Home Cooked Meal

Very tired today as i spent 3 hours cleaning the house in the noon: vacuuming, mopping, washing toilets, washing and changing bedsheet as brother coming home tonight.

Saturday night again, hmm...Just me and my kids, what shall i cook for dinner? Look in the fridge, i have some leftover sweet corn, Chinese Chives (韭菜), Bak Choy (小白菜) and Tofu.

Less than half an hour, here is what i came out with.. simple and fast.



Baked beans with Sweet corn (Lucas's Favourite)


Minced Pork with Tofu


Ingredients:

Minced Pork (one rice bowl)
Tofu (approx. same portion as pork)
Salt (1/2 tsp)
Sugar (1/3 tsp)
Pepper (1/4 tsp)
Light Soya Sauce (1 tablespoon)
Dark Soya Sauce (approx: 2-3 tablespoon)
Oyster sauce (1 tsp)


Scrambled Egg with Chinese Chives and Carrot


Chinese Herbs Soup

What is that....?

OOps....

This is embarrassing. Took this picture since August 31st, and now my brain is totally blank. Cannot recall what is inside this stuff...

Was i baking something to celebrate our National Merdeka Day? i doubt so, not very patriotic person ...

Let me try a few guesses:

The yellow and Red things are definitely Capsicums i am firm. What's underneath? Could be...

1. Pasta with sliced potato with cream sauce and puff pastry?
2. Cauliflower and Sliced Potato underneath with bolognese sauce





Looks weird too right the design... maybe i should have arranged the sliced capsicum better!

Okaasan Creation ^ Lunch ^

Our Lunch today Spaghetti with cream sauce (with chopped onions and sweet potato)



Lachlan's Lunch


Lucas's Lunch


Don't label me as 偏心 here as Two sets look so much different. That is just because my little King 'lachlan' will not take the beef patties and the tomatoes.

Won Jackpot AUD300K ! what is that? a scam

26th Feb @ 4pm

Received a call speaking Mandarin greeting me Ms. Lee and introduced herself as Ms Ho.

Ms Ho: Ms Lee, I am calling from xxx Company and would like to congratulate you that you have won our company second prize drawn on xx/02/09 (forgot the date she told me) live on tele-broadcasted on Asia Channel. Ms Lee has answered our representative's questions earlier that is why your home number was in the draw. So, i am now calling to instruct you how you may claim the prize.

RECAP: Then i remember, yes, i did answer a two simple questions that someone called speaking mandarin as well. The questions were: 1.where do you prefer to shop, online or retail? 2. When purchasing, which factor is most criteria to you? price or quality?

Me: oh, i don't have a pay TV at home so i didn't watch.

Ms Ho: No wonder you didn't call our office to collect the prize, do you know that its a second cash prize at HKD1,500,000.

Me: oo...kkay.... so....

Ms Ho: There are 3 persons who won the second prize and one of them is Ms Lee yourself. One resides in Sydney and one from HK. No wonder you are not as excited as Mr Lim (the one resides in Syndey) watched our program and immediately claimed his prize by calling us. Now he has already received the cash prize.

Me: ic.. okay.. so how to collect the prize?

Ms Ho: To collect the prize, we need to convert the cash to Australia currency as you resides in Aust. However, we need your identification and also your bank account number and details in order to remit the money over.

Me: (hmm.... finally... tats the part !!)

Me: oh.. really.. but how about sending me a cheque is much more convenient.

Ms Ho: we cannot send the cheque as we need lawyer verification and bank and xxx govt sector verification etc.. (can't really catch the whole thing clearly as she was speaking pretty fast)

Me: oh.. about the program you mentioned, where can i watch it again? any repeat?

Ms Ho: no we don't have a repeated showing of the program.

Me: okay..so how about the website?

Ms Ho: oh so sorry, our websites is under constructions.

Background: Lachlan was making noise crying for me

Me: sorry, i am not free at moment, is there number i can call back.

And she gave me a number to call to HK.

27th Feb @ 12.30pm

Ms Ho called again.

Ms Ho: Ms Lee, how are you, I am Ms Ho who called you yesterday now following up on our last conversation. If possible, we can get your details and so we can send the money over to you via bank remittance.

Me: oh, i don't have a bank account.

Ms Ho: oh., is it possible that you open a new bank account?

Me: i am not free to do that as it take some time to process the doc etc..

Ms Ho: There is a time frame in prize collection. we allow one month for prize claimed. Ms Lee, if possible try to open a new account and i shall ring you back few days later.

Me: hmm... okay.
-------------------------------------

A friend suggested ignore them completely or just shut the phone.
Another friend suggested get more details from them and call police.

How Lucky i will be if a jackpot of AUD300k is won? haha..but how often it happens? Too many scams and plots nowadays and yet still many ignorant people fall for them.

Home Cooked Meal

A simple meal that i cooked last night. I have soup as well but forgot to take a shot. Soup: Gai Choy and Minced pork soup.

Lucas loves the tofu and celery. The beef he only ate a piece as he said hard to chew.

Stir Fry Beef with Onions and Gallion


Minced Meat with Silky Tofu


Stir Fry Celery with Mushroom

First Birthday Cake

Finally uploaded the pictures of the first cake i attempted. Its for my youngest son's 3yrs old birthday. Its a vanilla flavoured sponge cake.

Before



After ** Cake decorated Version ONE

I finished decorated this cake at 1am and put this inside the fridge til the next day. Very disappointed didn't realise that the M&M is melting and staining the icing. So no choice i have re-decorate.


Cake Decoration -- Final Version

What a shame! forgot to take a nice picture of this cake. Only manage to crop out from a sideview shot.


We baked two sponge cakes and i decided to make a square cupcake with some decoration.

