Christmas Holidays

My Christmas Present to Hubby

Time passes really fast. After XX's birthday celebration, we attended another birthday party the next Saturday, then a few days later, it's Christmas Eve already. It was a quiet Christmas Eve for us. We had a simple dinner of Chicken Rice. No roasted turkey, but it's still a bird nonetheless...hee.

Christmas Day, the kids opened the rest of their presents from the Grandparents and aunties/uncles in S'pore. They merrily ripped away while it's constant collecting and crushing of loose wrappers and boxes for us. They were the happiest and luckiest that day as we attended 2 gatherings and they collected more presents.

After breakfast, I started to get busy, making 'Lo Mai Fan' (Glutinous Rice) for the lunch gathering. It was well-received and we came home in the afternoon so XX can have a nap. While he was asleep, I made some Gingerbread Man cookies for the evening party. In between, I also made some Min Jiang Kueh for tea as a pilot friend of Hubby was in town and he came over to our place.

We were dead tired by the time we reached home at about 11pm. But I still can't go to bed yet. As Hubby sent his friend back to the hotel, I started packing. Yes, we're leaving for a short holiday the next day and we've not even started packing. Procastination is the word. I think we went to bed at about 1am that night.

The next morning, Boxing Day, I got out of bed at about 8am, awoken by XX. Which was just as well. Cos I'm heading for the Boxing Day SALES happening everywhere! I found out at the party that evening before that over here on Boxing Day, retail stores everywhere slashed their prices up to 70% for some crazy 'Stocktaking' 'Clearance' Sale. Many big stores even open early. In downtown Myers, people will start to queue up outside the store as early as 4am to wait for the doors to open at 6am. It's that good that some of the friends there were talking at meeting each other for shopping at 6 or 7 in the morning!

Well, I didn't go down to Myers as there wasn't anything much that I was looking to buy there. But I did go to Spotlight to try my luck for a sewing machine that I've been thinking of buying. The store was having a 20% storewide discount. Still not good enough to meet my budget. However I did end up buying the rotary cutter, cutting mat and quilter's ruler at 20% less. I also got 2 kids sleeping bags at 50% discount over at Big W's and some good quality chocolates at 40% off.

By 1pm, we've started our drive to our holiday destination at Ballarat. I was so tired that I actually slept in the car. (I don't easily fall asleep in cars these days.) I thought that these few days should be good for me to catch up a little on my rest but the first night here proved me wrong.

Find out what happened in the next post!

The Terrible Two

I can't seem to stay away from this number. For this post is BOTH about life with XX after 2 as well as the mischiefs of the TWO boys.

Seriously, at this moment, I'm thinking if God was a little unfair when he 'blessed' some mothers with 2 boys in a row. Because obviously they have got a lot more on their hands than say, compared with mothers with girls only or one boy, one girl. Boys are loud and play noisy games. Guns, swords, remote control cars, X-box....etc. Boys are boisterous, hyperactive, rowdy and not demure.

Well, one boy can still be controlled, but once 2 or more of them gather, it's mayhem! I've seen the way KK plays with his friends. It's just running around, laughing loudly at the same time, tagging each other 'it' and more running around. At the playground, boys who are complete strangers can bond and play together and there're only 2 things they do: 'chasing' and 'running'. At home, when KK is away in school, XX is pretty peace loving. But once KK comes home, they either fight over things or play rowdy activites. I have to constantly shout at them to stop before they hurt themselves or destroy something or I'll be scolding one or the other for hitting/throwing. XX especially, has this habit of throwing things (whatever he's holding or can lay his hands on) when he's angry. Either that or he'll thump you with his fist. He can be really naughty to his brother and is not one who gives in easily.

Ok, so I get to save on clothings and toys for the same sex but on the other hand, boys break more of their toys and dirty their clothes more often than girls. It's true! All the toy cars that are still not broken, none of them have their paintwork intact. Cheap toys don't last more than 2 days in my family. Yesterday, XX just broke the remote control tank when he threw the tank over his head for no reason. The X-box remote control has crashed onto the floor so many times but thank God for carpets. The cuffs on KK's blue uniform is often grey in colour. I have to use concentrated detergent and scrub like crazy to get them off. I'm sure his royal blue pants has got an equal amount of dirt, except that I can't see it. His shoes, I don't even bother washing them.

Here are more reasons why I think mothers with all boys family should form a support group and meet regularly to comfort and tell each other their hard work will be rewarded the day their sons get married.

1) You will never succeed in shopping for clothes for yourself when you bring the boys along. They'll be complaining till you leave the shop or they'll be playing hide and seek inside the racks of clothes. They have no constructive feedback to give when you try on clothes and you've got to watch that they don't accidentally wander into other women's cubicles in the fitting room.

2) You see all the racks of cute, pretty dressess on display and you can't buy any! You walk to the boys section but you don't like everything you see. Decision making for buying boys' clothes are no-brainers. Pants - long or short, black, blue or khaki. Shirt - their favourite cartoon characters on the front can't go wrong.

3) You feel like making a quilt for them and you have a headache thinking about the design. All the pretty floral quilt designs you like are too 'girly' for them and you hate sewing robots appliques.

4) You are the only one in the family doing all the gift wrappings for whatever occasions all year round. Because boys only know how to tear gift wrappers and they don't care how a present looks on the outside!

My No. 2 turns 2!

2 is the magic number yesterday as my XX turned two years old! We celebrated with a birthday party at our place, inviting all of our friends in Melbourne - which comes up to about 10.

