Sleepy

School holiday is just around the corner and I cannot wait for it to be here!  No need to guess why, you would know the reasons of my excitement.

Today I could not wake up in time.  Late!  Only up when my hubby called me after his morning cycle.  And that is around 7.10am!  So not in time to make breakfast for him and the kids have a quick drink of their milk.  Such a careless mom.  Sigh!  I think I need to find that alarm clock that I have not seen yet when unpacking some boxes. 

I drove hubby to office for the past week since his car accident last Monday.  But this morning we went to collect my dad's car so hubby would be using my dad's Pajero till his car repaired which would take few weeks. 

I need some rest.  So I cannot wait for the school holidays so I can rest more.  Have been busy since moving in.  Sweeping, vacuuming, mopping and cleaning almost every day.  Many dusts although we seldom open the windows and door.  And not to mention my hair.  Gosh!  I do drop a lot of hair. 

And I can feel I am having flu.  Have been sneezing since yesterday.  So I think I am going to be down with sore throat and flu.  Sigh! 

Weekend Menu #35: Steamy weekend

It was a cloudy weekend in Kuching and today is a very cold and wet Monday.  Probably the weather has been good on us so there were not much rain over the weekend.

Brought some big prawns from the MJC Pasar Tani last Thursday.  Our first time to the open market since we moved to MJC.  Hubby was on holiday that day and he accompanied me to the market.  The prawns are sold at RM40 per kilo!  We bought half kilo to steam. Very fresh and sweet. 

Besides buying some roasted pork, a carton of eggs, a pack of midin, some prawns, fishes and dried food, hubby also bought this nice pot of flower for RM12 for his office.  Cute huh?  Don't know what flower it is but according to the seller, this flower is very easy to maintain.  Just don't put directly under sun and only need to water once every 2-3 days.

Since get his bicycle fixed, hubby has been on bicycle ride every day.  Sometimes up to 2 times.  And he is enjoying his ride because he can cycle to the shops and back.  A friend who staying in MJC Mutiara also a bike lunatic so now that hubby has a bike friend, he has more motivation to ride.  Good exercise as he needs it.  His mode of transportation over the weekend was his bicycle since his car would be in workshop for quite some times. 

Have Steamed Prawns with lots of garlics for dinner on Saturday.  Super yummy with some Shao Xing wine. 



After our dinner, we brought the kids to the nearby mini fun fair.  Really mini because they have limited games such as the Ferris Wheel, Merry Go Round, Pirate Ship, Bumper Cars and many stalls of lucky dips.  RM3.00 for every games and we spent RM30 that night.  I even went for its Pirate Ship since little gal wants to go while hubby did not want to.  So I volunteered to bring her go.  It was fun and yet anxious at the same times.  Because from the look of their things, they were pretty old and I doubt is durability.  Lol!  But it was fun, although my girl closed her eyes most of the ride and mostly me the one that screamed on the ship.  Lol!

As on Sunday we spent our times in Boulevard after church.  Just get some stuff for the kitchen.  And in the evening we watched 2 DVDs at home, i.e. The A-Team starring Liam Neeson and Bradley Cooper and The Wedding Diary starring Ah Niu and Elanne Kwong.  One is action movie and the latter is comedy.  Great way to end my weekend.  *wink*  So look forward to the weekend again. 

Btw, today marks our one month moving into our new home.  How time flies.  It has been a month now.  It is a very quiet neighbourhood although we heard some commotion at the back of our house.  We suspected a mother and a daughter staying in one house, just behind our house.  Almost every day we heard them quarreling.  And hubby kept asking me what are they arguing about because they speak Hakka.  Mostly on household and petty stuff so I do not understand why one of the lady kept shouting at the other to mind her own business.  Sigh!  And I noticed a lady kept looking at our window when I was cooking.  Hmm, does that describe her as a busybody??  We cannot choose our neighbour so I guess we just pray and hope everything is fine and peaceful in the neighbourhood.  *wink*

Healthy juicing

Bitter gourd is good in lowering high blood pressure and high sugar level so yesterday morning when I went "marketing" with my mum, I saw few mini bitter gourds on sales.  Immediately grab 5 mini bitter gourds which cost RM4.00. 

With green apples and red carrots, I made juice for hubby.  Hubby went for a blood test recently because he was feeling dizzy lately but the report turned out good.  No high blood pressure.  Anyway doctor prescribe some tablet for his dizziness and he was feeling slightly better now.

