Birthday cards from baby J's cousins

The parcel from my sister came on the day before baby J's birthday. Inside, they are a pair of clothes and 2 cards. One from each of his cousin sisters, age 5 and  4. They drew a rainbow in the interior of the cards. Cheryl knows how to write therefore the letters on the card however it's wordless on Celine's card. Hahaha

They are innocently cute. We are happy to receive the gift from my sister's family

Baby J is One: Celebration & People

This is the birthday boy! He is a year old now. I posted this write up in my status in facebook on his exact birthday.

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He didn't give me morning sickness during pregnancy, made my skin glows and hair so voluminousness. He is a good baby since I carried him, only back pain because of my weak back. This time a year ago, my baby just came out to the world smelling fresh. We are happy parents until today though there are times whining and fussiness are all over him, but it's normal for a baby who is as active as him. He has been crawling, walking with support and without support since becomes mobile. He laughed when daddy played with him. He looks for mommy when he is sleepy and hungry. He remembers where he hid his toys and sit there hours to retrieve them although they fell into unreachable space. He smiles at daddy when daddy flash the camera at him. He has 8 white shinning teeth that can eat full solid food. There are many more fond memories of his little actions and baby mischievousness and we hope for many years to come. I hope he still let me kiss him when he grew up. Mommy and Daddy love you very much. Happy 1st Birthday to our little man! 

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Baby J mingled around. We invited 11 people and it brings to total of 23 adults and 7 babies/kids.The guests came with spouse and I counted myself, my hubby and in laws.. That's how the number came up to 23. The house was very crowded. I would like to invite more but it's impossible to fit them in our tiny home.

The Sii brothers

I like this picture because it shows the decoration I put :)

Baby J with Terry and Kai lin

Tze Yee took the camera and snap picture of the Wong's family. However he meant to show himself in the pic because we can see his reflection in the mirror. Look, there is FF and HH too !

My buddy, Xiao Wei and her lovely hubby Leo

Group photo <3>

Baby J was so excited when daddy sang birthday song for him!

Another excited baby J photo. He loved it when we put him in the paper bag for a photo. Thanks to everyone who came and gave baby J presents and angpow! The presents are lovely and the money can be put to good use for baby J.

Baby J is One : Food

I am still in post party mood. We had baby J birthday celebration on weekend. This is the table setup where we put the birthday "cake" and cake cutting happened. I printed some colourful UP posters and sticked them on a brown hay string as decoration flags at the table. There's the ballon tied together with colourful metallic ribbons above the heads and also "JASPER IS 1" birthday banner. 

Here's the food. We didn't manage to capture all the food because some of them were taken up very quickly and there is only one photographer whom are also my husband. So he was very busy and didn't have time to photograph everything. I am thankful that I have a talented husband that can take nice photos like this.

I made this marshmallow sticks covered in chocolate and dipped into sprinkles. It's not a big hit because of the sweetness but I like it as it's really pretty.

I also prepared this cheese plate. I assembled the blueberry, cheddar and cheese cracker together. It's awesome combination however being in Asian country, I don't think everyone will think this is awesome as I think it is.

We also got a french vanilla mille crepe and I prepared a jug of refreshing pomegranate & lemon juice.

This is our birthday "cake" . I showed my idea to our patissier and want her to bake 25 mini cupcakes with colourful frosting as the ballons while I provide a 3D house for her to stick it at the end and attach some ribbons to the chimney of the house. It looks perfect with the royal icing on the random vanilla and chocolate cupckes. The patissier is my good friend and her shop is going to open soon in Nagore Road . The shop name is Mon Delice Patisserie .

I ordered a few other stuff from here like the mini quiche with mushroom and bacon fillings however no photo on the quiche. Here's another dessert which is made especially for kids and babies because it's made from all natural ingredients. Even the vanilla bean is imported from Madagascar. This is panna cotta with raspberry gelee.

Here's the highlight of the day! This is called croquembouche, a tower of  40 cream puffs with random mango/chocolate filling. Yummy

Till then..

