Day off

I do look forward now to my helper getting off on Sundays as I get to spend quality time with my children and cook for them. Yes, I know I can also do this when she is around, but its kind of different...

I remember the times when taking care of them on my helper's day off was trying and a test of my patience and endurance. But I am glad it gets better as they grow older and mature. It's definitely much easier now that they can entertain themselves by playing together.

Anyway, since it has been a while since I cooked, I prepared dinner for my family tonight. Simple food, straight from my heart..

Cooked black bean pork rib rice as well as fish soup with spinach and fish balls.

Glad everyone enjoyed the food. My little satisfaction I get from watching them finishing up all the food on their plates and bowls. ;)

Triple Celebrations

Today, we had dinner at one of my family's usual haunt for celebration- Grand Shanghai Restaurant. It is located at Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel. Intention was to celebrate Pamela and my brother's birthday and since we haven't celebrated Mother's Day,we decided that it shall be a triple celebration.

As usual, there would be live entertainment by the musicians and singer.



It was entertaining for the kids as well. Caleb and Danielle went to the front of stage and just stared at the people on stage.

The soup is as usual very nice! Would strongly recommend it!


So tasty..You can simply tell by the colour of the soup.


We also had stir fried eel. A dish which I recommend you to eat with rice as its quite salty.


Then we had peking duck. My all-time favourite dish and with the meat, we used it to wrap lettuce. Very light and tasty especially with the pine nuts and crunchy water chestnut.


Overall, yet another wonderful experience..

Couple time

This afternoon, we went to my mum-in-law's place for lunch. Caleb left the place with Keelia's sunglasses on. He refused to take it off.

Its strange how he liked wearing it that no matter how the sunglasses keep falling off, he still insists on wearing it.



Even Danielle noticed something strange on Caleb that she kept staring at him.



That's my boy at this stage in his life.


At night, CT and I left the kids at home with Vicky and went on a date to Orchard. We took the train there. Purpose of this date was to eat wagyu beef.

We first went to Orchard Central- a newly opened mall in Orchard. Quite a number of stalls still empty.


They had interesting narrow path ways in the shopping mall.


And took a picture of this gothic looking pot hanging beside the escalator.


We heard that there's a restaurant in Orchard Central that serves Wagyu beef, called "Grill out" restaurant. We went there and I felt the restaurant looked empty and still new. So, I went with my gut feeling and decided I shall stick to the original plan which was to go Angus Steak House for the beef since they had good ratings after doing some research over the internet.


So after a tour of Orchard Central, we went to Takashimaya for our wagyu beef at Angus Steak House.

What prompted us to eat Wagyu Beef is because CT had $250 to spend. His company gave him that amount to spend for a meal with the family to celebrate the opening of their new plant. All along I wanted to eat Wagyu Beef since its the holy grail of beef. So, I had to eat it since after hearing about the money we had given by the company!



We ordered 200g of Wagyu Sirloin and 200g of Wagyu Rib Eye. We chose these because Sirloin and Rib Eye is the fattest part. I love beef that has lots of fats!

It was a 5 course dinner. The first dish was a nicely pan fried cuttlefish ball with horseradish mayo sauce and salmon roe on top of french beans. Pardon me for such a description of the dish as they do not have a writeup of what we are eating and I didnt ask. So I am just describing as how I eat and taste of it! A very light, tasty and delicate dish. Loved it!



2nd course was a cream of mushroom soup. It was rich and tasty, but yet , it feels light as after slurping up the soup, you still want more! Went well with the complimentary bread roll.


3rd course was a fresh and light salad with soya sauce and balsamic vinegar taste to it.


Both CT and I seemed to chow down every dish almost immediately. Our behaviour probably didnt fit in at the nice and classy restaurant as we ate so fast but couldnt help it as the food was just so nice.

And finally, our main dish arrived!



Biting into the wagyu beef was practically effortless! It seems like I finally understood what "melts in your mouth" meant.

This was Wagyu Sirloin


And Wagyu Ribeye


Eating such steak, doesnt require any knives because of how tender it is.


Every bite that I took off the steak, I kept commenting to CT how happy I was to indulge in this and that I could just die now.

