Christmas 2021

After partially hibernating at home for almost two years, the girls and I finally went back to church on Christmas day.  The roads leading to our church were unexpectedly smooth.  In pre-Covid times, the roads on Jalan Gasing would be at a bumper-to-bumper crawl with church-goers parking their vehicles on both sides of the roads on Christmas day as well as on Sundays.  My drive to church today was such a breeze and I could even get a parking spot in the church basement.

Seat capacity was capped at only 200 and attendance must be booked in advance online, in accordance with the Covid Prevention SOPs. Doors were also deliberately left open to allow better ventilation. 

After service, I bumped into the girls' Sunday School teacher. She used to teach the girls when they were toddlers at the Trinity Methodist Church PJ. We've not met each other for aeons ever since she and her family moved to Singapore and then returned to KL.  

The chance meeting was such a pleasant surprise, Shirlin! I know you will most likely be reading this post 😁

After church service, we had lunch at PapaSan Kitchen @ Kuchai Lama.  Hubs and I went to this Japanese eatery twice during the MCO but on both occasions, it was closed.  We were so happy that we finally had the chance to try their Japanese fusion food.  The queue was long but we got a table within 15 minutes of waiting.

Omu Curry Rice with five large pieces of chicken 'karaage.'  This generous bowl is the signature dish at PapaSan Canteen, a no-frills, honest-to-goodness eatery.

 

The food portion at Papasan is pretty generous, priced reasonably and satisfying. We will definitely be back again.

PapaSan Canteen
PapaSan Kuchai: 18-G, Jalan 2/114, Off Jalan Kuchai Lama, Kuchai Business Centre, KL (Tel: 012-580 0883).
PapaSan Cheras: 181-G, Jalan Lancang, Taman Sri Bahtera, Cheras, KL (Tel: 012-580 2587).
Open daily (except Wed closed) 11:30am-3pm; 5pm-8pm).
FB: facebook.com/PapaSan883Canteen/
IG: instagram.com/papasan.canteen/

Christmas dinner was held at hubby's aunt's condo @ Mont Kiara.  This year we have the least attendees because of travel restrictions and some of hubby's relatives have gone to England to celebrate Christmas. Nonetheless, we had a great time enjoying each other's company and bonding over great homecooked food.

Roast turkey with sides, prepped by aunt Karen. 

Roast New Zealand lamb leg, from hubby's central kitchen.

German Christmas Stollen, baked by aunt Connie.

Christmas mince pies, also baked by aunt Connie.

Sauteed brussels sprouts, also by aunt Karen.

Pesto pasta and turkey stuffing, also by aunt Karen.

Honey glazed ham, another must-have on the dining table on Christmas.  What's missing this year is Pigs In Blanket, another of our favourite.

Tiramisu with brandy, also prepped by aunt Karen.  This tiramisu is the bomb, and really addictive!

Aunt Karen's lovely abode.

The girls enjoyed their dinner, but without the company of their cousins this year.

As you can see, the entire Yap family is made up of great chefs and it's not a surprise that Sherilyn is naturally a great teenage chef and baker too.

With the leftover turkey, Sherilyn cooked turkey and vegetable barley soup the next day. It was a wonderful pot of soup and my kind of soup and meal. I'll write about the soup in my next post. Stay tuned!

Random Updates

21 December 2021 - The continuous rain in KL finally stopped yesterday.  The skies were so clear last night that we could see the unusually huge super moon clearly in the sky.  

Looking at the photos of the great flood that inundated many parts of Klang Valley for the past few days, especially at the residential areas in Shah Alam, reminds me of our Taman TTDI house in Batu 3, Shah Alam that was inundated in floor waters 15 years ago in early 2006.  Alycia was only 2 years old and Sherilyn barely 1 year old.  As there was no social media back in the day, no help was sent to our area.  

The rain started at 3am and by 5am, the rain water started to come into our house.  By mid morning, the ground floor of our double storey house was submerged in almost a meter deep of flood water.  

We salvaged all the frozen foods in our chiller and freezer and ate them for lunch.  The girls were elated to have ice-cream and biscuits for lunch. Thank God for hubby's close friend, who is the girls' god father, who came to rescue us.  Our fridge floated from the kitchen to the living room.  Our cars were submerged in water up to half the height of the car seat.   Damages to our house and cars were estimated to be almost a hundred thousand Ringgit.  

I remember wading in the flood water up to waist level from our house to a bridge about 15 minutes away from our house to meet our friend who drove us away from the disaster scene.  Alycia was placed in a makeshift  boat which was a huge Toyogo plastic box and Sherilyn was in my arms. We could only carry important stuff with us and had to leave Happy, our beagle behind. Poor Happy must have been terribly traumatized. It  still shatters my heart thinking of Happy, our pet dog.  Happy was left on our staircase for over 24 hours and given only toddler biscuits when we fled the flooded house.  

