Saturday, January 31, 2009

Little Guilin

Posted by Dawn at Saturday, January 31, 2009 0 comments
Today, we went to my sister-in-law's place at Bukit Batok for dinner. But before that, here's CT checking the map...more importantly, look at how Danielle stares at the map.



And here's Danielle all ready to go out of the house.





We dropped by at "Little Guilin" before we went to the house as its near by. Check it out!





It was a nice scenic walk by the lake. However, I regretted bringing my pram as the path is quite uneven and rocky. Should have brought the sling instead.



After that,we brought Caleb to the playground down at my sis-in-law's block before going upstairs.



Had steamboat for dinner.This is something I wont grow sick of. Its so light and healthy. I love it!

The only thing is that now that I have two children, I have to sacrifice enjoying my dinner to feed the baby. So when everyone were tucking in to the steamboat, I was at the sofa feeding. I could only have my dinner much later.



Well, guess when there is love, there is sacrifice. So this is just one of the small sacrifice that mummies would make for their child.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

2nd day of CNY

Posted by Dawn at Tuesday, January 27, 2009 0 comments
On the 2nd day of CNY, I always go to visit my 'carrot cake' aunt. Yes, I named her that because she would always cook for us delicious carrot and yam cake which we all look forward to. That would be our lunch..so you can imagine how many of those we popped into out mouths for us to have that as lunch!



It was a pleasant surprise to see my cousin, "Junjun" who is based in Darwin and is back for this CNY.



Because the place is a little small, so the kids and mummies were all based outside.



Here are the cousins looking so solemn.



And what do you know- Danielle is fast asleep as usual!



The cousins also had their playtime with the ball. Caleb loves to play with balls and when he saw it, he was so excited. However, it was the same for the rest of the kids- they too were excited and Caleb being the youngest, he didnt have much of a chance to play with it. So, Caleb was a little tramautised..(check out the videos)





I am not too upset when he was being 'bullied' as its something he has to learn that he doesnt get his way all the time and moreover, I'm sure next year, he would have a 'fighting' chance as he grows up. Ha.



After the visitation, Caleb fell asleep in the car and back at my mum's place, here are the two children.



After Caleb woke up, we dropped by god-ma's house. And what do you know- Caleb spent most of the time in the room playing his drums.



Too bad didnt get to see Asher as he was asleep in the other room.

Reached home about 5 plus and for dinner, I made my own miso soup by adding the miso paste and put in the silken tofu and spring onions. Topped with shredded seaweed. Very simple. Prepared sushi for tonight's dinner.



Had edamame (boiled beans) for appetizer and here are the toppings for my sushi..Had akagai wing (ark shellfish), fried crispy salmon skin, raw salmon, cucumber, sweet Jap tofu skin.



Had great fun making!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Chinese New Year Happenings

Posted by Dawn at Monday, January 26, 2009 0 comments
Today is the first day of CNY and like all the other years, I cooked a vegetarian dish the night before for my breakfast this morning. Ate it with rice and I had to eat it with a BOWL of rice. Yes, a BOWL and not a plate because its more authentic and yummy eating off a bowl with chopsticks! haha.



We left the house at about 1045 am to my mum's place. Here are the children all dressed up and ready to go as they waited for CT to get ready.

Introducing to you cheeky Caleb with THAT smile on his face...



and demure Danielle with her feet crossed just like a lady..


By the way, CT bought the dress for Danielle when he went to US. Guess how much? haha..costs US$ 15 only! So sweet right? (I meant both Danielle and CT)

Went to my parents place to serve them tea. Then after that, went to my mum-in-law's place for lunch.

And we had Lo Hei to begin with! Yup, its Caleb's third time playing with it already. Seasoned tosser!


And here's Keelia having a go too at the Lo Hei!



Too bad Danielle cant join in. She was left all alone at the living room..Poor girl.


And there is CT keeping Danielle company.


For lunch, we had the famous Pig Stomach soup and the yummiest ngor hiang which my mum-in-law makes. I loved it! She also cooked dry mee siam-another popular dish.



And for dessert, my sister-in-law made a birthday cake for CT. The cake was very light and yummy! Wished there was more! hehe..



And a family shot. Danielle was not in the picture because she was fast asleep on the sofa. We didnt want to disturb her beauty sleep.



After lunch, relatives came to my in-law's place. Both Danielle and Caleb were fast asleep upstairs. Then we visited a relative's house at Pasir Ris before going to grandma's place at Tampines.



