Looks can be deceiving

I had been thinking alot about Fish Head Curry. During our dating days, hubby and I used to frequent a stall in Chong Pang Market but it has since moved and we were clueless where they went. The spices and the way they done the fish head is just perfect. In fact, I think they steam the fish head separately and so the firmness of the flesh is just right.

Another hot favourite will be one at Little India but because of the kids, we hardly had a chance to dine in Indian restaurant. The spicy level is as far as the gravy from the Roti Prata my little one will accept.

Last year, the kids were involved in some activities and we were given a chance to have lunch alone as a couple. As we were near the vicinity, we tried Fish Head Curry in Suntec. This restaurant's main branch is in Little India. We didn't enjoy the dinner at all. The portion served was pathetic and though the fish head wasn't that bad but the service is a total put off and it was pricey as well.

So you can imagine how long ago we last had this dish. When I saw a nice Red Snapper on sales, I grabbed the opportunity to create Fish Head Curry at home. After all, this recipe book that I used never failed me with its taste.

Unfortunately, my helper is a little rough in handling the fish and we ended with a really unappetising dish on the table. Luckily, we are not having any guests if not it will really be a waste not to serve this.

If you like Fish Head Curry like me, have a go at this. You might enjoyed it as much as we did.

Verdict: Helper finds it a little too sourish but for hubby and I, we think this is good enough to end those cravings.

I hope home cooked as I am able to add in more okra which goes so well with this type of curry.



Source: Zarina's easy cooking

What you need:

4 tbsp fish curry powder
salt to taste
1 spring curry leaves
1 red chilli
1 green chilli
1/2 onion - slice thick
1 clove garlic - slice
1 fresh tomato - slice into two
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp tamarind with 3 cup water, mixed and strained. (if you don't like too sour, reduce this)
8 - 10 okra
1 med sized fish head approx 900g

To be fried
2 tsp fish curry spices
1 spring curry leaves
1 med onion - slice thinnly
3 tbsp cooking oil

Method

Put curry powder, salt, curry leaves, chillies, onion, garlic and tomato in a pot. Add water. Crush the chillies and tomato to release the flavour.

Add in tamarind juice and set aside.

Heat oil and fry B till fragrant. Pour into the pot and boil with the cover on.

Add fish head. Cooked till fish head is done.

What a good start

Last weekend, D invited us for a BBQ at her place. Though it was a last minute decision, we welcome the invitation as it is a start of the school holiday and what better way than to let the kids have some fun.

From a simple BBQ, it lead to a sleep over and then another sleep over. To sum it all, the kids already had a BBQ, two sleepovers, a movie, arcade time and a swim all rolled into three days. Not forgetting the countless hours of video gaming for the boys and pretend play for the girls. Some of them even stayed up till the wee hours in the morning.

As for this mummy here, I had some pampering time for myself as well. I went for some ME time as hubby left this morning and I am home alone. It was good break away from the kids. Truly a great friend who volunteered to babysit all of them. Thank you my dear friend.

Back to the BBQ, I brought some sushi, a chocolate cake for the kids and a rum soaked vanilla cake for the adults. I longed wanted to try out Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake as J mentioned that it was good. Initially I didn't have very good feel about this book, Sky High as I tried the banana cake and I wasn't really pleased with it but J ensure me that the chocolate cake was good. So here I am, giving it a go and guess what, no regrets.

The cake was well received by the group. The texture is not dense as in rich chocolate cake yet it is chocolatey enough to entice chocolate lovers like us. I will definitely make this again.



As for the Rum soaked Vanilla Cake. It is between a not dense cake as it seems to be. Or rather I should say it has a nice fine crumbs to it. Then again, nothing close to how it was decribed by the review as close to Sara Lee Cake which is my favourite. I have no regrets with the choice of butter that I used as this recipe really brought out the fragrance of the butter.

For those who tried it, they too gave a thumbs up to it.



I noticed that the cupcake style has less bubbles whereas the loaf style the bubbles were very distinct.



Strange but nevertheless, it still taste really nice especially with the rum. Even my son who doesn't really fancy vanilla cake commented that it was good.

Tomorrow will be back to the real world for the kids as son needed to be in school and girl needed to go for tuition. Haiz... what kind of school holiday is this?

Source: Sky High

Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake

171g plain flour
53g cocoa powder
1 1/8 tsp baking soda
½ + 1/8 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon powder
46g chocolate, chopped

½ cup milk
142g hot coffee
1 egg
43g mayonnaise
¾ tsp vanilla
215g sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 ºC. Lined and greased a 7” round cake pan.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.