Baby J is One

Today we had birthday party for baby J. The birthday theme is UP. I had planned this since November, making some printout, 3D  craft paper figure, props, thank you favors etc. Here are some of the stuff I prepared. More photos on the birthday participants and invitees later.

At last my globe is up for good use. I assembled all the items I made together and created this props at the entrance into our home. 

The birthday banner! It's simple.

 I borrowed the doll house from a colleague. Got it a day before the party and the colleague paid RM2 to his daughter to clean the house before passing to me. I guess I need to pass him RM2 as well. I stick Russell sitting at the door step of the house, hang some colourful ballons from ceiling and tie ribbons at the end before securing them to the roof. We didn't get helium ballons, just did some DIY way to make the ballons float.  

The thank you favor is simple stuff. I bought some tic tac candies and remade the label. Then give to each invitees. There is Carl with his walking stick at the back. The birthday "cake" is actually some colorful royal icing mini cupcakes tied to a paper 3D house. I ordered the cup cake and the fondant blue sky board from my good friend. I also ordered some food from her. I will show more on the food I ordered and I made my own  in next entry.

Till then :)

Not easy to take picture of baby J

We didn't celebrate Christmas but we went to friend's Christmas party and baby J received some presents too. He received toys from his baby sitter's family members. They are so sweet. This photo was taken in Adelene's house. We cannot make baby J sit still for the photo however it's good enough to have him facing the camera

This photo was taken last week in pre-CNY dinner with our friends. Baby J was struggling so hard that I had to stand up to relax him. Everyone was waiting for Mr. photographer to setup the camera.

See how everyone smile happily for the photo and baby J was struggling to get loose? I just feel lucky that he hasn't slip off despite all the pushing and kicking. 

See how much has he grown over the past 11 months. He is almost 1 year old and we are having his birthday party this weekend. Can't wait to post the nice food that I am going to make and ordered. I have a lot props setup too for the birthday.

Baby J is 11 months old

In less than a month, my baby will be 12 months. That's a great milestone. His 7th and 8th lower premolars came up on Sunday. He can eat all my yummy food in short. Each day is precious in early development because he learns new thing every single day.  He raised up and stood by himself last week (7 Dec). Yesterday he made his first 3 steps before jumping over to daddy. Soon he will be running wild. I am going to miss all these special moments. Wait until he calls mommy! I am preparing for his birthday party. Stay tune!

BF: Remarkable 8oz day

Okay, this is something that I don't usually post here. But I am too happy not to tell the world. Today I feel happier than usual grumpy days. So I managed to express 8oz of milk in the morning session. For those who don't understand, I am still breastfeeding and I have to express milk for my baby during work so that he has milk to drink at care taker's place. Due to my grumpy mood everyday which I can't avoid due to the stress and misc, my supply drop to 4-5oz in the morning session which means I don't produce enough milk for my baby everyday. He drinks 6oz each time and 3 times at care taker's place. So I have to work extra hard to express milk for him during weekend and late nights (my OT) since I only pump twice at work and that's taking up a hell lot of my working hours. 

However I don't feel as happy anymore during the second pump session because my hubby actually don't remember our anniversary so it's back to low low supply milk. Added up I still get extra 2oz comparing to usual days so I only needed to fill up 3oz tonight. Yay! Hopefully it will. I will try to keep a happy mind but it's just not possible. People say I smile and laugh all the times and I am very happy. Okay, no comment. Anyway yes I am happy for the first half of day today. Thank you very much happiness. You made me need to work less harder tonight and coming weekend.

Baby J eats zuchinni and anchovies mee sua with baked salmon in virgin coconut oil



Since it's weekend and I plan not to cook for our adult's lunch, I think I will spend extra time to prepare baby J's food. On Saturday I made him this, mee sua. I simmer some washed anchovies in 2 bowls of water to make the stock. I cooked the mee sua in another pot of boiling water, then discard the water and put them into the anchovies stock after I sieved off any remaining anchovies. This is to ensure the mee sua is clean from any salt or dirt that stick to them during production. Take a pair of clean scissors and cut the mee sua into shorter length. At the same time I put a cube of salmon in aluminium foil, drop some VCO on the salmon to avoid it dries up in the oven. Heat the oven and baked for about 15 minutes at 200 celcius. Then took it out from oven and shred into smaller piece and mix into the mee sua :)

I admit it's little hard to feed baby J with this because it's so soupy. He opened his mouth just a little just to sip the soup and I had to made a lot effort to shove the noodle into his mouth. I think we didn't do this much as I used to feed him porridge and water with spoon during meal so he thinks this is the "water" and he just need to sip. We need more practice

Chilled Oreo cheesecake

Hey! I made cheesecake!

