Never-ending Maid Stories

That foreigner in my house gave me more sky-high blood pressure shooting moments today. This morning, she snapped at me and answered me sarcastically when I asked her how many minutes she had set the kitchen timer for the soup. Just a moment ago, I was fuming mad again when I noticed that the steamed egg with pork had lots of tiny black twigs on the surface. I knew instantly what it was and was enraged coz I did not ask her to add that in. She has been helping me to prepare this dish for umpteen times and I have never ever instructed her to put mixed herbs inside. I think nobody would add mixed herbs into this dish coz it just doesn't blend in. It's like adding some curry powder into your steak or eating spaghetti with tau cheong. I think she added the mixed herbs coz she likes the taste of mixed herbs but not my kids. Why can't that lady just follow instructions? When I asked her what was inside the steamed eggs, she told me this : "saya letak sangat sikit mixed herbs saja" but that wasn't sangat sikit at all. She added the mixed herbs without first asking me and that's what irritated me. That lady has a habit of doing things the way she likes without first asking us. Doing things as she fancies and not as per instructions is not being initiative.

During my stay in the hospital with Baby C, she even gave wrong info to the nurses when they came to check on Baby and asked questions when I wasn't in the room. She didn't know and didn't bother to ask me what the implications were if she gave wrong info. She just loves yakking and yaks at the wrong time and wrong situation all the time. But when she's supposed to talk, she remains dumb, like when she's asked to do something, she hardly answers us. That's another thing that pisses me off. In another incident, when I brought Baby to see the surgeon, the moment we entered the surgeon's room, she excitedly reported to the doctor how Baby was doing, even before I opened my mouth!

Anyway, back to the steamed egg with pork and mixed herbs. It tasted wierd but I still ate it coz we only had 2 dishes today. But Alycia and Sherilyn, my 2 fussy eaters sensed the difference in that dish instantly and were hesitant to eat the eggs. I'm sure that lady must be grinning inside her heart that now, the entire egg dish is hers coz nobody likes it. And did I tell you before that I caught her many times using the same serving spoon that we put on the plate of egg dish to discreetly scoop up the egg into her mouth when she thought I wasn't looking? And that same serving spoon was later put back on the plate of steamed eggs for us with her saliva and all! I'm perplexed why she likes to eat food so discreetly like curi-curi when the fact is that she gets to eat everything that we eat.

Tell me, would you be angry too if you were me? I wonder why some people just can't follow instructions.

Tomato fried chicken

My gals love anything cooked with tomatoes - pasta, spaghetti, omelette, fried fish with blended tomatoes and big onions, tomato sauce on fried rice/noodles and even raw tomatoes. Early this week, I whipped out a tomato chicken dish, my first try ever cooking a tomato fried chicken dish and it turned out really well. My gals loved it and even my fussy, pernickety foodie hubby liked it.

Here are the ingredients:

1) Chicken
2) About 2-3 large tomatoes
3) About 2-3 large onions
4) Lea & Perrin sauce
5) Tomato sauce
6) Pasta sauce
7) Mixed herbs
8) Soy sauce
9) A dash of brown sugar
10) Pepper

Method
Marinate the chicken with all the sauces and seasonings and set aside in the fridge for at least an hour.

First, brown the big onions. When they are soft and fragrant, throw in the chicken. Toss and turn the chicken for about 10 minutes.



Then add in the tomatoes and some tomato sauce. Continue frying for another 10-15 minutes. I had intended to put several tablespoons of tomato sauce but ran out of tomato sauce. So I found an alternative and added 1 huge tablespoon of pasta sauce.


Add water and cover the wok. Let the chicken cook/simmer for 15-20 minutes. Remember to toss and turn occasionally.


When the chicken is ready, half the chicken goes to a stainless steel bowl from the tiffian carrier. This bowl of chicken is for deep freezing.


And the other half of the chicken is dished out and served....




The ingredients used - tomato sauce (not in pic), Lea & Perrin sauce, pasta sauce, pepper, soy sauce, brown sugar and mixed herbs.

Alphabet Board Puzzle

I bought this alphabet board puzzle for Sherilyn more than 2 years ago, when she was 2+ years old. She liked it a lot and learnt her ABCs through playing with this board puzzle, apart from all the educational VCDs. 2 weeks ago, I fished out this board puzzle and introduced it to Baby. She was fascinated with the colorful ABCs but she got frustrated when she did not know how to put them into the right slot. I tried to teach her but she was a tad impatient and threw them all over the floor!



