My Life In Photos The Past One Week

School reopens today after a one-month-long break, phew!  School holidays are suffocating for me.  My me-time, morning exercise, peace, space, and freedom at home are literally gone.  The littlest one can be such a handful though she's already 15.  

Besides making a trip back to Ipoh for 3 days and 2 nights, Cass was mostly at home or at the skating rink.

Now that school has reopened and the pandemic is almost behind us, co-curricular activities are back to normal.  Cass will stay back for the first time in high school this week.  CoCo activities were conducted online for the past 3 years. Cass also has to sit for her UEC exam this year. And a few more tests on figure skating.  Cass is going to be one very busy girl this year.

Me at the loo at Pavillion Bukit Jalil.  After sending Cass to the skating rink, I had nothing to do.  To kill time, I did a selfie and rambled around the mall with nothing in mind to buy.  Cass' classes are now from 8-9pm on Fridays 😩

Even though I had absolutely nothing to buy, I still ended up with some stuff from Guardian Pharmacy and a bunch of unnecessary snacks from Food Merchant.  Sherilyn texted me and asked me to help her buy make-up removal oil and I bought a bottle of expensive body shampoo simply because it was on offer and the scent is irresistibly fruity - a mix of grapefruit, apple, peach and all my favorite fruits. That's the reason why I hate going to the mall when I have nothing to buy as I will always end up buying unnecessary things 😁

While window shopping at Guardian, I stumbled upon this - sheet mask for your bust, butt, and belly.  Seriously, would you buy this to nurture your assets? 😆

Ever since mum fractured her right arm two months ago and was down with Covid a month ago, my 80-year-old papa has been taking over all the chores at home in Ipoh.  Mum even taught papa how to bake bread using the breadmaker.  Here, he's removing freshly baked bread from the breadmaker and slicing it, for me to bring it back to KL the next day 💗

The smell of freshly baked bread is heavenly!

Papa also made his signature pandan kaya for us. He stood next to the stove for over 1.5 hours, patiently stirring the santan+egg+sugar+pandan juice mixture, turning it from liquid to a thick kaya paste.  His kaya is the best in the whole wide world. 
This is my air-fried homemade whole wheat bread spread with papa's pandan kaya. It's so delish!

Cinnamon rolls baked just an hour ago - Sherilyn's first bake, post-SPM!  

'Tai Yee Ma Kar Lui' for dinner tonight. 
Hairy gourds are currently on promotion at our neighborhood supermarket @ RM5 for two.  I bought four and gave one to the girls' grand aunt.  Today the MIL cooked all the hairy gourds. Dinner for tomorrow is also settled!

Besides braised hairy gourd, we had steamed free-range chicken with ginger paste and steamed pomfret fish (tau tai chong) for dinner tonight.

Random Updates ~ 15 April 2022

I haven't been posting regularly on what Sherilyn has been cooking and baking.  Ever since Cass and Sherilyn returned to school, I have had very little time left to update my blogs.  

My bedtime has been adjusted from midnight to 9.30 p.m. Bedtime throughout the lockdown and school holidays had been a little before midnight. Now I go into my room at 9.30 p.m. and wake up at 4.45 a.m.  I also have lesser time to spend online coz of school runs and my writing assignments.

I think I won't be renewing my contract with the online news agency that I'm currently working for as a part-time content writer as they have recently restructured their compensation scheme for all content writers, which is less rewarding. So yeah, I think I will have more free time after July 2022. Yay for more me time! 

I may also be on the lookout for other freelance jobs to do from home after my contract expires this July. 

Maria, our part-time helper no longer comes in 5 days a week like she used to before the pandemic. She only comes in 2-3 times a week.  I had to increase her wages twice within a month as she's now getting higher wages elsewhere. She is also hired on a part-time basis to clean up a datin's house. The datin's driver chauffeurs her to the mansion and then books a Grab car to bring Maria home after work.  Maria is on a roll lately with lots of jobs. I try not to be upset with her for telling me a bunch of lies each time she cancels me when she finds higher-paid work elsewhere, but I just hope that she will be more forthright with me.

Our talented baker whipped up sticky dates pudding last week as hubs brought home a pack of organic Medjool dates. The dates were super duper sweet and since no one liked them, our innovative baker baked a loaf of delicious sticky dates pudding -- which actually tasted like cake.  I loved it, albeit it was a bit too sweet for my palate.

Served with vanilla ice cream and homemade butterscotch sauce. Oh my, it's so very delish and calorie-laden!

My craving for cakes has now been fully satiated. I've had more than enough of fudgy brownies all to myself, cakes from Cass' birthday last week, this sticky dates pudding, and banana muffins that the mil baked yesterday. 😁

Easy-Peasy Few-Ingredient Snacks Made By Cass

Lately, Cass is into whipping up healthy snacks for breakfast.  With only about 10-20 minutes available in between online classes in the morning, she Googles simple recipes for a healthy breakfast.   

We have another finicky eater at home now who prefers to whip up her own food vs. outside food!

