Birthday, again

For my mil's birthday :D





I was pretty glad that the cake deco turned out fine. Really had no idea how to decorate the cake at first but thankfully, inspiration came slowly by the time the cake has cooled off :)



As for the cake, it's pandan sponge cake.

Again, choosing the right cake to bake was a tough decision as mil dislikes chocolate cake, cheesecake and almost all other cakes. So the pandan cake was also a last minute pick :P

Luckily, everyone likes it.. In fact, i baked it again 2 days ago. Will be back with the pictures sans decoration :)

La bi xiao xin?

** Rated R(A)
This entry contains a nude photo

La bi xiao xin = Shinchan


Since baby, my boy2 always gets comments that he looks like one, ShinChan.

Not only that, the boy2 loves ShinChan as well! Whenever he fusses as a baby, once he sees the ShinChan figurine in my in laws' house, he'll keep quiet straight. He'll stare, smile, touch.

Recently when i brought mil to do her eyebrow embroidery together with boy2, the first remark i got from the beauticians there was 'aiyoh... your boy looks like ShinChan leh! Big eyes, thick eyebrows.. sooo cute!'

*faint*

Does my boy2 really look like ShinChan?

My boy2

Another similarity that my boy2 shares with ShinChan is they like to go bottomless!!

Yes, that's right. Bottomless! I wonder why..

Better ventilation? Or simply cheeky? I will never know.. :P

When i saw boy2 went not only bottomless, but topless as well with a pair of socks though [in another word, full monte with socks], i sprang into action and quickly captured him doing his thang before i got caught.

Very kinky! :P

My kinky boy! Hahahaa

Wait, what 'thang' did you think he was doing huh???

You dirty dirty dirty! :ppPpp

Apple crisp

My fridge has been overflowing with apples lately.

So when i saw a recipe that teaches how to make apple crisps, i quickly got into action and baked one whole batch out :P

My apple crisps...

Apple crisps

They are soooooo lovely to eat!

Just as the name suggested, they are crispy and sweet with a hint of sourish taste.

Best of all, i don't feel guilty whenever i eat them. They indeed, make a fabulous snacks when one's feeling peckish *wink*

Recipe
3 apples (better to use green, prettier coz red apples' colour will run and stain)
juice of 1 lemon
200g caster sugar
500ml water

1. Wash and dry the apples. Slice them thinly, as thin as you can without peeling or coring, and discard the ends. Place the slices on a plate as you go, sprinkling them with lemon juice.

2. Place the sugar and water in a large, heavy based pan over a low heat. When the sugar has dissolved, bring the syrup to boil and pour into a large bowl. Plunge the apple slices into the syrup and leave to macerate overnight.

3. Preheat the oven to 100C. Drain the apple slices and dry both sides carefully on kitchen paper. (Do make sure u really dry the apple slices to ensure its crispiness later) Transfer to 2 non stick baking trays.

4. Dry out the apple slices in the warm oven for 1 hour, turning them over with a spatula halfway through. The slices should be very dry. Allow them to cool completely, then store in an airtight box until needed.

**recipe adapted from "The Cook's book' by various chefs

Pass it on

How many times have you thrown away some household appliances, furnitures etc that are still working?

I have.. many times.

So did my mil. Even more than me :P [boy, do we feel bad or what?]

If your answer is yes, it's time to check this website out.

Extracted from the website :

"The items you so easily dispose of, can bring a thousand smiles to the needy!"

** this entry is created solely for myself for future reference so that i don't have to go google like a madman for the website when i or mil have furnitures to give away :P

My koala bear

One of my favourite 'carry baby' style will be koala bear style.

Usually this style can only be used in the first few months after the baby's born. After 6 months or so, they'll outgrow it and most of the time, they'll prefer to sleep in different kind of positions.

Maybe it's just me. I don't know. I only like carrying babies, only babies, in this position.. they feel sooo koalaish!

But once they have grown up, it doesn't feel so nice carrying them in this way anymore. No more koalaish feeling. Lol.

Now, may i present you.. my koala bear :PppP

Cheeky boy2 trying to intimidate the photographer. Grin.

