Done by love

My little 10 years old is showing keen interest in the kitchen.  Few nights ago, she saw me watching a cooking demo on You Tube and she got really interested and spent the next few nights watching the whole series.  

In fact, last night she told me that she intend to cook for us today.  Thus we woke up early and went to the market and supermarket to put together this meal.

It took her ages to prepare and seeing her painstakingly and so intense in putting together this dinner, marvel us.

Despite a very late dinner, with her brother being her sous chef and helper as supervision, this meal was finally presented on the table.

She was a little over ambition and soon lost the patience as her brother was complaining that he is hungry but nevertheless, though incomplete but this meal is definitely far better than any 5 stars.

Don't you agree?

Source: Ochikeron

Omurice

Healthy Pan-Fried Minced Cutlet (Menchi Katsu)

Our love dinner done by my two little angels, this dinner was eaten with such pleasure and warm fuzzy feeling. 

We were so proud of these two kids, from now onwards, I no longer need to worry about putting food on the table.

An experience

Despite me saying that I will be blogging more but in reality, I am still adjusting to the new routine and the new helper.  Since she doesn’t know how to cook, meals are 100% done by me now.  It didn't help that kids are having school holiday so I need to prepare three meals a day.    For the time being, I guess for her to concentrate on housework is good enough for me.


This school holiday is worst than school days.  My kids were filled with so much activities especially my young one. You see, her school does not have CA1 or 2. Thus by the time SA1 is over, I realised that she is way behind her peers in her learning. Strangely, on a week to week topical test, she fared not too badly but somehow when it comes to the final lap, she stumbled.


To regain her confidence, I signed her up for holiday programs. Guess it is a nicer term to use than crash course. 


I also up her Chinese tuition from once per week to twice upon the tutor's insistence. On top of that, I also signed her up for a Chinese Compo program.

As if tuition is not enough, she still have to go back to school for her swimming CCA. Strange isn't it?


With so much on her hand, she is still asking for more tuition.  Unbelievable girl, isn’t she? 


As for son, this term test, he really fared badly. He flunked all his core subjects. This mom is panicking but son behaves like cool dude. He even halted his Maths tuition with the excuse that he is way too busy with his soccer training, taekwondo competition, a church camp as well as an overseas exchange program. 


I backed off but yet seeing he wasting his days with his psp and phone makes me feel jittery. Upon a friend's daughter recommendation and much working round his “busy” schedule, I finally able to signed him up for an English workshop and hopefully he will like it enough to continue onto a weekly tuition with her.


This tutor is amazing and from her profile, she seems to be able to deal with “challenging” kids.  On top of that, she is not “business minded” as in most agencies.  I seriously hope son will learn under her as I was told that for Sec 3's English. It is a new syllabus and kids are still unfamiliar with the format and marking system which explains his poor failing.


You see I have two kids that came from two different worlds.  One is smart but damn lazy and the other is not so but wanting to excel yet can’t produce.  Really breaks my heart to see one wasting it away while the other slogs so hard.


Let’s hope the new term, my younger girl will have more confidence in achieving her goal.  As for my son, I will leave it in God’s hand.  There is only so much I can do.  He is old enough to decide his own destiny since he doesn’t not appreciate a guided hand then he will have to live with consequences later on in life.


Just before the new maid comes onboard, we make a short trip up to KL to give support to our kids who were competing in the UM MBW Open.  The last they held this competition was 6 years ago.  

It was definitely an eye opener for us and it makes the kids realised how blessed and orderly Singapore is.   Most importantly, the kids learnt how good other's are.  We were so amazed by the standard of these players in other Malaysia clubs.   My only concern was that they were allowed to kick the head in this competition and since son wasn't trained so (not allowed in Singapore but in all parts of the world).

Nevertheless, he has done us proud by bringing home a bronze. 

My girl was really sad that she didn't get a medal.  In fact, she was so heart broken that she cried for half an hour.  To be honest, we didn't expect anything from them except that they get the experience.