My Proton Wira and hubby's Toyota Innova in February 2006.

Our neighbor's car.

The fridge floated to our living room.

The great flood that wiped out almost everything on the ground floor of our house.  And this is what made us choose condo living.

The weather was so chilly the past few wet days that Haru's ears were cold.  Cass wrapped Haru up in a towel and Haru seemed to enjoy being bundled up comfortably in her box bed.

13 December 2021 Dinner ~ Homemade Burgers

We had burgers for dinner today!

Almost every component of the burger was homemade with love by chef S alongside Cass, the sous chef - from the burger buns to the burger patties, thick fries, delectable sauce, and pickled cucumber.  Cass has been attending on-the-job cooking lessons from her sister and enjoying them.

Aside from the burger buns, chef S also made a loaf of Japanese milk bread using the same dough, made using the Tangzhong method.

Tangzhong is a roux made with water (and sometimes milk) and flour.  Chef S used fresh full cream milk for the roux.  It’s cooked to make a thick pudding-like paste, and then cooled down to room temperature and added to the flour mix when kneading the dough.  The result is super soft, milky, and addictive bread.  I really love this bread and ate it for my breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  I can't wait for chef S to bake this bread again!

Lip-smacking sauce for the burgers.

Ingredients: Japanese mayo, lots of chopped onions, pickled cucumber, and chili sauce

I'd name this LOL Burger because everyone broke into a guffaw when we were chomping it. This burger is stacked up so high with ingredients and sauce that when we put it into our mouth, the sauce oozed out and got smacked on our chin and face. We couldn't help laughing at each other coz we looked like messy and sloppy little kids devouring on a burger with sauce all over our faces 😆

6 December 2021 ~ Random Updates

Sorry for the lack of updates in this blog. As usual, I've been swamped with work from every aspect of my life.  At times I really wish that I still have a full-time job working from the office so that someone else will be in charge of house chores and everything else at home.   I feel so overwhelmed with work and so sleep-deprived!  

I want a vacation!! 

But I guess that a vacation is only possible in my dreams now. With the emergence of Omnicron and the Covid situation not getting any better, a vacation would have to wait. 😓

So, back to my updates on what's happening in our home!

Alycia didn't pass her trial driving test last week.  She had a sudden mental block during the trial parking test and forgot how to do the side parking! 😂  And this was what exactly happened to me 31 years ago when I was 17!  Talk about coincidence and history repeating!

With only 4 lessons (accumulated 16 hours of lessons), I honestly don't think that it's enough for someone to sit for a driving test.  Therefore, I am paying the driving school for another 2 hours of on the road and parking lessons before her next trial driving test on 30th December.  I'll also need to sacrifice an hour of my Sunday over several weekends to coach the girl in the car.  

Haru's appetite has been super ravenous after a full recovery from her spay surgery recently. She now demands food four times a day. So I give her half a packet of wet cat food four times a day and mix it with quite a bit of water to increase her water intake.  She doesn't drink water from a water bowl or pet water bottle.   

I've read that after spaying a female cat, we can expect to see a calmer, quieter as well as gentler overall disposition in our cat to an increased desire for food. While there's much truth in the last point, we don't see a calmer, quieter and calmer Haru 😁.  Instead, she's getting more daring and invasive and likes jumping onto Cass' bed (which she shares with her grandma!) and hides under her blanket, jumps on our dining table whenever she's hungry as well as likes to sneak out to the kitchen balcony to sit on the super narrow ledge to observe the view and gives us heart attacks!

Treats purchased from Shopee for Haru d tigress to satiate her ravenous appetite and bottomless pit.

Adding Raw Kale Into Our Diet

Besides adding organic raw microgreens, baby spinach, arugula and spring mix into our diet, the latest rawsome greens that I'm trying to coax the girls to eat is kale. I buy organic curly kale and try to eat a handful of it a day. Cass is not too enthusiastic about kale coz she says it's a tad bitter and hard but eats it anyway.

Lately Cass is into healthy eating and has been eating me poor with many servings of fruits and veggies a day.  In the past, she never liked pumpkin, sweet potatoes and bell peppers but she likes them all now!  Cass eats a huge apple in the morning, followed with smoothie (frozen berries with a mango, an orange or pineapple) topped with sugar-free low fat yoghurt and granola. Later in the day, she eats a big bowl of papaya or other fruit that she sees in the fridge. She also drinks at least 2 liters of water a day.  I shouldn't be complaining as I've always been praying for her and the other two girls to want to be health freaks.  I believe that we'll only possess good health if we care enough to be health conscious and watch what we eat. Lifestyle factor is just as important. 

