Shanshui Free-Range Chicken

About two weeks ago, I found someone who lives at my neighborhood who arranges Group Buy on Facebook for naturally raised free-range chickens. The chickens are bred in a farm in the outskirts of Selangor. They are slaughtered at pre-dawn and delivered at 6am to this lady.  I was so excited!  As you know, I am a total health freak. Each time I buy regular chickens to cook, I limit my girls' intake of the meat. I am sure by now you know what goes into our chicken feed these days -- antibiotics to prevent diseases and growth hormones to accelerate the chickens' growth to meet high demand. I have recently posted an article on how bacteria becomes resistant and one of the causes is livestock fed with antibiotics.

This retired lady who is organizing the Group Buy was very helpful. She sent the 2 freshly slaughtered Shanshui free-range chickens to me in the morning and only charges me RM5 for handling fees. The chickens were cut into 16 pieces each and vacuumed packed.  I can also have the chicken tailored cut.




I had the chicken steamed with sea salt, red dates, wolfberries, ginger wine and a few slices of tong kwai.




It was so yummy! The meat is firm and juicy.  The girls and I polished off the entire plate of chicken that evening. I still have another Shanshui chicken in the freezer and I am planning to cook rice-cooker chicken rice next week. This time will save some for the King of the house (he is a chicken lover too) to sample :D

Kitchen Tales With Drama Queen

We all love eating cantaloupe or rock melon.  But I hardly buy it as I hate cutting it!!  I hate chopping off the thick skin from the cantaloupe.

The other day, the hubs brought home a huge cantaloupe.  The girls were overjoyed as they have not dug into a cantaloupe for quite a while. But I had been very busy with work for the past one week and hadn't found the time to cut the cantaloupe.



Yesterday Drama Queen volunteered to cut and pare the cantaloupe but I said NO. Cutting and paring the cantaloupe would mean using a  long and sharp ceramic knife as the cantaloupe was huge and very hard on the exterior. But she reassured me that it would be an easy peasy job as she had already Googled  how to cut a cantaloupe in the easiest way. She found two methods from Mr Google. She sauntered into the kitchen still in her school uniform and prepared the chopping board and knife. I stood next to her JUST IN CASE!!  Did I tell you that she used to be a very clumsy girl?  She had cut her fingers in the kitchen umpteen times. And I ain't going to take any chances with a razor sharp ceramic knife! I don't have the time to drive her to the hospital and spend hours on end at the A&E with blood oozing out of her fingers. By the way I am not exaggerating. I was once a traumatized pregnant mummy waiting at the A&E of the hospital with Drama Queen and pressing on her bloodied thumb. There were drops of blood all over the hospital floor. And she was only about 2 years old when she squashed her thumb on a steel kitchen door and chipped the bone.. and the nail dropped off *faint*!!


And my Drama Queen executed the job efficiently. She had memorized the techniques of cutting a cantaloupe and did it without a hitch. I stood next to her watching her hands like a hawk while popping the sweet cantaloupe into my mouth and nodding approvingly HAHAHA!  Good job once again to Drama Queen. She has always encouraged me to participate in My Kitchen Rules and Master Chef but I don't think I have the cut and material of one.   I would think she should qualify for Junior Iron Chef in time to come :D

Compilation Of Simple And Healthy Kids-Friendly Homecooked Dishes

Despite having a very hectic day each weekday, I try to dish out something healthy and yummy for my girls. In the past, I have tried ordering daily tiffin meals for dinner but each time I did so, it didn't last for a month.  So I gave up and have decided that no matter how busy each day turns out for me, I will try to place something healthy on the dining table, though they may be something really simple and plain like steamed chicken or steamed fish with a vegetables dish.


This is a compilation of some of the dishes that I cooked over the last 10 days or so...

Braised minced pork with organic miso, tomatoes, onion and garlic.  Pork used is Berkcious pork, free from antibiotics and growth hormones.




Pork ribs soup with radish, carrots and organic cabbage.






Pan-fried red snapper fish fillet and sauteed organic leek with Berkcious sliced pork chop and onions.











Kids-friendly braised brinjal with organic miso, organic fermented bean paste with toona sinensis, squids, tomatoes, grated carrot, shredded kafir lime leaves and garlic.




