Foodie Fridays: How to enjoy your kway teow (and an easy risotto!)

Step 1: Make the discovery that kway teow sticks beautifully to the back of your hand.  Layer them nicely...

His hands were slimy from soup btw, not saliva!

Step 2: Then slurp them off the back of your hand...

Step 3: Repeat again and again, until most of your dinner is in your tummy.  Meanwhile, ignore all protests from Mama about using a spoon like a regular human being, but do show her how the kway teow sticks beautifully when she takes out the camera...

Step 4: Then when you get really full and bored, try a physics lesson and dangle them off the edge of your bowl.  If they drop, its due to this thing called gravity...

Kway teow always tastes better if you get to savour it.  Finger-licking good, yes?

(Lest you go tsk tsk at the boy making a mess at the table, he is usually much neater, and I did lecture him about eating properly.  However, properly to a 2 year old seems to have a different definition!  He finished his dinner though.  And I realize the photos may be a little gross to some, sorry... guess to someone who used to teach boys who thought the coolest thing on earth was to smuggle out a pig's heart after a dissection practical and throw it up at the classroom fan, a little mess from a meal is nothing. :p)


Ah yes, what was I supposed to write about?  Oh, yes, the meals.  This week has been a good one for the kitchen (in terms of usage, but not in terms of grime):  

Last Friday's beef soup (I call it our beta-carotene juice since I just stew beef with a can of plum tomatoes, carrots and corn to yield this sourish beefy soup), Sunday's shepherd's pie (the recipe says "easy" but I find it quite troublesome!), Tuesday's chicken with shitake mushroom soup, Wednesday's herb-baked salmon and pumpkin risotto (recipe below), and Thursday's kway teow soup with spinach and mince pork.  

5 home-cooked family dinners, out of 7 days... I guess its an improvement?  At least I still get a huge sense of satisfaction seeing the hubby slurp his soup and lean back with a sigh after a meal. :)  And I finally found a recipe for risotto that doesn't call for a torturous 45 minutes of stirring at the stove:

Oven-baked pumpkin risotto 

(Adapted from a tomato risotto recipe from Annabel Karmel's After School Meal Planner)

Serves 4

Ingredients:
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 tsp ground sea salt
- 185 g Arborio rice
- 375 ml chicken stock
- 250 g pumpkin, chopped into chunks
- 60 g grated Parmesan
- Black pepper

Steps:
1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Saute onion and garlic for 4 minutes with salt.
3. Add rice and stir for 5 minutes.
4. Add stock and pumpkin, bring to simmering point, stirring occasionally.
5. Sprinkle with Parmesan and black pepper, cook for 2 minutes.
6. Cover and bake for 30 minutes or until rice is cooked (do open the oven periodically to give the rice a stir, or the top might burn).

(You could also stir in some butter right at the end, which was mentioned in the recipe, but I left it out as I was in a hurry.  If you do, cover for a few minutes before serving.)

I loved how this turned out, since you get your creamy risotto, without having to slave at the stove for a long time. :)  The actual recipe used tomatoes and courgettes, but I ran out of tomatoes and used pumpkin, which turned out quite nice with the rice.  Happy weekend everyone!

Foodie Fridays: YAY!

Little boy trying to feed Papa potatoes for dinner.  The photo's blur, but makes my heart smile. :)

I'm starting to find that cooking is getting easier.  Perhaps its seeing how hubby enjoys the simple meals at home, or how I try to imagine all the good stuff, nutrients and all, going into Junior J's body, and hopefully making him grow taller, just a little. :)

So all in a week's work:

Clockwise from top left: Sunday's baked salmon and potatoes with salad, Monday's frittata and minced beef pasta, and Tuesday's pork rib soup noodle with spinach, carrots and corn.

Thursday's chicken mushroom soup with rice and veggies... (Silly me ran out of corn/carrots,
so I improvised and used one honey date to sweeten the soup. :p)

All in all, I'm sticking to simple stuff, and it helps that Junior J now eats what we eat, so I do not need to cook a separate meal for him.  No deep frying for now, just soups (which hubby and the boy love) which usually end up as one-pot meals with just rice on the side, or sometimes noodles.  Everything gets chopped up while I'm preparing lunch and goes into the pot to simmer, so that the soup is flavorful by dinner time...  I'm trying to experiment with baking stuff in the oven, but I still find that I can't get my salmon done just right (will share when I do) yet.

Gotta go chop up my beef for soup now, so here's to a blessed weekend everyone!    

