Be warned: this is not a blog about cooking per se!

I'm delighted. MrD has been adventurous in the kitchen. Last Thursday, he tried his hands on pizza. It was yummy but the kids didn't have enough. Naturally, on Friday we had MORE pizza. My princess took orders and we had different toppings. MrD even had stuffed crust!

While all this took place, I had to take a very supportive role - not too domineering, not too detached. I was there to lend a helping hand (ie: lay the ingredients on the table correctly measured) and played dumb at any other administrative role. The result was super-excellent! The last time I tried my hand at pizza-making was many years ago. Somehow, it was always much easier to call up Pizza Hut or Dominos whenever there was the temptation to have any!


The excitement of preparing fresh and wonderful pizza certainly gave quite an impact on MrD. At the carboot sale yesterday, he picked 3 recipe books: Thai, Sushi and Microwave Cooking. Thai food is definitely MrD's favourite! We have made numerous trips to Thailand (Haatyai, Phuket and the borders) and he made sure we explored all the recommended Halal restaurants around. The after effect was expected - I had to try fixing almost-similar dishes, if not identical!!


I think he picked the book on Sushi after the Japanese dinner mamasarah and mynn prepared. Hmm... I will have to think of some tactics to make sure he tries his hands on those!


According to MrD, he purchased the Microwave Cooking book simply because it was only 5p. I have no trust in microwave cooking because I don't think food can be transformed into anything traditional cooking does. My conventional-oven roast chicken is much more sexy-looking and mouth-watering than the microwave roast! However, the book boasts beautiful pictures of cakes, roasts, etc. So, maybe today I will try something just to convince myself that it can definitely be done.

At the end of each experiment MrD had in the kitchen, I made sure that we praised him to no end. We even sang out a jingle for him: Pizza Lie... (to the Pizza Hut tune). Okay, some call it tactical but I call it support. I know I can probably do an equally good job at it if I wanted to (perasan!) but it is great when he makes an effort at cooking and has some speciality for the table. For certain, wives and mommies out there will agree with me on this one.

To my darling MrD, we'll never purchase another pizza unless we have to!

ps: Last weekend, MrD bought 3 pizza trays - showing how serious he is with the pizza business!

A superb sushi dinner!

Our ping-pong visits have not ended. Last night was our turn to visit mamasarah & family for dinner. The masterchef was preparing sushi. Sooooooo nice! Mamasarah was so stressed out - which plate to use, which bowl should I put this in, etc...etc... I really felt that the dinner was too much for her. She went through the trouble thinking (oh, this is undoubtedly very stressful, you know?) of what Japanese desert to serve us.


I am not going to attempt to name the things we were served. For a layman like me, it was this:




along with some satay-like yummies, tempura fried king prawns and veges (sorry no picts), and some fried rice.

Desert was this:





(hey, this picture was taken before the strawberry sauce was poured!)


and this:
and also some banana delicious cake little sarah baked!


Please forgive me for not capturing them on camera but I was more engrossed in talking and eating that the camera was neglected. Never mind, for better pictures, please go here.


Now, the interesting thing that happened last night was how my little boy bluntly asked the hosts for some tea! He must still remember the wonderful teh tarik served for him the other day. While I was still gobbling the delights, he patiently waited and watched mamasarah fix his tea! He had 3 cups last night!!!

Already, we're making plans to bake together... but I don't want to put more stress on mamasarah. We'll see how things work out, or not work!