The ingredients for my vegetable and fruit juice.  Green apple, mini bitter gourd and carrot.  Chop and core the green apples, dig out the middle part of the bitter gourd and chop carrot into smaller pieces.  Chop all 3 into smaller pieces for blending purposes

Blend in the blender.  Add a bit of water or ice cubes if you like it chilled.  No sugar please!!  Doesn't it look like smoothies??

After going through sieve/extractor, the juice is ready to be drank.  Take it every morning to reduce high blood pressure and sugar level.

Lemongrass chicken

Have few stalks of lemongrass at home, so I am cooking fried lemongrass chicken dish for lunch.  Very simple to prepare, just marinate for about an hour or so, and you will have tasty lemongrass chicken.  You can either grill, fried or deep fried this dish. 

Fried Lemongrass Chicken

Chicken meats, cut into smaller parts  (you can used drumsticks or chicken wings instead)

2 stalks of lemongrass, the white part only (chopped and pounded finely)

Marinade: 2 tbsp light soy sauce, 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 1/2 tbsp Shaoxing wine

1.  Wash and pat dry chicken meat.  Add marinade together with pounded lemongrass into chicken.  Mix well.  Marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight in fridge.

2. Take out from fridge and toss away the marinade and lemongrass. 

3. Heat up oil in wok or pan in medium heat.  Toss chicken meats one by one once the oil is heated up.  Cover with lid for about 2 minutes to avoid splatter and speed up the cooking process.  Cook for 5 minutes on one side and turn to the other side and let it fried for another 5 minutes.

4. Drain and serve

 

Popsicle treat

It has been a lazy weekend at home.  And I made popsicles for the kids.  Ribena and Vitagen mix popsicles.  I do not have a proper popsicle mould but I do have a set of cute children cutlery set that I bought from Ikea few years ago.  Never used it till recently.  And I think the kids already too big to use them now.  So with a bit of improvision, I assembly them into a popsicle mould.

Yummy and sweet treat for everyone.



Macanese Minchi

I was drooling when I read Terri's blog the other day on Macanese Minchi, a Portugese and Asian-influenced dish.  I love potatoes and minced pork, and while this recipe called for minced beef, I added both minced meat together.  The result?  Super delicious!



This recipe reminded me of Shepherd's Pie, minus the pie of course.  Very easy to prepare.  We finished up a plate of Macanese Minchi.  I ate it for dinner and supper yesterday.  I think I already gained few kgs and cholesterol.  Lol!

For complete recipe, do drop by Terri's blog from A Daily Obsession. 

Happy weekend guys!  More cookings to come. 

Failed roast

My first attempt in deep frying pork belly yesterday.  Not a total disaster but I can give myself a 50% mark for my first trial.  *wink*

Marinated my pork belly with 1 tsp 5-spice powder, 1 tsp salt and dashes of white pepper on the meat and only salt on skin the night before and left it in fridge overnight before I deep frying it.  I meant to test my new grill oven yesterday but had second thought.  So I ended up deep-frying them.  I should have grilled it instead, maybe turned out better.  Lol!

So I heated enough oil for deep frying and before the oil turned hot, I threw in the marinated pork belly.  Just to avoid all those oil splatter in the kitchen.  Soon all those smoke came out from the pan.  And I turned down the heat.  I think that is where my mistake is!!  Turned the heat too soon. 

The meat turned out great.  Very flavourish, but sorry to say for the skin.  No bubbles at all, and not crispy too.  HARD instead.  :(  And when I explained to my staff (who is good in kitchen) she pointed out my mistake.  Let the oil cooked in high heat till the skin almost turned black then slow down the heat! 

As you can see, the meat is still white when I cut it into smaller cubes. Should be slightly brown.  But still, the meat was nice.  We discarded the skin and ate the meat.  Lol!  Okay, will try this recipe again. 

Not only Kampua

When it comes to Foochow the first food you will think of is Kampua.  Right?  Or Kompia.  But Kampua is more diversify than Kompia (Sesame Bagel) and other than well known Sarawak Kolo Mee, Kampua is the next noodle dish in Kuching.  

If you ask me to choose a Foochow dish for breakfast, I would tell you Red Wine Chicken Mee Suah.   It is always my favourite.  Or probably after I knew my Foochow hubby, I fall in love with soupy dish and Mee Suah soup is one of them.  But this morning I fall in love with another Foochow soupy dish.  Never taste it before till today. 