Foodie Fridays: A confession

We don't have a recipe book holder.  I scribble recipes on post-its and stick them on the kitchen cabinet! :p

Ahhh... If you have read really old entries for my blog, you might know that I initially embarked on a 3/7 resolution last year, amongst a whole load of other grand plans.  :p  Then I've stopped writing those Foodie Friday posts... because I think I'm still a long way to go in fulfilling that resolution!  Some of you would think, hey, she's a stay-home mum.  She only has one child to care for, putting dinner on the table shouldn't be difficult right?

Well... erm, not so, since I must admit I totally CANNOT cook.  My mum was a pretty decent cook, and her idea of taking good care of her family was making sure we ate well, and didn't need to lift a hand in the kitchen.  I did try to learn how to cook from her, but she was so particular about her kitchen being kept clean, and things being used in a particular way, that we drove each other nuts!  I wisely decided to take the easy way out and stay out of the kitchen, and enjoy the food.  So the only time I got to cook was perhaps during Home Economics lessons in school (which I can't remember much of, except that we had a draconian teacher who made my partner wear a wash basin on her head for not wiping it dry, and that we made pineapple upside down cake).

Pasta: One of the dishes I can cook, and have learnt how to prep the sauce from scratch...

Then I moved to a student residence during my uni days, and that was when I started experimenting in the kitchen, but it was simple stuff like pasta.  It helped that I met the hubby then, and he loved to cook. :)  But fast forward to today, and I admit, I'm still pretty bad in the cooking department (should have taken cooking classes instead of that masters course, yes?).  I'm now more adventurous in trying new recipes, but with time constraints and my knack for turning out culinary disasters, I do admit I sometimes get lazy and try to avoid cooking. :p

However, I'm still very inspired by the amazing examples of mums who cook for their families.  Like S, who works, and still ensures the family has a home-cooked dinner every night.  Or the hubby's aunt in Taiwan, who went from not being able to cook, to being a really good cook (her little son fattening up is a good testament to her culinary skills!).  Right now, I've managed to cook 3-4 nights a week (some nights the hubby is on call, and my mum sometimes brings food over), but with the post-trip disorientation and the bad flu, cooking has been sidelined for abit.   However, I guess there's still hope for me, and I'll try to blog about it to keep myself accountable. :p  At least the boy seems to be eating better now, and with him on "adult food" it means I'm forced to be creative in making his meals at least!

Frittata: A dish that I love, but can't cook often for the hubby, thanks to all those eggs...

So stay tuned for more updates from our kitchen, hopefully they will be good ones... and do share any tips you have for getting dinner on the table everyday! :)  Have a great weekend!

Twice Taiwan: Yeliu

After freezing our butts off in Yangmingshan, we headed off to Yeliu to spend a day, and the weather turned out beautifully warm and sunny that day.  Along the way, we spotted this:

... and couldn't resist stopping the car and buying a kite to fly. :)  This round, we had no problems getting the kite up in the sky (unlike our failed attempt previously), as the wind was so strong.  In fact, our problem was making sure the kite didn't fly away!

We then filled our tummies with a piping hot Taiwanese sausage and it was to Yeliu and its limestone cape.  The place is filled with all sorts of rock formations, carved through the action of wind and sea erosion:

Some had names to them, the most famous being the Queen's head, which had a queue of people waiting to take a photo with it... which we decided to skip. :p

It was really really crowded since it was a weekend, but the little boy had loads of fun wandering up and down the slopes (while munching a peanut butter sandwich) and peering at the rocks...

We thought this rock really looked like a seahorse.  Don't you think so?

... and spotting fossils buried in the rocks:

There was also a little picturesque bay where many wedding couples were having their shots taken (I really pitied the brides in their tube tops in that cold, gusty wind)... and we tried taking some family photos there too (but they were ruined as some other people decided to step behind us and take their own photos at the same time!).  But all in all, we really had a good time there.  (Oh, and its really a great place for kids to wander around, and the visitor centre even has a nursing room!)

PS: The hubby flew off yesterday for a conference and I'm now down with the flu.  Was feeling rather crappy, but seeing these photos again made me smile.  Have a good weekend!

PPS: A gentle reminder that my little shop will be donating some profits from the sale of nursing covers to the Red Cross for relief efforts in Japan.  Details here. :)  Thanks for those who've shown your support thus far!

Weekend wanderings: On the sea and in the air

Hubby was post-call on Thursday, and we brought Junior J to see the Russian frigate, Pallada, which was docked at Vivocity.  Met little S and her mummy at Vivo and the two kids had some fun exploring the ship (but they were rather afraid of the sailors, probably because they were "foreign-looking").