I discovered that tomatoes and grated carrots added to a dish impart natural sweetness and flavors to the dish.  Thus, almost all my dishes have carrots and tomatoes in addition to garlic and onions. I hardly use oyster sauce and dark sauce, except for dark sauce naturally brewed purchased from the organic shop.








Steamed Japanese tofu with 100% fish paste, eggs and grated carrot.





This is another new dish that I chanced upon from the newspapers and is SO easy to prepare and SO yummy and healthy.

Just mash the fish paste, Japanese tofu and add them into some beaten eggs with a drizzle of soy sauce, pepper, sesame seed oil, water and throw in some grated carrots for the sweetness. Steam for about 15 - 20 minutes.





The girls loved this dish. Even the persnickety KING of the house who happens to be a foodie and perfectionist caterer loved it.









Another kids-friendly healthy dish is braised bitter gourd with pan-fried chicken fillet, black pepper, organic miso, tomatoes, grated carrot and onions. The grated carrot and tomatoes impart natural sweetness to the dish, masking the bitterness.







Sweet corn egg drop soup with organic miso, grated carrot, scallions and organic 'lai park' veggie.

1 Percent Glimmer Of Hope

Today we were running late for church.  Again I drove like an F1 driver on Federal Highway. We were 15-20 minutes late by the time I reached the church compound.  I would normally park outside the church as parking space is very, very limited inside the church compound. The church is undergoing a massive renovation and extension, thus the lack of parking space in the compound.  As today's morning sun was really fiery and fierce, I told the girls that I didn't feel like parking outside and walking under the hot sun into the church.  I tried my luck and drove into the church compound. Alycia and Drama Queen were telling me to just park outside as there were already many cars inside the church  compound and it didn't look like I would be lucky enough to get a space to park my car.

But I told them that there is always  a 1% pure luck no matter how negative or futile a circumstance may seem to be.   I drove my car into the church compound and right at the end of the compound was a tiny space, just enough to fit my small Hyundai i10.  Though it was tricky to maneuver my car in, I did it. And it was right under a shady tree. It was the only space left in the entire parking lot... and waiting for me.   We were so happy that we didn't have to walk 5-10 minutes under the blazing sun.  "See, this is the 1% luck for me!" I told the girls happily.

As we walked into the church, I told them the story of how Alycia is my 1% glimmer of hope and miracle baby.

It was in early March 2003. I lay nervously on the procedure table of my fertility specialist's clinic. I was praying fervently that the IUI procedure would be a success. I waited for a long time for my doctor to come in to start the procedure.  The door flung opened.  My doctor walked in with a frown on his face and he broke the devastating news to me -- "Only 1% of your husband's sperms is good"... and he let out a sigh.

I went "what the?????  Does that mean that this procedure will be cancelled?"

He went ahead with the procedure. After the sperms were placed inside my uterus, I lay still on the table which was raised up at the lower end, for the sperms to better reach the most inner part of my uterus. I prayed and prayed to God to let the 1% good sperms  meet my single perfect egg.. for the procedure to be successful... for me to successfully conceive and give birth to a baby.

And the 1% glimmer of hope turned into a miracle. Though the 9 months was fraught with never-ending problems and false positives (German Measles, pre-term labour, etc) and I had to take unpaid leave for bed-rest, I finally met my long awaited baby Alycia! That was the happiest day of my life.

The girls were really amused and entertained with my story of how Alycia was born.. from a 1% hope to a miracle.

I told the girls that no matter how bleak a situation may seem to be, there is  a 1% chance that you will still succeed.  So never give up hope for there is always a 1% glimmer of hope. A 1% chance that you will get what you really want if you hope and pray hard enough for the 1% hope to turn into a miracle.

Grilled Salmon And Mackeral For Dinner - 30 Sept 2016

Dinner on a lovely Friday evening today -

Grilled salmon and tenggiri (mackeral) fish.




Salmon is lightly salted and seasoned with ground black pepper, thyme, garlic and lemon. Lemon is grilled together with the fish during the last 10 minutes in the oven at 160C.




Tenggiri (mackeral) fish is coated with turmeric powder, curry fish powder, sea salt, a dash of Lea and Perrin sauce and grilled with garlic.

Mashed sweet potato and potato with fresh milk, sea salt and ground black pepper.






