mb's first Easter Egg

Ok ok.... it's way past Easter but we were recently the grateful beneficiary of a Kinder egg. A Kinder egg means imported chocolate and imported chocolate is either expensive or hard to find. In Kinder's case, it's not found in Chengdu and so you can understand what I mean by "grateful".

minibeanie was hesitant at first (typical toddler!) but after a tiny piece of chocolate was put into his mouth, he finished the entire egg in a matter of minutes :D The toy in the egg (casing) within the egg was also nice. I think he's not going to say no to a Kinder egg in future.


Recently, we also celebrated the-day-we-first-met anniversary of more than a decade. Yes, I'm being deliberately evasive. ...Suffice to say, it does make me feel a little geriatric ;) We went for an early dinner at a fantastic Szechuan restaurant so that we could make it home for dessert, a sinful chocolate cake layered with ganache and iced with fresh cream, strawberries and toasted almonds.


A small inner voice made me bring half a cake and a million calories to the playgroup the next day. After all, what are friends for? ;)


minibeanie is 1 year, 9 months & 4 days old

The Bestest Healthiest Smoothie ever

I created this milkshake a few years ago when I was in the throes of preparing for my wedding (read: squeezing into That Dress ;) Till now, I still make it as my lunch whenever I need something quick, fuss-free and HEALTHY.

Here's what I normally use:

• 2-3dl fat-free milk, depending on how thick you want the smoothie to be
  
• 1dl instant oats
• 1 large ripe banana
• a handful of frozen fruits (e.g. strawberries)
• 1tbsp ground flaxseed (opt)
• yoghurt (opt)

* Preferably, all ingredients should be cold
** for the metric-challenged, 1dl (deciliter) = 100ml (milliliter)

Put oats in a glass and add about half the milk. Microwave until oats are cooked. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend. taa-daa! A guilt-free creamy smoothie.

I made this smoothie today with some frozen durian :D ... which I think would have most of my western friends running for cover but it was a wonderful change from strawberries. I shall try to remember to freeze some nectarines or mangoes when they're in season!

Why this is the Bestest Healthiest smoothie ever (no sh**). You get calcium, protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals & omega-3 (from flaxseed) all in 1. Traditional milkshakes have generous amounts of ice cream for its creaminess but here, the creamy texture comes from the oats. Oat is very heart & gut friendly if you don't already know. Basically, oat reduces LDL (bad) cholesterol & has cancer fighting properties. And banana adds a natural sweetness to the smoothie without the need for sugar.

If I recall, I remember seeing a similar recipe from Dr. Oz, Oprah's health guru. I issue a challenge to all oat-fearing skeptics - you won't be able to taste or know there are oats in this smoothie. Kippis!


minibeanie is 1 year, 9 months & 2 days old

Staying put in bed

As expected, the battle for minibeanie to stay put in bed continued for a few days. It's now the 6th day after the side of his crib is removed, which allowed him to get out of his crib by himself, and I think victory is on hand! Last night, I marched him back to bed SIX times within a span of 15 minutes. He surrendered finally either because he was so tired or because he knew it'd be futile. Or both ;) This afternoon's nap took 3 tries. As for tonight's bedtime, he tried to make an escape only once. Yay!!


Recently when having some friends over with their 13 month old daughter, I realized that some parents over-indulge their kids, to put it nicely. I don't mean the occasional candy or even the very occasional extra episode of Sesame Street. In this particular instance, the toddler refused to sit in her car seat and what did the parents do? Put her in the middle seat albeit with a seat-belt. What's wrong with this scenario? Firstly, she's too small to be sitting without a child-seat - why are child-seats or boosters even invented in the first place? Secondly, the middle seat only has a seat-belt across the lap. A 2-point harness is hardly the best safety belt for a regular adult let alone a toddler. Thirdly, physics tells us that a 10kg toddler becomes a 400kg torpedo at 40km/h. Therefore, "she won't sit in her baby-seat" or "we only drive in the city (implicitly saying "we aren't close to the autobarn speed") are merely whinings of over-indulgent parents. Who are the adults in the family who should know better?

