This is what I wanted

Last week, I bought some tapioca and wanted to make some kueh out of it but when I had the time, my pantry stock was low. I don't have the coconut milk that I needed.

Since now stock is replenished, I had better get moving, if not, another batch of food into the bin again.

I hate throwing food away especially after reading yesterday's news that people in some part of the world are starving. I still can remember so vividly the hunger child's face on that page. It really breaks my heart. Children should not have to suffer.


Anyway, despite not liking coconut milk but I like tapioca. With home cooked, I can even control the sweetness. When I saw this recipe, I was eager to find out the combination of a chocolate with coconut. Though the chocolate is not the real thing but rather chocolate emulco, I am still curious.

The kueh turned out really nice but it would have been better I think if it is real chocolate. hahhaa



I think I better grab some sleep before sending the girl to her Sunday school. Had a really long day yesterday and needed to wake up early to complete some orders.

Have a good weekend folks! The weather is just so awesome today.

Source: Popular Kuih-Muih

What you need:

350g grated tapioca
125ml thick coconut milk
1 egg
100g castor sugar
1 tbsp chocolate emulco
few drops of yellow colouring

Method

Combine tapioca, coconut milk, egg and sugar and mix thoroughly. Divide into two portions.

Add chocolate emulco in one and yellow colouring in the other. You can leave it to blank if you don't want colouring. The outcome will be brown and white.

Line a 6" tray with banana leaves, pour yellow tapioca mixture, and spread evenly. Steam for 40 mins.

Pour in the chocolate mixture over the yellow kueh and continue to steam for another 40 mins.

Cool kueh before cutting.

Mood swing

Yesterday, I had a long morning all by myself. With my work completed, I wanted to get busy in the kitchen. After all, I just love cooking for my family.

Going through my books, I jotted down what I wanted to cook. Unfortunately going through my pantry, I realised that I am low in ALMOST everything that I planned for.

There goes the happy spirit!!! I had told my helper numerous times that she has to indicate in my shopping list when supplies are low, not when it is ZERO.

Sometime I feel that when she gets too comfortable, she tends to slack in her job. Like on Wednesday, at 12:30pm, lunch is still not prepared. Or I had asked her to remove some old baby music CDs as I wanted to give it to my girl friend and guess what, I actually brought along empty CD cases. Thank God I opened it up to check before giving. If not, it will be really embarrassing.

I guess, I need to reinstate my ground rule once again. Hubby always called it the refresher course. Haiz.

Even hubby noticed that the house is not being cleaned properly and when I told her to redo it, her face was like as if she is attending my funeral! I also noticed that on laundry day, clothes are not being washed. When I told her that the toilet’s window is not cleaned properly, she has the cheek to tell me that it needs ladder to reach it. Gosh, what is wrong with her this week? Considering the fact that I not asked her to do it daily or weekly!

Even though she has her mood swing, but I seriously think that she has to learn to control it when at work. After all, half the day, I am not at home.



I hope her mood swing will go away soon. It is not nice feeling to be alone with someone every morning with a sullen face. As her vibes always seems to rub off onto me, especially now I am trying my best to stay positive!

Anyway, with her foul mood, I took over dinner cooking as hubby volunteered to bring my girl back from her tuition place. Thus leaving me some time to go to the supermarket and be home early to cook dinner.

Initially I wanted to make 獅子头, but changed my mind because of the deep frying. Thus I improvise a Vietnamese dish. Now let’s call it Braised Cabbage Meat Loaf shall we?



Overall, it is a nice dish except that I was a little light handed on the seasoning and I wonder why the meat is a little "hard". Is it because I didn't add enough corn starch or was it that I squeeze the meat ball too hard?

Nevertheless, I am glad that this dish my family approved.

Okay, I am off for some ME time, better to get out than to get affected by it.

Thank God It Is Friday!

Bless her heart

As you know I have been attending a course for the past few months. For this module, the students were from a combination of different classes of Module 1. I am glad that I still see many familiar faces that I befriended during the Module 1.

Usually we will have a short break in between that 3.5 hours lesson. When we were in Module 1, R will always bring snacks for us to eat.

I always admired her for she is multi talented. She runs a Malay wedding planner company. She does flower arrangement, designer cupcakes, decorate dias, and even has a dance troupe! On top of these, she still volunteers in under privilege homes, teaches conversational Malay in schools and is the Chairwoman for Parent Volunteer in her kids’schools!

