I've started a new blog, a photoblog! Please update your links and leave some comments on my new blog, which feels very 'empty' without you, my readers! ^__^
It's sad to say goodbye to this blog, this old friend who has been with me for 3 years (2004-2006) and seen me through the early years of my marriage, my 1st pregnancy, my early experiences with motherhood & my 2nd pregnancy. So, I'm definitely not taking this blog off the web - all the recipes, pics and reflections will be here for anybody to read.
But all new recipes, pics and reflections will be on my new photoblog - so please come and visit regularly there and say 'hi' over there yea? Would appreciate it!
Spots
I have just enough time to sneak in one last entry before 2007 dawns upon us. We just returned from a 9-day road trip to So Cal. We drove through the unparalleled beauty of the Central California coast, stopping at Carmel, Cambria, Moonstone Beach, Santa Barbara, and finally resting at Long Beach to visit friends & spend Christmas there.
More pictures will be on my flickr account soon. But for now, here's a video & a pic. The video shows Daniel & Daddy chillin' along Santa Barabara beach, where we made a stop for lunch and I photoshopped a pic from the same lunch.
It was probably one of the best lunches we had. And the tail end of our trip wasn't that great actually, since Daniel fell sick, followed by myself, and then Husband. We all caught some virus that made us throw up a lot. Needless to say, we're glad to be home now, and recovering.
Look out for more pics on flickr!
This Christmas, I decided to bake some cranberry white chocolate & oatmeal cookies for neigbours & friends. The recipe can be found here, though I'd like to suggest one change - the cookies should be baked at 325 degrees F (160 degrees C) and for only 10 minutes. When removed from the oven, they may still be slightly soft, but they firm up when cool and this will ensure a crunchy outside with a soft chewy inside.
We just completed our move to a larger apartment to prepare for our second kid's arrival. And to christen our new home, I purchased a beautiful fiber optic Christmas tree from Goodwill for all of $4.50 USD! I love looking at the twinkling lights - and it makes our home so cosy!
Blessed Christmas to all!
After a rather long bout of lacklustre foodblogging, you could say that I'm starting to get on a roll again. Note: I never stopped cooking - I just stopped experimenting with new dishes. Reason: a 15 month old creature named Daniel & a 27 week old squidge named Benjamin (yes we have a name!) Try taking care of an active toddler while being pregnant at the same time and see if you have enough mental space to think up new recipes!
Well, perhaps because Husband is now busily studying for his finals, and because my a cappella concert is over, I finally have more quiet personal time to start thinking of new dishes - and during one of my bouts of daydreaming, I came across two easy recipes from Saveur which I instantly knew would work. Hoisin pork ribs. *DROOL* The recipe: (a slightly adapted version from Saveur's) About 1 pound (400-450g) of pork ribs (in America, Chinese supermarkets cut the ribs crosswise, through the bone. But any cut will do methinks, so long as it's got more meat than bone!) marinated in 4tb hoisin sauce, 2tb light soya sauce, 2tb vegetable oil & 2tb minced garlic; then, grilled (in America, they call it "broiled") on the top shelf of the oven, at the oven's maximum temperature - 8 minutes per side (or until cooked through, with little flecks of yummy burnt bits)
The complement to this meaty dish was the deliciously pungent Garlic Noodles. OK, I am absolutely in love with this dish. It is the absolute kicker of the month - say it with me: GARLIC NOODLES. *YUMS*. Now why didn't I think of that before? To make: (once again, a slightly adapted version from Saveur's - you guessed it, I added much more garlic!) mince an entire bulb of garlic and saute in hot oil till brown and fragrant (even slightly burnt is good methinks!) While doing this, cook 2 portions of Taiwanese noodles, i.e., enough for Husband & myself, in boiling water (Taiwanese noodles is white, the kind used for Zha Jiang Mian) and drain. Add immediately to the pungent garlic and stir thoroughly. Mix in 2ts light soy sauce and 1ts oyster sauce. Thrown in 4tb chopped spring onions. Serve immediately. Enjoy this amazing dish! I can still taste the garlic in my mouth - lovely!
So Daniel is 15 months now. And his awareness & intelligence has really grown. Pardon me while I go on and on about what must seem pretty elementary stuff - I guess I'm still in the "you mean my son actually has a brain?" stage cos a very short while ago, Daniel was still this semi-immobile squidge "ackk"-ing away in the corner of our eyes. *Enter Loud And Mobile Daniel Front & Centre*. Here are some memorable encounters with the little tyke just from the past week:
1. Daniel walks into our bedroom, points at Husband & yells repeatedly, "Da Da! Da Da! Da Da!"
This is significant because: It's the first evidence that he knows that "Da Da" refers to his daddy.
