Mee Jawa

A Nyonya-inspired noodle soup that is generally served in thick tomato or potato based soup.

Mee Jawa Sauce Ingredients:

200gm    Sweet potato
30gm      Prawn paste
20gm      Chili paste
30gm      Meat curry powder
30gm      Onion
20gm      Shallot
20gm      Ginger
20gm      Garlic
15gm      Tamarind Juice (Jus Asam Jawa)
20gm      Ground peanuts
20gm      Sugar
15gm      Salt
2 liters    Water

Method:
1. Place sweet potato, prawn paste, chili paste, meat curry powder, onion, shallot, ginger, garlic, tamarind juice and water together and bring to boil. Set aside to cool.
2. When boiled ingredients have cooled, blen them together and then return to the pot to heat over low flames.
3. Add in ground peanuts, then season with salt and sugar. Serve with boiled noodles.

Personally, I replaced the prawn paste with fresh prawns (about 8 nos). And I find 2 liters of water is a bit too much, unless you have ample of time to heat the blended sauce over low flames to thicken to sauce, I would suggest to reduce the water used.
Hubby's verdict: The sauce smelled like those sold at stalls/ restaurants. Taste is yummy too. But somehow there's something missing.. I guess it must be the prawn paste that I omitted.

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Moist Blueberry Cupcakes

Recipe from Squidoo.com

Ingredients List :

1 1/4 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar (I reduced to 2/3 cup)

1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup butter

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup blueberries

1/3 cup chopped unblanched almonds, toasted (I omitted these as I'm baking the cupcake for lil K)

Instructions:

Sift dry ingredients together to mix well.

Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Whisk egg vigorously to incorporate air and make the eggs light.

Stir in egg, milk and vanilla and combine thoroughly.

Add to dry mixture and stir together (some lumps should remain) and add the blueberries.

Fill well greased muffin tins with batter until two thirds full.

Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until done.

Hubby's Verdict: YUMMY!!

Lil K's Verdict: He finished 2 whole cupcakes

Mother-in-law's Verdict: Nice and very moist cupcake

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A different ballgame

I have never been an early riser. Except during school days and some occasions or official functions every now and then, when I’m forced to. Even during workdays I get up from the bed around 8.15 a.m. (well it used to be 8.30 a.m. before I had lil K) since my workplace is only 10 minutes away!

I woke up early yesterday to a Sunday, cloudy morning (when everyone, well most, is still enjoying their sleep in the nice weather), at 7.30 a.m. mainly to get to the morning market as lil K’s food stash at the babysitter had run out. And partly it’s because of I’ll be having a long busy Sunday ahead of me. So what I did on my Sunday:

7.30 a.m.          Got up and nursed lil K before heading to market
7.45 a.m.          Headed to the market
8.30 a.m.          Got back from the market & started baking blueberry cupcakes
9.00 a.m.          Blueberry cupcakes in the oven & started prepping lil K’s food stash
9.30 a.m.          Lil K came out from the room, took a break to entertain him
9.45 a.m.          Continued prepping his food stash
10.30 a.m.         Done with his food stash & went for a quick shower
10.45 a.m.         Bathed lil K & nursed him to sleep (his nap time)
11.00 a.m.         Thought I got him to nap, but it only lasted 5 min.
11.15 a.m.         Had my ‘breakfast’
11.30 a.m.         Urut lady came. My long awaited urut session began
1.00 p.m.          Took bath after resting for 30 min.
1.20 p.m.          On our way out for lunch & IKEA with parents in laws
6.00 p.m.          Left IKEA, headed to SS2 New Paris for dinner
7.30 p.m.          Reached home
10.30 p.m.        Nursed lil K to sleep & retired to bed.

 And yesterday, for the record, was my earliest bedtime for years ever since my high school days! Being a mom has certainly changed the ballgame altogether.

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Melt-in-your-mouth Vanilla Butter Cookies

Recipe adapted from http://www.food.com/ and made some tweaks in between.