She starts her day at 4am and will not end till nightfall. Yet she still finds time to attend this class. I marvel her energy!

Her bubbly personality lights up the class. Anyway, enough said, last week, she brought us some Bakwan. It is my first time eating it and I fell in love with it right away. Though hers was a simple ikan bilis version, it just feels so right as our morning snack to go with our tea or coffee.



I just couldn't shake off that memory. Coincidentally, I loaned a book from the library yesterday and guess what I found. Sometime similar to hers!

I was so happy that I couldn't wait to test it out.



Texture wise, it is a little different from hers as R said she uses a mixture of Self Raising Flour and Plain Flour. Of course, I wouldn't want her to tell me the recipe as she is selling it.

To be honest, this one is enough to satisfy my craving for more. I will increase the salt a little more since I didn't use any stock granules in this recipe as indicated.

Overall, I am now happy.

BTW, I am organising a Heritage Food Trial. If you are interested, do join in the fun.

Source: Delightful Snacks and Dim Sum (Agnes Chang)

What you need:

300g self raising flour, sifted
3 eggs
350ml water
2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilli powder (I will add this the next time to give it some heat)
1 tsp salt (I will add one more)
1 tsp pepper (I added this)
1 tsp chicken stock granules (I omitted it)

200g prawns, deviened and diced
1/2 carrot, shredded finely
1 big onion, chopped
100g bean sprout
2 stalks spring onion, chopped (I used green chillies instead as I don't take spring onion)

Whole prawns for decoration. (I omitted)
Oil for deep frying

Method

Batter
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Using a whisk mix it in one direction untill it is smooth and lump free.

Heat oil and ip ladle in hot oil for 1 min. (Ladle used is those shallow base)

Spoon batter into the ladle, arrange a prawn and lower it in the oil. Fry till batter able to leave the ladle and continue to fry till golden brown on both sides.

Remove and drain.

Serve hot with chilli sauce.

Acquired taste bud

My hubby and I love spicy food. In fact, I recalled my aunt gave me a whole green chilli to munch when I was only 6 years old. From there I cultivated a liking for spicy food.

Then again, I remembered there was a short phrase in my life that I started not able to take spicy food. I was away for nearly 4 months and wasn't exposed to this cuisine at all. I came home losing this acquired taste bud. Really strange but it is true. I felt the heat easily, my lips will burn and I have to “simmer” the heat with water all the time. The joy of eating nasi padang become meaningless with the pain in the mouth. I was concerned that I will not be able to eat all my favourite dishes whole heartedly.

After months and years of not giving up, these days, I am happy to say that I am back to my normal self.

With that said, my son had already started taking some chilli dishes. He started off with Roti Prata and had such graduated to curries.

Sad to say, my daughter is not as adventurous. A slightest taste of heat, she will recoil.

With a small family, it is really hard to plan menu especially now we have 4 against 1.

When I saw Cherry on the Cake's Spicy Honey Chicken, I knew I had to make that for my dinner. It just looks so delicious!

Naturally my daughter wasn't really pleased but she just got to start from somewhere.

Thanks Zurin, we love this dish!



My photo didn't do justice, please hop over to hers if you are not convinced. You just got to try it.

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

HAVE SOME FUN


Yesterday, while driving home, I had this wild thought. You see, my friend, JY just went for a heritage walk over the weekend. Apparently Singapore launched a heritage program last week and I was thinking to myself.

Will it be a good idea if food bloggers come together to showcase home cooked food based on their own heritage?

As Singapore is made up for different races and dialect groups, it will definitely be interesting to see such submission.

For I know that besides Chinese who has Teochew, Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka and etc, Indian also has their own dialect group as well as the Malays too.

So my fellow bloggers, if you are keen, just sent in your submission by 27th August 2011.

Participate
Anyone

Criteria

Cook a dish or made a dessert based on your heritage.

Post it on your blog within 27 July 2011 to 27 August 2011.

Your recipe chosen can either be from hand me down recipe or if you source from a book or internet, please give due credit and a link to it.

Where to sent to?

mythoughtsmyblog@yahoo.com.sg

Please indicate in your mail header: Heritage Food Trial.

