Sunday, February 11, 2007

A surprisingly lovely Sunday

Our weekend turned out to be quite surprisingly eventful in the end. Today, although cold, has been deceptively bright sunny and normally on days like this, I would have brought PMS and the two kids out somewhere for a breath of fresh air. However, I was traumatised by our car's recent breakdown and it was cold anyway so we decided to stay indoors.

We'd been extremely busy.

Puan Mama Sarah had invited our lovely neighbours - D & family - over for dinner, it'd be the first time D's husband would come over. It was a Japanese themed dinner.

Because the weather was so nice, I did part of the work outdoors. I put a matt on the concrete floor, took out Sarah's small desk, chopping board, vegetables - and happily did the cutting out doors. It was cold, but wonderful.

Meanwhile, Puan Mama Sarah stayed indoors to prepare her dishes.

Don't you love the look of those fresh, succulent king prawns.

Many hours later - the dinner was finally completed, against all odds. The menu was; salmon teriyaki (from scratch),

Tempura vegetables, squid and prawns. To be honest, when Puan Mama Sarah mentioned she wanted to make tempura I couldn't help but stifle a laugh as tempura is extremely difficult to make. I've read that the batter has to be mixed with ice cubes to lower its temperature, then the coated ingredients has to be friend in very high heat. The extreme difference in temperature would cause the batter to superbly crisp. Anyway, the joke was on me as PMS' tempura was actually quite good.

Above is Puan Mama Sarah's yakitori chicken, her grilled chicken on skewers. It was delicious. The picture above was taken by PMS herself.

Much less impressive was sushi, I suppose. I've made it so many times I think it's becoming cliche already. I managed to procure quite nice smoked salmon fillets from Tesco - and they were just luscious. Above picture ALSO taken by Puan Mama Sarah.


Pictured is Puan Mama Sarah's dessert, inspired by a post on Ifos' blog - about her eating sushi and then for dessert she was served with fruit sushi, with chocolate rice and strawberry sauce. Above is our rendition of the same. (We added the strawberry sauce later).

D's children, helping themselves to the food. Above picture also taken by Puan Mama Sarah.

The children's tea party/conference.

I've finally found myself a drinking mate. D's four year old is as almost as much into tea as I am! He managed to drink three cups of tea tonight, about as much as what I managed too. Cayalah. I have to invite him again for tea next time.

Wish you guys were here Rosli, Hila, Aida, Fazuan & families.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like PMS' photography skills are getting better, Mynn. Will she take over the mantle as the family photographer, I wonder? ;)

nuhaafnan said...

imagine, ms & mynn wrestling on the ground for the dslr, LOL! Lovely2 pictures. I'm just lost for words right now, tapi tetap nak komen! hehe

Anonymous said...

I 'DEMAND' the same dish next time we drop by in the 'NEAR' future muahahahaha..

p/s to PMS: Many will be watching your photography from now on..including me hehe! apa lagi?? EOS 5D laa satu for next bday muahahahaha

Anonymous said...

Nice pictures..
Wasabi tak de ker?

Anonymous said...

moby
PMS' skills are definitely improving. I do have to fill her in slightly with the technical controls but she's getting the hang of it.

anne
wrestling on the ground?? hey, we're not like you and martian, you know.

Li
hehehe, insya allah. PMS is already asking for a Nikon DSLR!

azie
the sushi is laced with wasabi - infact, it was too hot even for me! (whoops).

Anonymous said...

Oh?! now you guys are thinking of having a second dslr camera?
Well, if you are looking for someone to 'give away' one of them, I'll be glad to take one 'anak (camera) angkat' ;P

Anonymous said...

sedap nyerrrrr! nasib baik dah makan lunch :)

Anonymous said...

Whatttttt??? Nikon??? janganla PMS.. takke rugi nanti nak kena beli 2 bijik 50mm 1.4 for both makes! Don't be fool with its colours PMS there's nothing like a Conon kan mynn kan??

mynn said...

Li
yeah, i'm happy with canon, absolutely. it is a waste to buy two different dslrs types.

pinky
:) one person used to say before visiting PMS & yours truly's blogs one should eat first.

dyanna
puan mama sarah wishes she has her own dslr. owning one in itself costs a small fortune - to maintain two dslrs I have to sell a kidney ...!

Anonymous said...

Caaanoon is the best! traaa la laa la la!

Anonymous said...

Hey..forgot to ask..did you get to test that fill in technique yet?? had a go myself and i have to say that both technique is not much different except this one put more sense in your head. but still...you need to now where to lock your metering otherwise it wont work..and also its a bit of a guessing game on how much to compensate your fill. Anyway, thanks for sharing..great find mynn!

Anonymous said...

Rosli
with regards to the new flash techniques - the tutorial is ABSOLUTELY excellent because now, we could control not only background exposure, but also foreground exposure. Ive done a few tests and it worked.

I think the techniques are alot better than the notes we read because now we have full control of exposure, right?

cant wait to really put it to the test when im off & the weather is excellent.

Anonymous said...

Don't worry, you can always get a new kidney at a much lower price at thailand :P