Half way  through having our dinner, Drama Queen screamed out all of a sudden... which startled me! I thought something in the kitchen had caught fire!! LOL!

She was shouting out to me to see the rainbow, which was seen right outside our unit on the 5th floor.  We quickly ran out to admire the rainbow.  On taking a closer look, I excitedly told the girls that it was a double rainbow!!  The rainbow on the left side was pretty faint but the one on the right side was bright and clear. It is a rare sight to see a rainbow in the sky and it is even rarer to see a double rainbow. I can't even remember the last time I saw a rainbow.  I love rainbows.  This God's wonderful creation is just too pretty and definitely a sight to behold and capture on camera.




Happy Friday peeps and have a fun-tastic long weekend! :)  I am SO SO going to catch up on my beauty sleep on Monday.

Best Supplements For The Family To Weather The Storm

This is what Cass pops into her body each day -- 2 packets of Izumio and 2 capsules of Super Lutien each day. That's enough of antioxidants to protect her body from free radicals and toxins.  Alycia, Sherilyn and I consume these supplements too but in a slightly lower dosage.





On top of  these supplements from Naturally Plus that are free from fillers, binders and preservatives, we eat fresh fruits and vegetables everyday.  We have healthy homecooked food five times a week.

Fruits for today are Korean Shingo pear, New Zealand Sonya apple and cool kyuri.

As I was still very busy with work today and had no time to cook lunch for Cass, we had takeout nasi briyani - half a packet of rice with  chicken and sauteed spinach from my favorite Indian restaurant shared between the two of us.  I try not to eat outside food on week days but on mega busy days, I'll relax my Nazi health practice and take the easy way out by seeking refuge from the food stalls. It's comforting to know that we have Izumio and Super Lutein to assuage the crap that we put into our bodies each day.





Did you know that even the simple natural act of breathing causes free radicals in our body?  Stress, anger, lack of sleep, unhealthy diet and lifestyle all load our bodies with more free radicals. I am GUILTY as charged when it comes to stress and lack of sleep coz I just can't help it. If I had a choice, I'd throw stress and lack of sleep out of my life forever right away! That is why I need Izumio to zap away all the built up free radicals in my body every day.

If you are not taking any antioxidant supplements yet, it's a smart choice if you start taking them now. It's a good investment on yourself that can possibly safe you from serious health issues in future.

Gluten-Free Strawberry Cake

Drama Queen baked her beloved granny a gluten-free strawberry cake two weeks back.  The cake was a surprise for her granny, who would stay in KL over the weekend to celebrate her 70th birthday. It was a Thursday, a school holiday. Drama Queen started to bake the cake after lunch. She had been bugging me for weeks to buy gluten-free flour as my mum is gluten intolerance.

On Friday, the hubs went to the airport to pick up my parents and younger brother, Roy who had just returned from their 1-week cruise from Taiwan to Japan.





As I have very shallow knowledge in cake baking, except for watching my mum bake cakes when I was younger, I could not advise Drama Queen much. I grew up watching and helping my mum bake cakes, pau, buns, bread pudding and cookies.   Drama Queen has definitely inherited my mum's genes in the love and passion for baking, cooking and sewing. She's got my mum's creative juices flowing in her.

The only thing that I warned Drama Queen about was the cake pan.  From the look of her cake batter, I knew that she must have done a miscalculation in the measurement. The cake batter was really little and she told me that she wanted to use a 10 inch (I think) cake pan that was pretty tall in height.

"Common sense girl!! Look at the cake batter. How come it is SO LITTLE?? Did you measure the flour wrongly? Are you sure that the recipe that you got from You Tube calls for using such a BIG pan? See, see, this pan is SO tall and your batter is so little! Go find a smaller cake pan!"  was what I told her.

The girl ransacked grandma's kitchen cupboard but could not find a smaller cake pan. She found some cake rings  and showed me.

"I have no freaking idea how to use this cake ring OK. I have no experience baking. Have you seen how mah mah used this ring??"  I said to her.

And she said "oh yes, I have seen mah mah use this ring for baking cake. Can la. Can use la."

But how to use??

The both of us figured that we should first put the ring onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Then pour the cake batter into the middle of the ring.