The theme of the party is 'Cars', since XX likes 'cars cars' so much. We've got a Cars ice-cream cake, Cars paper plates, Cars-stickered plastic cups, Cars birthday banner, Cars goodie bags and Cars gift wrappers for the kids' gifts. I even ironed on a 'Cars' motif on a red t-shirt for XX to wear. We also booked a Disney Cars bouncing castle but unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs the whole day, we had to cancel it in the morning. The rain had started on Friday and continued through the night to Saturday. It didn't stop at all for the next 24 hours....urgh!

Prepartion of food for this party can be considered the biggest challenge of my culinary skills. With a lot of planning and support from Hubby and friends, I managed to cook almost all of the food to serve our guests. I must say that if I was still in Singapore, this probably would not happen. I would not have had the time, experience and confidence to cook food good enough to serve people outside of my immediate family. But over the last 6 months, I've had the opportunity to sharpen up my cooking skills, testing out a few good recipes in the process.

As early as on Wednesday, I'd started baking about 30 Rich Chocolate Cupcakes. Thursday, I baked 60 Choux Pastry shells for cream puffs and cut/marinaded 1.6kg of chicken thigh fillets for the Satays. Friday, the Chocolate Ganache for the cupcakes and Shu Cream filling for the cream puffs were prepared. I used the chocolate ganache to decorate the Lemon Star biscuits and coated the tips of fresh strawberries as well. Approximately 60 sticks of satay were also skewered. In the evening, I even had the mood to make a Triple Chocolate Cheesecake, my first time making a cheesecake.

Lemon Star Biscuits with Chocolate Ganache strips

When Saturday morning came, I decorated the cupcakes with KK, filled the cream puffs, fried the sausage and prata for the Sausage Prata Roll, made the Tomato Pesto Puffs, skewered the cucumbers/onions for the satay and prepared the stock for the Fish Head Bee Hoon. Our friend Sherin helped prepare the fish for the fish head bee hoon soup while KK helped me wash the vegetables. Hubby collected the cake, chilled the drinks and we were all set and ready for the guests by 3pm.

KK has been waiting impatiently for the party to start all morning and when his friend Byran and his sister arrived, he was literally screaming with joy. XX, as expected, was totally oblivious to all the happenings in the kitchen. He was busy and happily running around with the other kids the whole time.

The satays were grilled when the guests arrived and were a big hit. I have to thank our sponsors 'Singapore Day' (and Sherin) for giving out the cans of Yeos satay sauce...haha!

XX behaved extremely 'big-boy' during the cake cutting, standing tall and blewed the candles, cut the cake when told, though I seriously wondered if he knew what it all meant. He had two cakes, the ice-cream one from Wendys and the cheesecake that mummy made. The cheesecake's triple layers turned out well. The only problem was the Oreo base was quite hard and I struggled to dig it out of the Pyrex pan....

There's one thing that I'm sure XX learnt that day - the skill of opening presents. By the time he opened his third present, he was an expert at ripping the gift wrapper away to reach the contents.

At the end of the day, only 6 adult and 5 kids guests came and there were a lot of leftover food, which I packed for our friends to bring home. By the time KK's buddy Bryan left at 10.30pm, I begin to feel some aching on my shoulders. The sugar rush from all the sweet cakes and the hype of the day's events slowly disappeared as I wind down with Hubby over a glass of wine...... 2 a successful party and till next year.

* I would like to thank all our friends who turned up for your presence, your contributions of food, your help and your gifts to XX! More pictures in Facebook!

Santa Wear Your Shorts

Click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niadYXItV2U) for the video of KK's carolling performance.

See if you can spot KK in his red beach shorts!

Happy Tuesday Again

Today is yet another 'Happy Tuesday' for us.

It seems that even the plants outside the yard knows about 'Happy Tuesdays' cos the cactus plant's flowers chose to bloom today. Yesterday, they were still 'closed'. The rose, which was at the point of wilting, suddenly seemed to be revived today. And I spotted the first fruit of the strawberry plant today. I'm pretty sure this is a strawberry in the making. Question is: will it continue to grow bigger and ripen?

Monday....

Tuesday!


The resurrected rose

Strawberry #1

Petrol price was sighted to be 97.9 cents per litre. Although we didn't need to pump, I'm happy to see prices falling. But I bet those Arab folks and top shots at OPEC must be shaking their heads while putting them together at this moment, thinking of how to increase the oil prices and keep their profits high.


We ate Dominos pizza again, nope, not sick of it yet. Hubby went to buy 2 pizzas after he collected KK from school and we had an early dinner. The main reason for the early dinner was because KK had to go back to school again at 5.15pm for a carolling performance.



This is the highlight of the day and I've been looking forward to it for the past week. In fact, I seem more excited than KK, asking him how he sings the song and what were the actions, but the boy just can't be bothered. I even had to remind him after he came back from school that the performance is this evening.



His Prep class is gonna perform this song called 'Santa wears your shorts' and we're supposed to dress him up in colourful beach theme shorts. Luckily, some years ago in Bintan, KK's PoPo had bought him this red batik shirt and shorts which we've yet to wear until now. I took it out, give it a quick ironing and thought this is really very suitable for his song. Somehow, KK is a lot less enthusiastic about the costume.

Rain cleared up - after everything's over.

Unfortunately, the weather today was quite terrible. It's overcast, cloudy, chilly, gloomy and just 1 hour before the event, it poured. The school had invited all parents to bring along their picnic mat and food as they watched the carolling. I had envisioned a nice evening sitting down on the ground, eating pizza and drinking coke.


But all these didn't happen. What happened was, everyone packed into the gym, standing around or sitting on chairs to see their kids perform. We were late and were lucky to slowly inch our way into the hall, standing next to a Christmas tree by the side. XX was happy there, especially after a little girl kept offering bits of her food to him and I opened a bag of Nachos for them to munch. Later, a teacher offered a space in front on the floor for XX and I, but Hubby stood all the way. The poor kids, they could only come into the hall to perform and had to leave after cos there's simply no room to accommodate them.