Bring milk to a simmer.

Pour hot coffee and hot milk into the chocolate. Let it sit for a minute before whisking it to smooth. Set aside.

Beat the eggs, mayonnaise and vanilla until well blended. Gradually beat in the sugar.

Add in the dry and wet ingredients. Alternating ending with dry. Beat till you get a smooth batter.

Pour into pan and bake for 25 min or till cooked.

Cool in pan for 5 min and unmould to further cool on rack.

Garnish with your favourite ganache.

***************

Source: Baking, from my home to yours

Rum drenched vanilla cakes

What you need:

395g plain flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
283g castor sugar
1.5 tbsp vanilla
6 large eggs
2/3 cup heavy cream
2.5 tbsp dark rum
219g melted butter

Method

Preheat oven to 180 deg. Greased and line two loaf pans.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt.

Wish eggs and sugar, until thoroughly incorporated.

Whisk in the vanilla and then the cream. Last the rum.

Gently fold in the dry ingredients in 3 additions. The batter will be smooth and thick.

Last fold in the melted butter in 2 additions.

Pour into pans and bake for 55 mins.

Prepare syrup immediately.

What you need:

1/3 cup water
54g sugar
51g rum

Method

Melt sugar with water. Add in rum. Set aside.

Using a skwere, poke holes all over the cake and slowly drizzle the syrup over it.



Rum soaked vanilla cake

A crazy week

This is going to be a long post as I document how I spend this one week and I am glad that it was productive and well spent. Amazingly, women are so good at multi tasking. Thank God.

On Monday, my little girl learnt how to prepare an Egg Mayo Sandwich and a cup of freshly squeezed orange juice! This is all part of the Life Skill program that the school organised with the help of parent volunteers.

Despite some chaotic mess as we forgotten to bring table cloths for the desks, we make do without them and pray that the floor will be spared. Just imagine egg shells, mashed eggs and finally cut oranges!



Seeing how the kids ate off their sandwiches and sipped at their juices, I know the effort had paid off.





It was followed by the P4s, learning how to iron. It was strange to find out that some kids don’t even want to get involved. Overall, the response was good as how often, a 10 years old are allowed to handle an iron. I hope they learnt something out of it.



On Tuesday, I conducted 3 sessions of muffin baking to the P6 kids. It was an extremely enjoyable event for both adults and the kids. The mummies were having a great time and I heard that the P6s were face-booking on how much they enjoyed the lesson as well.



I was especially touched when some of the girls that offered their end product to me during class, really sweet of them.

With those out of the way, my focus was on a Mickey Clubhouse cake that I did for my friend's son's birthday. I was pretty nervous as this is the first time I craft a standing Mickey and it is about 5" tall. I am glad that the lost of my beauty sleep was well sacrificed as little C was delighted with the cake. Do you think this looks like Mickey?



A blunder when I went for my parenting class on Wednesday and found out that I actually missed one lesson two week’s ago. Now how did that happened? I have no recollection what went on. All I know from now till end of course, I have to get 100% full attendance, if not, I will have to pay in full.

Then I realised that I have another one more commitment to fulfil before the end of the week. When you are busy, time really flies without you really counting it. So I was once again busy with my sugar dough. Finally all are in place and I found some time to post a recipe that I wanted to share with you.

By the way, I need to apologise to my fellow bloggers. I did find time to blog hop when I am taking a break from my work but unfortunately I can’t leave comments. I don’t know why. I just can’t seem to “sign in”. I can’t even edit from my blog page. Strange but right now, I have no time to trouble shoot as this will take me forever to do so.

Anyway, I spotted Kokken’s Sambal and I remembered I had done a batch this week as well. You see, on our way to the Firefly Park, we passed by a fishing village, and I brought some really nice dried shrimp from there. Aside from that, I also tasted a very nice Sambal French Toast in one of the café that KC brought us. So with that in mind, I knew I had to try to replicate it.

So here is the Spicy Dried Shrimp Sambal that I prepared.



As for the Sambal French Toast, it was a failure. I couldn’t attain that crisp texture but I am glad that hubby said my sambal is much better than those we ate.



Now back to the drawing board to rework on that batter.

Have a good weekend.

What you need:

A - pound or blend everything together

10 small onions
3 clove garlic
15 dried chillies, soaked and cut
5 chilli padi
1 tbsp toasted belachan
100g dried shrimp, soaked and cleaned
6 tbsp oil

B
1 tbsp asam paste mixed with 3 tbsp water to get the juice.
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt to taste

Method

Heat up oil, sautee the pounded A until fragrant.

