What A Good Day!

Tell you, if people ask me what is the thing I can't live without, I must say PEDICURE! I had the habit of doing pedicure/manicure started when I was in Cambodia. I had it almost every week during those days because it was damn cheap there and I was working that time (clean hands are more presentable, hehehe! Plus I had two maids at home to take care of the house chores).

When I came back to Malaysia, I had my pedi/mani done once a month (it's expensive in West Malaysia) and when I came to Miri , I had it done at least twice a month (there is a salon here charging me cheaper as I am their regular customer).

So, yesterday, I booked my appointment extremely early as I need to pick up the kids from playschool at 11.30am. My pedi/mani session started at 9.45am. See, what do you think of my pedicure (nail art) and manicure ?

Tuna Egg Puff

I tried my hand on few baking recipe recently ever since I bought the Faber oven. Here is another recipe that I tried on Monday. Thanks to Momster's Cooking for sharing this recipe.



it was just out from the oven. Can't wait and took one for hubby to try........

I will post the recipe in my cooking blog!

Homemade Lor Mei Kei

Going back to cooking, here's my homemade lor mei kei to share with you. for the ingredient and steps, do hop over to my other blog at http://mommy-chef.blogspot.com/

She Loves Using Chopstick

My little girl likes to use chopstick to eat her noodle while we were in Kuantan. I bought a pair of training chopstick for her while we were in Taipei last month.






see. how good is she holding on the chopstick like a pro


Just recently when we were out dining, she requested to use chopstick to eat and I agreed as I know she won't mess up herself as she is always a clean and tidy freak girl, just like mummy




!
I got this pair of training chopstick from the the local grocery stores in Taipei

Sand Art

As usual, we went for our normal routine on most Saturdays- window shopping at Bintang Mall after lil Missy finished her ballet lesson. When we reached there, hubby went to the phone accessories shop to get my new "gadget" a leather cover.


There is a sand art shop next to the phone shop and lil' Missy kept bugging me to bring her to do some sand art. Well, I have promised her since last week that I will bring her out on a weekday night, just the two of us (poor di-di has to stay home with his papa), doing some girls' thing (shopping, having snacks and accompany her to do some sand art thingy). But I have yet fulfilled my promised until this afternoon.

Since I have to wait for the shop owner to get my phone nicely wrapped, I just brought her over to do the sand art.


Here's the photo captured by hubby using my iPhone.

They Are Finally Settle Down

Both kids are finally settled with their normal routine. Lil' Missy didn't cry started the second week but the little boy is only finally settle with school environment started this week (3rd week).

For the past two weeks, this little boy cried the moment he was bathed and changed into the school t-shirt. He was whining all the way from our house to the school gate. Imagine, I have to bear with the noise from the back seat while driving them to school. But when hubby was the one who drove him to school, he behaved better, at least not whining like he did when I dropped him at school.

Ok, within this 3 weeks ever since I came back to Miri, I had received two "gadgets" from hubby. Firstly, that's the oven I have been wanting to get since Christmas last year. As we are just staying here temporary and there is no point to buy a big built-in oven. Besides, our kitchen space is limited, therefore, it is not advisable to get a 40L oven. So, I finally settled with this...




The Faber FE032, 32 litre Faber oven. Well, I had actually carried out some projects since last week, first was a grilled fish fillet, then a brownies (with ready mixed flour). "Outcome" are satisfying. I didn't snap any pictures of my "produce" as I do not have any digital camera right now.


Here comes the second "gadget"....tang..tang...tang...




Hubby got me the iPhone 3Gs today. He gave me a great surprise this morning by leaving the box on my dressing table. I am "learning" how to use the new gadget the whole day today. The best part is I can start taking clear pictures of my kids and my new dishes with the iPhone 3 Gs.

Thanks hubby!

Coffee Morning

I had a pleasant morning today!

