Cauliflower fritters

Ingredients: shredded cauliflower, shredded zucchini, shredded cheese, sweet corns, eggs and oats

Pan fried

13m2d enjoyed eating them. She had close to 8 pieces. <video>

Snacks and main for 12m30d on first day of CNY

To avoid from people saying that we deprive our babies from being deprive of snack, these were the snacks and main (air fried blueberry pies: recipe) that I have prepared yesterday! 

Blueberries pie was the main for lunch – it is mess free and the baby enjoyed eating it!

Today I made banana pie for her instead, just replace blueberries with banana:

Happy Reunion to all!

It is a happy pleasure to cook Reunion lunch for my little family! And this year I have made a difference- my girls and I are not attending reunion dinner at the in laws! I would expect people to criticize me for being not respectful to the elderly or my hubby BUT I seriously think it is time to put a a full stop to this!

If you haven’t know me/us, I have been with my hubby since 2004 and joined their family reunion since 2005. I came from a rather ‘unhappy’ family, hoping that I would ‘married’ into a lovely happy family. To a certain extent, they are lovely but to a large extent – I would feel that they have been autocratic in the sense – everything done based on their personal likings and comfort. 

I actually began working in their restaurant on Chinese New Year eve and into first and second day of the celebration – yes, I volunteered. Those days I did enjoyed. It was until no.1 was born, we stopped doing so since it isn’t appropriate to bring a baby/toddler along working. Despite that, we still attended reunions and follow by the family ‘tradition’ of visiting some relatives. I would say it is some how a dread to me. Seriously, I feel saddened that I have to go through such processs every year with all the waiting – plus the ‘nasty’ comments, suggestions and comparison. And what to be a family reunion, involves an extended family member with her family (who has so much gossip). With father in law and mother in law working, the Reunion dining seems not to be one – but for the pleasure of those who just want to eat. Not to forget, with kid(s) to handle plus their adult conversation that made my hubby so absorbed – it always me alone handling of kids. I feel like a dumb maid sitting by a side of the ‘family’ table.

What brought me to nerves was last year – we waited close to an hour for the divas. In between, my hubby was sort of ‘begging’ some food for me because I was hungry but to no avail – the answer ‘how to prepare abit of food?’ I feel humiliated – like a beggar. As those people arrived late, no.1 started turning restless and not forgetting that no.2 was just one month old – end up I did not get to eat and everyone was ‘enjoying’. The most annoying part – the lady who gave her daughter the phone to control her started questioning why we don’t just give in to our no.1. I was mad and said ‘are you crazy?’. Instead of hubby defending me, I was asked to keep quiet and we nearly got into a Cold War after that. 

All these made me realise – why do I have to put myself into this situation ‘again’. We actually spoke about this – and hubby eventually gave me the discretion this year. I never stop him from going but he should not force me to go. Yes, hubby may be saddened by my choice but did anyone bother if I wasn’t happy over the years? 

Life is too short to be unhappy over such event. And one day (the so called reunion and Chinese New Year day 1) shouldn’t spoil the rest of the year. I seriously hope Chinese New Year would be different from this year (2017) onwards – after more than a decade of being with the in laws. I don’t bother who hurt who in the past – but I want to move forward  – without some people in the equation (of course). I want to make a difference in this – I need them to understand that if they want people to respect them, please respect us – time and individual (as in if you really want to have Reunion, please be seated to eat). I want them to respect our parenting approach and please respect our kids as unique individuals beyond comparison. It is not that I don’t want our kids to have this tradition – but they themselves aren’t truly practicing the tradition itself. Yes, ‘tradition’ has to continue but we will start a whole new way of tradition – so start with mama’s homecooked reunion (lunch) plus family time spent together.

There are always two sides to a coin – while some may think I would get karma from not celebrating with the elderly (no respect or whatsoever) – that is I didn’t lead by example; but I am teaching our kids self respect – respect our time and person. 

Nothing is more important than my two precious:

My peaceful and happy reunion dinner with the girls:

Anyway, today I attempted my first pressure cooker dong pou ruo! 

By simply following the steps below, copied from a member of the Phillips pressure cooker facebook group:

Befor cooking:

Add up water to cover:

Done before removing scallions:

The meat itself:

I also made rice with Chinese sausage and arrow roots:

And mushroom soup:

Steamed egg with oatmilk

Recently we bought a soymilk maker, which used mainly for making oatmilk. For 60ml oats, we can make up to 500ml oatmilk (just with plain water). For added taste, one can add sugar.

I used the oatmilk to mix with an egg. Mix  them and sieve at least three times to get smooth egg effect. I steamed it close to 10 minutes.

Air fried blueberries pie

I am starting to enjoy making pies for no2 because she eats it without hassle and it is mess free. This is especially great to have when we are dining outside!

For the pie crust – I made a larger dough and kept in the fridge; so that I can use it anytime I want. It is just combination of all purpose flour, unsalted butter, molasses sugar and ice water.

I just put in two half cut blueberries into the pie. Then air fried at 160 degree celcius for 5 minutes! Simple!

Baked baby sized chicken pies

Modified recipe from: https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1635589170088742&id=1569360910044902

Ingredients used for pie filling: steamed chicken thigh with sesame oil, zucchini, carrot, soup stock, onion and all purpose flour 

Before baking:

For the pie crust: all purpose flour, molasses sugar, pinch of salt (can be omitted), unsalted butter, ice water (need to refrigerate the dough for at least 30 miniature)

Baked under 220 degree celcius for 20 minutes:

No.1 had nine pieces for lunch

No.2 has 1.5 piece for lunch

With a lot of filling remaining, I made some wantan for dinner:

Mee Jiang kueh ~ the waffle way

Attribute the recipe to Angelin Goh of DHM fb group

For the kueh: 220g plain flour, 2 eggs, 1 tsp instant yeast, 0.5 tsp baking soda, 25g sugar, 280ml water (need to set aside at least 30 minutes)

The filling – peanut, sugar and sesame seed

I used the waffle maker to make this. But learn that it is best not to put the peanut filling until waffle is done.

Trying out shrimp at 1y18d

We were sponsored some Pelagos shrimps again! 

Took some defrosted shrimps and steamed it with an egg for 5 minutes. 

Took out the shrimps and left bits of eggs for baby no.2

She actually enjoys licking it; and hasn’t really chew it! <video>

For the remainder of the steamed egg, I mixed it into baby no.1’s spinach noodle with some onion oil. She had some fried shrimp wantan too (shrimp marinated with sesame oil, liquid aminos and corn flour).

Thank you Pelagos for the sponsored products:

Learning ‘addition’ the fun way

Learning basic addition – we started this about a month ago! 
Seriously, it requires a lot of patience plus she has to be in the right mood – that’s when she starts learning. When she calls it ‘done’ (means starting to feel bored), we call it an end for the day! But happy to see some minor progress after we have stopped for close to a month.

Video <here>

Mini chapatti for 12.5mo

Ingredients: atta flour, farmers union Greek style natural yogurt, unsalted butter and water

Video <here>