Tuesday, January 18. 2011
Its been a long while, many months have passed by but i have not be lagging in real life.
Having gone through another move, renovation, new year, children's school reopen .......
Cleaning the house has taken a new experience, yes i used to hate doing housework and others, but now its taken a new experience!
With the coming CNY, will start my engine to do some baking!! Yippee
Saturday, October 9. 2010
Tea over in China is like coffee over in Singapore, there are coffee shops wheareas we have tea house in China.
Tea house unlike coffee shop can be in places like garden ... where u can drink your tea the whole day and forget about everything.
All i know about tea was the few variety like pu er, jasmine, tie guan yin ......?
Do you know there are floral tea here too .... unlike the western floral tea where you have rose, camomile etc
The resturant use here use a combination of flower and tea leaves to make tea ......
One which i came across was osmanthus (remember gui hua) with tie guan yin, the fragrance of osmanthus and the flavour of tea was just great .... a change from the usual tea
Another tea is chrysanthemum tea which many locals are aware of, usually we would put in sugar. Over in china they do not put sugar in the tea ...
Sugar is being replaced by natural sweetener - wolfberries. It addes natural sweets and yet does not affect the taste buds.
These floral tea was brewed in a glass pot, and there is a sieve made of glass where u will put your osmanthus and tea leaves.
The art of drinking that is not to allow the leaves to soak, in other words remove the sieve once u have brewed the tea. Use the sieve again when you need to brew another pot
When it come to tea i am still new, just sharing with you what i saw when i dine ......
Monday, September 27. 2010
Marketing is a challenging task for me over in GZ, there are many things that my family do not eat eg, fresh water fish, chicken
Planning meals is more problematic as each has their own taste.
So my shopping basket is usally filled with vegetables, yes vegetables are very fresh over here.
Over in Singapore, i have a marketing day, i will buy whatever i need on that particular regardless if there are leftovers.
Now my marketing habits has change considerable, i will only buy food/do my marketing when my fridge is cleared.
This is to ensure that i cook all the food that i bought, at the same time it reduces wastage
I do not need to throw away food that has expired and also i am forced to cook things to ensure nothing is wasted
So far i am managing pretty well ... although its very stressful sometimes trying to cook somethings out when you do not have much choices
When cost of living is high (esp in Singapore, over in GZ is also getting expensive) we as housewife needs to be an expert in cutting cost and wastage
Another tip which i had learnt from another forum is to plan your meals and decide on what to cook before buying any ingredients for it ..... its a bit difficult for me as i only plan what to cook when i see the ingredients.
Tuesday, February 23. 2010
Do you use chopsticks to eat? Do you know what material are your chopstick made of?
Using chopstick is very much unique to Chinese eating culture. It is also a learnt skill that requires alot of fine dexterity of our hands.
I never really think much about these two stick until i was surfing for some chopsticks.
The making of chopstick is a very tedious process ... from what i had read, it seems to require at least 18 steps (in handmade chopsticks)
Anyway, chopsticks are made of different material - wood, bamboo and stainless steel.
From what i read,
These material are porous, germs can hide in these pore. More so with wear and tear on the chopstick.
Therefore, it is important to change your chopstick frequently, just like toothbrush.
Frequent does not means every 3 months, its like a year or up to 3 years.
If the paint came off, you need to change immediately for health reasons.
Wood also seems to have medicinal values in traditonal chinese medicine .... different wood produced different effect on your organs.
From my limited translation, ebony (hei tan mu) can treat throat aliment while mahogany (hong tan mu) treats stomach aliments.
So using different types of chopsticks could potentially be good to your health.
Btw chopstick cannot take high heat (use of dishwasher or disinfectant cabinet) otherwise, they can go out of shape.
They behave just like any wood ......
Many a times we use chopstick to take food in steamboat or in hot oil?... its is not advisable.
There is one type of wood call tie mu (metal wood if direct translation) that can be use in steamboat.
So be very careful when you choose your chopsticks afterall, its something that you put in your mouth frequently!!
For that!! I have just changed my chopstick after using it for "i don't know how long".