I especially like this snowman costume

Nevertheless, it was a great effort by the children and the teachers who trained them. Most came dressed up to the theme and without a doubt, the christmas songs and singing does make one feel 'christmassy'.



I will upload a video of KK's performance later, after I edit the film abit. But guess what? Despite my front seat position, I couldn't see him at all throughout the whole performance.... :( He got rotated to stand at the other end of the hall and my view of him was always blocked. I couldn't stand up either to see him as someone was video-ing behind me. Sigh, I had to resort to watching him on the video recording playback. Thank God Hubby was able to move over there.

Happy Tuesdays

There are many reasons that make Tuesdays the happiest day of the week.



Firstly, petrol prices are at their lowest on this day (but don't ask me why). So most locals will try to fill their tanks on Tuesdays. Today, Hubby pumped at $1.007/litre. Cool!



Secondly, on Tuesdays, Dominos' pizzas are only $4.90 each, as compared to $6.90 normally. Second to MacDonalds, Dominos is our most frequented fast food joint. We call to make a phone order, and it's ready by the time you drive 10 mins to pick it up. Its pizzas are very reasonably priced (some supermarket frozen pizzas cost just as much) and most importantly, they are very very delicious, with generous toppings. We never knew Dominos was so good until we came here. Two large pizzas to feed the family (plus leftovers for KK's lunch the next day), for less than $10, where to find such good deals?



Thirdly, with Tuesdays being pizza nights, this means I don't have to cook! I don't need to think of what to cook and can use the time instead for baking or other hobbies.

Tuesdays are also 'walking days'. The local community hub has a walking group every Tuesday morning. Usually I'll put XX in a stroller and join them for a walk around the area, for fresh air, for exercise, for socialising. It is followed by morning tea at the hub. Even Hubby comes along when he's in town. The people in the group are quite nice and friendly.

Even KK has reasons to be happy. On Tuesdays, we give him some pocket money (20c) to bring to school for lollies!



To mark Happy Tuesday today, I made this Santa Claus cake! No lah, actually I've wanted to make this cake for a long time, after seeing its cute picture on Happy Home Baker's blog. The strawberries were on sale and they looked so beautiful I couldn't resist buying. This gives me the perfect kickstart and I finally plucked up my courage to try making a sponge cake again last night after the earlier failed attempt. Seeing that it didn't deflate, I went to get the cream and white chocolate today to decorate it. It wasn't very easy assembling the cake. The creaming was quite atrocious. Maybe I lack the right tools, I was using a spatula to spread it and the edge of the cake was the most difficult to get the cream on nicely. But thankfully, the end result still looks quite pleasing. Have you noticed that my santa's face is kind of tan? The original one is white but I used my leftover chocolate icing sugar (don't waste), so my whipped cream is light brown in colour.....haha....alamak, became asian Santa loh!

I couldn't think of any special reason for the cake so here's to Happy Tuesdays for us and advanced Merry Christmas to everyone!!

Fast Forward

I was reading my friend Jessie's blog that day about her daughter's 'graduation' from Kindergarten and it just dawned on me that it's the end of the school year already in Singapore. Most students would have started their school holidays by now. When school starts again, it will be the beginning of a new school year.

For children born in 2002, it will be a new milestone for them, as they all start Primary One next year. I couldn't help but think about my KK. If he is still in Singapore, I would have attended his Kindergarten's graduation concert and be admiring the photograph of him wearing the mortar board. I bet I will be very excited for him, helping him get ready his new school uniform and school bag.

Regrettably, he missed all that when he moved to Australia. Interestingly, he seemed to have followed in his Mummy's footsteps. I too missed wearing the 'graduation' gown and mortar board when I switched to a private kindergarten towards the end of K2.

KK did a 'Fast Forward' when he came here as he joined a Primary School. In Victoria, children his age attend what they call 'Prep', which is the year before they start Grade 1. From 4 hours in K2, his school day became 6 hours. He also has to take his lunch in school, which makes it very difficult for me to ensure he eats well.

Being part of a Primary School does have some advantages though. He gets to use many of the facilities of a full-fledge school, such as a Library, Art Room, Gym, which a kindergarten would not be able to provide. The socialisation with a variety of teachers that take them for different subjects and the exposure to a larger group of students of different ages also helps to expose him. He now knows how to buy lollies from the canteen, attends assembly every Monday morning, plays some ball games during Sports and has a Library book to borrow every Thursday. He's also gone on swimming lessons and a farm excursion organised by the school, in addition to many other themed events such as "Olympics Day", "Italian Day", "Dress in your favourite book character" day.

From a baby to a toddler to now, a boy, KK seemed to have grown up a lot in the last year. His mannerism and communication is not so "kiddish" but more "boyish", (if this makes sense?) though he still wails like a baby when scolded by his father. His reasoning and logical thinking skills are developing, from the way he rebuts us sometimes. And his reading skills has definitely improved by leaps and bounds. I remembered he was still struggling with basic words like "am", "are", "at" just before we moved. But now, he is able to read almost 90% of the words in the books that he takes back from school everyday. His school has a reader system where the child brings home a different book in his "reader bag" everyday to read. The next day, they will take turns reading it again to a parent volunteer. In fact, Hubby is one of the parent doing reading with the kids in his class every Friday.

Shall end here. For all parents sending their child to Primary One next year, all the best for the transition!

Waratah - An Australian Native Flower

My friends Simon and Christine visited us last Saturday. They brought with them yummy, yummy Choux Puffs, Pavlova and a fruits platter for dessert. They also brought along a humongous bouquet of flowers. It appears that bringing a bouquet of flowers to the host's home is a common practice here. But these flowers caught me off guard.

