Steamed Nin Goa With Grated Coconut

This sinful dessert is the only dessert that I get to eat only once a year and that's during Chinese New Year coz no one sells them other times of the year. I like it best when steamed and eaten with grated young coconut with a pinch of salt.




That's the most I can eat coz if eaten excessively, Id feel damn jai. It's damn fattening and sweet but it's ok since I only eat it once a year. I surely need to gulp down a cup of hot green tea after eating my nin koa to help me eliminate some fat!

Feeling Under The Weather Again

Sherilyn's having the sniffles again, with a little cough. She had just recovered from a bad cold and throat infection and darn it, she's getting it again. Her immune system seems to be a tad weak ever since she attended pre-school last June. That's what happened to Alycia too and it took over 2 years for her to gain a strong immune system. I'm also having a weak immune system myself as a result of lack of sleep an stress. Poor Baby C can't escape with almost everyone in the house having goo goo dribbling out from their noses. She's also having a slight stuffy nose. I hope she doesn't get a full-blown flu. Both Sherilyn and I have been popping on Esberitox (made of the herb Echinacea) and it really helps in controlling the flu into accelerating into a full-blown flu. I need sleep, really I do but it's really hard when my mind keeps thinking of changing and sniffing Baby C's soiled diapers. We'll be meeting up with the pediatric surgeon this morning. Will keep everyone posted on the outcome. Do check out my health blog.

Dinner At Imbi Palace

Since we could not go back to Ipoh for CNY this year, my parents came to visit us yesterday. Last night, my dad treated us to a sumptuous reunion dinner at the Imbi Palace Chinese Restaurant. These are some of the dishes that we ate:

This dish was selected by me.... The Four Seasons, which is my all-time favorite Chinese restaurant dish. We made a mistake and did not specify a budget for this dish and the smart alec captain must have given us one of the most expensive ones. This dish alone cost us a bomb at RM300!! It consists of deep fried fresh oysters, fresh big scallops, sausages wrapped with bacon and fresh shitake mushrooms.


2 types of chicken dish and a stir-fried veggie with Chinese sausages and intestines sausages.

There was also a jelly fish 'lou sang', claypot pig's trotters dish and a 'lou foo pan' fish (Tiger trout??). The fish cost a whopping RM250 and it was not worth the money spent at all as it was overcooked and the meat came out tough. We asked for a discount from the captain as we felt cheated coz at RM250 for a medium-sized fish, we didn't get the quality that should have come with the price.

The damage to my dad's pocket? A choking RM800++ bill!! There were 10 adults and 2 kids. There is no better time than the 15 days during Chinese New Year for restaurants to slaughter merry makers and diners, eh?


Alan's angels.

A Traumatic And Painful Day For Baby C

I had a very stressful day in the hospital today. Today is the day that baby had been scheduled to do the IVP and MCUG procedures on her. Check out my health blog to continue reading.

Floor Time Fun

What makes Baby C happiest is when she's placed on the floor, freely gallivanting everywhere and playing with her 2 doting cheh chehs as shown in the pix here:





Her favorite spots are under the chairs and tables and her eyes are as sharp as an eagle's eyes for she could spot even a speck of dirt or a drop of white rice on the floor within one to two metres away from her vision.




But poor mummy would have to sacrifice her time to do the things that she loves to do to watch over her like a hawk, for fear that she would fall and smack the back of her head (like what happened 3 months ago), her chin, her cheeks or her forehead. I can't even keep my eyes away from her for just a few seconds for she will be out of my sight in just a flash.

Stress In Pre-School

I have been drilling Alycia with spelling for the past 1 week and it's paying off. She now knows how to spell the words Deepavali and Christmas. Today, I'm drilling her with the word Chinese (for Chinese New Year). She's going to have her first spelling on Friday next week for the above 3 words and thereafter every Friday. There is also Ejaan and Ting Xie (spelling in Mandarin) every week. Oh my, both Alycia and I are going to be all stressed up everyday practising spelling from now onwards for years to come. Her pre-school is preparing the 6 year olds in her class (Alycia is the youngest in the class being a December child) for primary school and this year, there will be more tests and the syllabus is getting tougher too.

Braised Pork Ribs With Ginger And Garlic

I cooked this dish the other day... it was my first time trying out this self-invented recipe and it turned out really well. Even my fussy-food-critique-foodie hubby said it's nice!

