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.