Add B and stir fry until dry. Taste and remove from wok.

Leave to cool.

Note: Either serve with white rice, or as sandwiches.

Busy bee getting busier

I committed myself to so many commitments that it was enough to keep me on my toes after my short holiday. In fact, time flew by so quickly that a week had past without me realizing it and totally forgotten about my girl’s tuition on Sunday. So you can imagine how busy I was.

I like to feel productive rather than idling. After this week, I will have to seriously come down with some school holiday plans for my kids.

In the meantime, I found the opportunity to “practice” on a Chocolate Chip Muffin recipe, for tomorrow, I have to lead a class of P6 to their first baking session. This is a life skill program created by the Parent Volunteers for P1 – P6. Each level will be taught a skill. For P3 this year, they were taught how to make an egg mayo sandwich and juice a cup of fresh orange juice. They had fun and you can see how the girls took ownership to the task.

Let’s hope these P6 girls will have fun getting their hands-on lesson. Though in the past, I had conducted lessons in my home but they were on a very small group basis. This is the first time I am teaching so many at one go, so wish me luck.

This recipe was chosen by the Parent Volunteer Committee and I'm submitting this to Aspiring Bakers #7 - Chocolate Delight (May 2011).

This is also an extremely easy recipe and it is very good for your school holiday project with your kids.



What you need:

Yield 10 muffins
120g plain flour
70g castor sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
150g plain yoghurt
1 egg
50g canola oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

optional fillings such as
chocolate chips, Oreo biscuits, strawberry jam, Nutella

Method

Preheat oven to 180 degree.

Mix dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

Mix wet ingredients in another bowl, except fillings.

Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, mix a bit, add fillings, continue to mix gently until just combined. Do not overbeat.

Scoop batter into muffin cups 1/2 full, bake for approximately 15minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Note: If using jam or Nutella spread, fill cup with batter halfway, add jam, and top up with batter till 3/4 full.

Catching up

We decided on an impromptu get away, partly because hubby will be travelling most of June holiday and a little difficult to plan for a family holiday. So with a day's leave in lieu from the Election day, he decided to take the Monday off for last weekend.

With the exam just over, I see no harm in declaring a day's off for the kids as well. After all, it is for a good cause - family bonding time. :)

We chose Kuala Lumpur because we wanted to visit a friend and his family and needless to say, to savour Malaysian food! We always enjoy Malaysian food because it is much more authentic than Singapore food and more choices.

The trip was good as this time round, we did something very different. We actually visited a FireFly park. For first timer like us, we were totally smitten by the beauty. It was like rows of Christmas trees with lights sparkling away. Indeed an eye opener for city dweller like us.

We had a great time with KC's family. Watching his kids grow, we wonder with amazement how his wife copes with three hyperactive boys! I kudo to her patience. Here is what I brought for her, Water chestnut Cake



This different version is different from that I tried previously. This one used a liquidiser method and thus the water chestnut flavour is more intense.

I was surprised that DK never had this before but am glad that she likes it.

On our way back, we decided to sleep over in Malacca for a night. Partly because we wanted to eat! Due to time constraint, we didn't have any Peranakan food. A pity isn't it? But we did try something different so that make up for the loss.

So now back to reality. Crossing my fingers as this week will be the result week. Let’s hope my kids do well so that this June break will have more fun time than catch up time.

BTW, I just found out that we had a cabinet reshuffle, I seriously hope they will re-look our education system. If not, tuition agencies will soon turn into billionaires.

An invitation

When I found out that I was invited to a cooking workshop. First thing I did was to call hubby to see whether he can baby sit as I am always not comfortable leaving the kids home alone with the helper.

Once I worked out the schedule with him, I quickly responded with a yes to the organiser.

It was a small group and what caught me by surprise was that it is a hand on session instead of a demo. That really excites me as this is my VERY FIRST hands on cooking workshop.

This workshop is sponsored by FairPrice Finest who wanted to create more awareness of the produce that they carried in their stores.

On the menu, we had King Crab and Asparagus Salad and Seared Mahi-mahi with Hollandaise and Sundried Tomato Coulis.



To be honest, if I had not attended this workshop, I don't think I will ever know how easy this can be done.

Chef Ming, who is self taught and owns JAM, is a friendly guy. His instructions are clear and concise and he even throws in a few pointers for us.



We started the session by preparing the asparagus and pumpkin. After sending it into the oven, we went on to make the tomato coulis.

After that, we prepared the Hollandaise Sauce. I always thought that this is hard to achieve but once again, I was proven wrong.

