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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Peng Chai

Was googling for restaurants to have CNY dinner with dad, mum, sisters, hb and the monkies. Saw that peng chai is on the menu.. Curious, cos normally it's a super expensive dish, so tried to google the recipe. Found this on the web, thus tried cooking it over the weekend since it looked rather simple...

Serves 4 persons
Ingredients
8 pcs preserved chinese mushrooms(superior quality)
8 pcs dried oysters(soften in water)
1 large piece of fried bean curd sheet(cut into oblong shapes)
1 bunch of sea moss(soften in water)
2 pcs of fresh King oyster mushrooms(cut into slices)
50g Chinese cured ham(if not, use pork skin)
4 pcs of dried squid tentacles

Seasonings
300ml rich chicken stock
4 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
Starch
1.5 tbsp potato starch
3 tbsp water

Method
1. In a large casserole, add stock to boil. When it boils, add the mushrooms to cook first.
2. Cook for 15 mins till the soup turns black. Remove the mushrooms, cut off the stems and discard the stems. Set aside.
3. Next add the rest of the ingredients and seasonings except sea moss and bean curd sheet to cook.
4. Lower heat and cover the claypot to simmer for 50 mins.
5. Remove all the ingredients in the claypot.
6. Using another claypot, start to layer the food starting from the bottom.
7. First layer is squid, then pork, then mushrooms, oysters.
8. Next put the bean curd sheet into the hot pot to cook briefly for 10 mins till soften.
9. Remove and arrange on the pot.
10. Lastly, using a pair of chopsticks, pick up soften sea moss and dip into hot soup to cook for 5 mins. And arrange it the poon choy pot.
11. Add starch mixture to the soup, stir till it thickens. Turn off the heat and pour the sauce over the poon choy.

Serve immediately with rice.

Using pork skin
If you want to use pork skin, you need to change the process of cooking.

1. Heat up claypot with a little oil and saute 2 slices of ginger till fragrant.
2. Add pork skin to fry till its slightly burnt and cooked.
3. Then follow the steps above.

Notes
I didn't add salt cos the dried foodstuff I use are already salted.

If you can, add more mushrooms to make more stock.

She's Growing Up Way Too Soon!!

My baby is growing up too FAST!!

Her at 3.5 years old..



Ranting..

What does being a parent mean to you?

To me.. It simply means taking full reponsibility of our kids. Providing they with all they need (in terms of love, education and joy / fun) and teaching them the values and their reponsibilities, and the list is endless..

Lately.. A girlfriend who is selling some health products told me that i should start taking them to "maintain" myself.

Honestly, i don't spend lots on myself (maybe except for my collection of my not too expensive bags). Perhaps 10 suits and 3-5 pairs of heels for work, 5 tees and a couple of bottoms for going out on weekends.. That's about all i can think off.

Yesterday an idiot told me everything in my life revolves my family, my kids.. I should just be a housewife.. After my family, comes my friends.. Where does work comes in?

WTF!! I got so pissed!

As a wife, i have to be there for my husband..
As a mother, i have to be there for my kids when they need me.
As a parent, i have the responsibility to provide for them..
As a child to my parents, i have to provide for them should they retire..
If life is not about my family, then why should i be working to provide them with better education, better life.

Then again.. Who is that he to tell me what i am better off in being?

If my life isn't about my kids and my spouse, i shouldn't even be married!!
If my life isn't about my parents, then i am not even worthy being their child!!
If my life is about all he said, family and friends... Then, why on earth am i stuck in office in the month of DEC clearing work when my monkies at at home waiting for me to bring them out??

It's for work! PERIOD!

ARGH..

And here i am feeling guilty because i am at work and not with my kids... And then an idiot pop out and made such a tackless comment!

Monkies and their Master Pieces

Since i isn't able to bring the monkies out on most days, so bought some art pieces for them to keep them busy.. Howeve, Nick isn't very patient, nor interested in crafts, so Grace end up doing almost everything.

Nick with his froggie photo frame.
Grace with her car photo frame.
Grace with her cat sitting on her head. She did it at the art class..
Grace and her little lamb which she did at art class too!!
Grace painted the Santa..
She also do up the foam crafts..
She did this cute paper bag puppet..
While Nick did this "crossed eyed" lion..
That perhaps summaries what kept them busy this whole school holiday.. :)

The Strawberry Shortcake Show @ Centrepoint

The 2 younger monkies been stuck at home almost all school holiday cos mummy is so so busy with work.

Finally, was able to apply leave last Friday at the 11th hour to bring Grace to catch the Strawberry Shortcake show at centrepoint!

The "important" sticker that we had to start Q-ing from 11am. Show only starts at 1pm. :P For the 2 hours in the Q, Grace never stop asking me what time is the Strawberry Shortcake coming out.
The happy monkie with her "precious" sticker..
Here she is with that 1 precious photo with Strawberry Shortcake.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

His Christmas Wish..

I told Nick to think what he wants for X'mas.. Then we can go and buy together.

Today he called me at work..

"Mummy, i know what i want for Christmas already.. I want to play snow!!"

Darns.. Where has snow and is cheap??

Shit.. I got myself into trouble again.. :(

Maybe... Maybe... I'll bring him to snow city at Science Centre.. :P

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Oh Mr Sun!! We LOVE U!!

Finally after weekends and weekends of hiding at home cos it's always raining when we want to go out, Mr Sun is finally out, although not for long!!

Nevertheless, we manage to make a trip to play.. 




In case you are wondering, why do i only capture Grace on the scooter and not her brothers.. Well.. Grace is half riding, half pushing.. So, she's slow enough for me to take pictures. *slow-pok*

As for her brothers, they zoom and were gone in a flash before i could take pictures.. :(

I Am In Need Of A Break..

I am seeing the signs.. It's telling me i am in need of a break.. 

I am losing myself and it's scary.  

I'm working for the sake of working, i am not motivated.. I am just merely doing what i have to do and what needs to be done. When it's over, i head straight home.. Plant myself infront of the TV till it's time for bed and the same cycle repeats itself again the next day. 

On weekends, i don't have any clue on what i want to do or where i want to go.. I go because i need to be there, or the kids need to be there.. Then home again to laze my weekends away.. 

My whole December this year is filled with work and i am planning to apply leave on the week of 27th. And hopefully, i can go on a proper break without much disturbance.