This morning we were hunting for food near our house.  MJC commercial centre is a big place and is full of coffee shops.  It was so many that we lost count and did not know which to choose.  But we would not go to every shops because some shops are pretty secluded and MJC is not well known for its safety issue.  So eeny meeny moe, we choosen Grand Cafe (the one facing main road and next row of shop to Maybank) this morning.

The name "Bee Hoon Goreng Zhao Chai" fascinate me so I ordered a bowl.  My first impression is fried dish.  Because of the word "Goreng" on its label.  But turned out soupy dish!  Oh dear!  And not the usual small vermicelli that we have for fried bee hoon or Sarawak Laksa.  More like Lao Shu Fen (Ekor Tikus Noodle) to me.  Other than its sour soup and fried onion there is nothing to shout about.  Or maybe I have not yet taste the best Bee Hoon Zhao Chai?

As usual hubby ordered his Kampua.  When I asked how was his Kampua, his only comment is "so so".  So it means not so good according to his standard.  *wink*  But at least we tried it.  So one coffee shop is strike off from the list and more coffee shops to try.  



Alone, Monday

My staff is taking Monday as her off day so I am alone in the shop on every Mondays.  Bit bored because less customers on Monday and other that usual routine, there is nothing much to do.  So I cannot wait to count the time till closing time and go home.  Lol!

I would bring along a novel to the shop on Monday and read.  I have finished reading them and I do not mind reading them again.  At least the times on Monday are ticking faster with me reading. 

Yawn!  Sleepy.  Since moved into my new home, I have to get up earlier than usual.  Preparing breakfast, get the kids ready and fighting the traffic light.  Batu Kawa is well known for its massive jam and it took us slightly longer on the road.  And it is worse on Monday morning!!! 

I would need to be extra 5 minutes earlier when I stayed in BDC otherwise I will be late reaching my girl's kindergarden. So far no complaint from my girl as most of the time we are late by 2 - 5 minutes.  Guess she knows that she is graduating from her kindergarden next month and already in a jovial mood so she does not mind being late.  *wink*

And today I bring a take-away from home.  All pork-ie as you can see.  *wink* Leftover pork rib and white radish soup from dinner and I added fried egg, some bacons and hams from this morning American-style breakfast to my simple fried rice.  I did not eat much for breakfast.  One is because I do not fancy American breakfast that much and by the time I finished cooking and cleaning, I did not have much appetite.  So I had an early lunch. Very full now!  So you know why I am complaining I was sleepy earlier.  Lol!

Nowadays I spent less time in the shop during the weekend.  I leave it to my staff.  On weekend I will stay at home, cooking and washing (like nobody's business!).   So a homemaker on the weekend and an enterpreneur on weekday. 

Already mid-October?

Gosh, October is already half gone and my last post is 4 days ago.  How time flies!  At the moment, I am super busy with my life that I do not have time to blog. 

Our unpacking of stuff in our house is almost 80% completed.  And I clean and mop almost every day and now it is less dusty.  Compared to the first week when we moved it, I can feel dirt on my sole waking around the house.  And my poor boy developed an allergy to dust but he has recovered since then.  Now my house is more organised and cleaner.  But it takes a lot of hard work.   And time.  And sweat.  Lol!  But I am not complaining.  At the end of the day, I feel satisfy because it is my home.  There is nothing good but to wake up in our own home, feeling happy every day.  Lol!

Early this week I did something that I should have done early.  Have been postponing due to some personal issue but finally I did it!  With hubby's full support, of course. 

If you are guessing what, it is my resignation.  I am tendering my resignation and giving my stokistship a 2 months notice.  You may be aware that I am operating a Cosway free store for more than 2 years now.  It has been ups and downs and good experience to me.  However family is more important to me now.  With those 2 years experience as enterpreneur, I would hope to be able to set up my own business some day.  Small scale and more personal to me. 

What I miss about the current shop? Friends definitely.  Within those years, I have built budding relationship with few customers and they have been very supportive toward me.  I would miss serving and gossiping with them.  Lol!

It is also the right time for me to push a brake to my hectic schedule.  Has been in a rush and my health was also slightly affected.  Have not been feeling well early of the year but I have recupulated slightly this few months.  Along the way I lost a lot of weight and my family is concerned about my physical health.  Not to mention that my diet also not well taken care of.  So either I let go the shop or I lost my health and quality times with my family. 