What You'll Need:

• 1 cup butter or margerine
• 3/4 cup sugar (I reduced to 1/2 cup since I didn't want it to be sweet for lil K)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 1/2 cups flour (I used 2 3/4 cups because I find the dough too soft to be rolled)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

 

How To:

1. Cream butter or margarine with sugar.
2. Add eggs and vanilla and mix.
3. Add flour, baking powder and salt and mix well.
4. At this point you can either roll out and cut with cookie cutters or roll dough into 1 inch balls and flatten on cookie sheet. (Cookie cutters take longer time, so rolling the dough to balls and flatten them is best if you want to save time)
5. Bake at 160C for 8-10 minutes till golden brown.

Verdict: The cookies really melt in the mouth as the title says,  even though I added another 1/4 cup of flour to the batter. And because I used superfine flour, the texture is really soft and fine! A yummy easy to make cookie.

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Our First Real Parenting Challenge

I have finally had my first real taste of challenge in parenting. Lil K has been more cheeky, curious, mischievous and rebellious than ever. I’m not sure if it’s due to his teething, but he just loves putting stuffs, whatever his hands could get on, into his mouth. In the early days, when we tell him ‘NO’ sternly, he would just stare at us giving the “Puss-in-Boots” eye look.

Then after sometime, he couldn’t even be bothered. Eventually, we started telling him ‘NO’ sternly and at the same time hit his hands. Again, he would give us the “look” in the beginning. Then it was ‘upgraded’ from the look to showing us the gesture of hitting hands when we tell him ‘NO’. Now, whenever we tell him ‘NO’, he shows his temper by throwing the object, beat his own hands and start ‘scolding’ us in his baby language.

Yesterday, he was really testing out our patience while we were out for dinner. He was trying to get up a little from his high chair to reach for our dishes, though he’s having his biscuits (which he threw onto the floor because he’s more interested in our dishes). So when I told him ‘NO’, he kept hitting the table while staring back at me. I give his hand a hit, and he kept rebelling by hitting the table even harder and then moving on to hitting me. At the corner of my eyes while I was being stern to him and hitting his hand, there were two tables next to us kept looking at our table. I’m not sure if they’re looking at the way I’m hitting lil K on his hands or the fact that lil K is rebelling at us. Sigh. And at that point of time I really had this thought floating over my head: “Now what am I going to do with this child??” Anyway, I chose to ignore him for the moment and carry on with my dinner.

Back at home, hubby surfed the internet and found this:

 

Scorpio Child

A Scorpio child will usually have a stronger body than the rest of the kids. It is just perfect to support his much stronger will. He will never play or compete just for the heck of it. The aim of winning is always the main reason for it and he will never compromise on this front. He may give in at one point of time, to find some other way through which his victory will be assured. A Scorpio baby has a very hypnotic gaze, under which most of the people feel uncomfortable. So, it is better if you prepare yourself to outstare him every time.

You will have to make him understand that you are the boss of the house and he has to accept the rules you have made. Say it softly but firmly, while staring him down. He will need to be constantly disciplined. You will have to teach him to be considerate towards the weak, inculcate sportsmanship, respect authority and learn to forgive those who hurt him. As per their characteristics profile, Scorpio children are sharp, brave, honest and tend to attract people with their magnetic personality. However, you need to teach them humility before it's too late.

When your Scorpio baby does something wrong, don't shout at him. Learn to say 'No' in a kind, but unyielding manner. Show him that you are stronger than him and only then, will he learn from you. While disciplining him, don't forget to give him love and affection. Just like the other kids, he also needs constant cuddling and pampering. If you fail to do this, he may become too nervous, fearful and fidgety, which is completely opposite to his natural self. His honesty may make him a little blunt and direct and you will need to teach him to sheath his sharp tongue.....

 

The article does have some point which were spot on! Guess, we'll need to try the "soft approach" and see how it goes. Wish me luck!