Besides the weight which scares me (it was about 3kg?), I have never, ever, in my life seen a flower so BIG before. Close up, they reminded me initially of those 'man-eating flowers'. In fact, there was no way my pathetically little crystal vase is gonna accomodate the bunch.

I was told its name is Waratah, an Australian native flower. I googled more about it today and received my next lesson about Australia. Click here to read more.

After my friends left, I managed to separate out the stalks and squeezed 7, with 3 of them blooming, into my vase. The other 6 stalks had to make do with sitting in a pail of water. The 3 blooming flowers were the size of a small durian each and I had to distribute their weight evenly, otherwise the vase might just lose its balance.

Besides the size, these flowers had a very interesting and 'unreal' texture. They look and feel like felt (the cloth). If not for their amazing ability to absorb water, I would have believed they were fake flowers. And these guys are good 'drinkers', like their human countrparts. Since I've placed them in front of the sink, I see them at close proximity every day when I wash the dishes. And every day, I observed the water level in the vase going down dramatically. The water literally gets sucked up overnight. Half a vase everyday. If the remaining unbloomed flowers are gonna bloom to the size of their 3 sisters, I think I should go and buy another bigger vase. It looks like I'll be able to have these pink flowers by my sink for a pretty long time.

Healthy Treats

I have been trying to be health conscious in my diet lately. And I say 'trying' because it is proving quite difficult. You see, healthy food is sometimes very untasty. Another way to put it is: why must yummy food be so sinful? Think buttery flake pastries and sweet custard egg tarts.....hmmm.

The very yummy but sinful 'Pavlova' (made from just sugar and egg white)

Ok, maybe I'm not such a great cook but I've been trying out a few healthy, fibre-packed recipes recently and the result is only so-so in terms of taste.



Okara Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

From my soy milk making, I got a lot of okara, the left-over residue after you squeeze out the milk. I was told that this is precious stuff, with as much protein as the milk but 32 times as much fibre. Instead of wasting it and throwing them away, I thought of ways to consume them. I've tried to make soy patties, but they didn't turn out too great. I surfed the internet and found this Okara Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe, which I thought is great for the kids. It also uses oats and wholemeal flour, ingredients that I recently learnt to love.


This is really a health-conscious kind of recipe. There wasn't any butter nor sugar added, only canola oil and honey. As a result, the taste is rather bland but you can't deny the nutrition. And as expected, the kids didn't like the 1st batch very much.


Here are some of the ingredients used in the original recipe:

I made a 2nd batch, this time I modified the recipe a little to make it tastier. I added some sultanas, replaced the canola oil with melted butter and added 2 tablespoons of sugar! Of course, it became slightly 'unhealthy' after that. But what the heck, I reasoned that if its not tasty and no one eats it, then what nutrition is there to talk about? I liked the taste of this batch much better. KK seemed to like it better but XX, who prefers crunchier biscuits, didn't quite like the soft texture of this cookie.

Pinklavender's Okara Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies (the 'not as healthy' version):

Ingredients:

• 1 cup okara (soybean meal)


• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour


• 1 1/2 cup rolled oats


• 3/4 tsp baking soda


• 1/4 cup butter, melted


• 2 tbsp caster sugar


• 1/2 cup honey


• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract


• 1/4 cup chocolate chips


• some sultanas (or other nuts, seeds etc)

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line cookie tray with baking paper.


• Stir together okara, whole wheat flour, rolled oats, sugar in a medium bowl.


• In a small bowl, melt butter and honey and stir in the vanilla extract. Dissolve the baking soda in 2 tablespoons of boiling water and add it to the mixture.


• Add wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring till combined.


• Fold in chocolate chips and sultanas (or even nuts, sunflower seeds)


• Using a teaspoon, scoop and drop them on to the cookie tray. Flatten slightly with the back of a fork.


• Bake for 15-20 mins.

E's Oatmeal Chocolate Muffins

I made these muffins yesterday at 11pm. It took me more than 1 hour to get XX to fall asleep before I could creep out at about 10.30pm to wash the dinner dishes. I know it's crazy, despite the late hours, there was this urge for me to bake something. I just had to do something for myself. And it didn't take me too long. While it baked in the oven, I did the dishes.

I found this recipe here when I searched 'oatmeal, chocolate, muffins'. I want KK and XX to eat more oats but it's got to be 'chocolate' flavour, otherwise KK won't touch it. You wouldn't believe how obsessed he is with chocolate. His milk is flavoured with chocolate (milo), his cereal is Milo Crunch or Coco Crunch, ice-cream must be 'rich chocolate' flavour, and biscuits, cookies, cakes must be chocolatey too. His comment for this muffin: Can you make it more chocolatey next time?

I halved the quantity for the recipe as it was the first time I'm trying it and didn't know if its good. I took care not to overmix the batter so the texture of the muffin turned out ok but I think this muffin recipe lacks sugar. It's not sweet enough. The website is called "Calorie Count", so you can imagine why. Thank God for the saving grace of chocolate, XX and KK are not rejecting it.

The Heat is Up

Today has to be the hottest day since I set foot in Melbourne. The indoor thermometer read 36.9 degrees C at one point and Hubby even saw it at 38 degrees! Inside our bedroom upstairs, the temperature was 34.9 degrees.

Luckily it was still bearable downstairs. Upstairs has always been warmer than below, so in cold weather, it's nice. But now, it's better to stay downstairs. Besides, there's the air-conditioner there.

It was so warm that XX didn't sleep long for his nap. Hubby rushed to the supermarket to get a fan. Well, it helped circulate the air a little but it's still warm air blowing at you. Better than nothing, definitely.