The format:

Your name/dialect group: eg(edith/Cantonese)
Blog Name:
Name of the dish/dessert you are submitting:
URL of your post:
Your photo size should not more than 500k

Now let's have some fun and look forward to seeing your submission.

What you need:

4 chicken thighs, bone in ( with skin on)
1 tsp Turmeric powder
1-2 tsp curry powder, any kind
3/4 tsp salt
Water
Cooking oil for deep frying

Combine Turmeric powder, curry powder and salt with a little water to mix into a thick-ish slurry.

Coat the chicken pieces with it evenly and deep fry the chicken pieces in a large wok or pan until cooked through and golden brown. Keep aside.

Throw off most of the oil from the wok or pan leaving about 2-3 tablespoons behind.

3 cloves garlic
1 inch fresh ginger
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp chillie paste (either homemade or bought)
3 T tomato ketchup
11/4 T honey
4-5 T water
1 lime, juiced (optional)
1 large onion, sliced into rings

Method:

Pound or grate the garlic and ginger. Saute the paste in the 2-3 tablespoons of oil left behind in the wok or pan until fragrant.

Add tomato sauce, chili paste, curry powder and honey and stir to combine. Add water to loosen up the mixture. Add salt to taste.

Add the deep fried chicken pieces and stir to mix so that the chicken pieces get well coated with the sauce. Add the onion rings.

Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes until the onion rings soften and the chicken pieces have absorbed some of the sauce.

Add the lime juice. You may add a little more water if it gets a little dry.

Satisfying the little one

My girl just simply loves Egg Tarts. It doesn't matter where it came from. Each day when she sees it, she will asked for it.

For me, I too love Egg Tarts but I am more selective. I love those from a stall that is near Maxwell Road. With the price hike, I just refused to patronise it as often as I wished.

The beauty about home made Egg Tarts is that you are able to control the sweetness.

So after reading from Yummy Bakes'sfeedback, who actually gotten the original recipe from Frozen Wings - I was sold.

My last attempt on my ugly Flaky Egg Tarts, though good was a little tricky to handle the dough. Since I only had a little time on hand, I wanted some fast and easy to handle recipe.

The dough is crusty and has a tad of flakiness and with the right balance of soft egg custard. Initially I thought it might be a little too sweet but after the tart cooled down. Actually the sweetness is just perfect!

Thanks for pointing the way YB.



Thanks to VN for getting me this cute little Precious Moments figurine. I used to have one when I was young but it has since been "claimed" by my sibling. Haiz....

Though now with no one to fight over it, I thought it might be nice to note it down. hahahha



After posting this a minute later, the postman came. Always nice to have parcel delivery. Felt so excited all the time.

Remember I asked via my blog where I can find chiffon knife as my hubby was in Japan recently. He was having a hard time locating it and in the end, I got three or four different sizes of spatulas. Can't blame that poor man, he tried and I appreciated it.

Well a very sweet friend came to know about it and actually mailed me one!

And this was what I received!



A chiffon knife!!! Finally I am able to owned one.

The feeling is just so sweet and this thoughtful angel had the package so well wrapped too.

Thanks I you are such a sweet angel!

What you need:

For the skin:

190g butter, not too hard
225g plain flour
75g custard powder
60g sugar (i used icing sugar)
1 egg, beaten

Method:

Crumb the butter with the plain flour, custard powder and icing sugar together into fine crumbs.

Add in the beaten egg and form a dough.

Rest dough in fridge for 10 mins.

Using a plastic sheet, roll the dough thinnly and using a cookie cutter, cut into disc and place into tart mould.

Using a fork, prick some holes into the dough. Set aside.

What you need:

For filling:

200g boiling water
150g sugar
5 eggs, beaten
250g fresh milk

Method:

Preheat oven at 200C for 15mins

Dissolve sugar in boiling water, let cool, add egg and fresh milk. Do not beat, just stir and mix.

Strain the mixture and pour into the tart mould.

Bake at 180C for 25mins or until cooked.

A nice brunch

I had a nice brunch with SL who is back on home leave. The first time I met S was two or three years ago at a seafood restaurant with a group of cyber world friends for dinner.

I knew back then, I will like this lady for she dares to speak her mind. Not pretentious at all. I felt comfortable as I knew that I can be myself without worrying about offending the other party.

Anyway, our friendship holds till today. So when she said she is home for a short period and wanted to meet up, I was delighted.