Cass is also into 16-hour Intermittent Fasting and this is not my idea. I really don't know who influenced her to be on a 16-hour IF.  I've been on a 12-hour IF for years but she beats me to it with a 16-hour IF.  She even does it on school-going days despite me protesting. We had a major heated argument over her not eating in school and she's still not eating in school 😥😥.  She says she doesn't feel hungry at all while in school as she only sits at her desk the entire time in school.  Due to Covid SOPs and restrictions, physical education and CoCo activities are halted.  CoCo activities will resume in March but will be conducted online.

Her first meal of the day after 16 hours of fast is very heavy. She has food from the previous day's dinner followed by a fruit smoothie or yogurt, both of which she adds a handful of frozen walnuts. Then she has fruits and if she still feels hungry, she has a bowl of granola or whips up microwave mug cakes.  

Cass loves pancakes and crepes. Lately, she's been making them and has a big stack of them for brunch. 

Cass made a very healthy and absolutely delish 'ice cream' for dessert after brunch today. It's composed of skinny and sugar-free yoghurt, frozen bananas, and frozen raw walnuts, all blitzed in the blender.  It's so delish I think she can sell it. 
She uses different ingredients every day but skinny yoghurt is used as the base.   Some of the ingredients used are mangoes, strawberries, apples, kale, baby spinach, and whatever she can find in the fridge. 

This 'cookie' is made from organic oats, blended into powder, mixed with honey, walnuts, Lakanto keto sugar, a splash of milk and a few drops of vanilla essence. All the ingredients are blitzed in the blender and baked in the toaster for 15-20 minutes.  It's crispy and my kind of healthy cookie!

Homemade Pizza

*Throwback post*

Our in-house teenage chef made some meat-free pizzas from scratch about 2 weeks ago.  Schools in our state would be reopened on 8 November 2021 after more than half a year of remote learning from home and our chef had been busy prepping food in advance for deep freezing. She intended to bring them to school or eat them for lunch when she's back from school.  Sherilyn has become pretty persnickety on food lately and prefers to eat food that she cooks or bakes herself 😏

Pizzas with toppings of red and yellow bell pepper, shimeji mushrooms and cheese, for freezing. These will be Sherilyn's fast food when school reopens coz that's when she will have lesser time in the kitchen.

Sherilyn also made a big batch of hazelnut + brazil nut butter/bread spread with no salt, oil and sugar, a big batch of button-sized pancakes in 3 flavors and a big batch of satay sauce. She wasn't even this ready when we were preparing for lockdown 1.0 in March last year.  But going back to school seemed to have turned on her survival mode and she spent all her free time in the kitchen prepping food for those hectic days ahead where she won't have time to cook but craves to have some comfort food.  

Talk about making hay while the sun shines 😂 

Homemade Caramel Popcorns With Hazelnuts, Hotteok and Tiramisu

Throwback post from last week.

After making Hotteok today, Chef Sherilyn made a small batch of caramel (for the popcorns), popped another batch of popcorns to make 'Garrett' popcorns with hazelnuts and in the evening, made two trays of Tiramisu (one with chocolate liqueur, one without).

Her 'Garrett' popcorns taste 99% like the real deal and the cost is only a fraction of the price of Garrett's. So dangerously addictive! I need to quickly walk past the tupperware of popcorns and resist the urge to open the lid to pop a few into my mouth! 🤪

Divinish Hotteok aka Korean sweet pancakes.

This time she used the trusty wok instead of saucepan.  No more burnt bottom pit and more popcorns can be produced.

It's not that difficult to make Garrett's caramel popcorns. We can sell our very own too and make good $$ 😆

Another dangerous dessert. One spoonful is enough to send you to dessert heaven!

  

There's nothing our teenage chef can't bake or cook. And it all boils down to interest and a burning passion. 

Yogurt Soufflé Cake By Chef Sherilyn

The Yogurt Soufflé Cake baked by Chef Sherilyn is amazingly delish! It's pretty healthy too and not cloy at all.  The ingredients are composed of low-fat Greek yoghurt, a little little flour, reduced sugar, lemon juice and zest and eggs. The texture and taste are almost 99% like lemon soufflé cheese cake (all of us think so) but it has no cheese. No butter.  And the ingredients are pretty economical too.  She baked this cake twice in a month to utilize the huge tub of Greek yoghurt in the fridge that's about to expire.  This is an amazingly delish cake that I dare to indulge in with almost zero guilt.  

Sorry there's no recipe. Our teenage chef followed a few recipes and tweaked them.  If you want to try baking this cake, just Google for one. There are plenty of awesome recipes out there.  The cake is steam-baked. 

Second Day of CNY 2021 ~ 13 February 2021

Hubs had a last minute order for delivery today and since none of his staff are at work, he had to do all the work.  And he roped in Sherilyn and me to help as well. Thankfully hubs knows cooking (he studied hotel management and catering and later did a bakery course) and Sherilyn and I could help with some simple kitchen work. But it was a mad rush having to get the food ready to be sent out by 11:30 a.m.  to the customer. 

We were home on time for our Hoi Nin Fan (first meal of the Lunar New Year) with hubby's aunt who lives on our block joining us.  The mil did most of the cooking.

It's been a super hot day today, typical weather of CNY every year.

