time flies

It was like few months ago we brought Ian to register on his 1st day of school at Kuo Kuang 2. Now, he has completed his standard 1. Can't imagine how fast time flies. 11 months just gone in a split seconds.

He is no longer blur boy as he can convey his teachers' message clearly. No longer confused with time. Sometimes I tried to recall how about my standard 1? It seems too far for me to recall. When I turn demanding, I always asked myself "Can I do this when I was at his age?" I supposed I'm still learning writing the basic mandarin, whereby he already able to make sentences.

Yummy tortillas

Remember the curry chicken filling? I intended to bake more puff but I can't find the frozen pastry skin in Carrefour. So, I ended up buying tortillas.

Well, for a change, we have tortillas for dinner. I fried egg crepe (with spring onion inside), washed some lettuce and cut Japanese cucumber into stick. I added a piece of cheese to enhance the satisfaction.

*my neighbour passed me a bowl of chicken curry. I was thinking to include in my tortilla. After rolled in all my own ingredients, I found the portion just perfect.

Today, on his way back from school, Ian asked "are we going to have tortorli for dinner" I LOL LOL....
Then, he tried again. "Oh, is it tartarli?" I just can't stop laughing.

Women's best companion ever - Women's Weekly

Women's Weekly is a monthly magazine for women at every stage of their life. I recommended this magazine to many of my friends without receiving any commissions. Still, I find myself passionately doing it.

This month's issue has many interesting topics, and not only that; it comes with Ikea Christmas catalog and sample bottle of Top anti dustmite detergent.

This magazine is packed with all info that every woman needs. She always wow me with interesting topics as well as beauty & fashion tips. It's so relevant to whom we called women! Grab your copy of Women Weekly at RM5.80 now!

To give you a sneak peek on the content before you head to bookstore ^_^

Curry chicken puff

Fancy for some puff in your lazy afternoon to go with your coffee or Lipton tea? Why not DIY! You just need less than 1hr to get the puff ready for baking.

Ingredients :
1. Frozen pastry skin
2. Potatoes (cut into small cubes)
3. Onion, I prefer yellow onion as it is sweeter (sliced)
4. Chicken breast (sliced thinly)
5. Seasoning (corn starch, pepper powder, salt)
6. Curry paste
7. Coconut milk/powder
8. Serai (optional)

Here are the steps to make the filling:
1. Thaw the ready-made pastry skin in fridge a day before.
2. Add seasoning to sliced chicken breast.
3. To shorten cooking time, blanch potatoes prior cooking.
4. Heat up 1/2 cup of oil in wok, saute serai & curry paste till brownish. **to ensure the filling is not too wet, I used coconut milk in powder & added into the curry paste.
5. Add in potatoes & onion. Turn to low heat, continue cooking for 15mins, then add in chicken.
6. Continue cooking till the filling turn soft.

Next, heat up your oven.
Then, make your puff.

Bake in oven at 210© and about 20mins. Check at 17mins to ensure the puff color has changed to golden brown. If yes, then you can turn off your oven even before time is up.

^_^ time saving tips
Prepare more filling as bread spread for the following day breakfast, lunch or dinner.

kiddy meal - part II

Another day for simple lunch. Since kiddos always savour fried rice, why not having it for lunch. This should cut down Ian's meal time by half. (it works! He just spend around 15mins to finish his lunch) And, to me, this is the easiest meal to prepare (taking away time spent for cutting, yes, it's the easiest)

There are some tips to make your fried rice a signature dish for your family. The most important one is to use FRESH ingredient. I use only fresh corn, fresh carrots, onion & long bean (or French bean). The next must have is egg & anchovies (ikan bilis). Optional ingredients are ham, prawns or char siu (grilled pork)

Kiddos lunch

If you don't have anchovies, you can sprinkle some Japanese rice topping on your fried rice.
*you can get it from Daiso or Jusco.

Kiddy meals make easy

It should be stress-free and sweat-free to prepare meals for kids if you try to get down to their standard/level. Preparing meals for kids can be very easy and simple as long as you know what they like. Identify their preference and you can start modify and improve from there. I know kids nowadays have been exposed to a great varieties of food. Their taste buds can be as complicated as adults. As the result, they tend to set preference to certain not very healthy food, or even to the dining place that they like. This will make their mothers' life tougher. However, you may start with a 70-30 combination of food they like and healthy food; then slowly make the earlier set of combination to 30-70.

Off hand I have 2 simple recipes (with photos) that I used to prepare.

1. Pasta/bee hoon in soup
- cook pasta in hot water (shell, macaroni, angel hair or any one that you kids like) *add a tsp of salt and half tbs of olive oil to the water
- prepare the ingredients that you/your kids like. For me, standard set of ingredients are fish balls, ground meat, prawns, eggs, some veges or even corns. If you have your own chicken/meat stock, it will be tastier.
- put the ingredients one by one if they have different cooking time.

This is how kiddos lunch for 2nd of Nov looks like. They have 2 siu mai (steam it with the hot water that I used to cook the bee hoon), 2 fuk chiew fishball, some carrots and French beans, an egg as well as 2 prawns. Wanna know if this is delicious to him, let's check it out in his diary tomorrow. :-)

2. Sandwiches

- it's not something strange not to have rice or noodles for meal. We can substitute our staple food with something that makes their stomach full. Wholemeal bread or wrap is my next choice.
- you just need to have cheese, ham, or hard boil egg (sliced) and some veges (lettuce or cucumber) to make healthy and delicious sandwiches. You can substitute with roasted chicken from Jusco, and wrap it with wholemeal bread/wrap.
- if possible, apply some butter and lightly toast the bread. (if you prefer wrap, then heat up wraps in microwave for 20 seconds)

Everyone finished their sandwiches without complaining the food is too much. They even asked when will be the next round for sandwiches.

My new darling - African Violet

No more helper now and it's time to get my hands back to flower pots, soil and delicate plants. I called this as gardening eventhough I don't have a garden but a mere 40sqf space on the 3rd floor. ^_^

I continue to add more members to the 'family'. New member joined in 2 weeks ago and her name is African Violet. I do have some knowledge and experience in gloxinia, and taking care African Violet is pretty same like taking care of gloxinia. In fact, I wanted to buy a pot of gloxinia but the nursery that I used to go only has African Violet.

* after 2 weeks, she still looks great. I'll continue to keep her at the same location; which is on my tv cabinet near to tv.

For those whose keen to keep a pot of African Violet, you may find below tips helpful.
Care tips:
1. African Violet is a delicate houseplant. It doesn't need too much of sunlight. In another word, she doesn't enjoy direct sunlight. However, do keep them near to window or balcony door.

2. Water once a week. You need to feel the soil before you water it. If the soil still damp, no water required. Too much of water will cause the plant or leaves rotten. Also, pour water directly to the soil.

3. Fertilized once a month is pretty sufficient.

4. If you find current location is good, try not to move her around. (good in the sense that the flower continues to bloom and no leaves are dying out)

5. Repotting only when the crown is exposed. (crown = middle part of the plant). *Repotting will creates shock to the plant, but this is temporary where the flower buds may dry off or some leaves dying. After repotting, do keep them at the same place, water and feed as usual.

*I haven't try to propagate the plant yet, but it sounds easy from a gardening enthusiast's blog. I'll try it out one day when I do repotting.