Random

Bike in the house.

Mini chocolate croissants. Ready made pastry sheet, egg, chocolate button. Bake for 15 minutes at 220C.

Off to Proud Mary coffee shop.

Pretty weather. Chilling out with husband at Brunetti's Cafe.

Cake Decorating Magazines. Cheap with lotsa free gifts!

Ignore the bloke. It's like a science lab in here. Proud Mary, 172 Oxford St.

Plate to Pixel and Pasta for Lunch!

I was delighted to received my Plate to Pixel book by Helena Dujardin, last evening from Book Depository. By the way Helena's the blog owner of Tartelette, one of my favourite foodography blogs. So I flipped through the book, and I super loved the content and admired how 'personal' she had been in writing the content of this book. :)

Oh! And husband has been such an angel to cooked this Grilled Chicken and Mushroom Carbonara Pasta for our lunch today. Yumm! :)

Spring Clutch

Sewn a clutch last Sunday. I'm in the mood for Spring! :)

Recipe: Asparagus & Mushroom Risotto

What we had for today, again thanks to my husband for god knows how rajin he had been and will be! He made this yummy asparagus and mushroom risotto for our lunch today. It was really nice and creamy but just perfect enough to satisfy our appetites. :)

Since there have been a few people asking me about the recipe, thought I'm just gonna share it here.

Asparagus and Mushroom Risotto

Ingredients:

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 onion, diced

2 cups of Arborio rice

4 cups of chicken stock

1 cup of boiling water 

1 cup of grated Parmesan

50g of butter, chopped

1 cup of fresh button mushroom

1-2 bunches of asparagus, cut into 5cm pcs

Freshly ground black pepper, to serve

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a large saucepan on medium heat. Saute onion for 5 mins, until softened

2. Add rice and stir to coat grains

3. Add stock and water, bring to boil and reduce heat to low

4. Simmer, covered for 12 mins or until the rice is tender

5. Remove pan from heat

6. Add butter, saute mushroom and asparagus

7. Combine grated Parmesan with rice and sauteed mushroom and asparagus

8. Serve risotto with freshly ground black pepper

Colours of Melbourne

Grilled Salmon, Baked Potatoes and Dill Sauce

I think the ultimate perk of having a husband who loves (and rajin) to cook good food is that you can always be fed with good food. I am thankful to Allah! Definitely. I was born and raised in a family that loves to cook and eat and indulge other people with good food. Me dad was a really good cook. Ayam percik, nasi minyak, gulai lemak, you tell me, those were all beyond words to described. Me mum's too. Her sambal udang, orange cake, nasi ayam, etc. Those are definitely to die for! I maybe kinda bias here but both my sisters are too and my mother in law, she's brilliant! We're lucky that we know how to value food and eat, cook and indulge people with our cooking. 

So yeah, as of today, as usual me being the busy 'hungry' student and husband's being the usual ultra-rajin made this beautiful and ridiculously good dish, grilled salmon with baked potatoes and dill sauce. And I don't simply dig this sorta dish if we're out dining in some good restaurants or what. Simply because there are gazillions vegetables present in this dish and salmon being cooked with the existence of soy sauce. But boy I was wrong, it was beyond words! And again husband nailed it! Way, way, way better than what we had anywhere else. :)

I'm proud of him and I believed it does boost his confidence in cooking as well. I am his judge and also his lab rat, but I'm super fine with that. After all, cooking it's definitely a combination of having good skills, common sense & passion about it. ;)

Recipe: Chicken Parmesan crumbs & homemade potato wedges

Chicken Parmesan crumbs with mushroom sauce, homemade potato wedges & salad

We had this for lunch! And husband's the one who cooked this from scratch, from making fresh breadcrumbs to individually self-cut the potatoes into wedges. This dish is delicious as the chicken is beautifully cooked to perfection. Tender and tasty at the same time. My husband really nailed it. Kudos to him! :)

So here's the recipes, re-created by my husband inspired from one of the Cavalerro Restaurant & Cafe's menu. 