The dressing for the salad was also easy and it was done up in no time. I added more lemon juice as I wanted it to be more citrus.

Next came the fish, I have never known what is Mahi mahi. To me, it sounded so alien. According to Chef Ming, this fish is quite similar to Threadfin and Batang Fish. In fact, the texture of this fish is more towards Batang.

For me, I didn’t quite like it as I find it fishy. When I attempt this the next round, I think I will just buy Batang instead.

Fairprice Finest was very generous. They offered two big claws each to us for this salad. All these while, my initial thought about frozen seafood, it must be bland. Thus never really dare to venture into it. After all, seafood in Singapore has one of the best qualities in the region.

Then again, Alaska King Crab can never be found in this area, can it?

The crab claws, because of its size, it is also very easy to remove its meat.
Local crabs are extremely time-consuming when removing its flesh. The texture and sweetness of this frozen crab claw surprised me. It was sweet and firm. At a promotion price of S$5.90/100g (retail at S$7.90/100g) and able to serve a family of 5, seriously I think it is a good buy.

Soon it was time to assemble our creation and then we had a sit down dinner, tasting our labour of love.



The Salad was really good. Everyone likes it so much.



The Hollandise Sauce went very well with the Mahi Mahi. It masks the fishy smell well. In fact, I enjoyed the sauce so much that I forgotten the tomato coulis!

Besides savouring our sumptuous meal, we also had two bottles of red wine to pair with our dinner. My mindset of pairing Red Wine with red meat changed after that night.

For this promotion, we had Rongopai Pinot Noir (retail at S$32, promo price S$21.80) and Chateau Le Gay Pomerol 2006 (retail at S$185, promo price S$160).

The first tasting was a bottle of Pinot Noir, everyone fell in love with it. It went extremely well with our main course.

Despite the price difference in the two bottles, all of us gives a thumbs up for Pinot Noir.

Overall, it was a very good session. We all had fun and make some new friends.

Besides having a great meal, I was delighted to receive a goody bag of a bottle of Rongopai Pinot Noir and a pack of crab claws.

It was definitely a very generous token.

Thanks for having us FairPrice Finest. Their stores can be located here.

Note: These promotion valid till 25 May 2011.

A brand new chapter

The verdict is out and our opposition won 6 seats in the parliament. Unfortunately, this is such a small number that I doubt our voices can be heard. Then again, at least it is better than two in the past. One of my family, had watched a video on how the majority jabbed at the minority during parliament meeting. It is pathetic how they are being bullied. I seriously hope after this election, the mindset and behaviour of our ministers will change.

Ironically, I am happy that at least there are 6 seats but then again, I am also sad that in the process we lost a good Foreign Trade Minister, another long serving Opposition MP and gain one bimbo as a minister who we needed to give her THREE years to grow. It just doesn’t make sense. Life has never been fair, right?

Looking at the margin the opposition parties lost their seat, I hope our government is waking up to the desperate call of the nation and seriously take a look at their past implementation and make better changes to it.

My mom told me that despite her having the senior citizen concession on transportation, it is merely applicable if you take it after 9am! Take for instance, her doctor appointment for this morning is at 9am. Obviously she has to leave the house early as the journey takes an hour and there goes her concession. For my parents, they can afford but what about the other not so fortunate?

The point is if you decide to give such benefit, do it all the way!

I seriously hope that the government will no longer take us for granted.

Today is a rest day for the school going children. Now that they are resting and playing but rather a day for us parents to give a final coaching to them.

They had been good kids and had been studying diligently. I really pray that they will do well. In fact, I wish the school education will change and not stress these poor kids out so much!!!

I brought some tapioca over the weekend as I know my hubby loves anything with coconut. So here is my attempt to this Tapioca Tart.



I tried a piece myself and I still have problem swallowing the grated coconut. My helper said it will be better if it is hand grated. I will try her method when I spot some fresh coconut in the market next round. I hope she is right so that I can get to enjoy more such kueh.



I used my pineapple tart mould to do this as I don't have any bigger tart mould. Don't they look like pineapple tart?

Let's hope this can cheer him up a little after all he met with a minor accident this morning and his car is now in the workshop.

Source: Agnes Chang, Delightful snacks and Dim Sum

What you need:

600g white tapioca
80g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
90ml thick coconut milk

Fillings

100g gula melaka, chopped
4 tbsp water
3 pcs pandan leaves, knotted

1/2 grated coconut, I used ready bought
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp corn flour

Method

For the filling, place gula melaka, water and pandan leaves in a pot and cook till the sugar melted. Add in grated coconut, salt and corn flour. Cook till dry. Leave to cool and form a ball.

