Happy New Year 2007!!

I would like to wish all my readers a

"Happy and Wonderful Year Ahead"

Can't believe I have been blogging for almost two years. Really have to thanks Jan who introduced me to the blogging world. Didn't know a thing about blogging before and have never visited a blog before. Now through all these links, it really open my eyes as to what people can write in a blog, just about anything I guess. I have grown to enjoy blogging as a hobby, it's the best way to show my cooking and say what I want to say.

I can't bake like before with one running around and one just depended on me, and thus not much bakes pictures to showcase. I hope I will be more free when my little one is older and to keep this blog going for years to come.

Pusiva's Tutti-Frutti Cookies

I made Puspha's Tutti-Frutti for Christmas. First, I was sucked in by the beautiful colors of the cookie. Then, the easy recipe convinced me to try this.

The verdict? I simply lovvvvveeee it!! It's crunchy with a little chew from the mixed fruit. A little on the sweet side, but hey it's a cookie right? :P This will be another keeper recipe for me. Will make this cookie again during Chinese New Year if I have time (or if my daughters allow me, haha...).

Dong Zhi

Tang yuen again! This time being playful and made it into green and yellow colors. I asked my elder daughter to help roll it into balls, but she still doesn't get it yet. Oh well... maybe next year. Had it with simple ginger brown sugar syrup. Evy loves it!! She had 14 balls in one setting.



The white color one I made it into mua chi. Instead of dropping it into the syrup, I put it into a bowl of sugar and peanut mixture and coated it. Very yummy too! It's like kill two birds with one stone. Haha...

Edda Update

Sharing some pictures of Edda at 2 months 1 week plus. She sures grow up fast. I think she is at least 12 lbs already since she is pretty heavy to carry. I finally has a baby who has fat rolls since Evy was a thin baby who didn't has any. I always amazed at other babies with fat rolls and how chubby they looked, now I also have one. :D She also has double chins that make her looks even chubbier. Haha...

She gives the sweetest smiles every morning when she first sees me. That's the most rewarding wake up call for me. She always wakes up around 7 or 8am, then she would make noise or cooing to get my attention (or more precisely to wake me up). If I peek inside the crib and she sees me, she would just smiles and smiles. Those smiles always melt my heart.

I try to snap pictures of her smiling but it's just too difficult. She just won't smile for the camera yet. So, can't show off her two dimples yet. :P

Trying to snap her smiling here, well almost!

Dinner

Giant king crab legs was on-sale this season, so I bought some to cook. I was thinking whether to cook black pepper crabs or chilli crabs and settled down for chilli crabs since I have some fresh cilantro. The recipe can be found here.


Chilli Crabs using King Crab Legs

I cooked this easy stir-fry green beans with chicken for my daughter since the chilli crabs was a bit spicy. To my surprise, she loved the chilli crabs and kept asking for more and more. Guess we trained her well and she sure could eat spicy food if she wanted to.


Stir-fry Green Beans with Chicken

Stir-Fried Cabbage

One of my home cook veggie dishes:

Stir-fry cabbage with carrot, scallion (optional), garlic and dried shrimps. Seasoning would be salt and chicken stock granules. Easy and delicious!

Sweet Corn Konnyaku Jelly

I saw this recipe at Yochana's blog and decided to give it a try. My elder daughter loves jelly and I was looking for other simple recipes to try besides my usual. This recipe caught my eyes because I have all the ingredients in my pantry, so all I have to do is to take it out and make it.

One note to make though I used 10gm of konnyaku powder instead of 15gm noted because my packet of Redman Konnyaku powder comes with 10gm. I followed the rest of her recipe the same and it turned out great. Also make sure you buy the extra creamy cream corn, would taste better in my opinion (I used the normal cream corn and would prefer otherwise).

Yochana, thank you for the recipe! :)

Tau Suan

This is my short-cut recipe without the "you tiao".

Ingredients:

Split mung beans
Rock sugar
Water
Potato Starch (thickener)

Method:

1. Wash the split mung beans until the water is clear (no longer yellow).

2. Heat a pot of water until boiling. Add in the split mung beans. Turn the heat to low and simmer until the mung beans is soft.  Season to taste with rock sugar.

3. Mix some potato starch with a little water and add into the mung bean soup, stir until it's thicken. Serve warm plain or with "you tiao" (Chinese fried bread).

Pineapple Tarts

It is still too early for pineapple tarts isn't it? But I made some for my mom to try since I was still able to do some baking while my mom was here. You can find my recipe here. I was trying with some new cookie cutters that I bought in Malaysia and man...were it hard to use. Finally managed to find one that was easy enough to use (shown above), guess will have to shop for more design the next time I go back. This is one cookie that takes a lot of time to make and can finish in a day!

I also made some kuih bangkit for her to bring home for my sister who loves this cookie. I tried it with the pincher and it turned out prettier than the plain cut out one I did before.

Note: I updated the pictures for better viewing.

Edda's Full Moon Celebration

A little family celebration. I didn't make the angku because it is just too much work since I don't have the filling on hand.