I made a post on Car Safety eons ago when we were still in Finland. If anything, I've even more vitriol for our 'friends' yesterday because Chinese drivers are nuts. You can absolutely gurantee stupidity from others. If I'm dogmatic about this issue, that's because this is a black & white issue. It isn't even close to the pacifier or the sippy-cup debate by a far measure. Because in this case, over-indulgence can kill.


minibeanie is 1 year, 8 months, 2 weeks & 5 days old

A Fall and a step towards bigger things...

I heard a loud thump in the afternoon followed by a baby crying 2 seconds later. Thinking it was the neighbour's baby, I felt sorry for the baby and continued with measuring the flour for my puff pastry. Then I heard the cries a lot louder this time. In fact, it was coming from the top of my stairs. Alarmed, I ran up the stairs and realized that it was minibeanie crying. The thump had come from him. And he had fallen out of his crib because he'd climbed out of it!

He had a blue and black protruding bump on his forehead. Thankfully, his cries were quickly soothed, he was conscious, his irises weren't dilated, he wasn't throwing up and he wasn't drowsy. Those were signs to look out for after a bump. He seemed fine otherwise.

Doing up his own bedroom has been a work-in-progress. One wall is now painted a bright and cheery sunshine yellow. (Heh, the Chinese name for the shade is in fact, 阳光普照) We just need to make our way to our local Ikea to get his "big boy" toddler bed and some storage shelves. The incident today forced us to take a step towards the migration. Well, we couldn't just plop him down in his new bed in his new room one night and expect that he's going to accept it. As with everything, it has to be introduced 1 step at a time. (Toddlers are sticklers for routine ;)

We were first thinking of moving the crib to his room (his eventual "big boy" would be unassembled in the storeroom) and when he has gotten used to the room, we would then introduce the bed. Well..... apparently, this afternoon's fall meant that the migration would have to take somewhat different steps. We removed a side of the Stokke crib which meant that minibeanie could climb in and out of his crib easily on his own. Might as well because his 'real' bed wouldn't have bars to cage him in anyway. So there, first big step for a little guy.

No 'cage' also meant that the sleep routine was challenged. Either it was the total freedom or the feeling of insecurity, minibeanie had some difficulty settling down to sleep tonight. Thrice he crept out of bed within 5 minutes and opened the door (yes, he has learnt how to work the door handle being on tip-toe - the Bolshoi Ballet would have recruited him as a Sugar Plum Fairy).

First the door would open 10cm, followed by silence. Then, it would open a little more and an impish boy with a grin would peek out from behind. Dada was in the loft working so he didn't get away ;) It wasn't until I marched him to bed and stayed in the room writing this blog that he stayed put. I suspect this would be the dance for the next few nights until he got used to the idea that a) we meant business when we said it was bedtime and b) the novelty of an 'open' bed had worn off.


Another milestone today was when he said "bye bye" accompanied by a wave. Previously, it was just the Queen's wave. He also tried to say "truck" today..... or something close. I'm glad that he's speaking a little more now. "Tam" (jam), "cheese", "kaa" (car)...


minibeanie is 1 year, 8 months, 1 week & 6 days old

Adult Toys

...if the title prompted you to read this post, you've a dirty mind tsk tsk... ;)

We just settled down after a quick trip back to Singapore. I think I've mastered the art of packing light - minibeanie & my check-in luggage weighs a total of 9.5kg ...leaving me a little more than 20.5kg for the return luggage heheh. And it did come in handy because I bought a Kenwood Chef that I've been eyeing for a very long time ;P It even came bundled with a meat mincer accessory - perfect for mincing lamb for Shepherd's Pie. Yes, I'm having fun with my newest toy.

Speaking of toy, DH's toy du jour is the espresso machine that has been sitting in our kitchen for a year. It's a hand-me-down from his former boss but it still works like a charm. Lately, after threats of the machine being banished to the storeroom because it's sitting on highly valuable kitchen top real estate, DH finally started decalcifying it and starting his research on how to be a home barrista. This weekend we've had 2 shots of espresssos each. Nice. The second attempt today was a lot better. More crema and less watered down. Apparently, tamping & increasing the pressure made the difference. Tamping the coffee a little more to get the water to flow through slower (and thereby extracting more flavour) and increasing the pressure achieved a fuller bodied taste. But there's a limit to how much pressure... too much and it results in a brew that's too strong or bitter (hmm, I don't confess to be a connoisseur)

There's a lot of science behind making that perfect cuppa.

