Cny Bake 2 - Almond biscuits

I'm truly exhausted. Was out all morning and afternoon. Almost cancelled hairdresser's appointment as couldn't even stand up after lying down to rest on sofa. I think it's a few late nights trying to finish watching the Korean drama which ended last night. Then followed by Hell's Kitchen for another hour. By the time I got to bed it was already midnight. Imagine then having to wake up at 6plus am.

However, had to drag myself to do my hair to get it out of the way.

Tonight's meal was simple. Just da bao two pies and a frozen pizza. Boiled some veg for little one, and made a simple salad of baby spinach, honey tomatoes and raisins.

For her dessert, dear princess wanted a strawberry and blueberry tartlet.

I roasted these in the morning which I then put in blender to grind.

This was what I made with the freshly-roasted almonds.

Western Food Night

Goodness, I think I've run out of ideas on what to cook. Hehe. Today was kind of a mad rush for me to come home and prepare dinner. By the time we were done at ballet, it was almost 5pm, so went to supermarket after class, and had zero idea what to cook for dinner. Spied some seasoning for scalloped potatoes and was kind of attracted to it. Also, I had come across some scalloped potatoes in one of the blogs I visited recently. The portobello mushrooms looked really good too, so grabbed a packet of them. Now for the main dish... hmmm... I suddenly remembered this baked chicken breast which we had tried at hub's friend's place when we visited Ireland the year before. It's so simple to do.

The potatoes turned out really nice. It's from the McCormick brand.

Mushrooms were drizzled with olive oil, minced garlic, black pepper, and a small knob of french butter and baked. As for the chicken, I mixed together red pesto & cream cheese and spread it over one side of the breast. I then wrapped each breast with two slices of streaky bacon and baked.

Here's the result... everything is in boring brown. :(


Note - All pictures appear way larger than actual food size. :P

More food

Guess I really have nothing to blog about so been blogging quite a bit on our meals at home. Haha. But as you have noticed, I've finally started cooking again. Wonder how long that will last. ;)

I was a very good wife and mother today, hehe, cooked two meals as well as cleaned the floors and tidied up a bit. You'll hardly find me at home as there is always something to keep us occupied. Well, from time to time, I have to get rid of some of the mess that accumulates all the time. Just like the house was spick, span and tidy early this noon, is now filled with toys again all over. But at least the floor is clean. :)

With last night's leftover soup, I added some pasta and made lunch. If you look closely, you would be able to spy the carriage, castle and Cinderella. The Pokemon faces are also cute.

I came across this seasoning in Cold Storage yesterday and was attracted to the picture of the lovely grilled drumsticks. So I decided to buy a packet to try out. Got fresh drumsticks and thighs from the market this morning and marinated them for a couple of hours. I don't know if the taste is authentic but it was delicious.

Made a baby spinach, crabsticks & meatball soup. The soup looks oily but is actually not. It's pretty clear and light, just that the flash catches the oil in a non-flattering way.

And this other one also caught my eye during my grocery shopping trip. I don't know if Muar is famous for their otah, but I loved it. Worth a try.

Well, unfortunately the picture can't tell you too much about the taste. I'm not good at presentation. :P

A home-cooked meal

I hate having to cook every day. It gives me a headache, and it doesn't help that nobody in the family can tell me what they want to eat for dinner. I was very sure I was going to make a pot of soup today and I also knew that I had xiao bai chye in the fridge from my last trip to the market. But the main dish was a bit stressful to come up with. I had a pineapple in the fridge, and finally decided that I'd do a pineapple chicken dish. So here you have it... bai chye with Foochow fishballs, carrots, and tofu soup. And a sweet and sour chicken stir fry with pineapples and assorted veggies.

