Fingers crossed

Idle Talk

Is it just me or what? But since daylight-saving on Sunday, I feel that time seems to be going faster. I know it doesn't seem to make sense because it just means we lose one hour. Why then do I think that the past 2 days had passed by quicker than usual?

The weather (I know I talk alot about this) is warming up and I could wear a short-sleeve T today and no socks too! I opened up all the windows to let some fresh air in. Even Louisa complained about being 'hot' and I had to give her a set of thinner PJ this evening. Is Spring finally here? That will mean more time outdoor and no more hiding under piles of clothing. Which also mean time to shape up before I keep away the coats which had been concealing those lumps and bumps! As we get warmer and more pleasant weather, the ladies have more work to do too - the vanity side of life that is. I hope it's not just me.

1. Wearing sandals - paint toenails


2. Wearing camisoles - tone up the upper arms


3. Wearing sundresses/skirts/shorts - tone up the legs


4. General spring/summer wear - shape up!

A friend of mine told me she prefers the winter season for dressing up (coats and stuff). But I'm never one who likes it. I'm just not into winter fashion so my style of dressing is very dull and drab from the month of September to March. Come spring and summer, I'm like a pupa which turns into a butterfly, shedding from its cocoon and released. Dressing up is more fun - the pumps, sandals, flipflops, fun bags.....like I'd said before, this is perhaps due to the fact that I'm born in Spring.

What a day!

I love Next for their children clothings (so pretty and cute!) and I splurge when it comes to their sales. They usually have 2 big sales each year (summer and winter) with some 1 or 2 days mid-season sale in between. Most of the time, I got to know about them by chance. However, I missed the past 2 post-Christmas sales as I was in Singapore. So for the past year, I only managed to go to one mid-season sale which I didn't know about in advance. I remember they usually have a sale in March and perhaps it's the shopaholic's hunch, I checked their website last night and found out (much to my delight) that they are holding a sale this weekend. Mind you their sales usually start at 5am. Yes, you read it right. 5AM. It sounds crazy but everytime I reached the store about 2 hours after the opening, people were already leaving with big bags of shopping. The racks get cleared very quickly. You see these shoppers just grabbing hangers after hangers of apparels and stuffing them into bags that were handed out at the entrance. It is handy when they have a 28 days return policy. So you just take whatever you fancy and bring back whatever you changed your mind on.

Today's sale started at 7am. I reached the store at 6.55am and a queue of about 50m had formed. By the time the store opened, it had snaked all the way back by another 50m. Who says only women are shopaholics? There were men waiting for the shop to open too! I didn't get distracted by the ladies clothing at the entrance. I knew what I wanted and walked straight to the back of the store where the children clothing are located. I was surprised by the quantity of clothing on offer. Not much, unlike the ones I had been to. Many people were complaining. Even the staff said they were surprised too. I'm sure by mid-day, most of the items would be gone. My haul? I still managed to find some pretty tops, skirts and dresses for both girls in time for spring and summer. The prices were reduced by at least 50%. I didn't even have to wait at the till. There wasn't even a queue. Strange sight during a sale at Next.

While I was at the store, Adrian rang me and told me someone we know very well had commited a crime and was sentenced to 25 years in jail and be given 15 strokes of cane. He said he would tell me when I return home. I felt very disturbed after the phonecall. Who? What happened? 25 years in jail plus 15 strokes of cane?! I could only think of the people we know from our uni days. Faces went through my mind. When I reached home, I asked for the answer and he told me to make a guess. Argh! I blurted out 2 names and he showed me the piece of online news. One of my guesses was right. I could hardly believe it. It was such a shocker. You read about people committing crimes everyday in the papers and you don't really think much about them. But when it happens to be someone you know, it hits you hard. Till now, I couldn't quite fathom what drove him to that state. He was one of our very close friends, having spent much time cooking and eating together and gone on a few holidays too. 25 years?! His entire life....gone like that. I'm not going to say what crime he had committed here for anonymity sake.