 

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Butternut Squash Pancake

I had my first attempt in making pancake for lil K on the day off of Awal Muharam. Found this Applesauce Pancake recipe but decided to swap the applesauce to butternut squash puree as I still have some butternut squash in the fridge.

Applesauce Pancake Recipe

What You'll Need:

1 cup flour

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon melted butter

½ cup milk

1 beaten egg

½ teaspoon vanilla

1 ¼ cups applesauce (I swapped them with butternut squash puree)

Method:

1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a medium mixing bowl.
2. Combine milk, egg and butter.
3. Stir into dry ingredients.
4. Add vanilla and applesauce; beat well – do not overbeat to achieve light & fluffy texture.
5. Spoon batter into a hot, well-greased griddle, enough batter to make applesauce pancakes about 4” in diameter.

This pancake freezes well too!

*Pancake recipe from www.wholesometoddlerfood.com

And the final product of my first attempt in making butternut squash pancakes!

Butternut Squash Pancakes

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Fried Chicken Wings

Tried frying up some chicken wings yesterday for the very first time.



Used Nona Original Recipe Fried Chicken Flour to coat the wings

Methods are pretty straight forward.

1) Beat some egg white (I added a dash of salt & pepper to the egg white) to coat the chicken wings.
2) Leave them for about 15 mins.
3) Coat the chicken wings with Nona flour.
4) Heat oil at high flame/heat. *Make sure oil is hot enough before putting in the chicken wings.5) Turn flame/heat to lowest, and put in the chicken wings.
6) Fry till golden brown.



Ta-dah! Fried Chicken Wings

Final product: Crunchy skins with juicy meat! :D

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Speedy Milestones after the Big 1

Lil K has been a very slow and steady baby, or should I say a lazy baby when it comes to hitting his milestones. It wasn't something that we would worry about since he's a preemie for a start and we've been told that we should measure his milestones from his EDD instead of his birthdate, but there will always be questions from people "Can he crawl yet?", "Can he stand yet?" , "Can he walk yet?", etc.


Of course, we would try to guide him to achieve the milestones, but his learning style is similar to the good old phrase "You can lead a cow to the river bank, you can't force her to drink". A good example is we've been teaching him to put the shaped blocks into the shape sorter for weeks and he would just pick up the block and throw it away. Until one day he saw his cousin playing with his shape sorter, he started picking up the blocks and tried to sort them after his cousin has left.


Ever since he'd been able to stand supported a month ago, we've been encouraging him to let go of his hand and stand unsupported, and also walk supported. And what he did was, he would just automatically land his bum bum on the floor if he lets go of his hand from supporting his stand, and he would jump/bounce himself instead of trying to walk supported - well he'll try to take a step or two and ending it with bounces/jumps. Now that he's one week past 12 months, he suddenly showed enthusiasm in trying to stand unsupported and walking supported at the same time. Yesterday, he stand unsupported for a good 10 seconds before landing his bum bum on the floor, and walked from one end of the couch to the other. I guess we'll have to chase after him around the house soon enough. ;)


On his verbal skills, he can now say the following: 'papa' & 'mama' (although he usually goes 'pappappapaa' or 'mammmamama'), 'kaka' (refering to car or kai-kai - means going out), 'go-goh' (means elder brother), 'pa-pao' (means full, together with his hands tapping his tummy), 'mmMmmm' (when he puts rice puffs/cheerios into his mouth), and 'voooom' (when he plays with his toy truck). Oh, and did I mention before that when we ask him to say 'hello', he'd automatically put up his hand to his ear - as if he's answering a phone and will sometimes go 'mm...mm...'. And when he's in the mood, he'd babble his baby language which goes something like 'yyayayakakakyapamamayaka' or even sing in his baby language (although there's no tune to his 'song' yet). We're guessing he's going to be really chatty when he knows how to speak.


Oh, and of late, he's been showing interest in books, although he still bites them occasionally and doesn't have the patience to sit and listen to me till I finish the book - yeah he closes the book when I'm only half way through and take another book. Haih.