Peel, wash and cut tapioca into chunks and steam on high heat for 45 mins or until soft. Mashed the tapioca and add in the sugar and salt. Mashed till you for a soft dough, add in coconut milk and knead till you get a smooth paste.

Roll the dough into 1 cm thick and with a tart cutter, cut into tartlet. Top with the filling and serve.

Mother's Day

My hubby reminded me that I had been a mom for 14 years. For the last 5 years it had been an extremely turbulence one. At least now I am able to handle it a little better than 5 years ago. I thank to all my friends all gave me so much support especially when I am down and depressed. Without your concerns and encouragements, I believe I probably had been turned into a Monster Mom by now.

The dark tunnel is already beginning to shine light. Let’s hope I can change further to ensure that my son will groom to be a better being that can contribute to the society as a responsible man.

I am also blessed that God gave me another child as well. She was like an angel sent, to balance my life. Her smile each morning brings hope to me and keeps me going just like when my boy was young.

Then again, as she grows, I witness her strong sense of determination. I began to fear that this year she will change to a stage where by I don’t know how to handle just like my first born.

I have people telling me that boys give headache when they are young but girls give headache when they reached their teens. So I guess, I need to be mentally prepared for that day.

Remember the cakes that I baked for my dad’s birthday. Actually I baked a third cake as well as it was meant for my mother.

It took me a long time to get this done as it was my first time using royal icing. I wasn’t really happy with the outcome as I think I should have done more sophisticated roses than these.

This is a Red Velvet Cake that I tried out from Chuck Hugh‘s website. I didn’t quite like it as it was too moist. Dad also finds it too sweet. As for the rest, they were okay with it.



With left over Purple Sweet Potatoes, I have done a batch of dessert, Tuber Trio Sweet Soup. This is really nice, something like Bubur Cha Cha.



To all Mothers out there, I am sure our sacrifices will pay off one fine day and we just have to give ourselves' a pat on the shoulder.

Keep it up and Happy Mother's Day.

Source: Chuck Hughes

Red Velvet Cake

What you need:

150g sugar (I will reduce this to 100g)
1 egg
168g canola oil (I will reduce this to 150g)
123g yoghurt
1 tbsp red food colouring (I will reduce this to 1/2)
1/2 tsp vinegar
1/2 tsp vanilla
157g plain flour
1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 deg and greased a 6" cake tin.

Mix sugar, eggs, oil, yoghurt, food colouring, vinegar and vanilla together.

Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

Add flour mixture into eggs mixture and blended well.

Pour into tin and bake for 25 - 30 min or till cooked.

Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Dad's Birthday and also Polling Day

When the government announced that the polling day will be on 7 May, we were delighted. That is to say that my brother in law will be able to join us as he works on shift work.

This year, we couldn't go to any nice restaurant as my dad is now highly allergic to many food items. A slightest carelessness will result in swelling again. We couldn’t take the chance of any chemical added to the dishes.

Dad used to love food and now has to refrain from being "greedy". It really saddens me to see this for at his age, he should be enjoying many indulgences and as much as possible.

Since there isn’t much choices on dinning places that we can go to, my sisters decided to order pizza and just have it in the house. After all, it is polling day and we are really keen to know the results. Though by now, we know that PAP will win but we were eager to find out whether the Opposition Parties will get enough votes to go into Parliament to represent our voices.

Besides pizza, my helper also prepared Pulut Udang, an Indonesian snack. We did two varieties, one with sambal shrimps and the other with fish for my dad.



As usual, it becomes my responsibility to bake a cake. Perhaps next year, I should take a breather and just buy one. It has been very taxing churning three cakes in a go at a very short time frame on top of my work schedules and home commitment.

Last minute, my youngest sister asked for a prank cake. Since it is Polling Day and my dad’s emotion had been running high. I didn’t know which party was in his zone and after a search, I found out it was The Reform Party.

Talking about this GRC, I am actually getting so confused. I am sure I am not the only one. I found out that Hougang not exactly belongs to the Worker’s Party. In fact, this year, a small town like Hougang is divided into 6 GRCs.

Crazy it might sound but I guess this is what they call the politic dirt.

I chose an Orange Almond Cake for the prank cake. Unfortunately due to time constraint, I couldn’t do a good job. Then again, it is meant as a prank so no sweat loss.



Pardon this mess as I wanted to show the texture but only left with one slice.