Okay, so it's my hubby's birthday and I asked what cake he wants to eat? He mentioned that he likes the Oreo cheesecake that my sister made before. So I asked for the recipe and she pointed me to chilled Oreo cheesecake recipe by Amy Beh from kuali.com. This recipe is perfect :)

Tada! Here it is!

It's not so hard to make but I divided the process into 2 days due to my full hands in the evening after work. I made the base on day 1 and let the base set in fridge. On day 2, I made the cheese topping with the help of my hubby and let it chilled to set in the fridge again. Day 3 with planning is his birthday so we just blow candle and cut the cake :p. You know, it's not really easy for me to do something like this because of time restriction. I can only start doing my own "stuff" after 10pm , after I put my baby to bed and completed the daily house chores. A lot people ask why do I have so much stuff to do? I said I need to clean house, do laundry, fold clothes, iron clothes, cut fruits, clean kitchen equipment, pack baby stuff, dry the cutlery and plates and pots and prepare next day dinner etc bla bla bla. Then they will have follow up question, YOU WASH CLOTHES EVERYDAY? I don't know how to explain this. I don't wash clothes everyday but every alternate day I will have different house chores to do. You will understand one day if you are in my shoe.

I am very proud of my chilled cheesecake although I haven't eat much of it. We just shared a piece last night because I was so tired and we have no mood cake after stuffing ourselves with fruits. I took a piece to my buddy Stephanie this morning because she said she wanted to try and yeah, encouraging feedback from her. Tonight I am going to savor a piece to reward myself of the hard work throughout the week.

Fabulous 30

I turned 30 and fabulous. When these two being added together, it means I am fabulous 30! I was really happy because this time hubby bought me a cake without me begging him to get me one and I got to blow candles! yay! It's chocolate velvet cake from Humble Beginning and it was so good.

After so many months, I finally got the chance to savour the sticky bone pork rib. We went to Morgan Field for my birthday lunch. This is my first time stepping feet to Paragon. Both of us ordered half rack but of different flavours. We also ordered sauteed mushroom for appetizer and I had a special drink ;) with no alcohol. We were so full after the meal.  This time I brought some finger food for baby J and whenever he screamed I just pop one into his mouth. For dinner , I cooked  "lau shu fen" soup because I need to eat something plain but tasty. 

Here's the latest picture of baby J. He's so naughty nowadays, always scream for no reason. He is also very cranky because his gum is very itchy. His 3rd and 4th teeth are coming, I guess.

 

So as this is my big 30, my dearest buddy Stephanie organized a birthday celebration for me during tea time with Lay Hoong. Lay Hoong's birthday is on the exact date last Thursday when we had the celebration. The cake was very yummy. It is creme brulee from Secret Recipe. I also received hand made card from buddies , Stephanie and Suet Yin. Suet Yin mailed the card to my house and I had already forgotten if I ever give her my home address before ;) It's a surprise then. 

Happy, happy ;) in the arms of my loving hubby and baby

Tips on making and storing baby food (1)

I was thinking to share on how I usually prepare porridge for baby J. I bought this useful ice cube maker from Daiso some time ago. It is a very good size for freezing puree and easily come off when I broke open the frozen puree. Important thing is it has a lid to cover the puree. Hygiene is a big thing in baby's food. You don't want to contaminate baby's food with other frozen  meat/fish/chicken in your freezer.

The green puree is zuchinni. 1 zuchinni yields 4 cubes. I just steamed zuchinni  (cut into smaller pieces) for about 10 minutes and process in blender. Then just pour the puree into the container to freeze.