This afternoon, we went to Guildford to visit some old friends, Nick and Anne and their little boy Panos. Nick happens to be the warden of the accomodation where our convicted friend used to live. We spent a lovely afternoon chatting while the kids played upstairs. Before we went home, we stopped at the nearby Tesco to buy some groceries. Even though I had visited that store so many times before, I couldn't remember the layout anymore. As I made my way through the store, I slowly recalled which aisle is for what, the Tesco where we had shopped with our friend on many evenings after dinner. We are still in shock.

Nothing much

Nothing exciting or interesting happened the past few days so not much to blog about. After the strange Easter weather, the temperature is on the rise with sunny spells. I've not baked or done anything crafty. There's still a couple of outstanding jobs to be done (the creative juice is not flowing). Why do I feel the urge to change my blog design again when it's not even completed? I guess blue is not my colour. I kept my last design for so long. That one was so colourful. I think I should just stick to this, complete it and work on my other blog.

Long Holiday

We had a 4-day Easter holiday. It was a good break, no school for the girls, no after-school activities, Adrian was home and I baked (lots!). On Good Friday, we spent a leisurely day at Emily and Gerald's place. Geez! I didn't realise we'd not seen them for so long. We had hail, sleet and snow in just a weekend. The weather is really becoming weird. It's supposed to be the start of spring and the temperature went dipping. The snow was light and even when parts of the roofs were white, it wasn't heavy enough to form on the ground. Nonetheless, we were excited everytime we saw white flurry outside.

So! I managed to make our family favourite - daosa buns. I think I much prefer baking bread to cakes. The kneading part, which to some, is boring and tiresome but it is extremely therapeutic to me. I like to see the dough doubles in size at the end of the fermenting process and the fragrance of freshly baked bread lingering in the house. I think nothing beats serving freshly baked buns to the family. My first attempt at making the red bean paste? So laborious! I swear my arms ached after I managed to force all the pureed red bean through a sieve. I skipped the step of squeezing extra liquid from the paste as the paste looked dry to me. But to my horror! Once I added in the vegetable fat (the recipe called for shortening which I don't have), the paste became very runny. So I thought to cook it till it dried up (like the pineapple jam) though I wasn't sure it would work or not. I was determined not to let it go to waste after all the sieving I did. So between cooking and stirring it which took almost an hour to get it to become a paste again, I washed the mountain of dirty dishes in the sink. Did I say that I baked a pandan cake earlier? While waiting for the red bean to boil and cook and the dough to rise, I baked the cake as I had some leftover coconut milk. Like my previous tries, the top browned quickly when the inside was still uncooked. So I lowered the temperature of the oven so as not to burn it. The texture was moist due to steaming effect of the low temperature and wasn't to my liking. Next time, I will use another recipe which is for a smaller cake mould. Hopefully, it will bake evenly.

Oh and my dough was very sticky and wet (I used another recipe). I had run out of bread flour and being Easter Sunday, the shops were closed. So I added cake flour to dry it. The dough did rise but was still too sticky. I had problem filling the paste and shaping the dough. So I only test baked 4 buns as I didn't want to waste the red bean paste. They turned out alright though.

I went to Tesco yesterday to get more bread flour since I have plenty of daosa left. I just don't get it. I followed the recipe closely again and this time the dough was OK. I got the girls to help with the kneading and prepared another one for myself. Before I could start kneading my dough, the girls gave up. I had to knead 2 batches of dough at the same time! Louisa suggested combining the 2 doughs together but I didn't because I used 2 different recipes and wanted to taste the difference. The rest of the baking session was uneventful. I made 11 daosa buns and an assortment of others. I tried a braided pattern and they turned out very pretty. It will be nice to bake once a week.

Easter

Since Easter's round the corner, the girls and I made some Easter eggs. It was our second attempt (last year's project was a failure, we used paint instead of food colourings). As you can see from the picture, they didn't turn out nice this time too. I tried both the methods - blow eggs and hard boiled eggs (they cracked after boiling). Then Lavigne dropped some on the table and you know what happened to them. Our tie-dyed eggs didn't turn out the way they should also. Sigh! I have to confess that I went into this project half-heartedly. I could have stuck stickers round the eggs and remove them after the colouring process to make patterns. Furthermore, to get really nice colours, I should use white eggs. Next year maybe.