The ring looked perfect for the amount of our cake batter. It fits just right.

About 10 minutes into baking, the batter seeped out from the ring.  OMG what are we to do!?  Would all the batter seep out and left with nothing inside the ring??? OMG OMG OMG!!

The girl told me that her recipe says to bake for 40 minutes but when I looked at the cake, it had turned brown and smelled good already even after 10 minutes.

Me to Drama Queen - ARE YOU SURE the recipe says to bake 40 minutes?? Look at the cake! It looks baked already.  Get me the stainless steel needle tester (whatcha call that cake tester thingy?)

After 15 minutes, we brought the cake out and this was how it looked.






The batter that had seeped out from the ring was slightly burnt. We could not wait to taste the cake to see if this very expensive cake tastes like a cake or something else!

Though the cake was still very hot, we quickly pinched all the cake that had seeped out from the ring and stuffed them into our mouths. And WOW, the cake was out of this world!  It tasted awesome, despite many things that went wrong, HAHAHAHA!!

Why do I say that the cake is expensive? Coz the gluten-free flour is expensive, plus the good quality butter, organic sugar, whipping cream, cream cheese and 2 punnets of strawberries are all costly. All the ingredients cost us about RM60.

The next big flop was the whipping cream!   I had advised Drama Queen to use cream cheese instead of being adventurous and try using whipping cream as I have no experience in beating whipping cream till it  turns stiff peak, for the frosting.  Being the very determined alpha female that she is, Drama Queen was very resolute and only wanted whipped cream as frosting for the cake.

So fine, I left the girl to beat the whipping cream with grandma's hand mixer.   When she shouted for help from the kitchen, I knew it was a flop already. The frosting had curdled and there was so much liquid!

Me to Drama Queen- "See, I told you to use cream cheese instead of whipping cream and you won't listen. Now you've wasted RM10 for the box of whipping cream.  Never mind, bring the cream cheese out!"

Just like a pro, Drama Queen used grandma's frosting knife and creamed the cake with cream cheese. Cass then helped her to decorate the cake with fresh strawberries.




... and toasted sliced almonds.




The final product was awesome.  The cake looks like some gourmet cake from a high-end patiserrie.





And the cake was SO delish!!  Despite all the initial stumbling blocks and blunders, it turned out to be PERFECT in terms of taste, texture and decor.  My Drama Queen's got talent!  From an AWFUL start to an AWESOME cake. We were both SO happy and could not wait for my mum to try the cake.

We'll definitely be baking more gluten-free cakes after the girls' final exam :)

Organic Food

I am a sucker for organic produce and food stuff. Some of my toiletries and skin care products are organic too.   Most of the vegetables that I buy are organically or naturally grown without the use of pesticides.

Every Saturday, I will stock up my organic stuff from my favorite organic shop.

Below is the loot from the organic shop last Saturday...

Brown rice crackers, miso sesame dressing, natural bean sauce with toona sinensis and Job's Tears.  The sauces are used to season noodles, fried rice and dishes.  Job's Tears is to be boiled with barley every other day. It is good for cleansing of the bladder and kidneys.








The rice crackers are very crispy, not too sweet and fresh. Cass eats them for breakfast and sometimes brings them to school for recess.




Original dark soy sauce with no preservatives, no coloring and no flavoring.

The Little Dare Devil

My drama queen is a little dare devil.  She is sociable, daring, creative and adventurous.  She would take part in almost all the competitions organized by her school, though she may not be good in the field.  When she was 6 years old, she took part in an inter-kindergarten singing competition. She went up the stage and sang solo in front of hundreds of people, complete with a p2r clipped to her costume. I was really proud of her, though she did not win. What mattered was she was braved enough to go up the stage and strut her stuff.

Oyakodon - Chicken With Egg And Rice

The past few days have been very, very busy for me.  Busy with work. Thus, the lack of update in this blog.

I had planned to dish out Oyakodon for the girls. The plan was to marinate the chicken breast meat for at least 5-6 hours so that it will be tastier.  I also planned to cook my Oyakodon like an authentic Japanese Oyakodon but I had not had the time to take a breather since I got up from bed at 4:45 a.m. today! So my Oyakodon today was a 'cincai' executed one.  I only started to cook at 6pm, only had 1/2 hour to marinate the chicken meat and no time to even google for a proper recipe. I used whatever sauces that I had in the fridge - which was Teriyaki sauce, organic shoyu, black pepper and corn flour.