Perhaps it's still too early to introduce her to board puzzles and jig saw puzzles. I'll just stick to books, flash cards and VCDs in the meantime.

Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD)

Do these symptoms sound familiar to you? :

1) You have a strong desire to increase the amount of time spent using the internet.
2) Withdrawal symptoms – when the amount of time spent on the internet is reduced or ceased, you feel agitated, anxious, has obsessive thinking of the internet, fantasies or dreams of the internet, and voluntary or involuntary typing movements.
3) Using internet more often or longer than intended.
4) Unsuccessful attempt to cut down internet usage.
5) Considerably large amount of time spent on internet activities.
6) There is cessation of or reduced social, occupational, or recreational activities because of internet use.
7) You persistently and continuously use the internet despite the knowledge of the risk of losing social relationships.

If you have any of these symptoms, chances are you are suffering from internet addiction disorder (IAD). These are the diagnostic criteria for IAD as listed out by the American Psychiatric Association.

Before I had Baby C, I had many of the above symptoms. I spent more than 8 hours on the computer on most days, mostly to work on my paid posts and to surf the internet. I was earning quite a comfortable income from writing paid posts. Well, those days are now long gone. These days, I am lucky if I get an hour of uninterrupted time on the computer. I think if it wasn’t because of the global recession (which affected the advertisers too) and if I hadn’t have Baby C, I would need treatment for my IAD because all my family members were complaining of my addiction hahaha! These days, there are many websites that offer treatments and support groups for those who are suffering from IAD, similar to those of a drug rehab.

So tell me, do you sound like one who has IAD?

Low Sugar Mooncake And Super Soft And Light Cheesecake

A friend gave us a box of low-sugar mooncakes from Tai Thong Restaurant last week.

This green one is low-sugar lotus paste with mint. The minty flavor gives me a cool feeling in the mouth as I chew on the mooncake.



This one is low-sugar lotus paste with lemon. In case you are wondering why this lemon flavored mooncake is cut so horribly, that's because my 2 older monkeys kept cutting and poking it with a butter knife when I wasn't looking! The green mint mooncake was totally ruined by them with the knife!


Verdict : I would not buy these 2 flavors again!

Though it's called low-sugar, I still find the mooncakes too sweet for my liking. I still prefer the 'cee cai peng' (mooncake pastry, without any sweet filling, baked in the shape of a piglet encased inside a pig basket). I would also eat mooncakes with lots of nuts, seeds and bacon. That's less fattening (though still fattening) and at least there're some protein and calcium (from the nuts and seeds) in the mooncake, instead of eating a piece of empty calorie fattening cake.


This is my all-time favorite super soft and light cheesecake from RT Pastry & Bakery, my favorite bakery that sells really delicious cakes, buns, breads, tarts and pastries. We go to this bakery every week and once you're in there (especially if you haven't taken you lunch / dinner), that's it... you're bound to put everything you see on the tray coz everything looks so tempting!


This cheesecake tastes exactly the same as the Miki Ojisan No Mise Japanese cheesecake and costs way cheaper than it. I can whack this entire cake myself in just 3 days! That's why I have to pull myself up from bed at 6am everyday to run. I am not ready to give up all my favorite sinful food and follow a weight loss diet just yet!

In Love With Stickers

When Baby was hospitalized after her surgeries in May this year, Michelle came to visit us and gave her some presents. One of the presents was a sticker book with 100 over colorful fairy stickers. Baby liked that sticker book instantly. 3.5 months later today, Baby still likes this book pretty much and she can sit inside her playpen for at least half an hour flipping through the sticker book, now with a few pages torn off. She would then pick the stickers that she likes, peel them off the book and stick them on her hands, clothes and face!




And when her 2 jie jies snatch the sticker book from her, she will scream murder!

Role-Playing

Up until today, it's still a battle each time I spoon-feed Baby formula milk. She's always put in front of the tellie with her favorite VCDs played. While she's absorbed watching the TV, my maid or I will quickly shove the spoonfuls of milk into her mouth. However, on some days, she would still refuse to drink the milk. That's when I have to put on my thinking cap and come out with novel ideas that will interest my little fussy pot, so that she will remain on her highchair for at least half an hour.