Yesterday, we made some hotcross buns, our version. We don't like raisins so I substituted them with choc chips. Not keen on the spice too so I left it out. I used the basic butter bread recipe instead of the usual hotcross bun ones. The girls kneaded the dough and Louisa announced later that it was too tiring. I made 2 batches of dough. One for the girls and one for myself. Once again, I made charsiew and choc chip buns (I forgot to take any pic and they are in the tummies already). One thing I realised (I think) why my previous doughs took so long to rise was because the yeast I bought were instant which means it doesn't need water to activate it (unlike what the recipe called for - they use normal yeast I think). So I tried both ways. For the girls' dough, I just dumped the yeast straight into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients and poured in the required amount of water needed to activate the yeast. The texture and consistency turned out to be very good and it rose to the right size after the stipulated time while mine took ages (it did rise after I popped it into the oven set at a very low temp). My shaping skill is still not good though. Other than that, our baking session was a success!

Great Site

Just like to share this fabulous site on food and recipes. Unfortunately though, it's in Japanese. But you can try using this to translate (not perfect but good enough!). A big plus for me is the step-by-step pictures. What I really like is a section on 7-Day meal planner.



Basically they recommend the dishes to cook for each day (wish they have both lunch and dinner) and come with the recipes! It is certainly good for people like me who are struggling to come up with ideas on what to cook everyday

So you're on a diet and do packed lunches? Why not follow the 'diet bentos'?

Like to make your own burgers rather than eat at McDonald's? Check this out and you don't need to understand Japanese.

Have some time to spare and care for a bake? Choose from an abundance of bread or all-things-sweet recipes.

Not a cooking enthusiast? The food photography alone is captivating enough.

*All images taken from http://erecipe.woman.excite.co.jp/

End of a phase?

OK, I'd been lamenting about Lavigne's mealtimes for a while. I told my sister I will burst a blood vessel each time she eats. If this carries on, I'll be dead in no time. Right, jokes aside. This morning, she finished 2 of those small packets of Kellogg cereals and a big cup of milk. For lunch, she had breaded chicken breast (I made extra in the morning and heat it in oven), garlic bread and tomato onion basil salad. She gobbled up everything in record time and even drank a large cup of milk (I added some hot choc powder in it). I was amazed. I was pleased. Very pleased. No 'meimei, can you eat your food please?', 'Lavigne, can you come back to the table please?'. She was given a fruit gum as a reward. I wonder if it will last. Let's see what happens at dinnertime this evening.

Edit: She needed prompting for dinner and seemed rather tired.

Wish

How I wish I can act dumb and deaf at times.

Egg Tarts

Qi, I folded the pastry many times and but not that many layers showed up. I poked holes like you suggested so they didn't puff up so much.

Altered Project 2

I'd finished wrapping a thick paisley print velleum with a pearly finish over my diary. It felt like the good old school days when I had to cover all my new textbooks with those plastic sheets before a term starts. As velleum is translucent, the original cover shows through as powder pink. I really like it. For the inside, I used a dark floral paper to cover the folds and to add interest. It would have been ideal to use another paisley paper which unfortunately I don't have. I'll be adding some trimmings and embellishments when I find the right materials. Till then, I leave you with a teaser as to how my diary looks now.

First Altered Project

Whoohoo! I finally used some of my craft materials which had been hibernating in my craftboxes for a long time. The problem with me is I always collect these stuff (I am a terrible hoarder of all things) and then when it comes to using it, I always hold myself back, thinking they're too precious. I'd been visiting some craft blogs the past few days and had been inspired to make something since I'm in the process of decorating my 'work corner'. I finally woke up to the notion that when you've used something, you can always buy it again. So! I have more excuses to go shopping!

I bought a nifty penholder from TKMaxx which can be rotated. I like the 4 compartments and the fact that it's all white (like a blank canvas). So, I got working last night using some cardstock, ribbons and embellishments and this sits on my desk now.

