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15.11.2003 Saturday morning @ 2:37 a.m. *Monkey see, monkey do* Today my aunt (whom I call ibu) decided to bake 2 types of cookies. As her voluntary maids, my cousin, an aunt-in-law (whom I call bibik) and myself were obliged to assist of course. We continued with the boat biscuits, another 500 of 'em. Pretty yummy-looking and yummy-tasting cookies, i.e. a crispy boat-shaped "shell", the inside coated with chocolate and sprinkled with chopped almonds. Mmmm mmmm! However, the baking process is long and tedious and can easily stretch to 5 days, JUST making the shells alone. (Actually that's what we did, spent about 5 days moulding and flattening the boat shells using special cookie moulds bought in JB. Ibu said they're cheaper there.) They can't be too thick, else they won't be crispy and they can't be too thin either, else they'd break. I observed that they had to be left to cool after being taken out from the oven and then stored in an air-tight container. Dang, it's hard work. I'm no good with "painting" the insides of the shells so I merely sprinkled the almonds. We also started on makmur cookies (kueh makmur). The word "makmur" is Malay for peaceful or prosperous. The cookies themselves are shaped like leaves and contain peanuts and melted sugar. Besides that, they're decorated with leafy patterns and sprinkled with icing sugar. I don't really fancy it but the dad does. He absolutely lurrrves it. So my ibu is making some especially for him. How nice aye, but we the voluntary maids had to help of course. It's a much simpler cookie to make as compared to the boat biscuits. My aunt easily made about 400 in 4 hours approximately. I think I've rambled enough on cookies. Have I made you salivate yet? Hoohoohoo. Actually I wanted to write about something that cropped up during the baking. Everything was in Malay of course but for the benefit of non-Malay readers, it went something like this. Ibu : (talking to me) You have 4 homes eh. Me : Really? Ibu : Yah, there's your own house of course.. Cousin : (butting in) And there's our house, which is just like your second home. Ibu : ..and your grandma's house, don't forget that. Me : But I don't usually go there nowadays. Ibu: It doesn't matter, since you live so near her. Then there's another house as well. I wasn't sure at the time which house she was referring to, but I'm assuming that it's my second youngest uncle's house. I used to frequent there a lot when my little sweetheart was staying there. Anyhow..yeah, that was what I'd wanted to bring up. Very long-winded eh? Hahahah! . . .

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