Almond Biscuits

From her home to mine. Thanks so much to the giver for the kind thought. I do appreciate it. But that was sneaky, although my first guess was that it was from you. :P My girl loves it. She says it is yummy, said she preferred it to the pineapple tarts. Haha. I think she loves crunchy stuff. But after that she changed her mind and said she love both, because she loves the pineapple jam on the top. ;)

Coincidentally this is the next biscuit after the tarts that I plan to make. Hope I have the energy to do it this week.

Went to do CNY shopping today, mainly for gifts for the family, aunts etc. It wasn't planned, but I managed to spy some lovely and very presentable gift boxes while browsing in the supermarket. Quite pleased with the stuff I got this year. Decided not to buy any baked goods as I'm sure there will be abundance in every home. Might bake some to give away though.

How are your New Year preparations coming along? The countdown begins... it's another week to go. Me? I'm just glad that my cleaner is scheduled to come the day before reunion night. ;)

Vermicelli al Cartoccio

The first time I ever tried this dish at Al Forno's, I was blown away. The flavours from all the seafood were soaked up by the pasta and the pasta on its own was so delicious. You could taste all the sweetness from the prawns, and crayfish, etc. I've never loved a pasta dish as much as this one. Time and time again, whenever we visit this little restaurant, we are sure to order this dish without fail. In the restaurant though, they serve spaghetti, which I think is also the original type of pasta used for cartoccio. I didn't realize that what I had at home was vermicelli, but I guess it doesn't make much of a difference.

This dish is kind of one week old. Haha. Not literally. Well, I planned to cook this for dinner last Monday. That was before all the upheaval. I finally got to do it tonight.

My conclusion - not too bad for a first try. The seafood flavours infused into the pasta and was very tasty. I would add slightly more water the next time. Princess loved it, said was very nice. And hubby enjoyed it too. Personally I think it was a success.

CNY Bake 1 - Pineapple Tarts

My very first Chinese New Year bake. Yippee! I did it! Have been procrastinating for months. I owe these tarts to my dear little princess, hehe, finally satisfying her craving from Hari Raya Puasa. Haha. Sorry babe. But somehow CNY just puts you in the mood to bake pineapple tarts, not other times of the year.

Actually I've been wanting to use this mould since I first got it. I love the heart shape. So unusual, don't you think? Better still, Valentine's day ties in with CNY so that's like killing two birds with one stone. Made with love for you my dear princess. Needless to say, she's already gobbled up a few while they were cooling down.

Mui Fan

A simple all-in-one dish that can be whipped up real fast if you prepare the ingredients in advance. The ingredients are versatile and you can use anything you fancy really - chicken, prawns, squid. For me today, I used sliced fish, crabsticks, salmon flavoured fishballs, and xiao bai chye.

I first seasoned the fish with light soya sauce, sesame oil, white pepper and a little cornstarch.

I didn't realize that I had run out of ginger so I made do without it.

For the sauce, it was just oyster sauce and enough water for 2-1/2 portions.

I stir fried the fish, removed, then did the vegetables and other ingredients. After adding water, I let it simmer till almost cooked. Return the fish back to the wok. Beat in one egg and then thicken with corn starch.

Spoon over white rice and serve

Potato, Leek & Lentil Soup

For lunch today, I made Potato Leek soup. I actually wanted to make the Asparagus Leek soup that Daphne made. I'm trying to put hubs on a light diet so have to think of stuff that he will like. However, at the market this morning, I couldn't find any asparagus. According to Daphne, it's out of season. I suppose that's why my regular vegetable seller didn't carry them. If I'm not wrong, his veg are usually imported from Oz thus we get lovely broccoli, asparagus, etc.

Since I already picked up some leeks, I was trying to work out in my mind what kind of soup I could make, then remembered the potatos I had back home. So that settled it.