I'll be working on my diary next. Adrian bought me a diary in an effort to help me be more organised. So, I'm going to beautify it in order for me to want to use it more often. As superficial as it may sound, I'm a very visual person.

Crafty Me

Since young, I've always liked all sorts of crafts. I'd done sewing, tole painting, 3-D paper moulding (can't even remember the proper name now), beading, scrapbooking and making things of all sorts. Like the saying goes, 'Jack of all trades; master of none'. I love going to craft shops. Even when I go on holidays, I will look for such shops. Paper, ribbons and trims etc etc excite me a big deal. Since coming to UK, I'd been wanting to get my hands on some nice and cute fabrics. I'd visited some haberdasheries but the visits proved futile. Imagine my delight when I discovered 2 sites selling the type of fabrics I'd been searching for! However, they are not cheap. I inherited a mini sewing machine from my youngest sis (she lugged all the way from US). I used it to make an apron for Louisa for her dress-up as Little Red Riding Hood for World Book Day last week. One day, I hope to own a proper sewing machine (Hint! Hint! Adrian). I'll be able to use fabrics and trims I'd collected to make bags and cushions then! If you're a keen stitcher, have a look here and here. Below are some of my favourites.

(Images taken from http://www.reprodepot.com/.)


Happy birthday, my dear sis!

Unattainable feat

The Japanese are fantastic at making bento lunch. I have been making packed lunches for Louisa for quite sometime now but only since last September did I start to attempt making bento-like lunches for her. It wasn't because I had nothing better to do or I am a super mum. I just wanted her to eat her lunch by making her food and presentation look interesting and fun. Since I was feeling bored, I went to this site which I frequent for some ideas. Many mummies had impressed me with their creations in the the past but I have to kowtow to this super mum.

Not in a million years will I be able to concoct a lunch box like her. I am not a morning person hence I don't have the mood or time to do what she does. Those are work of art! I'm sure her children look forward to eating lunch everyday. I will if I get such lunch boxes.

Sluggish

I'm feeling listless, downcast, miserable and simply 'not-in-the-mood' for anything. Has it got to do with the weather outside? It's been raining on and off for the whole day and apparently, it will be like that for the rest of the week. God help me! Usually if I'm feeling low-spirited, I will scrap something and be my mood will be lifted but I can't even bring myself to do that today. Lots of half-done projects. Hah! At least I am still blogging. This is crazy man! The sun is now shinning super brightly into the room at the monitor but I bet it will disappear as soon as it appeared and be replaced by more rain! I think we will all have an early dinner and an early night. I hope I will snap out of this with extra hours in bed.

Yucky weather doesn't bother me when....

....I have good company. As I am typing this and looking out of the window, I wished the gathering had been today instead of yesterday. The sky's blue and the sun is shinning. But Adrian has to leave for a conference in Austria this afternoon so Syl and Val's families came visiting yesterday instead. Oh it would have been nice to go to a park in this mild weather and let the 4 kiddos run amok. Hmph! The weather forecast had been storm for the whole week!

Anyhow, it had been a good 9 hours - lunch at Toby Carvery (value for money English roast), visit to Windsor (too late to visit the castle by the time we reach the entrance), yummy M&S cake and tea back at my place and fish and chips for dinner. I had planned to cook nasi lemak for lunch but Adrian reminded me of my cough (which we forgot yesterday and then had fish and chips, duh!) It would be nice to make a home-cook meal for visitors but I realised that without the fuss and buzz in the kitchen, I can actually sit down and have a proper chat which was nice. The original plan had been for us 3 ladies to bake something but now come to think of it, I doubt it would work out as the 4 little ones had moments when, let's just say, weren't the best of playmates. Having said that, I have to add though that they were chasing after one another, holding hands and having a race when we were out. It must be because they were all too tired and it was way past their bedtime.

It's a pity that the other 2 families live in London, if not we can meet up more often. Sadly, Syl and her family will be heading back to Singapore this July and we'll all miss them dearly. Hope to meet up again soon!