I hope they gained something out of this trip.

A proud moment

This post was long overdue as the event happened last week but I simply had no time to blog about it. Thus today, I managed to put in effort to set aside some time so that I can document this before it slipped my mind.

I didn't realise that I only posted once in the month of Aril till I was uploading the pictures in photobucket. Wow time really flies. This one month really a busy one month for me and with lots of happenings.

Finally our new nest is ready. A date that had been pushing back since last Christmas! Unbelievable but it happened. Anyway, my packing days are over and now it is cleaning. You know how it is like, you need to give time for the dust to settle down. Though I threw away and gave away many stuff, I still have tons of them that I just can't bear to let go. So the unpacking and finding a new place for the items will be a challenge.

After a day of cleaning the new house, my helper tendered her resignation (she still have three more months with us). So you can imagine how frantic I was, checking out agencies and bio data. Thank God, he was really looking out for me and I was able to find one amidst the limited pool available.

Of course, at this point in time, I just can’t afford to let her go as yet. So she will have to stick around for another month. I concluded that no matter how well they are treated, there isn’t such thing as loyalty. On top of this, with my sixth sense, I found out that she has been stealing money from us as well. I am not alerting her. I will just let the matter sit till I am ready to deal with it.

Now back to my priority for today's post. Last Tuesday and Thursday, I just have to drop everything to attend my kids' taekwondo competitions. Though this is not their first competition but this is the first time they represented their schools.

Initially I know my little girl was intimated by her opponents who are both 11 years old and are taller than her. Somehow this little girl over came her fear and make her way to the finals and to a Gold! I am definitely not shy to say that I am a proud mom.

We are so proud of her to see her working hard to get that Gold.

Thanks to her coach ZC for his guidance and giving her the confidence to reach her potential.

Yea! Good job done little one!

A good surprise was that the school also came in 4th in the Overall Championship for Junior Female.

Next was my boy. It was a double happiness for him as he received two medals this month.

We are also proud of him to see that he overcame his fear of seeing black belts (he is a junior black). During the last competition, he didn't reach his full potential because of this reason.

He was indeed in chirpy mood as he went on to get another medal for his soccer.

Okay, now I have to go back to work. It doesn’t help that hubby is leaving town this week and only be back on Monday as we planned to move on Tuesday. So everything fall 100% on me, nice isn’t it?

Thanks for constantly checking in. I am sorry that there isn’t any new recipe that I tried out this one month.

Do come by in May.

Till then, arrivederci

Fact of life?

Remember sometime back, I was dinning in this restaurant in Changi Village, I mentioned we saw a very meaningful passage on the wall. My dad actually typed and printed a copy for me but along the way, I misplaced it.

Now with all the packing and throwing stuff out, I finally found it again.

Thanks to my little one, with her help, I was able to retype this out once more. I didn’t know she was so superb with her han yu pin yin. Guess signing her up for lessons while she was in kindergarten helped.

急事， 慢慢的说
大事， 清楚的说
小事，幽默的说
没把握的事，谨慎的说
没发生的事， 不要糊说
做不到的事， 不能说
不开心的事， 找对对象说
开心的事， 看场合说
伤心的事， 不要见人就说
别人的事， 小心的说
自己的事， 听听别人 怎么说
尊长的事， 多听少说
夫妻的事， 商量着说
孩子们的事， 开导着说

Now having it in record, I can throw another piece of paper out for recycling. With that said, perhaps some one can help me to translate this into English?

Over the years, I had collected so many printed recipes that I found on the internet. To throw them away, it is such a pity but to keep, simply had no space.

Also, my hard disk crashed on me twice and I lost so many datas. Now I am kind of paranoid and started to print my favourite tried and tested recipes out. That is to say, more space needed.

Are you having the same problem as me? Totally in dilemma

Okay back to work.