After all, for my healing plan, I needed to find more ME time and instead of cooping in the house all day long, I am finding opportunity to have other human interaction.

We had brunch in an outdoor seating. The weather was fairly cool. The food wasn't spectacular but we didn't mind it at all for our conversation was really good.

Through her, I found out that I wasn't the only one struggling. Along the way, S also shared her thoughts and experiences but she is much stronger than me.

She told me that I have to find things that I enjoy doing to diffuse the frustration.

Then again, with two kids, the issues never stop. Can it?

Over the weekend, I got a call from my daughter's classmate's mom. She told me that my daughter wrote some really nasty remark on a paper about her daughter.

To be honest, I don't know how many of you will share the same belief as me. A kid is always a kid. They fight and they make up. I would not put too much concern on this at this point in time. Then again, there will be some parents who really upset by such issues.

With this phone call, I had no choice but to confront my daughter for the truth. Apparently this girl is a bully in class and somehow my daughter puts down her unhappiness in words. Unfortunately, there is this passing notes trend in the school and the note went to this girl.

We had reprimanded our kid about this and make her write an apology letter. Also a letter to explain the whole situation to the teacher as it was also brought to the attention of the teacher.

Let’s hope she will learn something from this lesson.

To distract myself, after getting home, I felt happy enough to get back into the kitchen and churned out some Durian Cream Puff for my family.



The last time I tried making puff, a failed mission was two three years ago when I was still staying in Seletar.

But let me tell you, this recipe is easy and it is simply delicious. Thanks for sharing.



This year, we really went all the way for durian feasting.



We have been eating way too much durian these past weeks. I am surprised that I wasn't down with a cough with so much indulgence.

Source: My sweet Hut

Durian paste

What you need:

600g Durian fresh
½ tbsp Sugar
200ml Diary Whipping Cream (Chilled)
1 tbsp Sugar

Method

Cook durian fresh under simmer till cook; add sugar and stir till dissolved. Rest to cool before mixing with cream.

Whip cream till stiff.

Add in durian paste and mix until soft peaks form

Refrigerate

Puff Pastry

What you need:

100g Butter
120ml water
Pinch of salt
100g Plain Flour
3 Eggs (beaten)

Method:

Lined tray with silpat mat.

Preheat oven (fan forced) at 200*C for 15 mins.

Melt butter, salt and water in a saucepan and bring to boil.

Add in the flour all at once and mix in quickly with a wooden spoon. Beat till the batter leaves the side of the pan.

Turn off heat and continue stirring (abt 3 mins) until smooth.

Transfer to mixing bowl and using a K beater. Slowly add in the egg. Let it incorporate into the dough before adding the next till all the eggs are done.

Spoon or pipe (1 tsp full) the batter onto the baking tray.

Bake at 200*C for 15-20 mins

Assemble

Cut an opening from the puffs and spoon in the durian cream.

Fridge for 1 hrs before serving.

I am taking baby step

For parents who went through their kids' teenage year and survived, I seriously admired your patiences and perservence.

For parents, just like me who are going through this phrase, we should come together to give each other as much support as we need.

I was identified as "S"/"C" style character based on a profile test that I sat for during the class that I am attending. S is Steadiness and C is Conscientious. This test is really good as it shed more lights on your personality that perhaps that you are unaware of.

Thus whatever I am experiencing right now, it takes huge effort to make changes.

I am blessed that I have friends who are ever so willing to share their experiences and life stories. Each story motivates me and allows me to see hope in such difficult times.

Beginning of this week, I was told that son done something really bad in school. Of course he didn't own up when I poached on the subject. Some fanciful story he gave me but deep down, I know the truth (a mother always know her kids isn't it true?). I didn't probe further but I just told him that I wished for a clean character child.

Few days later, he confessed to me and told me that he owned up to the disciplinary master. I was not angry at all, in fact, I was so happy that I tear.

After all these years of trying to bringing him up as a good person, didn't go to waste after all. The joy was electrified. I took the opportunity to reinforce the values which I think he got it down in his heart.

To end this Friday, having daddy home brought warm and joy as well. Boy, we missed him so much.



We made these today as I had first tasted Lemper when I was in a friend's wedding two years ago and it was really good. However, I couldn't get the recipe as it was store bought in Jakarta.



This is my helper's version which is also not bad except I think should increased on the saltiness. We also made it less spicy so that my girl can eat it too.