Here's Baby roll-playing 'feed the baby' . While she was busy feeding her baby, my maid quickly shoved the spoonfuls of milk into her mouth. But this doesn't work all the time though. Sometimes she will fling the dolly away and everything else placed on the highchair table, arch her back and sssshrriekkkk! Eeeeekkk.... this drives me crazy! Can't blame her coz her mummy has a terrible hot temper too!






Drink your milk dolly...

Amazing Toy Fish That Can Grow Everyday

If your kids are constantly bugging you to get them some fish as pet but you find keeping fish as pet too troublesome, now you can buy them a toy fish that can really grow in water!

My visiting sil from Saipan bought Alycia and Sherilyn each a toy fish that can grow in water, up to 600% of its original size! Here are the 2 fish - one is a black and white shark and the other is an orange colored fish.


Day 1...

Day 2....

Several days later.....

The black and white shark outgrew the mineral water bottle and I haven't had the time to remove it from that bottle to place it in a bigger container, just to see if it can expand to 600% its original size. The growth of the orange fish got stunted and it just stopped growing at that size. Well, it did expand horizontally but not vertically! Maybe it will just grow into a big obese fish instead of grow longer hahaha!

Do you have any idea how the fish is to be removed from the bottle? Not by cutting up the bottle, which I had originally thought so. Just pour away the water and the fish will shrink! Amazing toy eh? My sil bought them from Mid Valley Megamall.

My sil also bought these goodies when she was in Japan recently....

I love that Hokkaido potato crisps (on the right). Even a health freak like me who does not eat potatoes can't help gorging on these sinful crisps that taste so good and addictive, a packet a day - shared with Aly and Sher. I find the orange flavored KitKat and that cute bunny biscuits with cream filling too sweet though.

Disney Princess Pasta And Organic Veggie Pasta

My 3 gals love pasta and spaghetti to bits. If I would allow, they would not mind eating pasta and spaghetti everyday. It's easy and quick to prepare and there's fuss-free eating from them, all 3 of them. I normally cook a huge pot of minced beef, chicken or pork sauce for the pasta / spaghetti and store them in separate containers in the freezer.

I cooked pasta again yesterday - Disney Princess pasta (which sil bought from Hong Kong) for my 2 older gals and organic veggie pasta in the shape of tiny flowers for Baby (bought from Village Grocer, Bangsar Village).

Disney Princess pasta and organic tiny flower pasta made from beet root, spinach, durum wheat semolina and pure barley powder. The tiny flower pasta is so tiny that I don't need to cut them up. Baby who has only 3.5 teeth can swallow them without much effort chewing the pasta.


First, boil the Princess pasta. Scoop out the pasta from the pot with a siever when the pasta is soft. Then, throw in the organic tiny flower pasta into the pot of still boiling water and cook till soft.



The minced beef cooked with tomatoes, big onions and pasta sauce which I had cooked a few days earlier and frozen. Here, I only reheated the sauce in a non-stick pan.


Once the sauce is boiling, pour the Princess pasta back into the pan and mix well. You can toss in some grated Parmesan or Mozarella cheese.

Here's the Disney Princess pasta for my princess wannabe...



Baby's organic tiny flower pasta, with minced beef all cut up into really tiny bits. She loved it so much that she whacked the entire bowl clean! I did not mix her pasta into the pot of sauce. I only scooped up a few teaspoonfulls of sauce and mixed it with the pasta in her bowl.



I also made some tomato omelette for my gals for that extra protein, DHA and nutrients. My 3 gals love tomatoes. They love anything cooked with tomatoes.


There you go, another wholesome and well-balanced meal for growing toddlers. Oh yes, I also squeezed some fresh orange juice for my 3 gals to wash down their lunch.

Tonight, I'm cooking tomato fried chicken for my gals!

Papaya With Sprouted Seeds

For the first time in my life, I came across a papaya with seeds that had sprouts shooting out. I got a shock of my life when I cut the papaya into half and saw white stuff inside. For a moment I thought they were maggots but on taking a closer look, I realized they were just shoots like bean sprouts, sprouting out from the seeds. Ewwwwww, they looked really gross and I only ate half the papaya. I wonder if it's safe to eat papayas with sprouted seeds. I had read from a source that potatoes with shoots sprouting out are toxic or harmful to our bodies if consumed. So I'm not sure if the same goes with fruits with sprouted seeds. Anyone has any views on this for this health freak mom?