A surprise

Actually I am so dead tired to blog but as I needed to download a picture. You see, after I came home, a feel told me to check my helper's room. It was way too clean up which is very unlike her.

Somehow a sixth sense told me to check her shoes which she kept in the cupboard (don’t ask me why she can’t keep it in the shoe cabinet) and I found foreign currencies tucked under the insole of her shoes. Though the amount wasn't much but ...... from now on, we really have to be very weary.

While downloading that picture that I took, I chanced upon something very interesting and I wanted to document this, definitely a precious moment for me.

This picture is apparently taken by my 10 years old. Don't you think she has a flair in photography?

Okay, I will end here. Needed to lie down a little while to rest my back.

Banana Cake/Sesame Muah Chee

I have a personality that I like to get things done quickly. I prefer to plan ahead and execute right away. I like to be on the move and getting things accomplished.

Days whereby I see my son moves around the house slowly and doing nothing, sometimes I find it annoying or when my hubby and kids are glued to the google box on a weekend, I finds that boring. Yes, I have learnt along the way that men de-stress themselves being a couch potato. LOLz.

These days, my weekends are being kept busy with a new project. I am setting up my herb garden. Hubby has big plan for the garden but it is easier say that do. For I am the one realising his dream. It is definitely a lot of hard work especially after each session I will suffer tremendously pain on my back. Now I understand the saying of once broken can’t be healed. Really annoying that physically I can no longer push myself.

Things are looking good in my herb garden. I still need to finalise some position before I call it completed. Then I will wait for my harvest. As for hubby’s dream garden, I will have to take it slowly.

Enough said, late last week, my girl came home with a request for me to bake cupcakes for her Entrepreneur week school project. The teacher was so worried about her over enthusiasm that she actually rang me to confirm that I will be doing it.

Since I already committed, so even though I am exhausted from the gardening, I proceeded on with the baking after I came home. Little one of course was way eager to help. Hubby also felt that it is a good learning ground for her as she gets to understand the effort puts in to the final product being sold.

Luckily I didn't promise anything complicated.

(Sorry for the poor picture quality as I am totally blasted after the baking and frosting)

Since I am already baking, I quickly put together a really easy Banana Cake. I baked this many times and each time with success and this little one soon become a hot favourite with family and friends.

Just in time, D and her family came for a visit and she brought home a loaf. I am glad that her mom loved it.

See I told you I am slowing down. This was done on Friday evening. I was craving for muah chee and since LT gave me a tub of really fragrant sesame powder, I decided to turn them into Sesame Muah Chee using the HCP.

I was told that this is available in a shop in Orchard Road but being a home body, I hardly go down town even though I lived in Central!



Not too sure whether this is comparable but it is good enough for me to get a quick fix though. Next time, I will blend in sesame seeds together with the peanut.

What you need:

200g glutinous rice flour minus 3 tbsp
3 tbsp sesame seed powder
300ml water
1 tbsp shallot oil + 1 tsp
1 tsp sugar
pinch of salt
A generous amount of fried shallot

Peanut, sesame and sugar mixture

150g chopped roasted peanuts
30g fine sugar
10g sesame seeds

Method (Happy Call Pan)

Mix everything in a bowl. Stir till it is lump free. Sieve.

Heat up pan.

Add another tsp of shallot oil.

Pour in the batter and let it cook for 5 mins.

Open the lid and give it a good thorough stir.

Close lid and cook for another 5 mins, repeat one more time by adding a generous amount of fried shallot. Blend well.

Remove from pan.

Cut dough with oiled scissor and coat with peanut and sugar mixture.

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

Source: Small Cakes

Banana cake

What you need:

200g - 2 bananas, mashed or puree
150g unsalted butter
230g castor sugar
50g ground hazelnuts
2 eggs, lightly beaten
175g plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
133g sour cream

Method

Greased and lined a 18X7X8 cm deep loaf tin.

Preheat oven to 170 degree c.

Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in ground hazelnuts and followed by eggs.

Sift in the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and mix well together.