Hubby also brought back lots of goodies from Japan. A place that I wish I will visit some day.

more ice!!!!!!!

I love household stuff. Be it a whisk, a measuring jar, a toilet brush or latest technology of a vacuum cleaner. I simply love check them out. I guess this is my fetish as a homemaker, do you agree?

As I was talking to a friend who shared the same passion as me, she too commented that these days, no shoes, bags or clothes can entice us to go shopping. Not even the Great Singapore Sales!

Having a hubby who is supportive of me playing in the kitchen, helps with this collection as I can always provides a good reason for the purchase, without feeling guilty and I think I am rubbing something off him as he also shop for me whenever he goes overseas.

This time round, I wanted a Chiffon knife in Japan but I think I will be seeing more spatulas when he gets home. Can’t blame him for I am also clueless where to get it! (so by any chance you are from Japan, do let me know – thanks)

Besides the KA mixer, the next well utilised will be the latest gadget from hubby - the ice cream machine.

Many wrote to me on which brand that I am using. Well this is available at the new shop along Bt Timah that sells plenty of really beautiful kitchen stuff. You name it, they have it. The machine is the only ice cream machine you can find there. From my understanding, the vendor is not selling to all those big departmental stores. (Drop me an email if you want to know the brand)

Anyway, I saw some really beautiful red grapefruit over the weekend. I just adore their vibrant colour!



Thinking about the hot weather, I couldn't resist turning them into Grapefruit Sorbet. I tried another new recipe that actually uses corn starch.



Initial fear was that it will be starchy feel but surprisingly it has none. In fact, I shared some with JY and she loves it.

Isn't this the best to have on a hot day? My son whom doesn’t really enjoy grapefruit kept asking for more!

Source: Scoop by Ellen Brown

What you need:

113g sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tbs cornstarch
pinch of salt
3 1/2 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice

Method:

Bring sugar and water to a boil over medium heat. Swirl pot to dissolve the sugar but not stirring it. Increase the heat to high and cook the syrup until the firm ball stage. The mixture should be really thick.

While syrup is cooking, combine the cornstarch and salt with 1/4 cup of cold water, stir to dissolve.

Remove the syrup from heat and stir in the corn starch mixture. Bring to heat and cook for 1 min or till mixture turns translucent and very thick.

Add grapefruit juice and whisk till smooth.

Chill in fridge.

Put into ice cream machine and churn accordingly to manafacturer's instruction.

Picking up the pieces

Throughout these 6 years of blogging. I lost part of my blog posts and recipes twice! Unbelievable but it happened. I tried to back up into an external hard disk but when my external hard disk also failed me, I gave up. Thus, these days, if I really like the recipe, I will print a hard copy instead. Poor trees I may say but I really wish to hand down good recipes to my next generation for them to share.

So I am trying to pick up the lost pieces by recalling some of the well loved recipes that liked by my family and myself.

One such recipe was a Steam Moist Chocolate Cake that was shared by a kind lady (known by her nickname as Dralion). She shared this recipe in a forum and soon, it received so much rave reviews that these days you can still see many attempting this recipe with positive feedback.



With relaxing Monday, after all, last Sunday we took our time to enjoy it and didn’t go for classes because my little one had just completed her Module 1 for Creative Writing last week. Module 2 will start end of the month. I am really delighted because driving all the way to Sembawang and hanging around for her to finish can be pretty boring and tiring. We just need to endure another 12 weeks from next month onwards, before we can once again enjoy a FULL Sunday as a family, doing things we loved.

With some Dark Lindt Chocolate hubby brought back from his last trip, I think this will be the best way to make a Steamed Moist Chocolate Cake for our tea as Monday is a special day whereby both my kids are home for lunch.



As usual, this cake never failed. Thanks A!

What you need:

375g butter or Corn Oil **
314g castor sugar (original 2 cups)
410g Evaporated Milk
4 Eggs,lightly beaten with a folk
286g of Plain flour ***
102g of Cocoa powder
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Vanilla Extract or 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence

*** this recipe can be halve easily

Method:

Combine castor sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla extract or essence and butter in a saucepan. Stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and butter is melted. Set aside and keep warm.

Add the beaten eggs into the slightly cool evaporated milk mixture and stir till well mix.

Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and baking soda into a large mixing bowl then pour the eggs mixture over the flour and stir till well mix (cake batter should be runny).

Heat up the steamer.

Lined and greased a 9 inch baking pan or 2 9'inch sandwich pan.

Pour the batter into prepared pan and place the pans into the steamer and cover the top of the pan loosely with a piece of aluminium foil.

Steam over medium heat for 1 1/2 hour (45 mins for 1/2 recipe).

Cool the cake in pan before turning out for further decoration.

Chocolate topping

1 can of Condense milk
1 tsp of Vanilla extract or 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
1/2 cup Corn oil
1/3 cup Cocoa powder, sifted
1/8 tsp Salt

Method:

Combine the sifted cocoa powder, condense milk and oil.

Stir over low heat till thicken (stirring all the time).

Add in salt and vanilla extract or essence.

Cool the chocolate topping a little before spreading on the cake.

It's been so hot

Lately, the heat is coming back and my girl started coughing again. I noticed that she is very sensitive to weather change these days.

When daddy is not around, this little princess will want to sleep with me. Not that I don't welcome that but she kicks, snores, grinds her teeth (bruxism) really often throughout the night. On top of all her little habits, I still have to deal with her cough last night.

Thus I was like a zoombie this morning, even though I took an antihistamine pill the night before. It obviously didn't knock me out enough to ensure that I sleep well. LOLz.

Talking about bruxism, I seriously wonder whether this is a cure to this. Our dentist thinks that it is stress but I had already notice that my little one grinds her teeth at a very young age! So if anyone out there knows of some remedy, please let me know.

Anyway, after my breakfast and the morning papers, I managed to dump everything into the ice cream machine to churn out a batch of Blueberry ice cream before I took a nap.



Woke up in time for lunch, did some work with my little one before we head off to pick the older one up from his Taekwondo Grading test. Getting my girl to study is really a breeze. She don't argue, she don't procasinate. She just diligently complete that chaper before she moves. In fact, I can trust her to do it alone.

For my son, I am still wondering what is his interest? Though I know he is very much into sports but I am still clueless about what he wants in life. For one thing, I am happy that at least, he didn't give up doing this sport. Will be nice to see him get his black belt eventually.

Had our tea time in a kitchen store where I found a new friend. It is always nice to have new friend. She was really friendly and even proposed having coffee time together.

Went for our grocery shopping and completed all our task for the day. The only regrets was that we didn't get to cycle as planned. If not, this Sunday would have been really productive.

Another new week to look forward to because daddy is coming home on Friday.

It's been a while

Unlike my mom, I just lack the consistency to prepare soup on a daily basis. If she knows about this, I am definitely going to get an earful from her. She always believes that each meal, we must have soup. I am not against having soup, in fact, I love soups and so are my kids.

The problem is, I can never make those beautiful broth laded with so much richness. I guess this really needs skill and I have a long road to attain that. It is not about dumping in as much meat, herbs etc... For good Chinese soup, we talk about the heat control, the length of time brewing this broth.

Anyway, with the horrid weather as of late. I think it is about time, we get a bowl of goodness to balance the xin and yang in our body system.

So here I leave you with Aloe Vera and Lean Pork Soup. Basically Aloe vera helps to repair skin cells and has properties for clearing liver heat and preventing inflammation.



Ha, come to think about it. I just realised that my pot of aloe vera is gone. Most likely killed by my overly enthusiastic helper, whom seems doesn't have green fingers.

This is the second time, our weekend is without papa. I think more such lonely weekend is coming our way. Haiz…

What you need:

240g fresh aloe vera
200g lean pork
30g wolfberries
1/2 tsp salt
6 cup water

Method

Rinse aloe vera and remove the skin. Cut the white flesh into small pieces.

Blanched pork and slice into small pieces.

Put water, aloe vera and pork into a pot and boil for 1 hours.

Season to taste.

Lesson learnt

Yesterday, I saw an ex colleague's picture in the obituary. Naturally I was saddened, for her life was just too short on earth. On the other hand, I knew she suffered tremendously. Our working relationship was short lived when she was diagnosed with lupus at a pretty young age. She left the company for she feels that she is no longer needed there.

Some years later, I bumped into her at a mall. She told me that she went through two major operations to treat her legs. Not only was she plagued by lupus, she also developed leukaemia and eventually succumbed to pneumonia towards the end.