Here is pumpkin puree. I only have 1 of the Daiso container so I transferred the pumpkin cube out into plastic container to keep. I remove the skin of 1/8 local pumpkin and cut into smaller pieces. Then just steam for about 15 minutes. Remove from steamer and mash the soft pumpkin with a fork. After that just transfer the pumpkin puree into ice cube maker to freeze. I usually will finish up these puree within 2 weeks.

Sometimes I cook the porridge in normal pot on stove. But it required constant stirring to avoid the "small" amount of rice from sticking to the base of pot. If I am busy or need to attend to other work in the house, I will throw everything into a slow cooker and add hot boiling water to shorten the cooking time. Even with hot boiling water, it requires about 2.5 hours to get a smooth consistency so sometimes I wish to just use the pot to cook it. Haha! Anyway, I will process the rice into smaller pieces in blender if I use the pot. I usually made and keep a batch of the processed rice to make the cooking express.

Mini express pizza

Facebook is such a powerful tool. I learnt a lot of new stuff , received quick information or news and connected with friends in Facebook. When there was the earthquake early this year, we logged onto Facebook and watched everyone else giving us live update on the situation. Here's one of the new stuff I have learnt. I called it mini express pizza. It's mini because of the size and express because it's so quick to prepare. It took about 20 minutes for the whole process.

I made a serving for 2 person. 

Ingredients:

4 pieces of sandwich bread

2 huge sausages of any flavor. I used black pepper sausage

Oregano/basil/parsley flakes -optional

ketchup

fresh parsley

1/2 onion

4 cheddar cheese

Instructions:

1. Heat the oven for about 5-10 minutes at  150 degree celcius. You can turn on the oven first then only start assembling the ingredients

2. Spread ketchup on only one side of  all the 4 breads

3. Slice onion and spread on the bread

4. Cut sausages and place on top of the onions evenly

5. Sprinkle some oregano/basil/parsley flakes if you wish

6. Put a cheddar cheese on top of each bread

7. Place the mini pizza on pan and shove into oven

8. Bake for about 10 minutes

9. When they are done, take out from oven and spread some fresh parsley on top.

See how easy to make a simple yet filling breakfast for weekend morning?

California handroll

We have 2 avocados left from the box because baby J now refuses to eat avocado. We introduced him to this super fruit earlier when he started solid however when he already tasted other sweet fruits like pear and apple plus my tasty porridge, now he knows avacado is not the best tasted food. I used up 1 avocado to make california handroll for lunch last weekend. However I made a mistake by assembling all the handrolls before eating because the nori sheets sort of damp off after being exposed to the air for too long. I should have make it one by one after finish eating each. It's fairly easy to make California roll but some of the ingredients are quite pricey like avocado and caviar. Even the short grain rice is also higher in cost than the normal grain rice.

I assembled roughly about 12 rolls. The ingredients:

6 nori sheets, cut half each.

1 avocado, sliced

6 imitation crab sticks

caviar

1 zuchinni

1 cup short grain rice

sushi vinegar

Japanese mayonese

Steps:
Cook rice in rice cooker according to your rice cooker manual. When the rice is done, pour 2 tablespoon of vinegar and mix with wooden/plastic laddle. Try to use a fan to chill down the rice when you mix. Then cover the rice to avoid the air from drying the surface

Place nori sheet on clean surface

Spread about 2-3 tablespoon of rice on the lower left of the sheet

Squeeze some mayonese on top of the rice , then 1/2 teaspoon of caviar

Place the sticks of zuchinni, crab stick, and avocado.

Roll into the shape of handroll

Use about 2 grain of cooked rice to stick the end of nori sheet to secure the shape

Put a little caviar on top (optional)


The steps here sound a bit hard to follow. Easy, just google. There's plenty of recipe out there. I am just merely putting down the steps to remind myself on how I did it this time.

Stew pork with braised nuts

I can't recall if I ever post this food before but I made it many times before. I have no time to go back and search my  blog if I ever did this post so anywhere, I added new ingredient to it.

This dish is remarkable simple to cook. Just throw all the ingredients into the claypot and let it simmer for 1 hour or more. 