Mix in the sour cream and finally add in the bananas.

Pour into pan and bake for 20 mins.

Happy Valentine's Day

Expecting something romantic churned out from my kitchen. I am afraid I disappoint all of you.

Actually I have no intention to blog post today. I am down with a bad flu and had been bed resting the whole day.

I even had to cancel an errand that I was supposed to do but just felt too shitty to leave the house.

Luckily little one had her CCA and ended her day late, so hubby was really sweet to help out.

Not only he brought home little one, I also had a nice surprise, thus I just wanted to pen down this sweet thoughts.

You see, it is not every year I will get flowers from hubby. Personally I find it a waste of money to buy flowers on Valentine's Day.

But this bouquet is done of out love. Picked by little one, painstaking with thorn removed for each stalk and gift wrapped by hubby as the ready made bouquets were no longer presentable at that hour.

You are darn right…. I am so touched and felt truly bless to have a hubby like him, Happy Valentine’s Day dear!

To all my readers, Happy Valentine's day too! Hope you have a lovely evening with all your loved ones.

Good time management

I always believe if you have good time management, you can actually do plenty. Not that I am very good at this but I guess I am not that bad. The short getaway was wonderful. Even though I didn't get to eat my favourite Black Hokkien Mee, I wasn't disappointed as I met some wonderful people during this trip. It was good to meet up with new friends and good for catching up with old friends. I wish I can stay longer. The journey up and down was also very smooth. In fact, it was bliss. Kind weather and smooth ride, best of all, there is no traffic policemen that try to pretend that you have been speeding. You don't see me blogging the past few days as I was also trying to do some last minute revision with my little one. Yay, two more days and we are done. On top of that, my Cupcake Fantasies commitment too. This time round I even get my son to help out as the theme was Halloween. Something to keep him occupied for 10 mins? Enough said, I have a request to do some corporate logo. Since the quantity is small, I didn't get those edible print out. To help D save cost too, I hand painted the logo. I haven't been holding a paint brush since secondary days and I really hope that D will find that it is as close to the original. D, please don't sue me if I didn't do a good job.

Picking up speed

Time really flies and half the year passed. Since our little getaways, I have been busy preparing for a charity bake. I am really pleased to be part of it as I do enjoyed such events. When MC approached me to see whether I can do it, I took it up immediately without thinking. Well so far, this is my biggest project for Cupcake Fantasies and I am happy that we pulled it through except a small hiccup but was quickly rectified when hubby stepped in to help. Thanks L, MC and ML for helping out one way or another for this worthy cause. I hope the fund raised will blessed more kids who in need.

At long last

I used to have awesome neighbours and we are like a big happy family. Food are exchanged generously and I know that I can count on them to babysit should the need arised. When we needed to part ways, alot of sentiments were shared and we promised to keep in touch. Then I moved to the "countryside", I missed them badly. Not that I don't have good immediate neighbours but they were so busy and hardly home for us to interact. When I moved back to city living, I was praying so hard that I will get nice neighbours. You see, we are a very sociable family, it is pretty torturing if I can't socialise. Thus it was really comforting to know that my neighbours are friendly and nice but it does take time to warm up and get acquainted. After staying here for half a year, I finally have a chance to sent out an SOS to my neighbour. I needed someone to feed my plants. I was so happy to see my plants still smiling when we got back from the trip. Yesterday, the kids and their mom just got back from a home visit in Penang. We kind of did a gift exchange. A thank you token from Sabah to thank them for watering my plants. She in return, gave me a big portion of steamed bun and told me that it nice to pan fried them with eggs. I politely decline half the portion as I don't know whether my kids will like them. This morning, some one rang our bell and presented this as breakfast. I had a nice surprise. She actually pan fried it with eggs and had her daughter delivered to my door this morning. I did as she told and mine was like the picture in the background, pathetic looking. See how hers looks. I am so happy because this indicate a new level of our friendship. When I heard that she is from Penang and told her that I enjoyed Penang laska, she said she will cook it for me the next time. Geesh, being a glutton, I really can't wait for my next treat.