Red Eggs, more like pink huh?

Nasi Kunyit, too much coconut milk thus too sticky! :P


Curry Chicken with Potatoes


Pork Wontons


Vietnamese Honeycomb Cake


Almond Agar-agar (jelly)

Normally with baby full moon, Chinese people gave out angku, red eggs, nasi kunyit, chicken curry or even cake to friends and relatives. One month old in Chinese meaning one year old for the baby so it called for celebration. Last time with Evy I only managed to do the red eggs. This time with my mom here, I am more hardworking. :D

Edda's One Month Pictures

Wahhh...big angpow from Popo (grandma). Thanks ya! *kiss kiss*

Mommy said better take the pictures with two red eggs also, just like big sister.

Okay, okay enough, I'm getting tired and sleepy!

Actually it's one month and a day old, mommy and daddy forgot to take picture on the actual day. Luckily still have some red eggs left. Hehe...

Update:

At her one month doc. appointment, she still looked pretty yellow thus the doc. sent her for another blood test. Turned out her bilirubin level was still high so now she is off breast milk and has to eat medicine twice a day until another blood test (this Monday, today) .

Update:

Got the result back today. Finally her bilirubin is low enough that she is off medicine and back on complete breastfeeding again! Horray, no more pumping for me! :)

Confinement Food - Chicken in DOM Wine

Ingredients:

1 cornish hen
1/2 cup Benedictine DOM
1/4 cup kei chee (medlar seeds)

Method:

Wash and clean cornish hen thoroughly. Add all ingredients into a slowcooker (small size one) and fill the slowcooker half full with hot water. Boil on High for 3 hours. Serve hot!

Note: This soup is quite sweet.

Confinement Food - Egg in Gingers and Sweet Snap Peas

Yeah, I got to have my veggies. But read that leafy greens are cooling to the body and prohibited during confinement. So, the alternative would be snowpeas or sweet snap peas, even french beans is okay. So, here's the easy recipe.

Recipe:

1 large egg, beaten and marinated with soy sauce and white peppers
1/2 cup of shredded gingers
About 5-6 sweet snap peas, cut
Sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat the wok with sesame oil. When hot, add in the shredded gingers and stir-fry until fragrant, add in the snap peas and stir for a while, then pour in the beaten egg. You can flip it omelette style until cooked.

Confinement Drink - Red Date Tea

This is the drink that I had for the whole month instead of water. Other than that I had Milo with milk in the morning and after three weeks cheating with two cups of coffee. :P This tea is simply delicious. I put everything in a slowcooker and let it cooked overnight on low and enjoyed it the next day. I used red dates, black dates, tong sum and dried longan. My slowcooker is the big one so everything I added was based on agaration.

For the complete recipe, click here . Courtesy of Peony and thanks for posting the recipe.

Confinement Food - Pork Knuckle in Black Sweet Vinegar

This is one common confinement must have food. I put the leftover in the refrigerator and trimmed off the fat and had it the next day.

Recipe:

1 pork knuckle
0.5kg old gingers, smashed
4 cups sweet black vinegar
8 cups water

Method:

1. Rub the pork knuckle with salt and wash it.

2. Add the vinegar and water in a big pot, heat until boiling and add in the gingers. When boiled, add in the pork knuckle. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer for a few hours or until the pork knuckle is soften.

Confinement Food - Mee Sua Soup

This is the mee sua soup that I have for lunch most of the times. My mom cooked for me for the first three weeks and I cooked the above myself. It actually pretty delicious.

Recipe:

Sesame oil
Shredded gingers
1 large egg, beaten
Cut sweet snap peas/ snowpeas (optional)
ground pork

Season to taste with soy sauce, salt and sugar.

Method:

1. Heat the wok with sesame oil and when hot, add in the shredded gingers and stir-fry until slightly brown, add in the egg. Stir-fry for a little while and add in the amount of water you want (for soup).

2. When boiled, add in the ground pork (drop it in like meat balls). Boiled until the ground pork balls are cooked, season to taste with the seasoning above.

3. Quickly boil another pan of hot water and drop the dried mee sua to soften. This only takes a second, dish out and place in a bowl. Scoop in the soup and enjoy it immediately.

More Pictures!

I hope you guys enjoy looking at baby pictures because I have not been cooking and no food picture to post. :P

This is Edda at 2 plus weeks old. She still has jaundice and it has been two weeks and she is still yellow looking. Her blood test today showed slight decrease in the bilirubin level, so that's good news. She will need another blood drawn this Wednesday to see if it's down for good. My poor baby feets were covered with bandages since birth. Poor thing!


My mom burping her.



Sun bathing in her bassinet.



Sun bathing in her bassinet.



Picture with her big sister.