Here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

3 medium potatoes
2 or 3 leeks, chopped (I used 2) - make sure all the sand is washed out properly
500ml stock (I had some chicken stock)
200ml water (I thought the liquid looked too little) - You can also use milk
1 cube of vegetable stock (or chicken even)
1/6 cup red split lentils
1/4 cup cream
salt and pepper to taste
1tbsp butter

Method :

1. Boil potatoes and remove skin when cooked.
2. Bring stock and water to boil, add lentils followed by potatoes. Mash potatoes in stock.
3. Saute leek in butter till translucent. Add to stock.
4. Simmer over medium to low heat. Add salt, pepper and veg cube stock.
5. Add cream and serve with bread.

Light Cheesecake

I've been yearning to try out this recipe ever since I saw Big Boys Oven blog about it. They looked so light and fluffy. I had a bit of a resistance initially after someone commented in their blog that it didn't turn out well at all. However, after chatting with the boys, I decided to go ahead with it and try it out for myself.

Being lazy, I mixed the A ingredients so that'll save me having to wash up the mixing bowl for whipping of the whites. I almost gave up actually, as even though I mixed in a little of the liquid at a time, the mixture was starting to curdle a bit, towards the end. However, it sort of got ok after I added in the dry ingredients.

The cake turned out nice and slightly sweetened, not overly sweet. Somehow it looked so different from BBO's. And doesn't look one bit light and fluffy. The texture was light yes, because of the mousse, but somehow I believe theirs was softer. However, it was still a success. :( I'm not sure if to use normal baking or fan-forced oven. I usually bake with the fan. Let hubby try a piece and he asked if I baked it or bought it. Hehe. Said it was nice.

Ok, why the cake in the loaf pan looks so brown is because the inside wasn't cooked so I had to leave it in longer. I tried to adjust the temperature and it wouldn't work so had to move the pan to a lower rack.

Just wanted to overturn one of the cake I made in the Hello Kitty mould. How cute, except that it's now upside down. Haha.

Food we ate today

Just wanted to share what hospital lunch looks like. Hubby requested for Western food throughout his stay, thus he got salads, grilled fish etc. For lunch today just before the discharge, he was served a grilled chicken steak. Looked n smelled nice. I had a taste of it. Well, it tasted healthy, low sodium etc.

A view from his room window.

For his first meal at home, I really was pretty exhausted to prepare anything, after having woken up at 6plus in the morning to send little one off to school, then to hospital to pick him up. Came home and rested for half an hour or so, then off to P's place to pick up the princess. Following that, had to go get dinner, come home and made sure they were both well-fed. And finally rushed off to parents' night in school. Gosh. Very tiring indeed.

We started with something light so that hub's tummy will not be overwhelmed. I got him a portion of sliced fish soup with white rice.

For myself and princess, we shared a fried fish bee hoon soup, which was what I was looking forward to for dinner on Sunday. I also got a portion of yam rice which we all shared. This is from my favourite fish bee hoon stall which used to be at Kallang Leisure Park, but has since moved to Marine Parade Central after the former was torn down to be newly constructed. Unfortunately, I apologize, but I've not taken note of the stall number. Will try to do so at my next visit. If not wrong, the name of the stall is 'King's' something. Hehe. So terrible I am. Not much help am I? ;P

I love to add some chilli padi to spice up my soup. Yum!

Chai Tow Kuay

I had this for breakfast today. Yum yum. There's a stall in a nondescript coffee shop near my house, which I think has one of the better chai tow kuays (fried radish cake), according to my taste. I discovered it by accident one time when I had a craving for this breakfast dish and there were no stalls selling it at the main market. Have not looked back since. It has just the right amount of sweetness from the sweet sauce and spiciness from the chilli. It's also soft and tasty.

I have this habit of eating black chai tow kuay for breakfast and white ones for lunch or dinner. It's just a habit from young, I don't know why. Hehe. Does anyone out there share this peculiar habit of mine? ;)

On a happier note, the hubs is able to come home today, as the docs can't seem to find anything wrong with him. Haha. So well, I guess I can finally rest, not going up and down like a yo-yo.

Feasting

Think I'm getting smart now. Not wanting to suffer from having horrible food, I bought some sushi to take to the hospital for princess' and my dinner. No regrets. :) It's from my favourite Fishmart Sakuraya at Parkway Parade.