I was invited by my hubby's colleague's wife for a coffee morning. She had catered mee jawa and other kuih muih. Her friends came over and all of them were expatriate in Oman last time. They are all "old mothers" and their kids are all grown up already. It was nice chatting with them and I even pick up my son early and joined them again for second round makan-makan.

I think it has been a long time I didn't had such a "free" time to enjoy my breakfast while chatting around in such a relax mood!

I have been enjoying my "toddler free" moment in the morning since Monday as di-di was in playschool for 2 hours starting this week. So, I do my house chores in peace and also preparing lunch in peace . I would be going back to pool next week, at least I can go swimming 3 times a week.

How How's First Day at Playschool

How How went to playschool on Monday. He was so eager to put on his uniform in the morning after his milk. He was okay all the time until we wanted to enter the door. He was slightly reluctant to go in with me but was slowly step inside his class.

He started to cry when I leave his class. I waited outside and his cry lasted for about 10 minutes. He even requested the teacher to bring the dinosaurs toys for him to play with. Hahaha!

When I picked him up after 1.5 hours (was told to pick child up early on the first week), I was informed by his teacher that he can speaks very well and know hot to express himself well too. Mommy is so proud of you, di-di!

Jia Jia's Progress

My little girl has been reluctant to go to school since Monday. It was the first time I saw her crying ever since she attended Kindergarten in January. Even on her first day to Kindergarten, she was so calm and steady and she didn't even cry. I think it must be long holiday that turn her into a lazy bum bum! Hopefully she will be better next week.

I was informed by her teacher that she was lagging behind too. Almost one term left behind her peers. Hopefully the teacher does not put pressure on her in order to catch up with others. I feel that it was just too early to start a barely 4 years old kid on those "suku kata".

I should better do some extra work with her at home to brush up her alphabets and bahasa.

Back to School......

Jia Jia will be going back to school tomorrow and marked the end of her 2 months long holiday. I think she would probably cry because she has been resisting to go back to school whenever I raised the "back to school" topic. I might ask hubby to send her tomorrow as I know she dare out cry if her daddy drop her off at school.

As for the little boy, He is supposed to start his playschool tomorrow but he has tummy upset since evening and I need to postpone it until he gets better.

This weekend is the first weekend hubby and us spent together ever since we were back from Taiwan. He went back to Sandakan for Cheng Beng last weekend.

I need to hit to slumber land now as I need to get up early tomorrow to get things ready! Back to life...back to the reality........

Just Another Conversation......

My daughter and I was talking about something while I was driving them to a grocery shop to buy juices. Out of sudden, she started on the below conversation with me.........

Jia Jia : Mommy, next time aa, when I grow up ha, I come out to work.

ME: How about mommy?

Jia Jia: Mommy go shopping lor...

ME: But mommy is not working, who give money to mommy to spend?

Jia Jia: I give you lor.... ( she likes to put a "lor" to every sentence nowadays). When you get old, I bom bom (bathe) for you...I change your baju, I wipe you. After that, I on the TV for you. And mommy, ha, I bring you go shopping....and I also sleep with you...

Hahahah...this is exactly what I did for her everyday...

It is so sweet to listen to what she said.

A LAzy ME

I was really lazy to take my wok out for cooking. Kids have been eating out quite frequent lately ever since we came back to Miri last week (bad mommy!). Just lazy...

Tell you, I was on HOLIDAY for the past 2 months. My mom helped me with most of my kids' stuffs. I do not need to clean the house, she even helped to wash and steam the bottles every morning. My dad was in-charge of the cooking for all of us. My kids like his cooking too, especially the porridge.

Bad thing is...it is quite hard for me to resume all my normal routine now. Sigh! Lazy bone, lazy bone.

My First Time

Hubby was away in Sandakan for "cheng meng". So, I decided to bring the kids to Brunei to visit my brother since I have not seen him for quite some time.

Well, this is my first time drive down to Brunei by myself. It was an 2 hours plus journey and about 5 hours driving in total. It was a day trip and I was not tired maybe I was too excited.