There were ropes everywhere...

... and more ropes...

... and as we didn't ask any of the sailors to show us around, we really had no idea what were all the ropes and gear used for.  But the 2 kids got to turn the wooden ship's wheel, kept saluting and saying "ayeaye!", and also played peekaboo with the flags hanging around the sides of the railings.  It was really hot, so we ended up walking around inside Vivocity and had lunch there in the end.

Over the weekend we also managed to try some kite-flying at Upper Peirce.  The weather wasn't too good, and it was drizzling over at our side, but the rain held when we reached the reservoir.  And I had dragged along the dSLR, only to find that it was out of battery, even before I had taken a single shot!  So all these grainy pics were shot using my phone...

Anyway, the wind wasn't in our favour, and came in fits and starts, so this was probably the highest we managed to get the kite in the air:

The boy tried to help us fly the kite too, but spent most of his time getting tangled in the kite string:

All in all, the kite spent most of its time on the ground.  But it was still a nice trip to the park. :)  (Some monkeys jumped on the branches above our heads, thereby splattering some rain water on us.  The hubby told the boy the monkey peed on his head, and the boy went home saying "monkey peepee on head!"... haha...)

We also managed to go swimming on Sunday at the hubby's friend's place.  Hubby played squash and Junior J splashed around at the pool.  He met a 5 year old little girl who brought him to slide down the water slide many times (which got me really surprised as usually he's timid and won't like to try these things!), and they had alot of fun!  

All in all, a pretty good weekend.  :)  Now its back to rushing those corrections for my dissertation again.  Hope you had a great weekend too?  What are your recommended places to go to fly a kite?

Thinking Thursdays: Some updates

Like I mentioned in the previous post, we've made some progress on the home-learning front for the past two weeks, especially since I've a little more time to plan now.  Its still rather unstructured though, and I'm just adding things as I go along. :)  Right now, I've just introduced some activities to help with Junior J's fine-motor skills, and these also help to keep him occupied in the kitchen while I'm busy cooking. :) (The activities are listed on this page.)

Sorting straws into cups by colour

Then there's also the "bible lessons" we've been having.  I realized the little boy can't really grasp stories unless you read them to him over and over again (like the Gruffalo, which we've read about a million times already), so we've been reading bible stories and doing craftwork based on them to help the little boy know more about God (the activities again, will be updated on another page, which I'm hoping to update every week... ).  I'm also taking this opportunity to let the little boy experiment with all sorts of different art mediums.  We've started using oil pastels, and recently bought a pack of Crayola Slick Stixs (I got them here), which are crayons that glide across the page and have really intense colours... and I think the little boy is enjoying himself since he always asks to do "ark work" after meals. :)  Anyway, what are your favourite art mediums that you and your kids like to use?

Painting the sea, after referring to a picture book to see what colour the sea should be...

On a side note, remember my 30 before 30 list? I think I failed miserably, since I completed less than half the list when I hit the big three-zero... but then again, it may be because I gave myself only 2 months to attempt to finish!  So I'm going to dig the list up again, add more things and make it 31 before 31, haha. :)  Hopefully it gets done by the time I reach my next birthday...

Here's wishing everyone a blessed weekend! :)

Weekend wanderings: Playdate and painting

The two kids having fun on the swing. :)  Really wished we had brought the camera!

The weekend was rather uneventful as the hubby was on call on Saturday.  However, we did manage to squeeze in a lunch cum "playdate" for Junior J, with his Sunday School classmate, S and her parents after church.  Had lunch at Holland V, and the two kids more or less managed to entertain each other and finished their meals, and sat through a Curious George story (read by the hubby) at the end of the meal.  We wanted to eat ice cream, but the Daily Scoop was closed, so the kids ended up sitting on a nearby swing for a bit before we parted ways.  Was really nice to see the two little fellows playing... with little S running around the table while the boy tried to find her and point her out.  He did hit her table a couple of times though, and all attempts to make him apologize failed, as everytime we told him to say "Sorry!", little S would quip "SORRY!" before he could utter a word!  ;)

Aftermath of hand-printing.  Initially the boy was alarmed at getting paint on his hands,
but once he got started he couldn't stop!

PS: I've updated the "Art Adventures" page since we've doing more painting.  We've tried painting with leaves (one more thing off the list!), printing with hands, and have taken out the Tadoodles to play with again!  Pictures over here.