(The sky has turned a shade of grey and the rain's here. Haha!)

The Greatest Job of All*

Situation vacant

• Challenging managerial postition in busy small organisation.
• Would suit flexible, energetic female who doesn't need any sleep.
• Shifts last 24 hours a day.
• Boss comes on holiday with you.
• You will be expected to be a teacher, a cook, a nurse, a chauffer, a health and safety advisor, a cleaner, a management consultant and an agony aunt.
• Must not be squeamish about bottom-wiping, snot clearance etc.
• Good sense of humour essential.
• Working knowledge of hamsters and other small rodents an advantage.
• An ability to put your own needs last is useful, as is a pair of eyes in the back of your head.

Salary
None

Promotion prospects
What promotion?

Time off in lieu
Maybe in 25 years, so long as the grandchildren haven't arrived yet.

Benefits

• Nice remarks after your're dead when they finally appreciate you.
• Immense job satisfaction of creating happy, productive human beings.

Perks
Flowers once a year and breakfast in bed on Mothering Sunday if you're lucky.

No prize for guessing the title of this position for I'm sure you all know.

*Daily Mail (1 March 2008)

Meals' Inspiration

It's been months since I find the motivation or inspiration to cook nice and proper meals. Most of the time, it's just a one pot one plate dish. I figured out it's because Louisa's been really picky with food (she prefers western food which explains why I cook lots of pasta) so I get discouraged everytime I concort a nice meal (usually Chinese), she'll go 'Oh no! I don't like this.....'. I don't know when she became like that. It was a nightmare getting her to eat when we went back to Singapore. She disliked most of the local food, preferring to eat instead at Delifrance and Pizza Hut. I tried to veer her away from the western food by encouraging her to eat what we eat and I refused to bring her to eat those things all the time. On some occasions, if she didn't want to eat the local food, I let her be. She has to learn that we have to eat a variety of food. I can't give in to her every single time. Afterall, we're Chinese and we can't not eat rice at all.

That chef friend of ours lent me a few recipe books on Singapore Hawker food, Malaysian food and Thai food. I cooked Hor Fun, one of my favourite, last week. To my surprise, Louisa finished everything in her bowl.

Then there's my Lavigne. Eversince the fever, she's not been eating well. Two days ago, I chanced upon this great website on baking. There's also some recipes on simple dishes. So last evening, I got the girls to help me make Onigiri and shaped rice balls (no pictures, we were busy making and eating). They were filled with minced beef and mixed veg, flaked salmon and pork floss before topping with black sesame seeds and furukake. I used the rice moulds bought from Isetan and Daiso. The recipe called for 1.5cups of rice (serves 3). I used 2 cups of rice and it wasn't enough for us. The girls were fighting for more rice to make. Lavigne must have had 5 when she asked for one of her dad's. Louisa, not a seafood lover, didn't like the furukake which had a slight fishy smell. I bought 2 packs from Isetan thinking of using it for her lunchbox meals but I guess I will be the one eating it now. So it's true that when you ask the kiddos to help make the meals, they will be better at eating them!

A Mother's Pride

I was so pleased and happy with Louisa yesterday. The reason? She tidied up her room really nicely! She does put away her stuff (not all the time though) and not without any grouse first. Their room is getting a bit too messy and untidy to my liking, toys and stationery everywhere so I casually asked her to help me tidy it. When I came out of the bathroom after I'd cut Lavigne's hair and given her a shower, she proudly showed me her room. I was very impressed. She put away every single item NICELY. Nothing on the floor and no shortcuts. She even made the beds which they'd messed up earlier. I praised her continuously and she declared, 'Mummy, I need a fan now. I'm so hot!' LOL! She had obviously been hard at work. Before she went to bed, she said to me, 'Mummy, please don't mess up my room ok?' I hope she understands my position now. I wrote her a note telling her how pleased I am with her effort and that I am very proud of her. Left it on her table for her to see when she wakes up. This morning, she made a card out of the paper and drew pictures on it. I'm gratified she likes to write and draw.

