Mum's new dish

Today as usual, went to my parent's place for dinner. Mum cooked up a lot of wonderful dishes today, one of which is the pork bibimbap, a Korean dish. A very nice dish with pork and onions, raw cucumber and carrots, topped with fried egg and bibimbap spicy sauce. Very refreshing and healthy.



Here are the rest of our dinner dishes..


Usually weeks after Chinese New Year, my mum would cook pomelo skin as pomelo is a popular fruit during the CNY season..This dish is not for the faint-hearted. Its bitter but when the skin (the white part) is chosen properly, it would not be THAT bitter and in fact, when braised with pork, dried shrimps and mushrooms, its a very nice dish



And here are the rest of the dishes prepared by my mum and her helper.

Valentine's Day with the family...

Have been so busy after CNY as work gets piled up. So just did something simple for Valentine's Day. Decided to make chocolate dipped strawberries with the children.

We had lots of fun. That is definitely something you can do with your children.



And you just got to expect that this will happen...


Caleb just couldnt resist licking the dark chocolate off the strawberry.

Finally topped it off with the rainbow sprinkles before putting it into the fridge.


Looks rather messy but it taste delicious and we all enjoyed it! The best thing was.... the children made it..

Danielle learns to smile..

Danielle is now at the stage where she has learnt how to smile sweetly..

Love her dimples! (Thanks to CT's genes)



She also enjoys looking pretty as we decorate her hair! Look at my creation! I am actually quite proud of myself for coming up with such pretty stuff on her hair as for those who knows me, would know that I am not THAT sort of girl who does such stuff.



So I have to admit that Danielle is definitely making me more feminine and I am actually having fun dressing her up!



Thanks Danielle for your great influence on Mummy! MUACK!

Caleb, the builder

Lego is one toy that you must get for your child as it lasts through generations and they wont get sick of it. Caleb has been playing Lego since he was one year old and now at 3 and a half years old, he is building stuff that amazes me!

Here's his 3d model of a house with a floating staircase all the way up with a window at mid-level.


He then tops it off with a blue transparent door just at the foot of the staircase. How interesting.

Subsequently, he started adding doors at almost every step to decorate it! Ha!

Beside it, he also built his own crane mobile vehicle.


Am very proud of him! Well done Caleb!

CNY food...

Had a yearly indulgence of carrot cake at my relatives' house.


This time round, it was definitely more fun as the kids are older and they get to enjoy the yummy food.



They also enjoyed playing with their cousins.




The older cousins stayed in the house as they did their drawing.


Also had feasting at my mum-in-law's place as well as my parent's place.


At my parent's place, my church cell group went over to visit and had dinner. As usual, my mum would definitely ensure that we were all well-fed.


There were lots of cooked food as well as BBQ food.

My sister-in-law also invited us for dinner at her place. We had steamboat! It was very nice and healthy! Loved it!




I have to admit that I have controlled myself quite well this year. I didnt indulge too much on all the CNY goodies and spread of food. I guess that happened because I was down with flu and also had stomach upset. So that probably helped me to watch what I ate...a blessing in disguise indeed!

CNY visitations start

I am finally getting used to the CNY visitations every year. Or rather, I finally accept its routine and do look forward to all of it.

The night before, I cooked my family, Cantonese tradition- Vegetarian dish with rice served for breakfast on the first day of CNY. Its fun and I love the dish! This time round, I cooked more for my Mum-in-law and grandma-in-law.





Having a daughter is good in a way because I get to buy pretty dresses for her to wear and this CNY was a great opportunity!


This was a dress bought from Cambodia for about US$10.

As for Caleb, he was wearing a Vietnamese costume bought by CT when he went to Vietnam last year.


Here's Caleb eating his favourite CNY snack- the pineapple tarts!

Our first stop was at my grandma-in-law's place where all the children and grandchildren would gather. We were the first ones to arrive..so Caleb and Danielle were at the gate looking out for visitors.



We stayed for lunch there and there was pen cai, my favourite homemade ngor hiang as well as pig stomach's soup! Everything was so yummy!



Then relatives from my father-in-law's side would all gather at my mum-in-law's place in the afternoon. But before that, I dropped by my parent's place to serve tea.

Visitations are tiring as we go from place to place. Thank God this year, the weather has been quite good and cooling.


During the visitation, I found out that my uncle-in-law's family (the mum and 2 brothers) all have accepted Christ. Now, only left the father who hasn't. So during my visit to his place, I asked him how he came to accept Christ since his brother and mother had accepted a long time ago. He was telling me about how he was lost as he wasnt doing well in all areas- his love life, his job etc. He was at the lowest point of his life.

Now, from my conversation with him, he was telling me how he has the love for children as he serves the children's ministry in church and how God has blessed him in his tuition after leaving his job prior to teaching. He definitely seemed more settled and matured. Praise God.



I know non-Christians would probably think why we always make it such a big deal when somebody converts to Christianity or why we always wish people would convert to Christianity. Well, because we have been through it and the wonderful thing is not because of the 'rituals' of going to church, but that God has given us the most wonderful relationship with Him once we accept Him into our lives. Its a feeling that only when your heart is open, then will you see and understand.

And if something is good, of course we would go tell our loved ones and friends about it, wont we?

Shouldn't we?

How can we keep something good to ourselves?

Yearly Reunion Dinner

The night before Chinese New Year, I would go to my parents' place for dinner.
Always looking forward to the spread of food!

But before that, there was a mini food spread going on here where Danielle was the host! She was laying the plates out and going to everyone, serving them drinks. Its interesting how she is now of age to do role-playing.



And here's the spread of food that I have been waiting for.

However, frankly speaking, my mum doesnt do this only once a year. In fact, she does have a whole table of food many times in a year. So I am very blessed to have a loving and generous mum! I have definitely picked up the "love of feeding people" from her.


After dinner, the kids all gathered in front of the TV to watch a cartoon movie! How absorbed they all looked.



Love it whenever the family eats together and play together..but more importantly, a family should pray together as well! That's what I am looking forward to in the new year ahead as we spend more time with God as a family every day!

Simple fun at home

Thank God CT and I both love to be at the comfort of our home. So spending time together as a family has been a priority in our lives.

There would be times when CT would suggest flying kites just down our block even on a weekday..just as long as its windy. Caleb was having fun running around with his kite.



Then I got the children interested with the mimosas growing in the field. They started looking out for them to touch!


Now that my children are slightly older, they enjoy playing with each other since especially they are around the same age (only a year apart) Its joy watching them grow and enjoying each other's company.





They both love to imitate each other. So at times I really wonder who is more influential. I have to always remind Caleb to set a good example for Danielle to follow.

Here's both of them enjoying the blueberry almond crumble muffin which I made...




Danielle loves playing hide and seek at home and there was once when she hid behind the towel in the room which is really cute because her legs were obviously sticking out.


This would be one of our fun activities at home.


It could set them running around crazily and noisily at home.

One of the activity which I would look forward to is getting my children involved in cooking. Kids have a lot of creativity which many adults do not have and that would definitely help in cooking. I am sure they will amaze me like how the Junior Masterchefs in Australia has. Loved the show and how it has inspired me to pass on the love of cooking to my children.

But of course, role modeling for them is always the best start.
Here's what I cooked for them for our pre- CNY's reunion dinner.

There's Kai Lan veggies with oyster sauce and fried garlic on top


ginger, spring onions, oyster sauce chicken with a splash of wine


And claypot rice with chinese sausages, dried mushrooms and waxed duck


I shall start thinking of recipes the kids can help to chip in to make...