Thankful Tuesdays: It's the little things

Hello... I'm almost about to nod off in my chair, so this is gonna be short (which means a medium post by long-winded me).  Am thankful for:

Flowers from my mum.  Long story, but she passed them to me.  And they were too pretty to just warrant a single shot!

:: Flowers, as usual.  They're pretty.  They don't last long, which remind me how transient life is, and how we need to treasure each and everyday, and how God takes care of the flowers, and more so, us. :)

:: A nice afternoon spent with some friends during the public holiday.  Hubs was on call today and I didn't want to bring the boy out yet as his immunity probably isn't too good yet, so it was nice to have people in the house... and even nicer seeing them scrapping away, and being happy with what they came up with (7G tray, layout, room tag and album.  Very productive.  I was too busy to scrap and too busy to take photos!)

:: Junior J being able to hang out with his friend Z today, while his mummy scrapped.  Its nice to see the two of them playing together.  They kept passing sea shells to each other, which was funny.

:: My draft of a section of my dissertation came back from the sup requiring only minor changes.  YAY!

:: A really thoughful and nice bag of goodies from a "penpal".  We got to know each other as we share the same sup... and she's one amazing scrapper, and funny thing is we've never met in person so far!  We will have to arrange for a "blind date" some time I guess!  I must say those goodies made me so inspired to scrap again (after I write my dissertation la)!  Thanks again, Pooi! :)

:: The amazingly cool weather now, with all those thunderstorms.  Enough sunshine in the morning to dry the laundry, then nice cool rain!

:: Junior J's appetite is back to normal.  And he's suddenly obssessed with tomatoes.  The crazy boy eats one full stewed tomato for every meal now... and keeps asking for "tomtoes".

:: My tummy is way better, and I'm no longer crawling around the house, clutching my stomach and a cup of ginger tea.

:: One more thing off my list.  I finished up Agatha Christie's "The Thirteen Problems".  Granted, I've read it before, but it was nice reading some fiction, which I've not done for a long long long time.

Ok, my eyes are going to close now... good night everyone!

P is for Pangkor...

Peaceful private beach, over at Pankor Island Beach Resort.  

I've been hit by some nasty tummy bug, and we've been busy trying to get back into the whole usual routine thingy... so I've not had the time to blog about our Pangkor trip til now.  So rather than ramble on, I'd just let the pictures do the talking:

Day 1 (just the 3 of us):

Pottering on the beach.

Plane-watching on the beach

Picking shells.  And making sand mounds (he's too young to make sandcastles for now),
and decorating them with shells.

Petite prints, along with Papa's.  

Plish splashing in the waves.  Initially he was terrified but after we got him splashing, he was fine.

Day 2 (his paternal grandparents came along too):

(More) Playing with Papa.  

Picking shells again.  This time with Ah Ma.
The boy was so obssessed with this, he was yelling "shell shell" in his sleep.
And of course, that was the first thing he would ask for in the mornings too.  

Day 3 (before we left for Penang, to see a really crowded jetty of people headed to the island due to the Deepavali Holiday):

Puzzling blobs on the beach.
These lumps were what greeted us when we went down in the morning,
after being amused by macaques that were lurking around outside our room windows.

Puzzling worm causing the spiral blobby things.
I know, I should be able to identify it since I'm supposed to be research in intertidal animals,
 but I seriously have no idea, and Google isn't helping me!
Anyone can help me out here?

Poopoo: The verdict given by the boy.  He says the crabs did it.

Puzzling wormy kept everyone pretty occupied for a fair amount of time...

... until Puddles became more interesting.  And stayed interesting for the rest of the morning.
 They were good for standing in... 

And for Putting little hermit crabs caught by Papa.  They were so funny, getting tossed and
rolled this way and that in the waves.  (Of course I made the hubs put them back.)

It was an altogether lovely trip.  Just hanging out at the beach.  No need to worry about finding your way to the best shopping places, or squeezing with crowds.  Just sun, sea, and sand.  I like!  :)

If you think this blog is dead...

... think again!  I'm back to my usual long-winded ramblings after an almost 2 week hiatus... :p  Its been crazy-going since the boy fell sick (again, sigh!) a week and a half ago, then I had to pack for our trip to Malaysia... we ended up postponing our trip for a day since Junior had a really bad cough, and thought leaving a day later meant that we could attend another German lesson to make up for the time away, but the class we turned up for was the exact same lesson that we had attended previously (presenting to you, my blur hubby!), so we snuck off for hot chocolate and profiteroles. :)  Anyway, the boy seemed to get better so we ended up in Pangkor for 3 days (will post another time about that!), and are now back in hubby's hometown (Penang).  However, after 3 days of sun, sea and sand, the boy suddenly took a turn for the worse and had a high fever, passed the bug to me, and we've been sleeping it off for the past 3 days.  Talk about lazy holidays!