The next day, Daniel walks into our bedroom in the afternoon and points to the same spot in the bed where Husband lay the day before. "Da Da! Da Da?" He says, gesticulating with his hands as if to ask, "Where?"
2. Husband brings Daniel to my a cappella group's Christmas concert. We hide him way up in the balcony so that he won't "disturb" people. But everytime I'm on stage (which is pretty much throughout the entire 1h 30 min concert), Daniel yells, "Ma Ma! Ma Ma! EEEEOWOWOWOWOWOOWOWOW!!!" and claps frantically.
This is significant because: It proves he knows who I am! (FINALLY!) Plus, he has darn good eye sight man! I mean, I must be like 2cm tall from way back in the balcony. You go Dan!
3. I'm showing Daniel pictures in a book. On one page with many different pictures, I ask him, "Daniel, where's the grape? Where's the grape?" I'm expecting him to point to the grape but instead he walks away. So I think he's lost interest. But then he returns with a half-eaten grape in his hand! It had been lying around on the floor and he picked it up and passed it to me.
This is significant because: A) He must have walked passed the grape earlier and remembered that it was there. B) He knew it was called a grape. C) He understood my question and obediently answered it by giving me a grape!
As important as how and what you cook, is how you pair dishes together to form a nice, balanced meal. I was particularly pleased with my food pairing for dinner a few nights ago - not only because both dishes were easy to whip up, but also because they complemented each other well. What did I cook? Grilled hoisin salmon and dashi bean salad, served with steamed rice. For the salmon, it was as easy-peasey as slabbing on hoisin sauce on a salmon fillet and grilling it for 8 minutes. And the dashi bean salad, something I made from memory (the ever creative SY once made it for all of us), was created by chucking the beans in boiling water till green and cooked, then mixing with 1tb sugar, 1tb soya, 1tb mirin, 1/2 cup dashi, 1ts sesame oil and roasted sesame seeds. There's something about salmon and green beans that go particularly well together, methinks. The deep sweet hoisin sauce was the perfect complement to the pink slightly undercooked and thus soft-and-not-too-jelat salmon meat, which contrasted in texture and taste with the still-crunchy and bright green beans, which were softened by the sweet-salty-and slightly nutty taste of the dressing. Yums!
I'm not sure what to call this dish. I've never seen it in recipe books or in restaurants, so have never known it's official name. (Or maybe, there isn't one!) But my good friend V's mom made this for us when I was staying at V's place over Christmas when I was a sophomore in college (eons ago!). I remember the cold weather (I hate American winters!) - it might even have been raining that night - and this dish just warmed the cockles of my heart (and stomach). It's definitely a Chinese-y dish of sorts - V's family is Taiwanese-American, so it could be a Taiwanese dish, or maybe it's just a good ol homestyle Chinese-y dish. Whatever it is, this medley of egg tofu, crabstick, peas & creamy corn definitely warmed the cockles of Husband's and my hearts (and stomachs) tonight. There's something about creamy corn that is just so heartwarming, wouldn't you agree? Here's the recipe - enjoy!
Dish with no name
1 packet of egg tofu, cut into 9 or 10 discs.
6 mock crabsticks, cut into halves
1 can creamy style corn (available in supermarkets in Singapore & America!)
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup water
2 handfuls of frozen peas
1 ts soya sauce
1 ts sugar
1. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the egg tofu discs, flipping them delicately to brown on both sides. Remove from pan and arrange on serving dish.
2. Throw the crabsticks & the frozen peas into the pan and stir fry quickly, just enough to heat them up thoroughly. Arrange them on serving dish, together with the egg tofu.
3. Meanwhile, combine the creamy style corn and water in a pot and heat till boiling. While stirring the mixture vigorously, throw in the beaten egg and continue to stir. This will cause egg to break up while being cooked, creating an "egg drop" soup effect. Stir in the sugar & soya sauce.
4. Pour the creamy corn mixture over the egg tofu, crabsticks & peas. Serve with steamed rice.
Our Yosemite National Park Thanksgiving holiday! Click above to see pictures.
What we do to keep ourselves warm, now that it's 10-13 degrees C on average:
*chuckle* Some other titles of this post could have been: How Husband entertains Daniel, What we do when we're bored, Celebrating the end of mid-terms and Why a child needs a Father. ^__^
By the way, I am still cooking, though admittedly I have not blogged about cooking in eons. My husband & I still need to be fed yknow and eating out is way too expensive to do on a daily basis, especially in Palo Alto.
