Made in China?

What do you make of the recent scandal that is making the headlines every day?

It is kinda scary to know that at one time or another, we have consumed them.

The current list is this - (It's what I got from the newspapers today)

Banned :
1. Dutch Lady pasteurized strawberry flavoured milk
2. White Rabbit milk candy
3. Yili yoghurt ice bar

On the list of things that are being recalled are M&Ms, Snickers peanut bars, Dove chocolate bars, Oreo wafer sticks, Magnum mini classics ice-cream, Monmilk milk, Walls Mini Poppers ice-cream, Mentos yoghurt bottle, Wall's all-natural mango, Moo sandwich ice-cream, mini Cornetto & Youcan ice-cream. These have not been proven to contain melamine, but are recalled for pre-cautionary measures.

When the first problems with China products came to light, was it last year, starting with White Rabbit candy, I was on the alert. It hit so close to home - these are the things we grew up eating. It's really scary to think when did all this begin. I have been avoiding MIC foodstuff, all kinds, since last year, including fresh fruits, frozen seafood, etc. I make sure always to check the labels. I guess it's only right to be super kiasu and wary of the stuff we put into our mouths. I loved the Moo sandwich ice-creams and thought it was a good ice-cream for kids, till I found out on the back that it is MIC, and that's when I stopped purchasing them. With fruits etc, I mean, how do you know what they add to the soil etc? It's scary to think. I miss my favourite haw flakes, which my little girl also loves, but I guess it's just a little sacrifice that we have to make.

There was also a problem with toys, and imagine a brand name such as Fisher Price being affected, how do we know if the cheap toys that we find being sold everywhere, are safe? I got an email about used condoms being recycled to make cute little hair ties for our girls??? It's gross!

I quote this from the email I received :-

BEIJING (AFP) - Used condoms are being recycled into hair bands in southern China threatening to spread sexually-transmittable diseases they were originally meant to prevent, state media reported Tuesday In the latest example of potentially harmful Chinese-made products, rubber hair bands have been found in local markets and beauty salons in Dongguan and Guangzhou cities in southern Guangdong province, China Daily newspaper said.. 'These cheap and colorful rubber bands and hair ties sell well ...... threatening the health of local people,' it said. Despite being recycled, the hair bands could still contain bacteria and viruses, it said. 'People could be infected with AIDS, (genital) warts or other diseases if they hold the rubber bands or strings in their mouths while waving their hair into plaits or buns,' the paper quoted a local dermatologist who gave only his surname, Dong, as saying. A bag of ten of the recycled bands sells for j ust 25 s en (three cents), much cheaper than others on the market, accounting for their popularity, the paper said. A government official was quoted as saying recycling condoms was illegal. China 's manufacturing industry has been repeatedly tarnished this year by a string of scandals involving shoddy or dangerous goods made for both domestic and foreign markets. In response, it launched a public relations blitz this summer aimed at playing up efforts to strengthen monitoring systems. Check your kids hair bands and make sure they do not put them in their mouth while trying to plait or tie their hair.

It's real!

It's finally here... the tickets for the F1 qualifiers! I was beginning to doubt it was true. :P

Hubby's colleague kindly offered race tickets for Friday and Saturday to his friends, and really, I wasn't supposed to be going, but when I found out he (hub) was invited, I kicked up a fuss and said, if I wasn't going, he won't be going either. When I first heard news of F1 coming to our little island, I was very excited and said we should go watch, but he said tickets would be very expensive so no way. I really need to thank WL for sacrificing his ticket so I can go instead. Thanks so much!

Sleepover has been arranged and Princess' little girlfriend is too cute. She's rather 'deprived' according to her mum, and has never had any friends over to her house before, so when D told her about it, she started counting down the days like more than a month ago and has been bugging her mum about it ever since. Me? I chose not to say a thing. But dad leaked it out to her.

I had my own race yesterday... from one party to another. One was from 2-4pm, and the second was from 3-7pm. For the past year, I think this is the first time two parties have overlapped. By the end of yesterday, I was exhausted even though I didn't do much. My joints acted up today and I haven't been very mobile. Still, preparing lunch and dinner is a must! This little packet caught my eye when I was at the supermarket and I decided to give it a try. It's not too bad. I used pork fillet as that was the only meat in my freezer, and was quite pleased with the taste. I'm not into Korean food, so I can't comment on it, but it suits my palate.

My Ah Ma used to cook this cauliflower in tomato sauce when I was young. It isn't my favourite vegetable but I would eat this version. She used to cook the plain ones for everyone and the one with tomato sauce for the kids. :) Basically it's just tomato sauce, a little bit of salt and sugar to taste.

Spinach soup. I used ready stock and just added the ingredients.

Mixed Fruits Marshmallow Cake

This was really funny... after I poured the jelly layer, some strawberries started swimming away. Notice the straying one in the picture above? It wasn't the only one. The fruits consisted of canned peaches, fresh strawberries, and fresh mangoes.

