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Monday, April 28

Soy mad!

Lately, I got into a soy milk craze. Living in China is like being in soy milk or tofu heaven. Fresh tofu by the weight in supermarkets, all manners of marinated tofu pieces/strips and soy milk aplenty. But getting fresh soy milk involves a trip to the supermarket which is logistically challenging with a baby to say the least. Hence, when our Philips blender arrived, I decided to make my own soy milk at home!

It was a ridiculously simple process. Soak the beans for at least 4 hours, put them into the blender with water, grind, sieve & boil. Voila.

I was however feeling that it was a waste to throw all the ground soy beans away. After all, it was still full of protein and vitamins. Then a thought crossed my mind. Soy patties!! I experimented with a small batch & finally made a larger batch for dinner tonight. Here's the recipe :)

Ashley's Guilt-free Soy Patties
  • ground soy beans, drained
  • coriander, minced
  • garlic, minced
  • green chili, minced
  • red pepper, cubed
  • eggs
  • olive oil
  • instant oatmeal
  • black pepper
  • salt

Mix all ingredients together. Keep adding oatmeal until the batter's consistency is stiff and similar to that of beef burgers. It should be able to retain its shape on the tray without any liquid oozing out.

Heat oven to 180C. Line a baking pan with baking paper and grease. Put 3-4 tablespoons of batter onto the pan and bake for at least 45min until golden brown. Towards the end, turn the patties over and bake for an additional 15-20min.

Up to no good

My dad used to tell what I did to his Yamaha amplifier. When I was a toddler, I'd tried to stuff a banana into the Yamaha cassette tape player. Apparently, minibeanie is exhibiting the same tendencies much to DH's chagrin. He lurves to play around the home entertainment system -something there just attracts him like a bee to honey. Maybe it is the forbidden fruits (mummy keeps saying "no"?) or perhaps it is the many dials and flashing lights, he always reaches for the TV stand.

For this reason, DH being an audiophile, wisely decides not to have his prized amplifiers and speakers in the living room. Instead, they will be mounted in the guestroom which will double as a home theater or X-box room. I can't imagine what DH will say if minibeanie crashes his speaker to the floor. Ummm...wait, I think I've done that! 5 years ago at our housewarming party. I guess minibeanie isn't the only clumsy one.


minibeanie is 9 months & 2 days old

Wednesday, April 23

Kitchen (mis)adventure

2 days ago, it was 10 years to the day I 'met' DH :) See how far we've come.

To celebrate our anniversary, I turned to Mdm Crocker's trusty brownie mix. (Ok, do I hear sniggering?) Then I thought I'd do a little experiment and see if it'd turn out well as a muffin. I also decided to give the Double choc brownie a twist by adding a few spoonfuls of marmelade - sweet chocolate & tangy orange being a classic combination. With the extra liquid, I thought I'd tweak the recipe a little. Extra flour, baking powder, oil & milk went into the batter. Then, I filled 2 muffin cups with the batter and poured the rest into a pan for the brownie.

Some 30min later, I decided to check if the muffins were done since muffins typically take about 20-25min. They were a little wobbly. I guess that should be the biggest clue of all but I thought I'd still stick a toothpick in to check for doneness. I picked the first one up precariously from the oven with a pair of chopsticks, my tongs having gone missing. And as I was picking up the second muffin, I thought, yikes I'm not going to make it...and sure enough, it was a self-fulfilling prophecy (or the power of self doubt?), the wobbly muffin overturned and went splat against the hinge of my oven door. Unmentionable expletives followed as I looked in disbelief at the gooey mess I'd just made. Arrrrrgggghh. This was my worst baking disaster ever. I mean, I count myself as a pretty good cook having made cheesecakes, bread, cinnamon buns & cream cakes successfully in the past so I was doubly humbled by the gross misjudgment of baking time & consistency. Obviously, the muffins were no where near done and the batter was too heavy & runny for the muffin to rise and bake by 30min.