Birth Story

Oct 3rd was like another normal day for me. I brought my mom and Evy to walk around the neighborhood since the weather was nice. Went to bed as usual, but awoke with some coughing and found I was leaking fluid. Thought I peed myself since I never had water broke on it's own before. Cleaned up and went to bed again but with a towel underneath just in case. Another burst of water few minutes later and started to think it might be my water broke. Went downstair to tell my hubby and it was around 12:30am. Called my birth center to let them know I was going to come in, packed up some last minute item, woke up my mom and Evy and headed to the hospital.

On the way to the hospital, around 1:30am, I started to have some contractions (not really painful). Reached the hospital at 2am, checked into Triage and got checked, I was already 5cm dilated and 90% effaced, and contractions around 3-5 mins apart. It took them awhile to get me a room and by the time they did, it was already 3am. Evy was too excited about the new baby coming that she couldn't sleep at all. I was having contractions on and off and the pain was manageable. Got checked again around 4:15am and I was only dilated to 6cm but fully effaced. I was thinking it must be awhile before I was going to have this baby since the progress was kinda slow. But my mom predicted I was going to have the baby at 5am.

But at around 4:45am, I knew I was in transition, I asked to be checked because the pain was very intense and it had moved to the back. I was right, I was at 8cm and half of my cervix was gone and the nurse rushed out to call the doc. on duty. I wanted to push around 5:05am but the nurse asked me not to push yet. The doc. came in at 5:10am and I was asked to push around 5:15am. After 4 contractions and pushing, the baby was out at 5:18am. I did it all without epidural or pain medication, so I felt the "Ring of Fire" through and through, it's the most painful thing I had experienced. No episiotomy this time, but a 2nd degree tear. My healing was so much easier and less painful from the last time.

Glad to experience both natural birth and birth with pitocin (induction with Evy) and gladly say that it's so much faster and less painful with natural birth then being induced with pitocin, so for the ladies out there, if you can hold on until your body is ready to have the baby, just wait it out, the contraction is soooooo much less frequent and less painful. Also, let it tear naturally instead of an episiotomy, talk to your OB/GYN about it because the healing is so much faster and less painful .



Lastly, sharing two more pictures of little Edda. She is still under the light treatment as her last blood test showed her level was still high. Will get check again on Monday.

Update

Edda got jaundice and she has been under the light since yesterday and continue today because her level is still high. Will do another blood test tomorrow and hopefully it goes down further. She hasn't been pooping well also and thus she looks pretty yellow.

Since she is breastfeed, she rejected the pacifier and used me as her pacifier instead. So, she needs me to fall asleep. She loves to be carried or sleep besides me instead of her crib. So, we are working on letting her sleeping in her crib. But if I am tired, I will let her sleep besides me since she sleeps well like that.

Sorry won't be able to update as often as I like, quite tight down with a sick baby at the moment.

Introducing Baby Edda

She has a little jaundice today so we have to get her under the sun for the next two days before going for another blood drawn.

She lost 7 oz of her birth weight since birth.

Will post my birth story when I'm free to write. Now I'm suffering from engorgement and backache.

Happy Mooncake Festival Everyone!

Baby Edda is here!!

Only managed for a quick update now.

My water broke a week early around 12am (unexpectedly) and I had the baby at around 5am. Just got discharged from the hospital and now recovering. Will post more detail birth story and baby pictures later.

She is 8lb 6.5oz (another big baby!!)
20.5 inches

Gift From Home

My mom is here! Yup, she came all the way from Malaysia to help me look after Evy and my confinement month. She arrived yesterday evening and now is still asleep in bed. Below are the goodies she got me!


Mooncake of course, what else? :oP


The design of this mooncake box is just too unique that I had to show it.


Haha...even the mould is unique! All the money sign should tell you it's from Genting Casino. Hehee...


What the inside looks like! Single yolk pandan lotus paste with melon seeds, Yummy!


My brother in-law went back to Muar, Johor to get me this Wife Cake!


Read so much about it and finally got to sample it!


Got this.


And this.


Not bad at all! Thanks BIL!! :o)

Tonight Dinner

I have been lazy in the cooking department lately. Since I thought I was going to deep-fry the cornish hen and have some zucchini and onion on hand, why not just deep-fry all of them together.

So, tonight dinner was all deep-fried food. I thought it was easy but man...this deep-fried stuff took a long time. I think it took me more than one hour to finish deep-fried everything.


Onion Rings


Tempura Zucchini


Deep-fried 5 spices Cornish Hen

Oh yeah, this was just half of the cornish hen, the other half still in the wok frying. I had to take the picture first because I was afraid my daughter was hungry.

Stir-fried Udon Noodle 2

This is the udon noodle stir-fry in dark sauce. I want to recreate hokkein mee but I guess without the lard and crispy pork fat, the flavor is just not there. Furthermore, mine is too dry to be called hokkein mee. It's hard to watch the wok while cooking this because half way through, my daughter did something that called for some spanking action. Thus my sauce evaporated while me running around from one place to another. Oh well, but the result is still delicious though, got a head knock from both hubby and daughter.

Easy Stir-Fried Udon

Another quick and easy dinner!

Stir fry udon noodle in ketchup, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce. You can add any ingredients you have in the refrigerator.