My sweet sweet sweetie

Time for some baby talk.. :P

Or maybe, just post. Grin.

Because i don't know what to say.. the photos have said it all. Heh :PppPP





Actually i've been procrastinating. This photos were taken almost 1.5 months ago when baby was almost 2 months old. He's now 3+ months old already.

Time sure flies!

And i haven't even lost abit of weight yet! Ugh...!

Nordie dresses

Yes, the shopaholic [read: me] is at it again.

Not one buy but many. Dare not post them all, else the husband will get heart attack! Heh.

Hence, will only post those which i've promised to show, dresses from Nordstrom.

I love scoop neck tops/ dresses. How can i say no to this aye?

Babydolls! This piece is totally gorrgeeeoussss.. Can't wait to wear it! :P

This dress is not from Nordstrom but Delias. It was love at first sight for me. Unfortunately, my size is out of stock.. but...

i found this similar dress at Nordstrom coincidentally. Wasted no time to grab this dress as well.. Think i'll add the lace to it myself, like the Delias's dress. I like it better with the lace, a lot better :)

Nordstrom.com is such a pleasant place to shop. Fuss free and the Customer Service is excellent! They have this live help which you can log in and ask any questions you want regarding the clothes, shipping, payment etc. Best of all, they are all so friendly :)

Thank you Celest, for introducing me to it.. or maybe, no thanks at all (from the husband lol) :P

I love shopping at Nordstrom!

p.s: a preview to some of the clothes which i've bought for the past 2-3 months.. errr, i see 2 more stacks,unworn in the cupboard! *gulp*



pps : Nordstrom dresses are way better, tons better than dresses from Wetseal, VS, Old Navy etc, in terms of quality. I rather fork out a little bit more to get dresses from Nordie than Wetseal/VS etc anytime. Moreover, these dresses, if it's being sold here, they'll definitely cost more than what i've paid, including shipping. So, yeah, more Nordie dresses for me in the future.. yay! :P

Muffins disaster!

When i went to do my hair 2 weeks ago, i decided to bake a dozen of banana muffins and white chocolate muffins to bring along for the staffs at Toni & Guy, Holland Village. Didn't feel nice if i were to go empty handed especially when my cutting, hair colouring and treatments are free *wink*.



Very unfortunately, the banana muffins which i made were without baking powder!! Which explains why the muffins with almond above didn't rise tall enough. I only realised that my baking powder had finished, during the creaming the butter with sugar stage. Heh. But i went ahead and still bake them and like the previous time, it turned out very 'kueh' like. Banana kueh instead of banana muffin :P

As for the white chocolate muffins, let's just say.. the recipe ought to go straight into the rubbish bin! Not nice at all.. :S

From now on, i'll stick to tried and tested recipes instead, until i'm feeling adventurous again :P

Fried hokkien mee

I luurrveee fried hokkien mee, both Malaysia's and Singapore's version.

As i'm now residing in S'pore, i hardly get to eat the Malaysia's version anymore :(

So, to satisfy my cravings, i cooked my own but with lots of extra ingredients, which u won't get from those road side stalls, purely for my own piggishness :P



The colour looks odd hor? But that's the real colour! I never edit or anything like that.

My fried hokkien mee has got prawns, sotong, dried shiitake mushrooms, chye sim, fish cake and sliced pork. No lard though, even though i'd love to add in that too!

Must indulge once a while okay.. :P

Eating this with some sliced cili padi will really send you to another degree of shiok-ness. Ooommpph!

Shady shades..

Finally... I have it!

Been lemming for this Coach shades for 2 weeks already. Ever since my sister from Taiwan came to visit me 2 weeks ago and bought herself one, i've been wanting it so badly. But the price tag really puts me off.

This is my second designer shades. The first was Gucci, given by my then bf, now hb on our 2nd day into the very new relationship. Unfortunately, the Gucci was broken into 2 by my second boy and it couldn't be fixed anymore. That was almost 3 years ago.

