Claypot chicken rice

Ta-dah!

Without flash

Okie, it's more like rice cooker chicken rice than claypot chicken rice since i used rice cooker instead of the traditional claypot. Grin.

I love love love claypot chicken rice! So does everyone else in the household, especially hb. I don't cook this often so if i do, it would be a pleasant treat for hb and the kids. The ones found outside at the hawker usually are not really up to our standard. However, we do have one fav place that we do go if we are really craving for an authentic one, which is located at Clementi. The bad news is, the waiting time could be more than an hour!

Hence, most of the time, i rather cook this dish myself at home. Save time, save money and definitely healthier and more hygenic.. ;)

With flash

Usually, i only cook this when i have all the ingredients needed -> chicken thighs, mushrooms, chinese sausage and last but not least, salted fish. If possible, i'll garnish it with spring onion.

Yummilicious!

p.s: gosh, i'm so gonna do this again this week. Looking at the pics now makes me crave for it already *thick skin me*!

Confession

Today i did something very sinful which i know i shouldn't be doing.

Bad bad me.

I ate the whole bottle of the remaining Nutella in front of the boys just like that, using a spoon, scoop and eat. No thanks to Tanny who gave me the idea when she told me the other day that she indulged in almost half bottle of Nutella just like that too *evil look* :P

What i worry most is what will i say if the boys want to do the same thing again in the future? I can't possibly say cannot, it's wrong because i, myself did just that :PppPPpp

But i did tell them that mommy is a naughty girl today. Sz asked why and i told him that if papa were to see us (yes, i even shared it with the boys!) doing this, for sure we will get scolded badly. Lol.

Flaky yam paste and salted egg yolk pastries

Ok ok.. so, it was supposed to be flaky pastry but it didn't turn out to be one :(

Looks edible but it's not :(

I sort of suspected it wouldn't be one before i bake them actually.. based on the recipe i got from Chef Chan's Dim Sum cook book bought by hb for me recently.

Yupyupyup.. that's right! Hb actually bought a cook book for me! Funny right? Never expected this from him but you know why?

It was because he wanted me to make him 'wu kok'!

That pppeeerrrggggg~~~

Anyway, to get flaky pastry, we usually have 2 types of dough right? But this recipe doesn't call for it. Oh well, to play safe, i'll try this again using hugbear's recipe from KC. Really prefer those recipes which have been tried and tested ;)

By the way, i threw most of the pastries above away because the crust was way too hard. Harder than biscuit! Imagine.. How to eat yeah? Wasted my effort in preparing the yam paste from scratch *sobs*

Was very disappointed because i was looking forward to eat it so much! :P

p.s: to my own astonishment, hb didn't only get 1 cook book for me recently, but another 2 more few days ago. Amazing!

But but..

please don't get me wrong.

Hb and i do have our ups and downs. Whenever we have bad quarrel, i do question myself the same thing at times. Did i marry the right person?

I dare say that almost every time (99.9%) after things have cooled down or when we patch things up again, my answer to my own question would be yes.

Recently, i read one of my gfs blog on her opinion on guys and i believe the person she was talking about was me and my hb. Well, i'm not gonna go into details of what she wrote but i felt strongly protective of hb for what she has said.

To me, no one's perfect. I have kinda accepted the flaws that hb has and he has accepted mine (actually, not really. He still cannot understand why i need to shower with very hot water even when the weather is hot or why do i need so much sleep a day :P).

Anyway, i have most certainly accepted the issue hb has with the opposite gender when it comes to me as long as i find it logical and not ridiculous. At first, i couldn't understand why. But later on, with so many issues on infidelity in marriage, be it the news in the paper, real life stories i've read on the forums or among friends, i do agree that the best way to avoid temptation is prevention.

As long as hb loves me to death, dotes on me, not abusive, loves the children, generous to the point that i have full access to all his bank accounts which means if it makes me happy, i can actually spend his 1 month's salary away! (yup, i don't get allowances from hb, i get everything lol) have sense of responsiblity to take care of us, not nasty and mean (very important) and able to stay faithful, i feel i cannot ask for more already. Afterall, have you met a perfect someone?

And and, hb does help me with housework + baby care eg: change soiled diapers, clean up vomit which i can't, bath babies etc. Ppsstt: he's much neater and cleaner than me actually *hide* :P

So yeah, i know hb is not a *toot* definitely. To her, yes but not to me. To each his own, aye? ;)

p.s: Having said all the above, i know i may sound like a xiao nu ren which i am in certain ways and i do enjoy being one actually at most times (family comes first now *wink*) but i am certainly not the kind who will sit quietly and look down when i am being ill-treated or bullied hor.. I do bite :P

Something to share

I came across this article today. Thought of sharing this here as i do get asked quite frequently How do i know hb is the one? or Is he the right person for you? :P


DID I MARRY THE RIGHT PERSON?

During one of our seminars, a woman asked a common question. She said,"How
do I know if I married the right person?"

I noticed that there was a large man sitting next to her so I said, "It
depends. Is that your husband?" In all seriousness, she answered "How do you
know?"

Let me answer this question because the chances are good that it's weighing
on your mind. Here's the answer.