Different from Singapore, the heat here is dry. So you don't perspire and don't feel sticky at all. However, you do feel dry and dehydrated. I can feel it in my nose and my skin.

I'm not sure if it was the heat or the tiredness, but XX was not behaving his usual self. His appetite was quite bad for lunch and even worse for dinner. He even vomited (all over the floor and me) and had some diarrhea. I hope he's not coming down with any illness.

Another thing I noticed. With the heat comes a lot more insects into the house. Are they all escaping the heat and looking for cooler places to hangout as well?

Video

This is a video I've uploaded in YouTube. It was taken sometime ago but only managed to post it now.

Almost There

I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We're getting there...

There're a few areas of XX's development which is 'work-in-progress'. One is his toilet training, the other, his saliva control.

He's been pooping in the toilet bowl for at least 6 months now and can tell us when he wants to go 'ng ng'. But when it comes to urinating, he's still not telling us he needs to pee. We try to let him go without diapers at home and let him pee into the potty, but accidents often occur, especially when we're busy. I admit that we're not consistent at times when we leave him in his diapers after we go out or when we're busy. One friend suggested doing a 3-day intensive training which involves bringing him to the potty at regular intervals, until he gets the idea that "Peeing = Potty". I tried that with the help of a timer. We'll reset the timer every 20 mins and when the buzzer goes off, we'll bring XX to the potty. The timer really helps to minimize accidents as it remind us as when we're busy and forgot the time.

However after 3 days, I did not see any significant improvement. XX still doesn't go to us when he wants to pee. Nonetheless, I continued this routine for another 2 more days. Recently, however, we noticed that XX's bladder control seemed to have improved. He still doesn't tell us when he wants to pee but even though we don't use the timer anymore, XX is able to control his urine until we bring him the potty, which is usually more than the 20 mins interval. There have also been a few isolated occasions where he actually said he wants to pee. It was after a little pee came out, but at least he kept most of it back and only lets go when we bring the potty to him. He seems to be getting the idea already!

The other aspect of his development is his saliva control. Since 4 months old, XX has been drooling. We often have to wash as many as 8 - 10 bibs every night. But recently, we noticed that he's been staying dry. There's still drool, but there's no need for bibs or at least he doesn't soak up as many as before. I'm really glad that we can do away with this nightly ritual of washing his bibs. I used to joke that it doesn't matter how cute or how branded his clothes are, cos with his big wet bib hanging in front, people can't see at all. Now, we can at last 'show off' a little....:-p

XX's vocabulary is building faster than houses in Australia. Although he can't speak very clearly, it's not stopping him from talking or blabbering. Any words that you throw at him, he will try to repeat it, of course, not very accurately. He can also understand us perfectly, so many times we'll ask him questions to know what he wants. With this improved communication ability, we're having an easier time understanding his needs.

But we're not having an easy time understanding his mood swings. Are these the symptoms of the 'terrible twos'? I can't remember KK having such tantrums when he was little. When XX is in a bad mood, which can happen when things doesn't go his way, he can be very tempermental and difficult to handle. He will just stand or sit wherever he is and refuse to budge. If you pull him away or carry him off, he'll scream and make a hell lot of fuss. And once he's pissed off, nothing you do or say is right. Everything you ask him you'll get "No" for an answer. It's crazy, especially when we're outside.

He's also pretty possessive. Every toy the brother plays, he'll want the same. He's learnt a new word recently and has been using it a lot. This word is "mine". At this age, he doesn't know about sharing and everytime we ask him to share, he's not the least embarrassed to say a definite "NO". Very often, KK will be asked to give in, which leads him to complain it's not fair. Sigh, that is another headache we have to deal with each day and it's gonna increase in frequency, I'm quite sure about it.

There's one area of XX which I'm still waiting for salvation. That of his holding of hands, or more specifically my thumb, when he sleeps. Now he'll tell me 'hand, hand' when he wants it in the middle of the night. Like those children who needs the pacifier or their bolster to fall asleep, XX needs to hold hands to fall asleep. I've tried giving him the 'cold shoulder', literally turning my back to him, but he'll complain so much and start pulling your arm to get the hand, it's not funny.

Ok, got to go, the boy's woken up from his nap and I may be needed...rather, my hands are needed.

ANZAC Biscuits

We enjoyed another bite of Australian culture last Monday in the form of delicious ANZAC Biscuits.

ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) biscuits' history can be traced back to World War 1. They were made by the loved ones of the soldiers and sent to those fighting abroad. The ingredients used are those that do not spoil easily as those days, these biscuits would have to endure a journey of about 2 months before reaching the soldiers.

I followed a recipe in this cookbook "Edmonds Biscuits & Slices 1" which I bought almost 10 years ago in New Zealand. I'd given this book to my sister but I don't know how come it's with me now...haha.

The biscuits are really simple to make and smells so good. The taste is very good too, as is the nutritional value. If you're thinking of introducing oats into your diet and don't eat plain oatmeal, this is a good way, I suppose.

Here's the recipe: (makes abt 22 biscuits)

1/2 cup Flour

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup dessicated coconut

3/4 cup rolled oats

100g butter

1 tbsp golden syrup (I used maple syrup)

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tbsp boiling water

Method:

1) Mix flour, sugar, coconut and rolled oats.

2) Melt butter and golden syrup.

3) Dissolve baking soda in the boiling water and add to the butter and golden syrup.

4) Stir butter mixture into the dry ingredients.

5) Place level table spoons of mixture 4-5 cm apart on cold greased oven trays.

6) Bake at 180 degrees Celcius for about 15 mins or until golden brown.

The thing to note is point 5. The biscuit will grow and spread themselves during the baking. I tried to squeeze all of them into my 'not-too-big' tray and they all joined together!!!