Meeting strangers?

In the past, I formed friendship with colleagues, my suppliers and my clients. Now that I am a homemaker, how does one's homemaker form new friendship? 

When my little girl was still in kindergarten, I have good friendship built with mommies hanging out at the kinder. Now that she is finally in mainstream school. I have lesser contact with strangers as I have yet to volunteer in her school. The only way is to “meet up” with strangers is in the forums or blogs. 

Just like pen pal. We started corresponding via msn, yahoo or email. After sometime, I am eager to meet up.

I guess putting a face to a communication brings us closer. Sometime it works out to a beautiful friendship but sometime it doesn't as I have blogged about it before. I am glad that I actually overcome that phobia and now my friendships that I formed these past months have been good and sincere.

Just like MB who comes to Singapore to visit her grand daughters on a monthly visit. I am glad that we meet up and I feel so comfortable with her. I learnt so much from this dynamic lady. Though she is so capable yet she is humble. I felt at ease with such personality.

She has been encouraging me to try out Fondant Cookies and promised that I will find great fun out of it. True enough, this afternoon, I done these with my kids. Not only I am able to keep them away from the urge to watch TV, I think it was a good afternoon of bonding time.

 My little one is a little disappointed as she finds the MMF too sticky to handle. Nevertheless, the Chocolate MMF that we experienced for the first time, tasted really awesome, my son can’t control sticking bits and pieces into his mouth despite my warning.

 Thanks MB, true to what you said. It was definitely an enjoyable experience and delicious too. Even my helper likes it.

No smile?

When I was young, I remembered having pen pals. I couldn't believe when G, my good old classmate told me that she is still in touch with her pen pal. I found that truly amazing. Now with modern time, we have got cyber friends instead. Guess because of the instaneous communication, we tend to share more about our interest, our likes and dislikes. We get to choose friends that are of similar interests in forums and blogs. We get to know each other faster in that aspect. Through it, I found many firm friendships that based on trust. Of course I have my fair share of heart aches but life goes on. Sometime it works out beautifully and sometime it doesn't. The world of food blogging is amazing. Actually I learnt a lot from recipes that were shared, food styling and photography except writing style. That is something that I can't do well. I don't know how to make it more interesting or captivating. My photography isn't that great though I have improved. I have seen bloggers that improved in heaps and bounds over the years. They are really talented. So when my fellow foodie blogger heard that I am now into pau making and didn't quite get THE recipe. Some have showed me the way "to a good recipe". Thus here is another attempt. Still no smile but tasted much better than the first. Meanwhile I will still continue to experience till I find the THE pau. hahahaha Thanks to those who sent me links and recipes via emails. I will respect your decision to keep those recipes confidential.

Picking up pieces

After a major accident that resulted me losing half of my Precious Moments. I was feeling really rejected. Strangely I didn't go into an angry mode. Instead of crying over spilled milk, I was feverishly trying to find back all my past postings especially those with tried and tested recipes. It is extremely a slow process but it is slowly picking up the pieces. I won't be expecting a full recovery though. Usually I will be so heart broken that I will break into tears. I will picked up the phone and ring hubby telling him the "crisis" at home. I am relatively surprised by my own behaviour. This time, no drama at all. In fact, I took it really cool. Guess C is right, this will gives me a better reason to try even more recipes. hahahah.. SD was really sweet and forwarded me some of my postings he collected from my blog. Thanks so much SD. Anyway, despite my best effort to "locate" all my past history. I couldn't really do much at this point of time except to resign to fate. Whatever it is, this is the SECOND time such stupidity strikes me. I really have to practise the Golden Rule. Back up!!!!!! Since I can't turned back the clock, I will have to move on. Life is too short for me to mull over it. I better focus my energy on somewhere else.