I must be crazy yet again!

Yes, you read it right. I baked again today and almost the same things. I still have leftover evaporated milk from yesterday so I thought why not. Louisa gobbled down 3 egg tarts this morning and Lavigne had one and a half. This time round, I used the ready-to-roll puff pastry. Still, the pastry didn't turn out right. The crust for egg tart should be a cross between puff and shortcrust pastry. I will search for other recipes and experiment till I get the right one. Furthermore, the tarts I made today look more like the Portuguese version.

As for the bread, I binned the first batch of dough. It was too wet and sticky. I must have put in too much yeast. Each packet is 7g and the recipe requires 4g. I don't have a super scale to measure that so I just estimated. The second batch was better but still slightly wet as compared to yesterday's. I had trouble getting the dough to rise due to the sudden dip in temperature today so I switched on the heater and let it rest next to the radiator. Since the dough wasn't of the right consistency, I didn't manage to shape it into different patterns. Perhaps I'm too amatuerish. Other than making hotdog breads, the rest were all filled with chocolate chips and topped with flaked almonds. I'm sure they will be hit with the girls. Next on the list, Anpan bread!!!

The bread that I made yesterday was soft and fluffy. I'm going to stick to this recipe.

I must be crazy!

Today is Mother's Day. I should have my feet up and be served and pampered. What did I do instead? Donned my apron for 7 hours pottering between the kitchen and dinning room, making bread AND egg tarts! To be fair, we had dim sum for lunch with Daniel who came for the day. Also, I spent time cooking dinner and watching 'Dancing on Ice' in between. I had been wanting to make the 2 items for quite sometime. Adrian and the girls love egg tarts (not me though) so seeing them enjoyed eating it at lunch made me all the more want to make it. Crazy as it sounds, I thought I'd make bread too when I wait for the dough to harden in the freezer. A few weeks back, we went to a friend's place for dinner. He's a chef and cooked us a sumptuous meal. Not only that, he made us a variety of Chinese buns (custard, charsiew, sausage and ham/egg) for us to bring home - 25 in total! I only had one experience of making bread, that was when I was in uni. I made lai yao bao (cream bun with dessicated coconut sprinkled on top) and it was a success. Today, I attempted charsiew and ham buns.

I followed this recipe for the egg tarts. The oil dough was a mess! Too wet. I thought I'd misread the weight for the ingredients but I checked many times and I didn't make a mistake. Went ahead anyway. The egg custard was good but as the oil dough failed, I had lots of trouble with the rolling and folding. I should have gotten the ready-rolled puff pastry from the supermarket instead (will do so next time!). Anyhow, the end product didn't look that bad but because the dough wasn't folded properly, the pastry wasn't light and fluffy enough. I have only 4 tart moulds (which turn out to be too big) so I used my Chwee Kueh moulds too.

The buns turned out OK too. Not sure about the taste yet. I wasn't sure how to cover the charsiew with the dough so the shape didn't turn out nice and round. The first one had its filling leaked out and another's skin was too thin the filling 'burst' during baking. Oh well, first attempt. It's more fun making the buns. Will definitely do it again. I'm still trying to find more Japanese bread recipes. Anyone has any? Get the bread recipe here.

Louisa gave me a huge card last week (she couldn't wait for today to come). At school, she made me another card (it was in her bookbag and she kept telling me I can't open her bag and that I can't look under my pillow until Sunday) and drew a picture of me. She also gave me a daffodil. In class, she was asked to write about 'My mummy is magic....' This is what she wrote (with spelling correction):

"My mummy's magic because she can carry me twice a day and she cooks yummy scrummy food and she does sewing and she paints with me and she gives me a great big hug and she makes wonderful cakes. Love from Louisa XXXXXX "

That is a really long sentence but oh so sweet! She told me after I read it that I can't really carry her anymore because she's getting too heavy for me and that I sometimes don't cook yummy food (such as when I always cook rice and Chinese food).

(she said she forgot to paint my glasses)

To those of you who celebrated Mother's Day today, hope you had a wonderful day with your family.