O' well, at least it's a good start :)

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A month of books, assignment & a birthday bash!

Just like the title says, November is a month of books, assignment and a birthday bash for me.

In the month of November alone, I've bought 2 cookbook magazines by Annabel Karmel from Popular book store, 2 marketing books from Amazon.com, and 7 books (4 marketing related books, 1 cookbook, 1 parenting book, and 1 career improvement book) from the Big Bad Wolf sales held in South City Plaza, Seri Kembangan.

Annabel Karmel Family Cookbook Magazine, 2 copies for a total of RM9.90!

The 2 books from Amazon.com which cost me a HUGE bomb! RM 300 for 2 books.

The best book shopping ever! RM 35 for 7 books!

 I doubt I would be reading up on all books there, especially the marketing books I got from the sale. So why did I get them you may ask? Well, for RM 5 a book, even though I don't read up on it, it's good to have them as reference when I need them. After all, how often can you get reference books at RM5 per copy? So, total damage spent on books, RM345. On the other hand, if the cost is to be average among all books, it's only about RM 35 per book. Ok, I know it doesn't work that way but that's my usual way of self-comforting when I burst my wallet. :p

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And since I've finally gotten myself some materials from Amazon as my assignment reference, it's time for me to pick up the assignment that should be submitted months ago which I've kept delaying and putting aside (actually, there's no due date-lah). I'm now left with 1 assignment, a dissertation and 1 final paper, and I'm done with the Master degree and I won't be doing studies again for a LONG LONG time. Hopefully, I could get it done by end of next year and before I have my second child. *fingers crossed*

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Lil K celebrated his BIG ONE last Saturday and we hosted the party in a restaurant, Pizza vs Satay, in USJ 11 mainly because of the food, ease of parking, and most importantly they could tailor make a buffet line based on our budget. It was a small and intimate affair with family, relatives and couple of close friends. So here're some photos of the lil K's small birthday bash.

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Malaysia On Sales!

Recently, there were links of a few websites being shared on my friends' Facebook pages.

• http://www.mydeal.com.my
• http://www.everyday.com.my
• http://www.hikupon.com

And I'm sure there are more similar sites like these. What all of them have in common is, in a nutshell, almost everyday there will be new promotions or discounts being offered - usually from 50% off onwards. Once the minimum quantity of coupons sold for a certain promotion/discount, then the deal is ON. After the deal period has passed, an email will be sent out to confirm on the purchased coupon. If the deal is ON, you can download the coupons for usage. Else, if the deal is OFF, then the payment made earlier will be refunded.

Since I've discovered these sites, I've been purchasing coupons till I have to restrict myself from doing so at times. With attractive deals like "2 hours facial + 1 hour massage for RM50", "Manicure and pedicure at RM33 instead of RM66", etc, they just make you feel bad should you give them a pass!

I've been waiting for hair service promotions for almost a month and decided not to wait and went to get my hair cut, colour and treatment done for RM135 - which is considered cheap as I've surveyed around for hair colour service rates and for my short hair length is minimum RM 120. Few days later, these websites decided to come up with hair services promotion. One was offering RM29 for Director/Senior Hairstylist haircut+wash+blow together with 40% off other hair services, and the other offered hair colour + treatment for RM 50 (hair length until bra line). WTH! I did a quick mental calculation, even if I had to go to two different hair salons to get my hair cut and coloured, the total would still be RM 56 cheaper than what I paid earlier. I was totally left speechless. Seriously, these two offers are quite attractive that it made me think about it for a few days even though I've already had my hair done. Finally, I've succumbed into purchasing the RM50 hair colour service coupon this morning, just one hour before the deal is gone. Since it's going to expire only on 31 Jan 2011, so I'm going to keep it till then and have my hair done just in time for Chinese New Year (CNY), and I get to save myself from the escalating hair service rates prior to CNY. *cheeky grin*

Although these websites could make someone bursting their purses/wallets before you know it, but it's really a good way for moms on budget, like me, to pamper ourselves at half the price! ;D

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It's almost a year being a mom!

