Calling all mommies!!

I need your help. Can any mommies suggested what chicken soup to cook? There are books on confinement food and soup but they aren't any on food for pregnancy out there.

What I saw on T.V. whenever someone is pregnant, for the poor people in China, they would say eat boiled chicken eggs. As for the rich, go boil some chicken soup. But they only mention chicken soup, but what kind of chicken soup?

Well, at least I know no dong kui now. I actually cooked that soup when I was in my 2nd trimester with Evy a couple of times. Never experience any contraction though and only stopped when I asked my OB whether it's safe or not. And since she is a caucasion, she won't know a thing but since she said since this herb was associated with women reproductive system (I told her that), she said better not to take it. Ha, if I knew that it will cause contraction, I might cook it to drink at my last 2 weeks of pregnancy just to bring on the contraction. Hehehe... Do you think it's advisable? Hey, at my last 2 weeks of pregnancy, I become very desperate and willing to try anything.

Okay, what chicken soup do you recommend?

Orange Chiffon Cake

I made orange chiffon cake today mainly because I got a dozen free eggs from a recent grocery shopping. I still have a dozen at home so need to find a way to use it.



I made this using my Pandan Chiffon Cake recipe, just changed some of the ingredients.



I didn't add the orange food coloring thus the yellow color. Normally I would add it for the nice orange color.



I added orange icing after I shared the huge piece with my daughter because I found it not sweet enough. Oh yeah, guess I love sweet stuff too. :P

Penang Assam Laksa

Penang assam laksa, one of my favorite noodles to eat. I have been craving for it for quite sometimes and finally got all the ingredients, even got the prawn paste from aunty Lily the other day. Hence, no more excuse and viola! Well, it's not difficult to make with Hup Loong premix and canned sardine. Very easy actually, most of the time spent would be shredding the ingredients.



To serve with: Finely shredded cucumber, pineapple, red onion, iceberg lettuce, chilli padi, mint leaves (I couldn't find fresh one thus omitted it), lime slices (to drizzle on top) and prawn paste.



When stirred and ready to savor. :)

Best thing about homemade assam laksa is I put lots of fish and big pieces too!! I was so disappointed at the assam laksa served in M'sia, I tried the one at KLCC food court and some shopping centre food court, hardly could see any fish at all and the serving was so small. :(

I just found a Vietnamese grocery store in Denver selling Hup Loong assam laksa premix, what a thrill because now I know whenever I crave for assam laksa, I can cook it and eat it anytime I want. Don't have to day dream about it anymore. :)

Fried Fish

Featuring one of my home cook dishes.

Ingredients:

~ 1 Tilapia fish fillet
~ Thinly shredded gingers

Batter for fish:
Self rising flour, salt & black pepper. Mixed in with enough water to make a thick batter.

Method:

Heat up oil, made sure the oil is hot, if not the fish will stick to the wok. Or use a non-stick skillet. Dipped the fish fillet in the batter and slowly put it into the hot oil. Deep-fry both sides until golden brown. Dish out. Add in the shredded gingers and deep-fry until crispy, dish out and place on top of the fish. You can drizzle some soy sauce on top. Serves hot!

Great News!

One look at the pictures, you should have guess what news it is right? :) That's right, baby number 2 is on the way. Baby will be due in October. These are our first glimpse of the baby. During the ultrasound, the baby was very active, bouncing and turning around, perhaps because the ultrasound guy was poking at my tummy and at the baby. He needed to get the measurement done and thus it was necessary. Got to see the beautiful beating heartbeat and heard it for a few seconds. :)



I went for the first trimester screening which included a blood work and an ultrasound to measure the fluid on the baby neck to check for any abnormality. Seem like this is something new because I was not offer this option when I was pregnant with Evy.



The pictures were not very clear, guess we couldn't really complaint since this was not a 3D one that others get. Still we could make out the head, nose and body. It was still too early to know the sex yet, so the ultrasound guy didn't even bother to check.



Look! He managed to make the baby facing us. Thus we could see the face with the eyes and mouth. Looks like I'm going to have a big head baby number two too!

Oh yeah, don't think I have it easy with this pregnancy. I was actually suffered from a pretty bad morning sickness since 5 weeks. Vomitted up to 3-4 times a day and felt sick most of the day. Last two days were the worst because I think I got stomuch flu/virus which resulted in severe vomitting (up to 7 times a day). Whatever I put in, out it came, even 1 french fry and water. Thus, I was not getting anything in for the last two days and actually lost 2 pounds. I never experience this before and thus it sorta freak me out.

Luckily I felt much better today and actually got to eat and not throw up. * knock on wood* This in fact is a great news because this morning I actually felt very weak from not eating for 2 days. Oh yeah, guess now I will have to blog about my pregnancy and baby too. Hehe...

Update April 3th: Both the blood and ultrasound tests came back normal. :)

The Big Two

My little girl is going to be two in a few days. It's great to see her grow up and being independent. I remember when she was a baby, I was thinking how I wish she could sit, then crawl, then walk, then talk and being more independent. Hahaha... guess I'm the opposite from all the moms who wish their babies will remain babies forever.



We got her a notebook after we moved. Now she has her own little corner in our computer room. I saved a few children friendly websites on the desktop and taught her how to open her notebook, use it, open the links on the desktop to play and shut down the notebook when she is done. She definitely is a fast learner because I only need to show her once and now she is a little expert.

Teaching her how to use the computer definitely paid off for me because now she learned to recognize A-Z and even pronounced all of it except a few she still couldn't. 1-10 in English and a few English words she learned while playing and surfing on her own. She already knew how to say 1-10 in Mandarin, I taught her that. She speaks Mandarin to us and can I say she starting to form sentences in Mandarin. I know she understood a lot of words but she still couldn't pronounce it, but I believe all this come sooner or later.

I am very happy with her progress. How proud I am of her speaking in Mandarin because no matter where we are, deep down we are pure Chinese and I don't want people to call her a banana (yellow outside but white inside) or being look down by Chinese in the future. No matter what, bilingual is a plus no matter where you are. I always look at the wider range and into the future and I strongly believe we made a right choice.

My little girl, mommy and daddy only want what's the best for you and for your future. A little obstacle in the beginning is nothing because you will be fluent in English in no time. All we wish is you remain speaking in Mandarin with both your parents and never forget the language.