Ingredients
Pork - soft bones, about 600g
Dried water chestnuts, about 20 pieces and break the bigger ones into half
5 shitake mushrooms, quartered
1 can of braised peanuts
10 tau hu pok, cut the bigger pieces into half
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
3 tablespoon soy sauce
water just enough to cover all ingredients
salt
pepper


.... So easy. nom nom

Baby J eats porridge + broccoli + pumpkin + fish

After introducing anchovies to baby J 2 weeks ago, today I gave him 2 new ingredients. They are fish and broccoli. He is used to pumpkin so I just keep the pumpkin in his meal for the familiar sweet taste. This time I added half a teaspoon of virgin coconut oil into his porridge for dinner. He finished up the porridge and dessert. His dessert is pear puree. I know pear can relieve constipation for babies however it works extra efficient for baby J. I worry the new ingredients will cause constipation problem to him so gave him pear today. I gave  him pear or apple puree at least twice a week.  He loved his dinner!

Chocolate ice cream

I still have half whipping cream left from making red bean ice cream. Cream is expensive so I am not going to let it go to waste. I went forquick groceries pick up for a few ingredients during lunch break, things like cocoa powder and semi sweetened chocolate. I planned to make chocolate ice cream. I use this recipe

The ice cream turns out very chocolaty, the real chocolate indulgence. The texture is perfect just like how I imagined it will be. I am stopping the ice cream marathon after this or else I am doing to gain extra fat in no time.

Red bean (azuki) ice cream

When my ice cream maker arrived at my mother's house, I was excited and at the same time feeling desperate to get hold of it. I waited until I go back to my mother's house and saw the gadget, I still try to withhold my excitement until I took it back home with me. I already got this recipe ready to use anytime. I made lemon ice cream before (manual way) and I wanted so much to try out the red bean ice cream. Recipe from here: http://userealbutter.com/2010/02/14/red-bean-ice-cream-recipe/

I didn't use exactly the recipe that's given . I made the ice cream paste myself by cooking red beans in very little water then processed half of it into paste and left over half-processed so I can get the small pieces of red bean in my ice cream. I am happy ;)

Thanks to the ice cream maker now I do not need to freeze the mixture and break the ice my hands and repeat this many times. :D I let the mixture churn in the maker for about 30 minutes and that's what I got like in the picture above. Fat, I am coming. Slim, please hold me back!

Lime sorbet

This is the second trial with my ice cream maker. I made the lime sorbet using this recipe. It is very easy and required only minimum ingredients. Mix the following.

Lime zest from 4 limes
Lime juice from 8 limes
Syrup (simply combine 2 cup of water with 2 cups of sugar and dissolve in a pan)
1 cup of water

Chill the mixture in fridge overnight and churn in ice cream maker as directed by the manual.
Overall the texture is soft and the taste is nice however the sorbet melts quicker than those I eat in shop. I need to check out how to keep the sorbet/ice cream last longer

Baby J eats porridge + carrot + potato + anchovies

This weekend I introduce baby J new ingredient: anchovies. I took some anchovies and washed them. Then I dried them in oven, followed by processing the tiny fishes into powdery form. I cooked porridge with potatoes chunked into small cubes, some shredded carrots and the anchovies. Due to the presence of potato which later I mashed using fork, this porridge is very soft and velvety. Baby J finished the portion I prepared for his dinner. Can't wait to introduce him something new next week!

Baby J eats rice + pumpkin + green

I upgraded baby J food's texture into higher level of acceptance. This time I blended the rice into smaller particles before cooking. For the green, I cut some leaves of vegetables into small tiny stripes and cubed the pumpkin. Baby J likes the taste of pumpkin as it is sweet. I guess the pumpkin adds some sweet flavoring into the bland and tasteless porridge. I let them boil and simmer in pot until soft with constant stirring to avoid the rice from sticking to the base of pot. I did not blend the mixture and just let baby J eats like that. He accepted the texture and loving it! He finished 2 meals today with a pear puree. I hope this gives my little one a balance meal. I am thinking of introducing him some anchovies in another 2 weeks time. He already got 2 teeth!!! grrrr....