Soy Busy

I realised that posts about my baking and cooking adventures have been hogging my blog lately. For all those concerned about the children's developments, they have been progressing well, just that there hasn't been any newsbreaking events of late.



Some friends have commented that I am "quite free", finding time to bake and even blog! HAHA...on the contrary, I am on my feet the whole day. I try to multi-task, breaking up the baking sequence, in between having breakfast, cooking XX's porridge and bringing him to the potty. When I could have taken a nap or watch some TV, I used the time when XX is asleep to bake or blog. I used to be busy working for others in the office but now, I am busy working for myself and my family. I am driven by the joy of eating my own produce and seeing my family enjoy the food I make. Actually, all these food creations not just fill the stomachs but they also keep my mind active.




So please bear with me a little longer as I write about my experience in making soy milk. There's also Anzac cookies, but that will have to be another time, when I find more time to sit down undisturbed.



I've been toying with the idea of buying an automatic soy milk maker since I drank some homemade soy milk at a Singaporean friend's place. I've considered buying it from Singapore and even China, where my cousin currently resides. But I can't decide, based on reading the Chinese descriptions, which brand and model is best. I also cannot understand how the soy milk-ing process works, both manually and using the maker. I felt really ignorant as I pondered over questions like:

"Grind the beans first then boil or boil the beans then grind?"
"Strain the soy then boil or boil first then strain?"




Thus I decided to do a bit of homework, reading up on how to make homemade soy milk the 'traditional' way.




Several websites and one YouTube video later, I found out that people actually do it either way. I finally choose this process: 1) Soak; 2) Grind; 3) Boil; 4) Strain



1) Soak

My first soy milk-ing experience, the beans were soaked for nearly 36 hours. I was told the beans will swell A LOT so I was expecting them to grow into the size of cashew nuts. But they didn't. Then I realised that they've got a skin which can be removed if I rubbed the bean. So I thought, maybe that's why they couldn't grow, with that "skin-tight jeans" on them. So I actually rubbed every single bean to get that skin off and left them longer overnight. Still, they only about doubled in size. I've since learned not to have unrealistic expectations about their size and not to bother about removing their 'clothes'. Though I kind of enjoy the 'removal process', it's simply not practical when you have like about 500 beans!

The naked beans

.....and their 'jeans' (below)

2) Grind/Blend

The proportion of water to soaked beans is about 3.5 : 1. According to scientists from Cornell University, you should add boiling water to the beans to inactivate the lipoxidase enzyme that goes into action when beans are broken down in the presence of water and air, giving the 'bittery beany' taste. (Click here to read more.) I followed this method but got to be careful as when I turned on the blender, the initial spluttering of hot water out of the blender can be scary.



3) Boil

I decided to boil the un-strained soy milk before straining as I wanted to extract more flavours from the okara (soy residue). The first time, I used only 50g of beans and a big 5 litre pot, because I've heard so much about the beans boiling over suddenly. It was a comical sight as the soy milk only filled about 2cm of the pot. I also didn't cover the pot, as I was so afraid of the over boiling. So it didn't really boil properly and it lost a lot of moisture through evaporation instead. I had to add back a bit of water and reboil the milk cos if you don't boil it properly, the protein is indigestible and it could give you a tummy-ache.



4) Strain
This is the part that is the most time consuming and requires the most effort but also the most fun. The soy is now grounded so fine that any wire sieve will not be able to separate the milk. I know I needed a muslin cloth but I don't have one and don't know where to get one. I scurried upstairs to see if I happened to have any handkerchiefs. Nope. Finally, I settled on a napkin that was given to me during one SIA function (TCS Star Awards).

The joy of seeing that warm white milk ooze out from the cloth is indescribable. I made sure that I extracted every drop of precious liquid after all the effort. My first soy milking attempt, I yielded only 1.5 glass. So the next time, I made sure I made enough to fill up 2 jugs.

The taste of homemade soy milk is different from those sold outside or any soy milk I've tasted before, for that matter. I don't know how to describe it, just plain heavenly!

Melbourne Cup Day

It's Melbourne Cup Day! Held on the first Tuesday of November and only in Victoria, it's a public holiday today. The rest of Australia gets an unofficial afternoon off, I heard, as no one's in the mood for work anyway and all eyes will be on the TV for 'the race that stops a nation.'

We're happy to mark our first Melbourne Cup Day with a BBQ at one of our friend's place. It is a great day for the Melbourne Cup race. The sky is cloudless and the sun shining bright. It wasn't so yesterday, where it was cloudy and windy. The forecast for the rest of the week is gonna be rainy and cold too. Over here, I really respect the weatherman. They are ALWAYS accurate. Given the very erratic weather that Melbourne is famous for, the weather report is something you'll pay attention to when planning outdoor activities.

I have totally no idea what the fuss about Melbourne Cup is all about. The prize of the Melbourne Cup is $5.5 million and besides the jockeys, apparently all Australians are very excited about the event, many of them betting on the horses, just for the fun of it. Our friend's cousin's husband had bet on this horse called 'Okaylah'. He's got a Singaporean wife, so that explains it. We wondered if the jockey or that horse is Singaporean too.

So in between chit chats, stuffing ourselves on BBQ steaks, chicken wings, potato salad, bee hoon, sausages and attending to the kids, I caught glimpses of the event at Flemington Racecourse being broadcast live on TV. Much of the glamour of the event is also contributed by the ladies, who will strut their stuff, in extravagant styles and hats. Many look very graceful and glamourous, that it, until they start yelling for their horses, like some addicted gamblers or when they get drunk on too much champagne.....;)

Thanks to the Cup, many Australians, like us, have got a good excuse for a nice afternoon of socialising. Minus the tall feathered hats and high heels, of course.