How I wish - a magic wand

This is going to be one hell of a bad news. I am digging deeper and deeper into hot shits. Yes, the most dreaded news!!! I LOST HALF of my blog. Yes nearly 300 posts went into thin air. Whossh.. just like at. (I am thinking about all my recipes that I have tried and tested) *in tears now* Worst to come, I haven't been backing up my blog since August last year!!! I now am at a lost. To continue to blog and move on from here or just shut it down. To continue, even with 2007 and part 2008 back up, I will be struggling to cut and paste and link back all my pictures. Damn damn damn. I wish I have a magic wand right this moment. Guess this is the most dreaded news a blogger can have. What a day.

Settling down

Yes, we have moved once again. The little kampong life is over for us and we are now back to the city living again.

It was an extremely good two years (nearly). My kids enjoyed it tremendously and we love the clean crisp air, the greenery that surrounds us and the birds chirping away that welcome us each and every morning.

All our friends who have visited enjoyed themselves and the numerous numerous of BBQs we had with good company were fantastic. It was simply going to be an unforgettable experience.

Though the experience was good but my dream, upon a time, wanting a little garden become less and less an ideal one. We now realised that staying on landed has it prones. I detest the creepy crawlies that I have to watch out everytime I set foot outside the house and sometimes, that croaky thing gives me such a scare as they venture into my household!!!! or sometime finding a cozy corner in my shoes! Now I realised that having an outdoor area is no longer as appealing to me as before.

Like some of our friends' wives, they too prefered high rise living so this time round, we opted to stay on the highest level. LOLz.

The view is spectacular especially in the night. Though we will miss our garden, I intend to convert the little area outside into a little paradise. Now let's hope indoor plants work well here.

Perhaps one fine day, I can have a skylight garden. hehehheh... wishful? As what my better half always said, nothing is impossible.

I will be heading for the hospital in two days' time. So let me take this opportunity to wish all my friends, relatives and family a Healthy and Joyous year.

Also wanted to thank my readers for the continuing support for this little humble blog of mine. It has created a little santuary for me as well as extending another year of friendship that I have found through it.

Though it might be a tough year ahead, I am sure we all will overcome it some way or another.

God Bless.

A little absence from all.

I have been neglecting my this "little baby" since 30 October. I was admitted to the A&E and was given two doses for morphine within 4-5 hours. In fact, while waiting for the pain to go away, my thought was that I will never be able to walk again. Scary it is? Even my poor aunt who rushed me to the hospital was in panic as she is normally a very steady aunt. My poor princess had to skipped to school and witnessed her mommy being transfered from wheelchair to bed to ward. I didn't even get a chance to wait like the rest for my turn!

As I am allergy to one type of painkiller, the doctors were at a lost what else to give me as that type that I am allergy to has a broad spectrum of painkillers and that means I can't take any of those.

In the midst of all my pain, I was worried about my kids not able to attend their halloween party and the classes that I already commited to and a 2009 commitment to GH that I had to turned down. Luckily my sister was able to stand in for me and bring my kids for the party (so my kids are happy) and my students were kind and understanding enough to postponed the class till I am better. As for GH, I am so sorry that they got to find a replacement within a short notice. Nevertheless, I thank you all for being so kind and understanding to me.

Getting X Ray and MRI done was a painful process too as I was literally immobile. It didn't help to ease my fear as the Prof gave me two options only. Either I go for surgery so that the pain will go away or I hold on to the pain and go for physiotherapy. Being afraid of operation theatre, I chose the later but I need to take more painkillers till my appointed date for physio.

After staying for three days and was in "dreamland" most of the time and my dear hubby needed to travel again. I think I was better off being cared for by my mommy and sister at home than being in the hospital. Though the nurses were so wonderful and the presentation of the menu for meals were so impressive like in the hotel but the taste is really yucky. I hardly touched my food and the nurses were coaxing me to eat more.

The report came back to indicate that I have two areas of slipped disc! Damn! One is so far out that it is sitting on my nerve thus that explains the numbness, pain etc.

