Charity Lunch

Saturday, 1 October 2011

. . .eating...

eating good food. . .

One of Papa's lecture to me when the kids were growing up was about eating good food and drinking lots of plain water. Papa reads newspapers. . .when I was young, I remember having newspapers to read everyday. Papa will read the paper from front to the back, withour leaving any column behind. . .I think. . for he spends a long time to read them. As a result he knows lots of things and shares with me. Papa said kids need good food, kids are also like a tree, it will grow big and healthy when you water them, put fertilizer to them. So, in order for my children to grow healthy I need to feed them well. I know and thanks to Papa who constantly share infos with me. I did follow his suggestions, my kids were well fed when they were in my custody. . .I will definitely feed them with good nutritious food when they are back with me. . .InsyaAllah.

I am still watching my diet as always. I eat good and nutritious food which I cook when I have the time. Good food is the key to good health. healthy body and healthy mind.

When Khairina and Farhana were abducted from us, I couldn't eat for several weeks. The first week was terrible, I can't eat. . .I was crying and feeling very weak. I just couldn't get myself to eat. I was hungry but I can't eat. My Sayang Riza was no better . . . we shared our food. . .eating was then just to keep us alive and gave us energy to pray. We were too devastated by the abduction, they were taken away from us. We were in such a terrible state . . . we need to gain back our strength in life and continue for we have so many other things that we need to do as long as we live in this world. From the day the children were taken away. . .we recite Yaasin daily. . .My Sayang Riza never missed. . .we are still reciting . . .every single day until the children return to us. We will not stop. InsyaAllah...

Spiritually. . .we are getting stronger and stronger day by day but physically we were still weak. . .we were not eating well. By November 2010, I was already back to work and we were squarting in Kajang at Paman Komari's house, abah's cousin. We ate out and occasionally eat with paman. We just eat to survive. Then we returned to Batu Gajah for weekend and the school holidays.

Alhamdulillah, we are eating better now. I can cook my own food. Choose my own vegetable and cook them. Life is wonderful. Meals are very simple nowadays, Basmathi rice, one meat dish, one vegetable or salad and My Sayang Riza's favourite Sambal Belacan. For fruits, i go for fruit juice as they are easier to keep, fruit gets 'kecut' and it got rotten.

I have some time to do what I like best, that is to cook for people to it. Thank you for this opportunity again.,

Butter Cakes

Butter Cakes. . .

When mummy came to BG that day, I bake butter cakes to send to Mak's house for Mak and Abah were having open house. Mummy joined me in my little kitchen. We sat in the kitchen and she watched me mixing the butter cake. I said to her, mummy. . . do you remember the first time we make cakes together. . .mummy said ada ke? Bila.
. . .Don't you remember then, when we were still in Peringat, I was 11 at that time. We baked butter cakes, it was a marble butter cake, we mix green and red to it. It turned out to be a nice cake and we brought it to Tok Wan's house in Wakaf Mek Zainab. . .

I always remember the fond memories of me and my mummy as well as other loves of my life. . .my children, my siblings, my grandparents and my friends. Those memories stay with me in the time of trouble and difficulties. It was pretty difficult and painful when you lost those love ones in your life. . . You may not understand now. . .but later you may. . .if you are lucky enough to continue reading and I am lucky enough to continue writing.

I baked beautiful butter cakes, thanks to Rohayu Win for sharing the wonderful recipe with me. I just do manually. . .not in need of electric mixer.

Later the day, mummy told me that she remembered the baking cake session I mentioned to her. How do i forget if I am the only 11 year old who bake cake with her mummy. Mummy has this round oven. . .our life was different from those ordinaries in Peringat then. . . For Hari Raya, our clothes were different from the rest because mummy will order the better and more expensive ready made clothes from the 'makcik jual kain',she will only buy for the three of us. . .same design but different colour. She won't buy the same and sell it to the villagers. I remember having a beautiful princess like gown for Hari Raya that year. Mine was purple. Zila's was red and Ziha's was pink. The gown was so pretty and I always feel very pretty wearing it. . .like a princess.

We were lucky because mummy has a grocery shop at that time. She is earning her own income. Her shop was one of the most frequented shops in Kedai Peringat because she is very pretty. . .she is still pretty now. . . She is prettier than me, she has sharp nose. . .I have a part of my papa's nose and part of mummy's nose. . . My Sayang Riza's nose is the sharpest and the most beautiful nose. . .I envy him.

Ladies of 25 to 45 of age like to come to our shop, especially when they need to buy gifts for weddings, mummy knows how to wrap the gifts nicely and later I learned to wrap gifts. Mummy would let me wrap the gifts and I helped her occasionally in the shop. Next to mummy's shop is Ayoh's and Mok's shop. Ayoh had a small coffee shop, later turned grocery shop when we moved to Tampin. I liked to help Ayoh at his coffee shop as well.

At mummy's grocery shops, there were many things, biscuits, sweets, junk food. . .we don't need to buy from other shops. . .but I visited other shops and bought what was not available from our shop. Hehehehe. I was born in Kedai Peringat, went to kindergarden and my primary school was SKPeringat.

Coming back to the butter cake story. . .i don't actually eat much of it. I bake to feed people. . . Zol said he likes butter cakes, only butter cakes. I have been baking all my life. . .I bake for my children. . .one of this days, I will be baking Iskandar's favourite kiwi muffins. . .InsyaAllah.