Red Angry Bird

Daddy Sky actually planned to celebrate Mommy Me's birthday over the weekends over a couple of dinner since we cannot celebrate on our own. But since Lucas was running a high fever the night before, we decided to stay at home and Mommy Me shall cook my own favourite food.

Lucas was knocked out after his Shichida class and when he woke up, he wanted an angry bird sandwich... This was what I managed to whip out:

This was what he managed to mould... A red angry bird... Not too bad.. His motoring skills not bad sia...

Afternote: Refusing to give up, Mommy Me made another Angry Bird for Lucas dinner on Sunday's evening... Lolx....

With the help of ham, now it looks more like one...

Dim Sum @ Yum Cha

We were trying to explore the different dim sum around Chinatown area hoping to give the place some chance despite the mushroom of Chinese Restaurants... After having 3 weeks of dim sum at De Bao, we decided to try out Yum Cha..

Not too bad.. service was good and the bois enjoyed themselves..

 

For dinner, this is what we had:

Love my Thermos Pot and HCP pan... Cooking is such a breeze and most importantly, everyone enjoyed my cooking...

Sorry, Mommy

It's getting more interesting as Lucas grows up... He did not behave properly in his Shichida Class.. I was so mad that I told him I was angry with him... In fact, he almost made his Teacher Bel upset that he was on the blink of not getting a sticker for the day.

Anyway, I was grumbling to Lucas that I was angry with him.. Almost immediately, he started asking me the following:

Lucas: Mommy, you like fish?

Mommy Me: I supposed so...

Lucas: Mommy, your favorite colour is purple?

Mommy Me: Ya

Lucas: Light or dark purple??

Mommy Me: I supposed I prefer a bright purple...

The moment he got home, he took a piece of paper and drew this.

He said it was his sorry card for me...
Aww... how to be mad with him for long.... ;p

Still, I cook dinner for him... though I tot I told him I won't do it... lolx...

Just a simple fried udon and Bb Lewis was beside me going mom mom mom non stop... waiting for his share of udon... ^^

More Art to entertain Lucas

Mommy Me still had one box of Ikea Meatballs left in the freezer and was cracking my head on what to do with them... Viola... With tube pasta and tomato paste... And of cos, this went down well with Lucas..

After dinner, Mommy Me took out a new art for him to work on... A sticker art which tested his identification of colours and numbers.. He took a good 45 mins working on it... And here is the finished piece...

Cookiing thru the long weekend...

Since it was a long weekend, Mommy Me planned the dinners way in advance...

Good Friday's Dinner
From the Qing Ming prayers, there was a roast duck which Mommy Me took half from grandma's place... Transform it in a salad, added shredded cucumber, sliced pear and sliced water apple... top it with the shredded duck and drizzled with the Japanese Seasme sauce.. Viola...
Luffa with prawns.. The trouble with using luffa is that one big luffa, when cooked, only reduced to a miserable small bowl... My hubby said the prawns more than the luffa... =.='''
Cant do away with soup as Lucas loves soup... Cook an instant soup for a change and added his Nemo and Seastar fishcake... Quick and easy...
Saturday's Dinner

For Sat, it is Caramel Chicken with potato.. Staple will be chicken-rice-styled rice....
Use the recipe from Munch Ministry which was simple and quick:
http://munchministry.com/recipe-archive/caramel-chicken-with-potato/

Final product: Added french fries from Lucas' and my snacking from Mac... lolx...

Sunday's Breakfast

Yes, it was supposed to be dinner but grandma said she discovered a new zhi char... ok, Daddy Sky said we can eat the foodstuff for breakfast instead...
There you go, teochew porridge in the morning with wagyu beef patties, crispy enoki mushroom and stir fried xiao bai cai...

All Beef Dinner...

Need to get rid of the minced beef at home... Viola, transform them into minced beef balls as soup for the dinner.. But still have about a small bowl of minced beef at home... Saw the wraps on the table.. hahaha, shaobing is always easy...