• Grind. Not as fine as Turkish or Greek coffee but finer than that for the moka pot and definitely that for drip coffee. Best if it's grinded on the spot or less than a week old because the oils from the bean turn ground coffee rancid. The evenness of the grind also makes a difference. For that matter, electric grinders with blades seldom do the job well because they don't produce an even grind...or by the time it does, it has become coffee dust. Those with burrs do a lot better.
• Roast. Dark roasted or espresso roast is the best.
• Water. Fresh 'softened' water. Not distilled or mineral water.
  
• Technical factors. These include things like water temperature which should be 92-96c, pressure should be 9-10atm and extraction time is ideally about 25sec.

Since it's hard to get all these factors right at the same time and because every espresso home machine is different, I think it's still going to take a lot of experimenting before we get a consistent head of golden crema each time. Meanwhile, we're all going to be running around & talking a little faster.


minibeanie is 1 year, 8 months, 1 week & 5 days old

Cinnamon Buns

Or pullaa, as they're called in Finnish. In fact, "pullaa" is a rather generic term. It generally refers to a sweet bun with a variety of toppings or fillings. For instance, there's "Dallas pullaa" - those filled with curd (maitorahkaa - that I still don't know the exact English term for) & slivered almonds. Then, there are "Boston pullaa" - those filled with chocolate. Why they are named after US cities, I've no idea ;) But the basic pullaa is filled with cinnamon & usually sprinkled with sugar pearls, another item that's perculiar to Finnish/Swedish kitchens, I learnt.

2.5 dl milk
25g fresh yeast OR 1 packet (11g) dried yeast
1 egg
0.75 dl sugar
0.25 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamon
8 dl flour (approx)
1 dl melted butter

Filling:
80-100g butter
1.5 dl brown sugar
generous shakes of ground cinnamon

1. Proof yeast in lukewarm (42 C) milk with 1tbsp of sugar. After 5 minutes, it should be foamy.
2. Mix all dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Pour yeast mixture into mixing bowl gradually while mixing together with a spatula. Add the rest of the room temperature liquids. When all ingredients are mixed through, start kneading :)
3. Dough should be slightly sticky so that it pulls away from the sides of the bowl but not so dry that it lifts off the bottom of the bowl. Add a tsp of milk at a time if it's too dry and a tbsp of flour if it's too wet.
4. Leave dough to rise in the large mixing bowl covered with a cloth until doubled in size (approx. 1 hour).
5. Preheat oven to 200 C. Ensure butter is at room temperature.
6. Punch down dough and cut into 2 portions. Roll out one portion on a lightly floured surface (make sure u flour your rolling pin as well!) into a rectangle about 20cm wide.
7. Dot or spread generously the slightly soft butter onto the dough leaving 1cm margin.
8. Crumb brown sugar generously over the butter and sprinkle with cinnamon.
9. Roll up the dough lengthwise and pinch the end to seal. (use a little water/milk if dough won't seal)
10. Cut the roll at 2.5cm intervals. Arrange pieces, swirl-side up, on a tray lined with baking paper. Leave at least 5cm between each piece. Leave to rise for at least half an hour.
11. When the buns have nearly doubled in size, glaze gently with milk. Bake for 30min in preheated oven.


minibeanie is 1 year, 7 months, 3 weeks & 3 days old

Fame

minibeanie's BFF :D

minibeanie is 1 year, 7 months, 3 weeks & 2 days old

Salmon Soup

Of late, it has been a renaissance of all food Finnish :D A Finnish friend's mum & aunt are visiting and we all learnt from the experts how to make karjalanpiirakka (Karelian pie - little pastries of rye flour filled with rice porridge). And a couple of days ago, I made a batch of pullaa (essentially cinammon buns but flavoured with cardamon).

