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.

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

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

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

Puppy love

Having a baby is like having a puppy in the house. He's not house trained. He chews on everything including his own shoes, socks & even daddy's stinky pyjamas. He takes scraps of food off your hand. He slobbers all over the sofa & licks your nose when you're sleeping. Who needs a pet when I've minibeanie? :D

It's truly amazing how much & fast he grew in the past month. In the one month that we arrived in Chengdu, he has learned how to sit from a tummy position and how to pull himself up. This morning, still groggy from sleep I noticed that he was standing by my pillow holding onto the headboard. Whhaaaa....? Ok, this is a new milestone that the little rascal has now reached which means we're fast running out of options on how to keep him safe.

minibeanie's also extremely curious about what we're eating. DH & I were having a little breakfast of toast with cheddar when he was clamouring all over us to reach for the plate (or food?) To quell his curiosity & appetite, I began to dish out little bits of bread with melted cheddar. That got the little rascal sitting quietly at least for awhile :)

Still on the topic of nibbling off our plate, yesterday, on the rare chance to make it out of the house as a family, we headed to Haagen Dazs for high-tea. Halfway through our mango sorbet & green tea ice cream, minibeanie woke up and started getting bored. (yup, he seems to have the attention span of a fruit fly these days) Thus, we decided to give him a snack of banana that was on our platter. So there we were, starting a production line of me mashing the banana and DH delivering the payload to an eager puppy-eyed baby. At least, he wasn't demanding for the ice cream ..... at least not yet!


minibeanie is 8 months & 4 days old

Milk Teeth & Yoghurt

I googled "baby appetite loss" & "sign teething" when for the past few days, minibeanie's once hearty appetite became that of Kate Moss'. While there was no definitive correlation, it was mentioned that appetite loss may be a sign of teething. Alright, so he has had his 2 bottom central incissors. When are the rest going to cut? The guide from this site was shocking. Ok ok, I know that all those teeth have to cut somehow sometime but thinking about how many times I'd have to endure crankiness, endless rounds of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars" to cajole him to eat and seeing good food go down the drain... damn the Tooth Fairy! crap.

Here's a checklist of symptoms.

• Irritability: nope. minibeanie is still as sunny as ever
• Drooling: oh yes, this one. dribble everywhere
• Coughing: check...but I thought he was either coming down with a sore throat or being cheeky ;)
• Chin rash: check! I thought he was allergic to something? :(
• Biting & gnawing: check & check!!! every darn thing into the mouth!
• Diarrhea: yes! for the past 2 weeks or so, 4-5 poopy diapers a day..and 7 on bad days.
• Low-grade fever: hmm, I did suspect that he had a low fever but I couldn't be sure as our thermometer is with the rest of our to-be-arrived cargo (don't get me started again)
• Not sleeping well: nah. Thank goodness on this one!

Anyway, my first attempt at making yoghurt turned out really well! It was excellent with honey and just as good with fruits. Here's mango yoghurt - a little more deluxe than those in the shops ;)

minibeanie is 7 months & 4 weeks old

Bon Weekend!

I got my WFD fix on Friday as promised :D Check out my Chicken Pot Pie. Man.... it was good. In addition, we'd a Potato-Apple salad and an Irish stew of sausages that was almost identical to the Finnish siskonmakkarakeitto (sausage soup). The total damage? Y188. Eur18 / S$36. To put the prices in perspective, we could have a dinner of 2 dishes, 1 fried rice & a small serving of roast goose for Y60. Eur6 / S$12. ......Alright, so it was the Shangri-La and I'd severe WFD.

This weekend was sort of a mini-holiday for me. DH took over as full-time babysitter - I slept in this morning and then went to the shopping street for some retail therapy. Bliss!


I bought a yogurt machine as it was impossible to find natural yogurt without sugar. It's an idiot-proof device - just combine milk and the starter bacteria, switch on the machine and leave it running for 8-12 hours. I'm going to start churning out tons of homemade yogurt - smoothies, meat marinade, facials anyone? ;)


minibeanie is 7 months, 3 weeks & 5 days old

Big Brother

Nearly 3 weeks on and our airfreight cargo hasn't arrived. In fact, it hasn't even left Finland! The reason being we have yet to receive our Chinese resident permits which means that the necessary paperwork (and there are lots of it) to get the cargo moving is in limbo.