When i told hb of my new lemming or rather, kept repeating of my new lemming, hb pretended not to hear anything *kabish*. Then 3 days ago, he brought me there himself, after seeing me getting all dressed up for it. Hahaha.. i knew he'd buy for me, albeit he said he wouldn't to my sister! :P

I know i know.. i've said about me not owning any branded goods but sunglasses is different ok? Grin. At least, to hb it is.. because it's to protect my eyes. So cannot buy cheap cheap ones that don't have 100% UV protection.

My lovely shades.. :D

Coach

Check out the butterfly diamantes!

I love love love it.. Sooo gorgeous!

All along, i wanted another Gucci but unfortunately, Gucci's frames don't fit me anymore. They are all too small for my face [their width that is]. I'm glad i didn't buy one just for the sake of buying one when hb asked me to. Else i'll really go bang my head. Heh.

Coach's frames fit like a glove. No adjustment is needed. Simply puuuurrfeecctt!

I'm really on cloud9.. :D

Gip gip, ngo oi lei!

Brownie muffin

After seeing much raves on this 'Brownie Muffins', i decided to copy down the recipe and bake them when the opportunity arises, just for try. Am curious on how it taste like. Brownie? Muffin? Both?

Anyway, when i was told by my sil that she and her bf will be organising a bbq get-together on the weekend my pil went for holiday, i saw that as the most appropriate time to bake these lovelies.

Oh, do ignore the white chocolate chip on top. Lol. It's sooooooo out of place and uglify the whole look but it was the only task which the boy could help with, for him to play 'masak masak' :D

Brownie muffins

I love it!

They are very moist, fluffy and chocolatey.

Why are they called Brownie Muffins? My guess is because they are crusty on the outside and soft and moist on the inside. Very nice..

Me like!

And guess what?

These were the only food we had during the bbq. Why?? Because we didn't manage to start the fire!! Lol.

Father in law wasn't around. So he couldn't come to our rescue like the previous bbq we had. However, we didn't blame ourselves for the lack of skill but we blamed it all on the charcoal! Seriously, it was the charcoal's fault. It couldn't stay 'red' [a stage where the flame has gone and where the charcoal is really burning inside] throughout but died down after a while. Funny right?



See that? I think everyone got pretty fed up. We tried from 7pm to 9.30pm but to no avail. Poor chicken wings and the satays + marshmallows. Aihzzz...

Thank goodness for my muffins. Keke..

Me a child?

Guess who was the most excited one when this got unwrapped?



From the subject of this entry, it's not hard to guess aye? :P

Yup, it was me and it wasn't even my present!

My bestie gave this to one of my boys as their birthday presents last month. Guess the sight of it brought me down the memory lane. My sisters and i love playing Checkers. That was almost 1.5 decade ago.

So yeah, when i first saw the board game, i was even more excited than the boys! Lol. Some mother i am! Grin.

OT : u know, i was also the most excited one when it comes to opening the X'mas presents, according to most of the eye witnesses who saw me in action. Almost like a child, an old one that is *blush*

Anyway, back to the board game subject.

Guess who was the victim whom got forced into playing with me??

Yep yep, none other than the husband, who should feel very honoured ok! Afterall, i'm sharing my childhood memories with him :P

That very night itself, both of us and the game on the bed. And guess again, who won the first and only round so far?

ME! Lol.

During the start of the game, i was so convinced i was gonna lose and even voiced out to hb that i got tricked by him but surprise surprise, i beat hb hands down and nope, i didn't cheat! Hb died until very ugly.. Haha.

Next up, Snakes and Ladders. Yay!

Grilled prawns with mozzarella cheese on linguini

This is what i did with the long and huge prawns.

Grill, to get the best flavour/taste out of them, together with the slowly, melting + browning cheese. Couldn't think of other ways to cook it but please, if you do have other suggestion on how to cook these prawns, do let me know! I'll be more than delighted to find out.. ;)



My biggest mistake ->

Overgrill them!

Note to self: And also, should try placing them on the tray instead of the rack, so that the prawns can absorb the gravy from the grilling.

My end result :


It was pretty delish overall..