Well, last night, we had our second dinner party since we got here. With a Korean couple, and their kids, and a Japanese man as our party guests, the food we ate included Japanese curry (by Husband), Galbi and salad greens (by HW, our Korean lady guest - very yums!), and Wasabi potato salad, by yours truly. I thought a wasabi potato salad would be quite a common dish to a Japanese, but turns out it was the first time our Japanese guest had ever tasted anything like it - and he was really impressed! (I suppose wasabi potato salad is a sort of fusion dish that is more common in Singapore than in Japan?)
Anyway, here's the very simple recipe that adds a fusion Asian twist to a traditional dish - enjoy!
Wasabi potato salad (serves 4)
6 potatoes, average size (I didn't use any special type or anything. Just regular old potatoes)
6 eggs
400g prawns
5tb onion shoots, chopped
1 cup Japanese mayonnaise
3ts wasabi paste
1. Scrub the potatoes clean. Immerse them in pot of water and heat till water boils. Boil for 20-25 minutes, using a fork to prick for doneness. Set aside to cool. Then, remove skins with a knife and chop into chunky cubes.
2. Immerse eggs in another pot of water and heat till water boils. Then, closing the pot with the lid, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit there for 20-25 minutes. * After that, de-shell the eggs and chop into chunky cubes.
3. Blanch the prawns in boiling water, then peel and chop into chunks.
4. Put the potatoes, eggs, prawns and onion shoots into a mixing bowl. Add the Japanese mayonnaise and wasabi paste. Mix thoroughly. Chill and serve slightly cold.
* This is Australian chef Neil Perry's method for attaining perfect hard-boiled eggs. The eggs are immersed in the water before the water is heated up. After the water hits boiling point, the heat is turned off and the eggs are allowed to cook by just sitting there in the water. May sound a bit weird, but hey it worked!
Daniel has gotten into the lovely habit of picking a book from his shelf and waddling up to us, book held firmly in outstretched hands. As we open up the book to read to him, he'll nestle himself in our lap or perch on our knee, and announce images he recognises. "Truck!" "Car!" "Bird!" "Vroom vroom!" are common proclamations from the tyke.
I'm really pleased that there is a library within walking distance from our home. Laden with pram, diaper bag, and a 23-week old squidge in my belly, I can still make it to the library in 10 minutes flat. The College Terrace Library is so unlike the libraries in Singapore, I was a bit taken aback when I first saw it. It basically looks like a quaint bungalow from 1960s Singapore and is surrounded by a small garden with shrubs, shady trees, and birds. The children's section is humbly enclosed in a room the size of our living and dining area. And yet, honest to God, I have found more attractive and appropriate books for Dan in that section than in the main National Library in Singapore! There's even a comfy sofa, a carpet, and stuffed toys - for parents to read to their kids! Nice!
Don't poo poo this library just because it's quaint and small. It's really quite technologically-up-to-date too - for example, you can go online and search the catalogue of books and DVDs found in all four Palo Alto libraries and have the ones you want reserved and sent to the College Terrace Library for your convenient pick-up - all free of charge! (Can anyone tell me if such a service is available in Singapore?) The library also sends you a friendly email reminder a few days before your books and DVDs are due - once again, free of charge! And here's the clincher - guess how many books and DVDs you can borrow at one time? Not 5, not 10, not even 100. The answer is, "999" or "as many books as you can carry out the door". I kid you not. (The borrowing period for books is 1 month and it's 1 week for DVDs, so of course, that immediately limits how many books and DVDs any normal person could actually realistically borrow, but still! Technically speaking, there IS NO LIMIT!)
So, Dan & I now have a weekly ritual trip to the library. Here are some of his favourite books, which I've had to keep re-borrowing, and which I've pretty much memorised!
I'm really glad that Dan loves books. Let's hope that this trend stays for the long run!
Need I say more? Daniel will have a baby brother in March 2007!
So I borrowed a Thomas & friends DVD from the Palo Alto Library. We've watched it maybe three times max. Then I borrowed another Thomas & friends DVD the week after and we watched that maybe four times max.
Then we go to Toys R Us over the weekend and with Dan in the shopping cart, we casually whiz by the DVD section. Mind you, it's not even a huuuge dedicated Thomas & friends section, it's a DVD section with all kinds of DVDs, different cartoons, different kids characters. But somehow, Dan manages to spot the three column rack of Thomas & friends DVDs on display and actually physically hurls his entire body towards the rack with a jungle-like howl that goes something like, "HUUUWWWWWOOOAAAAA!!"
*DOPE*
What is it about Thomas & friends that makes little toddlers go mad? All the mothers I've talked to agree that their toddlers (1+ or 2+ years old) are pretty much obsessed with Thomas the tank engine. Why? Why? Why? What's the draw of a bright blue train with a face?