In my defense, the new oven was also questionable. The Electrolux oven I had in Helsinki worked perfectly without fail. The current one is a Chinese brand called Nardi.
And having already determined that its timer is crap, I'm wondering if its thermostat is accurate. There are hot spots within the oven as I found out last night when I was grilling some vegetables for Pasta con verdure grigliate.

Thankfully, all ends well. The orange brownie turned out decent - I guess I just proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mdm Crocker's brownie mix was idiotproof ;) But what saved the day was the vanilla & green tea Haagen Dazs ice cream cake I'd ordered earlier in the day. Double indulgence for a special day :)


minibeanie is 8 months & 4 weeks old

ps. yes, that's the Philips baby monitor in the background! We finally got it after a colleague visited from Finland.

Wednesday, April 16

Crystal Ball

I'm beginning to get an idea of what lies ahead. If an 8 month old can be as rambunctious & curious as minibeanie, the toddler years will be anything but a walk in the park. Everyday, he burns off gadzillion calories by crawling, stumbling, standing, falling all over his rattles, playmat & me. Where does he get all that energy? Amazing stuff those broccoli, tofu, peas, pumpkin, cheese & apples. Anyway. If he can still be confined (barely) to a playpen or bed, what mischief will he be up to when he's up & running??

Meanwhile, before he's able to spin out of control like a hurricane, I'm his pillar of support (literally) when he pulls himself up, his soft place to fall on (especially when he falls on my midsection) and an endless source of curiosity when he sticks a wet finger into my ear or nostril.

Last Saturday, we had a sneak peek of what lies ahead at a 1 year old's birthday party. Fun ;) Here, DH looked like he would very much like a big slice of cake.


minibeanie is 8 months, 2 weeks & 6 days old

Saturday, April 12

Trills & Spills

Our stuff finally came yesterday! After 5 weeks of wearing the same blouse and living on 4 forks, 2 knives and 4 spoons, it's nice to have our wardrobe and a full kitchen. Well... I suppose after awhile. There are 40 boxes to be unpacked.

minibeanie helping out with the unpacking

In the last few days, there have been a few remarkable developments. DH & I always say that minibeanie's more eager to go vertical than forward. At the smallest possibility, he will grasp at whatever that's within range and if it isn't rooted to the ground, he will be hoisting himself up. As a result, there has been quite a few unfortunate incidents with the latest one resulting in a bruise. And since the little bugger simply won't be contained within the confines of the rubber mat, DH decided to take no further chances and got an Italian helmet from Finland. Mama mia, all he needs now is a Vespa!


And just as I thought he will skip crawling altogether (some babies do!), he surprised me today when he crawled towards me. A couple of days ago, he might also have taken his first cruise. He 'walked' a good 1 m along the length of daddy on our bed. Honestly, I am not too trilled at the prospect of greater mobility. A climbing & crawling baby is plenty enough on my hands!

But the best part was how minibeanie will 'dance' when he hears a song! From mummy's medley of Ba Ba Black Sheep & Amazing Grace to the opening jingle of Dr.Phil, his upper body and head will bob up and down, and occasionally, his flailing arms will join in the dance. (Pre-clap, perhaps?) This boy got rhythm!


minibeanie is 8 months, 2 weeks & 2 days old

Tuesday, April 8

Sleep deprived

minibeanie has been waking up at 5:30 for the past few days and doesn't fall asleep again until 7:30. And then he will be springing up again like a jack-in-the-box at 9. If I'm not a morning person usually, I'm even less so now.

When the little 'un was a teeny baby, I always thought it would get easier. NO, that's a fallacy or myth! Somehow, despite more frequent feedings, I still had time for my afternoon 'therapy' with Dr.Phil or Grey's Anatomy with a cup of tea. These days, if I wasn't changing up to 5 poopy diapers (it was once a day!) or cajoling him to eat his lovely mash, I would be rescuing him from mortal danger and responding to his pitiful "I'm bored!"/"where-are-you, I-can't-see-you!" cries. Nonetheless, everything's forgiven when he laughs. He's an angel to us :)


minibeanie is 8 months, 1 week & 5 days old