At her wake today, I came to know that at least she celebrated her wedding anniversary with a trip to the Eiffel Tower. She is truly blessed to have a husband whom went through thick and thin together with her.

From her husband, we came to know that despite her illness, she always wanted to look good even when she was hospitalised, she never failed to wash her face, applied SKII.

I really admired her strength in living life to the fullest. Her husband said that she was the one who makes it much easier for him to go through this difficult journey, for she was always so positive despite her pain.

I seriously need to re-examine myself.

Rest in peace, Debbie.

After coming home from the wake, I felt that I needed to keep myself occupied. Just the other day, I was telling AK that I was curious about steamed brownie and she was so generous in forwarding a recipe.



So I got into my act. The instruction wasn’t really detailed, so I went by my instinct. The cake took much longer to steam. Texture was not as moist as I had expected. I am not too sure whether I actually over beat the batter or not.

Nevertheless, it still tasted nice but definitely not a brownie that I had expected.

Another long trip

Hubby is off to another long trip tomorrow so I wanted to do a special meal before he leaves.

I had forgotten to get pumpkin during the weekend grocery shopping and thus today I needed to run to at least 4 places before I finally got hold of a small pumpkin. Lesson learnt, never go to the market on a Monday as most stalls are closed.

Unfortunately, hubby called the last minute to say that he won't be having dinner at home. Though disappointed, I still went ahead as planned. C'est la vie.

Being sweet, he managed to come home early to have his King Crab and Asparagus Salad.



All these while, I always had the impression that Hollandaise Sauce is hard to make. I was totally wrong, it is not only easy but delicious as well.

We throughly enjoyed the Seared Fish with Hollandaise Sauce as our main.



Helper was worried that this is not enough as there is no carbo but we were so full after that we didn't even have room for dessert.

A new me

First of all, I really wanted to thank all of you for your prayers and in encouraging and motivating me during this very difficult journey especially in sharing your experiences in raising a teen.

I guess since this is my first, I seriously had big shock dealing with one. I couldn't let go of being a mother of a child. I don’t know how to handle a child like adult and because of that, my relationship with my first born serious got strained especially he is not any normal child but one with special needs.

All these time, I never really considered him as one. I treated him as he is normal. Besides more tolerant with his hyper activeness, he is basically a normal child in my eyes.

Unfortunately children with ADHD are actually quite different. They needed a very structured environment which because of my poor ability to juggle with two kids, I never really seriously stick to it or rather I wasn't persistent in it.

From today onwards, I am going to adopt a different attitude in my parenting style. I will have to constantly remind myself that my baby is no longer a baby. In certain way, he no longer needed me to be around him all the time. Thus, I will focus more on my 9 years old instead.

I pray that my relationship with my son will heal and hubby ensured me that he will turn out okay as long as we are here for him when he needed us.

So to start on a clean sheet, I made their favourite dinner. Hubby has gotten some fresh mozzarella and what better way than to have it as Mozzarella Pizza. We really love the crust as this one is crispy. Of course, not forgetting another hot favourite, the Salami Pizza as well. The kids actually fought over how many pieces of salami each has. Luckily this is homemade thus there are plentiful.



Now we are talking about making fresh pasta, let's hope I can find some time to do it this week or should we wait till hubby is back after? Yes another long trip, somehow I didn’t dread it as much as previous.

Perhaps this beautiful reddish pink sky is a way of telling me that this is a new beginning, let's rejoice.



I pray that I will be stronger and wiser so that I can continue to work together with my son on this journey.

Thank you all!

No need or must?

I wonder how many out there thinks that an apology should come naturally rather than asked.

The past few days were horrible for me. I only found comfort when I go out with my friends and my little girl who were sweet and attentive to this broken soul. Luckily I had an order from AW that actually took my mind off for a day or two but still I find myself breaking into pieces.

During the last week of June holiday, I got news that my son now has ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder). Heard about this before? For me, this is definitely my first.

Starting from June till now, I didn’t really get peace at home or rather whenever he is around. He will do things to irritate me. I tried to hold my tongue, I tried to ignore but eventually I couldn’t take it anymore. After all, I need to set the house rule right as I still have a 9 years old that I needed her to abide the rules.

For friends who know me well, I treasure things a lot. Thus for me to take a phone and threw it across the room is something that I myself were shocked!