Well, I was not keen to encourage such obsession and wanted to not buy anything for Dan that day. But Husband, who was both tickled and impressed at our son's new found "passion", took both pity and delight and bought him a DVD, which came with a free wooden Thomas the tank engine! Later on, I lightened up too and found it funny watching Dan scamper round the house, a firm immovable grip around the little wooden toy. Here's a video of us "pretending" to take his toy away from him:
Don't worry, Dan eventually loosened his grip and even shared his toy with the lovely A., who dropped by for a visit. The train is one of his favourite toys for sure, but he's not too obsessive over it yet. But what is it about Thomas & friends, you think??
Is it my imagination or is Daniel a lot more interactive and showing a lot more understanding now? He's started to stack blocks and cups (finally!) and can respond to simple requests, e.g., "Daniel can you pick up the train and bring it to Mommy?" and "Daniel can you put the car in the box?" The most amazing thing is that he can distinguish between car, truck and bike. I think that's pretty cool stuff for a 14 month old!
That's what a lot of parents have told us. As if, when they're older, kids are "less enjoyable" and therefore, we have to "enjoy them when they're small". I used to not pay too much attention to such comments, thinking they were just the sort of niceties or small talk thangs that parents throw around to each other.
And then, I started observing the kids in our courtyard.
Meet Marco, Max, and Miriam - ages 8, 6 and 4. And in the other corner, Anna-Sophia and Sister of Unknown Name - ages 8 and 12. Put together, these five kids are a rowdy, rough, rude bunch of thugs. They push each other around, throw water at each other, swing bats at each other, and yell at each other. And then, there's the obligatory Loud Quarrel, which occurs pretty much every day. It could be about any number of things - the rules of a certain game, who cheated, who pushed who and how much it hurt - and Loud Quarrel usually ends with the kids shouting at each other, only to be saved by an appearance by The Parents who call their kids to come inside for dinner.
I know that not all kids are that rowdy. But it does give me food for thought. Enjoy them when they're small. Enjoy them when they still hold your finger when they walk around. Enjoy them when the word "Peekaboo" still draws a wide smile and giggle on their face every single time. Enjoy them when they still hug you tightly when they need to poop. Enjoy even the crying - the loud wailing which shows they needs you. Before long, they won't need you anymore.
Daniel's first girlfriend is our neighbour across the courtyard, R. It is hilarious to see his face absolutely light up & his arms waves frantically every time he sees R. He absolutely adores this precocious (and very talkative) 4 year old, who is also from Singapore, maybe because she is so animated and always trying to "disturb" him. Here he is attempting to woo her:
Don't go! Don't go! Waaah!
Sure, there are other women in Daniel's life. Like the younger, red-head A, and the sweet & demure J (sorry no pics of these beauties!) but I think R is the only one who gets the same frantic hysterically happy reaction from Daniel on a regular basis. Seems like he has a thang for older women... *cough*.
| www.flickr.com
|
 |
| |
* Einstein Never Used Flash Cards - How Our
Children Really Learn and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize less
* The Bible
* Love & Respect by Dr Emerson Eggerichs
* What to Expect When You're Expecting
Cravings
* None, surprisingly!
:: local floggers::
Renee Kho (shiokadelicious.com)
Aromacookery
Cheat Eat
Chubby hubby
Cass
loves cooking
Treats
by Trishratna
Eatzybitzy
Umami
She bakes and
she cooks
Kuidaore
The Skinny Epicurean
Quick and Easy
Treats from Zu's Kitchen
Nibble & Scribble
Cuisine
Paradise
Piggy's
cooking journal
Eat fat
fat
Greedy goose
:: everywhere else floggers::
The
passionate cook
A spoonful of
sugar
L'art de vivre
da*xiang
Cooking for engineers
Obachan's kitchen
& balcony garden
She who eats
The scent
of green bananas
Baby rambutan
Delicious days
101cookbooks
Rubber
slippers in Italy
Delicious delicious
Eatchicago
Bakingsheet
Cupcake bakeshop
Yummy fun
Eat stuff
The bakers rack
Rice and noodles
A curious mix
Raging yogurt
Funky cookies
Kokblog
Food
beam
Dessert
first
Becks & Posh
Taste of the
suburbs
Stephen cooks
Felicity wishes
Food storm
Our Patisserie
Cream puffs
in Venice
Perfect fairy cakes
Bloggers (non-floggers)
Bim
Mac
Ling
Alto
Intherain
Mass rapid
The Goh family
Neonangel
Iz reloaded
Mongchacha
In a little while
Students sketchpad
Bits
& bites
Lovely room
Owen for God
Ashton's Diary
My
wedding photos
My single
life
«
#
picture
this! ?
»
SearchSG - the SG web community
eatonweb
photoblogs.org
foodbloggers
foodnmore
ricebowl journals
Best
viewed with Firefox
at 800 x 600 resolution