*gasp for air*

Anyway, my 'cin-cin-cai-cai' Oyakodon still turned out very yummy! :D






As I did not have enough time to saute the French beans separately, I dumped the beans into the sizzling pot of chicken, making this into a one-pot dish complete with meat, eggs and lots of vegetables.




And then dumped in the eggs.





The egg for Oyakodon is meant to be slightly runny and raw but I don't fancy the kids eating half cooked eggs for fear of food poisoning from bacteria. So the egg was poached till 100% cooked - in the sauce.






Thankfully Drama Queen came back from school on time and helped me to chop the onions - 3 big juicy onions. The both of us shed so much tears in the kitchen inhaling the super stinging enzyme from the big onions!  I had planned to chill the onions for several hours before chopping them to reduce tearing of the eyes but again, I was so absorbed in work that I forgot all about it.

Despite dishing out my Oyakodon without much planning, it was nonetheless still very delish, albeit tasting more Chinese than Japanese. I have an extra portion saved for Cass' lunch tomorrow. Now, that's one less worry for tomorrow. Lunch is settled for Cass.

Cool Monitor Speakers

A few months before I turned 15 years old in 1988, I begged my parents to throw me a sweet 15 birthday party at home. I remember pestering them day and night, only to get NO for an answer. One day, my dad agreed to throw me the dream party that I wanted. I was totally overjoyed.  Big brother Ray  helped to organize the sound system and managed to borrow some speakers from this friend. Though nothing like those krk rokit 5, the monitor speakers were nonetheless cool and made my party magical. It was a party that I will always remember for the rest of my life :)

Scary Video Shows How Quickly Bacteria Becomes Antibiotic Resistant

Prevention is better than cure. I am all for this adage.

Do watch this video on an experiment by Harvard Medical School on how quickly bacteria becomes antibiotic resistant. They mutate, evolve and become so strong that even the most powerful of antibiotics can't defeat them!

And I am speaking from experience. When Cass was put on prophylactic antibiotics EVERY DAY since she was only a fragile 6-week old infant, the antibiotics did not work on preventing a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection).  Despite taking antibiotics every day, she would get a UTI attack once every 3 weeks.  Every single month. This went on until she was strong enough for a surgery at 13 months old weighing a mere 8kg.  I went through many nightmares with Cass when her doctors told me that the sensitivity test report showed that no safe antibiotics were suitable for her. The bacteria had evolved into mutants, resisting even strong antibiotics.   Imagine, if a doctor tells you that your child has an infection that no safe antibiotics could cure.  What would you do? How would you feel? I can still remember my exact feelings on those cold nights in the hospital staring blankly at the sensitivity test report with my doctor sitting next to us and scratching his head trying to find a solution to treat Cass.  How did Cass and I even survive those days?  I can only pray that we will never have to go through those harrowing moments again, ever.

And that is why I am doing all that I  possibly can  to prevent another UTI from attacking Cass.  Ever since she had a UTI attack in November last year, she's had a series of mild UTI attacks.  When she had quite a bad UTI attack in November last year, she was put on strong antibiotics via IV for 5 days and another 7 days of oral antibiotics. The after-effects of antibiotics on the body is really damaging.  Cass' immune system was weakened. I am very sure that the antibiotics did not completely kill all the resistant bacteria (and they multiply when conditions are conducive), thus the series of mild UTI attacks every 3-6 weeks, post November 2015.

Cass is now under a very 'controlled' lifestyle by me. She drinks Izumio hydrogen water 3 times a day, pops 1-2 Super Lutein capsules every day, pops a potent probiotics once or twice a day, drinks boiled barley and Job's Tears water every other day, coconut water every other day and I limit her intake of acidic food. She also drinks Waterfall D-Mannose every four hourly.   Sweets and junk food are banned. Sweet food is limited. Sugar and refined flour products only feed the bacteria, as with an acidic environment. Food that I cook is less sodium, less sugar and less oil. I try to avoid using bottled sauces with preservatives, coloring and other harmful chemicals.  She has to pee every hourly. And the toughest part is waking her up at 2am every single day to bring her to pee.  Drinking lots of clear liquid and peeing is key to flushing out the bacteria, NOT antibiotics.