The mil likes chopping up raw kale and mix it with mashed eggs and mayo.  She preps some for us too but the girls are not too keen, so I gladly nosh it down.  Otherwise, I will chop up the kale and eat it with curries and rendang from hubby's central kitchen.  We always have excess of curries from his central kitchen and I love to savor the curries with raw veggies to lessen the spiciness.

Kale is a superfood that is chock-full of essential vitamins and minerals (they're high in calcium too) and high in fiber. Eating kale can help boost your health by providing antioxidants, fighting heart disease, lowering cholesterol and helping to prevent cancer.  In fact, kale is one of the most nutrient-dense foods in the world.

My lunch yesterday - raw kale  with homecooked Japanese curry.

Japanese curry prepped by chef Sherilyn and Cass.  
Cass has just completed her final exam for this year and has been bugging me to let her cook and bake.

The school holidays are not too far away (though the past 2 years seemed like a school holiday every day 😁) and I'm going to get Cass to be under the tutelage of Sherilyn in the kitchen 😄.

Bingsu (Korean shaved ice) made from only two ingredients -- frozen strawberries and blueberries. It's dairy-free and super healthy and the girls love it.

Back To School & College ~ Delish Homecooked Snacks For School Lunch Box

This week will be Alycia and Sherilyn's turns to be back in campus and school respectively. Their school and college are adopting a hybrid learning mode. 

As usual, our finicky teenage chef started to prep snacks for her school lunch box.  She made Tamagoyaki seaweed rolls yesterday for today's lunch box. Today she made Okonomiyaki (Japanese Cabbage Pancakes) for her lunch box tomorrow.  Last Friday she made a huge batch of Napa cabbage kimchi as she uses kimchi quite a bit for her quick meals, from kimchi fried rice to kimchi noodles, kimchi stew or just kimchi to go with plain Japanese rice.  

Sherilyn's got so many ideas on what to cook and bake.  Good thing, right? Yeah yeah yeah. We're all very happy whenever she springs up with a new recipe and something yummy to tease our taste buds BUT I hate cleaning up after her!  She helps to clean up too but as with most teenagers, it's slipshod work and I always have to mop the floors and wipe the counter tops again after she's done with cooking and cleaning 😫

Tamagoyaki seaweed rolls.  This requires quite a bit of skill but our chef S effortlessly whips this up using a special rectangular Tamagoyaki pan that the mil bought from Japan.  

No brainer for chef S.  Tamagoyaki in a variety of flavors is her specialty.

Okonomiyaki with cabbage and shimeji mushrooms for her lunch box tomorrow; breakfast for Cass tomorrow.

Crispy curly kale chips air-fried in the Airbot yesterday.  The chips are super crispy!  Seasoned with just olive oil and salt, the chips are air-fried for 7 minutes and makes a great healthy snack.

Big Bad Wolf Sale @ HeroMarket, Bandar Puteri Puchong (15 - 28 November 2021)

Awoooooooo!!! The Big Bad Wolf Sale is back and this time it's an on-ground event held at HeroMarket @ Bandar Puteri Puchong, from 15 - 28 November 2021!

The girls always get excited whenever there's a BBW Sale. They could spend the entire day at the BBW sale and not get tired of walking and standing on end checking out the amazing spread of titles. In one of the BBW sales, we brought along 2 trolley bags and filled them to the brim with books. Books have always been the best Christmas gifts for the girls.

If you've never been to an on-ground BBW Sale before, you should at least try once. The amazing spread of books and the affordable prices will make you want to go back for more. But if you're worried of the crowd, no worries, you can shop at the Big Bad Wolf Books store on Shopee.

The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is the world's BIGGEST book sale, with up to 95% discount off retail prices for ALL their books across all genres! There are over 150,000 titles from various genres such as novels, non-fiction and fiction, coffee table books, cookbooks, children’s books for children of all ages which are perfect for new parents, teachers and just about anyone who loves reading or wants to start reading.

So, head over to HeroMarket anytime between 10am to 10pm at Bandar Puteri Puchong from 15 - 28 November 2021 and grab a book or two for your friends and family as the holiday season is about to begin. I think you'll most likely grab more than one or two books. Aside from books, one can also find stationery items, puzzles, toys, games, water tumblers, school bags and many more interesting items on sale.

For more information, please visit: Big Bad Wolf Books or if you can’t visit and want to shop from  the comfort of your home, just head over to their Shopee store. 

Sales Period: 15 – 28 November 2021 

Time: 10am – 10pm 

Venue: HeroMarket, Level 1, Bandar Puteri Puchong 

Website: https://bigbadwolfbooks.com/. 

Shopee Store: https://shopee.com.my/bigbadwolf_os. 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bbwbooks. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigbadwolfbooks/. 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bigbadwolfbooks. 