To a large degree however, we have learnt to cope without minibeanie's crib, clothes and kitchenware. Hmm... perhaps not my kitchenware, I'm beginning to miss it sorely. Without my bakeware, I can't roast a chicken & grill some potatoes, tomatoes & so on. After 3 weeks, I'm having WFD (Western Food Deprived) withdrawal symptoms. I remembered a week ago, I mentioned to DH I was dreaming of a crusty chicken pie with tender chunks of chicken & soft cubes of potato & carrot. The next day, I received an announcement from the CIWC (Chengdu International Women's Club) that there will be a St. Patrick's celebration at Shangri-La's Irish pub, Mooney's. The menu of Chicken Pot Pie, Fish & Chips and Bread & Butter Pudding were like music to my ears! We didn't make it to the St. Patrick's outing but tonight, I'll be dragging the troop down to Mooney's - not for a pint of Guinness but good ol' fashion pub grub! :D

Food aside, it is also difficult to get anything that's not a Chinese brand. Familiar brands like AEG & Electrolux can't be found in the shops. And if you are lucky, you will be able to find 1 or 2 pieces of Philips. I find this strange given that almost everything has "made-in-China" stamped on these days. Anything imported is hugely expensive. Germany's WMF cutlery & crockery, Italy's Bialetti moka pots... forget them all. They are so much cheaper in Singapore. It just can't be that the local populace doesn't want to buy or can't afford foreign brands. Alright, with the exception of Bialetti & the likes, electronics of many foreign brands are made in China which should mean that they ought to be cheaper in China given lower transportation costs. It appears that China is pursuing a protectionistic policy.

And by the way, it is proving impossible to find baby monitors in China. Nada. A few days ago, DH found a website of a Chinese B2B firm manufacturing baby monitors, unfortunately, a call to the company confirmed that they are not sold in the local market. I suspect the use of radio technology by private citizens is another no-no of the Communist government since walkie-talkies like baby monitors are not found either. Good grief.

The lack of choice is frustrating.

Me Tarzan, You Mummy.

The little rascal is climbing all over me - literally. I'm sure at this point, many mums of little boys will nod knowingly that this is a phase that comes as surely as the changing of the tides. For some time now, minibeanie had been grabbing my hair as Tarzan would a vine. Given half the chance, I'm sure he would have swung himself up but that's not going to happen. More recently however, he had begun to hold onto me and tried to hoist himself up from a sitting position. The little 'un is not content to be able to creep but seems to want to get a bird's eye view of things.

Speaking of creeping, minibeanie hasn't been creeping all over like I thought he would. Well yes, he has been mobile but he seems content to creep a little, sit up, then creep some more before sitting up again. There have been signs of the impending crawl - bum arched up, knees on the ground, torso up. But he's either not strong enough or something hasn't quite connected yet that he's supposed to move his arms and legs to propel forward.


minibeanie is 7 months, 3 weeks & 3 days old

Say Cheese!

The 100th post! :) And we will celebrate with a toothy grin from minibeanie... cheese!

minibeanie & his 2 teeny pearlies

Emmental. minibeanie has been lapping up all the porridge I gave him. Most times, I can hardly get the spoon into his mouth fast enough and he lets me know that with hearty grunts. (Glad he's a gourmand like mummy & daddy!) Typical menus will be sweet potato+pea+oat porridge or carrot+cauliflower+mixed grain porridge. I'm perpetually steaming, puree-ing & freezing vegetables & fruits! In fact, I made 14 portions of peas & 7 portions each of tofu and mango today.

Parmesan. Self-feeding. He's becoming increasingly curious about everything and that includes the food we eat. I gave him his own bowl of wholewheat bread (crumbs, more like it :D) smeared with avocado as a snack one day. He played with them for awhile - emptied the bowl, squishing the bread with his clumsy fingers & palm and generally, made a good mess before stuffing a crumb or two into his mouth. Well, I guess he liked the bread :)


Roquefort. minibeanie bumped his head twice today :((( The first time happened when he fell forward when he was sitting and the second when he fell backwards also while sitting. I guess this proves that he's not an accomplished sitter yet! Hence, we're bringing out the foam mats we bought last week despite their toxic smelling fumes when we first opened them. DH had aired them in our guestroom (now, the sofa bed smells awful) and then in the store room for the past week; I hope the worst of the fumes are gone though.



Mozzarella. minibeanie can now pull himself to a sit from a tummy position! And because he's gaining mobility, it's getting impossible to leave him on his own even for a little while!


minibeanie is 7 months, 2 weeks & 4 days old

The not-so Great Firewall of China

Freedom!! Freedoooomm!!!