Here goes the self-created recipe (no specific measurement though) :

Pork ribs
Ginger wine / Hsiao Hing wine
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Brown sugar
Sliced garlic
Sliced ginger
Sesame seed oil

1. Marinate pork ribs with ginger wine / Hsiao Hing wine, oyster sauce, soy sauce and dash of pepper for several hours.
2. Heat up wok with sesame seed oil and saute sliced garlic and ginger until fragrant.
3. Throw in the pork ribs and stir fry for about 15 minutes. Add brown sugar.
4. Add water, enough to cover all the pork ribs and close the wok with a cover.
5. Let the pork ribs simmer in the water for 1.5 hours.... that's when the water dries up, the sauce thickens and the meat becomes tender.
Be sure to toss and turn the pork ribs intermittently, other wise they may get burnt. It happened to me twice when I was busy with Baby C and forgot to toss and turn the ribs! Anyhow, the partially slightly burnt pork ribs still tasted very good and there weren't any complaints from my fussy hubby!

Tempting Baby C With A Fruit

The other day, daddy tempted baby with a slice of pear.... but won't let her eat it. We used to do that to Alycia and Sherilyn too when they were babies and we just loved seeing them go crazy over the fruit. Alycia, who was the greediest amongst our 3 babies was so funny when we tempted her with a piece of pear when she was about 9 months. She was so geram and wanted the pear so much that her body turned stiff from all the screaming and drooling.... and she clenched her fists hard in frustration, hahaha... see how evil we were! We have that scene captured on camcorder and whenever we watch it, all of us will have a real good laugh.


Here baby, come and get the pear.....


Daddy letting baby lick on the pear....





...and she wanted more.... and crawled down to grab the pear.

Our CNY Reunion Dinner

We had our Chinese New Year reunion dinner at the Overseas Restaurant @ Armada PJ today. We had jelly fish loh sang (ate 1 plate and took away another set), sharks fins soup, half a roast suckling pig, roasted char siu, a huge steamed cod fish, steamed prawns, braised mushrooms with sea cucumber and dessert were fruits (watermelon, honey dew, papaya, pineapple) and a chilled sea coconut with longan and lemon. There were 5 adults and 2 kids (baby excluded). The price? Cut throat! Take a guess how much our damage was....


















a whopping RM700! That's the price we have to pay for eating out during CNY. Tomorrow, we'll stay home to eat. I'm going to cook braised pork ribs with pumpkin, steam a huge tau tai chong fish (pomfret), stir fry brocolli with sea asparagus and boil a good pot of soup. The price? Not even RM150!

Koong Hei Fatt Choy everyone!

Organic Cold Soba Sauce

Check out my health blog to find out how this cold soba sauce can be eaten with.

Hot And Humid Weather

The weather has been freaking hot and humid for the past 1 week. Well, hot weather is synonymous to Chinese New Year. It's rarely breezy, rainy and windy during CNY. That's what I hate most during CNY... the hot and dry weather, especially in the afternoon when I go pai nin (visiting). Plus all the cookies, ngar koo (arrow root) chips, dried meat and other heaty tid bits that go into your body, one will even feel hotter.... not to mention the lack of sleep from the late nights... hanging out with friends and gambling. It's going to be a quiet CNY for us this year as I won't be going back to Ipoh. Since baby has just recovered from a UTI, we better stay put in KL. Moreover, we may not be able to get the best treatment for her should she have another UTI attack. Her case is a tad complicated and I don't think other paeds will know how to treat her.

Lots Of Fish And Prawns For CNY

Hubby brought home a huge ice box last night. I was surprised when I opened it.... and these are what I found inside:

A box filled with frozen tau tai chong fish (pomfret), hoong pan fish (orange trout?) and big prawns.

There were 2 huge orange trout fish ..... My maid spent the whole morning deboning one of the fish into small pieces, for baby's porridge. Baby eats fish porridge almost everyday now.... to increase her protein intake and in the hope that she will gain some weight.... coz she's quite underweight and only weighs 7.2kg.

5 huge pomfret and 2 bags of large prawns.

He had spent quite a bit on these seafood for CNY. Since we're not going back to Ipoh this year, he has asked his aunt who's going back to pass some of the fish and prawns to my parents. Buying huge pomfret fish and huge prawns is a must for my hubby every year.... hoe yee tau mah!