Homebaked Wholemeal Bread

This has to be one of the best bread I’ve ever baked and eaten. It is even better than the Milk Loaf that I’ve baked before, and more nutritious too.

I did one last night and today, I need to bake another one cos the first one is almost finished. Hubby is not a fan of those store-bought sandwich slices kind of bread. But he likes gourmet bread and he considers this wholemeal bread to be in that category. From him, that’s a big compliment.

The recipe is simple and the kneading process simple and easy. The only thing I wished is that it’s a bigger loaf. The proofing went quite well but I don’t know why, after I cut the slits on the top of the bread, the bread seems to deflate a little, as if I’d puncture it. It also did not grow any bigger in the oven. So for the 2nd loaf, I tried to cut the slits before letting it proof for the 2nd time. It works! The dough was slightly taller when sent into the oven.

Regardless, I can ignore height for quality. The bread is quite dense, not like those airy pieces of store-bought bread. However the texture is soft and the taste is slightly sweet and buttery. It tastes good even eaten plain on its own. One thing to note though, because there is no added preservatives, this bread doesn't keep well. So bake it fresh and eat it within a day or two.

What are you waiting for? Go ahead and try it! You’ll never want to buy bread from outside again.

Here’s the recipe:
150g Bread Flour (I use Bread Mix)
150g Wholemeal Flour
1 tsp Instant Yeast
½ tsp Salt
2 tbsp Caster Sugar
10g Butter
170ml Water (lukewarm)

Method:
1. Combine all the dry ingredients and mix well. Try to make sure the butter is not too cold and hard so it’s more evenly combined.

2. Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in the water.

3. Mix into a dough. It’s not sticky so after most of the moisture is absorbed by the flour, you can turn it out and use your hands to continue kneading, until you get a smooth ball of dough.

4. Cover the dough in a bowl with a damp towel and let it proof. Depending on your climate, proof until it doubles in size.

5. Then turn it out and knead it lightly for a while before shaping it and putting it into your bread pan.

6. Cut some diagonal slits on the top of the dough to achieve a rustic looking effect. You can sprinkle some wholemeal flour over the top too.

7. Let it proof again under a damp towel till its size is doubled or you poke a finger into the dough and it leaves a dent.

8. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and bake for around 30 mins. Take it out and let it cool completely.

Going, going.....

There was another first for me last week. I attended my first auction.



Auctions appear to be very popular in Australia - for selling anything on ebay as well as for properties. When a house or land is for sale, I often see sign boards set up outside its front yard, advertising whether its 'For Sale' or 'Auction'. More often, the better properties will go for auctions as the owners hope to fetch a better price. The auction date and time is always stated and it is usually on held on Saturdays, around 12noon to 1pm.





The way the property sector here works is very different from Singapore's. Unlike Singapore where property agents will accompany you for viewings anytime at your convenience, even evenings and weekends, here you can't. There are fixed timings for viewings (or inspections, as they call it). Better still, the time range for the open house can be around 15mins only, so you better be on time.



There was a piece of vacant land in our suburb, 720sqm big, located just opposite a peaceful lake and home to many ducks, swans and birds. It was the only piece of land along that stretch that hasn't been built on. Last Saturday, it went on auction at 1pm. Hubby had called to enquire about the reserve price but of course, the agents wouldn't reveal.

I've always wondered what an auction is like. So even though Hubby was not around, I brought the kids out for a walk along the lake around 12 plus and hung around to see the auction. Though we were quite interested in the locality of the land, Hubby had briefed me already not to raise my hand, unless the price is so so so low.







Judging from the turnout, I doubt it will be so. Despite the economic gloom and bad financial news all around, I'm quite surprised to see at least 20 interested groups turning up. Wow, people here do take auctions seriously. Everyone stood around the area, opposite the street facing the land, talking to their friends or family. Most were dressed casually since it was a hot day. The agents were clearly identified by their shirts and ties, but I couldn't quite determine who the owners were until much later.



When the auction started slightly past 1pm, everyone gathered around, just along the pavement outside the land. The agent first read through a whole long paragraph about the terms and conditions and the legal liabilities of the auction process. In between making sure the kids are safely waiting inside the hot car, I heard that the successful bidder will have to pay a reasonable amount of deposit immediately if he got the deal. Well, that person cannot be me then, since I've not bought any extra cash with me.....haha.



The auction formally started with the agent asking for a starting price. Any price? Someone said, "$80,000" but the agent turned it down, saying it's too low. He asked for around $200,000 and someone offered $180,000. Then he asked for the next bid at $10,000 increments. Slowly the price inched up. It turned out that, despite the turnout, there were only a few serious bidders. The rest, like me, probably gave up when the price crossed their treshold. When $10,000 increments became not possible, the agent accepted bids of $5,000 increment, then $2,500, finally even $1,000 increments were fine. I noticed that the 3 very serious bidders were of Asian origins.



The final offer was $271,000 but there's no sale. The agents convened with the owners to discuss and finally came back to say that the price was below the owners' reserve price. Which means that they can refuse to sell to the highest bidder as it hasn't met their minimum price. They announced that they will next deal with this highest bidder exclusively and she (a young lady in yellow t-shirt and denim shorts) will have 'first right of refusal', whatever that means.



I left as soon as I hear this announcement as the boys were already steaming inside the car. Looks like no deal. The owner obviously hoped to reap more profits but buyers are not too willing to pay too much in the light of current situation.



On Monday, I was surprised to receive a call from the agent. He was calling to see if we're still interested in the land. He claimed someone came later with a higher offer of$277K. The owners' initial hope was for $300K but now they will let go if it goes to $280K. Not sure if he's calling everyone and it's a marketing tactic but I told the agent that's price is not within the price range, thanks.