It took us only a few surfing sessions to realize that something was seriously wrong. Wikipedia didn't send any data, and mommy was unable to access minibeanie's blog.

A quick check with mr Google reminded us of the 'Great Firewall of China'. Seems to be true. They _try_ to block some sites.

Well, let me direct you next to a nice open-source project called 'Tor' (The Onion Router), which encrypts traffic and uses relay nodes all over the world to exit to the internet from random locations.

This blog entry is proof that it works. Blogger thought we were in Germany, as the Tor network chose Gunzenhausen to exit the encrypted space to the open internet.

Big thanks to the open-source projects! Tor is now installed on all our machines, likewise OpenVPN will be.

(posted by daddy)

minibeanie is 7 months, 1 week and 4 days old

Home in Chengdu

We got the ADSL connection today yippee! Finally, we are in Chengdu (成都 <-- and I also finally learnt how to write in Chinese on my Mac ;) Things have been terribly stressful lately but I think I can say with some certainty that the worst is over. We got to Chengdu on Saturday evening with 12 pieces of checked-in luggage weighing a little more than 100kg. The group of 6-8 customs guys eyed us suspiciously as we were wheeling the trolleys out.

"What's in them?"
"Clothes." (in a tired & innocent voice not without a touch of irritation)
"Clothes...?"
"Yes, we're moving here."

And with that, I with minibeanie strapped in the babycarrier in front of me, just pushed my overflowing trolley past the customs guards still trying to make sense of what to do. Needless to say, DH was relieved for his hordes of electronics for which he would have to pay duties otherwise.

We got to the apartment and finally put minibeanie to bed. By then, it was 11pm & the last meal we had was hours ago. DH was sent on a food-hunting mission and it was funny what the modern-day hunter came back with. He returned with 6 pieces of KFC's crispy chicken & 2 cups of Pepsi. That night, we sat on the floor by the foot of the bed*, eating with our fingers on an overturned cardboard box. Fried chicken never tasted so good! :P And we loved the numbingly hot Sichuan pepper huajiao (花椒）powder that came with it. Welcome to Chengdu!

The next 2 days were spent at Carrefour stocking up on the essentials - 2 bowls, shower cream, wok, condiments, water, rice, bottle brush (every time we travel, we leave it behind!), detergent & oh yes, toilet paper. Now that the dust has settled a little, we are breathing a little easier :) There are teething pains with the new apartment, wardrobe shelves missing, clogged bathroom etc but I think we'll get them fixed eventually. For now, I can at least make mapo doufu (麻婆豆腐 - which I have!) & settle into a routine with the family :)

* we were afraid minibeanie would wake up & we wouldn't hear him from downstairs


ps. wikipedia doesn't work here! And for some strange reason, I couldn't view my blog!


minibeanie is 7 months, 1 week & 1 day old

A new chapter

Tomorrow our little family will begin a new chapter of our lives in China. We shall finally be on the flight that has taken such a long time in coming. I can't remember when I haven't been planning the move, packing & traveling; the stress, both physically & emotionally, that began after Christmas has been awful. And if anyone thinks I have been sitting on my arse eating bonbons for the last 3 weeks in Singapore, I have to say, she has no idea. Thus, in this regard, if I haven't informed anyone that we were in fact in Singapore or not chatted enough, I'm sorry that there wasn't time.

Griping aside, we'll arrive in Chengdu late evening where we'll head to our Waterfront apartment to meet our relocation agent. From then on, it should take about a week for our airfreight belongings to arrive. Yes technically, airfreight shipments take a day to arrive but guess if there is bureaucracy involved. I'm also hugely glad that we shall be grounded for awhile. No more traveling!!!


minibeanie is 7 months & 3 days old

An incident in the wee hours of the morning

There was an incident last night. After his 3am feed, I decided to change his nappy on a whim since I really didn't need to. The old diaper came off and of course minibeanie just had to turn onto his tummy since that's ALL he's doing these days. And so I was airing his bum since there was a hint of rash and admiring how cute his dimpled butt looked. Turned him over to put on a clean nappy and what do I find? A big wet patch on the bed. Thanks a lot, minibeanie!!! You wait till I tell your girlfriend at eighteen ;)

These are the hard lessons learnt:

1. Never change nappies on a whim.
..... or as I'd say regarding computers, "if it ain't broke, dun fix it"
2. Always use protection.
3. Never spend too much time admiring a chap's bum... unless he's toilet trained.

minibeanie is 7 months and 1 day old