School Holiday Activity - Making Waffles and Pancakes

This school holiday, the girls have been helping out in the kitchen quite a bit.  They watched how grandma make savoury glutinous rice dumplings (bak chang), helped with making  Chinese dumplings (kau ji) and volunteered to make waffles and pancakes.

For waffles and pancakes, it is the eldest princess who has been bugging me to make them.

Why do I call her a princess?

She does not like any work related to the kitchen and won't even wash her own cup had I not been reprimanding her all the time.  She will always try to find ways to get away with wetting and dirtying her ROYAL HANDS!  She has to thank God for the drama queen for willingly accepting the hardest and most hated chore of all - dish washing. I thank God for my drama queen too for helping me out with this chore that I hate the most.

Since the princess is the one who has been pestering me for months to make waffles and pancakes, I delegated this project to her.  Thankfully she has her 2 side kicks who are always very supportive of her.  Her 2 loyal sisters helped her to google for recipes and to mix the batter. They know their princess sister will fail out right with getting the batter ready, ha!

Below - the girls measuring the ingredients for waffle.





When the batter was ready, we discovered some cracks on the waffle maker, DANG IT!  Cracks on any cooking equipment, plates and cups are a big NO NO.  Bacteria may harbour inside the cracks and as for electrical equipment, electric may stray and we may get electrocuted.

What a bummer!

With the waffle batter, we had to cook it on the pan on stove, turning it into waffle pancake!  And it was yummy, though not as crispy as waffles.

Below - firing on all stoves.  The girls used 2 stoves to flip their waffles and pancakes.





Before the waffle pancakes even touched the plate, they were all walloped by the girls and moi!  We ate them straight from the pan!  But I wasn't worried too much of us getting heaty as I have my Izumio hydrogen water  to zap away the heatiness :D

By the time the last waffle pancake was being flipped on the pan, the girls realized that they could not get enough of them. They wanted more!  So they googled for a pancake recipe as pancake batter does not need fermenting.  I left it all to them to kau tim and only helped with checking on the doneness of the pancake and making sure that the littlest one does not get into trouble in the kitchen.

After 2 hours of sweating buckets in the hot kitchen, we made enough waffle pancakes, banana pancakes and plain pancakes for dinner for everyone, including our dear part-time helper.

Below - pancakes with sliced bananas served with maple syrup and blueberry and cream Haagen Dazs ice-cream.  This is Sherilyn's creation.  I think she's got a lot of talent to excel and soar in the kitchen.  With her outgoing, brash and bubbly personality, she may even make it to the status of celebrity chef one day, ahem!  *syiok sendiri only*  :D :D

Our Saturday

Today is the second last day of the 2-week school holiday. Our routine is back to normal today. I sent  Drama Queen for tuition at 9am today, then had breakfast with Cass and Alycia. When school reopens, it would be a rare occasion for Alycia to have breakfast with us on Saturdays as she has to be in school.  After breakfast, I rushed to the musical instruments shop to get Alycia some d addario classical guitar strings for her guitar and rushed back home for Cass to have Mandarin enrichment class. Alycia is still attending guitar class once a week. During her free time, she would go to You Tube for online guitar lessons on how to strum the latest pop melodies.

Penang Trip (7 - 8 June 2016)

Beautiful scenery taken at Four Points Sheraton shortly before a heavy downpour just before we checked out from the hotel at 1pm today...




The girls, especially Cass miss the beach a lot.  The last time we stayed at Four Points was exactly 2 years ago. We totally adore this place.





Below - breakfast by the beach at 8:30am today.  Cass and I were at the coffee house before anyone else as we had to get ourselves ready and leave the hotel early for the hospital for Cass' appointment with her surgeon.




We thoroughly enjoyed our yummylicious breakfast whilst enjoying the awesome view of the beach.   Too bad we had to rush off our breakfast to leave for the hospital.





I was totally surprised and excited when I read about this in the newspaper while having breakkie today - the Ovation of the Seas docked at the Swettenham Pier in Penang yesterday.  When we arrived Penang yesterday, we saw this hi-tech cruise liner.  For a moment, I thought that it was a new high rise building in Penang. We have not been to Penang for 2 years and thought that it was the latest building in Penang. Later, we realized that it was a humongous cruise ship.  But we didn't know that it is the most technologically advanced cruise ship in the world and was berthed in Penang on her maiden voyage with 5,738 passengers and crew members aboard this US$1 billion liner!





Though it rained cats and dogs, the foodie hubs just had to make a stop at Tg Tokong for seafood.  All our trips to Penang in the past ended with a stopover at Tg Tokong for baked crabs and prawns. For the hubs, a trip to Penang will never be complete without him tucking into his favorite baked crabs and prawns at Tg Tokong.