Chicken Parmesan Crumbs

Ingredients:

4 slices of 2 days-expired bread

1 cup of Parmesan cheese

1 cup of plain flour

1 egg

1/2 cup of milk

A pinch of salt

Fresh chopped parsley

4 pcs of (not-so-thick) chicken breast

Directions:

1. Put the bread into food processor and pulse it until it becomes finely processed crumbs

2. Stir the breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and chopped parsley, set aside

3. Combine the milk and the egg, set aside

4. Dip the chicken breast in the flour 

5. And then continue dipping it in the milk and egg mixture before dipping it into the breadcrumbs

5. Deep-fry until the chicken is golden brown

Crispy potato wedges

Ingredients:

2 pcs of potatoes

Salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Cut the potatoes into wedges

2. Boil it on medium heat for approximately 10 minutes, or until soft. 

3. Toast it and fry it until golden brown

4. Add seasoning to the wedges

Recipe: Quick Lasagna

Husband managed to get a job here in Melbourne. Nothing fancy but it can add-up extra money to our pockets to pay some bills in Malaysia. So since husband's no longer around to accompany me jalan-jalan, I have like lotsa time at home. Cooking and cleaning and studying and shopping. Lol. :D

Hence the need to make him good food is a MUST! So that husband will be happy & can earn more money for wifey, er us. ;) So apart from many dishes I cooked for husband and me for Iftar, I made him lasagna. It's very easy btw and here's the recipe:

Quick Lasagna

Ingredients:

For Sauce

3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

3 pcs of red chili, finely chopped (To make it a bit more spicy)

oregano/ fresh Basil, chopped

200g of chicken breast

1 carrot, cut in small pieces

1 can of tomato puree

chili sauce

coarse black pepper

4 pcs of cheddar cheese

salt

sugar

butter

canola cooking spray

grated Parmesan cheese

instant lasagna sheet

Method:

For Sauce

1. Fry onion, garlic, red chilli, oregano/basil & carrot in a little olive oil.

2. Add chicken breast & cook until brown. 

3. Add tomato puree, chili sauce, black pepper & cheddar sauce.

4. Salt and sugar to taste.

5. Sauce is done. Put aside and let it cool for a while.

6. Preheat oven at 180C.

7. Lightly greased baking dish/disposable aluminium foil container with canola coking spray and place a layer of the sauce.

8. Add a lasagna sheet, then Parmesan cheese. Repeat to your desired layers.

9. Top with knobs of butter and bake for 40-45 minutes until thoroughly cooked.

Sorry for the poor quality photos, I just took it from my Instagram and the warm light at my house doesn't do any justice to my food & photos.

Praise to Allah!

Alhamdulillah (Praise to Allah)...

We were sooooo relieved when we got the visas that very Thursday morning, after all the Tawakkaltu Alallah (I have placed my trust in Allah). :)

So yeah, me and husband are now in Melbourne for good, InsyaAllah! Enjoying our Ramadhan in winter. And Alhamdulillah I managed to quit my job and becoming a postgraduate student at RMIT University. :)

And I'm starting to get my mojo back in blogging, cooking, baking & shopping...lol yeah. So I'll be here more often, I think apart from Instagram, Twitter & Facebook.

Till then, Ramadhan Mubarak to you guys! :)

Backyard Barbecue

Last Saturday, we had a backyard barbecue with few of our friends. Just to test run our newly-purchased barbecue pit. Lol. It was an ad hoc decision from me but all in all we managed to successfully pulled it off, as simple as possible (but tasty of course!). ;)

Menus:

Root-beer float

Salad with thousand island dressing

Baked potato wedges with creamy cheesy sauce + mayonnaise

Grilled sausages

Grilled beef steaks (medium-well!)

Beef kebabs

Chips

S'mores

Recipe: Kebab Marinade

Ingredients:

1 cup of sunflower oil/vegetable oil

3/4 cup of soy sauce

1/2 cup of lemon juice

1/4 cup of Worcestershire sauce

1/4 cup of prepared mustard

1 1/2 tsp of coarsely cracked black pepper

2 cloves of garlic

1 stalk of Rosemary leaves

1 tsp of meat tenderizer (optional)

Methods:

1. In a large resealable plastic bag, dump everything in. Stir a bit and put the beef cubes in it.

2. Seal and marinate in the refrigerator for 4 to 24 hours.

Recipe: Homemade S'mores

Ingredients:

2 bars of chocolate candy bar

1 big fluffy marshmallow

1 pc of Graham cracker

Methods:

1. Heat the marshmallow over an open flame until it begins to brown & melt.

2. Break the graham cracker in half.

3. Sandwich 2 chocolate candy bars in between the cracker and the hot marshmallow.

4. Dig in!

Hello again...

Nowadays I am very much on Instagram. So do visit me: @aimaris :)

*cleaning up all the dusts in my blog*

Hello! Been a while since my last post. And we've experienced so many things in life. Some of it were good things but some of it aren't. But some of the main highlights of our life for the past couple of weeks were Zorro has died *sob sob*, our marriage turns two! And few other good & bad things which I prefer to blog about it later. But all in all, we're thankful to Allah for all the good things we have and have had in our life. :)

Hope you guys have a pleasant Monday! Take care.