A macro shot of the sprouted seeds. Don't the shoots look very much like bean sprouts? Geli or not? Eeeeekkk!!

Kids Just Love Being A Baby Again

My daily routine involves getting Alycia to go inside Baby's playpen either in my bedroom or at the living room and play with Baby. Alycia doesn't have to do much actually. Baby just loves having her jie jie around her. She will climb on Alycia's head, tummy and all over and they just enjoy each other's company.

This was what happened recently. First Alycia climbed into the playpen and babysit Baby while I had a quick shower in the afternoon. When I came out, I saw Sherilyn inside the playpen too. Both of them had dozed off with Baby inside. I quickly brought Baby out, for fear that the playpen would give way and collapse! Then quickly grabbed my camera and took some snapshots hehe...

Video Of Baby C Climbing Up Sofa

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Here's a video of Baby climbing up the sofa shot yesterday evening, this time with the aid of an Ikea stool. She always climbs up the sofa without any aid but yesterday, she discovered that with the aid of a stool, it was so, so, so much more fun and faster. Once up the stool, she sort of dived onto the sofa lol! She did that (up and down the sofa) over and over again for almost an hour and I just stood behind her like her bodyguard, with an aching back. When I took the stool away and told her to climb up the sofa, she got angry and threw a little tantrum, then went to fetch the stool herself.

Meal Time Battle

When Baby becomes bored with her porridge or is already full when she's on her highchair during meal times, she will get restless and will move about. Next, she will shriek and fuss, stand up and tries to climb out of the highchair. Here she is in action, with her back facing the highchair table, legs up the chair and attempting to stand up, then climb down. Recently she has re-accepted porridge but in the past few days, she is sick of them again. My mil has just flown to Hong Kong today and from tonight onwards, I will have to take over the wok and kitchen again for the next one month. It's time for me to go through this blog archive to look up recipes of my gals' favorite dishes again!

Smart Or Just Being Impatient?

Elaine gave Baby a shape sorter as a get-well gift recently. While Baby loves playing with the shape sorter (recommended for toddlers 18 months up) with me guiding her, she would get really frustrated when she could not slot the blocks into the hole for the correct shape. So each time she will end up lifting up the door of the shape sorter and then she will grab the blocks and dump them into the shape sorter, then close the door, haha! This was exactly what Alycia did when she was Baby's age. So you think kids like that are smart or just plain impatient?


Don't know why the adults keep asking me to slot the blocks into the right hole. It's so much easier to just dump everything in through this door. Haiyah....

Lunch At Hongkie Kopitiam @ Auto City

Before heading to St. Anne's Church at Bukit Mertajam to give thanks 2 weeks ago, we stopped at the Auto City at Juru, Penang for a very late lunch at around 3pm. We were all really famished and ordered many items. Here they are for you to salivate again, hehe :)


Stir-fried beef koay teow - tasty but a tad too salty...


Fried rice - tasty but also too salty for a health freak like moi...



My chicken chop platter with fried sausages and french fries, which I shared with my maid. All the set meals come with a soup and a piece of really thick toast with garlic butter...


My Hong Kong 'lai char' (tea with milk), minus the sugar and sweetened condensed milk. Very 'kau' and rich with evaporated milk. Uummmm, iLike! I could have drank another cup and I almost wanted to order the almond lai char.



Super thick white toast with garlic butter. The toasts went really well with the Hong Kong lai char. Most of the set meals come with this toast. Nice but really jelly-belly friendly, hah!


The hubs' 'pak kopi peng' (chilled white coffee) - nice, very 'kau' and refreshing. Just look at the froth, yummy!



Hubby's steak with lots of french fries, sweet corn and tomatoes - nice.


We were all quite satisfied with our meals. It would be good if the food is cooked with less salt. We won't mind coming back to this restaurant in our next trip. This time, I want to try their other 'lai char' ala Hong Kong style that comes in many flavors and styles.