No frills goodness - fresh prawns and crabs, baked with just salt, enjoyed at a kampung style house by the beach turned eatery. Forget about clean cutlery in an air-conditioned place and be prepared to be sitting on less than perfect chairs and tables whilst swatting and shooing flies and insects away from your plates of seafood :D

Houston Family Physician

Your family's health is one of the most important things you need to worry about. However, finding the right doctor to take care of all of your family's medical needs is not the easiest thing in the world to do. There are certainly many doctors out there that you can choose from. It would be a big mistake to simply go to the first doctor that you come across in your phone book or online. You need to put some very serious thought into finding the person who will be responsible for treating the various illnesses and injuries suffered by your family. Here are some tips that can be used for finding a doctor for your family.

1. Is the doctor good with children? Not all doctors work well with children. This is a simple fact of life. Therefore, you should never make the mistake of assuming that a doctor will work well with your child just because he or she has many years of experience in the medical field. This is why it would be wise to get the opinions of people who have taken their children to that particular doctor before. What is their opinion of the doctor? Are they happy with the way the doctor interacted with their child? Did the doctor put their child at ease so that he or she would not feel nervous during the examination. This is definitely a skill that medical schools do not teach their students.

2. Is it easy to get appointment? This is an issue that most people do not stop to consider. You might be able to find an outstanding doctor. However, that doctor will not be much use to you if you need to wait a long time whenever you want to schedule an appointment. You do not want to wait around endlessly every time you need to see the doctor. This is especially true if you have an urgent medical problem that needs to be taken care of. Look for Houston family physicians who can get you in for an appointment quickly.

3. What types of insurance do they accept? Obviously, you will need to locate a doctor who is willing to accept insurance from your current medical provider. Most doctors have a list of all the providers they accept on their website. Give their office a call if you are unable to find the list.

School Holiday Activity - 4 June 2016

Alycia is not a kitchen person.  She dislikes helping out in the kitchen. When she helps out in the kitchen, it's like having a baby bull in a china shop :D

Since she wanted an American breakfast at home today, she had to wake up early to help out. I suggested hard boiled eggs so that there is lesser washing up to do but she insisted on fried wallet eggs.  Fine. She had to fry the eggs and I stood next to her to give her some tips.





Alycia also pan fried some sliced bread with semi-soft Mozarella cheese on the frying pan for everyone, which turned out to be really yums!

While I gave Alycia some lessons on pan frying, my very hands-on kitchen helper sliced the Mozarella cheese, cucumbers, avocado and tomatoes.

The littlest one helped to bring plates for her sisters and stuck her nose everywhere, volunteering to help out in everything.

After breakfast, everyone pitched in to clean up and wash the dishes.

Sorry, no pictures for this activity as my hands were too tied this morning :)

School Holiday Activities

This school holiday, the girls have been occupying their time pretty much with board games in the morning.  Cass would first drag her grandma to play with her when her 2 sisters are still in bed.  When grandma is busy in the afternoon, she will drag her sisters to play with her.





Today my day started off early.  I chauffeured Sherilyn to school at 8am for a field trip.  Was stuck in a horrendous traffic jam and by the time we reached school, we were 20 minutes late.  Once I drove past the stretch of perpetual jammed up road, I sped like an F1 driver all the way to school.  Thank God the bus was still there. And on my way out from the school, I saw a few teachers getting into the school. They were even later, ha!  After the field trip at 2pm, I fetched the drama queen back.

In the evening, it's gym session again. 







It will be another week or so before we head back to Ipoh and then, possibly to Penang.

Though we are pretty much holed up at home, I am not complaining. I am enjoying the sleep-ins in the morning and relatively stress-free days now, before the stressful school blue days in the new term begin.

Compilation of Home-Cooked Dishes

Here's a compilation of yummy mumm mumm cooked for dinner by the chef of the house this month.  She cooks dinner  from Monday through Friday.

Below - Steamed egg with minced pork, sweet corn fritters with aromatic kafir lime leaves, pork chop cutlets with big onions and sauteed milk white veggie.









Onion omelette.





Steamed fish, yong tau foo, fried fish, braised bitter gourd with roast pork and crackling roast pork.

Just Another Glorious Food Post :)

Last weekend was pigging out weekend with good friends and family members.

After an early gourmet breakfast at Gravy Baby on its opening day, we went to Restoran 9888 in Cheras for dinner with our childhood friends.