Caleb was so active after his sleep and as usual, he was very sociable. He tried mixing around with his uncle (who is CT's cousin) but his uncle simply ignored him even when Caleb tried to smile and go near him.



Caleb was making himself at home by running everywhere and playing on every inch and corner of the mattress.



Then after a while, Keelia joined Caleb and started playing with him. They both had a great time laughing and playing.





Finally reached home in the evening for a good rest! Happy Birthday CT!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Eve of CNY

Posted by Dawn at Sunday, January 25, 2009 0 comments
Today, had steamboat for lunch at my mum-in-law's place with the whole family. The highlight was the salmon head which is not a common steamboat dish but it was absolutely delicious and sweet.

At night, went to my mum's place for reunion dinner. Thankfully, she didnt prepare steamboat, if not, I would have eaten steamboat 3 times in a row. What she did, for the first time, is "Pen Cai" (A Basin of Goodies). It is not a traditional CNY dish but the story behind this dish is meaningful for the new year, I feel- the spirit of sharing,generosity and cohesiveness.

This dish was invented when Mongol troops invaded Song China. To feed the fleeing Emperor who escaped to Guangdong, the locals collected all their best food available. After cooking it, they put it in wooden washing basins as there wasn’t a bowl big enough for the army, coiling the term ‘pen cai’ (vegetables in a basin).

There are no hard and fast rules as to what ingredients go in as it can be anything under the sun, ranging from yam or tapioca to ginseng, abalone, beancurd etc. Most common ingredients that people would put is duck, chicken, ham, dried scallops, mushrooms, dried oyster etc.

The main difficulty to this dish is not cooking (since you simply throw everything in and stew) but is in presenting it as every ingredient has to be layered and stacked up properly.



Chicken and duck meat are usually placed on the top, implying that birds return to the nests. Though those who know would reach for the bottom where the gravy trickles over the ingredients.





My mum also prepared egg noodles which was cooked to the right texture. Eating the noodles with the pen cai gravy was heavenly.

We also had Lo Hei,



"Kombak" pau (braised pork belly with bun)




Both Janine and Caleb had a whopping great time playing with the Lo Hei.



We also had a birthday celebration for CT and Janine. Janine's birthday is 2 days after CT.

Guess it is not a good idea to celebrate together as Janine would be the star instead. Haha..Even the cake says it all!



To allow CT to have his own cake, my mum took out a cake which her friend baked for her and started decorating it for CT so that he would have a candle to blow. It was pathetically hilarious.



And Janine had her go at cutting the cake..here's the result.



What an enjoyable celebration! Thanks mum for preparing.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Pre-birthday celebration

Posted by Dawn at Saturday, January 24, 2009 0 comments
Today, I celebrated with CT his birthday. It actually falls on the first day of Chinese New Year(CNY) but you know how the first day would always be so busy. So, my birthday present for him is to cook him a nice lunch and dinner to celebrate as CT is one guy who does not have much wants...he is simply happy and satisfied with anything or even nothing. He would always tell me that I do not have to give him anything whenever I ask him what he wants..that it does 'frustrate' me because I like to do something for him or give him something. Ha. So nevertheless, as the saying goes,"the way to a man's heart is through his stomach"..so I thought cooking for him would be the best.

In the morning, there was a knock on our door. It was a man who delivered a box of birthday cake for CT. It was actually sent by the car shop owner whom we bought our car from. How cool is that? Talking about after sales service- this company comes in top! They have even organised workshops for us to attend on cars, as well as given us free gift-like 2009 calender, key chain etc.



How timely the cake came since I wanted to celebrate CT's birthday today and didnt have any cake.



Here's what I prepared for our lunch- Japanese udon noodles and prawn tempura



I made use of the cod fish slices and prawn tempura which I bought from the frozen shop.



Here's our lunch




Blendered the radish and placed it in the tempura dip. If ever you go to Seagift, do buy the tempura prawns and its really very good and authentic. Costs $5.20 for 10 prawns.

As for dinner, I did steamboat cum BBQ. I grilled mussels with garlic, white wine and cheese.





Had local lettuce, prawns, pork, beef, fish balls, fu zhou fishballs, ngor hiang, enoki mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, snakehead fish slices. Didnt prepare much since its just the 3 of us. What I love best was the BBQ beef dipped in raw egg! Yum...





Had 3 dipping sauces for the BBQ cum steamboat. First was yong tau foo sweet sesame sauce, second was soya sauce with sesame oil and garlic and the third sauce was chinchalok chilli sauce.



And after everything, we finally had the birthday cake for dessert! Happy birthday CT (in advance)!



Can you imagine how full we were after all that?

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