Miraculously it survived the ordeal, not even a scratch! But I was left with a small bruise and a sore on my foot. Perhaps you might say that I deserved it, for he threw his ear plug with a metal chain attached to it at my foot.

That gave me the excuse to confiscate the ear plug.

That evening, I was totally gone. I couldn’t stop crying. Not even when my hubby’s long time friend, KC arrived and joined us for dinner. Time for me to surrender.

My story didn’t end here.

The next day, he demanded his ear plug back as he needed it to do a school project. My helper returned it to him and off he went to school. In the evening, he made a nasty remark.

Thanks to me, he got detention and some demerit points as he couldn’t hand in his project for he couldn’t find his ear plug in his bag!

His dad gave him a scolding but didn’t demand an apology to me. Guess what, this morning; he woke up with a big attitude. He asked the helper to open the door for him. As she is attending to my little girl, she asked him to wait a while and he got irritated and shouted at her to open the door!

In my opinion, because he got away with the rudeness last night, thus he became more arrogant with his attitude.

I guess in time to come, all the female in this house will have no standing and we will be like slaves.

Now I only pray that my princess will not take any bad out of this learning journey and still maintain a sweet angel like she is now. She is my only comfort and I am so blessed to have her to give me that strength to carry on.

As for the dinner we had with KC, the credit all goes to my helper. I only flipped the books and pointed the dishes to serve.

This is Vietnamese Crab Quiche. I had some leftover the next day and V ate it and love it.



My daughter is strange for she is the only kid that I know that enjoys century egg.

Beancurd with minced meat and century egg.



Another version of Braised Five Spice Belly Pork. This one, the sauce is darker and thicker.



Stir Fried Bok Choy with Prawns.



and for dessert we had Sesame Ice Cream. Unfortunately we were so engrossed in the conversation that I didn't manage a shot before serving. So here is our melted ice cream.



I know I have to be strong and positive and I know I have to change to the can't be bothered attitude but as it is not me, I find it soooo challenging.

It is hard for a mother to watch a child digging his own grave and falling into it and couldn't do anything to protect him.

But I know I have to back off to save him from further harm and believe me, this is so tough and I admired those who can do it so easily.

Being parents in this era is totally different from ours.

After all these years

After my discussion with my hubby and the warm responses I get from you all. I have straighten my thoughts and will no longer wonder anymore if anyone is really utilising those tried and tested recipes that I shared here or whether my effort in putting up them up will be useful for others.

He told me that since it is my way of “giving back” what I learnt, I should just do it. As to whether my effort is utilized or not, it doesn’t matter.

So thanks all for giving me your views. I felt so much better now that I get some directions.

I hope from my experiences in the kitchen, you can find inspiration.

As a mother, draw strengths from my parenthood journey and I from yours.

God bless you all.

Now let me tell you about our very exciting Youth Day.

During our breakfast date last week, JM suggested we do a baking session for the kids. It was a perfect time for the proposal as the following Monday was Youth Day and it will be good for the kids to have something to do.

I was a little apprehensive about giving lesson not to the 9 years olds but rather to 2 years old. After all I had done before for primary school level kids.

I didn’t want a classic chocolate muffin as I wanted to do another batch of buckwheat cookies with chocolate chip. Yes it is that good that I wanted JM and AL to try it as well.

Since the cookies have chocolate chip, I thought it will be a good idea to have savoury muffins instead. After all, I have never done a savoury muffin before!!! Or have I?

Unfortunately, no time to take any pictures of the process. So here is our effort, Peanut Butter Muffins and the Buckwheat Butter Cookies with Chocolate Chips (I think this is my 4th time baking these, so you can guess how crazy I am over these by now).



The session went through so smoothly even though I have a two years old involved. I even have time to cook a simple lunch of Fried Udon for my guests.

I could see how the little one enjoyed the lesson. Also was good for the older kids as they learnt Maths in a fun manner.



I was pretty disappointed with the appearance of the muffin as it has a very flat top to it. Doesn't even look like a muffin. I was afraid that it was dense but surprisingly, it wasn't!

In fact, AL who doesn’t really fancy peanut butter, actually likes it!

After the session and lunch, the girls continue to paint, done some skipping as well as hula.



By then, time to say good byes as the little two years old was totally drained.

I truly enjoyed the afternoon with the ladies and the girls and my little princess too.