This blog is currently in lazy mode...

I haven't been updating as much as my juice has run dry. It's not that I have been very busy, but tidying toys and books to be given or thrown away seems to take up much of my time. I also wasn't cooking very much (lazy), but this past week, I've been good - staying home and cooking both lunch and dinner. It's the same old stuff, and they've been blogged about, so it will only be a repetition.

We are invited to a housewarming party today, and were told not to get any gifts as they do not need anything. It's actually a new home for an elderly couple and their family, so I decided to give something homemade, from my little kitchen.

I love this marshmallow cake, introduced to me by Cranberry and it turned out very well this time. I tried it on Thursday and it was a real disaster. Thanks to Cranberry for all her tips and it was a success! Now I'm proud to present my present. ;)

Mid Autumn Festival

How did you spend last evening? We celebrated 2 of my cousins' birthdays. Since they both fall in the month of September, we decided to kill two birds with a stone. We had an early dinner at Billy Bomber's at Central and then took a stroll along Clarke Quay with the little ones holding their lanterns and then it turned into a sparkler affair. This attracted the attention of the throngs of photographers present there with their very busy cameras capturing the special moments and antics of the little kids with their sparklers. Gosh, I just had to stay out of the limelight.

Along the riverside were all these beautiful zodiac lanterns as well as some big lantern floats in the river. It was indeed a perfect day to take a ride in the ferries plying the river.

This was the lantern that she picked out for herself this year. However, she got fearful of the burning candle and mummy ended up having to hold it. Next year, we'll get the butterfly one which has a much wider neck so that it's safer to carry. It didn't help that it was rather breezy and the candle was flickering a tad too much.

This single piece of plain lotus paste mooncake cost me a mad whopping $12.63! Little girl wanted it after doing the taste test at Ngee Ann City mooncake fest. We'll savour every little crumb. %)

F1 fever

This beautiful Ferrari is parked outside Parkway Parade. We simply had to take some photos. Looking forward to the F1, but I also agree with Camemberu that our roads are not made for racing. Well, we'll have to see when the race actually happens. I'm sure though, that the people responsible for it wouldn't have given the go-ahead if it really wasn't suitable. But tickets are actually not sold out yet? Hmm... I didn't know that. All I know is that the ticket prices are very high and so are the hotel prices during that period.

More mooncakes

I started making some mooncakes on my own last week and yesterday as well. The first batch was for some friends and this batch is more for family. In my first batch, I followed the recipe exactly but it resulted in a rather soft skin, so for yesterday's, I did one and a half times the recipe and added the water gradually till I got the consistency I was happy with. It resulted in a firmer skin which was perfect.

I started by sifting the flour and sugar and mixed in the shortening till it resembled breadcrumbs. I hate handling shortening as it is too oily, so what I did was to use a butter knife and slowly cut it up. :) I then added water till it combined into a dough. It usually is a little sticky at this stage so you have to let it rest. You can use your favourite recipe but make sure you add the water slowly and not all at once. This is where my recipe originates, but as I do not have permission from the owner, I can only link it.

While the dough was resting, I measured out the filling and shaped them into little balls. It is optional to add melon seeds, etc. I chose the white lotus paste as I was told by the guy in Phoon Huat that it isn't too sweet. Lotus paste also happens to be my favourite filling. I wish I could have gotten the pandan paste as that too is one of my favs, but I wasn't planning to make that many mooncakes so it would have been a waste.

After having rested the dough, I divided them into 6 balls and added colouring to get the shades I liked. The last ball had Oreo crumbs added to it so that explains why it is black.

These 2 batches below were from last week. The colours are more pastel which I liked.

However, having looked back at the previous ones done at Cranberry's, I opted to add more colour this time round so they would look more vibrant.

This is what the inside looks like. Am happy that it's a great combo of thin skin and the right amount of filling.

Guess who's sick?

Gosh, the bug has come to me. I woke up on Sunday morning with a tummy ache and some body aches as well. Went for mass, then to lunch at Keyaki Pan Pacific. Hubby said to postpone lunch but I didn't wanna be a wet blanket. So, anyway, the good news is that princess is now well. She started eating a little on Saturday and at lunch on Sunday, she ate so much it was crazy. I guess she knows good food when she sees it. Haha. The other good news is that her paed called last evening and said that the urine results came back ok, no funny bacteria. I, on the other hand, was too sick to join in the fun at a playdate we had arranged weeks before, as yesterday was a day off from school due to it being Teacher's Day. For the rest of the kids, it's actually the weeklong term break. While I was sending princess down in the lift to a friend who had agreed to pick her up so she didn't miss the fun, she said to me, 'poor mummy can't go to her friend's house, but lucky me I get to go swimming'. :/ So I slept a lot in the last two days, and saw the doc in the afternoon yesterday and got some medi to fight the bug. Feel a lot better in the tummy now but still rather weak. Hope to be well soon.