Monday, September 7. 2009
Today is exactly a month since I am managing the house on my own ..... time flies
I have learnt alot especially about my two children ...... but i can definitely say they have grown.
Children adapt very fast to changes in the environment, never under estimate their abilities.
My 6 years old can volunteer to do housework and my two years old can do simple task like switching off the tv, fan and keep his own toy
Caleb has been having someone looking after him since he was 4 months old.
I begin to realise several problems when i am without help, btw its not to say that my helper is not effective but rather she is over protective over my son.
1. Caleb does not know how to behave appropriately in social situations
- having a helper chasing him and satisfying his needs whenever he is out is beneficial for both the mother and the child. However, the child would always think that someone will entertain him or he can entertain himself in doing whatever he wants.
This is very tedious for me as Caleb runs wild whenever we are out eg. market and supermarket. I had to buy a strap to "leash" him so that he has some freedom and me some form of control esp since my hands are full with goceries. I used to think that its "unhumane" to leash a kid but now its the practicality that counts, I do have many curious stares but I really don't care.
2. Till the date my helper left, Caleb has always been fed at his high chair. Meals are served at the high chair with live tv entertainment or toys ......
I have been trying to ask my helper to let him eat himself since he turn 1 but this was never heed, as she is very protective over him. From the helper's perspective, feeding the child is a preferred choice as she needs to clean less (simply wipe the high chair rather than washing the whole thing), get a chance to rest after cooking and play with child for a while.
When Chloe was 9 months, i let her fed herself with all the mess but by 1 year old she has no problem feeding herself at all ......
Now Caleb at 2years is still struggling with feeding. Sometimes when he has snack .... the mess gets much bigger as this rascal can now bring food & mess all over the place
Now that i let him feed himself, the messiness is definitely there. At least within a week, Caleb can put food in his mouth without spilling.
Thinking back, the habit of having tv and toys is really a bad idea .... the child cannot concentrate on his food, not to mention feeding himself since there are so many distractions.
So for now, i will be washing and cleaning till he learns .... sigh!! with a toddler at terrible 2 can be very challenging during mealtime.
At the end of the day. please start self feeding early .....
2a. Meals are served with water as requested by the kid
Yes!! my son kept asking me for water whenever he eats ... something that i do not understand.
This is something that i do not allow as drinking too much water during meal will affect digestion ....
I then realised that that could be his eating habit since i am not giving him his meals.
Took me a while to "wrestle" over drinking water .... sigh!!
So good eating habit needs to be cultivated early!!
3. Caleb will always demand for his needs whenever he sees me
Yes my son can be demanding especially when he gets to see his mummy very little since she is always running errands and sending jie jie. He will never wait .... demanding things - STAT!!
Now that mummy is home bound without help and car, he gets to see mummy more.
Seeing how busy I am, i realised that Caleb has become less demanding and has learnt to play on his own in my presence.
He will run to me a few times to get his milk unlike last time he will throw tantrum immediately!!
I hired a part time help but the day to day cleaning still need to be done .... so far i am managing, at least my kids still have homecooked food with occasional home delivery too!!
Yes i still bake ... that is my therapy!!
At the end of the day, I wish to quote my mum's words “With help, mum benefit but children suffer ..... Without help mum suffers, children benefit" (direct translation from mandarin)
Given a choice, I will do without help, for my children's upbringing and character building will be my priority.
Sunday, September 6. 2009
Just gotten a brand new mop head however after a few use, it keeps slipping off the the pole even though i had tighten it.
My mum came up with this great idea!!
Take a scrap cloth and insert between the mop head and the pole before tightening it!!
This will ensure that the mop head stay in the pole!!
It works!!
Friday, July 24. 2009
I have been having problem with my 2 BrAun thermometer, somehow it always say my daughter is having fever.
When temperature hovering between 37.2-37.5 deg C ... I am always at a dilemma whether to send her to school
Decided to brign to the service centre to check the thermometer - the verdict :Both thermometer register temp way too high
As BrAun thermometer cannot be "service" I made do with a trade in.