What hubs and I like about Restoran 9888 is that they dish out the most stimulating and unique menus.  You have to check them out to pique your palate with their creative Chinese dishes that flaunt a flair for stylish surprises.

Below -
1. Two styles fried chicken
2.  Deep fried spinach with salted egg yolk on top. Beneath the pile of crunchy spinach is a surprise - spinach cooked with egg sauce.
3.  Suckling piggy.





Below -
1.  Claypot pig trotters veins
2.  Yong Tau Fu (stuffed with minced pork and salted fish).
3.  Deep fried tilapia fish slice with super fine and crispy egg floss. The achingly crispy boneless fish slices with addictive deep fried egg floss is to die for.
4.  Fried rice wrapped in 'Hor Yip' leaves. This dish emerges brazenly flavorful with lap cheong (Chinese sausages), har mai (dried shimps), aromatic mushrooms, deep fried silverfish and spring onions. It was so addictive that the portion on the children's table was brought over to the adults' table and was polished clean.  For a moment, I just had to throw my low-carb diet off the window.  It was too hard to resist this enticing high calorie dish.




Below - Dessert was coconut egg custard jelly (not in picture) and Bonsai Green Tea ice-cream.
This thrilling ice-cream is out of this world. It looks like a real plant with brown soil, which is actually crumbled chocolate cookies.  Kids and adults will love this enticing dessert.





On Sunday, we had brunch at Han Room @ Gardens. I ordered my favorite kai jau (chicken in rice wine) and coconut jelly.




Below - mushroom pau, which is a new item on the dim sum cart.  The pau is perfectly crafted into the shape of a mushroom. It even has a stump at the bottom of the pau.  The filling is of course mushrooms.  I love it!





After dim sum, the girls shopped for books at Borders.




Dinner was at our favorite neighborhood restaurant.

Curry Dishes For Dinner

As we say good riddance to the El Nino heat, we are now grappling with another natural disaster woe - flash floods.

But I have no complaints. I love the wet and chilly weather.  My mood is instantly lifted up when the skies turn gloomy and a storm looming :D







With a wet and chilly weather greeting us almost every evening, we have been tucking into spicy food lately.

Below -
1. red snapper fish curry with ladies finger, aubergine and long beans.
2.  Beef rendang

Both dishes are from the kitchen of Catermate. Whenever there is an excess of food, we are the happy beneficiaries!







The hubs' chef can whip up curries to die for.  The girls and I are always waiting for days when there is an excess of curry dishes.  We can never get too much of them. And the Nyonya kuih too. They are just too good to resist.

If you need catering for a home or office function, do give my hubs, Alan a call at 019-266 4297.   :)

Teacher's Day 2016

Teacher's Day celebration will be held next week at Cass and Sherilyn's school.

Tomorrow I will pop by school to pass the presents to their teachers and at the same time to pass the cash for second semester books to the teachers. (That's over RM500 gone in a flash in just a day and I shudder to think how much Alycia's imported books would cost!)  I think the teachers will  appreciate it too that they receive gifts earlier rather than on the day of the celebration as they will be receiving too many gifts on the actual day. I doubt they remember who gives what to them.  I remember the mountainous gifts that my mum received during Teacher's Day each year when she was a teacher decades ago.  My brothers and I would have a jolly few hours unwrapping all her gifts.  Such sweet childhood memories :)





This year I bought the teachers green tea and crunchy dark chocolate muesli. Cass and Sherilyn wrapped the gifts up themselves, saving me all the work and time :)

Happy teacher's day to all the teachers out there!  You certainly deserve lots of gifts and appreciation. It's not easy to be a teacher and I don't think I can ever be one.

Thursday Lunch - 12 May 2016

I had a pretty heavy brunch loaded with calories, cholesterol and carbs on Thursday.

While our girls were in school, hubs, the mil and I tucked into some gravely sinful and toothsome Indian morsel! :D

The hubs ordered nasi briyani with added mutton curry, veggies and fish curry.  The plate of nasi briyani was humongous and cost a whopping RM12 for the rice, mutton and veggie.  The three of us shared this plate of rice.  I further added a tosai rawa, which is my absolute favorite.  Tosai rawa is a healthier alternative to roti canai.  It is light and not starchy and heavy unlike its counterpart.  I like the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, onions, carrots, curry leaves and coriander leaves thrown into the batter, which make the tosai bursting with  natural flavors.  The tosai rawa is served with healthy dippings of coconut chutney, onion chutney and dhal.

I also bought a pack of nasi briyani with hard boiled egg and chicken for Cass and Sherilyn to share for lunch.