The actual birthday cake is a Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Ganache. Initially I wanted to create a theme cake for my dad but seriously it is tough for I already done a Camera theme last year and my dad does not have any hobbies beside that. So in the end, I came up with this.

Childish isn’t it? The lettering 70 also didn’t show well as my only NUMBER cutters are like this. 7 looks like 1. I wasn't pleased at all with the outcome but I just had too many things on one plate to do a good one. Haiz… then again... no excuses.



No picture as it was sliced so quickly.

I didn’t stay up all the way to watch the Election Result for I was dead tired by the time I reached home and I had to wake up very early for another order the next day.

Let's hope our future will be a better tomorrow.

Modified from Source: Okashi

Orange Almond Butter Cake

70g candied orange (I made my own)
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
85g ground almonds
90g icing sugar
25g cake flour sifted
35g butter, melted

Method

Preheat oven and greased a 7" pan.

Beat egg and egg yolks.

Combine ground almonds and icing sguar and stir together.

Add 1/3 egg mixture into almond mixture to form a paste. Beat till incorporate.

Beat in remaining egg mixture till light and fluffy. Do not over beat.

Add flour and candied orange to almond mixture and fold in well.

Add melted butter and fold thoroughly.

Pour batter into pan and bake for 30 - 40 mins.

Cooling off period

After a week of heated and exciting election campaign, today is declared as a cooling off day. To be honest, I wonder why? Perhaps that the people will calm down and change their perspective?

I am not saying that the government is not doing a good job. Don't get me wrong. What Singapore is today, we thank them for the effort. Of course, when we compare ourselves with Third World countries, we are so superior in every aspect but we should compare ourselves to the First World countries, don't we? It is how we can move forward, right?

This year’s election, the reaction actually surprised me. For the past elections, Singaporeans were basically very gentle and submissive. In fact, they were contended with their lives even though you can hear tetchy comments along the way but generally they took it their stride and make the best out of it.

This year, I think The People is finally getting out of their comfort zone and realised that this democratic society was fast becoming like an autocratic one.

I was so intrigue by my son's interest in this year election. Is he is older now or it is partly because everyone is talking about it? I seriously don't know.

How can we teach our next generation about accountability when our leaders are not showing it? Especially when cases like Mas Selamat’s disappearance, during those days, even my baby girl knew what it is all about.

In other countries, this person would have already resigned to show responsibility. Here, we are not taking about bank robbery, we are talking about the severity of this mistake, a world’s threat.

Treating The People like ATM machines with no limit. Though we are an affluence country, all money is all hard earned.

Public housing was supposedly to help ALL Singaporeans to have a roof over their heads, isn’t it? I was lucky that I married at the right moment where public housing was affordable and quick. I was able to tie the knots and moved into my martial home straight away but I guess we can’t speak for our next generation. They need to plan their “future”, way before they can start dating. 30 years of housing loan is no kids’ play, it definitely needs proper planning and fund management.

For us, we were able to still have time to save for our retirement. What about my kids?

Already the school system is horrendously difficult, will our kids emerged with a qualification that enable them to find a decent job that can support a house and a family? I constantly have to refrain myself from being a great worrier but as a mother, I simply can’t help it.

I was told that taxes are not only applied to just your salary, even transport and phone allowances given by the company are all taxable? What is the logic?

The company provided such allowances to help to ease the burden of the employee’s. Thus instead of helping, OUR GOVERNMENT puts more pressure on the PEOPLE by taxing them. Not forgetting that, every bill we received, a 7% GST is already imposed. Perhaps that is why they can give themselves a fat bonus.

When I heard “….. educated you, prepared you, given you every help to do well…..” and reconfirmed myself with the Strait Times today. I was thinking what help?

It is we, the parents who PAID all those tuition fees in order for our kids to do well so that they will not ostracized by the system. Now you know why tuition centres are earning big bucks and more and more are setting up?

I put my girl into tuitions not because I wanted a A student but rather can’t bear to see her “lost” in her learning world.

Now, after viewing all those pictures from the rallies, I really hope that Singaporeans will put some voices in.

I believe we, Singaporeans is thankful for what it is today but I also think that it needs to strike a balance.

Enough of my grievances, it is time for me to made something sweet to ease off the sore wound. Hopefully after this weekend, our kids’ future will change.

Finally I spotted some purple sweet potatoes at the market. This is really a rare find, I couldn’t get this in a supermarket at all.



I bought the wrong sago, next round, I will get the smaller ones as it is easier to cook. I ended only half the portion as the rest was stuck in the pot.

Besides difficulties cooking the big ball sago, the rest of it was pretty easy to assemble.