Watching this stunning video of disease will surely bring pandemic movies like “Contagion” and “Outbreak” to mind. A Harvard Medical School study tested the strength of bacteria against powerful antibiotics on a “mega-plate” petri dish. And guess who lives in the end?

In the experiment, bacteria is placed on the sides of a petri dish and then advances to the center as it encounters different types of antibiotics, each more powerful than the last. The scientists created a time-lapse video to show its rapid evolution over the course of two weeks. You can see the bacteria (in white) as it fights through layers of antibiotics, multiplying and morphing as it spreads. Over the course of time, the superbugs become impervious to drugs and not only survive, but also thrive as they increase in size and strength. It shows how antibiotics are truly powerless against mighty evolution.

The experiment is one of the first large-scale looks at the evolution of bacteria (or, arguably, of life) and how even our most powerful drugs can’t kill germs. Which leaves us with only one conclusion: This is both really cool and totally unnerving.







A new experiment shows how bacteria can fight it's way through antibiotics. Photo Credit Scharvik/iStock/Getty Images


Video and article, courtesy of Livestrong.com

Braised Pork With Radish

This is yet another very tasty dish that is SO easy to whip up. Trust me when I say that it is easy. Once you have all the ingredients, this dish is a total child's play. Even Drama Queen can be trained to whip this out on her own. No need recipe even.

Note - you can replace the pork with beef belly (ngau lam)




Ingredients:
1) Pork belly, pork shoulder loin or even pork ribs. I used pork shoulder loin.  I buy only Berkcious pork now, which is free from antibiotics and growth hormones.

2) 1 whole large radish - you can add more if you like your dish with more radish. I love radish, thus I added a real large radish.

3) Chopped garlic

4) 1 packet of spices consisting of cardamon pods, star anise, pepper corns, cloves and cinnamon sticks.  You can get this from the herbs, spices and dried food stuff section of the supermarket and sundry shop. It only costs a few Ringgit. You can also use this packet of spices for making sup kambing and sup lembu, a popular Malay soup.

5) Soy sauce - I used organic shoyu sauce.

6) Dark / thick soy sauce - I used natural dark soy sauce bought from the organic shop. It is free from coloring, MSG and preservatives.

7) Sugar - I used ground palm sugar, which is lower in GI vs regular sugar.

8) A bunch of coriander leaves

9) Eggs (hard boiled), mushrooms, firm tofu are all optional sides to be added

Sorry, no measurements for all the seasoning as it is up to your liking. I like my broth strong in aroma / taste yet mild in saltiness and sweetness.









Below - picture of pig shoulder loin. This is my favorite part of the piggy. I like the marble effects on the meat. The slight fat all around the meat gives the meat a tender texture. It is not too lean, yet not too fat.  I use this part of the pig for pork chops, braised pork dish and to have them minced by the butcher.






Direction:

1) Saute the spices, minced garlic and pork until fragrant.





2)  Add water, radish and all the seasonings. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1.5 - 2 hours or until the meat is tender.   I like my meat really tender.

3)  Add in a bunch of coriander into the pot about half an hour before turning off the fire.  The coriander leaves impart a fragrant and appetizing lift to the dish.







Go on and try this dish. It is so easy to cook and so appetizing that even the fussiest of kid and spouse will love.  You could cook a big portion and save some for the next day. It goes well with rice and all types of noodles.

Video Of Cass Solving The Rubik's Cube - Part 2

Here's another video of Cass solving one side of the Rubik's Cube taken today.  Video was taken at Ben's General Store @ Gardens while waiting for our food to arrive.


 



Total time taken = 15 seconds.

Video Of Cass Solving The Rubik's Cube (Part 1)

This is a short video of Cass solving the Rubik's Cube. It was taken today, after lunch at Oiso Korean Restaurant.

She can now complete  any one color in under a minute. In this video, she took 1 minute 4 seconds. Maybe she was a tad tensed that I was filming her :D

For Alycia, she can solve the entire Rubik's Cube (all colors) in under 2 minutes.  Cass is aiming to achieve her che che's prowess soon.





Cass at 8 years 5 months.