Thoroughout this difficult period, I realised that family support is so important and I am truly blessed to have a wonderful one.

Although now I am suffering lesser pain but much more beareable and able to sit (but not for long). I thank my many friends' prayers and God who is keeping me strong enough to attend my daughter's orientation day for Primary 1 as well as her graduation concert. Her school has been very supportive of my injury too and treated me like a VIP. hahahaa...

All my friends who came to know about my injury have been great and I felt so much love around me. I am now more posititve that I will recover in time for my next classes and a charity that I promised to help out in early Dec. S, don't worry, I didn't forget my commitment to you too.

In the meantime, I am closing my kitchen for Cupcake Fantasies. As for my fondant modelling class in late November and December. Rest assured that I will be fit enough to carry it on. (I have been a good girl exercising daily to strength my muscle).

I was happy that my much feared worry came to a null as I made it through our short getaway. Thanks for the support that my sister's family given to me. They were constantly lending me a shoulder or a hand for support. Of course, I got many many stares from strangers looking at my walking stick! I do feel funny walking with one but that little cane actually helps tremendously. There goes my hope of getting some new high heeled shoes!

Anyway, my little princess helped me to end this short break with a bang by snipping off her hair. Though I do cut her hair but it was never this short. I think hubby needed some adjustment to his little princess's new look. For her, I did sense a little fear from her when the hairdresser started to cut and she wasn't really excited about it but I think now she seems to be enjoying her short bob. LOLz.

During this break away from the kitchen, I read up so many recipes and eager to try all but somehow, I couldn't find the mojo.

Let's hope the baking mood will be back soon.

Finally getting mommy's home cooked food

When I got married, the first thing I misses was my mom's home cooking. She is a fantastic cook for your information. Perhaps it is because my dad was a fussy eater (well his mom was a good cook too). When we were young, she always insists that we stand next to her while she cooks. Of course during those young days, this was extremely boring and thus nothing registered. I took Home Economic during my first and second years of secondary school but the third and fourth I got into the Needlework course. Don't ask me how but I was. After six long years of dinning out, we had enough and thus the interest took on. I started with one pot meal and then gradually moving on to dishes. It helps as the family expands. Growing up with my mom's cooking, our palate become fussy too. We can tell good, so so and "bluffing your way" on how a cuisine was prepared. Is this good or is this bad, I seriously don't know. Whereas for my hubby, everything taste okay. With less expectation, for a hubby he is definitely easy to feed. For self improvement, I think this is bad especially he is the critic to what I put on the table. My kids were usually very diplomatic. Anyway, mommy hasn't been cooking for a long time at least for us (married daughters). Partly because of health reason and partly she lost the stamina. So normally our weekend with them will be dined out. After all, she dishes out three meals a day for my dad for 5 days. She definitely needed the break on a weekend. We haven't been dinning together of late too as they just newly acquired a house and was busy. As hubby dear is away, mom invited us over for dinner. It will be a merry occasion as three families will be dinning together. My sister was getting excited too as she hardly cooks. She was all done with grocery shopping yesterday and already co-ordinated with mom what to have for dinner. hahaha... I think it is good that my parents were able to secure a flat that is a stone throw away from my sister. We can kill two birds with one stone every time we visit now. LOLz. For my part, I decided to bring Steamed Serikaya cake. This cake was raved about that I got to try it. The cake is really good. Soft, fluffy and delicious. Even my dad who doesn't really like cake as he always find them sweet gave his approval. Somehow it reminded me of one that D bought for me in KL and didn't have a chance to find out the name. Sorry, I won't be sharing this recipe as I have make a pact and if someday I am good enough, I might even sell them if my friends want them. LOLz.