9 days left to lil K's big One! Gosh, I just can't believe how time flew by us. Last year at this time, I was still confined to bed rest at home due to placenta praevia and lil K kept kicking/banging/knocking against the placenta till it bled 3 times! First episode was when I was in week 29, 2nd episode in week 31, and the final episode in week 34. Yupe, I was hospitalized thrice due to the bleed, and confined to bed rest for a month! My gynae gave me the green light to return to work in week 33 with the condition that I have to limit my movements around the office. Just as I thought I had survived the first week back to work without much difficulties (and I just had a meeting with my GM where I was supposed to do up a presentation for him that day), lil K decided to come out to the world and join us by giving me another kick in the placenta, resulting the final bled. Yes, it was a dramatic affair in the office. The bleeding was so heavy that you can see my blood trail in the office, and even though I took a stack of old newspaper that was about an inch plus thick to line my colleague's car seat, the blood just went through effortlessly and stained her car. And when I was hospitalized, my gynae told me it's best to take lil K out via c-sec rather than trying to keep him till 36 weeks and endure another bleeding episode. Very quickly I was put on drip and had to fast. I can still remember that I was so darn hungry coz it was lunch time and I couldn't eat anything! So, lil K joined us on 20.11.2009. Nothing felt better to have him by oursides and that he was doing very well as a preemie (in fact he was the loudest in the nursery!).

The confinement month was quite a stressful one for me, in a way. Lil K is a preemie and as much as I would want to try breastfeeding him exclusively, there are always 'advices' to feed him with the preemie formula supplement. My hubby gave me his 100% support to breastfeed, and my mom is also supportive but to an extent. Well, first off, lil K was only in his week 34, and after the delivery my paed chose to put him under the heater instead of kangaroo cuddle (my bad, I didn't know that kangaroo cuddle works for preemies). Next, the paed told me that he's going to give lil K some supplements since he's a preemie which I agreed (again my bad, I didn't know that supplement refers to formula milk, but hey I was a new mom at that time and I only know two terms: breastmilk and formula milk). After I found out he was on formula, I was really worried if he doesn't want to be breastfed. Thank god, he latches on pretty well and has no problem switching from bottle to breast.

Few days later after we were discharged, lil K had prolonged jaundice and was admitted back to the hosp twice. I wanted to get myself 'checked-in' to facilitate breastfeeding, but my hubby opposed to the idea, and suggested I should pump at home and he will send the milk to hospital, while I rest at home. I relentlessly agreed. Getting up at every 2 hours to feed lil K wasn't something that I would complain about. I started getting all stressed up when I was trying to breastfeed exclusively, and there are all sorts of advice, "I-should-feed-formula-at-night-so-that-I-can-get-more-rest", "breastmilk-is-easily-digested-and-you-can't-gauge-how-much-the-baby-had", "if-you-feed-formula-you-can-set-the-feeding-span", etc. Hence, the roller-coaster effect on my emotions. I remembered I cried every other day thinking why is the breastfeeding journey so difficult - which got my hubby worried that I might be facing post natal depression and he even called up my mom to consult! LOL..

Once the confinement was over, and I was home alone with lil K, I couldn't have felt happier. I then take charge on how I want to feed my son - no more formula milk! Yupe, since then he was on exclusive breastfeeding until 2 months later when my workload in the office couldn't allow me to pump on a regular basis. And the fact that Aunty Flo was back on track wasn't helping much either. That was when my milk supply started to go up and down. But I'm still happily nursing lil K till now even though he has to take 1-2 feeds of formula milk at the babysitter's place. It's our private bonding moment that we both enjoyed very much.

