

• · Cut the cauliflower into small florets
• · Make the batter: a cup of flour, ½ teaspoon of chilli powder, ½ teaspoon of curry powder, 1 egg, some salt & mix them up with water accordingly. I added some chopped garlic.
• · Mix in the chopped cauliflower & deep fry them.
  

This made me think of Indian tempura, hehe…I really like the soft texture of fried cauliflower.

Thanks also to my colleague, AMZ for mentioning to me about the scramble egg with cauliflower puree on toast (I think that was how it was put?? I might have mistaken among the many recipes mentioned?!), which led me to this hearty meal of open sandwich;

Egg & cauliflower sandwich topper

• · 1 egg
• · Chopped carrots
• · Chopped cauliflower (/into small florets)
• · 2 slices of bread
• · Some chopped cilantro
• · 2 cheese slice
• · Salt & pepper

1. Steam some chopped carrots & cauliflower (plus the egg if you have a 2 or 3-tier electric steamer) for about 10 minutes

2. Once cooled, peel the egg shell & then slice the egg horizontally (can make 5-6 slices each)

3. Arrange the egg slices on the bread, sprinkle over the carrot & cauliflower, some salt & pepper, some chopped cilantro.

4. Finally cover them with the cheese slice, which fits nicely on the square open sandwich.

5. Bake in the oven for abt 3-5 minutes, just to melt the cheese & give a little crunch to the bottom of the sandwich.

*you can mash the boiled egg with butter/margerine if you want for extra texture

Simple, quick & yummy! & healthy too!
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