Beef Pie

I was browsing through my old pictures and found this old photo that i took some time ago. Its one of the frequent meals that i make for the kids, Beef Pie. Lucas loves this traditional beef pie. Too bad i didn't take the side dishes, mash potatoes, caesar salad, steamed baby carrots and etc.

shall do it the next time..

Ingredients:
Olive oil
Minced beef
Red Onions (chopped)
Mushrooms
Peas
Beef stock (Continental)
water
Tomato paste
Ready rolled frozen puff pastry

Method

1. Heat olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add red onions and cook til fragrant. Add beef and cook for 3-4 minutes. Add mushroom, peas. Finally add water and beef stock. Lower the heat and simmer til the sauce is thicken. Add some cornflour if you wish to thicken the sauce. Add tomato paste if you wish.
   
2. Preheat the oven 180°C Increase oven temperature to 210°C. Spoon beef mixture into a rectangular ovenproof baking dish. Top pie with pastry and trim any excess. Use a fork to press the edges of the pastry to seal. Cut a small cross in the centre of the pie. Brush the top of the pie with the remaining egg and decorate with any leftover pastry. Place pie on a baking tray and bake in oven for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and puffed. Serve with, steamed green beans, carrots or mash potatoes.
   

Chores, chores and still chores

Never-ending Chores

Came back for a week and still so much cleaning to do. One satisfying task is the rangehood looks 80% new after 2 days of cleaning. Though hardwork but sure worth it. Who doesn't like to have a clean and well-maintained kitchen right?

hmm.. now the last thing.. Oven. Initially thought of not to clean it for sake of getting a new one. After checking the prices of new oven, wow.. i guess, we better try service first. I should post the photo of my dirty/greasy oven. well, not my fault, its the past owner (using the oven for 10yrs). The past lady-owner sure did a lousy job on cleaning.

Finally here is the pic of my greasy oven. Tough job indeed !!

Where is the safest place to keep your precious items?

Two days ago, my mother in law just found out that the bag she secretly stored inside the cupboard in the studies Room is gone. She was so freaked out and called my cell immediately to check if i happen to see or take it. I seriously have no idea. She told the maids to search high and low the whole room. She is very sure she didn't misplace it and she even noted down the place she hide the bag. Why is she so anxious? it was an ang pao money from my father-in-law.

She was more like angry because its totally impossible to allow house-theft incident happening in her own home. Money lost is secondary. The two maids denied they took it.

My father-in-law was angry and couldn't understand out of all places in the whole house, why that particular cupboard. Moreover, that cupboard is filled with toys and anyone can access to that area without questions asked.

I guess, my mother-in-law never thought that my kids will look for the cupboard as the door was blocked by a box and is too heavy for them to remove the obstacle. Is it fate that she will just lose the money just like that?

Where should be the safest place to hide your precious items in your own house?

A Visit to Clinic

Its already 10.15am. Time to wake up the kids or else Mr. Boss will be home looking furiously at me blaming me for the delay. Looking at the two kids sleeping soundly, really don't have the heart to spoil their beauty sleep. They slept too late last night, one at 1.30am and the other at almost 2.40am

10.20am ~~

mommy: wake up boys.... wake up.. time to go

10.25am ~~

~~ silence... not even a single movement ~~

Time is really running late, i had no choice but to change the eldest to outing clothes. Then, i carry the youngest straight to bathroom for a quick shower. He was yelling and wailing of course complaining that he was still sleepy.

Finally, all done and we reached the hospital on time. I was first worried if Lachie refuses to go in as he might remember his last injection 4 weeks ago. Phew!!! he forgotten.

While waiting for the doc, the boys were playing in the play-area with other kids. Lachie was holiding his new cars (still enclosed inside the plastic container). He somehow left it on the table and another kid (much younger than him) took his new toys. I thought he will snatch back but he didn't. His bro, Lucas however, walked over and told the boy's mum that the cars belong to his bro. What a cute boy.. The lady asked Lucas if she can borrow it and return later. Lucas shaked his head and said no. ha ha...

Then, we went into the clinic. As his paediatrician was on leave so we went for another Doc. This Doc decorated her room with so many cartoon characters and filled with toys. Lachie didn't cry at all as his eyes were busy scanning all the toys and pictures on the wall.

Everything went smoothly as he got distracted and didnt even notice Doc holding the syringe and ready to insert into his thigh. He did got a shock and jerk a little. Cried a little but get over very soon :) what a good boy he is .. so proud of him LOL

Coughing Episode Continues...

Lachie is having cough again. This is the 3rd time since came back. This time its more like wind cough. The reason for his cough could be

1. He hasn't fully recovered from the previous cough
2. Sleeping too late
3. Heaty
4. Insufficient Fluids

His grandma got a coughing syrup from a Chinese Medicine shop, special own made formula. I don't think Lachie will let the Chinese Sensei touches him, not to say feel the pulse for more than a minute.

I have given him the past few days the followings things

1. Lots of Luo Han Guo Fluids
2. Chinese Pi Pa Gao
3. Feng Sha Pills (For wind) as he is too young to swallow the pills so i soaked them in the hot water and let him have the fluids.
4. Nashi with Rock sugar, slow-cooked for hours and let him have the fluids.
5. At night, apply "Hei Feng Oil" on his tummy to rid of stomach wind.
6. Rub Cut Ginger on his neck (to rid wind as well)
7. Lime (Ji Zhi) with Gan Chao soaked with water. (to rid heaty and cough)

Other methods hasn't tried
1. Ginger cooked with black sugar (Melaka)

Hopefully he can be fully recovered soon. My heartache to see him coughing so badly. He is still as active as ever.