As for dessert, we had a cake with fruits and chocolate and butter sauce which once again tasted rich but light! Its quite an oxymoron because most rich dishes end up making you very full. But the texture was so light and fluffy that it didnt make me feel stuffed.


Oh, forgot to mention that I actually met one of my ex-students during our dinner. Guess I should get used to it since Singapore is so small and I will probably stay in teaching for some time.

After a satifying meal, we walked to another new mall-Ion Orchard to take a look. Initally, I felt unworthy to enter since it was all branded shops, but considering how often we come to Orchard, I felt, I might as well drop by inside to see.



The shops in Ion Orchard were very interesting. They even had a Christmas shop. When I saw it, I felt like I was in the streets of London during a cold winter night, glancing at the windows of this shop that sells Christmas ornaments, trains etc.

We spent time at the art gallery as well as the supermarket. I usually make it a point to explore new supermarkets because I always feel it would be an eye opening experience to see what interesting things they sell and yes, I was right! I managed to see not only the usual green, red and yellow bell peppers but black, purple, white and orange ones! Also saw them selling Japanese grapes which was royal black and I understand from the sales woman that the taste is just like red wine! If I was shopping alone, I would definitely buy some of it to try!

Went home straight after our tour of Ion Orchard. Really enjoyed my date with CT! Wonder when will be the next time...

Simple Western Meal

In the mood to cook Western tonight as I bought one whole golden snapper from Giant yesterday and told the fish counter guy to fillet it for me. Since Caleb now eats the same food as us and since he is a typical Chinese guy, we had to cook rice for him. So here’s his dinner- rice with steam corn and pan fried snapper, as well as clam chowder soup.





It was also my first time preparing mussels with creamy butter herb sauce. I usually grill mussels with white wine, garlic and mozzarella cheese but decided to try a new version which I quite like as well.


I also did a tuna salad. The ingredients I have in my fridge decide for me what kind of salad I would make. I actually had left over tuna mayo in my fridge for my regular breakfast sandwich, left over lettuce, celery and tomatoes. So I just threw everything in and mix them together.

So here's our nice, simple dinner!

Down with Flu

For the past week, our whole family, except CT has been caught with the flu bug-coughing a lot. As for Caleb, he has been coughing, having running nose and fever.

So today, I decided to cook apple pork rib soup with some of the ingredients like Sweet & Bitter Almond(南北杏), Ju Bing(桔饼), Dried Figs(无花果), red dates which help to relieve cough. The soup really taste nice and sweet!



Really hope everyone will get well soon.

Simple meal

Today, cooked something simple. Grilled a whole chicken. Added lemon, lemon zest, garlic, black pepper and old bay seasoning which you can get from supermarkets (The seasoning mix includes celery salt, bay leaf, mustard seed, both black and red pepper, cinnamon, and ginger)



I used the drippings of the chicken to make a sauce to go with the chicken. Added onions and mushrooms to the sauce as well as flour to thicken it.


I also cooked mashed potatoes, Added butter and chopped parsely.



Also made a salad comprising of prawns, yellow peppers, red apples, green apples and cucumber. And I added coleslaw dressing to it. I love coleslaw dressing. Its not too heavy as compared to mayo, so it suits my taste.



And had cream of mushroom soup for dinner as well. Got the soup from Fassler Gourmet Wholesale shop at Woodlands. Its very authentic. I added more mushrooms to it since I had leftover mushrooms.


And tada, here's what we had for dinner. A very simple meal to cook for the family.

Post Christmas??!

Today, my mum decided to cook turkey as it has been lying in her freezer for a long time. So she invited Marianne and family as well to join us in a post-Christmas feast.



I brought along my baby honey baked ham to add to the dinner. So we had turkey, ham,cheese sausages, potato, pasta, veggies, grilled portobello mushrooms with bacon and cheese, cream of pumpkin soup. The food was so yummy- all thanks to my mum for preparing. Even the turkey was moist and tender.



The children were busy colouring. Well, Caleb was trying to at least...



Just wishing for the time where the kids can really come together to play and share their stuff with one another as Caleb was chased away just minutes when he was trying to colour, probably because he was making a mess. Sigh.

Chinese New Year Happenings

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!