My brother proposed to stay overnight but I need to be back in the evening as my part time helper was in my house to help with the laundry and ironing. Imagine, I folded 3 full baskets of clothes (for 8 days clothing from my traveling) and I really need her to iron the clothes as soon as possible.

Both kids are excited too. Seem that they're still in their holiday mood!

Welcome Home!

Well, we are back in Miri. Both kids and I arrived last Wednesday morning. We were away for about 2 months since January.

For the past two months, we have been traveling oversea twice, one was in January for a 3 days 2 nights trip to Cambodia. The second one was early this month on a trip to Taiwan for an 8-days tour. Kids and I are equally enjoyed our 2 months long holiday.

I'll upload the pictures taken in Taiwan soon.

Greetings From Kuantan!

I'm typing this post at my mom's office in Kuantan. We were just back from Phnom Penh , Cambodia for a 3 days 2 nights trip.

It was a good trip. We managed to catch up with our friends and met up with some ex-colleagues too. Hubby visited his ex-boss too.

I may not be able to upload the snapshots taken for our trip as I have lost my digital camera at the service apartment we stayed. Well, in Cambodia, if you lost something outside your room, you won't be able to get it back even though it is a well reputation place.


I will try to get my brother to e-mail me some of the photos that he has taken. At least I can upload some and post it here!

Hubby wanted to get the latest Canon DSLR for me but I have turned him down as it cost around RM4100.

Steamed Fish with Japanese Tofu

I steamed the 七星斑 fillet for dinner last week. It was so yummy that the kids eat most of the fish.


Ingredients:-

1) 1 packet of Japanese Tofu

2) Handful of salted vegetable ( 咸菜 )

3) ginger

4) 1 tomato , cut into wedges

5) Bragg liquid amino

6) Dash of sesame oil


Method:-

Very easy. Just look at the pictures below:-

Steam the fish for about 10 minutes and a wholesome dish is ready to be served!

A Wholesome Dish

I had a 七星斑鱼 fillet still sitting in my freezer the other day. It was brought from Sandakan by my aunt who were here last month.

Instead of steam it the usual way (with fried garlic or teow chew style), i steamed it with Japanese tofu, salted vegetable, tomato and ginger.

Check out the full recipe at http://mommy-chef.blogspot.com/

Fish Maw Dessert

Have you eaten dessert made from fish maw? I cooked it last week and it taste good. At least my kids like it very much. It is so chewy that I myself also wolf down a bowl of it.

This is a very nourishing dessert. According to the boss at the Chinese medicine shop, it is especially good for kids as it cures cough.

Tell you, it taste real good and I like the texture of the fresh fish maw (no the fried one), so chewy.

Find out more on http://mommy-chef.blogspot.com/2010/01/fish-maw-dessert.html

Fish Maw Dessert

Apart from its' nourishing ingredients, "yoon" in Cantonese, it cures cough too.

See how I cooked this dessert.





Ingredients:-

1) Fresh fish maw
2) Rock Sugar (I use the brown colour one)
3) A handful of red dates


Method:-

1) Soak the fish maw overnight.

2) Just before you put everything into the slow cooker, make sure you cut the fish maw into small pieces.

3) Then, just put all ingredient into the slow cooker/crock pot. Let is cooked for about 5-6 hours on auto mode.

Salmon Fillet

The salmon fillets taste really good to be fried this way.

Ingredient:-

1) Few Stalks of lemongrass.
2) I clove of garlic
3) Salmon fillets


Method:-

1) Heat up 3 tablespoons of oil in a wok/frying pan.
2) Add in lemongrass stalks (slightly smashed) and garlic.
3) Once you smell the fragrant, put in the fillets to fry.
4) Turn side when see the colour turn golden brown.
5) Squeeze some lemon juice on the fish as final touch while it is still being fried in the pan, then dish up and serve.