I was given a lesson on how to take care of your thermometer by the technician
Here's what to do:
1. Always use your thermometer once a week, so that the diagnosti equipments gets to work
2. Never let children handle it, once it drops the sensors can be damaged
3. Do not put in the caps on ear probe using bare hands
4. Use ejector button to remove the probe as you can damage the sensor
5. Do not re use the caps
A lesson learnt
Thursday, May 7. 2009
At the market, I was at the egg store asking for century eggs.
I saw the lady, gently hitting the egg so our of curiousity i asked "How to go about choosing century egg?"
Afterall everything is inside ... u know what i mean??
She then told me to hit the egg and feel for a harder egg (usually people prefers harder egg)
She also shared a recipe with me to eat century egg.
Simply remove all the outer coating then boil the egg with shells on.
Remove the shell only when cooled thoroughly then you can remove the shell and enjoy the egg.
Interesting ...
I still prefer to put in into my century egg porridge
Friday, March 27. 2009
The RSVP works ... look at Chloe's note book!! In fact most of the children are really looking forward to the event.
Here are what some princes said to Princess Chloe:
"I will be your knight in shiny armour ....."
"I will be your prince charming on your birthday"
Some princess said:
"I will be wearing princess dress on your party
Tuesday, January 13. 2009
I had a lovely chilli paste from my friend who taught me how to cook this dish.
One thing i learnt about stingray, never buy stingray that is too big as it meat tend to be much tougher and chewy
The lovely combination of good chilli paste with young fresh stingray is a potent combination.
Top the dish with sliced onions and a lime ..... the tast is wonderful!!
I did not grill the fish as per say but just cook it in a pot with the chilli
If you are grilling for bbq, pack a banana leaf with aluminium foil and fold it into a pouch then put it over grill
When the pouch expand, the fish is cooked!!
Sunday, January 11. 2009
I have been very frustrated with my pen-like copper pineapple mould, its been in "cold storage" after tried it once few years ago.
Its not cheap ok!!
When i saw e joise's blog, i was inspired by the clean cut that her pinapple mould produced.
I made a trip down to Ailin and was really impressed with the amount of thoughts that went into making this mould.
According to the knowledgeable gentleman in the shop, the mould is crafted in hong kong.
The curved imprint design was an improvisation from the old straight ones as the feedback from customers are straight cut mould tend to have dough sticking on it. So, with a curved one, the chances of dough stuck would be reduced. The sharp looking mould, does not need dusting of flour also, you can adjust the thickness of your pastry by filing down the mould. So what am I waiting for?? Its a lifetime of investment!!
The copper mould needs to be seasoned like chinese wok, how do you season the mould?? So that it becomes virtually non stick and rust-proof!!
Here's how you do:
1. Take a washed and clean metal container eg. condense milk container to hold the mould
2. Heat up small amount of cooking oil, such that the whole mould can be immerse
3. Pour the hot oil into the container and soak the mould for 24hour
4. After 24hr, wash the mould with hot water and followed by cold water
5. Use a brush and brush the mould under cold water
6. Air dry it
7. Use the mould as per normal and wash with only hot water. You may wash the mould with soap only after mutiple use of 5 occasions
Tuesday, December 16. 2008
I brought my girl to Mycofarm for a visit ... managed to buy some mushroom. The kind lady taught us how to keep them!!
They kept so well even more than a week!!
Monday, October 13. 2008
Somehow i get to know about this "wonder sugar" from a visit to the dentist.
As part of patient and parent education, i was told that this sugar will not cause tooth decay!!
I went immediately to supermarket at Tanglin Place to get it. To my surprise, its more expensive than a pack of rice at its peak.
The internet has many references on it. Please read more about it!!
Here's what i have learnt (in brief):
1. Xylitol is natural sugar found in corn and birch tree.
2. Suitable for diabetic and it does not need insulin to digest since its different in molecular structure from sugar
3. Xylitol can be used in preventing tooth decay through its anti bacterial effect
Its simple to use, just replace it with normal sugar in cooking or baking
Saturday, September 20. 2008
The above 3 words have always been BH words to me whenever it comes to services or exxpecting things from others:
As much as we would love to .... we hope for all 3 RIGHT!!!
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