Getting up Early on a Wkend is NO JOKE!

Agrh... I'm late for the raya outing! Over slept!!! Now I missed 2 houses. sheesh... Nyways, I caught up with the troops at me Mommy's so... all ain't lost aites! It was a perfect day but the damn PSI went up to 67 (the last level I saw on teevee). But that didn't deterred the spirits of Hari Raya. The outing brought back old time memories when we used to do these visits on every Hari Raya. We'd rented a bus enough to fit in everyone and went on a "Raya Marathon". Hahahaaa... it's one of the few times when all/most of the family members jalan-jalan together-gether.

Well... you can imagine what happened when there's such a crowd! CAOS!!! Food were in abundance and joy and laughter were heard all day long. There's usually TWO major things ALWAYS going on. 1) Talking and 2) Eating. What else aites!? Every house seemed to want to serve their guests something more special other than the arrays of goodies already spread in those colourful decorated air-tight containers. So, in a way, each house made a "mini open-house". Yep, delish cooked food of all types we served. ALL of us started with empty tums and ended with full overloaded tums. How can one NOT be happy? You tell me...

I didn't want to be left out. NO! I made simple light dishes for the troops too! Beef Kheema with Baguettes and Bubur Pulut Hitam with Santan @ Black Glutinous Rice with Coconut Milk. Oh, since it was also "B's" BIRTHDAY, I made a batch of Birthday White Chocolate Cupcakes (only diff was that I added white choc chips). I got compliments. Weeeee!

As ALWAYS, we ended the visit to my house with a group photo. Thank gawd the house is able to fit everyone for the photo taking. This year's strategic group photo shoot is at my China Daybed. The pic turned out fabulous. Well... kudos to yours truly laaa... ;-p

My full pot of Beef Kheema all finished! Alhamdulillah...

Ingredients for Beef Kheema
500g minced beef
2 Russet potatoes - diced
1 carrot - diced
1 large white onion - diced
3 garlic - minced
3 tbsp briyani powder
1 tbsp paprika
1 heapful tsp salt
3 bay leaves
dried rosemary
water (depends on how much sauce you want)
1/2 pkt coconut milk
canola oil
Method
Heat oil and saute onion and garlic. Add in minced meat and fry. Add in diced potatoes and carrot. Pour in water. Add in salt, paprika, rosemary, bay leaves and briyani powder. Bring to a boil and then turned to low fire and let simmer with lid on. Let it be for 20-25 minutes. Let it cool for all the flavours to soak through. Serve best with baguettes.