Would be excellent if the prawns were juicy. Totally love the taste of the pasta even though it doesn't look quite good here. To get the my-very-own-oil-concoction which i mixed into the pasta, i used olive oil to fry roughly 20 prawn heads, then a handful of chopped garlic and lastly just before it's done, i stirred in the fresh shiitake mushrooms and cherry tomatoes.

Sedap! :P

.What did i do?

.Did i deserve that?

These were the questions that i've been asking myself since last night, all the way to 5am in the morning but unfortunately, i didn't manage to get an answer.

You see, lately the husband has been having weird mood swing, twice in a short 1 week span. Something similiar which happened to a person's husband who is extremely close to me. Perhaps i should have heeded the old folk's advise. Never divulge other husbands' bad habits/acts/attitude to your own husband. Without realising it, they might 'follow' as well. My bad..

Don't get me wrong though.

Most of the time, we are a very loving couple. We've been through lots of ups and downs but we survived them all. We still do the normal thang that couples do despite having 3 children already.

We date almost every Saturday night. We still love to tease each other mercilessly. We wrestle (is that normal? :P) and i'm still trying my very best to flip the husband over but always, get pushed to the bed instead before trying again. We love spending time together, just the both of us whenever and wherever we can. In another word, we are still very much in love and the flame is definitely still burning.

Anyway, what happened was the husband went into a cold and quiet mode during the mood swing. I got ignored. He didn't hold even my hands when we were crossing the road in town last night albeit he wasn't angry with me. Of course i got angry lah. Err wait, do i sound very small gas?? :P

After a while, on the ride back home, hubby tried talking to me normally and even teased me by pinching my nose playfully etc but i barked back. Then it was back to the starting point again.

EH? o . O

After writting this out, sounds like i'm the small gas one, no? It wasn't supposed to turn out this way! Lol.

But you know what? I don't even get mood swings! How come hubby does?? *roll eyes*

Maybe because hubby can be considered my first love, hence, i have no idea what to expect of them [men]. Hmm.. maybe it's time to read up Men from Mars, Women from Venus? Okay okay, i'm really blowing this up. Grin. Before you know it, we'll be ok again ah :D

Somehow, by writting out, i can see a clearer picture? A picture which indicates that i'm indeed a small gas wife instead of the husband is the bad man who needs whacking with my rotan.

Useless

computer!!

Died for the past 5 days and after being 'fixed up' today, it's dying again, everytime when i am in the midst of typing my entry for this blog/email!

What else can be more frustrating than that???

Someone please pass me the hammer!

Huge and long

Just the other day when i opened the grocery bag given to me on the weekly basis by my in laws, i saw this..

A prawn this big!

The spoon used in this picture is the normal dinner spoon, not the short dessert spoon and the plate used is the big dinner plate.

But somehow when i saw the photos above, it(the prawn) didn't look that big.. sooo, i took another picture of it, hoping it will be a better picture to emphasize on the size of the prawn :P

That's my giant hand. Heh. Big right?? I meant the prawn hor.. :P


Fyi, my hands are usually bigger than most guys' u can find. When i first got to know hubby, he was so shocked at the size of my hands and the length of my fingers. Heh.. Thankfully, hb's hands are still slightly, very very slightly bigger than mine (because of his big palms ah) but you know, he's 6 feet tall! How can compare right? Grin.

Anyway, i'm still thinking of how to cook these prawns to bring out its best..

Stay tune!

Didi's birthday celebration II

More cakessssss... :P

Another very, extremely, very last minute cake. As for the design of the cake, it was done anyhow. Grin.

Lemon chiffon cake topped with white chocolate ganache mixed with lemon zest

Top view

See what i mean by that 'peace' sign? Ugh! :P

My one and only photo with the birthday boy this year. The husband was carrying the sleeping baby in the balcony. So, not able to take photo with us :(

I'm so late!! Gotta run.. Going to salon to do hair colour now. Will reply the comments later! ;)

Didi's birthday celebration I

I've got 2 birthday boys in the month of March. Instead of making only 2 cakes, i had to make 4, 1 for school and 1 for family, for both the boys.