So let’s join me and dig into this Baked Sago with Purple Sweet Potato dessert.



Source: Pudding, cake, sweet soup by Winnie

What you need:

180g purple sweet potatoes, sliced thinly
1/2 cup sago pearls (use the small ones to ease cooking time)
2 tbsp custard powder
2 tbsp corn flour
150ml water
1/3 cup sugar
100ml evaporated milk
100ml water
2 eggs
2 tbsp butter

Method

Steam sweet potatoes till it is soft. Mashed and set aside.

Boil water, and put in the sago and cook for 10 mins. Turn off heat and simmer in the pot with lid covered for another 10 mins. Rinse in cold water and drain.

Mix custard powder and corn flour with 150ml water.

Mix the other 100ml water and sugar and boil till sugar dissolved. Add in evaporated milk, sago and butter and bring to boil. Turn off the heat.

Stir in the mashed sweet potatoes and custard solution. Leave to cool.

Whisk in two eggs and stir well.

Pour mixture into 5 ramkins and bake for 20 mins at 190 degree.

Serve hot (I chilled it)

Wondering how come I am so not productive

Besides coaching my girl on her forthcoming mid year exam, fulfilling some cake orders this weekend and watching the You Tube on the rallies, I seriously wonder how the rest of the time was spent. I felt so unproductive today.

I popped a Zytec pill last night as I can no longer take the itch. This is supposedly to be non drowsy but I ended up not able to ferry my son to school this morning for I was still so drowsy after a night of sleep.

Thanks to my hubby, I was able to stay in bed till 9ish. Actually I was woken up by the phone. Still unable to get out of bed, I lazed for another good half hour before I tell myself that I needed to really get things moving today.

I did an experiment on my weekend project and was disappointed with it at first. After an hour working on it, it broke into many pieces. Helper told me to give it some time to dry which I did. I was happy that it will turn out well after all.

I was feeling so lethargic that it is no point for me to continue my project as I wasn't focusing.

With the kids home, another attention diverted. In the end, I told myself I will bake instead or rather steam. I saw Cuisine Paradise's Japanese Steamed Cake and the last time I had this was in a stall at the basement of Ion. That stall has since closed down.

Nevertheless, I got my friend G to translate the recipe for me and this is what came out of it.

I divide the batch into two and added in chocolate chip for my son is a chocolate lover and since my daughter didn't have as sweet tooth as my son.


It is not fluffy kind of soft and it is not dense. I would say it is spongy in a good way. The kids like it but I think I could be a little more generous on the sugar.



The rest of the batter, I added in some thawed corn for my daughter as she doesn't have as sweet tooth as my son.



I borrowed my daughter’s toy as props for it sure been a long time she had a chance to play with these. Her schedule is so jam packed that gone are the days that she has time to play. I seriously pity her for at young tender of age of 8+, her childhood is robbed.



Source: Cookpad

What you need:

150g cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
50g sugar (I will increase to 100g)
2 eggs
100g yoghurt
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup frozen corn
1/3 cup chocolate chips

Method

Sift flour and baking powder. Set aside.

Heat up your steamer.

Whisk eggs and sugar till foamy and add in oil. Whisk til combined.

Mixed in flour and yoghurt alternately. Ending with flour.

Divide into two batches, one for corn and the other for chocolate.

Spoon into the cupcake liner and steam for 12 - 15 mins under high heat.

Our voices

Even though we are having a long weekend, we couldn't make any short getaway as the kids are in the midst of their exam and this will drag on for 3 weeks! Positive note is that there are ample of time to do revision but on the other hand, it is very tiring as well. As parents, we just need to find the balance as no to make the kids feel stretched.

This weekend, besides books, we tuned to the You Tube frequently, trying to catch up with rallies.

In the past, we were not bothered with all these politics as it is always a walk over. My mom always said 官字两个口, you can't win them. I don’t recall, those days I even bothered by what our politicians had to say. After all, we were just simply order taking citizens. In fact, we welcome that so that we can have more extended weekend for our diving trips!

But I guess time has changed, just like we no longer can use the same teaching method as our parents used on us, for our kids.

The people can no longer take the talk down dictatorship.

With the rising cost of PUBLIC housing, the TREMENDOUS pressure on education and the RIDICULOUS increment for our leaders. I guess people are feeling the strain.

Sometime I watched with amazement how those charity shows raise funds to help our fellow Singaporeans with our HEAD of the country watching performers bearing injuries from rehearsals just to bring the show to greater heights so that they can raise more funds.