For lunch, I had something really light and easy on my tummy.  I had salad composed of one raw green capsicum, pineapple, hard boiled egg, cucumber and pumpkin seeds.





I can never get sick of Indian cuisine.  Our girls love it too. They are fans of spicy food.  However, I will only have it for lunch or breakfast and then go meatless and vegetarian for the rest of the day. It's all about having a balanced diet and not busting your calorie, carbs and fat quota / intake for each day. This way, you can eat anything and everything your heart desires :)

My Fitbit Charge Activity Watch

The hubs got me a Fitbit Charge watch last week.  The Fitbit measures heart rate, number of steps walked, calories burnt, stairs climbed and much more. Oh yes, it shows the time too.  The Fitbit is synchronized with my mobile phone. I can check all my physical activities (done earlier) on my phone even when I am not wearing my Fitbit.   I love it!

This morning, I wore my Fitbit for the first time when I went brisk walking and then to the gym.  Too bad it rained when I was in the midst of brisk walking outside. I ran back to the condo and proceeded into the gym, where I worked out on the air-walker.

In my 40-minute workout today, I walked 3,992 steps and burnt 483 calories.  This is not  near my ideal target. I could have done better than that. I had to cut short my work out session as I have a lot of work to be done on the computer.  Soon, I will have to go to school to check on Cass.   But hey, this is still good and way better than sticking my butt on the chair or bed for 40 minutes.

The figures I get on my Fitbit today is still better than a big fat zero (had I not exercised), which would contribute to a big fat butt and belly.   I am doing this not so much of wanting to be slim and trim but more towards investing in good health.  As you already know, I have issues with genetic high cholesterol.  I have already increased the duration of my work out everyday -- from swimming 20 laps to 26 laps a day and brisk walking from 20 minutes to 40 minutes. I  alternate between swimming and brisk walking everyday.




I know many of you ain't doing anything to keep fit and healthy.  It is never too late to start. Remember, even if you burn 100 calories a day, it is still better than a big fat zero :)

Mother's Day 2016

On the eve of Mother's Day, the hubs surprised his mother and the mother to his daughters to a sumptuous dinner at Unique Seafood Restaurant, PJ.

I didn't know that he would be bringing us to this restaurant until the eleventh hour. I hadn't charged my mobile phone and did not even bother to  bring my power bank along for dinner.  Saturdays are always hectic for me.  In fact, every single day is HECTIC for me.

When we reached the restaurant (after a tensed car ride in a torrential  thunderstorm with floods every where), I realized that my mobile phone only had 1 bar of battery left.

Thus, the only picture that I could possibly snap with my dying phone was this - ultra fresh raw oyster.




The hubs also ordered steamed prawns, sweet and sour crabs, fish, fried rice, veggie and a steamed chicken.  Too bad, my phone had died on me and I couldn't take anymore pictures that night.

On Mother's Day (Sunday), Cass made me a very simple breakfast first thing in the morning (picture below).

She used Meiji crackers with cheese spread, organic brown rice rings, nuts, banana and tortilla chips... with a lovely note to the plate :D

She also made me cards and gave me an ang pow... with RM3.50 inside 😆😍






Homemade cards from the girls...




At church, all the mothers received a Mother's Day gift.  I got a pair of earrings!





After lunch, we had coffee, tea and cakes at LDG (Les Deux Garcons) @ De Market.




The MIL and I received a surprise from the lady boss.  She gave us each a bowl of yummy homemade marble cake with ice-cream and cookie crumble.






At night, the hubs surprised us again. He had earlier said that he wouldn't join us for dinner as he had a basketball match. Half way through dinner at our favorite neighborhood restaurant, he turned up--- and ordered a gigantic steamed fish, on top of the dishes that I had earlier ordered.  The fish was really humongous and we gave a quarter of the fish to the lady boss, whom we have become really chummy with after over a decade of patronizing her restaurant.





A few days before Mother's Day, I received a very lovely Mother's Day card from one of my loyal blog readers.  She has been sending me homemade Mother's Day cards for the past 4 years.  This is the 5th year that she sent me a card that she made it herself.  I am truly touched. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, S! :)




I hope you've had a wonderful Mother's Day celebration, with you being pampered by your little ones and your man :)

Healthy Home-cooked Dishes

It's been a while since I last posted pictures of the mil's healthy home-cooked dishes for dinner.

