Cooking For The Family

Hubby is out-station in Tawau these few days. He will be back on Sunday evening.

My sister and I jogged at the park near Taman Perdana this morning. Returning from exercise, my 2 boys were still sleeping. Today is Hari Kebangsaan, no school today.

I finally made kuih dadar (pandan pancake with coconut filling). That was delicious. I wanted to make for so long, but didn't get the mood doing that. I like the grated coconut sweetened with gula melaka, and the fragrant pandan flavoured pancake. Every ingredient is fresh.

I bought a grated coconut at Borneon for RM1.80. Using my wok, add some water and gula melaka, simmer until the syrup thickened. Add in grated coconut and mix well with the syrup. Let cool. I keep in freezer if I have no time to make the pancake.

From my back yard, I plucked a few pandan leaves, cut them shorter, and blend with some water. The pandan flavoured juice extracted is green in colour. Use it for making batter for the pancake.

Since I do not have non-stick frying pan, I use my all-purpose wok for the pancake. The first few did not come out good enough for me to roll the coconut fillings, so I sprinkled the grated coconut on top. My son said they taste good as well.

Breakfast was delicious. Buying good kuih dadar from the market is not easy. The pandan flavour is either not strong enough or artificially coloured, and the coconut normally is not juicy because the hawkers usually squeeze some santan away so that the grated coconut can last longer. Nothing is better than to cook my own food.

Last night I cooked spaghetti because my elder son missed my spaghetti.  We went out together in the afternoon to buy the ingredients.  Couldn't get hold of parmesan cheese powder at Bake With Me. Anyway, three of us enjoyed that last night. I still have some pasta in the fridge. Wonder whether I can fry the leftover pasta like mee and meehoon.

On average, I spend about three hours everyday on cooking the 3 meals.  I told my hubby that if not because of my love for them, and the joy of a mother's heart to see her children enjoying her cooking, I wouldn't be bother to spend so much time and effort to cook.

My husband told me that when he was young, he remembered his mother having to cook for the whole family including his 4 uncles and 6 aunties and his 6 siblings. Not only that, his grandma and aunties sometimes would complain about the food and left with washings undone.  That was unbearable. If I were to live such life, I think I would leave the house.  Glad that Chinese are not so traditional anymore.