Now that DH is off to Finland for 11 days, I suddenly have a craving for lohikeitto (salmon soup) which I haven't had for more than a year since I left Finland. Thankfully, I've the opportunity to visit a supermarket today that is the only place in Chengdu to stock dill so here we go....

300g salmon, skinless, 2cm cubed
1 large onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 large potatoes, cubed
2 medium carrots, cubed
1 tbsp butter
fish or meat stock
milk or cream
black pepper, freshly ground
salt
large handful of dill, finely chopped

1. Heat up a large pot. Melt butter and saute onions and garlic until onions turn translucent.
2. Add potatoes, carrots & stock. (the amount of stock depends on whether cream or milk is used. I like my soup creamy so the proportion of stock to milk I had is 3:2)
3. Boil until vegetables are cooked through.
4. Add milk or cream.
5. Lower heat and add cubed salmon.
6. Season to taste with black pepper and salt.
7. Simmer for a few minutes to ensure that salmon is cooked. Add dill. Hyvää ruokahalua! Bon appetit!


Traditionally, the soup is eaten with rye bread. I thawed 2 pieces that I'd stashed away in my freezer and dunked them into the soup. hmm!

Some versions of lohikeitto do not add carrots or garlic but add chives or parsley. But this is how I remembered it and besides, you can't run away from the chief ingredients of salmon, potato and dill ;)

minibeanie is 1 year, 7 months, 3 weeks & 1 day old

Pitch

The subject of genes is fascinating. And today, I can add 1 more thing I know about minibeanie. To my amusement/chagrin/disappointment all rolled into one, I think he's pitch deaf. Just like his dada.

The laundry in the washing machine was done. At regular intervals, it gave 3 long beeps. I repeated the pitch and minibeanie followed suit. The only problem was that his pitch was consistently off. Just like his dada.

Well... I may be wrong of course - he may yet surprise me one day :) At least, I know his mämä can carry a decent tune. Just like my dad.


minibeanie is 1 year, 7 months & 3 weeks

Wisdom of the Day

I read a very interesting article recently, "'Supermodel' satellite set to fly" and here's an excerpt....

"Gravity is the force we experience daily; it keeps our feet on the ground. But there is this general misconception that it is constant everywhere on the globe, which is not true. If we go to the North Pole we will weigh more than if we are at the equator."

Therefore, the main insight from this article is that I weighed more in Finland than I did in Singapore!! :D ha!

minibeanie is 1 year, 7 months, 2 weeks & 2 days old

More pictures

Here are a couple of pictures that didn't fit anywhere else in the earlier post.

On the Great Ocean Road

Road Trip

Here's one taken in our favourite restaurant in Singapore's Little India, Gayatri. Hmm... I usually can't decide between their Dum Briyani, their a la carte dishes & South Indian vegetarian breads like Masala Thosai, Uttapam....

Here minibeanie's sampling Paneer Masala (cottage cheese) & cheese naan.




Back in Chengdu, we stumbled upon a Hong Kong style restaurant. We tried a couple of 'signature' Cantonese dishes - Shrimp Wanton soup, Roast pork (char siew) rice, Beef brisket noodle & a cup of milk tea. What a wonderful change from Sichuan cuisine!!! :P


minibeanie is 1 year, 7 months, 1 week & 6 days old

The Ozzie holiday

Gosh, I started writing this on 27.2 and see when I finally finished it ;P

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Our holiday got off to a good start when the cheapest category car we rented for 19 days, a 1.3l Hyundai Getz, was upgraded for free to a Toyota X Trail. And did I mention that it was a 4WD? :D Yay! That meant we could throw all our luggage, 1 Samsonite, 1 trolley bag, a huge duffel bag containing all our food, a tent, a hook-on baby chair PLUS minibeanie's pram, into the car without that sardines-in-a-can feeling. Another advantage of having a 4WD was that we could go off the beaten track in search of olive groves hidden in obscure locations (no thanks to inaccurate & badly drawn maps from the local tourist information center). Then of course, dada had some off-road fun ;)

Mount Zero, so obscure that it wasn't on our Tomtom GPS maps

minibeanie loving the wheel & all the fancy knobs and switches

We spent nearly 3 weeks in Victoria, Australia. We had the warm hospitality of my cousin, Eileen, and her husband to thank for letting us put up at their house. minibeanie was also really happy playing with his cousins :) We'd many memorable moments at Eileen's house - the Ozzie barbie, the kids taking a communal bath in the backyard, the quiet evenings after the kids have slept and us adults having cheesecake and wine.....