Here's a compilation of the no-frills dishes that she lovingly wok-ed out over the past few days :)

Below -
1.  braised chicken with chestnuts and mushrooms.
2.  sauteed brinjal with minced pork, chili and fermented bean paste (tau cheong)





Below -
1. On the foreground is a close-up picture of sauteed brinjal with minced pork, chili and fermented bean paste (tau cheong)

2.  Blanched ladies fingers

3.  Emperor's Dish (hot and sour Chinese mustard vegetable stew), which is my all-time favorite.  If you have an excess of food from a party or dinner, keep the meat and 'transform' them into this very flavorful stewed vegetables dish.





Below -
1.  Braised pork ribs with yam
2.  Pan fried fish
3.  Canned sardines with julienned kyuri, lime juice and onions
4.  Stir-fried green veggie
5.  Braised Indian long green karela (bitter gourd) with roast pork

 


Below - close up  picture of braised Indian long green karela (bitter gourd) with roast pork (on foreground)




Below - this is the type of bitter gourd that the mil cooked. It's called India Long Green, which has a unique bumpy appearance of  'teeth' on the surface of the skin. 






The smoother and light green variety of bitter gourd that we normally buy is called the Green Lover, as shown in the picture below.  Both types of bitter gourd taste the same to me.







If you do a Google search, you'll be amazed to see the different kinds of bitter gourd in all shapes and sizes. Whatever the species, bitter gourd is bursting with nutrients and medicinal properties.  Bitter gourd can treat skin problems, helps to maintain healthy liver, bladder and kidney, lowers blood sugar through increased metabolism of glucose, lowers cholesterol levels, among others.

TGIF to all my readers!!  Our kitchen will be closed for the next 2 days, yipee!!    I hope you'll have a very fruitful and relaxing weekend with your family and loved ones :)

Lunch On A School Going Day

Here's a typical scene at home during lunch hour on a school-going day...




Sherilyn and Cass quietly gobbling down their food with book in hand and eyes fixated on the book.
They need some butt pushing and hollering for them to leave the dining table though, else they can sit there and finish the entire story book and continue dinner with another book in hand.  Yes, I kid you not!  If only they are that enthusiastic with their school books, my life will be a zillion times easier!

Labour Day Holiday - 2 May 2016

I didn't get to sleep in on my Labour Day holiday (replacement). Miss Drama Queen had to be in school in the morning for a dance practice for her forthcoming sports day.  So I was up at 6am.   I wonder what the teachers were thinking of,  to organize practices on a public holiday.. of all days on a public holiday!

After Miss Drama Queen got back from school, we went to Seoul Korea Korean BBQ restaurant for lunch.  Food was fantastic but I had totally forgotten to snap any picture as I was really famished and savaged the food the moment it arrived :D

The big girl had been craving for waffles for weeks but I just did not have the time to experiment with our new waffle maker (brought back from the hubby's shop).

After lunch, the big girl got her wish fulfilled by her daddy. We had heavenly crispy and fluffy waffles, a slice of decadent chocolate truffle cake and coffee at Jemi Cafe.




Capuccino and Signature Coco Matcha Frappucino with shredded coconut.




After lunch, I brought Cass for a hair trim while everyone else napped at home on a breezy and rainy afternoon. Lovely weather it was today and I think we can finally say good riddance to the El Nino heatwave!

3 Ways to Encourage an Interest in STEM for Your Children

Whether your child has an interest in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) career, or you just want to expand your child’s interests, there are many toys that help to increase and encourage a child’s interest in these fields. Here are just three items you can buy that may help to encourage your child’s interest in these fields.

Microscope
While you likely will not want to buy an adult microscope for your child, there are many microscopes created for children. There are plastic microscopes created for small children, which allow them to view everyday objects in greater detail. Microscopes created for older children allow the child to place the objects on a slide and view things such as bugs, hairs, germs, and other small objects clearer. Often children’s microscopes are less fragile than microscopes used by scientists, allowing for the child to be a little less gentle with the device. Microscopes allow even children who might not have an interest in science to see that it can be fun.

Lab Coat
Kids lab coats are great for any child interested in STEM. The child can pretend to be a doctor. The child can pretend to be a scientist. When combined with something like a children’s microscope, the child can even feel like a real scientist. A lab coat also provides a little bit of protection for the child’s clothing, which is nice when your little scientist gets a little messy with the colored water “experiments” or other messes your child might make.

Rock and Mineral Kit 
If your child has an interest in rocks, a rock and mineral kit might be an ideal learning option. A rock and mineral kit allows the child to see different rock varieties and learn facts about the specific rocks. Many rock and mineral kits even include pictures of rocks with the name included, allowing your child to find rocks on their own and identify them.

Of course, these are only a few of the toys you can purchase to encourage a child’s interest in a STEM career. Books, toys that allow the child to build, and telescopes are other ideas that may help to build upon your child’s interest in these fields.