To make the minced beef balls,

200g of minced beef
minced mushroom
minced black fungus
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 tablespoon of chinese wine
1 tablespoon of cornflour
1 good dash of pepper

The thing with making such stuff is to allow the marinate to seep through after an hour or so before you start to cook with them.. But I usually let my items sit overnight in the fridge to ensure that the marinate realli goes into the beef...

KA - Beef Stew

Woo, we love beef... lolx.. Yes, its either duck or beef which pretty much stays our favorite ingredient for the weekends... ^^

With the KA pots and the thermo pot on hand, cooking beef stew is a breeze and pretty little time is needed to watch the pot and the fire... I just leave it to cook on slow fire for 2 hours and then transfer the stew to the thermo pot...

Near dinnertime, all I have to do is to continue simmering for another one hour. Soft and easy to chew...

Recipe can be found here: http://munchministry.com/recipe-archive/cooking/beef-stew/

HCP - - Sweet & Sour Pork

Here is our dinner for tonight...

Did an edamame with rice, sweet & sour pork and a soup... ^^
Love this pack of edamame that I got from Taka Cold Storage.. Taste superb.. Fresh and salted just right... ^^
Can see my special Nemo and star... Swimming in a soup...

As for the Sweet & Sour Pork, I got this frozen pack from Giant.

Marinate them in soy sauce, pepper for almost half a day.
Cook with egg, then flour and some breadcrumbs..
Pan fried them till crispy.
Remove from pan.
Sautee the veg n add the sauce.
Return the pork to the pan.
Qucik stir and serve hot with rice... ^^

More Yummies

The benefit of being part of a cooking group is that once there is a sharing of recipe, everyone scrambles to try it out and modifications would be shared...

One of the latest craze in the MM - HC Group was ice cream... Check out my mango yogurt ice cream.. In fact, effortless, just need to blend ripe mangoes with whipping cream n plain yogurt.. Viola, done in less than 30 mins... Freeze it and stir it every other hour...
As usual, Sats are simple meals... Made pork porridge with smoked duck upon Lucas' request...
Made Daddy Sky go check out the Yong Tau Foo stall @ Henderson n found these lovely fishcakes..
With my KA pots, cooking porridge is always a breeze...

KA - Udon for lunch, anyone?

A super simple lunch... Modifications from the Jap hotpot.. Just change some of the ingredients and added udon.. Comfort food for a stormy day... ^^

Its a HCP & KA Sunday... ^^

As the boys have to be administered fever medicine every 4 hours, Mommy Me was awake at 5am. Since I was awake, might as well start the preparations for dinner... Check out the ingredients:
Viola, after one hour, the prep had been completed:Well, supposed to be 2 dishes and one soup... After posting on Happy Call - Closed group in FB, group members thought I was making claypot... lolx... I decided to make the change... Soup with claypot rice.. muhahahaha....
p/s: Here is breakfast as well... Scrambled eggs with Japanese sausages on the banana & walnut bread... Yummy...

KA - Japanese One Pot ^^

After reading some positive feedback on this Mizkan sauce, Mommy Me decided to give it a try too... Bring about 200ml of this with 1 litre of water to boil and make a Japanese one pot... ^^
Ta-da.... Added some wa wa veg, egg tofu, shimeiji and enoki mushroom and boil it for another 3 mins before adding the shabu shabu pork.
Turn off the heat and cover the pot... Ta-da, within minutes, Dinner is done...

Check out this conversation I had with my little boss:

Lucas: Mommy, is my dinner served yet?
Mommy: Nope, give me a couple more minutes.
Lucas: Why? Mommy, I am hungry.
(Note: Just finish one bottle of milk)
Mommy: I need a couple more minutes to make some french fries.
Lucas: Ok, hurry pls....
Mommy: =.='''

Lucky, he polished his whole bowl of rice with soup. Else I knocked his head for rushing me.. HMPH!!!

Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chop & Soy Custard

Mommy Me got a new set of pots and now with the Happy Call Pan, have to be more careful with the cookware cos I DUN WAN to scratch them... ^^

So I did some homework and read that Silicon cookware is the best, other than the wooden spatula...
But somehow, I dun quite like the wooden spatula cos after a while, food bits get stuck on them and it just dun feel clean even though I scrubbed it... So I settled for the above... Mind you, they cost me a whooping $60!!!!

Daddy Sky was shocked cos the above cost half the total cost of the pots.. oops... ^^

Anyway, here is Sun's dinner... Parmesan Encrusted Pork Chop, Aglio Olio with Basil Leaves and a salad on the side. Yum yum...

Dessert was a Soy Custard with Bird Nest... Ooooh.. making soy custard is so easy with recipe being shared around...

500g of Vitasoy Milk
1.5 tsp of creamer
1.5 tsp of jelly powder

Bring the mixture to boil and stirring it occasionally.
Leave it to cool for 5 mins.
Scoop into the containers and let it sit in the fridge for 4 hours...

Done!!!

HCP - - Thai Basil Chicken

For Sat's evening, here is our dinner.. Thai Basil Chicken...


Recipe can be found here:

250 gram of minced chicken - Marinate with pepper & 1 tablespoon of fish sauce (for 30 mins)
2 cloves garlic (finely chopped)
1 shallots (finely chopped)
1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons kecap manis (sweet black soy sauce)
1 big bunch of Thai basil leaves (stems removed)
2 big chilli (i used 1 red n 1 green with seeds removed)
2 dashes ground pepper
2 tablespoons oil

1. Sautee oil with chopped garlic and shallots until fragrant.
   
2. Add the minced chicken meat into the wok.
3. Break the ground chicken meat into small lumps.
   
4. When the chicken meat turns whitish, toss in the chilies and the seasonings (fish sauce, and sweet soy sauce) and continue to stir-fry.
5. Add in the basil leaves and close the pan for about 3 mins.
6. Sprinkle two dashes of pepper powder into the dish, do a final stir, dish out and serve immediately.

Recipe is adapted from here:

http://munchministry.com/recipe-archive/thai-basil-chicken/

I modified it a little where the seasonings are concerned.

My New Pots

Now that Bb Lewis is slightly more able to self-entertain, Mommy Me resumes my working full time on weekends.. ^^

To satisfy my own demands for my cookware, I have purchased a brand new set of pots.. (lolx, rather to satisfy my fetish for kitchenware la..)

Waited a good 7 days and ta-da, they have ARRIVED!!!!
I was so excited to receive the box from my security guard who had received the items as I was out to fetch Lucas... Of course, Lucas insisted that it was a prezzie for him and helped me to open it.. When he realised they were all pots, he walked away in dismay.. =.='''

Anyway, my excitement continues... Check my pots out...
Made my kitchen so bright and cheery.. ^^

p/s: This is a way in advance birthday prezzie for myself.. woots...

Switch Up - New Creation

Last weekend, I had some leftovers from making the guo tie... Initially, I wanted to transform them into wu xiang but since Bb Lewis was not well, I did a simpler switch up with some prompting from Daddy Sky...

Using the leftover potato wrap from yesterday's dinner, it became a Jian Bing..
Viola...
Our simple dinner of guo tie, jian bing and stir fried aparagus with XO sauce... ^^p/s: Nothing too fanciful cos BB Lewis was running a fever.. This fever is realli scary, drove his temperature highest to 40 degrees.. Constantly monitoring him with Daddy Sky.. Praying hard he can get well soon...

HCP - - Meatballs in Cream Sauce

As usual, cooking on weekends is what I absolutely adore...

Bb Lewis was running a fever since yesterday, therefore, he did not attend his Shichida class today.. Mommy Me was at home waiting for the PT cleaner to finish cleaning the house while the boys are at their grandparents' place.