Rediscovering Her Freedom

Yesterday was the first day baby's right hand was freed from bandage and the needle. When the bandage was removed from her right hand on Wednesday, she kept looking at her hand.... and I guess she felt really relief that there's no more pain on the hand. Poor baby, there's now another hole on her hand and a slight bruise caused by the friction of the board on her delicate skin. I'd feel uncomfortable too with a needle poked in my hand and having to straighten my fingers and have the hand bandaged for 5 days. I really hope this will be her last... I know, it's hard, at least give her hand some time to heal first... and get over the phobia and trauma before being poked again.



Baby grabbed my camera pouch and having a whale of her time zipping up and down the pouch.

New Crocs Shoes

Check out my other blog to find out whose Crocs these belong to.

Opp-Less

Times are really bad. Opps from advertisers are really, really scarce these days. I hardly have any opps to write these days but know what, I'm not disappointed at all. I feel it's a blessing in disguise coz these days, I'm really busy with the kids, especially with baby. I hardly have the time to blog, what more blog for money. These days, I don't even have the time to read the newspapers.

For those who blog for money, you'd have realized how bad the situation is in the U.S. My favorite advertising network has not released a single opp since the beginning of this month. I used to write between 20-50 opps a month for this advertiser. One advertising network has slashed down the payout amount for each opp from USD5 to only USD0.50! Now, that's a dramatic slash down but there are people who still grab the 50 cents opp! I would too if I have the time to write them.

Pix Of Baby C's Bandaged Hands

When Baby C's hands were bandaged, I had to wrap a plastic bag round the bandage on each of her hands during her meal times, bath times and time spent on the floor. Other than that, I will put my socks over the right hand bandage (the one with the IV line) to prevent her from sucking and licking the bandage. As for the bandage on the other hand, I removed the bandage coz my little trooper kept sucking on the bandage and the paper that's wrapped round the board. She could also wriggle her little fingers out from the surgical tapes. She was also very, very frustrated that she couldn't do anything with both her hands bandaged... poor poor baby. After the left hand bandage was removed, she was happier as she could play with one hand.

Paik Ling commented that Baby C will live to tell her story to her grand children and when she reads all these posts in future, she will appreciate mummy more. How true Paik Ling. Your comments always make me feel better. Thanks for all the consolation!

Toys, Toys And More Toys

Alycia and Sherilyn have a room filled with toys, but still, they never seem to get enough of them. Daddy, their aunts, grandparents and god father always shower them with toys but after getting a new toy, they would be thinking of getting another new toy. Alycia’s latest craze is a toy binoculars and she’s been talking about it for over a month. I’m not getting her the toy binoculars just yet and I’m going to make sure that daddy doesn’t get it for her so soon and so easily. I have to teach her to work hard for it in order for her to appreciate the value of the toy. She’s going to have her first spelling test on Friday next week. If she gets all correct, then she shall have the toy binoculars.

Baby C Doodling

My childhood friend of 30 years told me today that she looks forward to seeing Baby C's pix everyday. She asked me why there ain't any of Baby C's pix yesterday. Well, I have been really busy Steph. I can only steal half an hour to an hour at night when my 3 monkeys are fast asleep to blog.... with my eyes half closed and my head almost hitting the keyboard. Well, no pun intended and I ain't joking. That was what happened last night. I pulled myself up from bed at 11:45pm to sit on the PC but my eyes just weren't cooperating and my head almost touched the keyboard LOL!

Well, here's a pic of Baby C doodling on her cheh cheh's FP Magna Doodle:



I hope we can meet up when you're back in KL from Ipoh during CNY, Steph!

New Toys From Kai Yeh

Alycia's kai yeh (god father) bought her and Sherilyn some toys from a nearby mini mart on Saturday.

Want to know who chose which toy? Check out my other blog to read on.

Braised Minced Pork With Potatoes And Tomatoes

This used to be one of my favorite dishes. My late maternal grandma used to cook this dish for us more than 2 decades ago. My brothers and I would devour on this dish when we're back from school each time she cooked it for lunch. I have not eaten this dish for aeons and the other day, I cooked it for the first time. It turned out very well and the gals loved it.

Ingredients
Minced pork
Sliced potatoes
1 tomatoes, cut into wedges
Oyster sauce to taste
Soya sauce to taste
Pepper to taste
Sugar to taste
A dollop of black sauce for coloring (optional)
Chopped garlic

Method
Pan fry the sliced potatoes until both sides turn brown. Scoop out the potatoes.
Saute garlic. Once fragrant and brown, stir fry the minced pork.
Add all the sauces, pepper and sugar and continue frying.
Add in the potatoes.
Add in some water and cook for another 5 minutes.
Serve hot with rice... this dish whets the appetite and perfect for kids!