I remembered when I was little, I was on welfare milk as I was under weight and I don’t recall my parents paying a cent for it. Now we need fellow Singaporeans and corporations to raise fund for School Pocket fund.

Take for an example, my girl’s school is only partially funded by the government though it is a Singapore school. Thus we are getting countless of request for fund raising.

I once remembered an education head said that gift children are not groomed but in born. So if it is in born, isn’t it still not too late to pick this cream of the crop after they enjoyed their childhood first?

It makes no difference when you picked them out at 8, 9, 10 or 12 or even at 16 years old! Isn’t it?

After all, if you are born smart, no one can take them away from you. Why subject the rest of the children from this gruesome and torturing regimen, just to filter the chosen ones and in the process, most of them lost their childhood. Is this fair?

Seriously, after my kids lost their childhood, the next pain will to see my children slave away to get a roof over their head in the future. Do you think I will have a chance to become a grandma?

The logical me will tell them to carry on the life cycle and makes it complete but on the other hand, will it be another vicious cycle for my future generation? My brother opted the other way, he left the country to seek a better future for his next generation. He became a quitter as what he is being labelled but he and his family is so much happier now. I watched my nephew who is only a year younger than my girl. He is definitely not short changed in any way.

I am thankful our leaders had brought Singapore to such heights but it also pains me to see how our hard earned money going into these pockets.

Does our President really deserved to command an increment to such extravagant? Since our ministers are of such capable calibre, why do we still need Senior Minister as already we have a MM Lee as a guiding light?

I might be wrong but in the past, I always had the impression that people join politic for patriotic reason, now I wonder is this about the million dollar salary that they are in for?

Sometime I wish I have a money photocopying machine at home. Then at least I can, not only contribute to these fat pay checks, I also can zap a little bit more for our forgotten lot – the poor and the needy.

I am glad that finally some one is standing up to represent the voices of many citizens and I hope on 7th May, we are afraid no more.

To this, I leave you with this interesting Waffles cookies recipe that I found in a book. It is extremely easy to prepare and fun to work with your kid as well.



Since I had the waffle iron out, and my kids were urging me to make waffles for nearly two weeks. I quickly pick a Swiss waffle as my next tried and tested recipe.



As we are leaving the house for tuition time, yes my girl is going for tuition as she is EXPECTED to know how to do PROCESS skill in P3 for science!!!! Crazy isn't it?

Anyway, they can’t wait to eat the Swiss Waffle with scoop of ice cream as dessert later.

What you need:

100g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
50g castor sugar
pinch of salt
1 egg, separated
50ml sour cream
25ml milk
1 tbsp Kirsch
zest and juice of 1 lemon

Method

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl.

Whisk the egg yolk, cream, milk and kirsch together.

Beat the mixture into the flour to form a smooth batter.

Add the lemon juice and zest.

Whisk the egg white until stiff peaks.

Fold them into the batter.

Cook the waffles in a waffle maker.

Felt cheated.

I always been curious how blood orange taste or even look like. Thus when I went for my breakfast meet with PN and saw it in Cold Storage last Monday, I just couldn't resist even though it is way much more expensive than the normal oranges that we usually eat.

Lugged it home and didn't know how else to work with it until I saw Kokken's creation of making it into jelly.

So I decided to make them into jellies to make it more fun and with this heat going on, I am sure this will be a welcome.

The first cut on the blood orange yield reddish pulp, I was pretty excited to see this for it looks so pretty. Then follow by the next, I was into shock for it looks so like any other oranges! I felt cheated and went to cut the rest of the oranges up. They all looked the same!! No more blood orange look! I was so pissed.



As I went about to juice them, at least the colour is slightly more reddish than the normal. This somehow consoles me a little.



The taste is rather sweet with no acidic feel to it and I am glad that I actually decided to choose this recipe as my kids are not really into citrus dessert. Even oranges, they only like those that are sweet and will have no problem walloping two oranges at one go for each child.



I didn’t strain the juice and thus my jelly wasn’t clear like as reflected in the book but I have no complain for it is so nice.



Now at least I had tried Blood Oranges, and now let's hope to get my hand on Myer Lemon. :)

What you need:

300g blood orange juice
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp gelatine
1 tsp lemon juice

Method

Juice the blood orange with a hand held juicer (approx 5 oranges). Strain the juice. Set aside.

Mix gelatine with sugar (this will prevent lumps). Boil the water adn put int he gelatine and sugar mixture. Cook till gelatine dissolves.

Pour the blood orange juice and lemon juice into the gelatine mixture and still well.

Pour into a silicone mould or any jelly tray. Chilled until set.

Serve cold.