We are very hopeful that property prices in Melbourne will continue to fall further in the days to come. Though it was an ideal location with a view to die for, we have decided to exercise patience in hope of securing the best deal for this long term investment.

My First Focaccia

I finally made my first focaccia bread. Hubby had attempted to make one long time ago but I vaguely remembered that it wasn’t very successful. Focaccia is an Italian flat oven-baked bread which may be topped with herbs and is widely available here. But there’s no beating the satisfaction of eating bread made by your own hands. Plus, with the food scare currently raging in China and Singapore, anything homemade is definitely doing you and your family a favour.


In fact, I was even going to use our home-grown rosemary herb for this bread, except that after sighting the infancy of the plant, still barely 10cm tall, I really should leave it to grow a little longer before harvesting.


Recipes are abundant all over the internet, but I decided to fall back on my favourite ‘Happy Home Baker’. However, I followed the original recipe and used 1/3 wholemeal flour and 2/3 bread flour. In addition to its higher nutritional value, I’m beginning to like the taste of wholemeal bread after coming to Australia. I don’t know why, but my only impression of wholemeal bread in Singapore was its dry texture. However, after trying out the wholemeal bread from Baker’s Taste here, I’m converted. Thus, I’ve purchased a kilo of wholemeal flour to add into my baking whenever possible.


One of our mutual friend from Singapore came over for dinner tonight. He’s a cabin crew and also Hubby’s ex-army buddy. He’ll be laying over in Melbourne for one night. The menu for the night was Neapolitan Pork Steaks with the Rosemary focaccia and rockets salad. I doubled the quantity of the focaccia recipe to make 2 loaves so that everyone can eat as much as he likes.




The kneading was supposed to take about 7mins but because of the huge quantity of flour, my poor mixer could not reach the bottom of the dough very well. I held it as it kneaded but still.... Also, the dough “looks dry”, according to Hubby. Thanks to his comment, I added a little more water to the dough. That’s my mistake. DO RESIST the temptation to add more water until all the flour is incorporated and you should touch it to decide if it’s dry, not just by looks! The dough now became very wet and sticky, thus after kneading for the longest time, I decided to take out one lump to add more flour and knead manually. Hubby also came in to help with the kneading. Finally, 2 hours after I first started the bread project and a substantial amount of flour later, we finally allowed the focaccia dough to rest and rise.


I was so afraid it wouldn’t rise properly after all the excessive kneading and extra flour. But thank God it did ‘rise to the occasion’ and pretty quickly too. After it doubled in size and when you press the dough and it doesn’t spring back, it’s ready to be punched for the 2nd rise.


The 2nd rise was beautiful as well and I’m beginning to be very hopeful about this bread. Not to mention the aroma of the rosemary! Finally, I poked the dough with my finger and distributed the rosemary on top. Then I sprinkled sea salt all over and drizzled more olive oil before sending it to the oven. My oven was big enough to accommodate both pans of bread at one go, so there’s economy of scale in terms of electricity usage and time.


25 minutes later, the breads were done and though I meant to keep the bread till the guest came, I couldn’t resist cutting out some for tasting. It was fantastic! Thank God all the additional flour and kneading did not create any damage to the bread. We couldn’t taste the garlic though. Not sure if I didn’t use enough or maybe because it wasn’t freshly chopped. (They were pre-chopped and kept in the fridge for convenience.) But the salt! My God, they were really unnecessary. I don’t know why the recipe calls for the salt to be added, the bread tasted very good on its own! It was so salty that we had to knock out all the rock salt crystals from the top before eating. So if you’re gonna follow this recipe, you can ignore the sea salt or just sprinkle in moderation.


I can’t wait to make my next wholemeal loaf! I’m also trying to find some biscuits or cake recipes that use oats. I think they’re a good way to introduce some oats into the kids’ diet. With homemade cookies or biscuits, we can also cut down on those that we purchase outside. While I cannot totally avoid buying processed food, it’s the least I can do to ensure some quality control. Nowadays, I’m rather weary when buying groceries. Who knows what strange things they’ll discover added to our food next?

Birds of the Wetlands

I decided to bring the children out for dinner today. Before that, I took them to 'feed the ducks' at a lake in the vicinity of our neighbourhood. I newly discovered this place when I joined the walking group at our community hub for a morning walk around the neighbourhood. There are a lot of ducks and their feathered kind living there amidst the wetlands and bushes. Just behind the lake, you can see houses and cars parked nearby.


Honestly, I couldn't really believe it at first that all these wild birds could live so near to human beings voluntarily. I was thinking that someone must be looking after them and keeping them, like the bird park. But that's me and my urban 'suaku-ness'. I couldn't see any fences and except for some people who feed them, they seem to be surviving pretty well on their own there.





In fact, today I saw these 2 large pelicans perching themselves lazily on the rocks in the middle of the lake. I actually witnessed one of them 'fly in'. They stayed there for so long, sun tanning and grooming themselves, totally oblivious to me snapping photographs of them. I was very excited to see them, especially so near to home. Back in Singapore, I would have to travel across the island to Jurong Bird Park and pay to see these birds in captivity.



KK had fun throwing the bread to the ducks. It was just a little piece for him to participate as I personally think feeding them too much is no good. If they're really wild, they need to learn how to survive on their own. Interestingly, the pelicans paid no attention to the bread. Think they've had their lunch somewhere else. Or they know it's stale bread anyway... haha.







This is another collage of photos taken at another lake, also in my neighbourhood. Here, we see beautiful black and white swans, in addition to geese and mandarin ducks. Can you believe that there are some lucky people who just have to open their front door to see this beautiful place just across the street in front of them?