Friday, 19 November 2021 ~ Haru's Visit To The Vet Clinic

I brought Haru to the vet clinic for a check-up on her wound today.  The vet told us that the wound is healing well and he snipped off a tiny bit of suture.  To encourage a speedy and complete recovery of the external wound, Haru still has to wear the Elizabethan cone for another week.  

Haru is now more adept in removing the post-op suit from her body, even with the cone on!  She turns her head to her back to where the velcro on the suit is, then slowly pulls off the velcro with her mouth and then wriggles her way out of the suit! And the suit is snug-fitting.  See how determined this stubborn feline is! 

On the way to the vet clinic.

Waiting for our turn at the clinic.  Haru seems to enjoy herself more being in a cloth sling back than being put into a cat carrier. She now associates the carrier with vet visits and runs away from the carrier.

These 4 tiny kittens are Haru's siblings. Her mother gave birth to yet another litter of kittens.  This batch is the 2nd batch of kittens after giving birth to Haru some time around early January 2021.  Her mother is known to give birth 2-3 times in a year every year! Poor Molly. 

We've not seen the new batch of kittens yet. The mother cat gave birth to the kittens outside a shop next to hubby's central kitchen. According to a staff there, the kittens are now missing and they discovered a python at the shop and called the Bomba to capture the python.  We're now hoping that the snake didn't swallow  up the 4 kittens 🙏

The previous batch of kittens are now about half a year old and still living inside a drain behind hubby's central kitchen.  

Benefits of Hiking

Hiking in the outdoors has plenty of benefits. You get to soak in the therapeutic lush greenery and nature, you breathe in fresh air and the sounds and scenery of nature have a mind-calming effect.

Hiking not only makes your legs stronger, when you clamber over uneven surfaces, navigate your way around rocks, fallen trees, across streams and over tree roots, you engage your core and work your upper body for a true holistic workout!  To make your hiking trip a more comfortable and safer adventure, put on simple women or men’s tactical clothing to protect yourself against the elements.

Womens outdoor tactical multi-pocket pants

Womens outdoor sports quick-drying pants

Besides helping you to de-stress from your hectic life and soothes your mind, hiking is a powerful cardio workout that can:

·       Lower your risk of heart disease and possibly other diseases.
·       Reduce anxiety and depression.
·       Help you reconnect and find yourself again.
·       Improve your blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
·       Boost bone density, since walking is a weight-bearing exercise.
·       Build strength in your glutes, quadriceps, hamstrings, and the muscles in your hips and lower legs.
·       Strengthen your core and improve balance.
·       Help control your weight.
·       Boost your mood and reduce stress.
·       Help improve sleep quality
 

Hikers are happier people, especially when they are out on the trail.  Getting out in nature with good friends or loved ones, away from the stressors of life allow us to take a break from technology and reset our buttons. 

If you’ve never experienced hiking or had a long hiatus in this great outdoor activity, there’s no better time to start hiking again.  Make a hiking checklist to ensure that you’re well prepared.  Don’t forget a good pair of hiking boots or shoes and tactical clothing to protect you from the elements.

To shop for the best tactical clothing for your adventures in the jungle, mountains and off-roading, why not have a look at Wayrates.com? They have a good range of tactical clothing, footwear, quick-drying pants for outdoor activities and vintage men’s t-shirts for you to select from.

Homemade Ramen and Stuffed Brinjal

Over the weekend, our in-house teenage chef spent most of her time in the kitchen to whip up some of her favorite dishes.  To 'celebrate' more time at home after 5 days of face-to-face classes in school this week (back to school after more than half a year of remote learning), she tried several new dishes.  Sherilyn loves spending time in the kitchen to try out new recipes to destress.

We had dry ramen with minced pork, Onsen tamago amd ramen eggs.  The ramen noodles were made from scratch and ramen eggs marinated yesterday.  Even the Japanese tare sauce for the noodles was made from scratch.

The ramen noodles were perfect and silky-smooth. And the secret?

Knead them with your FEET 😜  That's what the Japanese do.  

Chef Sherilyn placed the dough in a Ziplock bag, put on clean socks and danced on top of the bagged dough😆

We had these for dinner on Saturday and again for lunch on Sunday.  In fact, we didn't mind having it again for lunch the next day as the dry ramen tasted as good as the ones from Japanese restaurants!

Noodles churned out from the Kenwood mixer.

Fried stuffed brinjal with minced pork and torch ginger flower. 
This dish was born as S was clearing the fridge and found a long brinjal and some torch ginger flower that had been sitting inside for weeks.

Homemade satay sauce, made with love by S. Love this peanut sauce with loads of aromatic spices and sambal from Catermate.  She made the sauce to go with pan-fried salmon the other day. We used the leftover sauce to go with the fried stuffed brinjal.