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The day the husband proposed, I set out three conditions to that man before I even said YES. I told him he would have to take me on a nice holiday at least once a year (and he has been generous so far), he has to stop being such a mama’s boy coz there’s a new skirt in town now and last but not least, so long as I work, I won’t cook dinner on a weekday coz it’s tiring, period.

Ok I kid about no 2. Hmm.  *sheepish smile* And at my conditions too – I obviously gave those conditions AFTER we got married LOL

Anyway, it’s safe to say that we usually have most dinners at my parent’s place on weekdays (my mom loves to cook you see and when you tell her to keep it simple, there will be 4-5 dishes on the table, that to her is simple) . Some times we go out and eat, and sometimes we just opt for something simple at home.

I’ve somewhat made it clear that ME slaving at the kitchen is only a luxury he will get come weekends.  I think sometimes being a working wife/mom has its leverage. If he gets tired from driving to work and being stuck in jam, it’s the same for me. If he has to wake up early morning, it’s the same for me too. If he’s feeling stressed out then errrr, I can be too (though my working life is pretty much stress-free, don’t ask).

So ever since moving in we’ve agreed that weekday dinners will consist of the simple stuff – sandwiches, soups, home-made burgers – stuff that requires no defrosting (god I hate waiting for meats to defrost, I swear we spend most of our lives waiting for crap to defrost! People included), easy and quick assembling and more importantly EASY to clean up.

But then all of a sudden I itched to cook, on a weekday!! So I tried to set out for the simplest of recipes, which requires simple ingredients and quick cooking time.

I decided on three items for last night’s dinner – potato salad, sausages and broccoli in cheese sauce. Basically we had some carbs, meats and vegetable all in one meal  (though the vegetable was drenched in FATTENING stuff)

The healthy greens drenched in my favorite – CHEESE and cream sauce

Forget the brocolli, forgot the sausages but remember the potato salad coz it was bloody REALLY good! Even the hubby said it reminded him of potato salads you get in the US and asked for second helping.

Here’s the recipe for two:

4 medium size potatoes, boiled in water until soft

1 chopped red onion

some chopped spring onions

3 teaspoon mayo

2 boiled eggs

some black pepper, white pepper and salt

Directions:

After removing skin (or you could have some skin if you so wish), chop into cubes and put in bowl with onions and spring onions. Mix them all together. Then add in the black pepper, white pepper and salt to taste. Add in your mayo and taste along. Using a potato masher, mash them buggers alllll together until soft. Then add in the chopped boiled egg (and I removed most of the yolk coz I hate yolk). Taste and if need be, add in more mayo and black pepper. You may throw in a dollop of butter too.

And you’re done! It was relatively easy but of course I can’t comment on preparation time since my mom helped out in chopping the onions, boiling the eggs and potato and handed it to me when we picked Sairah up to take her back (Thursday night duty yo, my parents actually went on a movie date last night, lol).

Here’s my itty baby playing alone in her playpen. She chose to be clingy AFTER dinner time right until bed time!

It still took me about 45 minutes to prepare and cook AND took the hubby sometime to clean everything up! By the time we were done, it was close to 9pm. Hmpf.

Which is why I hate cooking on a working weekday, it eats into what little quality time you have after work. But it sure is a nice change ONCE in a while

And oh yes, her room is now FINALLY complete with this horsey or is it a unicorn?! Was a real bitch to source (horse?) but I DID IT!

And you could wanna cover your face too if you were walking around with a PINK toy!

When I look at parents with kids and this can be anywhere from the mall to crossing the streets, I tend to wonder what sort of living arrangements they have, esp when both parents are working.

I know of some parents who leave their babies in their hometowns visiting them every weekend, then there’s some who leave them with the baby sitter, if they’re lucky, their parents will live down the street (or with them) and they can literally walk their kids to send them over. Then of course I know some parents who are up by 6a.m (got to salute them for sure) so they can send their kids over to the grandparents/babysitters at the other end of the world. As you can see, there are different types of arrangements to suit each working parents. And yes I asked around

Up until the time we moved in, I was lucky to be able to stay with my parents, where my mom happily agreed to look after my baby while I slaved away go to work. And when we both come back from work, we would take over looking after Sairah until she goes to bed. After that my mom will take over and will be there for her if she wakes up in –between. I consider this deed noble because she’s always so worried we might be too tired for work if Sairah sleeps with us coz she has the tendency to wake up in between.

So about few days ago when we fully moved into the apartment, we decided to try out the whole drop-Sairah-off-in-the-morning-at-my-parents-and-pick-her-up-after-work idea. It seemed fairly straight forward.

Drop baby in the morning.

Pick baby up in the evening.

As easy as stealing candy from a baby!!

I put her to bed at 10pm. At 2.30 a.m, she started crying a little, picked baby up and patted her back to sleep. Baby slept soundly (though her mommy kept getting up in between to check on her thanks to this certain phobia I have), till 6.20 a.m when she woke up crying for her feed. Changed her diaper, the hubby gave her milk, I burped her and let her sleep on my shoulder for 15 minutes before transporting both father and baby into the guest room so when the time comes to get ready for work I’ll be able to blow dry my hair and get ready without waking both up.

