Life As A Kitchen Guardian

Khadijah while we ate at Cosy House in GEM, picture taken using my new Nikon D3000, hadiah for self after one year's penat lelah in the office, sacrificing time from the family, purchased using my bonus money which was slashed by the bigger bosses.....but alhamdullilah, rezeki and sujud syukur!

I have been out of the loop for quite sometime, I have been terribly busy in the office and at home, and my dslr had given me some technical hitches as well. The workload in the office is getting more, and at the same time I am not willing to let my baking just slipped from my fingers! So, it is a case of juggling and chewing whatever I can. And handling growing up kids...oh you mothers out there, you know what I'm going through.

So, this is my routine lately....wake up early (as in around 5.30 in the morning) to prepare lunch and dinner for the family, or if I had a late night, it would usually be 6.30 which gives me just enough time to prepare myself to go work. At work, breakfast is a must! Lately, it has been a packed nasi lemak from MyNews at Level 2. If I missed my breakfast, my lunch would then be Maggi InACup as lunch time is usually my errand time, if I don't need to go to my PJ office for meetings. Errand means going to Bake With Yen to get my baking supplies, and if I am in PJ it would be Cake Connection or Bake With Yen or Chantung in Taman Megah. I will try as best possible to finish work for the day (contracts or replying emails and opinions) by 5.30, but off late, I have failed miserably, to go home early. Yesterday, my meeting started at 5.30 and it dragged on until half past eight!

Once arriving at the pintu kayu, Hajar will greet me with "Gula? Gula?", asking for sweets...while Muhammad will be crawling as quickly as possible to get my hand! And Umar and Ibraheem will be competing on who gets my attention first in their raised voices, it would be complaints about teachers, school or about their siblings! I will usually calm all of them first, take a shower, solat and see that they take their dinners. Actually, the boys usually eat when they reached home at around 5.00, but it will be a second round when I have my dinner. Husband is usually still at the office or at the hospital. Then, they will attend to their homeworks (Yusof never seem to have any?), while I get Wahyan to prep Muhammad and Hajar for bed time, and Kitchen Guardian will start a mess in the kitchen!

The oven is usually warm beginning Wednesday nights, right up to Friday nights. But, lately it has been Tuesday, break on Wednesday or Thursday and continue again on Friday and Sunday. The past two weeks have been quite a breather, I only have the usual cakes to do, and I baked many many chocolate moist cakes with ganache and carrot cakes. Sedap kot, there has been repeated orders! I will be a bit stressed if I had to do novelty cakes in fondant, even though I enjoy doing them more!

Friday nights used to be my nights with hubby, not anymore, he works late and I have to come home to see the children, otherwise, it would not be fair for them! Saturday....it is Pasar Tani day, icing cakes, send Yusof and Ibraheem for tuition, Yusof for futsal afterwards, spend some time at home with Hajar and Muhammad while hubby sends Ibraheem and Umar to English at Lorna's, entertain guests in the evening, perhaps watch DVD with hubby and zzzzzz. Sunday....it's cleaning the home day, I personally clean the toilets and kitchen, they are my territory, do dry groceries, cook lunch (if we go out for lunch, I cook dinner!), and entertain guests! Of course there are days where I would just skipped the cleaning, and spend time with the kids, instead. Time with the family is more precious!

And so, the cycle goes on and on.....so, I'm not a supermom, I'm merely a working mother whose passion in cooking and baking and doing all these at work ( I also cook for my office colleagues, boss ordered Nasi Tomato, Ayam Masak Merah, Acar and Dalca and Carrot Cake all individually packed for her birthday on Wednesday!) far exceeds my physical strength. And the motivation is that one day I can be on my own taking my own sweet time doing cakes in my own little cake shop and cooking and having the pleasure of whether I want to take up an order or not - kan!

Black pepper squid, Cosy House GEM.

Khadijah's favourite, black pepper udon mee.

Beehoon fried with dried chilli, my favourite!

Chocolate Moist Cake with Chocolate Ganache, ordered by Noni and also given away as sample. Thank you Noni, Wiz for the opportunity! Chocolate Moist Cake with Star Wars toy for Azrai!

Vanilla cuppies for Angah, thank you Aisya!