This is hubby's dinner which he says was nice. Not much cooking involved as it's just a salad so I guess food in its original form is way better than it having gone through the cooking process, as far as hospital food in concerned. :P The soup's always horrible though so he never touches them.

Hubby seems fine although he's been complaining of some gastro problems so I think we have finally narrowed it down to that, because the head, heart and everywhere else seems fine. He says after food, he feels dizzy and lightheaded at times, and they have identified that and given him the required medication. It seems to help so at least we're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

As for me, I am really feeling it now, very tired from rushing here and there and having to take care of the 2. My laundry is washed but always too tired to hang up. Sigh.

And this is also the week that I had planned to start cooking again. Seems like I have to put it off. Where to get the energy to do anything even?

And not forgetting my CNY bakes which I was so looking forward to doing, especially the pineapple tarts.

Sneaky

Poor hubby has been having hospital food for the past few meals and even though he hasn't really complained, I took pity on him, cos I can't imagine having to stomach them. While I was in Raffles City late morning today, I decided to get him some soup from Cedele. Well, it isn't unhealthy stuff. As we all know, Cedele serves healthy yummy foodstuff. The soups are super delicious and you don't feel guilty after. Also sneaked in some proper coffee, cos even though he says the coffee they serve isn't too bad, I mean how can you compare it to a proper brew from a coffee specialty shop. So it was Starbuck's caffe mocha for him.

Apple Pumpkin Soup with an assortment of breads.

I picked up some take away dry mee siam and a stick of otah. So that was lunch for me. ;P

A Get Well gift

A gift from the colleagues. How cute is that? Haha. I think the balloon is more for the little one.

Supper

I usually do not have supper but for the past few days, I've really been having bad luck with food. Firstly, I was so looking forward to my dinner of fried fish bee hoon soup from my favourite stall in Marine Parade Central on Sunday. Unfortunately, that never happened as we all know what happened to the hubby. So on top of having a peanut butter and jam sandwich for lunch, I had to make do with a chicken ham and cheese sandwich off the chiller at 711 late that evening.

Then on Monday I had to have hospital canteen food for lunch which was yucky. I was so looking forward to having a proper meal since my last proper one was on Saturday. Another bad choice, but really, how wrong can you get with mixed rice? Sigh. So we went to dinner at Sakae that evening and the Curry Katsu wasn't great, rice was bit on the soggy side. I think my luck with good food has run out. Haha.

Decided to pamper myself with some siew mai today. Forgot that I had a pack of my favourite instant siew mai in the freezer, but racked my brains when I wanted to have something savoury and suddenly remembered them. Yippee!

I seldom buy them and have not done so in a long time. I won't say they are fantastic, but they are sort of a comfort food to me. They aren't too bad really. I love them with the garlic chilli. So just had to indulge myself I guess, after all the bad food I've been having. ;P

Thanks

Thank you all for your kind regards and concern. I'll just reply your comments here. He's ok, they can't find anything wrong. Blood tests all come back normal, brain scan, heart (ecg, treadmill, etc). I guess they just want to be kiasu a bit and rule out every possibility before they let him go home. So not to worry, he's alright.

To the wonderful mums of princess' classmates, I really appreciate you gals offering to take care of her this week. I guess it'd be much more fun than staying at school full day. After her fun outing to P's today, I doubt she'd agree to full-day school. Haha. Thanks to J too for tomorrow. A's wish is now granted and the girls can play together finally hehe. K, thanks for offering, but you know you live too far away, and I don't want to be alone at night hehe, so can't send her over to you. Besides, her daddy wants to see her.

S, oh gosh, it happened to your dh too? Oh my goodness, poor T must have had the shock of her life to fall off daddy's shoulder. Well, I guess Singaporeans can be helpful in situations such as these.