For the first time in 5 working years, I got up at 7 a.m to get ready!! Was ready by 7.45 a.m and ready to leave when I walked into the guest room only to see the husband STILL ASLEEP!! I was annoyed and pressed for time, but luckily he knew better to say he would shower at my parents’.

So off we packed up a few essentials, before leaving the apartment. Of course, naturally, federal highway had to be JAMMED up. The usual 10 minutes drive, took 20 minutes with baby still sound asleep on my shoulder. Reached parent’s home at 8.10 a.m. Baby woke up with a grumpy look on her face. Heck I would to if I had to wake up earlier than usual with all that moving around.

Was damn convinced I would reach work late and that was bloody true.

Hmmm….. HOW THE HELL DO WORKING PARENTS DO IT??! It really is a tough situation to be in, really.

That was when the husband was resigned to the fact that this is not do-able in the long term. For starters, I do not want to disrupt her sleeping pattern and although this arrangement is ideal in a jam-free and early-bird riser world (which we are training ourselves to do at the moment), I strongly felt that eventually we would be drained and tired from this, leaving us very very exhausted when we have her full time during the weekends.

This would be much easier when Sairah is a bit older and be able to sit in the car on her own – this is when we’ll be able to take turns to drop and pick her up. So with that, we’ll be leaving her with my parents for 3-4 nights on weekdays, dropping by after work until she goes to bed around 10.30pm before heading back to the apartment. Even this arrangement seems exhausting, but it’s the best arrangement for us at the moment.  And I really don’t care what others have to say.  They can shove their stinky opinions where to sun don’t shine Try being a working mom and then we’ll talk.

It was tough on the first day, going home without the baby. I saw her lil pants tucked under our blanket and I swear the husband almost cried. LOL.

I told him to take comfort in knowing that this is only temporary until she’s a bit older. That or he gets a higher paying job that would allow me to stay at home I think it’s an option I wouldn’t mind considering IF I get a substantial allowance, ahem.

Meh.

Meanwhile, it’s hello 7a.m and stinky Malaysian drivers (yes traffic from the new apartment to work is HORRID, sigh).

Such is life yet we find ways to push forward.

I cooked!! Like a good Indian wife, I FINALLY managed to freaking cook something in the kitchen after a 6 months of absence.  I’m so thrilled to update my cooking category

I had already narrowed down what I wanted to cook (why of course it’s a pasta dish), with the recipe. I printed it out and after getting home, I realized I left my recipe in my other bag at my parent’s place!

So what’s a girl to do? WING IT of course. And good thing I had somewhat memorized the recipe already *thank you elephant memory*

For someone who used to cook quite a bit, I was a nervous wreck that night. SO nervous that I had a little accident while chopping up those damn onions. Right after I told myself, please don’t cut yourself, please don’t cut yourself, I lost the balance on those onions and the knife sliced through my finger:

Sucks to be me. Damn you onion! But like they say, the show must go on…………..

I decided on making some fettucine with tomato cream sauce. I first tried it out in Bermuda & Onions last year and it was fantastic. Of course the craving came back and I was determined to give into it

I modified the recipe coz you know some recipes can be bland. The recipe called for no meat but I decided to throw in some chicken, coz I’m naughty like that.

For the chicken:

I marinated it with some salt, pepper, basil, paprika and rosemary  and fried it with some onions using olive oil and left it aside.

For the awesome sauce, this is what you need (and the sauce is really awesome *promise*)

Fettucine for two

One chopped onion - careful with the knife.

3-4 clove chopped garlic – also be careful with the knife.

1 big can of tomato sauce (I used Hunt’s tomato sauce coz it’s not sour at all)

Some sugar, salt and black pepper and basil for seasoning.

Butter

1 small packet of parmesan

1 box of cream (about 200-250ml)

A packet of Mozerella cheese (Romano would be better if you can find it but don’t sweat it if you can’t).

Directions:

In a pan, throw in a spoon full of butter and some olive oil, put in the chopped onions and garlic and fry until aromatic. Throw in the whole can of tomato sauce, dilute with a bit of water if need be. Add in some salt, sugar, black pepper and basil and adjust accordingly. In a separate bowl, whisk heavy cream with parmesan cheese. Now dump it into the tomato sauce mixture and stir until thick. Watch it change color. Add in the chicken. Lower down the fire and be generous with the mozarella but not too generous as your sauce might end up gooey. If it is, pour in some pasta water to thin it down. Turn off the fire and stir.  Adjust your seasoning accordingly. Now you may add in the fettucine into the sauce and let it immerse in all the saucey goodness.

This is the end result:

The husband enjoyed it to the point of licking the bowl empty AND the baby wishes she could have some. But no, not yet Baby girl.

The sauce was full of flavor (and of course let’s not forget how fattening it really is) but best of all, it’s so very easy and quick to make – which is what I want since I can’t afford to spend hours in the kitchen with the baby around.