Our plan was to visit the Great Ocean Road & Yarra Valley for 4 days each with the hope of making day trips for Puffing Billy, the only steam train in Australia, and to see the cute penguins on Phillip Island. Well, at least on paper that was the plan anyway. First off, we loved Great Ocean Road (GOR) so much that we extended by a day and 2 days before heading to Yarra Valley, the devastating firestorm in eastern Victoria broke out. We made alternate plans pronto and decided on another wine producing region, Grampians. As for Puffing Billy and Phillip Island, there was no time not to mention the fact that Puffing Billy was right in the line of fire, so to speak. Besides, with the total fire ban around, no way the steam engine would have been used - we would have been sitting on its electric cousin Puff Diddy instead.

The Great Ocean Road
The GOR drive was spectacular with its undulating coastal roads with crashing white surf on one side and towering cliffs on the other. But much has already been written and I don't think I can do justice to the natural beauty and tranquility of the place in a few sentences.

We spent our 5 days driving to the 12 Apostles, looking for the blueberry farm in vain, enjoying the beach in late afternoons and enjoying a Devonshire cream tea at a 1900s guesthouse that had obviously seen better days together with its grumpy proprietress. We also had our fair share of fish & chippies - excellent flaky fresh fish coated with guilty crispy batter. hmm....

The Grampians
A few things stood out in my memory about Grampians. The beautiful, luxurious brick house we rented right by a golf course frequented by a 30-strong herd of kangaroos, the aptly named Best's wineyard (one of the few family owned vineyards left in Australia) that still has a 1860 vine from France and the 4WD experience of driving up mountains in search of Mount Zero olives.

Pinot Noir!

Bunjil, the traditional creator land of the land, & his 2 dingoes

A few Firsts
We arrived right smack in the middle of Melbourne's worst heatwave on record. 46.8C. It's impossible to describe the crushing heat or the wind that does not refresh but add to the heat. If there was hell, it probably felt like that. I felt like one of the many chickens that I'd merrily popped into the grill. Walking 20m from the car to the refuge of an air-conditioned mall was enough to make minibeanie turn beet red - it was that bad.

There was minibeanie's first time on the beach. I'm glad he was past the age of putting sand into his mouth ;) He liked it even if the water was rather chilly.


Then there were the animals that minibeanie got to see up close & personal. Cows, pigs, chickens, ducks, guinea pigs, kangaroos....



minibeanie is (older than) 1 year, 7 months & 1 day old

Back after 5 weeks!

After a long hiatus, this blog is back :)

The last 5 weeks had been eventful. First stop was Singapore for the Lunar New Year, followed by nearly 3 weeks in Victoria, Australia. And when we came back to Chengdu, I'd (and still have) my mum with me. Only now after a week of settling back in, did I find the energy, will & time to blog. But more about the holiday later...

A recent development with minibeanie is that he has all of a sudden decided to use his spoon full time. I remember the precise moment. We'd just arrived in Singapore after a 7 hour flight from Melbourne and I decided to give him a fried egg for supper. Instead of feeding himself with his fingers like he usually did, he insisted on using the spoon and from then on, it was the spoon all the way :) I'm so glad he's feeding himself now because he's back to lapping up oatmeal porridge (with jam!) for breakfast.


minibeanie is 1 year, 6 months, 4 weeks & 2 days old

A holiday coming up

We're leaving for a month long holiday to Singapore and Melbourne! :)

Quite miraculously by God's grace, dada managed to get a work trip to Singapore just when we're scheduled to go to Singapore again. So our Singapore accommodation and his air ticket are sorted out. After a week or so, we'll be visiting my cousin and her family in Melbourne for some R&R. Looking forward to it!

But before that, a 101 errands to run in Singapore...