Mommy Me decided to cook the dinner in advance and keep the food in the Thermo Pot so that I do not have to multi task later when the boys are home..

Luckily I planned something simple this weekend.. Meatballs in cream sauce to go with potato wraps and butter rolls.. ^^

Ingredient

• About 15 - 20 meatballs (I use those from Ikea)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 pieces of bacon, roughly chopped
• 200ml chicken stock
• 250gm potatoes, cut into chunks
• 100gm cream cheese
• 100gm sweetcorn kernels
• 1 green pepper
• 1 shallot, quatered
  
• 2 small carrots, cut into smaller chunks
• Mixed herbs
• Garlic powder
• Dried Parsley
  
• salt & pepper
  

Method

1. Heat butter in pan and brown the meatballs. Remove and set aside. Using the same pan, toss in bacon and shallots. Fry till crispy.
2. Add the potatoes and 100ml of stock, cover and cook for 10mins.
3. Add the carrots and cook for another 5 mins.
4. Add the corn, green pepper, the remaining 100ml of stock.
5. Let it simmer for 5 mins before adding the cream cheese.
   
6. Add the mixed herbs, dried parsley, garlic powder, salt & pepper.
7. Turn off the fire after 5 mins.
8. Serve hot with pasta or bread rolls.. ^^
   

Guo Tie

Mommy Me loves to cook... lolx...
Frankly I dunno who haven figured this out by now...
My new experiment over this weekend was to make guo tie...
Was inspired to make these due to a couple of posts I saw in the Happy Call group...

Check out my 20 guo tie...
Recipe is adapted from here:
http://wokkingmum.blogspot.com/2012/02/pot-stickers.html

Basically, I added black fungus since I could not find water chestnuts.. And adjusted the seasonings too... And I found this particular type of skin to make shanghai dumplings without the alkaline taste from Giant...

Results were cool...
I love this... Left half of the marinaded minced meat.. Shall add some twist to it and check out my next creation... ^^

Gathering again for CNY 2012

Mommy Me has this group of JC friends that we will gather at least 2-3 times per year.

Potluck is usually our way to share the food.. Like what Mommy Me's gerfren's hubby shared, only at our gathering, he can eat chinese food.. LOLx... Cos Mommy Me's gerfren is pretty angmoh n so are her other friends..

Check out what we had:

Forgot to take photos of the asparagus with XO sauce and the fried nian gao by my one of my fren's wife.. yummy.

Mommy Me made this...Braised Lion Head (狮子头)Here is the recipe for sharing:

Ingredients

Minced Pork – 500 grams
Water chestnuts – 6 pieces (can replace using shallots if water chestnuts is not available)
Long white cabbage – 500 grams
Cooking Oil – Half Cup
Cornflour mixture (mix 1 tablespoon of cornflour with some water)

Set A
Egg – 1
Salt – 1 teaspoon
Sugar – 1.5 teaspoon
Soy sauce – 3 tablespoon
Cornflour – 2 tablespoon

Set B
Water – 1 cup
Oyster sauce – 3 tablespoon
Soy sauce – 2 tablespoon

Prep and Cooking Instructions

Mixed the minced pork, chopped water chestnuts with Set A.
Mould them into meatballs the size of your fist.
Set aside in the fridge so that it will be easier to handle later.

In the meantime, boil about 3 cups of water in HappyCall Pan.
Blanch the long water cabbage (slice into 10 cm each)
Remove and line them in a claypot.

In HappyCall Pan, add cooking oil.
Heat it for 2 minutes.
Place the lion head into the pan and pan fried it for 3 minutes on each side with the pan closed.

Remove and place them on top of the cabbage.
Mix set B in a bowl and pour into the claypot.

Simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
Thicken with the cornflour mixture and serve hot with rice. ^^

Woots.. I am so looking forward to the next gathering... ^^