What I would be doing after this?? For time being, enjoy my life and the pleasure of my home and family first.  I am enjoying my times with my 2 growing children.  And hubby has stable income to support us.  But if good job opportunity comes, I will consider it.

I have no regret in this decision.  :)

New to-do lists

Okay, now that we have already move to our new home, it would be no excuse for me anymore.  My to-do list would include the following:

1. To prepare breakfast for hubby and children every day (Previously I prepared breakfast for my girl at home, and then with hubby, go out for breakfast)
2. Try to cook dinners every night, but a day off on weekend.  Now I have more time and my own kitchen to experiment with new recipes. 
3. Ironing the clothing. (Btw, I never like ironing and in previous house, we have an aunt to help with the housekeeping and ironing of hubby's working attires)
4. Go to the clubhouse, utilise its gym equipment and swimming pool at least twice a week.  (But unfortunately the swimming pool has been out for few weeks now.  Wonder when they are open up again because my girl has been nagging me about swimming.)
5. Plan a new hobby i.e gardening.  (Never have a green finger but hopefully I would be able to plant some potted plants and herbs in my backyard)
6. Decorating my new home.  And housekeeping will be my sole responsibility.  No more cleaning aunt service since we noticed that she did a bad job in previous house.  However hubby is thinking of getting someone to come once a week to do some cleaning.  I guess he still cannot trust me to do a good cleaning around the house.  Lol!
7. Finished up my crochet piece which I left many years ago so I can get it framed together with my other pieces in the house.
8. Enjoying the rest of 2012 in new home with my family

My kitchen's aroma

Not only people can smell this fried chicken, even the flies will visit your kitchen!!  Lol!

This is my first attempt of cooking Deep Fried Nam Yu Chicken Wings.  After trying this nam yu chicken cooked by my brother-in-law few years ago I fall in love with this pungent yet appetizing dish.  Fried chickens never taste this good!! Now I can cook them when ever I feel like eating them.

I never like red bean curd.  As matter of fact, I never taste red beancurd.  Every time my mum cooked white porridge and have this beancurd (white or red) I would never touch them.  So I never knew such a pungent beancurd can be so tasty in fried chicken wings!!  *wink*

I tried Fong's Kitchen method and like it instantly!! The only complain is that the flies come and disturb you.  The smell of beancurd attract them. 

My hubby likes this fried chicken too and ate a lot that day!!  Very easy to prepare and cook.  I will definitely cook it again. Maybe I will try on pork belly next round.

(recipe taken from Fong's Kitchen and modified to fit my taste)

Ingredients:

6 chicken wings, cut in middle

For marinade:

2 cubes of red beancurd and 1 tbsp of the red sauce from the bottle, mashed
2 tsp minced garlic
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp Shao Xing wine
A dash of white pepper

For coating:

1 white egg and some cornflour

Method:

1. Mix the chicken wings well with all the marinade ingredients.  Chilled in fridge for at least 3 hours.  (I chilled for 1.5 hours only that day.  The taste of beancurd sip in the chicken wing but not enough for me.  Will try to chill longer next time)
2. Take out from the fridge and discard the marinade.  Add the white egg and cornflour to the chicken wings.  Shake off excess flour. Like Fong said, I wait for about 5 minutes before deep frying them.  And true enough, no coat of flour fallen in my wok.
3. Prepare the oil in the wok for deep frying in medium fire. Once it is hot, add in the chicken wings one by one. 
4. Turn to other side when the bottom part is golden brown.  Remove and drain on kitchen towel.  Serve hot with rice.

Cooking sweet leaf

Hubby brought some sweet leaf (cangkuk manis or mani chai) on Tuesday morning from Petanak wet market.  I love sweet leaf but do not eat it often because Chinese believe it is "cold vegetable".   My mum for instance cannot take too much otherwise she will feel dizzy after consuming this vegetable.

Sweet leaves are very easy to plant.  I remember when I was in my college time in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan back in 1998 a male friend planted few stems of sweet leaves in the garden of our rented house.  Every day he would put fertiliser on them.  If I told you what he puts, you would not want to eat them.  Lol!  The vegetable grows beautifully but we never eat them because when we think of what he put, we lose our appetite!  *wink*

This is how I prepared my sweet leaf. Using your thumb and index finger, tear the leaves from the steam.  I take the younger (more light green) leaves instead of those dark colour leaves.  Then wash the leaves few time in coriander and then soak them in a bowl of water of salt for few minutes.  I soaked for about 5 minutes to remove the bitter taste of the leaves.  After that rinse the leaves and using your hand, tear the leaves into smaller pieces.  They are ready to be cooked.