Cup Cakes From CupCake Chic @ The Curve

The hubs bought some cupcakes from The CupCake Chic @ The Curve the other day. The cup cakes are not the typical 'dumb blonde' cup cakes which are prettily decorated and in bright colored cream. The cup cakes from CupCake Chic are creamed quite simply with minimal colors, which is something that I prefer. 'Dumb Blonde' cup cakes are pretty to look at but frankly, would you actually eat the cream and decor on the cup cake? I would never. Food coloring and sugar are your body's immune system's enemy. Yup, I'm a real health freak mom and I rarely allow my gals to eat the colorful cream and icing of a cake.

Anyway, I didn't eat the cream on these cup cakes. I scraped the cream away and only ate the cake, which tasted good. I'm really not a 'Dumb Blonde' cup cake person. I still prefer the old fashion muffins and cakes, free from cream, sweet icing and decor, hehe. No offense to those who bake 'Dumb Blonde' cup cakes and cakes k? Don't mean to rain on your parade. If you give me a box of Dumb Blonde cup cakes, I would still go "oooo ahhhh" and get carried away. I would still eat the cake, minus the icing and cream. I am a cake person anyway.







CupCake Chic is located at the ground floor of The Curve. You can visit their website at www.cupcakechic.com.my

A Saturday Afternoon Without #2

Saturday afternoons are now pretty quiet without #2 as she would be off attending her ballet lesson. This is what we did on one Saturday afternoon without #2. I could spend some time reading all the books that Alycia had wanted to read without distraction from #2. Alycia fished out all the story books that she had longed to read and made me read with her the entire book of about 5 books. Whilst I read to her, Baby played inside the room which I had had the door locked and the bathroom door closed. The moment #2 returned home, the house was abuzz again with this chatterbox talking nineteen to the dozen, singing, screaming, whining and complaining lol! Listening to #2 whine can really cause wrinkles on my eyes and face and I think soon, I will need to apply eye wrinkle cream to get rid of those crow's feet lines at the corner of my eyes lol!

What Water Do You Feed Your Kids With When You Travel?

Though most hotels provide a small kettle in the room to facilitate you to boil water for tea and coffee making, I am not sure if the water that flows out of the tap in the bathroom is filtered. I wonder if these hotels install water filters in their buildings. Even if they do install a huge water filter at the main water source, I am not sure if there is another smaller water filter installed inside the kitchens of the restaurants. When I was in Penang with the kids recently, I had reservations giving my gals water that I boiled using the kettle from our room.

During breakfast each morning, I politely asked the waitress at the coffee house to fill up my gals’ water tumblers and milk bottle with warm water. I suppose drinking water from the restaurants in the hotel is filtered and boiled. For those of you with babies and toddlers, when you travel with them on vacations, what drinking water do you feed them with? Do you feed them with bottled mineral water directly from the bottle (unboiled), or do you boil water in your hotel room using the water from the bathroom or do you boil bottled mineral water? The next time I go on vacation with my kids, I think I’ll buy bottled drinking water and boil them using the kettle provided by the hotel in our room, just to be safe.

Glorious Ipoh Food

Before we headed back to KL on Saturday, the hubs received a list of food orders from his mum and relatives. Here they are:

Dim sum from the new Foh San in Ipoh...



My favorite 'Ma Lai Koa' from Foh San...


Char Siew Pau from Foh San....



Curry noodles from the coffee shop opposite the police station in Ipoh town - the famous
Ma Ta Liu (Police station in Cantonese) Curry Noodles @ Xin Quan Fang...

The hubs who is really pernickety when it comes to food and the way food is presented/stored, went to buy a stack of transparent plastic take-away boxes to store all the food that he had bought, to bring back to KL.

The curry broth for the curry noodles, stored inside the take-away boxes to prevent spillages, which would be really very very messy if they are spilled out and stained his car boot.....



The most delicious and soft hoong koo with mung bean filling from a stall inside a coffee shop in Ipoh Garden South. The skin of the hoong koo is made from rice flour and black glutinous rice. Damn syiok and nice and damn fattening too!


20 packets of Menglembu groundnuts...




Also bought a lots of Hakka fishballs, stuffed tofu with fish paste and 'chau liu' from the famous noodles and fishball stall in town.... but no pix taken coz we were in a hurry to leave for KL.

DIY See-Saw

This is one of Baby's favorite activity with mah mah...


... she lays with her back on mah mah's legs and then mah mah moves her legs up and down making Baby feel like she's on a see-saw haha! I wish I could do that too, so syiok!