A&E

Yesterday was just like any other day. It was mostly unproductive, just staying home, tidying, doing laundry, the usual mundane stuff.

Hubs took princess to art class, after which, they went out to dinner. I didn't join them.

Imagine my shock when I got a call from the restaurant to say that he had a fall and cut his head. And they had called the ambulance. Aly, I know now how you felt, although your pain is a million times worse than mine. I didn't know head or tail and thought that he had tripped over something and fallen over and cut his head.

I rushed down to the restaurant and the ambulance had already arrived. It was really like a scene out of a drama... the ambulance, the paramedic, and the crowds of people. They couldn't accommodate us both and so after finding out where they were taking him, princess and I rushed off to the hospital in a cab. The poor girl started crying upon seeing me and she was very worried for her daddy. I asked her what happened and being in shock, she couldn't tell me.

It wasn't till we were halfway there and she had calmed down quite a bit that she was able to relate the events to me. Apparently, he had finished his dinner and was waiting for her to finish hers. He had just made a phone call and then next minute fell over backwards from the chair and hit his head. She was too shocked to cry and only till daddy had been helped back up on a chair did she cry, she said. And many people were helping him. Thank you to the many people there who went to his aid. And also the manager (I presume), who called me and helped take care of my little one.

She's extremely worried about daddy and very upset that he hurt his head. So when grandma came to join us in the hospital and wanted to take her to get some snacks, she left me with instructions that if daddy was wheeled out while she was gone, I had to call grandma on her phone and they will be back to see him. Can't believe that she's only 6. And when doctor wanted to ask her questions as to what happened, she was so confident in relating the story to her. I felt so proud. Also said that I should have brought her wallet along so she could help pay the hospital bills. How sweet is that? It just melted my heart.

He was given 4 stitches on the head and many tests were done. All came back with good results so now they are trying to find out what exactly caused it. He's under observation in the hospital and so far, they suspect it was low blood pressure.

So, FIL, MIL, SIL, sis, k & a, etc, this was what happened and we'll just see what the other test results show. Please continue to pray for him, my prayer warriors, and thank you all.

Marina at Keppel

Today was the official opening of the Marina at Keppel by our Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. Regretfully, we missed the celebrations this morning as we had classes. However, we look forward to next week when the Clippers begin their journey, flagging off from the marina.

The Clippers are berthed at the marina till the day they depart which is next Sunday so try to catch a glimpse of them before then.

Here's our representative in the Clipper race - our Uniquely Singapore team.

One for those from Western Australia. ;)

Sis is leaving to go back to Perth tomorrow morning. :( Time sure flies so fast. First was the anticipation of her return and how quickly the time flew by and now it's time for her to go home once more. We won't see her till year end. Hopefully she'll be able to return then. I didn't even manage to have a steamboat dinner for her as there was so much to occupy me in the time she was here. Well, I believe the next time she's back I will have a lot more time to plan one.

However, I did manage to bake some cuppies for her February birthday, way way in advance. Unfortunately it didn't turn out that great. First time trying out a recipe from my new Cupcakes book. The cake was kind of dry but the frosting was nice.

This is the part I most looked forward to today. :D Usually dad will celebrate our birthdays by taking us out for a meal but in this case, he decided to cook and have dinner at home instead. He made sis' favourite prawns, bought some bbq chicken and otah from a Nasi Padang stall, cooked the veggies, some Japanese fry and an omelette for princess. And we all had a great delicious dinner. The chicken was so sedap and so were the prawns. And, as there were lazy bones amongst us, he did everyone a favour and peeled the shells off the prawns prior to cooking. ;)

Check out this very beautiful rosy mango. I couldn't get over the colour of it. Reminds me of an apple.

Time to blow out the candle.

Happy birthday in advance, dear sis. Hope you have a safe flight home. Can't wait to see you again. We never spend enough time with each other each trip. Hope next trip will enable us to do that.

Just want to share a beautiful sunset. Photo courtesy of dad.