Ingredients:

A pack of sweet leaves (cost around RM1 - 2/ pack now)
1 tbsp of wolfberries, rinsed and soaked in water
2 eggs, beaten
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
Minced garlic and sliced shallots

Method:

1. Heat up cooking oil in a wok.  Pour the beaten eggs into wok and quickly scramble them.  Dish up and put aside.
2. In the same wok, add some cooking oil and once heat up, saute minced garlic and sliced shallots.  Once fragrant, add in the sweet leaves.  Stir quickly and then add the scrambled egg.  Add the wolfberries, salt and light soy sauce (to taste).
3. Dish up and serve with rice.

A day in life

I am getting sleepy now.  It has been a tiring day.  For the past few nights I have been sleeping like baby.  Must be exhaustion from moving house and works.  Now I know how it is to come back to own house, doing some house chore before off to bed.  Admire my mum and other women who still can keep their house at tip top condition while still working during the day.  Lol! 

Today for the first time (and I believe I am going to do it more often in future), I actually cooked and brought food for my daughter in her kinddy,  Actually she left her snack container at home.  I only found out when I gone home after sending her and her brother off this morning.  Luckily I went back.  What happen if I did not go back this morning?  Poor kid!

Hubby is still on leave today, so I cooked fried noodle for his lunch.  And I tapau some for myself to shop and some for my daugther (add to her cheese sandwich).  The gates of her kiddy were all locked but luckily I stopped a teacher near the gate and requested her to pass the lunch container to my girl. 

Then I opened my shop and when my staff came around 1pm, I were off to my in-laws' house to collect some stuff that left there.  And taking some black okana (olive) from my dad-in-law who arrived yesterday evening.  At home, me and hubby unpacked some boxes and cleaning one of the room.

At the same time, I cooked a simple dinner for hubby and myself.  Nam yu fried chicken wing, cangkuk manis with egg and pork rib soup.  I cooked the first two while hubby volunteer to cook soup using the new slow cooker.  Will share the recipe some other day. 

After our dinner we went to pick the kids from baby sitter and went to the shop.  From the shop, it took us about 20 minutes to reach home.  And kids will have some times playing and reading before bath and sleep.  And also some cleaning and sorting to do around the house.  I need to learn on how to keep a house clean and tidy.  Lol!  Hard with 2 kids around who loves to mess things.

That is how my day goes and gone like that.  Hmm.......Ok, time to off to bed.  Tired and sleepy.

 

In our new nest

Hi guys!  Finally I am back here.  It has been a super busy but exciting week for all of us. 

Why not??  Because we have finally moved!  To our new house!  On 29 September 2012.  A terrace intermediate house with 4 rooms.  One room as office cum multi purpose room and three bedrooms, with a small family hall on the upper floor. More space for the kids to mess around and it means three times more cleaning for me.  In my old house I only need to take care of my bedroom and bathroom, but now more spaces to be managed. 

We moved most of our stuff in our bedroom to the new house.  Only left the 2 sets of curtains which hubby will take down in few days time.  I could not believe myself that we have about 20 boxes of stuff moved to the new house.  How can we have so much stuff???  It will take times to sort and unpack them in my new home. Just 2 days in new home, I have sored arms and legs.  Must be too much climbing the staircases and unpacking.  And still more boxes to unpacked!  Sigh!

We followed the Chinese customs for moving house last Saturday.  My dad helped us with the preparation on Saturday morning.  We moved in around 8.30am (the auspicious time on that day is from  7 - 11am).  In Chinese calendar, 29 September was the 14th day of 8th Lunar Month.  A day before Mid-Autumn Festival. 

After a year of planning and renovation work (yeah, I know.  We taking our sweet times making this house perfect for us!), we are in our new home.  A little tour around my humble home.

Firecracker to welcome us to the new house

My humble house

My work place when at home.

Some of the gifts we kept for so long, are finally unwrapped!  *wink* I like this set

With tray of its own

The kids are excited and only took their nap after 4pm that day.  And they are sharing room with us for time being.  Hopefully able to make them go to sleep in a seperate room in a week or so!

Home Sweet Home!