Totally ran out of idea on what decoration i should do for didi's cake. In the end, the inspiration came right before i dozed off on the night before.

Thank god the boy liked it. The birthday boy only got to see the cake on his birthday day itself, in the class together with his classmates because everything was too last minute :P

Smiley star with little stars around it :D

With fanciful marshmallows at the side and M&Ms for a more vibrant feel

D-o-n-t ask me why the 'peace' sign for every single photo they take.. I've no idea either :P

Cake cutting time!

Flavour -> chocolate sponge cake with blueberry inside

I wrote..

6. I was a straight A's student but not a degree holder

for my previous entry on Weirdometer.

Before u start thinking that i'm an intelligent or a knowlegable person, please.. read on. But this entry will not only let you in on that, but also 2 other personal 'me' topic. So, yes.. it'll be a long one. Grin.

I have stopped studying for a very long time, since beginning of 1999. From then on, i hardly touch any book at all, except for romantic or chic novels from time to time, say.. less than 5 times a year? (as a mother of 3 who also bake and cook plus surfing the net, how to?) :P

From the time i'd finished my first year in 1999 till today, I have also not worked at all. So literally, i have stopped using my brain for quite sometime already. Life as a stay-at-home-mom doesn't require me to. I bet if u were to dissect me at this very moment now, u'll see my very mouldy brain. I have stopped using them for a very long time, so long that i have grown so used to not using them that i have became very lazy to even use them! Lol. Serious. Not joking ok.. These days, if u were to give me a a sum to do in the head, i'll say er, pass me the calculator please. Or if u were to ask me to do some puzzles or riddles that need me to think, i'll say, aiyah.. don't want! I have, indeed.. grown to be that lazy!

Slowly, i became what i am today. No longer the straight A's student material definitely. Lol. Pretty enjoyable i'd say. The plus plus point is definitely not needing to live up to others' expectations whenever questions are being shoot to you. Now, i'll just give the i-don't-know look and act blur :P

Since i'm on this, i might as well reveal a little more on myself, on the subject of my very powderful engrish.

I am a real kampong girl.

I grew up in this very small town in Pahang, Malaysia. A town where English does not exist, almost. My family moved to KL when i was 9. I didn't speak a word of English then and very reluctant to do so as well after that because the other kids in school spoke excellent English. I was afraid i might be laughed at. Hence, i only hang out with the Chinese girls. That was also a problem at first because i speak no Cantonese. I still remember we actually communicate using Bahasa! I only knew bahasa and Mandarin and they, bahasa english and cantonese. So, bahasa it was. Hah!

I managed to siam speaking English all the way till i was 13, that's when i started Sec 1. I had absolutely no choice then. The friends i know in class can only speak English. It was very bad when i first started but i took it with a pinch of salt, laughing together with them when i made a boo boo. Wanna know how bad my English was? :P

You know how when we used to get picked in class to read a story out loud? I actually pronounced 'unique' as u-ni-q! The whole class burst out laughing upon hearing me. Even the English teacher couldn't hide her amusement. Grin. My face was red as a beetroot within seconds. I was 14 then.

After 1999, i didn't have much chance to improve my English any further since i have stopped studying and was neither working. I don't speak English at home as well. So, my Engrish is as good as any Primary 6 student here.

Imagine my 'headache' when i first penning my thoughts, my life here. Nightmare! Lol.

Now you know why sometimes, (a lot of times more like it actually, hehe) my sentence sounds weird or not right, or my spelling was misspelt, or my words/phrases used incorrectly or i have lousy grammer :P

Hubby told me, well.. at least i'm providing a little bit of entertainment here, something for you to laugh at *shake fists* :P

On the topic of husband, you know.. the mean husband loves to tease me mercilessly whenever i try using a new cheem word. Ugh. Or when i mispronounce an unfamiliar new word, he'll go 'ngek ngek ngek' - immitate my pronounciation - then 'ngek ngek ngek' - grin evilly. Ought to be whacked right?

Now now.. anyone wanna get me a thesaurus for my birthday? Heh. Kidding! I seriously do not want that okay? Don't even think about it! :)