Chef Sherilyn insisted on donning her cloth face mask, cap and disposable gloves in her dad's stuffy kitchen.  I told her that since it's so stuffy she needn't have to wear a mask when chopping veggies but she insisted on wearing it throughout the 2 hours in the kitchen.

Sherilyn to me - do you know what hygiene is?? 

She even wore the mask when she was frying otak-otak but when she got home, she said she felt dizzy from the lack of oxygen 😁

Ready to be Grab-ed to the customer ~ rendang chicken drumsticks, mutton rendang, fried otak-otak, sauteed mixed vegetables and loh sang with jelly fish. 

In the evening, Sherilyn made Tiramisu which was a winner!  The Tiramisu was so delish that even the two super critical foodies in the house gave their stingy compliments.

I think the Tiramisu is good enough to be sold.

Roast duck from hubby's aunt.

Braised pork ribs

Braised stuffed oysters with fish paste and abalone.

I'd like to wish all my readers "Koong Hei Fatt Choy" and may the year of the Ox be a prosperous, happy and healthy year for everyone!

My heart melts whenever Haru gives me this pitiful look, begging to be let out of the box to roam freely and scratch her nails on my slippers (which is now her scratching pad).

CMCO Day 140 ~ Tuesday, 29 October 2020

Sherilyn's CMCO Main Masak-Masak in the kitchen the past few days yielded these:

1. Orange tarts - she claimed that it's not 100% successful as the pastry cream failed. Thus, she can't sell the tarts. We all loved the tart and walloped the tarts anyways. She's just overly persnickety when it comes to all her bakes. 

2. Orange curd tarts

3. Orange frangipane tarts

4. Keto egg rolls - she made this just to finish up the egg whites used in her bakes

5. Gimbap - she made this for dinner because we ordered Yomei's purple rice yoghurt for dinner and she cringed at the thought of eating chewy rice mixed with cold yoghurt 😆

Since the CMCO is extended, we're going to be guinea pigs to more of her new recipes and creations 😁.  Oh my poor hands, having to clean up after her!! 😖

Orange tart that Sherilyn claimed failed as the pastry cream didn't turn out well.

Orange tart cake before the aesthetic works. I actually prefer this plain sans any cream or elaborate decor. 

Orange Frangipane tart, which is a smaller version of the above.

Orange curd and orange curd tart.  This is a mouthwatering bold and extremely flavorful tart, made from fresh oranges.  Free-range chicken eggs were used to prep the orange curd. 

She may deny it, but this girl secretly loves playing with pastry dough and decorating all her bakes! 

Orange tart with fresh orange slices, crushed pistachios and fresh orange fluid gel.

After days of slogging in the kitchen, our teenage chef plopped herself on the couch and KO-ed at 8pm.😆.  Her grandma, dad and I couldn't wake her up for her shower but she eventually woke up hours later and had a late shower.

 

Lunch of Mee Siam and Ayam Gulai from hubby's shop.

The Ayam Gulai is really delicious and spiciness level is just perfect for everyone at home. Alycia who can't stomach spicy food enjoyed this chicken thoroughly.   

If you have a hankering for chicken curry, this is the quintessential dish.  It's cooked with a generous amount of freshly blended healthy and aromatic herbs with the creaminess of fresh coconut milk.  This dish is luxuriant and mind-blowingly delish. Pairs well with rice or meehoon or dunk in your sourdough bread, white bread, pau, mantou, whatever to mop all the sauce up. Guaranteed not a drop of sauce will be left!

Drooling already? Order some to sample from Catermate.😁

RMCO Day 8 ~ Wednesday, 18 June 2020

Ms M, Cass' private Mandarin tutor finally resumed tuition lessons at our home today.  After a hiatus of more than 3 months in proper face-to-face lessons, Cass' brain seems to have gone real rusty!  She forgot how to do many Math questions and how to write many Chinese words.  Now I am starting to get really worried as to how she's going to catch up with all the remaining syllabus when school reopens. As she's in the elite class, the speed at which the teachers teach is faster than other classes. She already has trouble coping with Chinese language, which is her weakest subject. I am so glad that the MoE has scraped off the UPSR exam for Primary 6 students this year.  Nonetheless, I am certain that they will still have to sit for a year-end exam.

Ms M teaching with a face mask on.



Our baking queen made a small batch of chocolate and caramel tarts that are mind-blowingly good! The caramel is whipped up by her too. She makes really toothsome caramel which I totally can't resist, which goes well with anything - bread, pancakes, crackers, plain yoghurt, tart shells, swirl it on ice-cream or simply eat it on its own.   Tomorrow she's going to make lemon curd as filling for the next batch of tart shells.

This very determined 15-year old of mine with a very entrepreneur mind is very adamant she wants to sell her tarts, cookies, cakes, caramel, lemon curd and other products. I'm not too keen in her starting a business as I have no time to help her manage her online store. And school may start soon. She assured me that she will handle everything herself as she wants to earn enough moolah to fund her studies overseas 🤨🤔 I'll see...








Dual-flavored sugar-reduced tarts with filling of homemade caramel and 70% dark chocolate + cream. First layer is caramel, topped with dark chocolate cream.