Measuring lil K's milestones was quite an interesting chapter for us. Since he's a preemie, he should be measured against his actual estimated due date rather than his birthdate. And lil K would hit milestones between his actual due date age and his birthdate age. For example, we thought he would roll over when he's 3 months plus (since he kept showing signs of wanting to roll over since 2 months old) but he ended up to successfully rolled over when he hit 5 months plus (about 4 months from edd). And he didn't sit unsupported until he was 8 months old (about 6.5 months from edd)!  As for his vocal milestones, he's quite on track with his birthdate age to which we concluded, he's going to be chatterbox! So, when he couldn't hit milestones of his birthdate age, we will self-console ourselves by saying oh, he came out 6 weeks earlier. :p But when he does, of course we would be very happy. =D
Watching him growing up healthily day by day is the biggest satisfaction so far. Despite having to work full time, I'm making sure that I can provide him with all the love and nutritions he can get. Preparing his food is one session I enjoyed a lot. From pureed fruits and vege to semi solids, I really learnt a lot along the way - nutritions, what are super foods, four day rules, etc. Which of course got me labelled as 'picky&choosey' by my mom when it comes to lil K's food, but I couldn't care less! Nothing beats watching him finishes the food that I prepared which makes me feel extremely happy and satisfied.

Being a parent has definitely taught me so much things along the way, and made appreciate my parents even more.
Lil K, mommy wishes you a happy birthday, and may you be blessed with good health and all the good things in life. Love you, baby.

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Working The Kitchen Out!

Finally did some groceries marketing last weekend coz lil K's food has ran out. Started cooking again yesterday, after resting for almost 2 weeks as the in laws and my parents were in town, and the Mr Hubs has some dinner functions in between - leaving me with more excuse not to cook. :p

Anyway, I was feeling very ambitious yesterday - wanting to cook dinner & bake a cake at the same time. So, as soon as I reached home I prepared the soup first (so that it has more than an hour boiling cause for Chinese soups the longer it boils, the better it tastes). Next up, was cutting and preparing the ingredients for the dishes and set them aside. Well, it's nothing complicated, it's just some grilled fishes, stir-fry siew pak choy, and steamed tofu with oyster sauce. Then, I took out the baking stuffs from the cabinet and started mixing the ingredients. Lucky thing, the Orange Chocolate Marble Cake recipe is an easy and simple one which I found on the net. And while the cake was baking, I returned to finish cooking the remaining dishes. And just when I thought I succeeded in doing both cooking and baking at the same time, I only realised that I've forgotten to cook the rice!! Haih.. what a disappointment! Anyway, I still cook the rice and dinner was delayed by 20 mins, and we still had our dinner before 8pm. :)

Here's the ORANGE CHOCOLATE MARBLE CAKE recipe:

Ingredients:
250 grams of butter and self-raising flour
4 eggs
Sugar 200 grams (but I reduced to 180 grams)

Method : 
1. Cream sugar and butter till white and fluffy. Add in eggs, one by one. Add in flour.
2. Separate the batter into two portions.

PORTION A – ORANGE :

Add the orange rind and juice of one orange (depending on size of orange) and mix.
PORTION B – CHOCOLATE:
PORTION A – CHOCOLATE :

Add about 100 grams melted cooking chocolate or 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder.

In a suitable size baking tin, drop spoonsful of the chocolate and orange batter. Do not swirl as it will naturally form designs. *Suitable size baking tin means the quantity of the batter must reach up to half the level of the tin.
Bake in a preheated oven for 45-60 minutes at 180 deg celcius. Leave the cake to cool.


So, here's the end product: 

The cake tasted great, despite the poor presentation (I was lazy to line the tin properly with paper, hence the out of shape cake!)

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Hello!

After much contemplation, I’ve finally made up my mind to restart my blogging activities which I’ve derailed from after my wedding preparations.And having a baby made me even lazier to blog even though I should keep a journal of my journey from being single to married and now into motherhood.

Anyway, since I'm picking up blogging again, but I have to say the updates won’t be frequent. It's just at least I have a place to turn to when I want to write in detail of any ups and downs or random thoughts/happenings (besides shouting short messages in FB!).

So then, till we meet again.

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