EVERY relationship has a cycle. In the beginning, you fell in love with your
spouse. You anticipated their call, wanted their touch, and liked their
idiosyncrasies.

Falling in love with your spouse wasn't hard. In fact, it was a completely
natural and spontaneous experience.

You didn't have to DO anything. That's why it's called "falling" in love...
Because it's happening TO YOU.

People in love sometimes say, "I was swept of my feet." Think about the
imagery of that expression. It implies that you were just standing there;
doing nothing, and then something came along and happened TO YOU.

Falling is love is easy. It's a passive and spontaneous experience. But
after a few years of marriage, the euphoria of love fades. It's the natural
cycle of EVERY relationship. Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother
(if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and
your spouse's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts.

The symptoms of this stage vary with every relationship, but if you think
about your marriage, you will notice a dramatic difference between the
initial stage when you were in love and a much duller or even angry
subsequent stage.

At this point, you and/or your spouse might start asking, "Did I marry the
right person?" And as you and your spouse reflect on the euphoria of the
love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone
else. This is when marriages breakdown. People blame their spouse for their
unhappiness and look outside their marriage for fulfillment.

Extramarital fulfillment comes in all shapes and sizes. Infidelity is the
most obvious. But sometimes people turn to work, church, a hobby, a
friendship, excessive TV, or abusive substances. But the answer to this
dilemma does NOT lie outside your marriage. It lies within it. I'm not
saying that you couldn't fall in love with someone else. You could.

And TEMPORARILY you'd feel better. But you'd be in the same situation a few
years later. Because (listen carefully to this):

THE KEY TO SUCCEEDING IN MARRIAGE IS NOT FINDING THE RIGHT PERSON; IT'S
LEARNING TO LOVE THE PERSON YOU FOUND.

SUSTAINING love is not a passive or spontaneous experience. It'll NEVER just
happen to you. You can't "find" LASTING love. You have to "make" it day in
and day out. That's why we have the expression "the labor of love." Because
it takes time, effort, and energy. And most importantly, it takes WISDOM.
You have to know WHAT TO DO to make your marriage work.

Make no mistake about it. Love is NOT a mystery. There are specific things
you can do (with or without your spouse) to succeed with your marriage.

Just as there are physical laws of the universe (such as gravity), there are
also laws for relationships. Just as the right diet and exercise program
makes you physically stronger, certain habits in your relationship WILL make
your marriage stronger. It's a direct cause and effect. If you know and
apply the laws, the results are predictable... you can "make" love.

Love in marriage is indeed a "decision"... Not just a feeling.

Mean maid!

My Filippino maid has gone back yesterday.

I felt so played out bcoz just 2-3 weeks ago when she cried, i asked her exactly the same question if she wanna go home and she insisted NO, she wanna continue to work for 2 years. If only she has gone home then, i wouldn't have wasted the rest of the 2 weeks training her and letting her be close to my children. Also before she came over to Sg, i did tell her my situation that i cannot afford to have my helper leave after a couple of weeks or months due to homesick and she said she wouldn't .

Now, just when we're (esp the boys are starting to accept her) getting used to her, she wanna go back coz she is missing her children very badly.

I cannot imagine one can be so vicious just because when she asked for a second chance, i refused. I mean, c'mon, who would right? Later kena play by her again plus the fact that she didn't have any respect for me yesterday. Before the agent or i have said anything on whether she can leave or not, she stopped doing all the housework and stare at the window the whole morning till afternoon before she talked to the agent for final closure who managed to change her mind to stay on. By then, i've already made up my mind to let her go.

Not only that, she actually started packing too, EVERYTHING.. things that my mil gave her, more than 100 pcs of clothings which she wanted to send home initially (c'mon, when u only work for 1 month, u didn't only not feel guilty, summore dare take the stuff packed in the new bags too!) and clothings i bought for her as well! But i told her to leave everything behind. Feel she doesn't deserve them at all when i found out she was already packing before i say anything.

This morning, the maid actually complained to the agent that she worked in 2 houses and if they wanna complain MOM, i'll kena. But the thing is, i never make her work in 2 houses. We never specifically bring her to in laws' place to do housework. We only we bring her to in laws' house during the weekends for dinner or when hb and i are going out without the kids. Don't tell me she expects not to do anything after eating the dinner which my in laws prepare for us?? Cannot wash dishes? Or after cooking, cannot help to clean the kitchen?

Do you call that working for 2 households?

Sigh. So much for being so nice to her during the past 1 month! She gets to eat anything and everything and when we go out for dinner, she gets the exact share of what we eat or more!

She also pleaded to keep the clothings mil gave her and i agreed and she cleverly wore the shoes i bought her instead of her own slippers, claiming that her slippers were at the agent when it was just on the shelf! *roll eyes* I was like, fine. I wonder if she ever thought of mil's generousity when mil bought her new tops and bottoms before she complained about working in 2 households..

And she actually took the clothings which i told her not to. Only realised it after i have sent her off when i checked the cupboard. Gave her the benefit of doubt so i didn't really check her luggage before she left. Afterall, she's 31 years old. Didn't want to make her look like a thief but i guess kindness doesnt pay. Do you call that stealing btw, just in case she wanna complain me to MOM.

I'm glad that i managed to learn of her new colour this early..