Anyway, I read this post over at another mum's blog and thought it'll be nice to reflect on each month that has passed, especially since I've not been blogging for a bit. :)  So here's how October has been:

:: Summed up: Very busy, especially on the scrappy front, since both my work at Papermarket and my guest stint at The Studio Challenges started together this month... I've never scrapped so much in my life!  Junior J has been sick alot of this month too (3 bugs in a row), but his interest and appetite for food has improved tremendously in between bugs, so I'm glad about that.

:: Some more stuff crossed off the list:

1.     Cultivate the habit of reading my Bible first thing in the morning: Ok, I've not been able to do this every morning, but at least I've been able to wake up early about 2/3rds of the time and start the day off with quiet time. I must say it really does help me to start the day right!

9. Learn German with the hubby: We started German lessons this month, and wow, learning a new language is TOUGH!  But its been fun practicing with the hubby!

18.  Volunteer for a charity event: Hmmm, we volunteered for Happee Day, and managed to help to take pictures for the last bit of the event, does that count?  Anyway, we will still try to volunteer again for something else! :)

Here are some shot of the boy at Happee Day, while we came too late after church duties to let him take part in most of the activities, he did have lots of fun with the balloons!

Me and my boy, who was rather tired by the end of the whole thing.
He was wearing the crown he made in Sunday School that day...
along with his squeaky airplane shoes (I had bought them for him by mistake,
 as he'd wet his other pair of shoes, not knowing that they squeaked, argh!).
Oh, and the balloon man made us a bear... he was really amazing to watch, and could
even make Mickey Mouse and mermaids, complete with a green bikini!

25.  Scrapbook for a design team: Errr, I think I just covered that...

27.  Eat at Food for Thought: We met up with the hubby's cousin, C, who wanted to treat us to dinner.  I had to hand up my assignments at Papermarket, so we arranged to eat at Food for Thought since it was nearby... The pasta I felt was so so, but my, the pizza was really really yummy!!! 

Thanks, C, dinner was great!

We didn't expect the pizza to be so big, so we were too full for dessert, but I'm definitely going back next time. :)  And on a completely unrelated note (except tummy-wise), we found a really yummy pasta over at Skinny Pizza in Raffles City...

Can you see the little boy, pining for pasta? :p

:: Small steps in learning: The little boy has been amazing me about how he can keep himself occupied by playing with just about anything he can find about the house.  Just take this for example:

He grabbed the plastic bag used to hold a newly purchased pillow, and decided it would be his apron.
He then promptly wore it around the house for an hour, and then proceeded to slowly peel off
the "Paid" sticker bit by bit, placing every little piece carefully into his toy box!

We've also started doing artwork everyday (I'll be filing all the activities here, and you can find the link at the top, under "Art Adventures".).  Its usually 2 pieces, where I try to let him work with new mediums/materials for the first piece, and let him just doodle/dabble on his own for the second.  Its really funny how he's been trying to imitate how I pick up his artwork, hold it up to admire it and go "WOW"... I've caught him doing it after painting a few times and it always cracks me up!

Oh, and in terms of gross motor development, the hubs went and got the boy a Strider, and we've started him riding on it.  He's rather timid by nature and refused to sit on it the first time, but now he's ok being pushed and tries to push himself along for a short distance.

:: Slurpy: I've not fulfilled my 3/7 resolution on the list yet, however, I've recently been really inspired by another fellow mum that I've gotten to know over in Sunday school, and she's been giving me loads of ideas for children's meals.  Since then, I've managed to add more variety to Junior J's meals, and I'm glad that he's been showing more interest in his food and eating better since. :)  Now I'm trying to include soup for him (we've tried cream of mushroom, pumpkin and cream of asparagus aside from other clear soups that we have for meals) since he loves soup, and he gets more varied finger food for self-feeding too. :)

Our soupy son, who loved the tomato soup at Food for Thought so much
that he drank direct from the bowl and got soup all over his nose!

:: So what's next: November is going to be rather different from the usual since we're away for the first half, and will also be headed down to Hong Kong later on as hubby has a conference and is insisting that we go along with him.  I guess its going to be a month for me to play catch up for dissertation writing, continue developing my home-learning activities and work on my 3/7 resolution while we're back home!

Its really been a busy, but really blessed month!