cold. freeze. snow

As some of you might know, I am currently in Oregon. It's cold up here comparing to Arizona which is about 23 c when I was there last week. Here the average temperature is about 9-10c. Ai Chee asked if I would like to join her and her husband with their little boy to somewhere near Mt Hood. This is the first time her son going to see snow. I took a colleague with me too.  We went to the goverment camp near Mt Hood. It required snow park permit which is pretty descent $5 for a car. So we went there and played snow, build snowman and took pictures. I didn't take much as I hope Ai Chee's husband will have nicer pictures of me using his DSLR. I am a little disappointed that I didn't bring my Columbia parka along this time to this trip. I took it with me last time but I didn't go and play snow.  The temperature is about 3c and snow chain is not needed because the snow on the road had melted. But luckily there is still snow here where we went. So tired now.. Bye.

In Chandler again

So guys, I am in Arizona. The state at the south west of United States. It's sunny since the day I arrived. The temperature is around 23 celcius in the day which is good to go without any jacket. That's the hotel I am staying in currently. See the blue sky? That's how the sky looks like here.  

Ate this for dinner yesterday after starving the night before because I forgot how to start hybrid car engine again. But I got it after many attempts of trying. The delay is also contributed by the long queue to get our cars. I treated myself with 6oz of steak with lobster tail! and 2 sides. Yummy to end the day like this.

After familiarizing with the car and road, I invited my colleague to join me to a visit to Saguaro National Park. I was so tired because I drove all the way there and back. We didn't do much things there basically just drove on the 8 miles drive path and see cactus. Really, we only see cactus and nothing else.

Small flowers survive in dessert. I hardly can find anymore plants with  bright color like this.

Another yellow on top of the cactus. And  do you know digi sucks apart from the low quality and slowness of it's data line, it has something else that made my head ache? I didn't activate my roaming system before I came oversea because I thought it's activated by default. Luckily my dear buddy Suet Yin is available in whatsapp and she helped me to contact them  regarding this.

Another species of cactus. Don't look down at the thorns. They are deadly sharp. I poked my finger when trying to remove a part of it that stuck to my shoe and left in the car. I think the cactus in Malaysia does not have sharp thorn at all.

A different flowery species of cactus

And last but not least, Saguaro cactus! This is one of the giant ones

I am drop dead tired now. I need to rest to recharge for work tomorrow.

Ginger and scallion squid

This is a common dish among the Chinese. We have"Jiang Chong ji" as ginger and scallion chicken but I cooked the squid with the exact same ingredients. Earlier I purchased some shrimps and squids for my mother in law to cook when she is coming next week. I made a better decision to have used the squids to cook this dish. It is yummy because the ginger and  scallion taste really mixed well with the seafood. Ginger will overpower the usual sea food stink smell. The only additional ingredients I added is the black fungus. The squid, scallion, ginger and black fungus are great as a team. I definitely will make this again when I am back to Malaysia.

Ingredients 1:
2 squids, cut into rings
1 stalk of scallion, cut into 2 cm long.
medium size ginger, sliced
black fungus, julienned

Ingredients 2:
Salt , 1/2 teaspoon
1 tbs corn starch diluted in 1/2 cup water
1 tbs Shaoxing wine
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 tbs soy sauce
Pepper

1. Mix ingredients 2 together
2. Heat up a tbs of oil in wok
3. Saute scallion and ginger  until fragrant
4. Mix ingredients 2 and black fungus and let simmer for 10 seconds
5. Put the squids in. Do not cook to long to avoid rubbery texture. When the squids turns white, off the fire
6. Serve hot with white rice

Enjoy your meal! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Sui kow aka prawn dumpling

I woke up this morning and thought of the dumpling I ate yesterday for lunch opposite BJ mall. The difference of that with other usual dumplings that I ate before is that it used black fungus as one of the ingredients as filling. So coincident I need to go the wet market today to stock of some meat, seafood and dried kitchen ingredients for those that going to use them during my upcoming business trip. I made myself collecting the items required for today's menu.
There is no exact measurement of each of them because I don't measure, as usual.

Filling:
Black fungus (soak, cut into small short strips)
Chinese mushroom ( diced)
Spring onion (chopped)
Minced pork
Medium size prawns (cut into 2 or 3)

Steps:
Marinate the above with soy sauce, salt, pepper, tapioca flour and sesame oil. Keep in fridge for about 1 hour.
Scoop about one tablespoon of filing on a skin.
Wet along the skin edge with water to make them stick when both sides are enclosed.
Fold in along the enclosed edge of the skin to secure the closing.
Boil water in pot and put your dumplings in . Drain after few seconds. This exercise is for the purpose of removing the excess flour on the skins during packaging to avoid them from sticking to each other.
Now you can put those dumplings onto the soup.
You can keep the remaining that are not cooked in freezer. Do not stack each dumpling together to avoid them from sticking to each other.
Enjoy!

Macaroni salad

This is lazy food because it's damn easy to make. I made macaroni salad for Sunday lunch. It's a cold dish so you will have to chill them before eating. Ingredients include 

1) 1/3 can of razor clam (boiled)

2) 1 stalk of chinese celery (chopped)

3) 1 tomato (chopped)

4) elbow macaroni (grabbed a bunch :p)

5) 1 medium onion (chopped) 

Cook the macaroni in salted water until al dente. Mix all ingredients together with mayonnaise  salt and white vinegar. I don't have the measurement because I add according to my preference. Chill before serving. Easy peasy

kung pao chicken

I think I haven't been posting anything about food lately. I am cooking but nothing is interesting to talk about. However yesterday I tried to make kung pao chicken. The only difference is that I use chicken leg cut into smaller pieces rather than boneless chicken. So it took longer for them to cook. I have to cover the lid and let the chicken to simmer for a little longer and in this case more liquid is needed. The photo that I took using my cellphone somehow deleted  so I snap a photo from my hubby camera in order to post in this blog. 

I refer to recipe from here but I didn't follow the exact measurement. I merely just see what ingredients is needed and adjust accordingly. I use cashew nuts instead of peanuts as recommended in the page. Kung pao chicken is a very appetizing dish as it is very flavorful, consists of  sweetness (sugar in the sauce), spiciness (dried chilies), sourish ( black vinegar), crunchiness (cashew nuts), fragrant (spring onions). Just pair with white rice and you will never forget this special dish!  Oh and I had to stir fried peas with carrots or else my hubby will complain about no vegetables. He is a vege lover.

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.