Now, if you regularly cook pasta dishes, you will know that sometimes there is always lots of sauce left behind, esp if you’re cooking for two.

So what’s a girl to do? Throw it away? No – waste not. Let’s invent a funky way of finishing up that damn sauces while saving you ample time AND $ for tomorrow’s dinner

I freezed up the sauce and for last night’s dinner, decided on a FAST, light dinner by re-heating the sauce in the pan. I lined up 4 slices of bread, spread the sauce on it, added in some chopped nuggets (you can do sausages or other meats as well),  added more sauce to it and topped it off with some mozerella cheese (seee, make use of what you already have!) before popping it into our toaster oven for a few minutes.

Mini pizzas.

When done, throw in some basil and black pepper on top and we’re GOOD to go people.

Dinner was YUMMY, (yes I also realized it’s fattening but we live life only once folks), economical, easy and best of all, takes no effort in cleaning up the kitchen.

Enjoy!

One of the few interesting changes that take the hubby and I by surprise is most definitely how friendly people can be now that we have a baby in tow!!

Without trying to sound like I’m full of it, Sairah does get her fair share of attention every time we go out. Be it to the mall or restaurant, people do look at her and tell us how cute/beautiful/adorable she is and will grow up to be. And its women AND men because there’s a notion somewhere that only women would go gaga over babies. Not true folks.

And in true 1Malaysia spirit, we get people of different races coming up to us with such nice compliments. It’s touching really *flicks Malaysian tears of joy*

Then sometimes it gets over-whelming mainly coz we’re not used to strangers randomly smiling and talking to us. So we try to smile back and be nice to them as they play with Sairah. And when they leave the husband will always have a BIG fat smile plastered on that silly face while he proclaims how we’ve created the world’s cutest baby.

Of course I have to remind him that every parent thinks of that about their child. Not before adding, wait till they see how naughty and difficult your daughter can be sometimes,  they will change their minds, lol.  I suppose this is what you call a truly proud mommy-daddy moment that every parents feel.

Some people go to the extend of touching her, I don’t know how I feel about that yet since you don’t know where those hands have been. But still, I don’t have it in me to tell them to back off and these people seem quite nice. So long I don’t see no blisters or cut on those hands, I think I can put up with that.  I’m a cool mom that way.

On rare occasions, some might even ask to carry her.  Most time, my baby will let most people carry her on the condition that they carry her in a comfy manner while with others she will CRY like they’re about to commit murder.  But give her a few minutes to get to know you first and she’ll eventually let you carry her. Either way I’m convinced that my baby is quite the bias. That she randomly picks her victims, lol.  

Pictured here is the waitress from La Risata who carried my baby away for a good 20 minutes. Which gave us time to leisurely eat our dessert God knows how I love my desserts!!

She gave Sairah a little tour at the restaurant, taking her near the kitchen and bar for everyone else to play with her.

My dad, in true grandparent mode, kept getting up from his seat whenever he couldn’t see her in view. I had to remind him that she works for the damn restaurant and does not look like someone who would kidnap your grand-daughter! And even if she does, we’ll just make another one, I added on, just to irritate him further :D

*hawk mode on*

And Sairah’s father? He was busy having his beer!

Oh sorry, we came with the baby?!

Just see how my baby is mad comfy at the hands of a stranger!!

I thought it was funny and cute how she said about wanting a baby who looks just like Sairah. I swear both our egos were as big as the size of my butt that night, hahaha.

Oh and quite randomly, La Risata has the BEST panna cotta and bread pudding everrrr.

With Sairah in tow, I’m hoping they’ll give us a good discount next time around!

The start of an Indian home is the house warming ceremony. We decided for a simple one opting to have only immediate family present.

In many ways, some may say, it was rather untraditional as very often these ceremonies involve a large amount of family members ranging from relatives, tom, dick and harry, and people who don’t even play a role in our lives.

The priest cleanses the home, chants his mantra to ensure purity, happiness and harmony before a family moves in. More importantly, he helps to set up our prayer room, welcoming HIM to our humble abode to watch and protect us from above.

The sky was exceptionally lovely and blue that day.  Maybe it was just our imaginations but I’m hoping it was an indication of all good things to come.

*serious mode on* Prayers in session…..

This is our first new home legally bearing both our names :D   With that some people need to realize and learn to RESPECT that and not push their way around for they don’t have the right (though they may think otherwise).

The whole process took about 2 hours yet I could still can afford a smile 

Our baby absolutely LOVES her new home.

Sairah with the husband’s grandmother. 

Ma, I adore my PINK room and yes photos of the new home will be up soon.

Hmm, I’m going to scribble on daddy’s new sofa when I’m bigger!

My mom woke up at 5 a.m to cook this entire vegetarian meal! It was indeed made with love

And here’s my daddy…..who helped the husband out everyday to set up our new home.   

My family made everything that day possible. Credits to my dad and mom for arranging everything!

Though I may not say it out loud to them, but they’re the best family (and also the best inlaws to my husband) anyone could ask for. And for that we’re eternally grateful and as the husband said, it’s going to take some time getting used to not staying with my parents Told ya they’re just awesome!