Playing around

There is a new technology that I actually can "follow" all my favourite blog read in blogger. Unfortunately for some, I can't. Then I realised that my blog was still "under" the old version. So I went about finding the fault and ended with my question marks in my head. It was a cross road. If I "upgrade", alot of my links will go missing. If I don't, then I will be in the "old generation" as my youngest sister always label me. Thanks to R, H and L for their encouragement. I finally able to rectify at least 80% of my issue. So now I am into the "new" generation. heheheeh.... I would love to revamp my blog but as usual with my limited knowledge in technology.... this will take me a good few days or weeks to do it. Unfortunately hubby is leaving town so I doubt I will the energy to do it as I will be a "SINGLE" parent unless I burnt midnight oil. I would love to have a new header to my boring one which is gone now. So let me "play around" first and see whether I can come up with something decent and pretty okay. I wouldn't reject any kind soul who will "sponsor" me one though. LOLz. As you know, I am not that creative at all. Now, what have I done for my weekend. Well the kids went for their taekwondo grading. This time round, my little one really done good. There was so much determination and focus. I am really proud of her. My son went through it with bliss as a seasoned student. Let's pray he will get a double promotion. We also attended the Motorshow. Nothing impressive and the show is pretty pathetic as not many big boys are involved this time round. The models are really nothing to shout about. In fact, some are such a pain. Leaning on the car and chatting away despite the interested party was trying to get into the car to have a feel. Some, they looked totally bored. The saving grace was that we did enjoyed the stunt show which was pretty impressive. mmmm.... what is that guy's name who is still holding the record? I also spent the Sat catching up with this group of girlfriends. Remembering I promised them a get together at my place many donkey months ago. I think it is at least 1.5 years ago? hahaha.... Well girls, if you are reading this.... my aging mind not that bad right? Selective memory I guess. Well, it is hard to organise something as H is a newly appointed mom (well not really new anymore as her son already hitting 11th month)! SY, forever being a social butterfly and now a "forced" workaholic. SH needs to spend those precious weekends with her boyfriend aka future hubby to be as she is only home on weekend. Anyway, been having so many BBQ of late that I ran out of ideas what to put on the table besides the usual. Since it is a small affair, I decided to put everything except pork chop and banana wrapped fish on skewers. Easier this way I think. At least you won't get messy hand and drinking wine right? Yah, all of us are alcoholic!!! SY already told me that she will be bringing her well loved wine. hahahaha... Preparing this is easy. By late morning, I have already got everything in order. Still able to have "alone time" for 2.5 hours while hubby babysit. I wish I can do this often. That is my "alone time" It feels great. We spent a good night sipping wine and catching up on the latest development of our lives. I wish we can do this often. Perhaps once every two months? What do you think gals? BTW, H came with two plates of this awesome Beef Salad. I just can't shake it off the next day. I definitely am going to ask for the recipe. It was simply sedap!!!!! H, I know you are reading this so can I have the recipe pleeeeeaaaasee?

Caught it!

We had an unwelcome visitor in my pantry for a week. Initially I couldn't determine what it was but apparently "someone" has been scratching on my pantry door. Last weekend, one of our guest for the BBQ owns a pest control company and he quickly confirmed that it is a mice/rat trying to get out. So yesterday he passed some traps and bingo! After laying the trap, in an hour or two, that little one got stuck! My hubby and kids all called him cutie but I can never bring myself to have a peek. In fact, my dear hubby wanted to adopt him as a pet!!!!! No way!!! No way!!!! Enough of yucky. Been craving for something sourish and sweet and recently I made a bottle of orange curd and I was also trying out a new sweet dough recipe that hubby said was nice. So here is my Orange Curd Tart.

  Labels: dessert Posted by Precious Moments @ 10:28 AM :: (5) comments

Healthy

My kids simply love pasta and I do find this relatively easy to feed them. So this time round, I bought some whole wheat pasta having in mind it is more nutritional for them. Somehow, I find it takes a longer time to cook it. So my al dente pasta didn't quite make it. Nevertheless, my kiddos still finished up up their dinner.

Thanks kids for making mommy happy.